Takedown, page 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: Losing It
CHAPTER 2: Someone Your Own Size
CHAPTER 3: Temper
CHAPTER 4: The Invitation
CHAPTER 5: Things to Learn
CHAPTER 6: Strength and Speed
CHAPTER 7: First Meet
CHAPTER 8: Keeping Control
CHAPTER 9: Figuring It Out
About the Author
About the Illustrator
Glossary
How to Win On The Wrestling Mat
Discussion Questions
Writing Prompts
Other Books By Jake Maddox
Internet Sites
Copyright
Back Cover
CHAPTER 1
LOSING IT
The basement door swung wide open. “Jeff! Jeff, Jeff, Jeff!” a voice screamed. It was Caleb, Jeff Carter’s five-year-old brother. He ran into the room and started bouncing up and down on the couch.
Caleb wasn’t the worst little brother in the world, but Jeff was often annoyed by him. The kid was always running around and being loud — two things that drove Jeff crazy.
“Leave me alone,” Jeff said. “Come on, Caleb. Go away!”
Caleb ignored him. He jumped off the couch. Then he walked over and looked at the TV.
“What are you playing?” he asked. “Are you winning?”
Jeff sighed. He tried to keep his focus on the snowboarder on the TV screen.
“Yes, I’m winning,” he said. He paused the game and turned to look at Caleb. “I’m just about to set a new record, but I’m coming to the hardest part right now,” he added.
Caleb climbed onto the couch next to Jeff. He kept bouncing up and down, making weird sounds, and getting on Jeff’s nerves.
“What’s the record?” Caleb asked. “Are you going to break it for sure, Jeff? Do you really think you can do it? Huh, Jeff? Can you for sure?”
“Yes, I can do it,” Jeff said. “I’m way ahead. I just need to get through the last part of the run, and I’ll have the best time and the most points I’ve ever gotten in this game.”
“Can I watch?” Caleb said. Jeff ignored him. “Can I watch?” Caleb said, louder.
Jeff sighed. “Yes, you can watch,” he said, trying to be nice. “But you have to sit still.”
“Okay, I will,” Caleb promised.
Jeff unpaused the game. His character continued down the run, making great turns and jumps along the way.
Jeff’s thumbs bounced over the game controller. On the TV screen in front of him, a snowboarder swerved down a challenging course.
The snowboarder was making record time. He flew through the air over rocks that stuck out of the snow.
Jeff was on the edge of his seat. His muscular body reacted to everything on the screen. When the snowboarder needed to turn left, Jeff leaned to the left. When the snowboarder needed to jump, Jeff lifted his body up ever so slightly.
At one point, the snowboarder appeared to be coming down from a jump too early. Jeff leaned and lifted the controller a little, as if that would help keep his character up in the air.
It seemed to work. The snowboarder barely made it.
“Yes!” Jeff blurted out. “That was awesome!”
Finally, he headed into the most difficult part. It was full of hairpin turns, tunnels, jumps, and other obstacles.
Jeff passed the first obstacles easily. He knew he was on his way to setting the record. He could practically taste victory.
“Look out!” Caleb yelled as Jeff headed into a tunnel.
Coming out the other side, Jeff went off a jump that sent his character flying. He would have to be careful to control the landing, or he’d lose for sure.
“Oh no!” Caleb screamed.
Then Caleb jumped out of his seat and ran to the television set. He stood directly in front of the screen.
“Hey!” Jeff yelled. “Get out of my way!”
But it was too late. Caleb was blocking the screen, so Jeff couldn’t see enough of the course to keep his guy out of trouble.
Jeff’s character crashed into a snow bank. Jeff gasped. “Oh, no,” he whispered. He quickly tried to fix the mess. But it was no use. The record was gone.
Jeff felt the heat rise into his face. He stood up. “Caleb!” he yelled. “You little brat! You wrecked my game!”
“I did not!” Caleb yelled back.
