Suspended Page 2

  “That will do,” said Mr. Justason.

  “… and it’s eleven times bigger than five, and five times bigger than eleven.”

  “Enough!” Mr. Justason snapped.

  “It’s forty-five less than a perfect score of one hundred — that’s the bad news — but it’s fifty-five more than zero, and that’s the good news, because zero would be a really embarrassing average, even for me …”

  Julie leaned across the aisle, punched Toby on the shoulder, and whispered, “TO-BY! SHUT UP!”

  Toby jumped, curling the paper in his hands.

  Mr. Justason said, “Thank you for the math lecture, Toby. Your rudeness earns you one demerit. Add that to the demerit you receive for your poor mark, and you’ll be benched for this afternoon’s game.”

  While Toby was ranting, Brian had started making drum sounds. I turned around, trying to catch his eye, but he was already in another world.

  His eyes were closed and he was leaning back; his chair tilted on two legs, and his arms beat imaginary drums. “Boom-chucka-chucka —”

  “Brian!” Mr. Justason suddenly roared.

  “Wha …?” Brian stopped, opened his eyes, shook his head as if he was waking up, and looked around, blinking.

  Mr. Justason looked grim. “You receive a demerit for disruptive behaviour. You’ll be on the bench for half this afternoon’s game.”

  At dismissal, Julie rose from her desk and stretched. As she lifted her arms over her head, her T-shirt rode up and briefly exposed her midriff.

  Mr. Justason said, “Your T-shirt is inappropriately short, Julie.”

  Julie quickly lowered her arms, pulled her T-shirt over her jeans, and said, “Sorry, sir.”

  “That earns you one demerit. You’ll spend half this afternoon’s game on the bench with Toby and Brian.”

  “That’s not fair!” Julie threw up her hands in disgust. “I shouldn’t get a demerit because of my T-shirt style. That’s an infringement of personal expression.”

  Ironically, Julie had learned this in a unit on human rights we’d done with Justason.

  “Your right to personal expression ends where my right not to be offended begins,” Mr. Justason shot back.

  “How are we supposed to know where that is?” Julie demanded.

  “You just found out,” said Mr. Justason.

  Julie opened her mouth as if she was going to answer back.

  I whispered, “Leave it.”

  Julie waited until the principal had left the room, then roared, “Just because my T-shirt is a bit short, I’m benched for a soccer game?”

  She was angry now, pointing her finger at me.“You’re going to have to do something,” she ordered.

  “Why me?”

  “You’re the captain of the soccer team. Talk some sense into Mr. Justason.”

  “Let’s see if things settle down,” I pleaded. “Mr. Justason’s just trying to impress Mrs. Stuart and Ms. Dugalici. Once they calm down, things will be back to normal.”

  “They’d better be.”

  “Anyway, you can’t just ignore rules.”

  “You can stupid ones,” said Julie. “What do you say, Toby?”

  Toby was eating his recess snack. “Whatever,” he shrugged.

  “Don’t get too worked up,” said Julie, and flounced out of the classroom.

  By the time school ended, I’d decided how to face Keswick Narrows with some of our top players missing. Julie would play the first half, and Brian the second. I’d start in goal.

  Just before the game, however, I had to reorganize all over again because the twins both received demerits for giggling in the hallway.

  “What was so funny?” Miss Little asked.

  They looked at each other and started laughing again.

  “Jessica sneezed and farted,” said Jillian.

  They stood in front of us like naughty children, hands behind their backs and chins down. Then they collapsed in giggles again.

  “Sorry,” they spluttered together.

  Miss Little sighed. “Jessica, you stay out for the first half, and Jillian for the second. We’ll have to manage with only eight players.”

  “What am I supposed to do — just sit and watch?” asked Toby.

  “You can be our cheerleader,” suggested Brian.

  “You better give me something to cheer about, then,” said Toby.

  But there wasn’t anything to cheer about. Despite good defense work, we lost 5–0.

