| Football Magic |
| By Larry J. Hall |
| At Hope Island, Ma-Ti and Wheeler were throwing a football around to each other when Kwame came by to watch and asked if he could join. "I don't think you know how to play football, Kwame," said Wheeler. "There's no football teams in Africa." "That's very mean to say, Wheeler," snapped Ma-Ti. "I'm tired anyway. Let Kwame play with you." Ma-Ti handed the ball to Kwame. Kwame then told Wheeler to go long. Wheeler ran deep while Kwame threw the football into the air, and Wheeler caught it. Then Wheeler threw it to Kwame, and Kwame began running with the ball. Wheeler started charging, trying to catch him, but landed on the ground. Kwame then did a touchdown celebration dance. Hours later, Kwame had set up a net behind a spare tire from one of the Eco-Cycles. He had a couple of footballs and starting aiming for the center of the tire, practicing his quarterback skills. Wheeler came by and was amazed that Kwame was a natural quarterback. "Man, you ought to play for the Giants!" "Thanks Wheeler, but I like the Jets better!" "Jets blow. Giants won more Super Bowls. Give me one good reason why you like the Jets?" "They have green uniforms, and green's my color," said Kwame. Wheeler groaned over that. In his hut, Kwame was watching NFL football on TV while he was playing on his set of drums. Wheeler came by and groaned. "Man, you got the idea from that movie, Johnny B. Goode, where Anthony Michael Hall's a football player who played the drums while watching football on TV!" "I like to play drum solos while watching football. Excuse me, Wheeler, field goal time!" Kwame got up from his drums, grabbed his tympani mallets, and went over to his tympani. He played a drum roll, and when the kick was good, he played fanfare music! "Jets win! Jets win!" exclaimed Kwame. He turned off the game. "Man I wish I could be a Jet for a day!" "Why not put on a magic jersey and be transported like that Disney Channel show... whatever that show's called; I forgot," quipped Wheeler. "Get real!" Kwame said. "I'm going to take a nap, so please leave." Which Wheeler did. When Kwame took a nap, he had a cool dream. He woke up from bed and discovered by his set of drums, there's a real New York Jets football uniform with a #8 jersey! "Wheeler and his practical jokes!" quipped Kwame. "I'll wear this football uniform for him." So Kwame changed into the football uniform, and then he placed his helmet on. Kwame went to his drums, and, when he was playing a snare drum roll, Kwame was magically transported to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. There he saw a sold out crowd watching a football game between the New York Giants vs. the New York Jets. The Jets were wearing the dark green football uniforms and were designated as the home team while the Giants were wearing white jerseys and were the visitors. Kwame looked around seeing television cameras owned by... "NBC Sports? Now I really must be dreaming!" quipped Kwame. "Hey Kambuto!" someone yelled. "You, #8, come here!" To his amazement, Kwame saw Captain Planet in a trench coat wearing a coach's cap. "Yes, Captain Planet?" "You read too many comic books kid," said the coach. "I'm your coach, Tom Coburn. My main quarterback's injured, you're starting!" "Cool!" said Kwame. "Why did you call me Kambuto?" "Your name's Kwame Kambuto, isn't it?" asked the coach. "Look, you're competing against the Giants' toughest QB, #15, Billy Miller!" Kwame looked across the field and saw who Billy Miller really was. "Wheeler!" Wheeler was talking with a cheerleader, and then she started kissing him. "Man, Linka would never do that!" Kwame looked at the Jets' cheerleaders with Gi leading the way. Kwame started drooling looking at Gi. Then another Jet wearing #24 came over to him. "You ready to go, Kwame?" he asked. "Ma-Ti? You've grown big!" "No, I'm Mateo Garcia, your running back." Just then, Billy grabbed a mike and started rappin' with a boom box playing a rap beat. "Yo, I'm Billy Miller, the Giants QB. The quickest football player you'll ever see. Our team is psyched, our team is set, We're gonna beat the crap off the NY Jets!" Giant fans cheered over that rap. Kwame saw a green set of drums and a pair of tympanis. As Kwame went to the drums, he exclaimed, "Two can play at that game!" Kwame played a tympani fanfare/drumroll to psych the fans and then went to his drums & plays a rap beat, rapping, "The name is Kwame playing the drum set. I'm the coolest QB of the New York Jets! We're gonna beat the pants off those Giants, We'll crush 'em & stomp 'em like small ants!" Kwame ended by playing a cool drum solo. Then as Kwame got off the drums, Billy charged over, and both of them got into a fight! The referees had to break up this pre-game scuffle. The football game began with the Giants winning the toss and receiving. Billy led his team to an opening touchdown drive taking them to a 7-0 lead. Then the Jets had a turn with Kwame also leading his team down the field. When they reached first and goal, Kwame ran the football himself and scored the Jets' first touchdown tying the game at 7 in the 1st quarter. When the game reached halftime tied at 17, Kwame was surprised that The Power Is Yours was performing as well. "Man, two Kwames in one fanfic!" Kwame said. "Unbelievable!" The other Kwame couldn't believe there was another Kwame who played football. The second half turned out to be a real battle of defense. The Giants and Jets battled it out, only having a field goal scored for each team, tying the game at 20 and sending it into OT. In the middle of the field, Kwame and Billy came out with a referee flipping a coin. Since Billy was the visitor, he called heads. But it turned out tails. The Jets got the ball first. However, the overtime didn't matter, because both teams battled it out for a tie. Billy went over to shake Kwame's hand. "Good game." "Yeah, if you like ties," said Kwame. "I thought I was supposed to be the football hero and win the game! What happened?" Gaia appeared and said, "I told Larry to write it that way! Wake up, Kwame!" Gaia echoed that, and Kwame woke up from his nap, getting out of bed. Wheeler had his bass guitar with him asking if he was ready for band practice. "I'll be there in a minute, Billy Miller!" "How did you know my real name?" asked Wheeler. "In a dream," said Kwame. "You were a New York Giants QB while I was the Jets QB!" "Oh," exclaimed Wheeler, "Speaking of Jets, I got something for you. It's on your snare drum." Kwame goes to his drums and found that on his snare drum was a New York Jets green football jersey with the #8. And on the back it had "KWAME". "Cool, Wheeler!" said Kwame. From then on, Captain Planet and the duo started playing music with Kwame wearing his football jersey! The end. |