In almost no time, they had finished the project for Ms. Suraci. They closed the closet doors, burst out the side door of the school, and ran over to where the rest of the football team was practicing.

  Practice was half over. To help the team, a group of sixth graders from the middle school had agreed to scrimmage against them. But the Franklin football team wasn’t doing well. They had been struggling to score against the sixth graders. Franklin had only scored once, while the sixth graders had scored five times!

  “It’s going to be a tough game,” said one of the older boys. “We played Hamilton a couple of years ago and got crushed. They’re really good.”

  Kat picked up her clipboard on the sidelines and whistled for everyone to huddle. They listened as Kat outlined a few plays to try, and then they started the second half of the practice. Nico played quarterback. The rest of them took turns playing defense or running for passes.

  Unfortunately, the rest of the practice didn’t go as well as Ms. Suraci’s project. Nico was a good quarterback. But even though he was able to throw the ball well, the Franklin team wasn’t very good at catching it. Kat had the team run all types of plays, but nothing seemed to work quite right.

  When the practice broke up half an hour later, the MVP Club walked away with their heads low.

  “I don’t know how we’re going to win tomorrow,” Kat said. “We’ll need some magic in order to beat Hamilton.”

  “Hey, I know something magic that will help us win,” Luke said.

  The others looked up eagerly. “What?” Alice asked. “Do you have a new formation we can use?”

  Luke laughed. “No, it’s even better than that,” he said.

  “Great!” Nico said. He jumped up and down and did a cartwheel. He loved to put his gymnastics skills to use.

  “Well, what is it?” Alice asked.

  The rest of the MVP Club looked at Luke. They waited for his magic solution for beating Hamilton.

  “Ice cream!” he yelled. “Let’s go to Annabelle’s Ice Cream. It’ll be strengthening! Football is all about strategy and plans. All we have to do is feel good about ourselves and plan to win, and we’ll be fine tomorrow!”

  They were quiet while Luke’s idea sank in.

  “Yay! That’s a great idea!” Kat said. “We’ll be the coolest football team around!”

  Nico gave Luke a high five. “Last one there pays!” he said, and took off running. The rest of the MVP Club ran after him.

  As usual, Nico came in first. Max came in last.

  “Aww, come on,” Max said as they stepped into Annabelle’s. “I don’t really have to pay, do I?”

  Kat laughed. “No, Max,” she said. “Nobody agreed to that except Nico. And Nico only said it because he knew he’d be first!”

  One after another, they ordered their cones. Luke got banana ripple with extra sprinkles. Max got chocolate chocolate chip. Kat ordered mint mango. Alice picked blueberry pie. And Nico ordered maple bacon waffle.

  After getting their ice cream, the group sat at the tables at the front of the store. Annabelle’s was on Main Street, so the kids could watch cars go by as they licked their treats.

  When they were halfway done with their ice cream, Nico spotted something. He pointed across the street. “It’s the Hamilton football team!”

  Max and Kat looked at each other. “Uh-oh,” Max said. The Hamilton team was headed straight for Annabelle’s!

  Max shifted to a chair farther away from the door.

  “Ignore them,” Kat said. “We’re just having ice cream. Let’s not get into trouble!”

  The kids from Hamilton crossed the street. When they got to Annabelle’s, a tall kid in front noticed Nico’s Franklin Football shirt.

  “Hey, look,” he said. “It’s some of the Franklin football team. They might as well lick their ice cream, because we’re going to lick them in the game tomorrow!”

  Nico gritted his teeth and shifted in his chair. Kat gave him a stare that said to stay still. Nico nodded and took a deep breath.

  “Yeah, it’ll be like playing against a bunch of ants!” another Hamilton player said.

  Kat stood up. She was just a few feet from the Hamilton kids.

  “Come on, team,” she said. “Let’s get going. We can settle this on the field.”

  The rest of the MVP Club stood up. As they started to leave, one of the Hamilton players stepped forward. It was Logan, the player Max and Kat had seen the day before. He was in front of Max. Logan reached out and tried to shove Max, but Max jumped to the right.

