Lucy’s “Perfect” Summer (15 page)

“She’s started cussing.”

“Nuh-uh!”

“The girls on her team do it.”

“They’re in fourth grade!”

Lucy knew she was overdoing the exclamation points, but this discussion screamed for them. J.J. shrugged.

“I haven’t been helping you with her,” Lucy said. “Maybe that’s why.”

“Mustard,” J.J. said.

“Huh?”

He pointed to the counter. “Now she’s getting mustard.”

Januarie was indeed stuffing yellow plastic packets into the back pockets of her shorts.

“She looks like she’s growing an extra — ”

“Don’t say it, J.J.” Lucy put her hand over her mouth, but a large guffaw splattered out anyway.

“How many condiments do you need for ice cream?” Felix Pasco leaned on his glass counter between the stack of menus and the jar where people put their tips.

“Busted,” J.J. muttered.

“What are condiments?” Januarie said.

“All that mustard and ketchup you just took.” Felix shook his square head, but he still looked more sad than mad as far as Lucy could tell. “You would be welcome to all that I have.
Mi casa es su casa.”

“Huh?” Januarie said.

Felix just moaned on. “But now I have to watch every penny. Times are hard,
muchacha
.”

Lucy remembered where she’d heard that before. Dad and Mr.

Auggy told her that when she got so angry about the big corporation that was trying to bribe people like Felix out of their votes against the soccer field.

“He’s not gonna bust her if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Lucy looked at J.J. in surprise. He was watching her and speaking without even moving his lips.

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she mumbled back.

She jerked her head toward the door, and they both slipped out while Felix was still lecturing Januarie about the economy. Lucy was sure Januarie didn’t know what that was either.

“Let’s go to our soccer field,” she said.

“Sheriff said not to,” J.J. said, even as he took two long-legged strides toward Highway 54.

“That was right after the flood. I think it’s okay now.”

“Race ya, then.”

They ran almost the whole way, and Lucy guessed they’d gotten to the tumble-down bleachers before Januarie even knew they’d left the cafe. She would probably talk Felix into two scoops after all. Lucy leaned over to catch her breath.

“Why’d you want to come here?” J.J. said.

“I don’t know.” Actually she did, but she wasn’t quite sure even J.J. would understand that she just wanted to let the field know somebody still cared about it.

“I liked playin’ here.” J.J. ‘s voice squeaked on the ‘here.’ “Better than camp.”

Lucy nodded. Maybe it wasn’t as slick as High Noon, but it was their place — their safe place.

“You cryin’?” J.J. said.

“Hello! No!” Lucy smeared at her eyes with the heels of her hands and turned her face to the refreshment stand. Someone had taken all the fallen-down parts and put them in a pile, leaving the building where their fans had once bought Felix’s nachos and Claudia’s chocolate soccer balls looking naked and embarrassed. The splintered lumber from the bleachers was also in a neat stack, which made it easier to see that the metal frame that had once held them together was still standing as if it were waiting to be covered in seats once more.

Lucy went to it and ran her hand along the metal. She might even have told it she would make sure it got fixed, right out loud, if J.J. hadn’t been there. And if her hand hadn’t caught on a sharp edge.

“Yikes!” she said as she drew it back. Blood beaded from her palm and trickled toward her wrist. She stuck it up to her mouth.

“What?” J.J. said.

“I cut myself.”

“Bad?”

“Nah.”

Lucy took another look at her hand and pressed down on it with her other thumb. She hadn’t been a tomboy all her life without seeing a little blood once in awhile. J.J., meanwhile, examined the metal.

“Wind didn’t do it,” he said.

“Huh?”

Lucy forgot her hand and leaned in to look. The metal was cut and bent, and not just there but further down, and on the next support, too. With a chill, she remembered Dad and Mr. Auggy talking again.
I’m thinking something more than the storm hit it,
Mr. Auggy had said.

“Did it get hit with something?” Lucy said to J.J.

J.J. didn’t answer. He was walking over to the stack of ruined wood, and when he got there, he kicked at it, knocking it over. He pawed through it with his foot.

“What are you looking for?’ Lucy said, though she had a feeling she already knew. “Is it that tire thing we found before? You think somebody used that to tear up what the wind left? ”

J.J. still didn’t answer. He just kept shoving wood around, first with his feet and then with his hands, until the way he was throwing it started to scare Lucy.

“I don’t think it’s here,” she said, She swallowed hard. “Maybe we shouldn’t be either.”

J.J. pulled back his arm and hurled a short, smashed board so hard it slid a long time on the dusty ground and set up an anxious swirl of dirt around it. Lucy could taste it on her dry tongue.

“Come on, J.J,,” she said. “I don’t want to be here. “

Finally he grunted and followed Lucy back to the road. They trudged along saying nothing until Lucy couldn’t stand it any longer.

“You know what I bet?” she said. “I bet it was those evil people that want to build the mini-market. I bet they came after the storm and smashed it all up so we’d all think the wind did it.”

“It wasn’t them,” J.J. said.

Lucy stopped in the middle of the bridge over the creek and stared at his back as he kept going.

“How do you know?” she said.

“I just do,” he said.

Without looking back at her he waved his arm for her to come on.

