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After the first Saturday training session, the guys invited Arthur to Monday's football practice. During the session, he asked if they would be interested in having Ramon on the team. They guys were pretty excited about it, since their starting fullback had gotten hurt. When Arthur told Ramon that morning that the coach wanted to see him at practice, Ramon was so flabbergasted that all he could do was mumble, "We'll see."
Since Bartlett Middle School didn't have a field to practice on, they all met at the park. The city had set aside a flat, open area right next to the main road for them to use for a scrimmage field. The guys loved it because it gave them an audience to play to. People strolling through the park would stop and watch them all the time.
And, just like all ball teams, the Bartlett Middle School Wildcats had several diehard fans waiting on them to get there. Some, mostly parents, would stay for the whole practice and even cheer for their favorite player.
The last ones to the field were Sam, Ramon and the coach. Ramon had on the team shirt that the injured player used to wear. They were a little tight on him. Ramon was a pretty big fellow for his age. The three of them stood on the sidewalk and talked for a few minutes. Coach Wimberly slapped Ramon on the shoulder pads as they finished talking. Sam tapped him on his arm and they began to trot to where the rest of the team were gathered.
The two of them talked as they jogged. Arthur couldn't help but notice the smile on Ramon's face. It was the first time that he had seen Ramon smile. One of those gooshy feelings came over him. Everything was going to be OK. He just knew it.
The coach seemed to like the idea of the team learning moves that could give them an advantage. However, the rest of the team was not as receptive. Arthur was introduced and the coach explained the reason he was there. Someone from the rear of the gang muttered, "Punk." Most of the guys snickered at the very thought of a fifth grader telling a middle school football team how to block and move.
Marco looked around at Sam, Elrod and Murphy with a smile on his face and said, "Gentlemen, it sounds as if we have some doubters in our midst. Perhaps a little demonstration is in order." He looked at his comrades and then at the coach.
Coach Wimberly looked at the team and turned to Marco and asked, "What do you have in mind?"
Marco crossed his arms and looked at the other three. Before he could say anything, Elrod clapped his hands and said, "How about some four-on-four scrimmage. We'll be the defense against any four of you that want to be the offense. Coach Wimberly can stand behind the line as the quarterback. When he says 'Hike,' we'll have just five seconds to get through and touch Coach. If all four of us get past the offensive line two out of three times, everyone agrees to at least listen." He smiled real big and then crossed his arms. Sam and Murphy did the same.
The rest of the team just looked at each other, wondering where all of this was going. Have the leaders of the mighty Wildcats gone slap nuts? Have they been taking drugs or smoking wacky tobaccy?
Before any of them could answer, and before he realized what he was doing, Arthur crossed his arms, stepped forward and issued his own challenge. "Make that five-on-five and best three out of five. And, if anybody can put me on the ground I'll go home RIGHT NOW," spoke Mr. Alligator Mouth.
'Oh, good Lord,' thought Arthur to himself, 'what am I saying? Those guys are a foot taller and 20 pounds heavier. I might not even live until supper time. Why didn't I just keep my big mouth shut? Holy Moley. I'd better make some good moves or I'm dead meat.'
Well, you could almost see the steam coming out of several guys’ ears as the five biggest guys pushed their way to the front. The first one to the front pointed his finger in Arthur's face about two inches from his nose and said, "You're on, Punk." Then for emphasis, he jabbed his bony finger in the middle of Arthur's chest.
PUNK?! It was now evident that Eddie Schwartz was the guy who muttered the word that started the whole challenge. Why did it have to be Eddie? It could have been anybody but Eddie. Arthur just stared at him with no emotion whatsoever. Ninjas never let their enemies see their emotions. But, inside his emotions were on a roller coaster. First, he came face to face with the guy who called him punk from the back of the crowd. Second, his finger hurt! Third, and most important of all, Eddie's dad owned the bakery he liked to hang around.
Just the short thought of the bakery brought the taste of a butterscotch cream filled doughnut sprinkled with powdered sugar to his mouth. M-m-m-m-m-m-m! Or was that the taste of his heart that had just jumped up into his throat? He wasn't very sure right now.
