Offside!

by Diersch, Sandra

  “No, not really, I guess. Monica kind of annoyed me at lunch today. The way she was going on and on about that dance. Really, she can be so dense sometimes.”

  “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Connor reminded her.

  “Really? Really I don’t? You mean Monica’s word isn’t law? We don’t have to all bow down to her loud opinion?”

  “Take it easy, Leesh. You know that’s just the way Monica is. It’s just her way.”

  “Well, she should change, then,” Alecia snapped. Why was she so upset? she wondered. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It just annoys me that she assumes everyone will be as thrilled as she is about stuff. I don’t like dances and things like that.”

  Connor adjusted his backpack on his shoulder and walked silently for a while. “You know, sometimes I think you just get mad at things because you don’t want to deal with them. I think maybe you do want to go to the dance, but you’re scared to. Maybe you’ll have a good time.”

  “Oh, spare me! Don’t start with your ‘Dr. Stevens, psychiatrist’ routine! I get so tired of having everything I say and do analyzed by you. Do you do that to Laurie, too? Because I’m surprised she sticks around if you do.”

  “Blah, blah, blah. You need me to analyze your behaviour, otherwise you’d never know anything,” he said, pausing to scoop a handful of old snow from the pile by the curb. He tossed it at Alecia, but it missed and landed with a soft plop on the ground. “It might be fun, you know. Maybe if all of us went as a group it would be okay.”

  Alecia was quiet and Connor said nothing more about it. At Alecia’s driveway he stopped for a second. They looked at each other, Alecia still scowling, Connor serious. Then suddenly Alecia started to laugh. “I’ll think about it, okay?” she said.

  “That’s all I ask,” he said, his face solemn, though his eyes twinkled.

  “Wanna come in for a while? It’s been ages since you’ve been over,” Alecia asked.

  “I could for a while, I guess. I’m in no hurry to get to my homework. I’m jealous of your empty house, Leesh,” Connor said, kicking off his shoes at the front door. He dropped his pack and coat on top of them and followed Alecia through to the kitchen.

  “Your house is empty a lot too,” she reminded him. “Now that Gillian is working part-time.”

  “Ah, but she still comes back. That’s the problem with sisters.”

  “Did you want something to drink or eat?”

  “You mean there is actually something to eat in this place? When was the last time someone found time to shop?” Connor asked, sliding into a chair at the table.

  “How about a bagel with cream cheese? Will that do?” Alecia offered, ignoring the comment. It was no secret that shopping was done as a last resort around the Parker house.

  They finished eating and wandered upstairs to Alecia’s room. Connor grabbed Alecia’s iPod off her desk and began scrolling through her playlist.

  “What you got to listen to anyway?” he asked. He fussed for a long time before finally settling on something. He pressed play and went to sit on the bed.

  “Hey, is this a new photo?” he asked. Alecia came and looked over his shoulder. The photo was of her father, taken the Christmas before he died.

  “Yeah,” Alecia said softly.

  “He was pretty good-looking,” Connor said and Alecia felt a little glow of pleasure at the words. No one she knew now had known her father, except her mother, and Alecia expected her to think him handsome. She’d married him after all.

  “He was, yes. My mother says he was one of the handsomest guys she knew.”

  “So what happened to you?” he said, turning away. He flopped down on the bed again and tucked his hands behind his head.

  “Do you think about him a lot, Leesh?” he asked a second later, rolling over to look at her.

  When didn’t she think about him? she wondered. She thought of the scrapbook lying safely under the mattress. Since Sunday she had discovered two more photos in the pile from downstairs.

  “Sometimes, I guess,” she lied, fidgeting with her stuffed animals.

  “I’d have so many questions,” Connor went on, returning the frame to its place on the bedside table. “I would be driving my mother nuts with them. I have questions about my dad and I live with him every day. I’ve always wanted to know, for example, why he is so athletic and I’m so pathetic at sports.”

  “I have some questions,” Alecia admitted. “Maybe I’ll ask someday.”