She hurried to catch up, but she already knew this conversation, too, was over.

It seemed like nothing ever got where it needed to go any more.

11

“Ready for a little Knockout, ladies?” Coach Neely said Wednesday morning.

“That depends on who gets knocked out,” Waverly said. She surprised Lucy with a smile.

“You don’t know that game?” Rianna looked at Coach Neely — probably to make sure she was still impressed with her. “It’s where you find, like, a wall, and mark off a goal area, only we’d have to do it with cones, and then — ”

Coach Neely threw her arm around Rianna’s neck. “Sorry, Rianna, but we’re going to use a real goal and a real goalie. Who wants to volunteer to play goalkeeper first?”

Rianna only looked miffed for a second. Then she said, “I’ll do it” like she was offering the team a huge favor.

“Oh, brother,” Patricia muttered to Lucy.

On the other side of her, Taylor gave Lucy her snort.

“Line up, team,” Coach Neely called out. “The first person takes a shot at the goal. If Rianna blocks it — ”

“Which I will,” Rianna put in.

“The next person has to get the rebound and try to one-touch it into the goal, and so on. Got it?”

“Huh?” Sarah said.

“Yeah, we’ve got it,” Rianna said.

Coach Neely blew her whistle.

Kayla gave Lucy a tiny push. “You go first. She’s not gonna try anything with
you.”

Lucy was sure Rianna wasn’t going to try anything at all, not now that she’d made such a big deal out of Fair Play. Lucy even smiled at her as she studied her position. Rianna was already on one knee, as if she knew Lucy was going to send in a ground ball. Lucy ran up on the ball and lobbed it into the air over Rianna’s head. It bounced cheerfully into the goal.

“Heads-up, Rianna!” Coach Neely said. “You showed your opponent what you were expecting her to do.”

“I know,” Rianna said through tight teeth and kicked the ball — hard — toward the line of players.

So much for Fair Play.

Rianna didn’t allow another ball to get past her, and by the time it was Lucy’s turn again, Lucy could tell she was getting tired.

“You want me to be goalie now?” Lucy said to Coach Neely.

“What?” Rianna said. “No, try to score on me, Rooney.”

“Remember, this is about practicing rebounds,” Coach Neely said.

Lucy dribbled the ball away from the goal, passed it to Bella, and let Bella pass it back to her. She could feel Rianna watching her, trying to guess what she was going to do. She stood in the middle of the goal, slightly crouched, looking ready for anything. She really was a great soccer player. If only they could work
together.

“Shoot it already!” Rianna yelled at her and stood straight up.

Up. Tall.

Lucy didn’t take the time to set up her shot. She sent a ground ball along the edge of the goal. Rianna had to dive for it and just missed snagging it before it slid into the back corner. Behind Lucy, the team cheered like they were competing in the Euro Cup. Rianna scrambled up, face twisted into a red knot.

“That’s not fair! There aren’t any defenders! You can’t expect me to do this all by myself!”

“Rianna, it’s not about that.” Coach Neely came toward them, sunglasses on top of her head. “I said we’re just practicing rebounds.”

“Make
her
be goalie then.” Rianna jabbed a finger toward Lucy.

But Coach Neely shook her head. “I think I’ll be goalie. That will be fair to everybody.”

“We’re all about Fair Play, right?” Sarah said to Rianna as she punched herself into the line.

“Whatever,” Rianna said, and sent Lucy a look that slithered through her like a worm.

At lunch, Lucy let out a long, relieved breath when she saw Rianna head away from their table.

“What is
with
her?” Sarah said, flipping her very long ponytail over her shoulder.

Taylor’s black eyes narrowed. “We had a girl like her on our team at home. She was totally bossy. We were so glad to see her go.”

“What happened to her?” little Kayla said.

“We killed her.”

“What?”

“No you did
not!”

“Nuh-
uh!”

“Just kidding!” Taylor smiled so big she showed every one of her too-many teeth. “But trust me, we wanted to at least put her down the garbage disposal.”

Patricia pushed her out-of-control hair back tighter into her headband and pointed at Lucy. “What do you think we should do about her?”

“Me?” Lucy said.

“We can’t just let her ruin our whole team.” Patricia looked around the table. “Right?”

Only Bella shook her head.

“What?” Sarah said to her.

Bella held up one of Rianna’s blue fliers.

“What?”
Taylor said.

Bella just looked at Lucy. Everybody did.

“The Fair Play Code,” Lucy said.

Taylor snorted. “Which Rianna totally doesn’t believe in. She’s up to something.”

Lucy studied the peanut butter and pickle sandwich Dad had packed for her.

Patricia squinted at her. “You know something, don’t you?”

“EWWWWWW!”

All heads snapped to the far end of the picnic area, where it looked like the junior girls’ team had just shaken all the members out of their seats. Even from six tables away, Lucy could hear them squawking —

“Gro-oss!”

“Nasty!”

“Oh, no, you did
not!”

Laughter laced the voices, all except one. A chubby child, even plumper than Januarie, stood in the midst of the squealers, twisting as if she were trying, unsuccessfully, to see her own backside. As the other girls pointed and gasped and howled, she opened her mouth and squalled, “I didn’t poop my pants! You put mustard in my chair!
You — ”