Willy the Scrub

  WILLY

  THE SCRUB

  BY

  JAMIE McEWAN

  ILLUSTRATIONS BY VICTOR KENNEDY

  MINNEAPOLIS

  To Robert Roger McEwan

  Text copyright © 2004 by Jamie McEwan

  Illustrations © 2004 by Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  Illustrations by Victor Kennedy

  Design by Keith Van Norman

  All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc., except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

  Darby Creek

  A division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.

  241 First Avenue North

  Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.

  Website address: www.lernerbooks.com

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  McEwan, James.

  Willy the scrub / by Jamie McEwan.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-58196-010-5

  Summary: Willy and his friends have just started 5th grade and they want to be part of the “in” crowd, the jocks. The fall football season leaves Willy a benchwarmer, or scrub, but he goes out for wrestling in the winter and things begin to change.

  1. Middle school students—Juvenile fiction. 2. Athletes—Juvenile fiction. 3. Wrestling—Juvenile fiction. 4. Sportsmanship—Juvenile fiction. [1. Middle school students—Fiction. 2. Athletes—Fiction. 3. Wrestling—Fiction. 4. Winning and losing—Fiction. 5. Sportsmanship—Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.M478463 Wi 2004

  [Fic] dc22

  OCLC: 52632857

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  7/1/11

  eISBN: 978-0-7613-8595-0 (pdf)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-6779-8 (ePub)

  eISBN: 978-1-4677-3140-9 (mobi)

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1: DAY ONE

  CHAPTER 2: GO SCRUBS!

  CHAPTER 3: GAME OVER

  CHAPTER 4: A REAL JOCK

  CHAPTER 5: GO WITH GROSS

  CHAPTER 6: GIVING UP

  CHAPTER 7: NO FUN

  CHAPTER 8: TOUGH SCRUBS

  CHAPTER 9: ONE POINT DOWN

  CHAPTER 10: WAY TO LOSE!

  CHAPTER 11: SCRUB CLUB

  CHAPTER 1

  DAY ONE

  “It’s Day One,” said Willy. “A new year, a new school. We’re fifth graders now. We’re not in elementary school anymore. Everything’s going to be different. We’re going to be different.”

  “How?” his big friend Rufus asked. “How are we going to be different?”

  Rufus gave a puzzled look around, as if he expected the difference to jump out at him from the hallway lockers. The four friends—Willy, Rufus, Dan, and Clara—were standing together on one side of their new school’s big, wide hall. Crowds of kids they didn’t know walked by.

  “I’m saying it’s time for a new start,” said Willy. “A new me. I don’t want to be just a face in the crowd. I want us to be part of the ‘in’ group. We can be the ‘in’ group. All of us from Davidson.” Davidson was their old elementary school.

  “I don’t know,” said Rufus.

  “I do!” said Dan. “I like it! The new ‘in’ group. That’s us!” Dan was a little guy with hair that stuck straight up from his head. He could never stand still for long. Right now Dan was bouncing from one foot to the other, holding his hands up like a boxer. On one of his bounces, Dan bumped into a boy walking behind him.

  “Hey, watch it, buddy,” the other boy said without stopping.

  “Who cares about being part of the ‘in’ group?” said Clara. “I know I don’t.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” said Willy. “You’re probably the tallest person in the whole class. And you’re a good athlete. You can afford to show up in pigtails like you were going into second grade instead of fifth.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment,” said Clara, shaking her head so her pigtails swung back and forth, slapping against her face.

  “The only problem is, most of the cool guys are jocks,” said Willy.

  “Yeah?” said Rufus. “Well, I was thinking of going out for football.”

  “Football! I’ve always wanted to play football,” said Willy.

  “Yeah!” shouted Dan. “We’ll all go out for football. And we’ll be cool! We’ll be the best!”

  “I don’t know about that,” said Rufus.

  “You guys have never played football,” said Clara. “Davidson Elementary never even had a team.”

