Live Love Lacrosse (2 page)

Chapter 2

But She’s Fat!

ADDIE DID HER best to keep up with the shorter, but faster walking
Kimi, but it was getting harder and harder.

“Hey, sorry.” Kimi slowed down. “I always walk fast.”

“That’s okay,” Addie said. “I don’t usually walk.”

Kimi flashed her a puzzled look.

“My mom drives us everywhere.”
And it shows, I guess.

“I saw you guys unloading all that stuff from your van last week.
Are you moving in? What happened to the grumpy old lady that lived there?”

Addie tried to hide her smile, but wasn’t too successful. “That
grumpy old lady is my grandma.” Grandma could be kind of grumpy. “She still
lives there. We’re staying with her for a while.”

“How come?” Kimi turned right onto Miner
Boulevard. She had slowed down so Addie could keep up, but it was still fast.

Addie didn’t want to say the words out loud, but she had to. “My
parents are having a huge fight. They, I don’t know, they might get a divorce.”
Okay, so that wasn’t necessarily true, but for some reason she wanted to
impress Kimi.

“That sucks.”

“My dad’s still back home in Watertown.”

“That sucks, too. Sorry about the grumpy crack about your grandma.
She’s kind of mean to us kids, though. She yells at us to be quiet and not
scare the birds at her feeders, but sometimes we have a catch in the street and
the ball goes into her yard. We can’t help it.”

Addie didn’t want to bad mouth her own grandmother, so she changed
the subject. “So, why do you play lacrosse?”

Kimi stopped walking so abruptly that Addie almost bumped into
her. “Why do I play lacrosse?” She turned slowly to face Addie, an almost
comical look of disbelief on her face. “Why?” she asked again.

“Yeah, why?” Addie wondered if going anywhere with this girl had
been such a good idea. She seemed a little crazy.

Kimi looked down at the ground, her
shoulders slumping as if she’d just lost her best friend. “Because to
not
play lacrosse would be to
not
live.” A smile crept up her face. “Life is
where I visit in between lacrosse games. C’mon,” she pulled Addie along by the
arm and started jogging, “Brooke’s waiting.”

Running of any kind wasn’t in Addie’s vocabulary, but she didn’t
want Kimi to know that she was out of shape, so she did her best to keep up.
They came up to a 7-Eleven, and Addie hoped maybe they could stop and get a
candy bar. She had a couple of bucks in her pocket and could buy Kimi one, too.
If Kimi would just stop running. Addie couldn’t breathe anymore. She stopped to
catch her breath.

Kimi looked back over her shoulder. “Meet me at the park. It’s
just up ahead.”

“Okay.” Addie leaned against the glass windows of the convenience
store and tried not to look as if she was out of breath. After a couple of
minutes, she felt like she could breathe normally.

The door to the store opened and a middle aged man stepped out. He
held the door open for her as if she had been about to go in. Why not? She
could get two candy bars. One for now and one for later.

After snarfing down a Baby Ruth, she wiped her mouth and ran her
tongue across her teeth so the evidence wouldn’t show. She didn’t want Kimi or
this Brooke girl to think she was rude not offering them any. She tucked the
other Baby Ruth into her back pocket snuggly. Hopefully no one would notice the
lump back there.

Addie took a more leisurely pace up Miner Boulevard and after what
seemed liked forever, finally reached the entrance to Webster Park. A
waist-high two-rail wooden fence surrounded the large park, and Addie wished
she could stop and play on the swings, but she saw Kimi waving to her from an
open field on the other side of the jungle gym. The other girl standing with
Kimi was tall and thin and had long strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a
braid. That must be Kimi’s friend Brooke. Supposedly Brooke also had a brother,
but he was nowhere in sight.

Addie waved back and headed toward her new friends. She navigated
her way through the horde of little kids running around the playground.

Addie stepped off the rubber playground
surface onto the grass and overheard Brooke say to Kimi, “That’s your new
friend?”

“Yeah,” Kimi nodded, “she just moved in on my street.”

