by Mike Lupica
It was still early in the evening, so a bunch of the kids from both teams ran out into Lindsey’s backyard for a coed impromptu scrimmage. They mixed the teams up, so now Lindsey was playing with Chase, and Annie and Johnny paired up against them.
Between the soccer being played outside, second helpings of dessert, and constant chatter about The Game, the night sped by, and soon it was time for everyone to go home.
Before Chase left, he pulled Alex aside by the stairs and said, “Think you might want to join another boys’ team next fall?”
They didn’t notice Gabe behind them.
“Stay away from my quarterback,” he said.
48
Later on, after Alex and her dad drove home, she found herself alone in her room, on her bed with Simba.
The game ball sat between them. Alex had refused to take it at first. She’d tried to hand the ball right over to Lindsey, but she wouldn’t take it. Neither would Carly. They finally reached a compromise and said they would pass it around the way hockey players did with the Stanley Cup. Their win was a team effort, after all. Alex didn’t feel she deserved all the credit.
Her phone started buzzing then, and she checked the screen: MOM.
“You finally stop celebrating?” Liza said.
“It was more exhausting than playing The Game!” Alex joked.
Her mom had already talked to her dad, who’d sent along some clips of The Game, including bonus footage he’d taken of Chase arriving with the $5,000 check.
“Mom,” she said, “at the end it was as if we were all on the same team.”
“And at that point you probably thought the day couldn’t get any better,” her mom said.
There was a pause, and then Alex said, “Thanks for the note.”
“Turned out to be prophetic, right?” her mom said. “Sometimes we do get to have it all.”
There was another pause. But even with the distance between them, Alex felt as if her mom were right here in the room with her, sitting at the edge of her bed.
“So I have to ask,” her mom said. “What’s next?”
“Something I’ve been waiting a long time to say,” Alex said.
“And what’s that?”
“Next Saturday’s game.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Lupica (www.mikelupicabooks.com) writes for New York's Daily News and appears on ESPN's The Sports Reporters. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Heat, Travel Team, QB 1, and Fantasy League. He lives in New Canaan, Connecticut.
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