The Secret Football Club (Pocket Money Puffin) Read online

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Happy birthday, Puffin!

  Did you know that in 1940 the very first Puffin story book (about a man with broomstick arms called Worzel Gummidge) was published? That’s 70 years ago! Since then the little Puffin logo has become one of the most recognized book brands in the world and Puffin has established its place in the hearts of millions.

  And in 2010 we are celebrating 70 spectacular years of Puffin and its books! Pocket Money Puffins is a brand-new collection from your favourite authors at a pocket-money price – in a perfect pocket size. We hope you enjoy these exciting stories and we hope you’ll join us in celebrating the very best books for children. We may be 70 years old (sounds ancient, doesn’t it?) but Puffin has never been so lively and fun.

  There really IS a Puffin book for everyone

  – discover yours today.

  Tom Palmer is a football fan and author. He writes two series for Puffin: Football Academy and Foul Play. He visits schools and libraries every week to talk about reading, writing and football.

  It was reading about football that helped Tom to become a confident reader. He now has the job of his dreams: travelling the world to watch football matches, meeting players, then writing stories about them.

  He lives in Yorkshire where he likes to be with his family, watch football and run.

  You can find out more about Tom – and talk to him – through his website www.tompalmer.co.uk

  Books by Tom Palmer

  Football Academy series:

  BOYS UNITED

  STRIKING OUT

  THE REAL THING

  READING THE GAME

  FREE KICK

  CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

  Foul Play series (for older readers):

  FOUL PLAY

  DEAD BALL

  OFF SIDE

  Illustrated by

  Brian Williamson

  PUFFIN

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3

  (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand

  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank,

  Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  puffinbooks.com

  First published 2010

  Text copyright © Tom Palmer, 2010

  Illustrations copyright © Brian Williamson, 2010

  Colour Puffin artwork on cover copyright © Jill McDonald, 1974

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author and illustrators has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  ISBN: 978-0-14-194410-4

  For Iris, the best daughter in the world

  Contents

  The Railway Children

  Double Trouble

  Dead Ball

  Reading the Game

  Journey to the Centre of the Earth

  Dirty Beasts

  Don’t Tell the Teacher

  Off Side

  Friendly Matches

  The Secret Football Club

  Foul Play

  Gathering Storm

  Striking Out

  Unbearable

  Let’s Play

  Great Expectations

  The Football Beast

  Captain Fantastic

  Heroes

  Thank Yous

  The Railway Children

  It was the first day back at school after the summer break. Six weeks of fun and holidays over. Finished.

  But Lily, Zack and Khal were not sad to be back – they were delighted. Standing in the playground, they looked around the school grounds. Nothing had changed. Kingsfolly Primary School was as it always had been.

  The school building was old and brown. The car park, tightly packed with teachers’ cars. The small wood beyond the playground, mysterious as ever. And the playground itself, marked out as a football pitch, ready for the first game of term.

  ‘Kick-off at morning break?’ Lily said.

  Zack and Khal nodded. Zack was short and stocky with tightly plaited dark hair. He was known for being clever and full of good ideas. Khal was tall and had a thin face.

  ‘Yeah,’ Khal said. ‘I can’t wait.’

  ‘Nor me,’ Zack agreed.

  ‘It’s been a long time since we’ve played football,’ Lily added, pushing her curly blonde hair away from her face.

  And it had been. A very long time.

  Kingsfolly Primary School was in the middle of the city. Its triangular grounds were surrounded by a very busy road on one side and several railway tracks on the other two. Trains thundered loudly past the school every few minutes.

  The part of the city where Lily and the others lived was so built up that there was no room for fields and parks. No room for football. There were just houses and shops and warehouses and roads and railways. All packed in together.

  The only place children could play football, without being flattened by trains and cars, was the school playground.

  And that was why they were so excited about being back at school: they hadn’t played a proper game of football for weeks. Every time they’d passed Kingsfolly Primary in the holidays they’d gazed longingly at the playground, but there was no way they could get over the four-metre fence that protected it from the outside world.

  Zack rubbed his hands together, grinning. ‘Did you see that Porsche in the car park?’

  ‘No,’ Khal replied. ‘Is there really one?’

  ‘I saw it,’ a voice said above the racket of shouting and screaming in the playground. It belonged to a girl who was now standing next to Lily. She had long dark dreadlocked hair, held back with a tie. Maddie was Lily’s best friend. ‘It’s a Carrera 911,’ she added matter-of-factly.

  Lily turned to Maddie. ‘Do you reckon it’s his?’

  ‘Whose?’ Zack asked.

  ‘His!’ Lily said. ‘The new head teacher. Mr Whatsisname.’

  ‘Edwards,’ Maddie said. ‘Has anyone seen him?’

  Everyone shook their head.