As the two fives lined up against each other, Eddie made sure he stood right in front of Arthur. The look on Eddie's face made Arthur wish he was anywhere else but here. Ooops! Was that his mother calling? Nope, guess not. Besides, running away would be letting his friends down. They all got down into their football stance.......except Arthur. He wasn't quite sure what to do.
"Watsa matter, Punk?" Eddie said loud enough for all onlookers to hear. "You get football mixed up with hopscotch or duck, duck, goose?" The other guys broke into laughter.
Arthur tried to look thoughtful instead of so dog-gone scared like he really was. He wrinkled his brow as if he was in deep thought. Since he was in the middle of the five, he looked up and down the line as if he was pondering his move. He took a couple of steps back, held out his arms as if he was measuring something.
Eddie smarted, "If you're wondering how far away the ground is, I'm fixin' to show ya." Chuckles abounded, even from the sidelines.
Arthur acted as if Eddie wasn't even there, which only infuriated him more. One thing Arthur learned in studying Ninja moves was that a calmly thinking warrior could out-wit an angry foe. Now, for more fuel to the fire, he stepped back up to the line, did an about face, took one giant step away from the line and turned back around to face Eddie who was still in his four point stance. Then, like a good outfielder, he bent over at the waist and rested his hands on his knees.
Eddie had enough. He stood up and tried to mock Arthur through his anger, "You call that a stance? In case no one told ya, Punk, this is football and not baseball." Eddie bounced back down to his four point stance. "Ok, Punk, if that's the way ya wanna' go down. It'll be my pleasure. Believe you me, it will be my pleasure."
Arthur saw Eddie's face turn redder than a tomato. One more shot ought to do it. So, without coming out of his crouch, he spread his arms out as if he wanted to give Eddie a big hug, and said, "I really feel more comfortable like this. You don't mind do you, Eddie?"
Out of intense frustration Eddie growled, "A-a-a-r-r-g-g! Come on Coach. Yell hike so I can cream this yo-yo."
Coach Wimberly had no idea how this was going to turn out. He wondered how he was going to explain this to Arthur's parents if he wasn't as good as Marco and the others said he was. Something about Arthur’s calm attitude made him go on. "OK, guys, I say ready, set, hike and you start on hike. Ready! Set! Hike!"
Eddie charged out of his stance intent on laying Arthur out flat. However, Arthur watched the way that Eddie leaned his head to the left in order to throw his right shoulder right into his gut. Arthur stepped to his left, gently pushed off of Eddie’s right shoulder and let the energy of his charge spin him around. Then, he was able to get through the line and to the coach with no problem.
Eddie, on the other hand, was just standing there with the most perplexed look on his face. His look was matched by his friends as they looked at the coach surrounded by four, slippery, ear-to-ear grinning team mates…and that fifth grader.
Eddie and his friends walked back toward their positions in front of the coach and quickly got into a huddle to develop their strategy. Arthur and the guys did the same. As they all took their stances, Arthur quickly realized their plan. They all lined up with their right hands on the ground. That meant that they intended on hitting with their left shoulders. Arthur yelled out, “Regal Eagle.” The “R” in the word before eagle meant to be pr
epared to shift right.
When the coach yelled, “Hike,” everything ran like Arthur had planned the whole thing. Arthur’s guys were around Eddie’s before they even knew what happened. As Eddie’s guys turned around, you could see that they knew that the next time had to work. There is no way they could be put down by a…a...fifth grader.
Eddie and his guys huddled longer, their mean looks toward Arthur were growing stronger and their actions more animated. Arthur and his group just watched with anticipation wondering what they were up to and how they would counter the attack. Finally, Eddie and his guys broke their huddle. No more smiling faces. No more taunting gestures. No terrifying talk. Just mean and hard stares right at Arthur. There was no way they could let Arthur pass this time, or leave him standing up for that matter.
As Eddie's guys lined up, they did the unimaginable. Instead of lining up side by side, they began to line up behind each other at five yard intervals while motioning the coach to back up. Coach Wimberly objected, "Hey guys, what gives? This isn't a relay race, it's a football scrimmage."
