Triple Threat

by Mike Lupica

  On the field in front of her, Alex Mattis rolled out to his right, faked a throw, then dove over the goal line for the conversion point to make it 7–0, Cardinals.

  Coach didn’t scold Jeff for how poorly he’d played in the first half, even though he had played badly, completing just one pass, to Perry Moses. It meant he had as many completions to their team as he did to the Cardinals, because he’d thrown a bad interception at the start of the second quarter.

  “We’ve been given a gift here,” Coach said during halftime. “And the gift is that we’re only down one score without playing anywhere near our best. So let’s get out there and unwrap that gift as soon as we get the ball.”

  Of course, their first drive of the second half turned out to be a disaster. First, Lewis Healey twisted his ankle throwing a block on a sweep and had to come limping out of the game. Then, on third down, Jeff scrambled out of the pocket toward Gabe, who’d broken his pattern and come back to Jeff’s side of the field.

  But at the last second Jeff pulled the ball down and decided to run.

  As he did, the ball slipped out of his hand and bounced behind him. Jeff couldn’t find it right away, but the Cardinals’ middle linebacker did, picking up the ball cleanly and running thirty yards, untouched, for the end zone, making it 13–0, Cardinals.

  One minute into the second half.

  The Cardinals took the Owls’ gift for their own.

  Jeff blamed Gabe when they both got to the sideline.

  “I pulled the ball down because you took off just as I was about to throw,” Jeff said.

  “I was coming back to block,” Gabe said. “We already had linemen past the line of scrimmage trying to block for you. If you’d thrown, they would have called illegal receivers downfield.”

  Jeff stubbornly shook his head.

  “You’re wrong,” he said to Gabe.

  “You couldn’t see them,” Gabe persisted. “I could.”

  Jeff turned to Lewis Healey, sitting on the bench, his leg stretched out in front of him.

  “You saw, right, Lewis?” Jeff said.

  Lewis looked at Jeff, then Gabe. He probably knew Gabe was right. But he didn’t want to give up Jeff.

  “Tough to see anything from the bench,” he said to Jeff.

  “Whatever,” Jeff said, wiping sweat off his brow. “I was just trying to make a play.”

  “Enough chatter,” Coach said, walking over to them. “Make a play when we get the ball back.”

  Jeff completed a couple of passes on the next series. But after one first down, the Owls had to punt. After that, it was all Alex Mattis, as the Cardinals went on an eighty-yard drive. He finally threw a touchdown pass to his tight end, who ran for another conversion.

  20–0, Cardinals.

  With two minutes left in the game, it looked as if the Cardinals were about to score again. But Jabril made a great defensive play, chasing down Alex Mattis in the open field and slapping the ball out of his hands to recover it for the Owls. Jabril didn’t care what the scoreboard said. He’d told Alex that he was willing to keep playing all the way to midnight.

  Jeff started to run back on the field with the rest of the offense, but Coach put a hand on his arm to stop him. From where she stood on the sideline, Alex could see Coach telling him something but couldn’t make out what it was. Jeff shook his head, and Coach patted him on the back and walked over to where Alex was standing.

  “Go in for Jeff,” he said.

  Alex stood there, not sure if she’d heard him correctly.

  “You want me to go in . . . to the game?” she said.

  “Miss Carlisle,” Coach said, “I’d get out there before I change my mind.”

  In one swift movement, Alex shoved her helmet on and ran toward the huddle.

  She was in the game. The first one of the season, no less.

  Even if it was just for a couple of minutes in a blowout game, she was now the quarterback of the Orville Owls.

  Just one thought came to mind.

  Pressure.

  Privilege.

  18

  The Owls had two really good tight ends. One was Perry Moses, their starter. But Danny Farrell was even bigger than Perry, almost as fast, and even played linebacker sometimes. They both could really catch.

  Coach was alternating them now, having one or the other bring in the play he wanted them to run from the sideline. Alex knew she should have asked Coach what the first play was. But she was so excited she’d forgotten.

  Perry had her covered.

  The first play was a quick pitch to Tariq, with Alex in shotgun formation.

  Alex stood a few yards behind Cal Calabrese, waiting to take the snap, heart thrumming in her chest.

  She told herself to collect the snap, turn, and pitch it to Tariq. Like connecting dots. Let Tariq and his blockers do the rest.

  Cal snapped her the ball. She didn’t rush the pitch. Just calmly tossed the ball to Tariq. She was still soaking in the moment of being on the field. Playing her first game. She’d never quite understood what an out-of-body experience was, but this had to be it. The way it felt as though she were floating above herself, watching from the sky.

  Tariq ran to his right, and Alex raced in front of him to become a blocker herself, even managing to slow down the Cardinals’ left defensive end.

  Tariq ran for eleven yards.

  First down.

  Danny Farrell came in with the next play: Pass to Gabe over the middle. Just a quick slant. Take the snap. Don’t hesitate. Throw it. She did. It wasn’t her best throw, and it went a bit behind Gabe. But he reached back with his right hand, tapped it, and made the catch. He took a hard hit from the Cardinals’ middle linebacker but was able to hold on. Ten more yards. Another first down.