  “I’ve played touch football plenty of times,” said Dan.

  “You should go out for soccer,” said Clara. “Football’s for dumb jocks.”

  “My father played football,” said Willy. “Um,” said Clara. “Just kidding.” “Besides,” said Willy, “we’ll be happy to be any kind of jocks.”

  CHAPTER 2

  GO SCRUBS!

  The next Monday Willy and Rufus and Dan showed up at the first practice in new football gear. It was a windy day. The football field was on the top of a hill. From there Willy could see the mountains all around. It was the right kind of day for an adventure. Willy was nervous, but he was excited, too.

  “You guys are going out for football?” asked a kid named Biff. Biff was in the grade ahead of them, but he was no bigger than Willy. “I hope you’re not a bunch of scrubs.”

  “What’s a scrub?” asked Dan.

  “A scrub is a lousy benchwarmer,” said Biff. “Scrubs never get to play. And you look like scrubs to me.”

  “We’ll scrub you, little man!” said Rufus.

  But it turned out that Biff was a fast runner and a star player from last year. And Rufus was slow—much too slow to catch Biff.

  At least Rufus was big and slow. Willy was small and slow. So was Dan.

  “Come on, guys!” Coach Stone shouted at them during practice. “Use your ball skills! Use your quickness! Play hard!”

  Willy used all the ball skills he had. He used all his quickness. He played as hard as he could.

  Unfortunately, his “all” wasn’t enough.

  “What’s the matter with you guys?” yelled the coach. “Biff ran right past you!”

  “I told you,” said Biff. “You guys are scrubs. Why don’t you just quit?”

  “He’s right,” said Rufus. “We should quit. I don’t think we’re cut out to be jocks.”

  “No!” said Dan. “We can’t quit!”

  “Why not?” asked Willy.

  “Yeah, why not?” repeated Rufus.

  “Because if we stick with it,” said Dan, “and we work hard, at the end of the season, we’ll win the big game and we’ll be heroes. That’s the way it works in the movies. Anything you can dream, you can do! Remember, a diamond is a lump of coal that stuck with it!”

  “What?” asked Willy.

  “A diamond is—oh, man,” said Rufus. “You’ve been watching too many corny movies. What do you say, Willy? Do you want to quit?”

  Willy thought about it. But it wasn’t just that he wanted to be one of the “in” group. He loved sports. He wanted to play football. Willy loved going to football games with his dad. He loved going to basketball games with his mom. And he loved playing every kind of sport in the yard with his little brother Joey. He wished he were a little better at playing sports. Maybe Dan was right. Maybe he would get better.

  “No,” said Willy. “This scrub will stick with it.”

  “Go, scrubs!” said Dan.

  So they hung in through the whole season. They went to every practice. They tried hard. They stuck with it. />
  But they didn’t turn into diamonds.

  CHAPTER 3

  GAME OVER

  The whistle blew, ending the last football game of the season. Everybody on the team formed a line to slap hands with the other team.

  Everybody except Willy.

  Willy hadn’t played. He hadn’t played all season, and he hadn’t played today. He had just sat on the bench, wearing a poncho to keep off the rain. So why should he slap hands?

  “Hey, Willy, come on! You’ve got to get in line,” said Rufus.

  Willy got up slowly. “Okay, okay,” he said.

  “Good game, good game, good game,” they all said, over and over, slapping hands. But it didn’t mean anything. It was just what you had to say.

  Willy’s mom and dad came over to say “hi” after the game. Clara came over, too. All they could say was “hi.” They couldn’t say “congratulations” or “good game,” because he hadn’t played.

  “Don’t take it so hard,” said Rufus as they walked back to the locker room.

  “Yeah,” said Dan. “So what if we lost? It really was a good game. It was close.”

  “I don’t care that we lost,” said Willy. “I just wanted to play.”

  “Yeah, me, too,” said Dan. “Bummer.” Dan looked sad. That wasn’t like him.

