by Belle Payton
Ava and Tommy nodded.
“Come on, dudes,” said Tommy to his sisters. “Let’s head to the rally and leave these two lovebirds to their romantic dinner.”
Later that night Ava lay in bed, flush with happiness about the success of the dinner and the fun she’d had at the pep rally. She’d stood next to Jack the whole time.
Her phone buzzed. It was Charlie, from back home.
What’s up, cowboy? All good?
Yeah, great. Big pep rally tonight.
Another text came in, but this one was from Jack. Jack! She was getting near-simultaneous texts from two different guys!
Hey—it was so noisy at the rally. Barely had a chance to talk to you. I heard your parents’ surprise dinner was awesome.
She texted him back, after triple-checking that it was going to Jack, not Charlie.
Yeah, it worked out really well!
From Charlie: Your dad’s team supposed to win tomorrow?
From Jack: I’ll look for you at the game tomorrow.
To Charlie: I think it’s going to be a tough game.
From Jack: Will you be at Sal’s after?
To Jack: Yeah, I think so.
She fell back on the pillow. Texting two boys at the same time. That was definitely a first.
Meanwhile, Alex was in her room, picking her outfit for the next day—game day, and the last day of Spirit Week, and everyone was supposed to wear Tigers stuff. She’d borrowed a practice jersey from Tommy, which she planned to knot at the waist over her new pair of skinny blue capris.
She replayed the events of the evening in her head. The restaurant episode had been—what was a good word? Sensational. That was it. And the pep rally had been exhilarating.
Their parents had arrived home just a few minutes after she and Tommy and Ava had. They’d had a long, luxurious, quiet dinner, they said, and the food was amazing. Madame Nicole had had a special dessert prepared for them, and they’d brought the rest of it home for the kids. It was a heart-shaped chocolate cake, coated in a glossy chocolate shell, beneath which was a rich chocolate buttercream. It was the best cake Alex had ever tasted.
Her mind moved to Corey. Was he furious with her because she’d said she had a boyfriend? Was that all it had taken to get Lindsey to be genuinely nice to her? Was it worth it?
Her homework done, she pulled out the book she’d borrowed from the library: Tackling the Game of Football. She really needed to learn more about how football was played so she stopped sounding like a total dope when asked about her dad’s team. But five minutes into reading about types of offense, her eyes began to droop, and she turned out the light and fell asleep.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
“Mom, no offense, but I hope you understand that we can’t possibly be seen sitting with you,” Alex shouted over the din. She, Ava, and their mother made their way through the crowds standing along the sidelines and headed toward the midfield bleachers. The band was playing and the crowd was already assembling, even though it was still a while until kickoff.
“Of course,” Mrs. Sackett yelled back. “I understand that being seen with your mother is a fate worse than death in middle school. In fact, why don’t you girls drop back a bit so we’re not seen walking together? As soon as I can find April, I’ll make myself scarce, I promise.”
Alex looked quickly at her mother’s face to be sure she wasn’t upset. She didn’t seem to be. She had a—what was that word she’d studied?—implacable, that was it. She had an implacable smile on her face.
“Okay, thanks, Mom,” said Alex.
Ava had already dropped back, having understood their mother’s joking tone more quickly.
“There’s April,” yelled Mrs. Sackett over her shoulder. “Just wish me luck. The entire Ashland PTA is standing all around her.”
“Good luck,” the twins called to her at the same time.
They stood back and watched as sure enough, Mrs. Sackett was enveloped in a crowd of other moms and dads and was carried into the current of people streaming toward the higher decks.
Darkness had not yet settled in, and the lights had not yet been illuminated. The sun was low in the sky, and a golden glow flooded through the stadium. Alex had read somewhere that photographers and painters called this the golden hour, the first and last hour of sunlight during the day when the light was perfect for creating beautiful images. She looked at her twin sister, who was bathed in golden light. It picked up the coppery tones of her dark hair and cast a rosy sheen on her skin. Both girls had their mother’s fair, smooth complexion.
