by Belle Payton
“I think it’ll be fun to go as a big group,” said Annelise. She and Rosa and Tessa Jones were sitting just in front of them. “If we’re still talking to one another after the Powder Puff championship, that is,” she added mischievously.
“It’s only a game,” Alex said with a light laugh. Ava snorted quietly, thinking of how dramatic Alex had been earlier about the game.
“Only a game?” said Rosa. “My older sister told me it’s the highlight of the entire year. It’s practically a fight to the death. People take Powder Puff really seriously here in Texas.”
Is Rosa subtly reminding Alex that she’s still a newcomer, and somewhat of a foreigner here in Ashland? Ava wondered. Alex sat back in her seat and appeared to become engrossed in what was happening on the field, but of course Ava knew better than to think her sister was actually paying attention to football.
“Does everyone on our team have a blue shirt?” asked Emily. “It has to be royal blue, not light blue. And we’re going to wear navy shorts.”
“What color will our flags be?” asked Lindsey.
“I think ours are yellow, and Rosa and Annelise’s flags are pink,” said Emily.
“I’m thinking we can all wear navy and white socks, too,” said Lindsey.
Ava closed her eyes and groaned inwardly. This was their idea of strategy? All she’d heard about so far was what they were going to wear. She looked over at Alex, who was sitting on the other side of Lindsey. Her sister was still pretending to watch the game, but Ava knew perfectly well she was paying much more attention to the fashion conversation that she couldn’t be a part of. Poor Alex, Ava thought.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Tigers were still up by four touchdowns, 35–7.
“Your brother’s going in!” said Kylie excitedly, grabbing Ava’s arm.
Ava had seen him too. Please play well, Tommy, she thought, trying to channel positive energy his way. He and Coach had been getting along really well recently. Coach seemed to understand that although Tommy loved football, his true passion was music. Maybe his father’s acceptance would allow Tommy to relax and play better.
Tommy completed a couple of passes and didn’t fumble or throw any interceptions. By the end of the game, the score was still 35–7. Ava let out a sigh of relief that her brother’s time in the game had gone well.
“Woo-hoo!” said Annelise. “This is going to be the week for awesome football! Powder Puff, here we come!”
Ava rolled her eyes.
CHAPTER
THREE
“Okay, wait. What’s a blitz again?” asked Alex. It was the next morning, a bright, sunny Saturday, and she and Tommy were sitting side by side, watching Ava’s team, the Ashland Tiger Cubs, play the Lewisville Falcons. Ava was the kicker today. Sometimes she also went in as wide receiver, but Owen Rooney usually started at that position.
“Since when do you care so much about football?” asked Tommy, looking at her with his head cocked sideways. “You’re usually down there on the sidelines, chatting with the cheerleaders.”
“May I remind you that I am now a football player?” said Alex, a slight frost to her tone. “I’m an offensive player of some sort, and Rosa keeps telling me I’m mostly going to be the decoy, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Although I don’t know who put her in charge.”
Tommy grinned. “Fair enough. Okay, so a blitz is when linebackers or cornerbacks or safeties abandon their usual positions and rush the quarterback when they think he’s going to pass the ball. Did you notice how Corey had to throw it to his receiver before the receiver was ready? That’s why the pass was incomplete; Corey got blitzed.” Corey was the quarterback for the Cubs.
Alex nodded, trying hard to absorb the information.
Suddenly the crowd was on its feet, cheering. Alex sprang up too, trying to see what was going on. “What just happened?” she asked Tommy.
The crowd roared louder.
“Hold on a second!” said Tommy, his eyes still on the field. “He’s got this. Yep. Touchdown.”
A player on Ava’s team was finally tackled, but the top half of his body had already fallen across the end line. The Tiger Cubs fans went wild.
“Explain, please?” asked Alex.
“It was kind of a trick play,” Tommy explained. “Corey handed it off to Greg Fowler—he’s number 17, the running back—and he started to run around the right side. But then Greg stopped and threw a long lateral back to Corey, and Corey threw it long to Owen Rooney.”
