'All the Tea in China'

Two hours later our coach was grinning as we stood in the gym. "We had a good practice, guys. The Sharks will be fish bait tomorrow."

"I thought I saw some of them here a while ago," Joel said.

"Then they must know how good we are!" Trevor grabbed a basketball. "Hey, Brad, want to shoot a few?"

"You can hang around out here for a while, I guess," Coach said. "But the girls will be using the gym in an hour so you'll have to leave then. I'll be working in my office."

We must have played longer than we thought because we suddenly realized that everybody else had left. "We'd better head for the showers," I told Trevor. "It's time to get home."

Minutes later, wrapped in towels, we heard a voice. Tom Lowry, the captain of the Sharks, was standing in the doorway holding our clothes.

"Hmm," he said loudly. "Someone left all this stuff on the benches in here."

"Hey!" I shouted.

He looked over at me and waved. "See you later, guys. I'm leaving you defeated today just like the Sharks will leave you defeated tomorrow. Be ready to lose the meet just the way you're losing these!" He held up the bundle of our clothes and ran through the empty gym.

Clutching our towels, we ran after him, but Lowry was out the door before we could stop him. Trevor and I were alone in the gym, shivering.

*

Thursday: Can anything be more embarrassing?

This story will be on The Times' website at latimes.com/kids. Look for Thursday's Kids' Reading Room in the middle of Weekend Calendar with the comics.