Live Love Lacrosse (5 page)

Chapter 7

It’s Embarrassing

SUNDAY MORNING CAME way too early, and she wasn’t even out of bed
when her mother called up the stairs.

“Addie, your friend Kimi is here.”

Addie sat up, regretting each movement as her muscles screamed in
protest. “Be right down, Mom.”

She hurriedly got ready and made her way
down the stairs as fast as her sore muscles would allow. Kimi was sitting at
the table with Mom. Grandma and Troy were nowhere in sight.

“Hey, Kimi,” Addie said.

“Are you ready to work out?” Kimi’s eyes were bright and
expectant. “Brooke is bringing an extra pair of cleats for you to borrow.”

“Mom, is it okay if I go to the park with Kimi?” Addie held her
breath and willed her mother to say no. She kind of wanted to sit on the front
porch and read her
Star Trek
book in peace, aching muscles and all.

“Sure. I’m glad you’re making friends.” Her mother smiled at Kimi.
“But you should have breakfast before you go, shouldn’t you?”

Without waiting for an answer, her mother headed toward the cereal
cabinet. Addie had to do something. She didn’t want Kimi to see the cabinet
filled with the sugary cereal because Kimi might disapprove.

“I’ll just have a banana or something,” she blurted.

Her mother burst out laughing. “Good luck finding anything healthy
in this house.” She glanced out the window and then her eyes grew wide.
“Grandma’s back from the store.” She winked at Kimi. “Don’t tell her what I
said about the healthy stuff, okay?”

“Sure, Mrs. Coleburn,” Kimi said and winked back.

Troy bounded through the screen door lugging two grocery bags.
“Grandma bought us soda, Addie. Look. He pulled out a three-liter bottle of
Price Chopper root beer.

“Awesome,” Addie said, hoping Grandma had
bought more potato chips to go with the soda. She introduced Kimi to her
grandmother and to Troy. “We have to get going, you guys.”

“Can I go with you?” Troy asked.

“No, I don’t want to have to watch you.”

“Addison Coleburn,” Grandma said in a fierce tone, “you have to
involve your brother more. He will go with you, and you will make sure he stays
out of trouble.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kimi stood up, clearly uncomfortable by the exchange. “Hey, we’d
better go. I told Brooke we’d be there by ten o’clock, and it’s almost ten
now.”

Addie groaned. That meant Kimi would want to run all the way
there. And they both knew she couldn’t make it all the way.

Just as Addie had predicted, she ran out of
steam at the 7-11.

“You guys go on without me,” Addie said, huffing and puffing. She
leaned over with her hands on her sore thighs.

“See you later, Lardo,” Troy said with a smack to Addie’s arm. He
kept running toward the park.

Kimi frowned after him. “You shouldn’t let him talk to you like
that.”

Addie frowned and shrugged. How could she stop him? It was true.
She was a lardo.

“Anyway, the best thing to do is to keep moving. C’mon.” Kimi
slowed down her pace so Addie could keep up. Reluctantly, Addie followed.

Brooke was already there, geared up and ready to go. She handed
the extra pair of cleats to Addie without a word as if she was doing so under
protest. Addie thanked her, of course, and tried them on. They were a little
big, but they felt good.

As they stretched together, Addie caught a glimpse of her brother
at the basketball courts watching the bigger boys play. At least he was staying
out of her hair. She’d hate for him to call her names in front of Brooke, too.

“Ooh.” Addie winced when she reached down to touch her toes.

“Sore?” Kimi asked.

Addie nodded.

Brooke leaned close. “You should stretch a little more while Kimi
and I run.”

“Okay.” Addie watched them jog down the sideline.

“Stretch slowly,” Kimi called back over her shoulder. “You don’t
want to strain your muscles.”

“Okay,” Addie called back.

She had no intention of straining her muscles. She’d had no
intention of using them at all, but all of that had changed when Kimi entered
her life.

As her friends jogged around the field, Addie
heard them talking.

“She can’t even touch her toes. Why is she trying out for the
team?” Brooke said. “She can’t play lacrosse. That’s a joke.”

“So she’s a little out of shape,” Kimi said. “So what? I like her.
She’s nice.”

“Jeeps, Kimi, if she’s gonna hang around with us, at least get her
in shape or something.” Addie heard Brooke’s groan clear on the other side of
the field. “It’s embarrassing.”

Addie joined them in their laps and afterward turned away from
Brooke to hide how out of breath she was.

Kimi pulled a couple of lacrosse balls out of her bag. “C’mon,
let’s have a catch while Brooke sets up her goal.”