“How come Greg passed the ball to Corey? Can he do that? He’s not the quarterback!”
“Yes, because it’s a lateral pass.”
This was a revelation to Alex. But she did know what lateral meant: sideways. “Wow. I had no idea football was so complicated,” she said.
“Watch the game, Al!” urged Tommy. “Your sister is attempting the extra point.”
As Alex watched, Ava waited for Kal Tippett, the center, to snap the ball to Xander Browning. Xander set the ball down while Ava took two steps, planted, and then kicked it cleanly through the goalposts.
Ava was walking stiffly the next afternoon when she and Alex arrived at the middle school football field for Powder Puff practice. She was still a little sore from her game the day before.
“Ava! Over here!” called Emily, waving her arms wildly from across the field as though she were landing a plane.
“I guess that’s the blue team,” said Ava. “So that one must be yours, over there. Yep, I see Kylie.”
“Yeah, well, no one’s waving their arms like crazy to me,” said Alex drily. She sighed. “I guess that’s to be expected. But you’d think they’d at least pretend to be happy to see me.”
“Annelise just waved,” Ava pointed out.
“Yes, I’m glad she’s on my team,” said Alex. “Although she lets Rosa boss her around too much.”
“By the way, did I hear you watching football videos in your room this morning?” asked Ava.
Alex shrugged. “A few. I don’t want to come across as completely unknowledgeable, considering I’m Coach Sackett’s daughter. So I’m trying to learn the basics.”
“Looks like Corey’s the coach for the orange team,” said Ava, gesturing toward the tall redheaded boy with a whistle around his neck. “There. See? He just waved to you too.”
Alex waved back. “Who’s your coach?” she asked, shielding her eyes with her hand as she peered down the field.
“Xander,” said Ava. “But that’s fine,” she added quickly. “We get along okay now.” She shuddered when she thought about how Xander and some of the other boys had treated her during the first few weeks of football practice. They’d tripped her, made her work out in the back row, and even stuffed a mean picture in her locker, all because she was a girl who wanted to play football. Luckily, she’d proven herself to be such a great kicker that their tormenting had ended pretty quickly, and Ava now considered Xander a friend.
“Well, have fun,” said Alex.
Xander blew his whistle and beckoned the blue team over for a huddle. “I’m supposed to explain the rules of Powder Puff,” he said, and glanced down at an official-looking clipboard. “And then you guys have to elect a captain. And I suggest you don’t make it a popularity contest. Pick a person you think knows the game and can lead your team.”
Ava felt many pairs of eyes suddenly looking at her, and she flushed. She wasn’t used to taking a leadership role.
Xander read the rules on his list. “There are eleven players on each team,” he said. “A touchdown counts as six points, and the extra point is two points. You can either kick it or run it. There’s a running clock, with two twenty-minute halves.”
“What are the flags for?” asked Bridget Malloy. Ava cringed.
Xander looked up from his clipboard, startled. “You’re supposed to grab them,” he said. Then, apparently seeing several perplexed looks, he sighed. “Okay, I guess we need to start from the very beginning,” he said. “In flag footb
all, everyone wears two flags tucked into the tops of their shorts. Instead of tackling the person with the ball, you just grab the flag and hold it up so the ref can see it. It prevents a lot of bloodshed and broken bones.”
Ava laughed, but no one else seemed to realize he was joking. The other girls were nodding, listening intently. Xander met Ava’s eye for a second, and then looked back down at his clipboard. He finished explaining the basics, but Ava tuned out. She looked down the field at where Alex’s team was practicing. She saw Rosa pass Alex the ball. It bounced out of Alex’s open arms and rolled away. She sighed. She and Tommy had tried to teach Alex how to catch a football many times over the years, but it just didn’t seem to be one of her strengths.
“Ava!” her team chorused together.
Startled, Ava drew her eyes away from the orange team.
“Looks like it’s unanimous, Sackett,” said Xander. “You’ve been elected captain.”