  Suddenly they were at midfield with only a minute left on the scoreboard.

  Most important, the Owls were driving for the first time all day.

  Coach still had all his time-outs. He probably didn’t expect to use them, since the score was 20–0, Cardinals. But he called one now and waved Alex over to the sideline.

  “We’re not gonna win this game,” Coach said to Alex. “But if we can put the ball in the end zone, we’ll have won something out here today.”

  “Okay,” Alex said.

  “We won’t have time to run Perry and Danny in and out with the plays,” he said. “So here’s your next three. Screen to Tariq, another quick slant to Gabe, then an out pattern to Gabe. Got it?”

  “Got it, Coach,” Alex said.

  Alex swung her head to the side and caught Sophie’s eye from where she stood with the cheerleaders in their own formation. Sophie gave Alex a thumbs-up, and Alex nodded before jogging back onto the field.

  The Cardinals blitzed on the next play. They weren’t letting up just because they had the lead. If anything, they wanted to preserve their shutout. But the blitz had played right into the Owls’ hands. It was a perfect play . . . if you could get the ball away.

  Alex waited until the last second, a tidal wave of red about to crash her to the ground. And she did end up on the ground. Got creamed. But first she released the ball to Tariq.

  It was a clean hit, from the defensive end Alex had blocked on first down. He was trying to knock down the pass. He missed it but still managed to knock Alex flat.

  Alex knew the expression about running into walls. This time it seemed the wall had run into her.

  The next thing she heard was the whistle ending the play. Next thing she saw was Cal Calabrese reaching down to help her up.

  “You okay?” Cal said.

  “Yeah,” Alex said, jumping up.

  “You hurt your head?” Cal asked.

  Alex tipped back her helmet and knocked on the side of her skull.

  “Only thing that doesn’t hurt.”

  Ca
l told her Tariq had caught the ball and run for twenty yards before getting knocked out of bounds. But Alex was barely paying attention. She was too caught off guard that a teammate who wasn’t Gabe or Jabril was helping her up. Was talking to her. Was treating her like anyone else on the team.

  She and Cal jogged up the field to join their teammates in the huddle. Alex did hurt, especially on her left side. But not enough to come out of a game she’d worked so hard to get into. She looked up at the scoreboard.

  Forty-two seconds left.

  For a moment, she couldn’t remember the next play she was supposed to call. Then it came to her. Slant to Gabe. This time she put the ball where she was supposed to, and Gabe caught it in stride. In fact, he did more than that. The real commentators always talked about guys running in space.

  Gabe Hildreth was running in space now, away from the cornerback covering him, around their safety, turning the corner, on his way to the end zone.

  The Owls were on the board.

  So am I, Alex thought.

  Gabe didn’t celebrate once he crossed the goal line. They were still losing, 20–6, and their record would still be 0-1. Alex didn’t celebrate either.

  She pushed aside whatever awkwardness was between her and Gabe and ran down to where he stood in the end zone, giving him a quick high five.

  “Now it’s worth it,” she said.

  19

  Alex didn’t smile in the handshake line. As happy as she was about that last drive and putting some points on the board, they’d still lost the game.

  She hated when athletes on some of the pro teams did one of those stupid touchdown dances when they were down by a lot.

  She wasn’t that kind of player.

  Coach gathered them around him one last time and reminded them it was just one game in a long season, and there was still plenty of football to be played. He told them not to hang their heads, and to learn from the mistakes they’d made. Build on the positives. And that he’d see them at practice on Tuesday.

  The only player to congratulate Alex before everybody headed to the locker room was Jabril. Gabe waited until the others were far ahead before joining their conversation. Alex tried not letting it get to her head. Sophie had to stay with her team for now but promised Alex they’d meet up later.

  “You were playing some ball there at the end,” Jabril said, clapping her on the shoulder.

  “Yeah,” Gabe said. “The positives Coach was talking about? Mostly they were you, AC.”

  “I didn’t throw that touchdown pass to myself,” Alex said, shoving Gabe with her hip.

  They were standing behind their bench, drinking cups of Gatorade. The other players had rushed to get inside. Not Alex, Gabe, and Jabril. They were basking in the moment, even if the Owls had been out of the game since early in the second half.

  “You guys were having some fun there at the end,” Jabril said.

  “Winning would be fun,” Alex said, kicking up dirt with her cleat.

  “Next week,” Jabril said. “Coach is right. Long season.”

  Gabe left first, helmet under his arm, toward the boys’ locker room door. Even though they’d played well together at the end, Alex still felt things were strange between them. She wondered if the only reason he’d stayed behind was because he didn’t want to blow off Jabril. Or possibly Jabril had made him come over. It was as hard saying no to Jabril as it was blocking him.

  “You want to hang later?” Jabril said.

  “You, me, and Gabe?” Alex asked.

  “I can’t speak for him,” Jabril said, offering a sheepish smile. “You just gotta give him some space and time to figure out how he wants to roll with all this. He just wants everybody to be on the same side of things.”

  “And I don’t?” Alex said.

  “Like I said,” Jabril said, “give him time. Some people need more than others to come around.”

  “Right,” Alex said. “Long season.”

