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something small in her hand.
    Carly “So, what have you got there?”
    Mai “I’ve got something that will make sure that the Hoover boys won’t want to play soccer with us.”

    Carly “What? Show me. Come on, show me.”
    Mai “Shut your eyes and I’m going to put it on you. And when I do, I’m sure those Hoover boys won’t want to come near us.”
    Carly hesitates, then shrugs her shoulders and shuts her eyes.
    Carly “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
    Mai “Trust me.”
    Carly “That’s what you said when I asked you not to tell Joel Hoover that I liked him.”
    Mai “He forced me to tell.”
    Carly “Yeah, right!”

    Carly shuts her eyes. Mai uses a red lipstick to cover Carly’s face with little red dots. Soon Carly looks like she has a really bad red-spot disease.
    Mai “Now we can go and ask the Hoover boys for a loan of their soccer ball, ’cause when they see your face, there’s no way they’ll want to come and play with us in the park.”
    Carly “Great, but I don’t want to ask them unless I can put lipstick dots on your face, too.”
    Mai agrees. Soon, Carly stands back and admires her handiwork.
    Carly “Okay, now we’re good. Let’s go and ask them for the ball.”

CHAPTER 4
    Red-spot Disease

    The girls knock on the Hoover boys’ door. They hear a vacuum cleaner being turned off. When Joel Hoover opens the door, he steps backwards quickly and trips over the vacuum cleaner. He tells the girls not to come any closer.
    Carly “Hey, Joel, you look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
    Mai “Yeah Joel, haven’t you ever seen anyone with the very contagious red-spot disease before?”
    Carly “Don’t worry, we won’t come too close, because if we breathe on you, you’ll get the same bad red-spot disease.”

    Mai “And if you get the same disease as us, then you won’t be able to play in the school soccer team.”
    Carly “So there!”
    Mai “All we want is to borrow your soccer ball.”
    Carly “Yeah! And if you don’t let us use your soccer ball, we might have to breathe all over you.”
    Keeping his distance, Joel throws his soccer ball to the girls. He tells them that they’ll never be any good at soccer because they are girls.
    Carly “You haven’t seen us play. We’re better than you and your brother. We could beat you any day.”
    Mai “Yeah! We could beat you, even with the bad red-spot disease.”

    The girls go back to the park and start kicking and head-butting the soccer ball.
    Mai “Gee, I reckon that soccer is a pretty easy game. All you’ve got to do is kick the ball.”
    Carly “Yeah! Watch me, I bet I can kick the ball from one end of the park to the other.”
    Carly kicks the ball. It really does go from one end of the park to the other.
    Mai “Now watch me! I’m going to dribble!”
    Carly (giggling) “Boys are really good at dribbling. Ha! Mostly down the front of their shirts.”
    Mai “And here come the two best dribblers ever!”

CHAPTER 5
    We’re the Best

    Joel and his brother Jarred are walking towards the girls. They’re dressed in their soccer gear, but they look like they’ve come from outer space.
    Carly (laughing) “So what do you two think you’re doing?”
    Mai “And why are you wearing those underwater masks and snorkels?”
    The boys mumble that they want to play soccer, but they don’t want to catch the red-spot disease.
    Carly “Well, I think that we can play a game with you, as long as you keep wearing those masks.”

    Mai “Yeah, but only if you promise that if we beat you, you won’t laugh when we try out for the school soccer team.”
    The boys nod in agreement.
    Carly “Let’s have a goal kick-off. Whoever misses first,