Team Player 2: A Sports Anthology

by Paige, Rochelle

  I’m about to turn around and leave when I see Knox come out of Mr. Trask’s office. His eyes meet mine and he falters, his steps slowing. Wait a damn minute—I can’t see the headmaster in the morning, but he can? My face reddens, and I clutch my books close to my chest.

  “Problems already, Tulip?” he murmurs as he stops in front of me.

  Mrs. Carmichael looks up and calls Knox’s name, telling him she’ll write him a pass back to class. Anything for a Shark, of course.

  My lips compress. “I thought I could see Mr. Trask, but it looks like you took up any free time he might have, and now I’m relegated to going to class.”

  “Oh.” He thinks on that, his top teeth biting down on his plump bottom lip. He turns to Mrs. Carmichael, who’s busy writing him a pass. “Maxine, Ava was supposed to see the headmaster. Will you buzz him?”

  Maxine? Seriously?

  She cocks her head and moves her gaze from me to him. She looks annoyed, but clearly she’s too busy with the pamphlet man to argue any further. She gives us a quick nod.

  “I don’t need your help, Cold and Evil,” I mutter.

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re tough and all that…but if you need to talk to him, I don’t want to get in the way of that.”

  “Why were you in there anyway?” I ask. “Trying to change your schedule so you don’t have to sit with me in class?”

  His gaze flicks over me. “Oh, I’m going to enjoy sitting next to you. You’re quite fascinating.”

  I bat my eyes. “Why, sitting next to the king of Camden is certain to be the most scintillating experience of my whole life.”

  “He’ll see you now, Ava. Head on in,” Mrs. Carmichael says as she gestures to the shut door.

  “Later, Tulip,” he murmurs, walking past me.

  “Stop calling me that!” I snap to his back, and he just ignores me and walks out of the office, broad shoulders swaying.

  Giving the secretary a nod, I open Mr. Trask’s office door.

  A short, balding man in his fifties, he wears a genial, kind expression on his face as I stand in the doorway. He smiles carefully, and it’s as if the staff is walking on eggshells around me. “Ava, there you are. I was waiting for you, come on in. Have a seat. It’s wonderful you decided to come back to Camden for your senior year.”

  Sitting in a lush, leather chair, I nod my head in agreement, but I know there wasn’t much choice for me in the matter, not if I want to achieve my goals.

  Another tenuous smile from him as he comes around and sits on his desk, his hands folding in his lap. “I’ve looked over your transcript, and we can easily add your grades from last year to our curriculum here. It even appears you’re ahead in calculus. The tutors at Sisters of Charity did a great job.”

  I smile, but just barely.

  The tutors sucked. I actually did everything myself. I researched and found a home-schooling program accepted in Tennessee public schools. I read the material myself and struggled through homework and examples. I took every test, legitimately and without cheating. A few times I even snuck into one of the local community colleges near the orphanage and sat in the back taking notes. Thankfully those classes were so packed no one seemed to notice.

  “You won’t be disappointed in your decision to put last year behind you. Camden really is the best place for you.”

  This is the worst place I could be.

  In fact, my original plan was to go back to the public school where I attended middle school, but there’s Daniel, and I have to think about his future too.

  Mr. Trask pulls out a stack of papers in a folder and opens it up. He’s holding my actual permanent record and my fingers itch to snatch it out of his hands, wondering if the keg party is documented there. I’m certain it is. Every football player at the party had been reprimanded, suspended for a week while the police conducted their interviews. As for me, I never came back to Camden after that night, spending a few days at Piper’s until I went back to the group home. I just couldn’t…face them.

  “As I said, Camden will allow all of your credits from last year to transfer in with your grades,” he says. “That means your GPA will continue to be competitive with the rest of the student body, and you’ll be eligible for final class rankings.”

  Yes. I can almost feel that valedictorian medal in my grasp.

  He places a piece of paper in my hand. “So if you’ll just sign here, you will be fully enrolled again. Just like you never left.”