  “So, you want to do something later?”

  “I promised Sophie I’d hang with her,” Alex said.

  “She can’t be more fun than me,” Jabril said.

  Alex laughed.

  “And just remember something,” Jabril said. “When you’re away from all of us, and it’s just you and Sophie? You’re allowed to feel good about what you did out there.”

  He bumped her some fist.

  “You know, Jabril,” she said, “you’re an even better friend than you are a football player.”

  “And don’t you forget it.”

  “I’ll try,” Alex said.

  “You know what they say about football,” he said. “No medals just for trying.”

  * * *

  • • •

  Alex and Sophie decided to go for ice cream at Bostwick’s, mostly because they couldn’t think of one good reason why they shouldn’t. Jabril was right. Alex was allowed to celebrate a little bit, even if they’d lost.

  “First we get ice cream,” Sophie said as they walked off the field together. “Then we go back to your house and binge Netflix.”

  “I’m down,” Alex said.

  “Mind if I sleep over?” Sophie asked. “My brother’s having some of his dopey friends over.”

  “Sure,” Alex said, thinking it’d be nice to spend time with a friend who wasn’t on the team.

  While Sophie and Alex washed up in the girls’ locker room, Alex’s dad waited for them in the parking lot. The girls sat in the back seat of the car on the way to Bostwick’s, and Jack and Sophie talked animatedly about the way the game ended. Alex reminded them that all she did was quarterback one touchdown drive, not win the Steelers another Super Bowl.

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Jack Carlisle said. “I’m sure there were thousands of other twelve-year-old girls across America doing what you did today.”

  “I’ll probably be back on the bench next Saturday,” she said.

  “Maybe you will, maybe you won’t,” her dad said. “But you sure gave your coach something to think about.”

  “Dad,” Alex said, “you’re the one who’s always telling me how much football coaches hate quarterback controversies.”

  She could see him grinning in the rearview mirror.

  “Well,” he said, “there’s always an exception that proves the rule.”

  * * *

  • • •

  Alex and Sophie grabbed a corner booth. They both ordered the same thing: chocolate swirl with rainbow sprinkles. Sophie still had her hair up in a tight ponytail with blue and white ribbons.

  “Sorry you wasted your time,” Alex said. “There wasn’t much to cheer about until the end.”

  “Are you kidding?” Sophie said. “That was so dope, what you did out there.”

  Alex couldn’t help but agree. It was cool. And she shouldn’t minimize the accomplishment.

  “It was, wasn’t it,” Alex said. “From now on, you can call me the football queen.”

  “Yaaas, queen,” Sophie said, pretending to bow down.

  They both laughed. It felt good to be away from football for a little while. Away from all the drama.

  “I’m glad I was there to see it,” Sophie said. “Dude, you are seriously good.”

  “I had to be,” she said. “If I’d messed up, I’d never live it down.”

  They sat, eating their ice cream. Alex felt safe with Sophie. Knew Sophie had her back, even though that didn’t help Alex very much in football. But Sophie didn’t judge. If Alex wanted this, she wanted it for her. Simple as that.

  “What do you think will happen next week?” Sophie asked.

  “Jeff plays, I sit,” Alex replied.

  “Well, that stinks.”

  “Not if he plays well,” Alex said. “Because that means the team’s doing well.”

  “But what if it could do
better with you out there?” Sophie said.

  “Not my call,” Alex said. “But honestly? Part of me thinks Coach only put me in today to get it out of the way. So no one will wonder if he’ll ever give the girl a chance.”

  Alex was sitting against the back wall, facing the door. Sophie must have seen her face change.

  “What?” Sophie said, eyes wide.

  Alex jerked her chin. “Check it out,” she said.

  Sophie looked over her shoulder. Jeff Stiles and Lewis Healey had just walked in.

  Gabe was with them.

  “Well, this isn’t good,” Sophie said, turning back to Alex.

  Alex frowned. “You can say that again.”

  The boys ordered and got their ice cream and took the front booth. Alex could see Lewis limping slightly on his ankle. She didn’t think they’d seen her yet, so she edged her way a little closer to the wall to shield herself from view.

  “This is so crazy,” Sophie said, reacting to Alex. “You guys are on the same team.”

  “Jeff thinks it’s his team,” Alex said, her voice lower now. “And I’m sure he’s chafed that I did well today.”

  “You did and he didn’t,” Sophie said. “Big-time.”

  Alex blew out some air.

  “Let’s just finish our ice cream and leave,” she said.

  “Netflix awaits us,” Sophie said. “A friend you can count on.”

  “Gabe’s still my friend,” Alex said, a little defensive. Though she wasn’t quite sure why.

  “Doesn’t look that way right now.”

  Alex got up first. When they passed by the table where Jeff, Lewis, and Gabe were sitting, Alex gave them a quick wave.

  “Hey, guys,” she managed to say.

  Jeff was on one side, Lewis and Gabe were on the other. Jeff smirked, keeping his eyes on them instead of looking at Alex.

  “Look who it is,” he said sarcastically. “The star QB.”

  “Not so much,” Alex said. “Just got lucky and made a few plays. Mostly thanks to Gabe.”