They stood several yards apart and Kimi tossed her the ball. Addie
smiled when the ball actually hit the pocket in her stick head, but then
frowned when it bounced out.

“Addie, think of it like catching an egg in an egg toss. You have
to have soft hands and
receive
the ball. You know? Give with it?”

Following Kimi’s advice, Addie was much more successful keeping
the ball in the stick head. Kimi also showed her how to pick the ball up off
the ground with her stick by thinking about it as if she were scooping up
cigarette ashes off her grandmother’s front porch with a dust pan. Addie wasn’t
perfect at it, but it felt so much better than the other day when she’d tried
it.

Brooke was huffing her impatience at one end of the practice
field, so Kimi took off running with a ball in her stick. She moved the head of
the stick from side to side and Addie couldn’t figure out why the ball wasn’t
falling out. It looked weird and cool all at once, and when Kimi took a shot on
the goal and scored against Brooke, Addie had to try it. She scooped up a ball
the way Kimi showed her and tried to keep it in the stick as she ran toward the
goal. The ball kept falling out, so she had to scoop it up again. She realized
that the back and forth motion that Kimi had done as she ran toward Brooke must
be the secret to keeping the ball in the stick. Determined to show Brooke that
she could play lacrosse and that she wasn’t an embarrassment, Addie moved the
head of her stick back and forth as she resumed her jog toward the goal. She
got close, and Brooke turned her attention to Addie and thumped her chest with
a gloved hand.

It was a challenge, and Addie knew it. She pulled her stick back,
slid one hand down toward the butt like Kimi had showed her, and sent the ball
flying straight at Brooke.

“Denied!” Brooke shouted as she caught the ball in her stick. “Is
that all you got, Addie?” She grinned at her, but it wasn’t a nice grin. Her
eyes were fierce like she was ready to attack at any second. It was kind of
scary.

Addie turned away as tears formed in her eyes. Why did Brooke have
to be so stupid all the time? She brushed her tears away and set her chin.
She’d show Brooke.

Kimi ran over as if she knew Addie was upset. “Addie, that was
awesome. It looked professional.”

“Thanks.” Addie couldn’t meet Kimi’s eyes.

“Yeah, right,” Brooke said and pounded her
chest again. “C’mon, Kimi, give me some real shots. My goal is to deny yours.”

There was no fun over the next half hour as Kimi and Addie took
turns shooting on goal. Kimi was usually a happy person, but not now. She was mad.
Addie knew it and so did Brooke. Kimi’s shots on goal were fast and furious.
Even Addie managed to get a couple by Brooke which made her even more
determined to score.

“Okay, okay, guys.” Brooke put up both arms in surrender. “Let’s
take a water break and then you guys can work on Addie’s cradling because it
sucks.”

Addie would have been mad, but she couldn’t be because she had no
idea what cradling was.

They headed to the sideline where they had tossed their gear and
Addie was grateful for the water bottle Kimi handed her. She had to start
bringing her own, that was for sure. Wait, that meant she’d be playing again.
She checked in with herself. Did she really want to play lacrosse? Did she
really want to try out for the Owls? Maybe. And that was definite.

“Hey, Kimi.” Brooke held up her arm and flexed. Her bicep muscle
rose up into a mound. “Can you beat it?”

Not to be outdone, Kimi flexed. “Look at mine.” Her bicep was more
defined than Brooke’s.

“Nice, Kimi. Hey, Addie, let’s see yours,” Brooke challenged.

Addie rolled up her t-shirt sleeve and made a muscle. Nothing
happened. With her mind she willed a bump to form on her arm like Kimi’s.

Brooke burst out laughing. “Nice. Real nice.” She laughed again,
took another swig from her water bottle, and flopped to the ground to do
push-ups.

Kimi’s face was beet red. She leaned over to Addie and whispered,
“Hey, chillax about Brooke. Just do a million push-ups and your muscles will be
popping out in no time.”

Addie nodded, but couldn’t reply past the knot of tears building
in her throat. No, maybe she wouldn’t play lacrosse. If getting teased by
Brooke came with playing lacrosse, then why bother? She kind of wanted to pack
it in and go home right then, but Kimi would call her a quitter.

Did she care what Kimi thought? She looked over to the basketball
courts to see what Troy was up to. Wow, they were letting him play with them.
There was a break in the action and he looked in her direction. She gestured to
him to come over so they could go home. He shook his head and went back to the
game. And so she was stuck. Stuck playing a game she never wanted to play in
the first place.

Chapter 8

WWJD?