“I can’t believe how crowded it is already,” shouted Ava.
Alex gaped at the crowds. “I thought we’d be the only ones here this early,” she shouted back. “I was so worried we’d sit in empty stands and then all the popular kids would sit somewhere else. But I think I see Lindsey and Emily up there already!”
“You go on ahead,” said Ava. “I just spotted Kylie sitting by herself with a book. She probably had to get here early with her older sister. I’ll go keep her company.”
Alex smiled. “Okay, if you’re sure.” She made her way up into the stands to where Lindsey, Emily, and several other girls she knew were sitting.
As soon as Lindsey spotted Alex, she made a big show of clearing a space between her and Rosa to make room for Alex to sit down.
“I’m so psyched for the first game!” she said. “Is your dad totally freaking out?”
“Surprisingly, he’s kept pretty cool,” replied Alex, taken aback by Lindsey’s intensely enthusiastic attitude toward her. So I was right, she thought. She was only being mean to me because of Corey, and now that she thinks I have a boyfriend, she’s being friendly. The relief that washed over Alex as she realized she was finally on track with the popular crowd didn’t entirely eliminate the sad, guilty feeling she kept getting in her stomach when she thought about the look on Corey’s face after she’d told him about Charlie.
“Sooooo,” said Emily, drawing the word out in a playful, teasing tone. She sat on Lindsey’s other side and leaned in conspiratorially so the three of them were practically in a huddle. “Tell us more about Charlie! Is he totally cute? What does he look like? Does he play football? Does your daddy approve of him?”
Alex slumped. Should she continue to play along with this story, or back down and admit she’d made it up? The latter plan didn’t seem like a good one. Corey seemed hurt enough that she’d rejected him; he’d probably never speak to her again if he found out she’d lied about that.
“Oh, ha,” she said, laughing mirthlessly. “Yeah, he’s pretty good-looking. He’s tall, with reddish hair.” Ugh, this is so weird, describing Ava’s crush, she thought. She tried desperately to think of a way to change the subject, but Lindsey and Emily seemed to be hanging on her every word, wanting more. “We—uh, we haven’t been texting too much recently, with all the craziness that’s been going on this week with my parents’ anniversary and the first game and all.”
She hated lying. She never lied. Her stomach was starting to feel queasy.
“Oh yes, the anniversary dinner for your parents,” said Lindsey. “That’s so romantic. I couldn’t believe what happened last night with the pep rally. I wish I could have been there, but they had to limit the numbers and only allowed the seniors into the restaurant.”
“Although we were outside,” added Emily. “A whole bunch of your friends were there!”
Alex beamed. To think that so many of the popular middle school kids had bothered to come to the restaurant like that! Talk about great free publicity for her class president campaign. Plus, she felt so relieved that the conversation had moved away from her imaginary boyfriend.
“You’re good at organizing big events,” said Lindsey. “Em and I were just talking about you. She told me you were thinking of running for class president. I think you’d be great—better than Logan Medina, who wins every year just ’cause he’s a popular jock.”
Emily nodded vigoro
usly, her blond ponytail swaying.
“Wow, thanks, you guys,” said Alex breathlessly. “I’m glad you think it’s a good idea.” Maybe giving up Corey and lying about Charlie will be worth it after all, she thought.
“What about Ava?” asked Emily. “Is she as good at organizing events as you are? Maybe she should be in government too.”
Alex laughed. “Student government is not her thing. She’s a jock, just like our brother.”
“So is she going out for cross-country?” asked Emily.
Alex hesitated. How would these girls react when they found out Ava was trying out for football? She decided to come right out with it and see if she could gauge their reactions.
“She signed up for football,” said Alex.
Emily and Lindsey both laughed but grew serious when they saw Alex’s straight face.
Alex cringed. This plan of Ava’s was not going to go over well at their new school. Girls didn’t play football here. The last thing Alex wanted, for her or for Ava, was to cause a stir just as they were riding the tide of the anniversary dinner and pep rally and finally settling into life at this new school. Maybe she could talk Ava out of it. For now, she decided to change the subject.