  ‘Well, he must be cool if he’s got a Porsche,’ Khal said, just as the school bell went off.

  ‘We’ll find out in assembly,’ Lily said, looking at her watch. ‘It starts in five minutes.’

  And the four friends headed into the school, where they’d find out just how cool their new head teacher really was.

  Double Trouble

  ‘Good morning, children.’

  ‘Good-mor-ning-mis-ter-ed-wards,’ a hundred and twenty voices chanted back.

  Mr Edwards nodde
d and gazed around the school hall. At the murals on the walls. At the wooden flooring that gleamed after a polishing. He was a short bald man, wearing a thick black suit and glasses. Watching him, Lily noticed that he had not yet smiled. She remembered the previous head teacher, Mrs Warner, had always smiled.

  Lily elbowed Zack. ‘Ask him,’ she said, grinning.

  ‘What?’ Zack said, confused.

  ‘If it’s his car. The Porsche.’

  Zack shook his head and looked down as he felt Mr Edwards’ eyes flick towards him. Then the new head teacher stared at all the children.

  ‘Before we sing,’ he said, ‘a few announcements.’

  Lily looked around at the rest of the children and teachers. There was something strange about the atmosphere today. Something different from how it had been last term. But what was it? And why?

  ‘Firstly, thank you for your welcome this morning,’ Mr Edwards said. ‘I am very happy to be your new head teacher.’

  Lily thought his voice sounded like he didn’t mean he was happy at all. It was hard and unfeeling.

  ‘Secondly, I want to let you know that the school celebrates its hundredth birthday in October. And the school’s longest-serving teacher, Mrs Baker, has been charged with thinking up a way to celebrate this. I’d like you all to support her as much as you can.’

  Lily looked at Mrs Baker, who was their class teacher this year. She was nice. All the children liked her. But Mrs Baker wasn’t smiling, even though she’d been mentioned and everyone was looking at her. Lily felt a panic rising in her chest. Something was wrong. She could sense it.

  ‘Thirdly –’ Mr Edwards’s voice suddenly sounded even harder – ‘and before we sing our first song, I need to inform pupils that after a series of injuries in the playground last year and the concern of some parents … from now on football and all other ball games are banned in the school grounds.’

  There was a huge collective gasp, then silence. As if everyone had been breathing in, shocked. This news was so sudden. So unexpected.

  ‘I am,’ Mr Edwards said, pausing briefly, ‘sorry about this. But I have a duty of care to protect you from dangerous activities and the serious injuries you could suffer playing football.’

  Lily felt her head go hot inside. And then she realized that she was on her feet. The only child out of all the school.

  Mr Edwards looked over his glasses at her. ‘Yes?’

  ‘You can’t,’ Lily said in a whisper.

  ‘I can,’ the head teacher said. ‘And I will.’

  Then Lily felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Mrs Baker.

  ‘Sit down, Lily,’ she said in a kind, but very firm, voice.

  Lily sat. She could feel her eyes beginning to sting. A thick lump in her throat. Her face itching.

  Mr Edwards looked at Lily for a second longer. Then, after an uncomfortable silence, he nodded to Mr Nokes on the piano.

  ‘Now for our first song,’ he said, as music filled the hall and everyone stood to sing.

  Dead Ball

  At morning break Lily, Maddie, Zack and Khal gathered at the far edge of the playground where the small wood stretched to the back of the school grounds. The circle of friends was joined by James and Batts. The six of them had planned to meet here to play football. But that wasn’t going to happen. Not now.

  Lily eyed James as he came over. He had blond hair and was the tallest boy in Year Six. Lily liked him, even though he was always looking for an argument – and always with her. She hoped they could be on the same side with this.

  No football. No football for the rest of the year. No football ever. She couldn’t imagine living in a world like that.

  ‘What are we gonna do?’ Batts said. ‘This is stupid … it’s …’ He fell silent.

  Lily shrugged, looking at Batts. He was big for a Year Six too. And his hair was always ultra-short.

  ‘She’s still upset,’ Maddie said to Batts and James, looking at her friend.

  ‘I’m upset. We’re all upset,’ James said, looking cross. ‘You’re not the only one who can be upset.’

  Lily shrugged. ‘I didn’t say I was.’

  James frowned and crossed his arms; Lily wondered why he was always so angry.

  Then Zack spoke. He’d been gazing into the woods. But now he was looking at his friends. ‘We need to stop feeling angry and sad. We need to think of a way of getting football back.’

  ‘Zack’s right. We need a plan,’ agreed Lily.

  James stepped forward. ‘Obviously!’

  ‘But what plan?’ Khal asked. ‘Mr Edwards looks like he’s never changed his mind about anything.’

  ‘Well, he’s going to change his mind about this,’ Maddie said. ‘Isn’t he, Lily?’