For the rest of the hour, Ava and Xander worked together. Ava took the defense and Xander the offense, and they tried to explain the basic rules of the game. Some of the girls, like Callie and Edie, knew how to play pretty well. Some didn’t know anything. Emily and Lindsey both seemed to fall in the middle of the pack.
From time to time, Ava glanced back over at the orange team on the other end of the field. Once she saw Alex attempting a kick. She missed the ball completely. Another time she saw Rosa hand off the ball to Alex and then point down the field, obviously instructing her to run that way. Alex dashed off and promptly tripped and fell down, even though no one was near her. Ava winced.
Corey kept blowing the whistle to stop play and explain what was going on. Even from far away, Ava could see Rosa’s frustration with the rest of her team.
Over at the other end of the field, things were not going the way Alex had planned. Rosa passed the ball to her, but the pass was way too hard—on purpose, Alex was sure. It was like trying to catch a bullet. Anyone would have dropped it like Alex did.
Then Corey had tried her out at kicker. She’d attempted, nicely, to explain that she wasn’t cut out to be a kicker, that that was Ava’s role in the family, but Corey had made her try anyway, and she’d run up to kick and totally missed the ball. And then they’d set up an extremely complicated play, where Rosa was supposed to fake one way and then hand the ball off to Alex. Alex was supposed to run down the field. She realized she’d never actually had to run with a football under her arm before. It wasn’t as easy as it looked in the videos. She was readjusting the ball in the crook of her arm and just sort of lost track of her feet and wiped out.
Is it necessary for Rosa to groan like that? Alex thought.
Corey whistled to call people over.
“Come on, guys! Huddle up!” Rosa called.
“How about if we practice a lateral pass?” suggested Alex. She remembered that Tommy had explained what that was at Ava’s game.
“Not now, Alex,” said Rosa.
That bothered Alex. Rosa was already acting like the captain, bossing people around.
“We need to elect a captain,” said Corey, when everyone had joined the huddle. “And, uh, maybe review some of the rules a little,” he added.
Alex glared at Rosa, but Rosa was so busy smiling broadly at all the other people on their team that she seemed completely unaware that Alex was glaring at her.
“I nominate Rosa,” said Annelise.
Many of the other girls chimed in with yesses and nods.
Alex wasn’t surprised that people wanted Rosa, of course. Rosa had been positioning herself to be nominated captain from the get-go. And Alex was forced to admit Rosa knew the game pretty well. But being captain wasn’t just about knowing the rules. It helped to have leadership training. A tiny part of Alex had hoped that being class president might count for something, but obviously the others didn’t agree.
Kylie didn’t chime in. But she didn’t nominate me either, Alex thought grumpily.
Rosa was elected captain.
After practice, Ava crossed the field to Alex and Kylie, who were sitting on the metal bleachers, drinking water. Both were red-faced and panting.
“How’d it go?” she asked.
Kylie glanced sideways at Alex.
Alex sighed heavily.
“We have a little team-building to do,” said Kylie delicately.
Ava pursed her lips. “Who got voted captain?”
When Alex didn’t answer, Kylie said, “Rosa. And she and Alex didn’t exactly see eye to eye.”
“She thinks she’s all that,” said Alex, banging her empty water bottle against her knee. “Like, she’s always trying to run things. Just because she got elected captain, she thinks she’s Vince Lombardi.”
Kylie shifted uncomfortably and glanced at Ava. “Well, it’s hard because we only have one practice, and girls are coming at it from all different levels of experience.”
Alex harrumphed and crossed her arms. “We didn’t learn much at all about plays or anything, even though I kept suggesting we learn one or two,” she continued. “For example, the lateral pass. I suggested we practice that. But no one listened to me.”
Ava suppressed a smile. Alex seemed so proud of the fact that she had learned what a lateral pass was, and she wanted the world to know it.
“All we basically know is that I’m going to be on offense,” Alex continued, “and Kylie’s going to be a kicker and maybe also one of the people who runs with the ball and scores the touchdown.”
“Whatever,” said Kylie brightly. “It’s just supposed to be fun. So I’m guessing you’re captain of your team?” she asked Ava. Ava nodded.