  “Maybe Jeremy will adopt you. Do you think he would?” Connor asked suddenly. He sat up, leaning forward eagerly. “That would be awesome, eh? You’d have his last name and you’d have a dad again. Jeremy would have a daughter.”

  “Why would he want to do that? Things are fine the way they are. We get along great. Besides, I have a name. I have my dad’s name.” The idea upset her, made her stomach do strange things.

  “I know, but you don’t have him. You never even knew him.”

  “It doesn’t seem fair to my dad to let someone else take his place. It sounds disrespectful or something. Besides, no one is talking about adopting anyone. Let’s go watch TV,” she said and bounced out of the room before Connor could say anything further.

  * * *

  Connor left an hour later and Alecia was kind of glad to see him go. His words had not left her, had stayed in a corner of her mind, poking at her while they watched old reruns on TV. She felt strangely unsettled, close to tears. She had never thought about Jeremy in that way before. Never thought about her name. Things were good the way they were, weren’t they? She had no problem with any of it. She didn’t want to change her name. Change her identity. She was Alecia Sheffield. Wouldn’t she be a different person if her name changed to Parker? But then, she told herself sternly, no one was asking her to change it.

  Jeremy had never once mentioned the idea of adopting her. He knew things were fine the way they were. He liked being her stepfather. Liked the relationship the way it was. Why would a forty-year-old man want to suddenly adopt a silly teenaged girl? Alecia laughed out loud, telling herself to stop being ridiculous. Connor had put silly thoughts in her head and she just needed to forget about them. She went to the stereo and popped a CD into the player, turning the volume up as loud as she could stand it.

  “Whoa!” Jeremy cried, coming in from the garage ten minutes later. “What is with the brain-numbing noise?”

  “WHAT?” Alecia cried, holding a hand to her ear. “I CAN’T HEAR YOU! THE MUSIC IS TOO LOUD!”

  “Then turn it down,” her mother said, lowering the volume. “You’ll wreck your eardrums listening to it that loud,” she said, frowning. “You know better than that.”

  “It’s a teenage thing,” Jeremy told her seriously. He grabbed Alecia’s hands and they danced around the living room to the thumping beat from the stereo. “You were never a teenager, so you wouldn’t understand.”

  “I was a teenager, for your information. And I could dance with the best of them. In fact, I nearly won a contest in grade eleven. So there,” Mrs. Parker said, shaking her head as she watched Alecia and Jeremy swing around the room bumping into furniture and against the walls.

  “Don’t listen to her, Leesh,” Jeremy said in a mock whisper. “She’s just trying to save face. She told me once that she thought dancing was evil. And rock music even worse. I think it was her upbringing.”

  “Jeremy Parker! Stop filling my daughter’s head with nonsense.”

  Alecia was laughing so hard she thought she was going to throw up as Jeremy whirled her around and around the room, dipping her almost to the floor, swinging her under his arm, pulling her back in. Then suddenly the music changed, becoming slow and soft. Jeremy put an arm around her waist, took her hand with his and pulled her close.

  “Ah, this is even better. I
always liked these dances best. Sweaty palms not withstanding. Put your feet on top of mine, Leesh, and I’ll guide you along. Your mother just doesn’t understand the pleasures of a good dance.”

  “I think I’ll make some dinner,” Mrs. Parker said and left the room.

  “I hear there’s a dance at school next month,” Jeremy said, moving them easily. He was a wonderful dancer, Alecia realized, not that she knew a lot about it. But he certainly seemed confident and easy, moving gracefully in time with the music.

  “How did you hear that? I only found out about it today,” Alecia said, pulling back to look up at him. Jeremy grinned at her.

  “I have my ways,” was all he said. “I guess you and your tribe will be going?”

  “Monica certainly wants to, and probably Connor will take Laurie. But Annie and I aren’t interested. Who would we dance with? And besides, dances are silly.”