THE WAR INSIDE Addie started the day before at
the park when Troy shook his head from the basketball court telling her he
didn’t want to go home yet. It was Monday morning, one day later, and for some
reason she was jogging in place in her bedroom. The rhythmic sound of her feet
hitting her carpeted bedroom floor was soothing. She’d show Brooke she could play
lacrosse and she didn’t suck at cradling.

Addie laughed and jogged three steps to the window to look out on
the sunny July morning. Once Kimi told her what cradling was, she admitted that
she did suck at it, but that was only because she hadn’t learned how to do it
yet. Kimi ran her through some great drills to get the hang of it and she was
getting better.

Addie stopped jogging and sprang into jumping jacks. She couldn’t
do as many as Kimi and Brooke could. Not yet, anyway, but soon. And after she did
a zillion push-ups, she’d show Brooke her bicep muscles and Brooke would be
embarrassed at how small her own muscles were. She went back to jogging and
then started punching an imaginary Brooke in front of her like a boxer.

The door to her room burst open. “What are you doing in here,
Lardo? The whole house is shaking.”

“Shut up.” Addie continued jogging in place, but stopped boxing.

“Mom sent me up here to get you to stop. She said you were going
to crash through the floor into the kitchen.”

Addie groaned and stopped jogging. “Okay, whatever.” As soon as
the jerk left, she’d work on push-ups to make her biceps bulge. And maybe do
some sit-ups, too. She bent over and tried to touch her toes.

Troy bounded over. “This is how you do it.” He stood next to her
and not only reached down and touched his toes but took it one step further by
placing both palms on the floor. His legs were straight, not bent at all.

“Show off.” Addie nudged him with her shoulder.

He laughed and then climbed up to his bunk. “I’m in shape because
I skateboard and play basketball all the time. You just read. That’s why you’re
not in shape.”

“Shut up, jerk. I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” She
stood up and did some lunges and sit-backs that Kimi had shown her. She could
feel every single muscle that was used in playing lacrosse, and yikes there
were a lot of them.

“Why are you playing lacrosse anyway? You read and watch TV. You
eat junk food. That’s what you do. You don’t do sports.”

“I know, but it’s kind of fun.” Addie turned
away from him, grabbed her
Star Trek
book off her bed, and headed out
their shared bedroom door. If the jerk wasn’t going to leave, then she was. She
could do push-ups and sit-ups on the front porch.

As she headed down the hallway toward the stairs, he yelled, “You
don’t even have a lacrosse stick or cleats or the right clothes. You can’t play
sports in jean shorts.”

She hated to admit it, but he was right. She couldn’t keep
borrowing stuff from Kimi and Brooke, especially because Brooke didn’t like her
anyway. Whatever, she’d figure it out.

It was no surprise that Addie found her mother sitting on the
couch. She was watching a Monday morning talk show. She had taken to wearing
Grandma’s baggy jogging pants, even though neither of them had ever jogged a day
in their lives. They made good TV-watching clothes, apparently. Even though it
was weird seeing her mother lazing around on the couch instead of doing her
usual mom things like gardening or cooking or baking, Addie loved the fact that
her mom was finding time to relax. It was like her mom was in a self-imposed
time-out.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hey, honey.” To Addie’s amazement, she looked
away from the TV to gaze at her. “Are you going to the park to play with Kimi?
She seems like a nice girl. I’m glad you’re making friends.”

Addie hesitated. Should she ask? In a split second she decided
that she wouldn’t. She didn’t want to know if she and her dad were getting a
divorce and if they were really moving to Syracuse. “No, Mom, I’m just gonna
hang out on the front porch for a little while.” She waved her
Star Trek
Voyager
book back and forth. “I’ll probably read.”

“You and your grandmother, always reading. It skipped a generation
with me, I guess.” Her mother turned her attention back to the talk show.

Apparently their conversation was over, so Addie made a beeline
for the front porch. Grandma wasn’t due to come home from work until late
afternoon, so Addie had the front porch to herself. She threw her book on the
table, making sure it didn’t touch the ashes overflowing from the ashtray and
reached down to touch her toes. She tried to anyway. The tips of her fingers
reached to about where the knobbies on her ankles jutted out. Kimi told her
over and over again not to bounce or she’d pull muscles. Addie willed her
fingertips to reach lower, to touch the top of her foot maybe. She held in a
groan as her muscles strained, but to no avail. Her fingertips would go no
further.

“Whatever,” Addie said to no one.

She stretched her arms overhead and pulled back like the lacrosse
girls had done at Saturday’s practice. It felt good. No pain this time. Only a
little tension release.