“Are you going to this Sal’s place after the game?” she asked Emily.
“Of course!” said Emily. “Everyone will be there. And they have pretty good pizza, too.”
“Good. I hope it’s better than the restaurant my dad took us to last week. I think it was called Eli’s or something. Bleh.” Alex made a face. “Everything had meat in it.”
The girls didn’t respond. Lindsey seemed suddenly to be engrossed in a text.
Alex felt a stab of horror. Wait. Oh, no. Is it possible that Eli’s is Lindsey’s family’s restaurant? She’d never actually asked what it was called. From the way Lindsey was behaving, and how quiet Emily had grown, it was probably Eli’s.
Just when she was getting somewhere with these girls, she’d sabotaged herself. At this rate, Ava could join the football team and the wrestling squad and Alex would still be the one to make everyone dislike them.
“Two minutes till kickoff, Kylie,” said Ava as she walked up to her friend. “I forbid you to read a book once the game has started.”
Kylie closed her book immediately and grinned at Ava. “Hey, you!” she said. “I’m so honored to be sitting with Coach Sackett’s daughter at the big game. Shouldn’t you be sitting with your public?”
“Please,” said Ava. “I don’t want to sit with all those kids up there. I doubt they even watch the game. They’re probably too busy gossiping. I’m not even sure Alex watches the game. She barely knows the difference between a quarterback and a running back.”
“Is there a difference?”
Ava playfully punched Kylie in the arm. “Funny. Anyway, that’s why I’m sitting with you. So I can concentrate on the game.”
“Well, trust me. I won’t bother you,” said Kylie. “Considering I don’t know a quarterback from a running back from my big toe.”
“I’ll explain what’s going on during the game,” said Ava.
“Okay. I’m willing to be converted.”
The noise of the crowd swelled.
“It’s kickoff time!” yelled Ava.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
“Who’s Dion?” demanded Kylie, looking up from her phone.
Ava turned. “He’s the backup quarterback to PJ Kelly,” she explained. “Why?”
“I just got a text from my sister,” said Kylie. “She says that Dion is out. He has a stress fracture.”
Ava’s eyes widened.
“Is that big news?” asked Kylie.
“Well, yeah,” Ava said. “Because with Dion out, that makes my brother, Tom, the backup quarterback, just behind PJ.”
“Oh! That’s pretty cool,” said Kylie.
Ava’s stomach flipped over. Of course it was highly unlikely Tommy would get into the game, but it could happen. She wondered what was going through her brother’s mind.
“Chances are he won’t actually get to play. Tommy’s only a sophomore,” she said to Kylie. “And PJ is really good.”
“Hey, you never know,” said Kylie. “Where’s your dad?”
Ava pointed. “He’s there, on the sideline. He’s the one with the big headphones on. That way he can communicate with the assistant coaches up there in the tower.”
Kylie looked behind them to where Ava was pointing. She whistled. “Wow. I always wondered who those people up there were.”
“They’re coaches, and also video people and TV camera guys,” Ava explained. She smiled at her new friend. Kylie seemed genuinely interested in paying attention to the game.
The Mainville Eagles won the toss, so they started with the ball. But Ashland’s defense stopped the first drive. Then, just at the three-minute mark, the Ashland Tigers scored a touchdown. The crowd went wild.
“Yaaaaay!” yelled Kylie along with everyone else. “That’s good, right?”
“That’s good, but it’s early,” said Ava. She glanced down at her dad, who was yelling something into the mouthpiece of his headphones and pacing up and down along the sidelines. He was looking at PJ in disbelief. Ava wondered why.
And sure enough, Mainville scored two unanswered touchdowns and led for the rest of the half, fourteen to seven.
During the halftime show Kylie went off to the refreshment stand. Ava was too nervous to do anything but sit and pretend to be watching the high-steppers and the band, although her mind was a million miles away, thinking about the game, about Tommy, and about her dad. It would be so awful if he lost his first game. She hoped no one would come try to talk to her. Thankfully, they didn’t, and the game resumed.