Jeff slammed his controller on the ground. In a flash, he was on top of Caleb, holding him in a headlock.
“You always ruin everything,” Jeff told Caleb. “I was about to set the record!”
“I didn’t ruin anything!” Caleb yelled.
“You’ll be sorry,” Jeff said.
The basement door opened. It was their mother. “Jeffrey! Let go of him right now!” she screamed.
CHAPTER 2
SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE
Jeff was sent directly to his room. He sat there for more than an hour, his anger slowly draining away.
He didn’t get why his mother was so upset. He hadn’t really hurt Caleb. He just wanted to show his brother how mad he was.
After a while, Jeff wasn’t angry anymore. Then his mother knocked on the bedroom door. She walked in.
“Jeffrey,” she said, “you need to apologize to Caleb.”
Jeff looked at Caleb, who was peeking through the doorway. “I’m sorry for putting you in a headlock when you wrecked my chances for the record,” Jeff said.
Caleb smiled at him. Jeff rolled his eyes.
“I know that all brothers argue sometimes,” Jeff’s mother said. “But your temper has really gotten out of control. You’re much bigger than Caleb, and you could really hurt him, even if you don’t mean to.”
“Yeah,” Caleb chimed in. His grin was really wide.
“You’ve got to control yourself,” his mother went on. “You shouldn’t pick on your little brother.”
“Pick on someone your own size,” Caleb said.
“I am not picking on him,” said Jeff. “He wrecked my game!”
“I think you two should do something fun together this afternoon,” Mom said. “Why don’t you go to the park? Caleb would love that.”
“Yeah!” Caleb shouted. “Let’s go to the park and play Shark Attack!”
That sounded like the opposite of fun to Jeff. “Aw, come on, Mom!” he said. “I’m not his babysitter.”
But his mother insisted. So, fifteen minutes later, the brothers were at the park, and Jeff was pushing Caleb on the swings. He played tag with him. They went down the slide.
Jeff even agreed to play the game Caleb had made up. It was called “Shark Attack.” To play it, they pretended that the sand was an ocean, full of sharks that they had to hide from.
Finally, after an hour, Jeff said, “Well, I think it’s time to go home, don’t you, Caleb?”
Caleb shook his head and frowned. “No,” Caleb whined. “I want to play Shark Attack again.”
“We’ve already done that a million times,” Jeff said.
“No!” Caleb yelled. He ran to the slide.
Jeff walked over to the swings and sat down in one. He figured that if he didn’t play with Caleb, his brother would get bored and agree to leave.
At the other side of the park, a group of guys was standing around. A couple of them looked familiar.
Jeff knew that one of the guys was a kid named Logan, who went to his school. He wasn’t sure who the others were.
Suddenly, Jeff felt something hit his head. Then something else. He turned and looked around. Caleb was throwing pebbles at him.
Jeff could hear his brother giggling. He tried to ignore Caleb, but that was getting harder to do.
Finally, Caleb sneaked up behind Jeff. Then the little boy dumped a whole bucket of sand over his brother’s head.
“That’s it!” Jeff screamed. “I’ve had enough of you!”
In an instant, Jeff was running after him. Caleb screamed happily as he ran away. But this was no game to Jeff. He was mad. “I’ll get you!” he yelled.
Suddenly, Jeff was flat on his stomach in the sand. He’d been knocked over by a tackle. Some other kid had jumped on top of him, pinning one of his arms behind his back.
Jeff was powerless.
“Hey,” the tackler said into Jeff’s ear. “Why don’t you stop being such a bully and pick on someone your own size?”
CHAPTER 3
TEMPER
Angrily, Jeff struggled to get free. But every time he tried to move, the tackler’s grip got tighter.
Jeff tried everything he could think of to escape. Finally, he realized there was no point, and he relaxed a little.
Then the tackler flipped him over with a quick, powerful move. He pinned Jeff’s shoulders to the sand.