She took a deep breath, knowing she was avoiding the task before
her. She raised her right arm and made a muscle, tried to anyway. Still no
bulge. Just fat.

“Whatever,” she said again.

She squatted down on the floor and lay back. She’d do a million
sit-ups before doing a million push-ups. She put her hands behind her head,
lifted her knees up, and used her stomach muscles to lift herself up, but she
could only go up a few inches. She scrunched her stomach muscles tight and
grunted as she lifted herself up a few more inches. Kimi said you were supposed
to lower yourself slowly and controlled, but Addie’s muscles gave out and she
crashed back on the hard wood of the front porch. She tried again, only to
reach the same pitiful height. On her third try she took her hands out from
behind her head and reached forward forcing herself up even further. She fell
back and threw herself up again several more times until she fell back
breathless.

After staring at the dirty porch ceiling for a while, she turned
over on her hands and knees and then lifted her knees off the ground into what
Kimi called a plank position. Since she couldn’t see herself, she couldn’t tell
if her plank position was “perfectly straight” like Kimi told her it should be.
Kimi had also said to do a million push-ups.

In order to get to a million, she had to
start with one. She let herself down gently all the way to the floor. With all
her might she pressed her hands against the floor and pushed with her arms.
Nothing happened. She kept pushing until her arms shook. She blew out a breath
in frustration and punched the floor with the side of her fist. She let her
arms relax. Okay, fine. She’d catch her breath and try again. With
determination, she pushed with all her might, but could not for the life of her
raise her body a fraction of an inch off the ground. She stopped pressing and
pounded the porch floor again.

“Whatever, whatever, whatever!” she yelled to the wooden floor.
Images of Brooke rolling her eyes and making fun of her lack of bicep muscles
sailed through her brain. “Jerk.”

The screen door opened and she leaped up into a sitting position.

“You know,” Troy said, “you don’t have to
start from the floor.”

“Shut up, Troy.” Why can’t pesky little brothers just stay out of
their big sisters’ business?

“I’m just saying that you could just lower yourself, like,
halfway, or just a couple of inches and then push back up. Keep doing that
until you can go further down. Didn’t you learn that in Phys Ed?”

“No.” She stood up and sat down hard in the glider. “What do you
care?”

His eyes grew dark. “I don’t, Lardo. Do
whatever you want. I’m outta here.” And with that he raced off the porch and
headed down the street toward the sound of a bouncing basketball.

“Whatever,” she said to his retreating figure.

Willing herself not to cry, she stomped into the kitchen and flung
open the refrigerator door. After pouring herself a glass of root beer, she
snagged the already opened bag of potato chips and headed back out to the
porch.

She settled onto the glider and opened her
book. Where was she? Oh yeah, the Kazon had Captain Janeway and her crew
surrounded and were about to board Voyager. “C’mon, Captain Janeway, blast ’em
with the phasers,” she said as she turned the page. “Oh, no.” Before any kind
of phasers were fired, the chapter ended with the Kazon taking control of the
bridge.

Addie closed the book and looked at the sky through a flapping
porch screen. She imagined Voyager out in space battling aliens. She reached
into the potato chip bag and took out a big chip. She held it up and examined
it. This one greasy chip probably wouldn’t make her any fatter, but one chip
always turned into a dozen which turned into the whole bag. She glanced at her
yet unsipped soda. Kimi would have a conniption fit if she saw Addie drinking
it. She could hear Kimi say, “We’re lacrosse players. We have to keep our
engines stoked.”

“Am I a lacrosse player?” Addie said to the potato chip she still
held in her hand. She looked back out at the sky. “What would Janeway do? WWJD?
What. Would. Janeway. Do?” She’d seen bumper stickers with those letters, WWJD.
She still wasn’t sure what they really stood for, but for now it meant
something to her. So really, what would Janeway do? One thing she knew for sure
was that Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager would find
a way to show whoever was bothering her how strong and mighty she was. She’d
show them how determined she was.

Addie flexed her bicep muscle. There was nothing there, of course,
so she pushed up from behind to make a bump. One day there would be something
there. And if Captain Janeway were in Addie’s place, she would lose weight and
would show Brooke and everybody how strong she was. She would show them she
could be a good lacrosse player. And because that’s what Janeway would do,
Addie would do it, too.

With slow and deliberate movements, Addie placed the chip back in
the bag. With as little sound as possible, she folded the top of the bag down
and clamped it shut with the clip. Picturing the smug look on Brooke’s face,
she heaved the bag across the porch where it smacked against the screen door
with a resounding and satisfying thump.

“That’ll show you, Brooke. You just wait.”