Making the Team (2 page)

Chapter 4

The New School

I wake up in my new bedroom. My Cowboys doona is warm and pulled up under my chin. The only things in my room are my bag and fishing rod. The removalists haven't arrived yet. I find Mum in the kitchen. She's drinking a cup of tea and reading the paper. Mongrel is purring around her legs, waiting to be fed.

“Get your uniform on, Dylan. You're going to school.” A red and black checked uniform is hanging near the door. She is serious.

“But Mum, I won't know anyone! Do I have to?” She gives me the evil eye.

“You go to school, I go to work. I have to make a good impression at the power company,” she says. I step into our new kitchen and drop a few slices of bread into the toaster. My new uniform looks stupid. It is going to be a long day.

Mum drops me at the front gate. She catches sight of my Cowboys bag but says nothing. The sign next to the gate says “Welcome to Flatwater State School – We love to learn!” Mum gives me a hug then pushes me out the door.

“Aren't you coming in?”

“No. The principal knows you're coming. I spoke to him on the phone. I'll pick you up at three,” she says and drives off down the road in the new company car. This sucks. I'm at a new school with no friends and no idea where anything is. I follow the signs to the front office.

“Ah, you must be the new grade-six boy, please come in!” says the lady behind the desk. “The principal, Mr Woolly, is with a parent at the moment. He will see you shortly.” When I sit down, I see Mr Woolly's door is open. Inside someone is yelling and swearing his head off. I don't
think it's Mr Woolly. The mirror on Mr Woolly's half-open door allows me to see everything that's happening inside.

Chapter 5

Scary Man

I thought I was nervous, but Mr Woolly was shaking in his chair. The man opposite him is huge. He's a bigger version of the boy sitting next to him and the boy has no tattoos. Well, none that I can see, anyway. The man is covered in them, down his neck and all over his muscled arms. A black leather vest covers the top half of his body and he wears grey jeans with heavy black boots that stick out from the bottom of his jeans. I wouldn't want him to step on my toe with those things. His dark red hair is pulled back in a long ponytail, he has a beard and the gold chains around his wrist jangle as he thumps his fist on Mr Woolly's desk.

The man is starting to go red in the face. I don't know which is redder, his face or his beard. As the man gets up
flecks of spit go flying across the desk. I bet poor Mr Woolly wishes he had windscreen wipers right now. The man's son doesn't say anything. He sits there next to his dad with a nasty smirk on his face.

“And if you get me up here again for such a stupid thing, I'll be reporting you to the Education Department!” screams the father.

“Mr Knutz, Jared threw rocks at a teacher's car. I don't think it is a
stupid thing
,” replies Mr Woolly, his voice trembling.

Mr Knutz and his son Jared prance out of the office as if they own it. I hear Mr Knutz saying something about punching someone's head in as they pass.

In the mirror, I can see Mr Woolly straightening his tie and taking a gulp of water from the glass on his desk. He looks flustered. I reckon he's lucky it's only the tie he's fixing. If it was me I'd be changing my jocks. Shame job!

Chapter 6

My Mob

“Welcome to Flatwater State School,” smiles Mr Woolly, walking over to me. He's a short man in a smart grey suit. He has bushy grey hair and dark eyebrows that look like tufts of steel wool. He doesn't know I've seen the incident with Mr Knutz and his son. He shakes my hand and pulls me into his office. Mr Woolly makes me feel comfortable straight away.

“Nice to meet you Dylan, your uniform looks good,” he smiles. “Before I take you to class, I need to ask you some questions. It says here that you're from Mount Isa,” he says, studying the enrolment form that Mum filled out.

“Yep,” I answer.

“It also says that you are Aboriginal,” he states. I nod
my head. Mr Woolly continues, “Is your mob Kalkadoon?”

I can't believe he knows about my mob!

“Yes,” I smile. Mr Woolly smiles too.

“I used to work in Mount Isa you know,” Mr Woolly says, laughing. “I bet you're related to old Bullet Conlan.” He knows my family as well!