  After the game, Toby and Brian put away the benches, while Julie and I collected the soccer shirts for Miss Little to take home and wash. By the time we’d changed, everyone else had gone.

  When Brian came out of the change room and saw the long empty hallway in front of him, he ran with his arms out, making a loud, nasal “Nnnyeeeeaaar” sound, like a plane.

  Julie took off after him, shooting at him with an imaginary cannon.

  Toby let out a low roar, warning, “Here comes the Big Bomber.”

  Brian wheeled around and faced Julie. At the same time Mr. Justason appeared from his office. Unable to stop, Julie crashed into Brian. Toby, lumbering down the hallway behind them, skidded on the tile and tumbled over, too. The three of them lay in a heap on the floor.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” said Mr. Justason icily.

  “Having a crash landing,” suggested Brian.

  “Sorry,” said Toby.

  Julie and Brian added quickly, “Sorry, Mr. Justason.”

  “It’s too late for sorry. You each receive two demerits, one for irresponsible behaviour and another for disrespectful conduct.”

  He marched back into his office.

  Outside school, Toby said suddenly, “I’ve got four demerits! I’m finished soccer for the year.”

  Julie gasped, “I’ve got three. I’m finished, too.”

  “And me,” Brian groaned.

  “This is ridiculous,” Julie fumed. “We have three players on the bench and we’re supposed to play Westfield Ridge next week. Who knows how many will be suspended by then?”

  She looked expectantly at me.

  “I’ll talk to Mr. Justason tomorrow,” I promised.

  Before I confronted Mr. Justason the next day, I decided to talk to Miss Little. I got the chance when Julie and I went to the library for Book Club, where we help little kids with their reading. My reading buddy was absent, so while Julie read with her partner, I went in search of Miss Little.

  Brunswick Valley School is small. The primary wing and the elementary wing meet in an L-shape, with the playground between them. It’s an old, two-storey school made of brick, and looks like a prison, with several windows bricked in to save heat. The remaining windows are painted drab yellow. I walked through the pink and green hallways — painted those colours to cheer the place up — to the primary wing, and found Miss Little in her classroom, sitting among the kindergarten kids’ little chairs and tables. At first I thought she was working, but then realized she was just sitting there thinking.

  She looked up and said, “Hello, Shay, dear. What can I do for you?”

  Miss Little always calls us “dear.” It’s another of her kindergarten habits.

  I was going to ask her to come with me to speak to Mr. Justason, but she looked so troubled I decided not to bother her.

  “Nothing, Miss Little. Thanks.”

  She looked at me over the top of her big glasses. “Something must be wrong, dear, or you wouldn’t be standing there so awkwardly.”

  “Julie, Toby and Brian are all suspended from soccer,” I blurted out.

  “Mr. Justason told me.”

  “So the team is down to eight players.”

  Miss Little shook her head. “Seven. Linh-Mai received a demerit this morning.”

  “We can’t play Westfiel
d Ridge with only seven on the team,” I said. “Can’t we bring in some new players?”

  “League rules say that if the school suspends a student from soccer, that player cannot be replaced.”

  “Could we talk to Mr. Justason, and ask him to ease up on the Code of Conduct?” I said desperately.

  “We can try. Let’s go now.”

  As we approached Mr. Justason’s office, we heard voices through the half-closed door.

  “How is the Drive for Discipline going?”

  I recognized Mrs. Stuart’s voice.

  “I’ve started by making an example of the soccer players,” Mr. Justason answered. “They’re popular in the school; once word gets around that they are being disciplined, all the other students will fall into line.”

  “Excellent,” said Mrs. Stuart.

  “We can’t eavesdrop,” Miss Little whispered, leading me away. “Besides, I don’t think there’s much point in talking to Mr. Justason right now, do you? I’ll try another day.”

  4

  Cemetery Road

  At home that evening, Grandad asked, “How’s soccer?”

  “Good,” I lied.

  I didn’t want him to know about players getting suspended. I knew that if I grumbled about the Code he’d tell me “Rules are rules.”