  “It’s our first year,” said Rufus, slapping them both on their shoulder pads. “We’ll get better.”

  “It was your first year, too,” said Willy. “You got to play.”

  “Only for one quarter,” said Rufus.

  “Maybe Dan and I are just too small for football,” said Willy.

  Biff heard them. “You’re just as big as I am,” said Biff, “and I played the whole game.”

  Biff was right. Biff was no bigger than Willy, but Biff was the first-string half-back. He had scored four touchdowns this season.

  “It’s not being small that makes you such losers,” Biff went on. “It’s just that you’re lousy. You’re pasty-faced nerds. You’re benchwarmers. You’re scrubs. You’re slow, and you can’t throw, and you can’t catch. That’s what makes you scrubs. And scrubs don’t play.”

  “I know how to tackle!” yelled Dan. He jumped at Biff.

  But Biff dodged him, and Dan fell down full-length in the mud. Biff was too fast for Dan.

  Biff was too fast for any of them.

  CHAPTER 4

  A REAL JOCK

  Willy stood in his living room. He looked at the pictures on the wall—pictures of Willy’s father playing football and his mother playing basketball. They looked good. They looked like they were having a good time, too.

  While Willy was still looking at the pictures, his father came in.

  “I want to be an athlete like you, Dad,” said Willy. “A real jock.”

  “A real jock?” repeated his father. “I’m not sure I ever was ‘a real jock.’ I was just an athlete. And you’re an athlete, too. You just played a whole season of football.”

  “I just sat on the bench for a whole season of football,” said Willy. “That’s not playing. That doesn’t make me an athlete. That just makes me a scrub.”

  “Didn’t you play during practice?” asked his father.

  “Sure. They needed two teams during practice,” said Willy, “so I played a lot then.”

  “So you played. That makes you an athlete. You don’t have to win to be an athlete. You can be second-string and still be an athlete.”

  “I didn’t like sitting on the bench through all the games,” said Willy.

  “I bet that was pretty frustrating,” said his father. “But I’m glad you stayed on the team. It’s good to be outside every day. And if you like to play and keep at it, you’ll get better.”

  “Yeah, I guess I will. But I’ll never be a real jock like Biff. Biff doesn’t even have to try. He’s just good. And the girls think he’s so cool.”

  “Do you really want to be like Biff?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe, a little. Except a lot nicer.”

  His father laughed. “You don’t have to be like Biff. I was never a natural like that. But I got by. Hey, help me make dinner, and we’ll throw the ball around afterward.”

  “Sure,” said Willy.

  After dinner Willy and his father and mother and Joey all went into the backyard and played catch with Joey’s little football. That was fun.

  Willy came back into the house all hot and sweaty. He went into his room and looked in the mirror.

  He still didn’t look like an athlete. He just looked like a pasty-faced nerd with red ears. He didn’t feel like an athlete, either. No matter what his father said.

  CHAPTER 5

  GO WITH GROSS

  “What sport are you going out for this winter?” Clara asked Willy at lunch the next day. “I’m going out for basketball,” she went on. “That’s the best. There’s a girls’ team here.”

  Last year Willy had played on the same basketball team as Clara. She was a better player than Willy. She was a lot taller, too.

  “Maybe basketball,” said Willy.

  “I don’t know,” said Dan. “We’re kind of short.”

  “Yeah,” said Biff, walking behind them with his tray. “You’re short, you can’t jump, you can’t handle the ball—you’re a natural for basketball, Willy. Just like football. You’ll be bad. And I don’t mean ba-ad—I mean just plain old bad. Like lousy.”

  “Oh, beat it, Biff,” said Clara. “Come back when you’re not such an idiot. If ever.”

  Biff walked away, laughing.

  “I’m going out for the wrestling team,” said Rufus. “You ought to try it, guys. You might like wrestling.”

  “No way,” said Willy. “That might be fine for a big guy like you. But I’m small. I’d get crushed in wrestling.”

