Chapter One Johnny Maverick thought he saw something move inside his hockey bag. Things in hockey bags should not move, he told himself. Johnny was in the dressing room with the rest of the players on the Howling Timberwolves hockey team. It was the first practice of the year. His hockey bag was open on the floor in front of him. He was ready to put on his equipment for the practice. But something in the bag had moved. He leaned forward to look inside the bag. He pulled out a hockey glove. Something fell from the inside of the glove. It landed in the bag and disappeared.
âI hope Iâm wrong,â he said to himself. âI hope I didnât just see aââ âJohnny!â Coach Smith said to him. âAre you listening?â âUm, no,â Johnny said. He was worried about his hockey bag. He looked in it again. âPlease,â Coach Smith said, âlook at me when I talk.â Johnny looked up. Everyone on the team was staring at him. Twelve players. All of them lived in or near a town called Howling. It was a small town. There were not a lot of hockey players for this team. They needed everybody they could get. âCoach,â Johnny said. âMy mom made me keep my hockey equipment in the storage shed all summer. She thinks hockey equipment smells bad.â âSheâs right,â Coach Smith said. âThat means I might have a problem,â Johnny said. He looked back into the bag. He hoped the thing in the bag wasnât what he thought it was. âThe problem is you werenât listening,â Coach Smith told Johnny. âLook at me when Iâm talking. Please. I donât want to say it again.â âButââ âNo buts,â Coach Smith said. âIâm the coach and I need to talk to the whole team.â âButââ âNot another word, Johnny. Please. You know I like you very much. But I would like to go just one hockey season without any trouble from you.â Johnny didnât say anything else. Even when he thought he heard something move in his hockey bag. But he was afraid to look down. Coach Smith didnât like it if he thought a player wasnât listening. Coach Smith spoke to everybody. âWe have a new player this year. His name is Tom Morgan.â Coach Smith pointed at a boy in the corner. The boy had brown hair and brown eyes. He wasnât smiling. âTom and his parents have just moved here from Toronto,â Coach Smith said. âI hope you make him feel welcome.â Johnny felt something on the top of his foot. That made him look down. He saw a mouse.
Chapter Two Yes, it was a mouse. A big fat mouse. From inside his hockey bag. The hockey bag that had been in the storage shed all summer. The mouse stared at Johnny. Johnny stared back. Then the mouse tried to crawl up Johnnyâs pants. Johnny yelled. He kicked his foot straight up. The mouse flew high into the air. âJohnny!â Coach Smith said in an angry voice. âPay attention.â Johnny was watching the mouse. He saw where it was going to land. âCoach!â Johnny yelled. But it was too late. The mouse landed on Coach Smithâs head. Coach Smith frowned. He didnât know what had landed on his head. But Johnny did. Johnny wanted to help Coach Smith. He grabbed his hockey glove. Coach Smith was short, and Johnny knew he could reach the mouse on top of his head. Johnny swung the glove at the mouse. He missed the mouse. But he didnât miss Coach Smithâs head. He hit Coach Smith in the head with the hockey glove. Something hairy landed on the floor. Johnny yelled again. He wondered if he had knocked off Coach Smithâs head. But right away Johnny saw that it wasnât Coach Smithâs head. It was Coach Smithâs hair. Coach Smith wore a wig? Johnny never knew that. He did now. So did the rest of the team. Coach Smithâs face turned red. It