Chapter 3
On the football field Harvey was so tired he could barely breathe. He looked at the Sunnyside players coming out of their huddle, and he knew they would score a touchdown. In fact, they would probably score a lot of touchdowns tonight.
"Come on, guys!" he said to his teammates. "Let's hold them!"
His friend Brad sighed and shook his head. His tired eyes seemed to say: We couldn't hold them if we had a net! Both Brad and Harvey were defensive backs, and they were sure on their backs a lot.
Suddenly there was a commotion and laughter in the stands. Harvey turned to see a black cat come running onto the football field. That was funny enough, but the cat had a bag over his head and didn't know where he was going.
Harvey could only see the cat's rear end, but it looked kind of like Salem. He dashed under the goalposts and then ran right in front of the visiting players. They all jumped back in alarm.
"Hey, that's going to be bad luck on them!" said Brad, laughing.
The referees blew their whistles to stop the game, but the loud whistles made the cat go even crazier. He dashed to the sidelines and ran between the legs of the cheerleaders, causing them all to scream and panic.
This scared the cat even more, and he jumped on the back of the mascot. When his claws sunk in, the poor guy in the scallion costume screeched and tried to run away. But he stumbled and went crashing into the marching band. His head ended up inside a big tuba, and the cat flew off and landed on a lemonade stand.
By now Harvey and all the football players were laughing and slapping their thighs. It was the funniest thing they had ever seen during a football game. Everyone in the stands was laughing, too, and they forgot that they were getting beaten.
When the referees and the coaches started chasing the cat, it got even funnier. He dashed across the field again and leaped onto the visitors' bench. The cat ran the length of the bench, and all the Badger football players scrambled to get out of the way. A bunch of them crashed into each other and ended up in a big pile.
Now Harvey and the Westbridge team were really laughing. The quarterback of the other team glared at them. "You let that cat onto the field just to delay the game!" he shouted.
"Yeah, you're right!" yelled Harvey. "We let the cat out of the bag!" All the Westbridge players hooted with laughter, making the Badgers even angrier.
A blur ran past Harvey, and he looked up to see a familiar face in a heavy coat. "Sabrina! What are you doing?"
"That's my stupid cat!" she shouted as she ran past the players. Sabrina chased the cat off the field into the parking lot.
The Westbridge players finally stopped laughing, but now they were relaxed. They had also gotten a chance to catch their breath and rest for a couple of minutes. Harvey felt a lot better.
"Hey, what do you say we really hold them this time?" he shouted.
"Yeah!" cried his teammates. "Don't let them score! Push 'em back!"
Football is a funny game, and it depends a lot on emotions. The Fighting Scallions were relaxed and in a good mood on the next play, but the Badgers were angry and uptight. They hiked the ball, but the quarterback forgot to hold on to it.
"Fumble! Fumble!" shouted the announcer. "Who has the ball?"
The referees sorted through a huge pile of players on the goal line. They finally pointed their hands in the other direction, and Harvey jumped from the pile with the ball in his hands.
The announcer shouted happily, "The Fighting Scallions have recovered the ball on the one-yard line! They hold the Badgers for no points!"
The Westbridge cheerleaders screamed and jumped around like crazy. The mascot in the vegetable costume was injured, but he waved his hands from the stretcher as they carried him off the field.
Out of sight behind the bleachers, Sabrina scolded Salem. "I can't believe you did that! It's bad enough that you hide in my picnic basket and eat all the food. But then you sneak into the game and make a spectacle of yourself. If five thousand people hadn't been watching you, I would have turned you into a ham sandwich!"
"I just wanted to watch a football game in person," pleaded Salem. "Hear the roar of the crowd and watch mortals cream each other! The food was just an extra bonus."
"I'll give you an extra bonus!" snapped Sabrina. She leveled her finger at the cat and was about to zap him when they heard the crowd roar. That was followed by a huge cheer.
"Something good must have happened for Westbridge," said Salem in amazement.
From a distance they heard the announcer's voice. "It's a touchdown for the Fighting Scallions on a long pass from Kelly to Stinett! The score is Westbridge six, Sunnyside nothing."
They rushed back into the stadium and watched the rest of the game. Nobody complained about Salem being there, and Sabrina pointed at the basket and zapped it with a bolt of magic. Now it was full of sandwiches and deviled eggs again.
It was a fun game to watch, because the Fighting Scallions won 24-7. That was the first time they had beaten the Badgers in four years.
After the game Sabrina held Salem and waited for Harvey to come out of the locker room. They were very surprised when he walked out with Mr. Kraft, the principal. Mr. Kraft didn't usually hang with the students, but he and Harvey were laughing and slapping each other on the back like old friends.
"Ah," said Salem happily, "there's nothing like winning a war! I mean...a football game."
"You keep quiet," whispered Sabrina. "You're lucky you're not in more trouble."
"Sabrina!" called Harvey, waving to her. Mr. Kraft, Harvey, and half the team rushed over to her.
"Great game!" said Sabrina, but everybody ignored her. They were all looking at Salem.
Harvey rubbed the cat's head. "Hey, Salem, that was really cool when you ran out on the field. It got us all relaxed, and we rocked after that! We talked to Mr. Kraft, and he says it's okay if you become our new mascot!"
Mr. Kraft shrugged. "Nobody liked the dancing vegetable anyway."
"You'll be good luck for us!" said Brad. Everyone on the team shouted in agreement.
Salem swished his tail and smiled at Sabrina. Not only wasn't the cat in trouble -- he was a hero!
With everyone looking at her, all of them so happy, how could Sabrina say no? They had no idea what they were doing by making Salem their mascot. He would probably end up coaching the team!
"All right," she muttered. Harvey grabbed Salem out of her hands and began to pet him. His teammates crowded around, all wanting to pet and coo over their new mascot.
"Hey, let's buy him a hot dog!" said Harvey.
"Yeah! Yeah!" agreed everyone. "And some potato chips!"
Sabrina just rolled her eyes. She didn't know how this was going to end, but it wouldn't be good.
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