  Jeremy stopped moving abruptly, nearly sending Alecia to the floor. “This is silly? I thought we were having fun,” he said, sounding hurt. Alecia felt a little guilty and tried to back up.

  “Not this. This is fun. But you’re different than a room full of silly boys who shove each other and say stupid things and get all goofy and idiotic. You know how to dance.”

  “Ahh. Now I see. Well, I can’t do much about the school full of goofy boys. But it might be fun anyway. You could dance with Anne or Connor. Right? I think you should give it a try.” He started dancing again, humming softly to the music.

  “Well, I don’t want to go. So drop it, okay?” Alecia told him, annoyed. He had ruined a perfectly good time with his nonsense.

  “Consider the matter dropped, my dear. I believe your mother is preparing dinner for us. Shall we help her out?” Jeremy asked, dropping her hand to bow before her. He was the most ridiculous person sometimes, Alecia thought as she followed him into the kitchen. The most ridiculous person on earth. But she smiled anyway.

  5

  Teamwork?!

  A sudden warm spell and two days of steady rain had washed most of the remaining snow away and by Sunday morning the field was a sodden mess, but clear enough to play. The team the Burrards were up against, the Whitecaps, were unknown to Alecia and her teammates. They had played only one game against them the year before and none so far this season. Jeremy believed strongly in knowing your opponent and they spent a lot of time analyzing the other teams in the league, but these girls had been hard to analyze.

  They were gathered around the bench Sunday morning, stretching and loosening up, eyeing the other girls as they came onto the field to warm up. They seemed to be about the same size as the Burrards, and Rianne recognized one of the defence. “She goes to our church. She doesn’t look very big.”

  “Yeah, but is she any good?” Nancy asked. Rianne shrugged.

  “What about her?’’ Stacie asked, pointing to a tall girl wearing a purple jacket over her uniform. “She looks like some of the Rocketeer forwards.”

  “She looks kind of spacey to me. She probably spends most of the time on the bench,” Rianne said.

  “Well, at least they probably know all their players. Not like us,” Stacie grumbled. “I think it’s ridiculous bringing in a new player at this point in the season. I mean, how are we supposed to play like a team when we don’t know everyone?”

  “Stacie, you’ve got to give people a chance. Maybe if we tried to get to know Lexi instead of just calling her down, she’d warm up to us. After all, she doesn’t know us either,” Laurie said. Her voice was low and gentle and Stacie flushed a little, muttering an apology. “Really, guys. We just need to talk to her, get to know her a little. It works.”

  As if to help Laurie prove her point, Lexi chose that moment to show up. She tossed her bag on the bench, glancing briefly around at the other girls as she sat down beside it.

  “Hi, Lexi,” Laurie said, giving the girl a friendly smile. “We were just trying to get a reading on the other team. We haven’t played them before. Have you ever heard anything about them?”

  “What would I have heard?” Lexi asked.

  “I don’t know, I just wondered if you had, that’s all. We always try and have a bit of knowledge about the team we’re playing against. You know, who their good strikers are, how they use their defence, that kind of thing.”

  “I don’t know anything about them. On my old team we worried about ourselves, not everyone else,” Lexi said, turning to her bag. She pulled out her cleats and dropped them to the ground. Laurie and Alecia exchanged glances but said nothing. Eventually the girls drifted away, leaving Lexi alone on the bench.

  “We don’t know this team,” Jeremy said in his pre-game talk. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t beat them. This morning I want you to pay close attention to where everyone else is on the field. That means you have to keep your head up at all times and talk to each other, encourage each other. It’s cold today and I plan to rotate players a lot, so be aware of people coming off and going on. Look to Laurie for leadership. Protect our goalkeeper. Stacie, smother the ball whenever you can — I’ve heard these guys are pretty good with the rebounds. Let’s not give them any, okay? Right, let’s play.”

