by Coco Simon
She gave a slightly embarrassed smile. “Sorry, Katie, don’t mean to get carried away. It’s just kind of fun getting to be a coach instead of listening to a coach, you know?”
“Anyway, drills are a good idea,” Mia chimed in. “That’s how we start all our practices.”
I looked at the cones, which were arranged in a kind of zigzag pattern all the way across the lawn. “So what do I have to do exactly?”
“You just kick the ball around the cones,” Mia said. “Like this.”
She started dribbling the ball, kicking it a short way and then running after it and kicking it some more. She wove around all of the cones perfectly. The way she did it, it looked kind of easy.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll try it.”
Mia kicked the ball to me, and I gave it a kick. It went skidding across the grass, nowhere near the cones.
“Just small kicks,” Alexis said. “And kick with the inside of your foot, not the toe.”
She ran after the ball and dribbled it back. I saw what she was talking about.
“Cool,” I said. “Here we go.”
I kicked the ball like Alexis had shown me, and it didn’t go sailing away this time. I kicked it toward the first cone—and knocked the cone right over.
“That’s okay, Katie!” Mia called out. “Keep going.”
I made my way to the second cone, but this time I tripped when I was trying to kick the ball. I stumbled into the cone and knocked that one down too.
I was starting to get discouraged, but I could hear Grandma Carole inside my head.
Keep trying!
So I gave it my best. I promise you. But I barely made it through the course. By the time I got to the last cone, I had knocked over almost every one.
“If this was a game where you got points for knocking down cones, I’d be an all-star,” I joked.
“Don’t worry, Katie,” Mia said, trying to keep me from being too discouraged. “Nobody gets it the very first time they try.”
“It just takes practice,” Alexis said. “I would recommend going through the course four or five more times.”
Mia must have seen the look of horror on my face. “Or how about a kicking lesson?” she said. “We can practice passing. We’ll kick the ball back and forth to each other as we make our way down the field.”
“Okay,” I said. “As long as there are no cones involved, I should be fine.”
Once again Mia and Alexis demonstrated for me. They each got on opposite sides of the yard, and Mia kicked the ball hard. It skidded across the grass in an almost perfect straight line to Alexis.
“Okay, now I’ll kick it to you, Katie,” Alexis said. “And you can kick it to Mia.”
“I’m ready!” I called out, trying to sound confident.
Alexis kicked the ball, and I ran to meet it. Then I kicked it as hard as I could in Mia’s direction.
Only the ball did not go in Mia’s direction. Instead it sailed backward, over my head, and bounced into the side yard where Dan and his friend were playing catch. Dan’s friend ran to get the ball.
“Sorry!” I called out.
“Hey!” Dan called out in a teasing voice. “Now we’re going to throw our ball at you!”
He lobbed the softball right at me, and I reached up and something amazing happened: I caught it!
Then something even more amazing happened. Without even thinking I threw the ball back to Dan. The ball did not fly backward over my head. It did not knock over any cones or garbage cans. Instead the ball soared in a beautiful arc and landed right in Dan’s glove!
“Hey, you’ve got a pretty good arm,” Dan said, and he sounded impressed. “Are you on the softball team?”
“Um, no,” I answered shyly. “I’ve actually never played softball before.”
“Really?” Mia asked, running up next to me.
I thought about it. “Well, sometimes we play Wiffle ball in gym. But I always stand way, way back in the outfield. And usually the guys think I can’t catch the ball, so if it comes to me, they jump in front of me and catch it.”
Alexis looked confused. “I don’t get it, Katie. You can’t catch or throw a football like that. So why did you catch that softball?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Footballs are kind of … wobbly,” I guessed. “They confuse me.”
“Maybe it’s because a softball is more cupcake-size,” Mia teased. “It’s got to be cupcake related somehow.”
“It doesn’t really matter why you can do it,” Alexis said, and she sounded excited. “You can do it! And it’s spring, which means that softball tryouts start soon. Katie, I think you’ve found your talent.”