  I take a deep breath. I’m not signing until I know what’s in it for me.

  “Any word on housing?” He said we’d discuss it today.

  “Ah, yes,” he says, smiling. “I have very good news. There’s an opening in the dorms and it’s yours. All free and clear. No charge.”

  Surprise makes me blink. “But you weren’t even sure the board would agree to pay for my housing. What’s changed?”

  He nods. “Actually, we have an anonymous donor who’s offered to cover the cost.”

  “Who? I mean, I assume most of the board is angry with me for last year.”

  He sighs, an uncertain look on his face. “Ava, I assure you, the board is not angry with you. We believe you and want to help you. Please know that. I have two daughters myself, and I just…” He stops, clearing his throat. “The donation actually just came in this morning. As you know, we don’t normally allow local residents to utilize the dorms, but since you’re a special case, I’ve overruled that policy and granted the opening to you based on encouragement from the donor. You can move in today if you like. Just show up after school and get settled.”

  I’m flabbergasted. That’s at least twenty grand for the whole year! Who was it? A guilty parent who knows their son hurt me?

  Regardless of who it is, having housing here will make life much easier. No more early morning traffic from Nashville, and I’ll have a private room where I can study and focus. Sure, I’ll miss Daniel, but I can visit him every afternoon, and it’s not like we share a room anyway. The younger kids sleep on a different wing from the older kids at the group home. Here, he can have sleepovers with me.

  I nod. “Let’s talk about Daniel. He’s six and has special needs, and the crowded school he’s zoned for in Nashville isn’t doing him any favors. They barely pay him any attention.” I chew on my lips, recalling an incident last year where he actually left the school and wandered off to a park near the river. It had been a frantic four hours until the police found him on the shore playing in the rocks. What if he’d fallen in the water? What if someone had abducted him?

  “I want him at the Camden elementary campus. I know you have a department devoted solely to helping kids with special needs.”

  There’s kindness in his eyes. “Your brother…that’s an entirely new scholarship. Our board has already fulfilled our quota for the year.”

  My chest rises. I think about my brother, his small-for-his-age stature and slightly disjointed fingers. Diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome at birth, he has some developmental delays and attention issues. He’s never been adopted, and it kills me to know he’s never known a real family. I had Mom on and off until I was twelve. Sure, I was removed from our home a few times and drifted in and out of foster homes, but the end of her was when Daniel was born. Probably the best thing that ever happened to us.

  My resolve builds. I want better opportunities for him. “With all due respect, Mr. Trask, I’m not coming back unless he’s enrolled. One of the nuns has agreed to drive him back and forth every day. He needs this, and he’s not unruly, really. He’s kind and sweet and smart, and all he needs is a place with good people to care about him. And he’s an orphan.” I hate using that word, practically begging, but if it helps…

  He grimaces, and I can tell he’s about to tell me no.

  “I’ve already filled out all the paperwork.” I pull it out of my backpack and set it on his desk. “There has to be a spot for him. Just one.” God, just the thought of seeing Daniel get the services he deserves makes my palms
sweat. I swallow, thinking fast, my mouth saying things I don’t know I can deliver on. “Look, I…I can pay you back a little at a time. I have a job here at a bookstore, got it this summer just in case this worked out. It won’t be much, and you can charge me interest, but I swear to God, I will pay for his tuition, and then when I get to college, I can get another job, maybe one that pays more, and—”

  “Ava.” He cuts me off, a heavy inhalation heaving his chest. “I can’t give you a loan. It’s against policy, and all monies for scholarships have already been allocated for this year. It’s out of my hands.”

  I stand up, fists clenched. “Then ask that donor, or ask someone else, because I promise you this: if you don’t find Daniel a spot on your roster, you’re going to lose me. I can drive down the road to Brentwood Academy, and they’ll roll out the red carpet to get me on their roster. You and I both know my SAT score is one of the best this school has ever seen.” I make my voice steely. “Do you really want your biggest competition bragging about my scores? You wouldn’t have asked me to come back if I wasn’t poised to put Camden at the top of the list of best private schools in the state.” I’m bluffing about Brentwood Academy. The only reason I haven’t approached them already is they don’t have the special needs program Camden does.