Jeff stared up at his attacker.
The tackler was Logan Jackson, the guy Jeff had recognized from school. He was a year older than Jeff, but Jeff had seen him in the hallways sometimes.
“Get off me!” Jeff demanded.
“Are you going to go after that kid?” Logan asked calmly.
“He’s my little brother,” Jeff explained. “Besides, it’s none of your business.”
Jeff heard Caleb giggling nearby.
“You have quite a temper,” Logan said.
Jeff struggled to get up, but it was pretty obvious that he couldn’t. He relaxed a little, and Logan’s hold relaxed too. Soon, Jeff felt his anger slipping away, as it had when he was sitting alone in his bedroom. He just lay there, wishing Logan would let go of him.
&nb sp; “Are you going to let me up or not?” Jeff asked.
Logan got up. Jeff sat up slowly, rubbing his shoulders.
“Here,” Logan said, reaching out a hand.
Jeff glared at him. “No thanks, I’m fine,” he said. Then he scrambled to his feet and brushed the sand out of his hair and off his shoulders.
Jeff could tell that Logan was staring at him. He looked up and stared directly back at Logan. Neither of them said a word.
Then Caleb came up and took Jeff by the hand. “Come on, Jeff. Let’s go home!” he said.
“Okay,” Jeff said.
The two brothers turned and walked away.
As they left the park, Jeff looked back over his shoulder. He saw Logan walking away, too, holding the hand of his own little brother.
CHAPTER 4
THE INVITATION
The next morning, Jeff walked through the school door. As he did, he slammed into another student.
“Watch it!” shouted Jeff. Then he saw that the person he’d bumped into was Logan Jackson.
“Sorry,” Jeff said quickly. “I didn’t see you there.”
“No problem,” Logan said. “I was looking for you anyway.”
Jeff felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He clenched his fists. If he had to fight, he was ready.
“Easy,” Logan said. “I’m not coming after you. I just want to talk.”
Jeff didn’t know what to say. “Why?” he asked.
“I thought I should apologize about the park yesterday,” Logan said. “I thought you were going to really hurt your brother. I’d never seen anyone look as angry as you did. So I just kind of reacted.”
“Whatever,” Jeff said. He slowly unclenched his fists.
“Listen,” Logan said. “You fought pretty hard. You’re strong.”
“Yeah, so what?” Jeff said. “What’s your point?”
“My point is, I think you should try out for the wrestling team,” Logan said. “Practice starts next week. We could use someone with your strength.”
Jeff wasn’t sure what to say. He’d never thought about trying out for a sport before. “Um, maybe,” he said.
“Seriously, you should,” Logan said. “Some of us guys are going to meet for workouts before school this week. I’m one of the captains of the Pirates. If you want to try it out, meet us in the gym tomorrow morning at 6:30. I think you could be good at it.”
“Okay,” Jeff said. “I’ll give it a try.”
CHAPTER 5
THINGS TO LEARN
Aside from getting up so early that first morning, Jeff didn’t have any trouble with the wrestling workouts. In fact, he thought they were a relaxing way to start his day.
The workouts always started with some light exercises. Then all of the guys lifted weights for a while before heading off to class.
Jeff liked the workouts. He also liked most of the guys on the team.
Logan and a few of the other guys were really serious about wrestling. Sometimes, Jeff thought they seemed too serious. But Jeff figured they were just trying to be the leaders of the team, since they were the captains. They were pretty cool, and they made the workouts fun.
The following Monday was the first day of real practice. After school, all the guys headed for the locker room, where they changed into their workout clothes and weighed in. Jeff weighed in at 105 pounds.
After everyone had weighed in, Coach Flood led the boys outside. They all went on a two-mile run around the football field.
At the end of the run, Jeff was panting and really tired. But the day wasn’t close to being over yet.
Next, they went to the wrestling room. There, they did so many push-ups and sit-ups that Jeff lost count.