Some of the people on the sidelines began to call out, too. "No fair." "Wassup, dudes?" "Hey, that's all wrong." "Leave poor Arthur alone, will ya?”
Arthur saw his chance to play to the crowd. He turned toward them and held up his hands and said, "That's OK. No, no, it's gonna be OK." Then after everyone got quiet, he smiled and finished by saying, "Besides, this is the first intelligent thing they have done so far. I was wondering when I was going to get a real challenge."
Hoots of "Way to go Arthur." "We're with ya' Bud." "Don't let 'em get ya'." rose up from the sidelines which didn't go very well with Eddie and his guys.
Arthur turned back towards the playing field and huddled with his friends. "What'll we do now?" asked Murphy.
"Yeah, with the way they lined up it looks as if they are only going after you," said Elrod.
Marco suggested, "Let me talk to the coach, this just isn't fair."
Arthur motioned for the guys to gather around him and whispered a plan to them. As they broke the huddle, they all snickered as they took their places in the line. That is, all of them except Elrod. He broke out with a case of giggles so bad that he couldn't get down into his stance. This time, Arthur walked about ten steps backward and got down into a regular football stance. When the coach started his cadence of 'Ready, set, hike', Arthur timed his run towards the line to get there about three steps after 'hike.'
Eddie, who was the first one in line, was so confused, that on 'hike' he just stood up straight and prepared for Arthur's hit. He didn't realize the other four behind him had started running.
About three steps away, as the coach said "Hike," Arthur leaped toward Eddie with his hands towards Eddie's face as if he was going to scratch Eddie's eyes out and let out a rebel yell that would have made Gen. Stonewall Jackson proud. It unnerved Eddie so much, that he fell back a step right into the guy who was running up behind him. They fell into the path of the third one and went crashing to the ground. At the same time, Marco and Elrod from the right and Sam and Murphy from the left ran at the last two who were by now in a great state of confusion. As they got to the last two behind Eddie, they just touched them on the shoulder and yelled, "You're it!" and kept running toward Coach. Eddie's five just stood there scratching their heads.
Of course, the people on the side lines broke out into laughter and well deserved applause. To say that Eddie and his crew were embarrassed is an understatement. However, they had to admit that they had been outsmarted.
Arthur took a chance at making peace with them and started walking toward them. "Hey, guys," he started, "it's not about who's the biggest or anything. On the football field, you're always going to face bigger and tougher guys. All I did was plan some moves that you didn't expect, use a magician's ploy of misdirection to confuse you just for a moment. That's all it took for a little guy like me to get by big guys like you and get to the quarterback. I don't know about you guys that have been practicing football for a couple of years, but I don't like the idea of getting hit by someone bigger."
Tim, one of Eddie's guys, "Eddie, I hate to say it..........no I don't. I like to say it. I re-e-e-a-ly don't like getting hit by bigger guys. You know like that big goon from Summerville."
"Yeah," said Elrod as he and the others began to walk toward Eddie and his crew. "Don't you think he failed the third grade on purpose just so he could whip us?"
Everyone started laughing and they all walked back towards the coach. Coach Wimberly began to put it in perspective. "Guys, some of the moves that you forced Arthur to go through would probably never make it on the football field, but the idea of surprise and mis-direction........what did you call it Arthur? Planned deception? Well, I have always taught you, that planning and execution were the two greatest allies that a team could have. What do you say? Let's take a look at what Arthur can offer us, put it into football moves, practice and beat all the big guys."
The team agreed with a chorus of "Yeahs" and "Alrights" and a couple of "Woo-hoos". They even got several shouts of encouragement from the sidewalk crowd, who by this time had grown larger than it ever had. Practice went on for about another hour or so. The team was quite enthusiastic, as was the crowd. Everyone on the team, including Eddie, seemed to enjoy practicing before a bigger audience.
The coach made Arthur an official assistant manager. That not only meant that Arthur would help in planning the strategy for the team, but he also had the unique opportunity to keep the water keg filled. Woo-hoo.