  “No, you don’t get it,” said Rufus. “You only wrestle guys your own size. I’d wrestle big guys, and you’d wrestle small guys—guys in your own weight class.”

  “So what?” said Willy. “I still don’t want to get body-slammed and kidney-punched and thrown through the ropes.”

  “No, no, you’ve been watching too much TV,” said Rufus. “That stuff is faked. That’s professional wrestling. That’s not a sport. It’s a show. It’s made for TV. This is nothing like that. Nobody’s allowed to slam or punch or anything.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Willy.

  “They don’t even have ropes,” said Rufus.

  “Yeah, wrestling,” said Dan. “Sounds cool.”

  “Don’t go out for wrestling!” said Clara. “It’s disgusting. Sticking your head in some guy’s armpit. It’s gross!”

  “I guess it is gross,” said Rufus. “But gross isn’t so bad, is it?”

  “No,” said Willy. “Gross is good. I can go with gross.”

  CHAPTER 6

  GIVING UP

  Wrestling was hard. Even worse, it turned out that Willy was in the same weight class as Biff.

  Biff had wrestled last year. He knew what he was doing. Wrestling him was like wrestling an oily boa constrictor. Willy spent most of the time with his nose pushed into the mat. Then, every day, Biff turned Willy on his back and held his shoulders down for two seconds. That meant Willy was pinned. You got points for taking the other guy down or for escaping when he was in control. But it didn’t matter how many points you had if you got pinned. If you got pinned, the match was over. You lost.

  “I’m tired of wrestling you,” Biff said to him at the end of the week. “You’re not even good enough to give me a workout.”

  “Then you must be ready for me!” said Clint as he picked Biff up and tripped him to the mat.

  Clint was the team captain. He was an eighth grader. Willy had never noticed Clint before wrestling season. In school Clint was just a quiet kid who wore glasses and had long hair. Clint didn’t look all that big or strong, but in about ten seconds, he had Biff pinned. Willy wished he could do that.

  “I’m ready to quit,” Rufus said to Willy later. “Th
is isn’t much fun. I ache all over.” Rufus was a big guy, but he was slow. And he was not as strong as he looked. Guys a lot smaller than he was could beat him in practice.

  “Yeah,” said Willy. “My shoulders are killing me.”

  “No, we can’t quit!” said Dan. “Pain is just weakness leaving the body! What you can dream, you can do! Remember, a diamond is a lump of coal that—”

  “Oh, come on,” said Willy. “That’s what you said about football! And you were wrong!”

  “No, I wasn’t wrong,” said Dan. “It just takes a long time.”

  “We won’t live long enough,” said Rufus.

  Clint let Biff go and walked over to them. “How’s it going, guys?” Clint asked.

  “I think Rufus and I are going to quit,” said Willy.

  “That would be too bad,” said Clint. “You’ve already done the hardest part. You won’t know whether it’s going to pay off for a month or so. You should stick around to find out. It’s kind of like an investment.”

  “An investment?” asked Willy.

  “Yeah. You know? You pay now, and you win later,” said Clint.

  “And what if we lose later?” asked Rufus.

  “That’s a risk,” said Clint. “But you guys are getting better all the time. Besides, Rufus, we need a heavyweight. There’s nobody else in your weight class, so you’ll be varsity. Won’t that be cool?”

  After Clint left, Willy said, “They need you, Rufus. But they don’t need me. You should keep wrestling. I’ll quit.”

  “Aw, man, it won’t be as much fun without you,” said Rufus.

  “We’ll miss you,” said Dan.

  “Yeah,” said Willy, “but I won’t miss being a scrub.”

  CHAPTER 7

  NO FUN

  On Monday afternoon Willy didn’t go to wrestling practice. He hadn’t told the coach he was quitting yet. He thought he’d tell him tomorrow.

  Willy went home instead. He went to his room and played a computer game. In the game he could be big and strong. And he could win—most of the time.