  Lily nodded. ‘He is. But how?’

  ‘Did Mrs Baker talk to you in assembly?’ Zack asked Lily.

  ‘Yes,’ Lily said. ‘But only to tell me to sit down.’

  No one spoke for a few seconds. They were all thinking. Thinking hard.

  Most of them were looking into the woods, as if the answer was in there. But it didn’t seem to be. Even if it was, they would not be allowed to find it. They were banned from the woods too; that ban had been standing long before Mr Edwards had come along to spoil things.

  The woods were part of the school grounds, and children used to be allowed in them. Zack’s dad had come to the school when he was young and said he remembered playing in them. Climbing trees. Making dens. That sort of thing.

  But now they were out of bounds until the school could raise the money to clear the ground to make them safe. Nobody ever went in the woods. Well, almost nobody.

  Still thinking, Lily noticed that Zack was staring at her.

  ‘What?’ she said.

  ‘Maybe she’s the answer.’

  ‘Who?’ Lily tried to figure out what he was talking about. Their teacher? And then she twigged. ‘Mrs Baker – that’s it! She’ll help us! She’ll tell Mr Deadwards where to go! She’s not afraid of anyone.’

  Once the others had stopped laughing at Lily’s nickname for the new head teacher, they all began to nod.

  ‘That’s it,’ Khal said.

  ‘Do it,’ Batts said.

  James just shrugged when Lily looked at him.

  ‘Who’s coming with me, then?’ she said.

  Only Maddie stepped forward. But Lily knew that she had all of them with her as she walked across the playground towards their classroom.

  Reading the Game

  ‘I’m sorry, girls. I’ve talked to Mr Edwards about it and I won’t ask him again to change his mind.’ Mrs Baker looked them in the eye, one by one, as she said no. She was a soft-voiced woman, with fair hair and sparkling eyes.

  Lily and Maddie had asked as soon as Mrs Baker returned to the classroom after morning break.

  ‘But, Mrs Baker …’ Lily said, and then stopped. She realized she was about to cry and she didn’t want to do that in front of the class. She felt sad: she loved football. They all did. When would they ever get to do it again if they weren’t allowed to play at school?

  Never. That was when!

  Lily returned to her seat and shrugged when she saw the others looking at her from their tables. Zack didn’t say a word as she sat down next to him. Maddie was equally silent as she went back to her table.

  ‘Now, Year Six, today we’re going to be talking about … history!’ Mrs Baker said.

  Lily watched Khal and Maddie groan. Then she glanced across at Oliver Sykes who had suddenly sat up and looked eager, like a dog expecting a biscuit. Typical Oliver, she thought. He was always interested, whatever lesson they were having. Except PE. He was one of those boys who loved schoolwork and hated games – especially football. She didn’t know why.

  ‘The history,’ Mrs Baker went on, ‘of … football.’

  Lily glanced up. Had she heard Mrs Baker right?

  ‘What?’ Khal said in a loud confused voice.

  ‘The history of football, Khalid,’ Mrs Ba
ker said.

  Lily noticed a grin creeping across Khal’s face. Maybe this was going to be a good history lesson. Then everyone was listening – in silence – to the most unexpected history lesson they’d ever had.

  ‘Football used to be played not on pitches – nor in playgrounds – but across fields and ditches and hedges,’ Mrs Baker told them. ‘Hundreds of years ago, in the fourteenth century, it was played village against village. The matches would last all day in some cases. And lots of people from each village would play, sometimes hundreds. They played with specially decorated balls. They did it to celebrate their village at certain times of the year.’

  Lily was listening with a frown on her face. What was this all about? She looked at Zack. He looked back at her, frowning too.

  Their teacher went on to explain that in the olden days the game was called ‘mob football’ or ‘folk football’, but it had got so violent that people had broken legs and arms – and had even died – playing it.

  ‘And in 1314 it was banned,’ Mrs Baker said, stopping.

  The room was quiet. Mrs Baker looked at the children as if she wanted them to say something. But no one did. So she continued: ‘King Edward II banned it because he thought it was too dangerous. There were other reasons, but that was the main one.’

  ‘It’s like Mr Edwards here,’ James muttered.

  ‘What other reasons?’ Oliver asked.

  Mrs Baker paused, and then said, ‘Well, one reason was he wanted his people practising archery, not football. For all the wars they used to fight then.’

  ‘So did they stop playing?’ Batts asked.

  ‘Good question,’ Mrs Baker replied. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I suppose if the King said they couldn’t play, then they didn’t play,’ Oliver said.

  Mrs Baker shook her head. ‘No. Even with the threat of prison, they carried on playing.’ Then she paused again and looked at her class. Again, no one filled the silence.

  ‘Now, can you remember what Mr Edwards said in assembly?’ Mrs Baker asked.