The Missing Trophy

At half past three, Abigail walked into the locker room with a big smile. Her team had won the school championship on Saturday. In thirty minutes, they were going to take the official photo with the trophy. As captain, she had one job: carry the trophy out to the field.

But the shelf was empty. "Someone has taken the trophy!" she shouted. Her teammates came running. Nobody had seen it since lunch.

Abigail looked around carefully. The floor was clean, because the janitor had mopped it at two. But now there was a line of fresh grass on it, from the shelf to the back door. On the bench by the door, she found a red ribbon. It was the ribbon from the trophy's handles.

"Has anyone seen Toño?" she asked. Toño was their goalkeeper. He was tall and quiet, with curly black hair, and he was always the first person in the locker room. Today nobody had seen him at all.

Then a phone buzzed. Someone in the team chat had posted a photo from the field. It was very blurry, but they could see a tall boy in a green goalkeeper shirt. He was running toward the houses behind the school, and he was holding something shiny.

Abigail ran across the field to the houses. In the garden of a small yellow house, Toño was standing under an open window. He was holding the trophy up high. At the window, a girl in pajamas was clapping. She was thin and pale, and there was a blanket around her shoulders.

Toño turned around and saw Abigail. "I'm sorry," he said. "My sister has been sick for two weeks. She couldn't come to the final. I just wanted to show her."

Abigail didn't say anything. She took out her phone and called the coach. Twenty minutes later, the whole team was standing in the little garden in their uniforms. The photographer took the official photo there. The trophy was in the middle, and a smiling girl in pajamas was at the window above them.