  “No, not ants,” Logan said. “Rabbits! Look at this one! He’s small and has big ears, just like a rabbit.”

  Logan took another step toward Max. Max backed up into Alice.

  “And look how he jumps away!” Logan said. “We can call him Hopper! Come here, Hopper!”

  “Good one, Logan!” called another Hamilton player.

  Logan leaned toward Max and sneered. “I can’t wait to see you on the football field tomorrow, Hopper,” he said. “I bet if we leave a pile of carrots on the sideline, you’d just sit and nibble them rather than play football!”

  The Hamilton team burst out laughing. Max’s ears burned. He clenched his fists and started toward Logan, but Alice pulled him back.

  “Don’t let them bother you, Max,” she said. “They’re bullies. Wait until the football game. We’ll show them.”

  But Logan was just getting started. He held his hands in front of him like a bunny and hopped around in a circle. “Hey, Hopper,” he said. “Maybe you can bring us some treats in a basket. Do you have any candy for us? Or something sweet?”

  Logan stuck out his top teeth and made bunny sounds with his mouth. “Tuc-tuc-tuc-tuc,” he said. “Tuc-tuc-tuc.”

  The Hamilton team laughed. “Maybe he’s got an egg for you, Logan!” one of them called.

  Logan stepped closer to Max. He leaned right up to Max’s face and stared threateningly at him. “Yeah, you got an egg for me, little rabbit?” he asked.

  Kat pushed her way from behind Max and stepped in between him and Logan. “No, he doesn’t,” she said. “But I do!”

  Kat held up her blueberry pie ice cream cone. Logan looked at it for a moment and raised an eyebrow. Small drops of blue ice cream dripped on his shoes.

  “You want something sweet?” she asked. “Here you go, you big bully!”

  Kat smooshed her cone right into Logan’s forehead!

  The cone stuck to Logan’s head for a moment. It made Logan look a little bit like a unicorn. The Franklin kids cheered and burst out laughing.

  Logan looked stunned. But he returned to normal a second later, when Kat’s ice cream cone dropped to the ground with a splat.

  Logan wiped his forehead with the back of his arm. He sneered at Kat and waved for his friends to follow him.

  “You think that’s funny, but we’ll be the ones laughing tomorrow!” he called over his shoulder. “Your team doesn’t have a chance.”

  The Franklin football team gathered at school early Saturday morning for one final practice before the big game.

  Like the practices earlier in the week, the team tried one play after another, but nothing worked. Nico’s passes were too long or too short. Receivers got confused on their routes. The players couldn’t even keep their signals straight. Finally, Kat blew her whistle and waved her clipboard.

  “Time to take a break!” she called. “Let’s get our heads in the game!”

  While the team rested, the MVP Club gathered under a tree on the sidelines. Nico drank some water, while Alice lay on her back and looked up at the sky. Max picked up a stick from the ground and started whacking at the grass with it. He was thinking of ways to get back at Logan. Luke was joking, of course. He stumbled around with his arms up over his head.

  “All the players on the Hamilton team were huge!” Luke said. “They were like giants!”

  Kat rolled her eyes. “They weren’t any bigger than us, Luke,” she said. “They were just meaner. But that’s not going to matter. We’ve just got to find a way to play smarter than them. Football is all about strategy.”

  Max held his stick in front of him, with his hands at either end. “My strategy is to get back at Logan,” he said. “I know I’m small and my ears are big. But maybe I can find a way to break him like this!”

  Max twisted his hands downward.

  SNAP!

  His stick broke in half.

  “That would show him,” Max said. He flung the pieces over his shoulder.

  “Um, Max?” Luke asked. “Even if you could snap Logan in half like that stick, that’s not the solution. Plus, he’s still bigger than you!”

  Max let out a sigh. “I know,” he said. “Maybe I could figure out a way to outsmart him or something.”