“Bullet Conlan is one of my uncles!” I say. “He's my nanna's brother.”

“I used to play football with him at the Mount Isa Miners,” explains Mr Woolly. “They called him Bullet because he was so fast.”

“I played for the Miners as well,” I tell him. But I don't tell him how I lost the grand final.

The interview finishes and Mr Woolly says, “If you like footy, then you're going to like your new teacher. He's football mad!”

Chapter 7

The New Teacher

When Mr Woolly knocks on the door, the class is watching a YouTube video on the whiteboard. There is a monkey smelling its own butt. It gets such a fright from the smell that it falls out of the tree. The class cracks up. The class teacher sees Mr Woolly at the door and quickly turns off the video.

“Mr Barwick, this is Dylan Conlan, your new student,” says Mr Woolly. The whole class turns and stares. Shame! Before Mr Barwick can say anything, Mr Woolly gets a call on his mobile and leaves.

“Come in Dylan,” says Mr Barwick. He's about thirty
years old and he's wearing a Brisbane Broncos polo shirt tucked into a pair of jeans. He has a small brown moustache and I can smell his aftershave. Mr Barwick puts me at the front of the classroom next to a Kiwi kid. I think he's a Kiwi. He looks at my Cowboys schoolbag. I jam it under the desk.

“Cowboys suck, man. You should go for the Warriors,” he says. I don't say anything. I get out my maths book and do the mentals that are on the whiteboard. When I finish, I look around the room. Everyone is staring at me – the new kid. Everyone except for Mr Barwick, that is. He's sitting at his desk playing a Nintendo DS. He's concentrating really hard.

“He loves Super Mario Brothers,” whispers the kid next to me.

Mr Barwick catches me watching him and closes the DS. “OK, kids, let's mark that maths!” Everyone stops looking at me and we swap books.

Chapter 8

Scary Boy

It's half-past three. Mum hasn't arrived to pick me up. She must still be at work. I try to remember the way we came in the car this morning. I walk down the street and turn left at the lights. Up ahead is a corner shop. There's a sign in the window that says “Get your footy cards here”. I'm about to go inside when a group of kids comes running out and almost knocks me over. The kid at the front is the boy I sat next to in class. “Get him!” the gang yells. They're all wearing the same red and black uniform as me. They look a bit older. They must be in grade seven. The kid in my class is running as fast as his skinny legs can take him. It looks like he's going to get flogged so I decide to follow. I have to run fast to keep up.

They run down near the water and behind a jetty. One of the grade sevens is wrestling with the Kiwi kid. There's a crowd around them, chanting “JA-RED, JA-RED, JA-RED!” It's Jared Knutz, the boy I saw in Mr Woolly's office with his dad. He looks as mean and scary as his dad did this morning. His fat fingers are wrapped around the kid's collar. He lifts him so high into the air that his feet are off the ground. Then he slams him against one of the jetty posts.

“Did you get the smokes like I told you to?” Jared growls, his red fringe hangs over his menacing eyes. He's wearing a New York Yankees cap sideways.

“Nah. Smokes are for dopes, bro!” the Kiwi kid replies. Jared pulls his fist back and smiles. I know what he's about to do. He thrusts his fist forwards, punching the Kiwi kid in the guts. The Kiwi kid drops to his knees and gasps for air. The other kids laugh. I can feel my anger rising.

“Knock it off you moron and stop being a bully!” I say. Everyone turns around.

“What did you call me?” he says as he twists his Yankees cap around to the front.

“You heard me. Don't pick on him. He's smaller than you,” I shout. Sweat starts forming on my forehead. Jared walks up and grabs my shirt and throws me on some rocks. My knee stings. I look down and see blood. Heaps of it. My eyes flicker and my hands shake. The anger builds up inside me and I try to stop it. But I can't hold back my secret any longer.