“Hey, guys!” It was Lindsey, walking with Emily. Annelise, Rosa, Tessa Jones, and Madison Jackson approached from the other direction. “A bunch of us are going to see that new movie Vampire Cheerleaders. You guys should come!”
“I can’t,” said Kylie. “I have to get home and help with the horses.”
“Me neither,” said Ava. “I have a huge science test tomorrow.”
“Oh, Ava, please?” begged Lindsey. “We can go to Rookie’s, the ice cream place next door, after and talk strategy!”
“Sorry. I really need to do well on this test,” said Ava. “And I still have half a chapter left to review.”
“I’ll come!” Alex piped up. “The movie sounds awesome!”
Ava gave her a look. Just that morning she’d mentioned how dumb Vampire Cheerleaders looked, and how she had zero interest in seeing it.
“Sure, Alex,” said Emily with a smile. “But all you guys on the orange team have to close your ears when we talk strategy after!”
She laughed. Alex laughed too, but Ava could tell it was forced.
Alex hated the movie. She hated scary movies, and she hated movies with blood, and she hated movies with totally predictable plots, and this movie was all three of those things. She closed her eyes during most of the worst parts and tried to tune out. This movie had obviously been a planned outing, and she had been asked as an afterthought. Why had she said she wanted to come? Her friends hadn’t even seemed that psyched that she was there.
Afterward they walked to Rookie’s for milkshakes. The waitress led them to a booth. Alex hung back briefly so she could text her mom, telling her to come pick her up soon, and when she looked up, she saw that the girls had already crammed into the booth—Lindsey, Emily, and Annelise on one side, Rosa, Madison, and Tessa on the other. The booth was really meant for just six people. The waitress dragged a chair over for Alex, but when she sat down, her chair stuck out in the aisle and made her feel even more alienated from the rest of the group. She kept a bright, fake smile on her face, just to show that she wasn’t really feeling totally humiliated, even though she was.
“Did Ava tell you we’re making her be quarterback?” Emily asked Alex.
“No!” said Alex. “That is so not her position!”
“Yeah, but she’s by far the best athlete on our team,” said Emily. “So we forced her to. Ou
r basic strategy is to give the ball to Ava and get out of the way.”
The others laughed, so Alex did too. A waitress walked by and bumped her chair, causing her to lurch forward a little. She scooted in as close as she could. She knew she needed to change the subject. “So would someone explain to me what ‘snappy casual’ actually means for the dance?” she asked them, looking around the table.
“It means skirts or dresses, but not super fancy,” said Annelise, twirling a piece of her red hair around her finger. “I’m wearing my sister’s blue dress with sequins. She finally agreed to let me! Not to brag, but it’s going to look really amazing. And I’m wearing silver flats to go with my mum.”
“Your mum?” repeated Alex, puzzled. Why would Annelise bring her mother to the dance?
“Oh, right, can’t forget to bring your mum,” said Emily.
Emily was bringing her mother too? And why was everyone suddenly talking like a British person? She’d heard Emily mention her mother before, but she’d never referred to her as her “mum” until now.
“Is bringing your, uh, mum a Texas tradition?” Alex inquired cautiously.
“Yeah!” said Annelise.
“Totally!” said Emily.
“Absolutely,” said Lindsey.
“Oh! Right-o then,” said Alex, pronouncing her o’s with a tiny inflection of British accent. She kept it subtle, though, since her friends weren’t using heavy British accents either. “Then I suppose I’ll bring my mum along too.” It was times like this that made Alex feel like Texas really was a different country.
Rosa had had her head bent down, slurping the last of her milkshake, but Alex saw her raise her head and give Alex a funny look. The corners of Rosa’s mouth twitched upward, but she didn’t say anything.
Alex glanced at her phone. A text from her mom—er, her mum. She was waiting out front to pick her up. She dug a crumpled ten-dollar bill out of her purse and put it down on the table. “I have to go,” she said. “My mum’s outside.”
