Captain Nobody by Dean Pitchford Page A

crossed.
    My heart was pounding as I got up, but I looked this guy straight in the eye and asked, “Who wants to know?”
    â€œRicky Ratner. Name ring a bell . . . Newman?”
    Startled, I blurted out, “Are you related to Reggie Ratner? Over at Merrimac High?”
    â€œReggie’s my cousin.”
    Although this guy had just beaned me with a ball and his cousin had supposedly knocked out my brother, I couldn’t help but gasp, “Man! Your cousin is one awesome defensive end! He played against my brother’s team on Frid—”
    â€œYeah. Friday,” Ricky Ratner said bitterly. “And you know what’s been happenin’ ever since?”
    I gulped. “I’ve heard.”
    He put his face right up to mine. “What you didn’t hear is that my cousin Reggie had nothing to do with punchin’ out your brother’s lights.”
    â€œI never said he did.”
    â€œBut everybody else at Fillmore High School thinks he did . So, here’s what I want you to do,” Ricky said, poking my chest with a thick finger. “I want you to call off your brother’s friends and all those stupid football players who keep hasslin’ my cousin, because if you don’t . . .”
    From behind him, Cecil shouted, “Yo!”
    Ricky stop jabbing me and turned to face Cecil.
    â€œYeah, you.” Cecil tried to sound tough. “Can I help you?”
    Cecil and JJ stood side by side, tiny and tall. Ricky looked them over and cackled. “Don’t make me laugh.”
    â€œHe just did,” JJ said.
    Ricky sneered. “Just did what ?”
    â€œMade you laugh,” JJ explained. “See, you said, ‘Don’t make me laugh,’ but by that time, you were already laughing, so—”
    â€œHow ’bout you shut up?” Ricky barked.
    â€œHey!” Cecil snapped. “If you got a problem with Captain Nobody, you got a problem with us.”
    â€œOh, I’m scared now!” Ricky scoffed. “I got a problem with you ?”
    Cecil started to respond when, from behind him, came a new voice.
    â€œAnd us.”
    We looked up. Behind Cecil and JJ, Basher and Evan McGee and all the rest of the fourth-grade boys—my classmates! — were lined up with their arms crossed the way the seventh-graders’ were. And even though my classmates were younger and smaller, there were a lot more of them. Together they somehow managed to appear threatening.
    Cecil looked to me and raised a single eyebrow, as if to say, “How cool is this?”
    Everything was suddenly quiet. All over the school yard, kids from other grades had stopped playing and were watching the showdown. Then—all the way across the field—I saw Mr. Toomey step out of the school building, look in our direction, and fold his arms.
    Ricky Ratner saw him, too. In the next moment, he seemed to deflate.
    â€œRemember what I said,” he hissed at me. “You tell your brother’s friends to back off my cousin. Or else.”
    After a final poke, he turned and blended back into his crowd. Within a split second, the wall of my fourth-grade classmates had dissolved and life on the playground had returned to normal.
    I looked at JJ and Cecil and exhaled.
    â€œWhat was that?” I asked, baffled.
    â€œIt’s happening just like we said it would,” JJ smiled broadly.
    â€œ What’s happening?”
    Cecil threw his arms open wide. “It’s the power of Captain Nobody,” he crowed. “We’re finally getting noticed !”

    After school, I carefully scoped out the school yard, worried that Ricky Ratner and the rest of the seventh grade would be lying in wait for me. I didn’t see any signs of danger, but just to be sure, I slipped out through the faculty parking lot and headed home. I guess my nerves were still a little raw from my earlier confrontation, or else I wouldn’t have jumped about two feet off the