  He takes his glasses off and wipes at them slowly, a slightly awed expression on his face. “I don’t remember you being quite this…assertive.”

  “There’s a lot that’s different about me, Mr. Trask.”

  He runs his gaze over my hair, giving me a long, searching look and then a tight nod. “Let me make some phone calls and get back to you by the end of the day. Will that work?”

  I move to the door. “He’s the only thing I’m living for right now. If he’s not near me, this”—I wave my hands around—“isn’t going to happen. I won’t sign anything.”

  He nods. “End of day, I’ll let you know.”

  I walk out of the office and, lo and behold, Mrs. Carmichael has a pass ready.

  I saunter out into the hall, feeling proud that Ava 2.0 does indeed have a backbone. I lost it somewhere along the way last year when cheer and Chance came along, but that girl is dead and buried. It doesn’t matter that most of the school hates me. It doesn’t.

  All I have is this one year to set everything right, and if I’m going to be miserable here, at least my brother will get a fresh start.

  Chapter Five

  Knox

  Class with Ava has me extra wired. Sitting next to her was intense, the smell of her hair when she moved, the way her lips puckered when she was pissed at me, and those eyes. Don’t even get me started. I don’t like the heightened emotions she brings out in me, how she has this ability to goad me with just a look.

  And when she touched me? Oh, fuck nah. I didn’t dig that bolt of electricity at all.

  Avoid.

  But right now it’s my brother I’m thinking about. He missed gym class, and I was barely able to force myself to sit still until the bell rang before going to look for him.

  Seeing Ava…it fucks with him too.

  I open the door to the workout room inside the field house and there he is, pounding his gloved fists into the professional sparring bag hanging from the ceiling. Sweat drips down his face as he pummels the bouncing apparatus again and again.

  Eminem blares from his phone, and I jog over and turn it off. He ignores me, face red and inscrutable as he continues his workout.

  I cross my arms, watching him. “What the hell, Dane? You missed the sprints Coach asked us to do on the field. We went over plays for our opening game and you weren’t even there. Gym is still a class. You get a grade for it.”

  “I’m sure he won’t miss me for one day.” He barks out a laugh. “But you…now if you missed, there’d be hell to pay.”

  “We’re a team, Dane. We all need you. I just want you to stay focused. Football helps with your mood swings.”

  He shrugs, grabs a towel, and wipes his face.

  Exasperation makes my voice rise. “You’re acting off lately, almost—”

  “Crazy?” His voice trembles around the edges as if he’s fighting emotion.

  I stiffen and narrow my eyes. “You’re not crazy. I don’t think you’ve dealt with Mom—”

  “Oh and you have? PLEASE. You’re just as messed up as I am.” He brushes past me to head to the showers, but I grab his arm.

  He looks at me straight-on, and my head goes back to this morning and his spaced-out eyes. “Dane, do you have any idea how drugs can mess with your depression meds? It can kill you. I can’t walk in on you overdosed, you feel me? I can’t fucking do that shit.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Is this the weekly drug talk? I only had a little before school.” He pauses. “You want to know what’s up my ass right now? Dad isn’t coming back for two more weeks, something about a real estate deal in New York. Suzy sent the text. Guess you haven’t checked your phone.”

  I exhale, dropping his arm. Suzy runs our house. She was our nanny for ten years, and even though she now lives in an apartment in town, she still spends a lot of time at our house, making sure the fridge is stocked and the grounds are taken care of. She’s our go-between with Dad when we can’t reach him.

  A flicker of defeat crosses his face and his shoulders slump. “I hate him. I hate the way he’s forgotten everything, how he deserted us…” His voice trails off then he shakes himself and stalks past me.