“And she’s gonna practice with us?”

“Yeah.”

“But she’s fat.”

Addie’s stomach clenched. Why did that always have to be the first
thing people noticed about her?

“So what?” Kimi said. “You’re skinny. Who cares?”

Addie pretended she hadn’t heard the conversation and put a bigger
smile on her face than she felt.

“Hey, Kimi,” Addie said as if they’d been friends for twenty years
instead of twenty minutes, “this is a nice park.”

“We’re lucky no one’s on the field today,” Kimi said. The grassy
field was actually half grass, half dirt. It looked like it got a lot of use.
“Hey, Addie, this is Brooke.”

“Hey,” Addie said. “Nice to meet you.”

“Sure.” Brooke flicked her braid behind her. “Likewise.” She
plopped to the ground, put the soles of her feet together, grabbed her ankles,
and pulled them closer.

Kimi did the same, so Addie decided she’d try it, too. The moment
she sat on the ground, though, she regretted it. The candy bar in her back
pocket squished flat. Hopefully it would stay in its wrapper and not stain her
shorts brown in the back.

They contorted their bodies in all kinds of different ways that
Addie had never done before, but she did her best to keep up with their stretching
routine. The other girls were definitely more flexible than she was, and her
denim shorts weren’t helping either.

The summer sun felt great on her skin. Maybe she’d come back here
later to finish reading her
Star Trek
book. That tree by the playground
looked like a perfect spot. The grass had been newly mown, too and made the
park smell like summer.

Kimi leaped to her feet, so Addie did the same. Or tried to
anyway. It didn’t look as smooth, that was for sure, but she wanted to show
Brooke that even though she was a little overweight, she could still keep up
with them. She kept her back away from her new friends and took a quick look
behind her at her shorts. Nope, no brown stain. The candy bar was still in its
wrapper. A quick reach inside the pocket confirmed it. She’d gotten lucky. This
time. Next time maybe she’d have to stash the candy bar somewhere and come back
for it later.

“Hey grab that.” Kimi gestured to her extra lacrosse stick lying
on the ground. “Let’s have a catch while Brooke gets her gear on.” She turned
and sprinted down the field a few dozen yards.

Addie reached down for the extra stick and admired the dark brown
leather netting at one end. That was obviously the place where you caught the
ball. The long handle was smooth, black, and cool looking. She looked at Kimi
to see how to hold it.

“That’s it,” Kimi said. “Left hand down at the butt.”

Addie burst out laughing. “Really? It’s called a butt?”

“Yep. Right hand up here by the stick head.”

“The stick head is this net thingy?” She poked
at the leather.

“Yep.” Kimi nodded her approval as Addie placed her hands on the
stick. “That’s it.”

Addie had her hands in place, and it felt really weird.

“Ready?” Kimi asked.

Before Addie could answer, Kimi flung the small yellow ball toward
her. Addie squealed and did her best to catch the ball. Unfortunately it hit
the plastic part of the stick head and bounced away. Addie ran after it and
rolled it back to Kimi.

“Use your stick to throw it back,” Kimi
said. “Like this.” She scooped the ball up with her stick and flung it at Addie
again.

This time Addie didn’t squeal, but she completely missed the ball
and had to run it down. She hoped Kimi, and especially Brooke, wouldn’t notice
her cheeks turning red from embarrassment. What a stupid game this was. She put
the ball in the stick head as Kimi had done, and kept her hands far apart as
she tried to fling it. The ball dribbled out, hit the ground at her feet, and
rolled away. The only thing she succeeded in doing was looking dumb and
awkward.

“Try again,” Kimi said. “Put your hands
closer together like this when you throw.” She moved her top hand down a bit.

“Then what?” Addie was keenly aware that Brooke was watching them.
She could feel Brooke’s eyes burning holes in the back of her head.

“Throw it like you’re throwing a softball.”

