This is something I wrote for a middle-school / young adult audience. I think there’s a lot of books out there that cater to this niche, Speckie Magee, being probably the most famous. It’s probably not something I’ll pursue but I am thinking about a few story ideas that would work for a Young Adult audience so I wouldn’t entirely rule it out either.

The Final!

They looked out across the field with the sun warming their faces like a distant fire. Today would be the day when it was decided. The Final! Mike had been waiting all year for this. He was as happy as a pig in mud!

Their opposition were the boys from over the river. Mike watched them get off their bus and file into the change-rooms. They were ants: small and weak and about to be crushed. He smiled and looked at his mate Bobby.

“Look at those donkeys,” he laughed.

“They do look scared mate,” Bobby agreed. Bobby was a gun. Mike knew as long as they had Bobby on their side they’d win today. He was an absolute star.

They were sitting on the old fence that kept the spectators off the ground. It looked magnificent out in the middle. Green grass shone proudly in the sun. The goal-posts stood tall and straight like soldiers at attention. Suddenly Mike felt the nerves. He had butterflies in his stomach and he felt like he could jump out of his skin.

“Let’s go get ready,” he suggested, as he slid off the fence. Bobby nodded and joined him.

They went into their own change-rooms and threw their bags down with a crash.

“Hey, boys. Go easy!” their coach yelled. “you nearly knocked the wall down!” Mike and Bobby laughed. “You kids have got to be the strongest under-15s that have ever played the game,” Coach added with a grin.

After they had gotten changed the coach called all the boys in for the pre-game speech.

“Right boys. We’ve played hard all season. We’ve taken it one week at a time. We’ve beaten whoever they’ve put out against us. Today there are no second chances. This is it! The big dance! The final showdown! This is what you’ve been working toward your whole life! Now we’ve all got to pitch in together to get the win today. A champion team will beat a team of champions any day, and if we don’t stick to the team-work we’ve been working on we won’t win the game. Now I don’t want to have made it this far and not go home with the chocolates! Let’s go out there and smash them boys! Let’s grind them into the dust! Let’s kill them!”

The whole team roared and Mike roared with them. Then the doors were flung open and they stampeded out into the blinding sunlight.