After a short water break, Coach Flood split the guys into pairs according to their weight. Jeff was paired up with a guy named Luis, who had been on the team for the last three years.
“You’re new to the team, right?” Luis asked.
Jeff nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Never wrestled before in my life. I’m a good fighter, though.”
“Cool,” Luis said. “I’ll show you the opening stance when we get out on the mat,” he offered.
Jeff smiled. “Thanks,” he said. “I guess I have some stuff to learn.”
On the mat, Luis quickly showed Jeff how to stand. Both of them crouched down, facing each other, with their knees bent and their hands outstretched.
Then the whistle blew. Luis and Jeff moved around their circle, carefully eyeing each other. Luis made a couple of fast, fake moves toward Jeff. No big deal.
Suddenly, without warning, Luis pounced. He sprang toward Jeff’s legs, and was so quick and powerful that Jeff didn’t have time to react. Luis locked up both of Jeff’s legs and drove him down to the mat, hard. Jeff was pinned. He hadn’t even seen it coming.
After he walked off the mat, Jeff looked up at the clock. It was only 4:15. Practice was only halfway over! Jeff didn’t think he’d make it until 5 p.m.
CHAPTER 6
STRENGTH AND SPEED
By the end of practice, Jeff was exhausted. His muscles had never been worked so hard.
Before Jeff could change and get out of the locker room, Logan sat down next to him on the locker room bench.
“Learn anything today?” Logan asked.
Jeff nodded. “I learned that I stink at wrestling,” he said.
“You do stink,” Logan said, waving his hand in front of his face. “Phew!”
Both of them laughed. “Yeah, I need a shower,” Jeff said.
He paused, looking down at his feet. Then Jeff admitted, “I guess I just don’t really know what I’m doing out there. Every time I think I do, I find out I don’t.”
“Don’t worry,” Logan replied. “We’ll take care of that.”
Over the next few weeks, Logan worked closely with Jeff every day during wrestling practice.
He helped Jeff with his takedown moves, his holds, and how to use his body to push against his opponent. They also worked on escape moves for when Jeff was about to be pinned.
Jeff felt more confident, but he hadn’t wrestled against a real opponent yet. He had no idea what would happen when he stepped onto the mat for a real match. He hated to admit it, but he was pretty nervous.
One night, Coach Flood gathered all the players onto the mat.
“As you all know, we face the Evanston Eagles on Thursday,” the coach said. “After practice tonight, I’ll post the list for the first meet. I have each of you in the best weight class for you. I think we’re all ready to start the season, and the Pirates have a great chance to win in this meet.”
For the rest of practice, Jeff was nervous. He wasn’t sure what to expect. Logan was still working with him, and he felt like he was getting better.
But Logan had been wrestling for years. He also weighed twenty pounds more than Jeff did. That allowed him to control Jeff when they really tried to compete.
The problem with practicing with Logan was that it was never really a fair fight. Jeff didn’t know whether he’d improved or not.
The worst part was that he didn’t know what might happen when he wrestled against a more experienced wrestler in his own weight class.
After school, he caught up with Logan as they both walked home.
“You ready for your first meet?” asked Logan.
Jeff shrugged. “Kind of, I guess,” he said. Then he asked, “Do you know the guy I’m wrestling against?”
“Yeah, I do,” Logan said. “The 105-pound guy from Evanston is this kid named Brandon.”
“So what should I be looking out for?” Jeff asked. “How can I get ready?”
Logan frowned, thinking. “I’ve never wrestled him,” he said finally. “But I’ve seen him in action, and he’s really fast. That’ll be the main thing to look out for. Speed. Because he can sneak up on you, and he’ll do it.”
“Okay, speed,” Jeff said, nodding. “I can handle that. What else should I know about Brandon?”
“The other thing is that he’s strong,” Logan said. “But you’re strong too, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Just look out for his speed.”