  Luke nodded. “Hey, I’ve got an idea,” he said. “What if I distract Logan right before the Hamilton quarterback calls hike? Then, while he’s looking at me, you tie his shoes together! When the play starts, he’ll fall flat on his face!”

  Luke pretended that his shoes were stuck together. He wobbled back and forth, then held out his hands and fell forward with a plop!

  Max laughed. “Great idea!” he said. “We’ll see how he likes that!”

  Kat shook her head and tapped her clipboard with a pen. “That’s not going to work,” she said. “Ignore Logan. He’s a bully. Maybe he’s mean to everyone because he doesn’t have any friends.”

  “Or maybe he’s just mean,” Max said. “I don’t like him.”

  “You don’t have to like him,” Alice said. “We have to find a way to beat him! He won’t think you’re small when you win.”

  “You know, being small can be a big advantage sometimes,” Kat said. “You just have to play to your strengths. Don’t let Logan rattle you. We’ll find a way.”

  “Yeah. Okay. Let’s take a break from football for a while,” Max said. “I don’t want to think about Logan anymore.”

  “Good idea,” Kat said. “Luke and I have to tell you about our trip to Washington, D.C.! We went to the top of the Washington Monument. And then we visited the Lincoln Memorial. That’s the statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a chair. It’s huge!”

  Luke clapped his hands together. “That’s it!” he said. “All we have to do is get that giant Abraham Lincoln to play on our team. We’d win for sure!”

  Luke jumped up and slowly stomped around the grass like he was a huge Abraham Lincoln playing football.

  “Four score and this Saturday, we set forth to demolish Hamilton on the field of football,” Luke said solemnly. “They were a better team and they would have won, but I squished them all like bugs under my giant stone feet!” CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

  The group laughed as Luke stomped around.

  But Max didn’t. He was thinking.

  “Hang on,” Max said. “I’ve got an idea. I have to go to the library!”

  “Now is a funny time to remember your overdue library book!” Nico called.

  Max ran inside the school. He returned a few minutes later and tossed a book on the grass. The cover said Football Fundamentals.

  Nico sneered at the book. “We don’t need books to win. We just need more practice!” he said.

  Max shook his head. “No, all that talk about vacations got me thinking about a trip we took to New York City,” he said. “We saw the Statue of Liberty. It was huge! It’s a lot bigger than Abraham Lincoln is. We went way up high inside the Statue of Liberty. We could see for miles!”

  Luke pretended to be the Statue of Liberty. He held his right arm up like he was holding a torch. And he tucked his left arm in front of him like he was holding a tablet.

  Everyone looked at Max. “Um, okay,” Nico said. “So you saw the Statue of Liberty. Who cares? We have a football game to win.”

  Max grinned. “That’s just it! We’re going to use the Statue of Liberty to win the game!” Max opened the football book. He flipped to a chapter titled “Trick Plays” and pointed to the first one. It was called the Statue of Liberty.

  “See? Trick plays can be an important part of football games,” Max said. “And one of the most famous is the Statue of Liberty play. The quarterback pretends to throw the ball, and instead hands it off to a runner, who sweeps up the side of the field away from the defense. Lots of teams have used it!”

  “Why is it called the Statue of Liberty?” Luke asked.

  Max grabbed the football. He raised his arm up and held the football back over his shoulder. His other arm was at his side.

  “When I pretend to throw the ball, it makes me look a little like the Statue of Liberty holding her torch,” he said. “After I fake a throw, I secretly hand the ball off to someone on our team. They take it and run. The other team keeps waiting for a pass that never happens!”

  “Cool,” Nico said. “Let’s give it a try!”

  “That’s great, Max,” Kat said. She picked up the football book and pointed at it. “You might not be bigger than Logan, but you’re smarter!”

  The kids put on their uniforms, ran out to the field, and took their positions.

  “New York! Washington! Vacation!” Nico called out. “Hut, hut, hike!”

  Luke snapped the ball to Nico. Nico pretended to throw it, but instead slipped it to Alice as she swept around behind him. She zipped up the field and spiked the ball in the end zone.

