A Whole New Ball Game (12 page)

Ava's mouth fell open.

“Do you like it?” asked Alex breathlessly.

Ava nodded slowly. “It's awesome.”

Alex and Mrs. Sackett let out a collective sigh of relief.

“How did you have time to do all this?” asked Ava. “I haven't been gone very long.”

“I did the second coat last night,” said Mrs. Sackett. “So the paint was already dry. We were able to do the rest this morning. It was all Alex's idea. She came with me to choose the paint, and she made the curtains and the bedspread last week, with Grandma's old sewing machine. I didn't even know she knew how to use it.”

Alex shrugged modestly. “I didn't. But you can teach yourself anything on the Internet,” she said.

Ava opened her arms, and her mom and Alex stepped into her embrace.

“Thanks, you guys,” she said. “Honestly, I didn't think I cared what my room looked like, but now I see how much I do. It feels like home now.”

Mrs. Sackett headed downstairs to get lunch ready, leaving Alex and Ava alone in the room. They sat on the bed. Alex watched Ava stroke the pretty pattern. She was so happy Ava liked her room! Using the old sewing machine had been tricky at first, but once she'd gotten the hang of it, things went pretty smoothly. And Ava had made it easy for Alex to keep the curtains and bedspread a secret, because she'd been off so much watching Coach's practices.

Moxy nosed open the door and plopped herself down at their feet, heaving a contented sigh.

They both started to say something, and then laughed.

“You first,” said Ava.

“No, you first,” said Alex.

“I just wanted to say thanks for doing this,” said Ava. “I was starting to think you didn't want to hang out together much. Or that you didn't care that much about, well . . .” She trailed off and looked away.

“I thought you felt the same way,” said Alex, putting a hand on her sister's knee. “When my room was being painted, I was waiting for you to ask me to sleep in your room, but you didn't. So I thought you didn't want me to.”

Ava's eyes widened. “I thought
you
didn't want to!” she said. “I've really missed sharing a room with you, to be honest.”

“Thanks for saying that,” said Alex. “I've missed sharing with you, too. And also?” She stopped and swallowed.

Ava waited.

“Also?”

“Still here, Al,” said Ava gently.

“Also? I just wanted to say that . . . that . . . I really like your hair. I'm sorry I made you feel like I was embarrassed of you. I think you look amazing.”

“Thanks, Al,” Ava said gratefully. “That means a lot. Especially considering you're more in touch
with hair trends than anyone else on the planet.”

Both sisters laughed—the same throaty laugh that was uniquely theirs. One more thing they had in common.

Alex heard a car pull up in the driveway. Coach and Tommy were home from practice.

Ava got up and shut the door. She came back to sit closer to Alex, her eyes shining. “I was looking for you because I wanted to tell you something. About Jack.”

Alex nodded, waiting. What was Ava going to say? That Jack had asked her out? She braced herself.

“He and Lindsey are not boyfriend and girlfriend,” said Ava.

Alex's eyes narrowed suspiciously. That was impossible—she had seen them together all over town!

“They're
cousins
, Al. Cousins.”

“Oh!” said Alex, rearing back in surprise. “So . . . they're cousins?”

Ava laughed. “Yes! He told me just now, when we were playing basketball. I think he wanted me to know because, well, maybe because he might like me. I wasn't sure what I thought about him. I'd just started liking Charlie back
home, and then we moved, and then I didn't know if I wanted to think about any boys that way, but now, well, now I don't know.”

Alex nodded. “That makes me feel so much better. I hated not liking the guy I knew you had a crush on. I was only being rude to him because I was being protective of you.”

“Yeah, that's the same reason I haven't been very friendly to Corey,” said Ava. “See, a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting near him and his friends in the stadium seats, and he didn't know who I was, and I heard him say that his dad predicted Coach would be fired if the team didn't have a winning season. So I sort of thought that was a mean thing for him to repeat. And I decided I didn't like him. And then I realized you
like
liked him.”