Addie groaned.
Oh, great, because I’m so good at throwing
softballs, too
. She picked up the ball where it lay at her feet, took a
deep breath, and put it in the stick head. If she held the stick back a little
bit, the ball didn’t seem like it wanted to fall out as easily. In her head she
replayed what Kimi had done to toss the ball and pulled her stick back further.

Wanting to impress not only Brooke, but Kimi as well, Addie put
all her might into the stick head’s forward motion. Her hands seemed to work
against each other, but to her relief the ball flew in the air toward Kimi. It
bounced way before it reached her, but at least it was a start.

“Not bad, Addie,” Kimi called as she scooped up the ball with her
stick. She took a few steps forward and then suddenly spun around and changed
directions. She tossed the ball to Addie who was completely not ready and
missed it again. She had been watching Kimi run.

“Sorry.” Addie ran after the ball and tried to scoop it up with
her stick the way Kimi had done, but after three unsuccessful tries bent down
and picked the ball up. “Crud. I really suck at this,” she murmured under her
breath.

“Nice and easy this time,” Kimi said. “You don’t have to muscle
it. Let the stick do the work.”

Addie worked on passing the ball to Kimi and was getting fairly
okay with it. She never did catch one, but she didn’t have a chance to work on
it because Brooke barked, “Hey, I’m ready. Let’s go.”

She stood in front of a big net thing that Addie hadn’t noticed
earlier. The net was torn and looked like it had seen better days. Kimi said it
was the goal.

Addie and Kimi spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to throw
the ball with their sticks into the goal. The only problem was that Brooke was
trying to stop that from happening. According to Kimi, Brooke was a shoo-in to
be the starting goalie on their summer traveling team.

Addie reached down for one of the balls, she
still hadn’t quite figured out how to scoop them up like Kimi did. She waited
for Brooke to get ready. She wound up and aimed toward the top right corner of
the net where she’d seen Kimi get it past Brooke. Nothing doing. The ball
dribbled out of her stick head in front of Brooke, who looked annoyed and
picked it up with her big goalie stick. She tossed it back to Addie.

“Hey,” Kimi called to Brooke, “you need practice with those kind,
too, right?”

“Yep.” Brooke took off her face mask helmet thing. “Let’s get
water.”

Addie sat down and made sure to sit on her left butt cheek this
time, keeping the candy bar safe. She used the sleeve of her t-shirt to wipe
the sweat off her face. This lacrosse stuff was hard work.

Kimi handed her a bottle of water from her bag. She pulled another
one out for herself. “Not bad for your first time playing.”

Addie snorted. “Thanks, but I have no clue
what I’m doing.”

“That’s okay.” Kimi wiped her face with a towel that read Onondaga
Owls across it. “I’ll teach you.”

Brooke snorted and without a word, lay down on the ground, her
eyes closed.

Kimi cleared her throat, obviously aware of Brooke’s bad manners.
“Hey, Brooke, I think we should do some running before we go back to drills.
Coach Marks is going to kill us next Saturday with laps and sprints.”

Brooke groaned. “We only have a few more days to get ready. And
you know he’s gonna make me run with all my gear on, too.” She sat up, took
another long swig of her water, and got to her feet. “Three laps around the
whole field and then some sprints?”

“Sounds good to me.” Kimi jumped up.

Why would anyone be so excited to run? Addie
had absolutely no desire to join them in their self-inflicted torture.

“Run with us?” Kimi asked.

“Uh, I think I should get back home.” Dealing
with Troy the jerk at home was infinitely better than running. Addie got to her
feet slowly, careful not to squish the candy bar any further. She brushed the
dirt off the back of her shorts just to make sure the candy hadn’t burst in her
pocket. Nope. Still good.

“Okay, Addie,” Kimi said. “You should come to our real practice on
Saturday with the whole team. It’s a tryout, but Brooke and I played on the
team last year, so we should make the team, no problem.” The look on Addie’s
face must have been one of panic because Kimi quickly added, “You don’t have to
try out if you don’t want to; you can just hang around. I mean, you know, if
you want.”