  The Statue of Liberty play worked like a charm!

  “Come on, team! Let’s go!” Kat called half an hour later. “It’s game time!”

  She blew her whistle, and the Franklin team sprinted over to the main football field next to the school. The day was sunny and perfect for a game of flag football. A slight breeze blew across the field. Hamilton was huddled on the other side of the field. Parents of kids from each team had gathered along the sidelines as well.

  Each of the Franklin players strapped on a white belt. Then they attached a strip of blue fabric to the sticky area on each side of their waists. The “flags” hung down the sides of their legs. During the game, the Hamilton players would try to rip one of the flags off the player carrying the ball. Once a flag was ripped off, the player was down and the play was over. Five players from each team were allowed on the field.

  The referee walked out to the center of the field and blew his whistle. Kat and Max jogged out to meet the coach and a player from the Hamilton team for the coin toss. Whichever team won the coin toss would start with the ball from its own five-yard line. Teams had four downs to advance the ball twenty yards. If they did, the team would get four more downs. Otherwise, the other team would get the ball. Field goals and kicking the ball were not allowed.

  When they got to the center of the field, Max reached out to shake the hand of the Hamilton player. But it was Logan!

  Logan moved in close to Max and looked down at him. He spoke quietly so the coach wouldn’t hear. “Aww, its Hopper! The wittle bunny came to play football.” Logan stuck out his upper teeth and made rabbit sounds at Max. “Tuc-tuc-tuc!”

  Max’s ears burned red. He drew up his shoulders and stared directly at Logan. Logan stared back at Max.

  Max stuck out his hand to shake. Logan’s lip twitched. Finally, he reached out and shook Max’s hand.

  “You can call the coin toss,” he said. “But it’s not going to matter, because you’re going to lose, Hopper!” Logan gave a short laugh.

  Max shrugged. “Okay, we’ll take heads,” he said. “And I wouldn’t be so sure about winning!”

  The referee flipped a quarter up in the air. It somersaulted end over end until the referee caught it and swatted it onto the back of his other hand.

  It was heads! Max and the Franklin team would get the ball first.

  “Okay, let’s go!” the referee said. “It’s a forty-minute game split into two twenty-minute halves. Teams get six points for each touchdown. No extra points. No tackling. Fumbles and laterals are allowed.”

  TWEET!

  The referee blew his whistle, and the players and coaches jogged back to their sides.

  The teams huddled and then ran out to take the field. Since Franklin had the ball first, their offense lined up at their five-yard line.

  “Hut, hut, hike!” Nico called. Alice snapped the ball to him, and the Franklin team spread out. Three Hamilton players counted five-Mississippi and then rushed Nico. Luke and Alice tried to block the Hamilton players from getting to him. Max ran down the field so Nico could throw the football to him.

  But before Max could get open for the pass, Logan broke through the Franklin defense and headed straight for Nico. Thinking quickly, Nico threw the ball toward Alice. But the ball sailed over her head and bounced on the ground. Incomplete!

  “Come on, Nico! Focus!” Kat called from the sideline.

  The Franklin team lined up for the second down. Again, Alice snapped the ball to Nico. The players ran their routes. Max sprinted down the sideline, past his defender, and waved his arm at Nico. This time, Max was open. Nico cocked his arm back and threw the football. It spiraled down the field and dropped right into Max’s hands!

  Max tucked the ball next to his chest and took off running. The Hamilton players scrambled after him. Max passed the thirty-yard line. Then the twenty-yard line. Then the ten. Then he crossed into the end zone.

  Touchdown!

  The Franklin side erupted in cheers! Parents and players went wild, while the Hamilton team shuffled back to huddle.

  It was just a few minutes into the game and Franklin was ahead 6–0.

  But Franklin’s lead didn’t last long. On the very next play, Hamilton ran the ball all the way down the field for a touchdown. This time, the Hamilton parents and players cheered, while the Franklin players huddled with Kat.

 

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