“What’s going on?” yelled Kylie at the end of the third quarter. The Ashland fans were booing.
Ava turned to explain. “We were in a good position to score. We had that interception, and our safety made a really good return to set up a touchdown. But PJ is not having a good game. He just had three incomplete passes, and that fourth-down running play got snuffed. So now it’s Mainville’s ball.”
The Ashland Tigers managed to stop the Mainville team from scoring. Then the offensive squad trotted onto the field. The Ashland fans booed even louder.
“What? What’s happening?” demanded Kylie.
Ava’s jaw fell open. “It looks like Coach has yanked PJ,” she said to Kylie. “Tommy’s in.”
Something isn’t right, she thought. A coach didn’t usually pull out the first-string quarterback—an experienced senior—in the middle of the first game of the season, unless the quarterback was injured, and Ava hadn’t seen PJ get hurt. The other reason might be that the coach wanted to teach him a lesson. She remembered what Tommy had said, about PJ being all over the place. Maybe he’d done something to really make Coach mad.
The score remained the same. Ava could sense the Ashland fans’ unease. Maybe they were blaming Coach for the way the game was going. He had so much to prove to everyone.
And then, in the fourth quarter, Tommy completed a pass to Tyler Whitley in the end zone with four minutes and twenty-two seconds left. The score was fourteen to thriteen. The crowd rose to its feet, roaring.
“Woooo!” yelled Kylie, jumping up and down. “We scored! We’re going to win!”
Ava cheered too, but she’d learned not to let down her guard. Ashland had an uphill battle ahead if they were going to beat this team.
A few minutes later it was the Mainville fans’ turn to roar.
Ava groaned as the Mainville band played a triumphant tune and the other team’s fans all stomped and clapped along.
“What! What just happened?” asked Kylie. “Why did that guy just get to run all that way? Why didn’t we tackle him?”
“Mainville had a sixty-one-yard kickoff return,” said Ava. “We should have stopped their guy, but we didn’t. And now—” She groaned again, as did the rest of the Tigers fans.
“Touchdow
n?” asked Kylie softly.
Ava nodded. She put up a finger to indicate that Kylie should wait.
The Tigers fans erupted in cheers.
“We just blocked the extra point. So the score is twenty to thirteen.”
The girls watched the scoreboard click through a blur of numbers until it read HOME: 13, OPPONENT: 20.
“Can we get a touchdown in one minute, forty seconds?” asked Kylie anxiously.
In spite of Ava’s anguish, she was pleased to note how into the game Kylie was.
“It’s going to be close,” said Ava.
“Now what’s happening?” demanded Kylie.
“It’s the second down and—wait—oh, Tommy come on, come on—”
Ava’s voice was drowned out in the roar of the crowd. Many of the Tigers fans reached out their hands to grasp an imaginary football, as though collectively willing the long pass Tommy had thrown to be caught by Tyler.
Tyler caught the pass at his own thirty-yard line and intentionally ran out of bounds.
“Why did he do that?” demanded Kylie. “So those two goons wouldn’t tackle him?”
“To stop the clock,” said Ava. “He knew they were about to tackle him, and if they’d done so on the field, the clock would have run down. When he runs out of bounds, the clock stops.”
Kylie nodded, trying to chew on eight of her fingernails at the same time.
“I’m going to sit down,” she shouted to Ava over the roaring fans. “My nerves can’t stand it. Can you poke me when something big happens?”
“Okay, now you have to stand up,” yelled Ava a few minutes later.
Kylie stood up. “All right—tell me.”
“It’s fourth down with eight yards to go at the thirty-eight-yard line. We have one chance to get a touchdown, and the other team knows Tommy’s going to pass it, because there’s no time for a running play. Because look how much time is on the clock.”
Kylie gulped. “Seven seconds!” she croaked.
Tommy threw the pass high. A perfect spiral.