Alex put a hand to her forehead, nodding. It all made sense now. She remembered the conversation she'd had with Corey. “He told me about that. He told me what his dad said, but there was more to it. I think you didn't hear the whole thing.”

“I didn't?”

“No—he said his dad
did
say that's what people in the town were saying, but that his dad
thinks Daddy is an awesome coach and that people need to give him a season to
rebuild
.” She made air quotes with her hands.

“Oh,” said Ava. “I guess I shouldn't be so quick to judge people. I have a tendency to do that.”

“It's just part of your personality,” said Alex. “You're better at figuring people out than I am. In fact, maybe you can help me figure out what was up with Lindsey. I get the feeling she doesn't really like me, and I don't know why. I'm perplexed.”

“I might know,” said Ava thoughtfully.

“Really?”

“Well, yeah. Jack told me something else about Lindsey. He told me that she and
Corey
were really close, and by the end of last year it seemed like they were more than close. Like, they might be going out.”

“Okay, go on,” Alex said, listening carefully.

“Yeah, but then suddenly something happened and they weren't together anymore. That might have something to do with why she wasn't so nice to you. Maybe she still likes him. And knows he likes you. It's pretty obvious that he does. He gets all red and trips over stuff.”

Alex nodded anxiously. Maybe it
was
true, if Ava had noticed. Ava was almost never wrong about stuff like that.

“Jack thinks it might have been something that happened between Corey's parents and Lindsey's parents,” Ava continued. “Some kind of business deal. Jack didn't know much about it, but he thinks maybe Lindsey's family might be kind of short on money because the deal fell through.”

Alex buried her face in her hands. “Now I understand why she was not pleased with my comment about her outfit being
retro
. She probably thought I was teasing her about wearing hand-me-down clothes or something like that. Ugh. How on earth am I going to fix this?”

“I don't think you should worry about it,” said Ava. “I just—”

She stopped. There were loud voices coming from downstairs. It was Coach and Tommy. They were having a
shouting
argument.

Ava and Alex looked at each other and then they hurried out of the room to see what was going on.

They stopped at the bottom of the stairs. The shouting match was happening in the kitchen.

“Dad!” they heard Tommy say. “I don't care that much!”

“You have to care!” Coach shouted back. “I can't show favoritism toward you—don't you understand that?”

“I do!” said Tommy.

“That means you have to work four times harder than the next guy, and I'm just not seeing that, son!” said their dad.

Then they heard their mom. “Michael. Tommy.
Both
of you. Please.”

There was a low murmuring the girls couldn't hear. Then Tommy burst out of the kitchen. He stopped abruptly when he saw the girls standing side by side at the bottom of the stairs. Without a word, he pushed past them and ran up to his room.

A second later their parents emerged from the kitchen, their faces grim.

“Girls. Go play,” said their mom distractedly. She and their dad went into the office and closed the door.

Ava raised her eyebrows at Alex. They knew it was wrong to listen in on private conversations, of course. But they silently agreed to walk very, very slowly upstairs. If they overheard
something, well then, they did. It was rare that their parents argued. This sounded like a family issue, and they needed to be included.

“. . . under so much stress. Maybe this was a mistake,” they heard Coach say.

“It's Tommy's decision, Michael,” Mrs. Sackett said.

“Maybe I've ruined his chances, Laura. He was the star last year. I think that's why I'm pushing him so much.”

“Well, maybe you should
stop
—” Their mother must have realized her voice was getting shrill, because it suddenly dropped to a murmur. “
Murmur murmur murmur
do something fun, to bond with the team,” they heard their mother say.

“Laura, I can't do something like that,” said their father, the frustration rising in his voice. “The team wouldn't take me seriously, and I can't afford—”

“Shhhh!”

“Murmur murmur murmur.”

“Psssst,” whispered Alex, who was standing one step above Ava. “I think I just had an idea. A
stupendous
idea. Come on. Let's go find Tommy. We'll definitely need him for this.”

