A piercing siren occupied the stadium as I saw my enemy Steve Waugh celebrating his three point goal with 45 seconds left in the 9th and final period.
I was competing in the Water Hockey Junior Championship as Midget Cricket, the best player on our team. Our team, the Atlanta Bone Crushers, were leading by a score of 88-79, but the L. A. Steam was catching up. As the clock ticked down, the Steam could not turn the tables on us.
Bam! Steve Waugh had just nailed Mark Taylor, the worst player on our team, into the wall with three seconds left! Steve Waugh was thrown out of the game, but with no harm done for there was but one second left. As the buzzer went off Coach Hargrove congratulated us all on our victory.
I walked to a T.C. (transportation via computer) and warped myself to my home. I walked toward the kitchen and took a Coke out of the instant liquid food and beverage machine. As I opened my beverage, I heard a peculiar sound coming from my room.
I found out it was just my virtual satellite T. V. glasses. It was showing the “Lumberwoods,” a show with primitive people with slow cars that didn’t even fly. I changed the setting to video game and played a lifelike simulated basketball game. I then went to my room and heard my phone ringing. There was somebody speaking. I turned the monitor on and saw the face of a big league agent.
“Hello. I’m Ricardo Powell. I’m a big league water hockey agent for the Atlanta Destroyers. I’ve heard that you’re the best water hockey player since Ridley Jacobs five years ago. You might. even get a place on our team, if you would like to of course.”
“Of course I would, I’d be delighted,” I replied quickly.
“Well then I’ll call you later with information on possible arrangements for you.” I could no longer see Ricardo’s face anymore so I too turned the monitor on my phone off and lied down to recline.
Now my father, mother, and brother were eating dinner, well my brother was drinking his but still tasting food. I asked my parents if I should join the Water Hockey Association of America. They said I could only join if I did a great job in school.
That night, just before I was going to connect to my school dream maker (my school) I started thinking about what would happen if many kids turned pro before getting enough education. I also heard that when you turn pro they get rid of your school dream maker and replace it with a water hockey strategy disk with makes you dream and learn water hockey ‘s many strategies. This was a problem I know I could solve.
After school, when I woke up, I went to the closest T.C. and warped to the Water Hockey League of America Commissioner, Courtney Walsh, and explained my case. He said I was right and that he would try to do something to fix that. As I left his small businesslike office I began to wonder if he would really do anything to solve my problem.
Bzzz. My alarm block had vibrated too much again and stung me. I had to get that thing fixed because it never vibrated the right amount to wake me, it kept stinging me. At school, in my dreams, I played another game of water hockey at break time and scored 22 points of my team’s 41 and I scored five 3-point goals. My teacher, Mrs. Simon had also told me that if I didn’t get better grades she would suspend me from the school water hockey team. I took this very seriously and thought what would happen if I wasn’t there. The Jefferson Public Middle School, one of the few schools in the country with a winning tradition wouldn’t even make the HMSWH Tournament.
That morning I ate breakfast and started studying for math. I flipped through my math book to the section we were working on in school. For some reason by book wasn’t reading so I bumped it on the table. Still, no pictures or sounds came out of it. Since they stopped teaching children how to read books after talking books came out I could not understand a thing the in the book except the letter A. Then I found the contrast and volume dials and changed them. I then could see and listen to the book explaining boring formulas and methods and just as I started understanding them I heard
my phone ring.
I picked up the phone and heard the voice of and saw the Atlanta Destroyers’ agent Ricardo Powell filled my ears again. “Hi, is this Midget Cricket?
“Yes,” I answered.
“ I hope this won’t disappoint you too much, but the league commissioner has enforced a new water hockey rule. He said that any player under 13 could not play water hockey in the big leagues and any player with less than a B- in school could not play in the big leagues either. Since your only twelve I guess you can’t play.”
“No, its okay I think it would have been better for me to start later anyway,” I replied bleakly.
He turned his phone off and then so did I. Even though I knew I couldn’t play water hockey at the maximum level I still think I helped others by helping Courtney Walsh to enforce a rule to help others.
The next day after I had received my grades back from school I found out I made a 100% grade and could play water hockey without fear of being suspended. That year I played for my middle school and scored a record-breaking total of 46 points in the championship game of the HMSWH tournament.
After that game I knew, and everyone else did too, that I had the potential of becoming a Michael Jordan of water hockey.
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