  Alecia took up her position as midfielder behind and to the left of Lexi. On the other side were Allison and Marnie. Laurie got the opening kick and sent it across to Allison, who sent it right back to Laurie. Very quickly they moved in to the Whitecaps’ end with a series of tight little passes. Laurie, about to be tackled by a charging forward, passed the ball to Lexi, who caught it and moved toward the net. She took a quick shot on goal, but the goalkeeper blocked it and kicked it back out into play. The Whitecaps’ centre caught the kick and ran back toward the Burrards’ end, but Lexi was on her in seconds and stole it away. She turned quickly and headed back for the net. This time she held the ball, adeptly keeping it from the opposing midfielder who kept challenging her. The other Burrards hurried to get in position.

  “Where is everyone?” Lexi screamed as she juggled the ball, waiting for someone to pass to. There were Whitecaps players all over her and, although the rest of the Burrards were doing their best, there was no clear shot. Finally the ball rolled out of bounds.

  “Keep with the play, you guys!” Lexi called. “Keep your eyes on the ball. I could have scored there if there had been someone to help me set up the play.”

  Most of the girls ignored her. Who was she to tell them what to do, how to play? That was Jeremy’s and Laurie’s job. The ball was thrown into play and was quickly picked off by the Whitecaps’ centre. She kicked it ahead of her to a waiting forward, but the pass was intercepted by Lexi, who practically sent the forward to the ground as she tackled her for possession of the ball. There was no whistle, despite the dirty looks from the Whitecaps players who saw her. Play continued down the field with Lexi carrying the ball almost the whole way herself. Her second shot on net was closer than the first, but still missed and rolled out of bounds.

  “Nice try, Lexi,” Laurie called as they passed each other on the field. “Next time it’ll get in.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Lexi answered, wiping her hands on her shorts. She was already a mess — her hair wild around her face, her eyes large and dark. Alecia looked down at her own clean uniform. Lexi really threw herself into the game, that was for sure. She was like Stacie — unconcerned about getting dirty, intent only on winning. Still, her habit of telling the others how to play was already getting annoying. Twice she had made comments to Alecia, which Alecia had ignored. Everyone was relieved when Jeremy sent Rianne in for her and Lexi left the field.

  Lexi off the field was hardly better than Lexi on the field, however. Her voice could be heard above everyone else’s, even Jeremy’s.

  “Get in low, Rianne, you’re not low enough!”

  “Where are your hands, Stacie! Keep them up, keep them out front!”

  “That was a
pretty weak pass, Allison. You gotta give it more than that,” she called, pacing up and down the field. She didn’t stop shouting until Jeremy told her to. Then, if anyone got close enough to the side of the field where she was standing, they could hear her muttering under her breath so Jeremy couldn’t hear.

  Allison managed to score, finally, just before the end of the first half and they left the field ahead by one. “That was great, Allison,” Laurie said, patting the girl on the back as they left the field together. One by one the other players congratulated Allison on her unassisted goal. It hadn’t been pretty — she had intercepted a pass from the other team and kicked wildly at the net — but it had gone in. And heading into the second half with the lead was a good thing.

  “It wasn’t very nice looking, but what the heck! They can’t all be beauties,” Allison said, pleased with herself despite her words. The others laughed.

  “Good job. It always helps to get the first goal,” Lexi said. “But you might want to try giving yourself a second to set up before you shoot. And get centred over your midline. It helps to direct the ball. There was plenty of time to set it up well.” Allison looked as though she wasn’t quite sure how to respond. She was saved from having to say anything by Laurie, who stepped in, smiling at Lexi. “I’m sure those are good ideas, but we usually analyze our play at practice, not during a game. Jeremy likes us to focus on winning.”

  “By Tuesday everyone will have forgotten what they did wrong today. You have to point it out right away,” Lexi argued, standing squarely in front of Laurie.

  “Well, maybe on your other team that’s the way it was done,” Laurie said, keeping her voice even, “but Jeremy likes to discuss the game later.”

  “I would have thought, as captain, you would want to help your players become better, but whatever,” Lexi said and walked away, leaving the rest of the Burrards staring after her in stunned silence.

  6

  Trouble with Lexi