  I’ve lived with Grandad on Riverside Drive for as long as I can remember. He’s always been strict about being in at a certain time, getting homework done, being polite to everyone, and obeying teachers. When I sometimes accidentally break the rules, he doesn’t get mad. I just know he’s really disappointed in me, so I always try to obey them.

  Through the window I saw Julie and Mrs. Barry cutting across the path Grandad had made between our houses. Julie pointed to the soccer ball she was holding.

  I turned to Grandad and started, “Julie and I are going to play …”

  In the few minutes I’d been thinking about Grandad and rules, he’d dozed off. He’d told me earlier he was feeling tired. Sometimes he has what he calls “the old heart trouble.” He always says it’s nothing serious, although he has to go to the doctor every six months for a check up. I peered more closely at him, and decided he was all right.

  I tiptoed outside.

  “Want to play soccer?” Julie asked.

  “Take your ball down to the Back Field,” said Mrs. Barry. “After I sweep the shop, I’ll look in on your grandad, Shay, and tell him where you are.”

  Grandad ran a little flower shop in a converted garage beside our house, and Mrs. Barry helped him with it.

  At the school playing field — we call it the Back Field because it’s back behind the school — I went in goal so that Julie could practice shooting. She’d only taken two shots when Mrs. Paul, one of the custodians, hurried down from the school.

  “You’re not allowed to play on the Back Field,” she called. “Mr. Justason says students may only play soccer on school grounds under the coach’s supervision. Sorry, dear.”

  I couldn’t believe it. Not only were we suspended from playing for the school, we were also suspended from playing at the school.

  “Let’s keep playing,” said Julie. “I don’t care if Mr. Justason gets mad. What’s he going to do — stop me from ever kicking a ball again?”

  “It won’t just be you he’s mad at,” I pointed out. “Mrs. Paul will be in trouble, too, for not stopping you. Let’s kick the ball around in the back road. You can slam it at me. Pretend I’m Mr. Justason.”

  We went out into the back road, which goes beside the Back Field on the side opposite the school, but quickly gave up because there was too much traffic. We went around the corner to Portage Street, but there were too many parked cars.

  “Let’s try the cemetery footpath,” I suggested.

  We set off on the footpath that went through the cemetery between Portage and Main. I thought we could at least dribble the ball along, but there were too many people strolling there.

  Julie grumbled, “We can’t play in your driveway because your grandad’s asleep, and we can’t play in mine because of Little Sis, and I’m not allowed to play on the Back Field, and the roads are too busy, and the footpath’s too crowded …”

  “Let’s try this way,” I said, pointing towards the back of the cemetery, where it was bordered by wooded hills.

  We left the main footpath and followed a muddy trail through the graves. We’d never been this way before. The trail took us up and over a steep, grassy bank.

  “Look, it’s a secret road,” said Julie.

  “Yeah — the old Cemetery Road — what’s left of it, anyway,” I guessed.

  We played soccer there until it started to get dark. First Julie thundered shots at me. Then we played a one-on-one scrimmage, with twigs stuck in the ground at each end of the Cemetery Road as our goals.

  As we left, I said, “This is a good place to play soccer. Let’s get Toby and Brian down here tomorrow. We’ll play two on two. It’ll be like a secret soccer club for kids suspended from playing at school.”

  “You’re not suspended,” Julie pointed out.

  “It’s only a matter of time,” I said.

  Even as I spoke, I wasn’t sure whether it would be just a matter of time. I didn’t want to disappoint Grandad by breaking Mr. Justason’s rules, even if I didn’t agree with them, and especially I didn’t want to get suspended from playing soccer. Grandad had been a famous goalkeeper when he was young, and he often reminisced about it. A faded photograph of his old soccer team hung in the flower shop, and I liked to find him in the back row, in his green goalkeeper’s sweater. He always wanted to hear all about my games, and I knew he’d be disappointed if I wasn’t allowed to play.