  I let him walk away. There’s only so much I can do to protect him, and I can’t be on him twenty-four seven. He’s been in this spiral since football season ended last year. Football, the exercise and the routine of it, keeps him centered. After our last game, he went on a two-week insanity spree, fucking every girl he could, even a prostitute he picked up, maxing out his Amex on clothes and jewelry—whatever he could get his hands on. He was out of control the night of the keg party too, and I can’t help but wonder…

  As if he knows what I’m thinking, he flips around and glares at me. “I didn’t do that to her, you know. I thought she was just drunk.”

  “I know.” My response is immediate. He may be screwed up, but underneath that screwed-up exterior, no is no, especially considering what happened to our mom.

  He’d never assault a girl. Right? Yes, God. Right.

  “Does seeing her bother you?”

  He gives me a tight nod.

  Even though we’ve talked about it a hundred times, I bring it up again.

  “What do you remember? Tell me again.”

  He shoves a hand through his hair. “Not much. I was high as shit.”

  “But you danced with her.”

  I watch him carefully. I’ve caught his little looks at her. I mean, we’ve all checked her out. It’s hard not to notice her. She’s devastatingly beautiful, although I don’t think she knows it. There’s no fake there. No expensive perfumes. No makeup except for those lips. Maybe it’s the way she smiles, just a little curl when she’s amused, her lips pouty and over-full with a deep V right at the top.

  Dane shrugs. “I thought she was pretty, but she wasn’t part of our crowd.” A smirk flashes. “Plus, I avoid the nice girls—just like you.”

  Yet Chance had been nuts about her. He’d had puppy-dog eyes for her for months until she finally agreed to give him some attention and show up at the kegger.

  “And now?” I ask.

  He gives me a knowing look and huffs out a laugh. “She’s the one girl who never gave you a second look. I like that about her for sure. Shit, the way she looked at you during film class was the best laugh I’ve had in months. She hates your guts, and she doesn’t even know everything—”

  “Let’s not talk about it.”

  He raises an eyebrow. “What’s up with that she can sit with me shit? Chance’s going to be pissed.”

  He is. He barely spoke to me at lunch.

  “She isn’t with him.”

  His eyes flare, and he laughs. “Well, well, well, is a girl finally going to
ruin the best bromance at Camden?”

  Chance and I…we’ve shared a lot. His mom died when he was young, and he was there for me when ours died. My hands clench at those memories and I lock them up, pushing them down deep.

  “I don’t have a thing for Ava.”

  He mulls that over, seeming to contemplate for a while, his hands twisting. “About that night…I woke up the next day at Liam’s. I drank my ass off and took some Molly, but I would never…” He exhales. “There’s no way I’d ever hurt a girl.”

  It’s the same story he’s had since day one.

  He looks down. “I hate that it happened. Like you, I believe her. Someone on the team hurt her.”

  Yeah. I just wish I’d stayed at the party—

  “You gonna give me a ride home after practice?” he says, pulling me back.

  His matching Mercedes is in the shop from a fender bender last week, driving too fast around a curve and hitting a guardrail, scratching the side. “You gonna go see Coach and tell him you’re sorry you missed today?”

  He looks at me over his shoulder, resignation on his face. “Fine, fine. Happy? Right now I need to clean up and get to World History.” He looks down at his watch. “I’m late already.”

  He disappears into the locker rooms and I jog over to his backpack, unzipping it and riffling through the contents. There’s nothing there, although I’m sure he knows how to hide it. Ava’s comment today won’t go away. She noticed he was high. Sure he seems okay now, but somebody else is going to catch on soon, and if he gets kicked out for drugs, if he’s not here for me to keep an eye on…shit.

  Chapter Six

  Ava

  I’m giddy when the text comes in from Headmaster Trask that there’s a place for Daniel on the elementary campus. Apparently one of their scholarship students transferred to a new school when his parents moved. Do I believe it, or did Trask buy my threat to switch schools? I don’t know, and shit, I don’t care how it happened, but it did! As I walk down the hall, several students give me wary looks, and I just smile. Yes, yes, yes! My baby brother will only be one block away from me during the day, and I can maybe even jog over there during lunch and—