It seemed too good to be true that I could actually be good at a sport. Maybe my catching and throwing the ball perfectly was a fluke, a one-time thing.
“Let’s make sure,” I said. I called out to the guys. “Dan! Over here!”
Dan threw the ball to me again, and once again, I caught it. I grinned.
I had finally found my secret skill.
CHAPTER 9
So Running Isn’t So Bad After All
The first thing I did when I got home was call Grandma Carole.
“Hi, Grandma. It’s me, Katie,” I said.
“Katie-kins! What a nice surprise. Is everything all right?” Grandma asked.
“More than all right, Grandma,” I said. “I found a sport I’m actually good at! I’m going to try out for the softball team!”
“Good for you, Katie-kins! I love softball. I bet you’ll be hitting home runs out of the park in no time!” Grandma said. I could hear the excitement in her voice.
“Oh …,” I said.
“What’s the matter?” Grandma asked.
“Well, you just reminded me of something. I might be good at catching and throwing the ball, but I didn’t really think about the hitting part.”
“You’ll be fine,” Grandma said. “You just need a little practice, that’s all.”
“You sound so sure,” I said.
“That’s because I am sure. I can’t wait to see you and hear all about it in person.”
“Thanks, Grandma!” I said. “I can’t wait to see you too! Love you!”
“Love you, too,” Grandma said. “See you soon. Bye!”
I hung up the phone and tried to think positive, the way Grandma always did. But what I was actually thinking about was whiffle ball. Whenever we played whiffle ball at school, I always struck out. I started to feel nervous, but I knew I couldn’t back out now.
“I’m very excited for you, Katie,” Mom said as we ate our usual Saturday night pizza with mushrooms-and-sausage topping.
“But what if I don’t make the team?” I worried. “Everyone’s expecting me to become this great softball player. You should have seen the way everybody reacted when I caught and threw the ball.”
“I don’t think that’s the case,” Mom said. “Everyone’s happy that you found something you’re good at and that you like to do. If you don’t make the team, at least you know you did your best.”
I know Mom was trying to make me feel better, but a slow feeling of panic kept creeping up on me. “I need to start training, like, now,” I said. “Can we play catch after dinner?”
“We could, but we don’t have any balls or mitts,” Mom pointed out. “I’m sure your friends will help you out. In the meantime why don’t you go on a run with me tomorrow morning? That will definitely help you get in shape for the tryout.”
Just the idea of running seemed superboring, but I knew Mom was right. And I was anxious to start doing something to help me train.
“All right,” I said. “But maybe just a few blocks, okay?”
Mom smiled. “We’ll see.”
The next morning I was sound asleep when Mom came into my room and pulled open the curtains. The bright spring sunshine hit my face, and I groaned and rolled over.
“Rise and shine, Katie!” Mom sang. “It’s time for our run!”
“Serious
ly?” I asked. “The birds aren’t even awake yet.”
“This is the best time for a run, trust me,” Mom said. “Put on some shorts and your good sneakers, and I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
I was still pretty sleepy when Mom and I left the house. Mom started jogging, not too fast, and I could keep up with her easily.
I’m not usually an early riser, but I must say it was nice to be up when most of the neighborhood was still asleep. And the air smelled so nice and clean! The sun had just come up, and everyone’s lawn was sparkling with morning dew.
I was wrong about the birds. They were all awake, and I had to admit that all the singing and chirping they were doing was kind of pretty. Otherwise, the streets were pretty quiet, because most people were still sleeping.
We jogged down our street and then made a right and headed for the town park. I used to go on the swings and slide there when I was little, but I never noticed the path that went all around the park, weaving around the trees. I saw two squirrels chasing each other around a tree, and a big yellow butterfly, and then there was this bubbling creek we ran past that I didn’t even know was in the park.
When we left the park I was sweating a lot and panting a little.
“Wanna go back?” Mom asked me.