The following afternoon, another sweltering day, the team's afternoon practice ran until four. Alex and Ava had convinced first Tommy, and then their mom, that their plan would work.

“This is either a very good idea or a really, really terrible one,” said their mom anxiously, as she parked the car behind the stadium.

“It's a good one,” said Ava.

“A stupendous one,” added Alex.

Alex and Ava jumped out of the SUV and opened the back hatch. They pulled out two large bins and staggered from the parking lot toward the playing field carrying them. Their mom followed a few steps behind.

At the edge of the field, Ava set down her bin
with a grunt. Alex did the same. Both girls sat down on top of their bins and surveyed the scene.

The team was lined up for end-of-practice sprinting. It was still fearsomely hot, despite being after four, and Alex could see a lot of red faces and weary expressions. She spotted Coach Byron's kids and pointed them out to Ava.

“Hey!” Ava called to them, waving them over.

They dropped their coloring books and raced over to her, each giving her a big hug.

“We need your help,” said Ava in a conspiratorial tone.

“Ava, are you sure you want them involved?” asked their mom. “It's bad enough that you girls are implicated in this. I don't want
them
to get in trouble too.”

But it was too late. Jamila and Shane were jumping up and down excitedly without even knowing what the plan was.

“Tommy's going to give us the signal,” said Alex, without taking her eyes off the players in the field. “He's going to take off his helmet, put it back on, and take it off again. That's our cue.”

Their mother let out a low, anguished moan in response.

At last Coach blew the whistle, looking stern,
and the team converged on him and the assistants. The boys all took a knee and removed their helmets. Coach began talking to them.

Alex couldn't hear what he was saying. Probably the usual end-of-practice talk, but his expression was stern and his posture was ramrod straight, which Alex knew meant he was mad. His lecture seemed to go on and on. She wondered if he had even noticed they were there.

At long last, Coach ended his talk. Alex's muscles tensed. She stared at Tommy.

But no, now the other coaches had to have their say. More time passed. Alex felt drops of perspiration trickle down her neck. She pulled a hair tie off her wrist and expertly twisted her long hair—curly today—into a bun at the back of her head. Ava, on the other hand, had run her hands through her hair, making it spike straight up. Alex reached over and pulled a piece, giggling. Ava grinned back and shrugged.

At last, the boys stood up and formed a tight group. Tommy stayed toward the outer edge and glanced their way meaningfully. The team let out a loud series of rousing “Go! Go! Go!” shouts.

Tommy put his helmet back on. Then he took it off.

That was their cue.

Ava and Alex flung the lids off their bins.

The team's tight grouping moved apart. Guys turned toward the locker room. Coach stood near the center of the group, glancing down at his clipboard.

Ava pulled out two water balloons and handed a pink one to Jamila and a green one to Shane, along with a whispered instruction to wait for the signal. Then she handed a blue one to Alex and selected a red one for herself. Mrs. Sackett stood to the side, wringing her hands with anxiety.

They'd agreed ahead of time that Ava would throw first. She had the better arm by far.

She took a few steps into the field. Planted her right foot. Stepped with her left. Cocked her right arm and let the balloon fly.

Ava was, after all, her father's daughter. And her brother's sister. Even Alex could see she had inherited the Sackett Arm. Her aim was perfect.

SPLAT!

The balloon exploded against Coach's shoulder and burst, drenching the front of his shirt and a good portion of the papers on his clipboard.

He let out a startled yell and jumped backward as though he had been shot.

Everyone on the field froze. Alex felt as though all the blood in her veins had suddenly dropped fifty degrees. She heard a pounding in her ears.

A flash of green and then pink flew past her.

SPLAT!

Jamila's balloon hit Coach Byron squarely in the stomach. Shane's went wide, grazed another of the coaches, and burst when it hit the turf. Oblivious to the tension all around them, the kids erupted into peals of laughter.