Kick by Walter Dean Myers

Both refs cornered me and gave Ty, number 18, and me all yellow cards. Then the ref took a red card from his pocket and raised it over my head. Sergeant Brown had his arms crossed and was shaking his head. He did not look happy.
    Number 18 was still on the ground, writhing in pain. His coach ran over in a rage and shouted at me, “That kid should be suspended from this league!”
    Coach Hill yelled, “Kevin, Ty, I don’t care how much pain you’re in, get off the field now!”
    My bruised face hurt a bit. The pain would probably go away soon, a lot sooner than the trouble I had caused would.
    â€œKevin, you could have just cost us the game, because of your selfishness and lack of control. Now we have to play down with ten men.”
    â€œI’m glad you’re concerned with Ty’s calf, Coach,” I muttered under my breath.
    â€œWhat did you say?” he asked as he turned to me and raised his eyebrows.
    â€œI said I’m mad with this half’s approach.”
    The red card took me out of the game and the next scheduled game as well. Even if we did end up winning this game, I would have to sit out the second round of the State Cup.
    â€œThis is why you’re in trouble all the time! They could suspend you from the league!” Coach screamed. By helping my teammates, I had really let them down.
    Even with ten players, our team dominated the second half, scoring twice. The other team knew the game was over with five minutes left in the second half. They played like it, too. At the end of the game, two kids on East Ridge were crying. Some didn’t even shake hands with us. Number 18 gave me the coldest look I’d ever seen. He was rubbing his jaw.
    â€œWhat happened back there?” Cal asked. “You looked crazy mad. Your veins were popping out and stuff, and when I saw you with that look you get when you’re really mad, I knew you had lost it.”
    â€œI gotta protect my teammate, Cal.”
    â€œYou can’t play next game, right?”
    â€œI know, but that kid got what was coming to him,” I said.
    â€œHey, if soccer doesn’t work out, you’d be a good boxer.”
    I gave Cal a playful shove.
    â€œYou’re a beast, man. You nailed that sucker,” Nick said, giving me a high five as he passed by.
    The ref asked my coach for my card. I would only get it back after the next round.
    I heard the ref say, “Kids like number thirteen should be banned from playing soccer.”
    I had chosen number 13 because I wanted to show everyone that I didn’t believe in bad luck, but now I wasn’t so sure anymore.
    Coach gathered us around him for a postgame talk. “You played much better in the second half, but if you play like that the next game, you guys will lose. You shouldn’t be happy with your performance. They let you win. And we can’t have players losing their heads. That’s unacceptable behavior.” He looked right at me and then at the team. “You shouldn’t be rewarding Kevin for his behavior by saying it’s cool. You should be discouraging it.”
    Sergeant Brown looked betrayed. I felt like I had let him down. And now I had an even bigger problem. I wondered if he was going to call Judge Kelly and recommend that he send me back to juvie.

Chapter 07
    Soccer was hard to follow. The teams were going down the field at a slow pace for a while, then everything would speed up, maybe there would be a try for a goal, and then the whole thing would go the other way. Somehow Kevin was always in the middle of most of the plays and all the confrontations.
    After the game, I took Kevin and his grandmother home. When we reached the house, I told him to see his grandmother to the door and come back to the car.
    Kevin returned and got in. “We going someplace?” he asked.
    â€œNo, I just wanted to tell you a story,” I said. “About four years ago, I was working over on Evergreen