To my surprise I didn’t. I was actually liking this.
“No,” I said. “Let’s keep going.”
In the end I had to walk the last few blocks home, but Mom said that was good, because we needed to cool down, anyway. My leg muscles hurt, but at the same time I felt good, like I was ready for anything.
“Thanks for coming out with me,” Mom said. “Maybe we can do this again sometime.”
“Definitely,” I agreed.
Then I took a shower, which felt awesome, and then Mom and I went to Sally’s Pancake House where I got a short stack of chocolate-chip pancakes, which tasted superdelicious. In the afternoon Mom drove me to Emma’s for our cupcake baking session.
Before we make a cupcake for a client, we always test out the recipe first. We use the money from our profits to buy supplies and stuff, and whatever’s left over we split among the four of us. We also take turns doing the baking at one another’s houses.
At the end of our Friday meeting we had decided to test a blueberry cupcake and a chocolate raspberry cupcake. When I entered Emma’s kitchen, Alexis was already there, setting out the bowls and measuring spoons on Emma’s big kitchen table. Emma was taking ingredients out of the blue plastic tub that we use to store our basic stuff.
I didn’t see Sam anywhere, but I figured he was working. (And I would never ask where he was—that would just be too embarrassing.) I did see Jake. He was up on a chair, leaning over the table, so he could grab blueberries from the bowl.
Emma shook her head at him. “No, Jake! Those are for the cupcakes.”
“There’s plenty here for one batch,” I said. I took a few blueberries from the bowl and gave them to Jake. “You can have these, and then you can have a cupcake when they’re done.”
“Thanks!” Jake said happily, and then he left the kitchen as Mia came in.
“My stepdad got all the really ugly wallpaper off of the walls!” she announced happily. “Now I just have to decide what color to paint my room.”
“How about rainbow?” I suggested. “With stripes all across the wall.”
“Or pink,” Emma said. That’s Emma’s favorite color.
“I like white or cream walls,” Alexis said. “It looks neat, and you can always decorate with posters or pictures.”
Mia sat down on one of the stools around the counter. “It’s just so hard to decide. I’m thinking maybe pale pink with an accent wall, or some kind of purple.” Then she noticed all the cupcake supplies on the counter. “But enough about my room. We have cupcakes to design, right?”
“Right,” Alexis agreed, getting down to business. “We’re going to do some vanilla cupcakes with blueberry jam centers and vanilla frosting with fresh blueberries on top. Then there’s a chocolate raspberry cupcake with chocolate frosting and fresh raspberries.”
“They both sound sooo good,” Mia said. “You know, I’ve been so busy worrying about my room that I forgot to come up with decorating ideas.”
“I had one,” Alexis said. “Since Katie’s grandma likes sports so much, we could do the blueberry cupcakes, but instead of putting blueberries on top, we could decorate them to look like different kinds of balls. Like a soccer ball cupcake and a baseball cupcake, and we could dye the icing green to make a tennis ball cupcake too.”
“That’s pretty cool,” Emma said.
“Definitely,” I agreed. “I’m just wondering if it feels adult enough. Soccer-ball cupcakes and baseball cupcakes sound like something Jake would like, you know?”
“I see what you mean,” Mia chimed in. “It’s great for a kid’s party, but maybe not a seventy-fifth birthday celebration.”
Alexis nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense,” she said. “But I will definitely put this idea in my kids’ party file.”
“I thought of something,” said Emma shyly. “Your grandma was born right at the start of spring, so maybe we can do a spring theme. We could put birds and flowers on the cupcakes.”
“That would be so pretty!” Mia said. “I can just picture it!”
“That does sound really nice,” I agreed. “And I think that would go nicely with the blueberry cupcakes.”
“And maybe the icing could be blue, like a robin’s egg,” Emma added.
“That is so perfect because Grandma Carole always looks for the first robin of spring,” I said. “She says it’s good luck.”