Chapter 9

The Curse

I am cursed. It's been like this for as long as I can remember. I don't like getting angry. If I do, something bad happens, something very bad. When I lose my temper, I turn into a man-creature. When I say man, I mean a massive, wild and hairy man with a body full of muscles.

Mum doesn't like it when it happens. She thinks the army would take me away if anyone saw me and reported it. That's what happens in those superhero movies. Then again, Mum doesn't really watch those types of movies. She's more into chick flicks and that.

The only other person to see me turn into the man-creature was Dad. The first time it happened I was just a baby. Dad was helping Mum dry me after my bath. He went
to shake some talcum powder on me but accidentally dropped the plastic bottle on my head. I immediately started to howl and my face went wild. My tiny naked baby body started to shake and muscles rippled along my baby limbs. I reckon I must've looked like a mini baby body builder. Mum got such a fright she dropped me into the bath and instantly the water changed my body back to normal.

It used to be Mum and Dad who shared the secret. Now it's only Mum and me. Poor Mum, she still keeps the bath filled.

The problem is – water isn't always around to save me when I turn into the man-creature. Having a shower doesn't help. I have to be totally submerged. To help me, Mum has taught me different ways to control my anger. Sometimes I close my eyes and think of being in Nanna's kitchen. I pretend I can smell the lemon chicken cooking. Another thing that helps is counting to ten and taking deep breaths. My heart beats slower and I am able to calm down quickly.

But today is different. When I see the blood gushing down my leg, I realise that no amount of happy thoughts or deep breaths will help me.

Chapter 10

The Secret Comes Out

I look for somewhere to hide. Underneath the jetty it's dark. I run away from the bully and hide under the jetty. Too late. My vision goes blurry and the muscles in my arms start to explode. The buttons on my new school shirt pop as my chest expands. My head hits the top of the jetty as I grow. “Please don't let anybody see me!” I think. Then Jared Knutz starts to walk over.

“Where's the tough guy?” he says, peering through the shadows. He spots my feet at the dark end of the jetty. My toes have popped out of the end of my shoes. He scoots over the rocks. Lucky it's a long jetty. He's out of shape and
I can hear him puffing. Good for me. Then I remember that I don't look like me anymore. Bad for me.

I think really hard for a way to get out of this situation but I can't. The more I think, the more my hands start to shake. He's much closer now. The rocks clunk together under the weight of his body. I can't let him see me like this. The only thing I can do is crouch down low like a kangaroo about to take off.

“I'm going to teach you a lesson kid,” he teases. “Come out now or I'll make you pay
really
bad!”

“No, I'll make
you
pay!” my voice is a growl. I emerge from the shadows and before Jared realises what I've turned into, I explode out of my kangaroo position. He steps backwards, stumbling on a rock. Before he sees what I look like, I grab him by the shoulders. I give him a taste of his own medicine. I lift him off the ground, like he did to the Kiwi kid. With all my might, I toss him forward, my arms exploding outwards. His gang watch him fly from under the jetty and go splashing face first into the water.

They don't know what has happened and it looks like they don't want to find out. They run for their lives and
leave Jared splashing around in a panic. The way he carries on, you'd reckon he's being attacked by a croc! When Jared's feet find the sand, he sprints out of the water, his wet clothes clinging to his body. Puddles of water follow him down the street as he tries to catch up to his gang.

I jump into the water before anyone sees me. My body sizzles like a hot pan dipped into a sink of water. I morph back to an eleven-year-old boy again. There is only one problem. The Kiwi kid has seen
everything
.

Mum went wild when she saw my ripped clothes and the cut on my knee. I told her about Jared the bully. She was happy I stuck up for the Kiwi fella, but she was cranky about the uniform. Luckily she had a spare one. She must have known that the curse might strike. She just didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Chapter 11

Proper Introduction

The bell goes for the start of school the next day. When I sit down, the light catches some old words scratched into the top of my desk. I look closer. “Skool sux”, it says. School must have sucked for that poor kid if they couldn't spell school or sucks. Anyway, I'm still thinking about the bad speller when the Kiwi kid sits down next to me.