  It felt strange that I was still on the team when Julie, Toby and Brian were all suspended. I felt like a traitor to my friends — as if I was somehow betraying them, instead of betraying Grandad.

  5

  Traitor

  The next morning found us meeting with Miss Little to discuss how we’d play Westfield Ridge with only seven on the team.

  “Let’s try an all-out attack at the start,” I suggested. “They won’t expect that, so maybe we can grab a quick goal and try to hang on to the lead.”

  “Let’s have Jillian and Jessica play as forwards until — Has anyone seen the twins?” Miss Little asked.

  At that moment Jillian and Jessica entered the cafeteria, heads down.

  “Oh no!” I said.

  They nodded.

  “What did you get demerits for?” Miss Little asked.

  “We failed a math test,” said Jessica. “Even if we got perfect full marks on the next test, our average would still be below sixty-five.”

  “The test wasn’t fair,” Jillian added. “Everyone failed.”

  “Did you study for it?” Miss Little asked.

  The twins looked at each other.

  “I did,” said Jessica.

  “I didn’t,” Jillian admitted.

  Miss Little looked discouraged. “Hmmm.”

  “Sorry, Miss Little,” they said in unison.

  Miss Little put her elbows on the table and briefly rested her chin in her hands, covering her face. Then she looked up and said, “We can’t play with only five players. I’ll call the league and report that we’re dropping out for this year. Sorry, children. We did our best. Those of you still allowed to play can scrimmage. That’s Shay, Flip, Quan, Magic and Brandon.”

  Flip and Quan glanced at one other. “We got demerits this morning, too,” said Quan. “I got one for swearing when I banged my knee on my desk.”

  “And I got one for this,” said Flip. She lifted her sweater to reveal a tank top. “Next time I’ll keep my sweater on, but I was so hot after recess.”

  Miss Little slowly shook her head. “Then we’ll have a scrimmage with just Shay, Magi
c and Brandon. The rest of you can watch.”

  She walked quickly from the cafeteria.

  Julie, Toby, Brian and I lingered after the others had gone.

  “What are we going to do now?” asked Brian.

  “Why are you looking at me?” I said, as they turned their heads in my direction.

  “You’re the captain,” said Toby.

  “There’s hardly a team left to be captain of.”

  “You’re still the captain,” Brian insisted.

  “I told you — you’re going to have to lead a mutiny to protest the Code of Conduct,” said Julie.

  “Yeah — or a sit in,” Brian said.

  “Or a protest march,” Toby added.

  I rolled my eyes. “It wouldn’t help. It’d just make things worse. We’d get even more demerits.”

  “You haven’t got any demerits,” Brian pointed out. “You’re the only one.”

  “Magic and Brandon haven’t got any, either.”

  “They don’t count. They never do anything wrong.”

  “Let’s just try not to break any more rules,” I pleaded. “Then things will calm down, and Mr. Justason and Mrs. Stuart and Ms. Dugalici will forget about it and we’ll be able to play soccer again.”

  “It’s all right for you to say that,” said Brian. “You can play soccer. We’re suspended from all games, and we can’t even practice on the Back Field. We’ve got nowhere to play.”

  “What about the Cemetery Road?” I suggested.

  I arrived first at our secret soccer field that night. Julie had to babysit, but said she’d come later.

  While I waited, I climbed up the bank towards the woods. At the top of the slope, I sat under a big maple tree and leaned my head back against the trunk, thinking about the Code of Conduct.

  Being captain of the soccer team was important to me. It meant the others looked to me for a lead. But where the Code of Conduct was concerned, my lead wasn’t working. I’d said we should simply be careful and try not to break the rules, but already Julie, Toby and Brian were suspended for the year, another five players were on their way to being suspended, and Miss Little had withdrawn the team from the league. Not only had my lead been a failure, but I was also beginning to wonder whether I had suggested going along with the rules because I really thought it was the best thing to do, or because I was simply afraid of breaking the rules and upsetting Grandad.