“I like it,” Alexis said. “Okay, so let’s scrap the chocolate raspberry for now. Mia, do you think you can come up with a flowers and birds design?”
“Sure,” Mia said, nodding her head. “Maybe I can play with the icing today. We have blue food coloring, right?”
Alexis grabbed the bottle from the table. “Check,” she said, holding it up. “Okay, so we have a plan.”
For the next couple of hours we worked on our sample cupcakes. We made some basic vanilla batter, and when the cupcakes cooled, I got to use one of my favorite cupcake tools. It’s a special tip you can put on the end of a pastry bag. You fill the bag with jam and then stick the tip into the cupcake. One squeeze, and your cupcake has a delicious jam-filled center.
We tested the cupcakes without frosting first.
“Yummy,” Alexis said. “But tell me again why we’re not using real blueberries in the batter?”
“We could, but it’s tricky,” I told her. “Since the blueberries are heavier than the batter, usually they fall to the bottom. You can coat them in flour first, but that doesn’t always work.”
“The blueberry jam is delicious,” Mia remarked. “These kind of remind me of that peanut-butter-and-jelly cupcake your mom made for you on the first day of school.”
Emma smiled. “Yeah, that cupcake sort of started everything, didn’t it?”
“I guess it did,” I said. I looked down at Jake, who had blue jam all over his face. “What do you think, Jake?”
“Awesome!” Jake replied.
“Okay, I’ve got two icings going,” Mia said. “One is vanilla with mashed-up blueberries mixed in. The other just has blue food coloring.”
The food coloring one looked pretty, just like a robin’s egg. The blueberry one looked a little weird. It was more purple than blue, and there were some big blueberry chunks in it. But it tasted really, really good.
“I can’t decide,” I said. “One is the perfect color, but the other one tastes superamazing.”
“I can’t decide either,” Emma agreed.
“There must be a way to combine them,” Alexis suggested. “Katie, maybe your mom can help us. She is, like, the queen of cupcakes.”
“And I am the cupcake captain, don’t forget,” I joked. “But, yeah, I’ll definitely ask her.”
Then I remembered something. “I need a favo
r from you guys,” I said. “After we clean up.”
“What is it?” Emma asked.
I grinned. “Wanna play catch?”
CHAPTER 10
Callie’s Mad at Me? Seriously?
Wow, it’s true, Katie,” Mia said as I tossed a softball to her from across Emma’s backyard. “You really can play softball.”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” I joked.
“You know what I mean,” Mia shot back.
“I know,” I said. “But it’s not such a big deal. I can throw and catch. I’m not so sure if I can hit the ball.”
“I’m sure Matt will help you with that,” Emma said. “As long as you bribe him with cupcakes.”
I was secretly hoping she would suggest Sam as a softball coach, but Matt would have to do.
“Sure,” I said. “We can give him some blueberry cupcakes from today as a down payment.”
Alexis looked at her watch. “Hey, I’ve got to get home. We’re having dinner early, and I want to get a good night’s sleep tonight. We have a big game tomorrow.”
“Where is it?” I asked. “Maybe I’ll come.”
Because I’m not good at sports, I have never much liked watching games on TV or in person. But my friends had been helping me so much, I felt like I had to support them.
“Cool!” Mia said. “It’s at the middle-school field at six.”
Mom said I could go to the game as long as I finished my homework. On Monday my mom had Joanne, who works with her at her office, pick me up after school. Joanne does that a lot because Mom still doesn’t like me being home alone all that much. She took me to Mom’s office, and I did my homework with the sound of dentists’ drills in the background. I shuddered. Honestly I hate going to the dentist even though the dentist is my mom. But nobody was screaming or crying or anything, so I guess Mom was doing a good job. When Mom finished with her patients she dropped me off at the field.
It’s a little weird going to a soccer game when you’re not playing, because almost everyone watching is a parent or else a little kid who’s been dragged to the game. In the stands I saw Mia’s stepdad, Eddie, sitting with Alexis’s mom, and I waved hi.
