Split Decision (10 page)

“Please,” Alex begged.

“Sure. Taking the Sackett twins to the food court seems to be my mission in life.” Luke grinned.

“Ten minutes,” Tommy warned. “You better be at the entrance then or you are on your own explaining this to Mom. I am not getting blamed.”

Alex hurried Luke through the mall. Her eye landed on a mannequin wearing the cutest striped sundress and hoodie combo in the window of Spruce, but she kept moving. Shopping would have to wait. She was on a mission.

She slowed as they neared the food court. She immediately spotted Corey's dark-red hair, Andy's spiky blond crew cut, and the Fowler twins' floppy brown bangs. It didn't hurt that they were all dressed in identical Tigers jerseys.

“So are we going to eat?” Luke asked. “I've got some cash.”

Alex bit her lip. Could she drag Luke with her to talk to Corey or would that be weird?

Weird, she decided.

“See that guy over there?” She pointed to Corey. He stood with the guys by the curly fries stand. “I'm going to run over and talk to him. It's
kind of private. Could you, uh, hang back?”

Luke wiggled his eyebrows. “What is going on here? Are you going to start engraving bookmarks too?”

“Far from it,” Alex assured him. She tightened her coat around her, as if shielding herself, and headed toward Corey.

Tim spotted her first. “Hey, Alex! What's up?”

“Nothing. Just shopping.” She dug her hands into the pockets. “Uh . . .” She took a deep breath. “Corey, can we talk?”

Corey studied her for a moment, then shrugged. “Sure.”

She tilted her head, indicating that he should step away from his friends.

“Ohhhh! She wants privacy!” Andy made gross kissing noises.

Alex rolled her eyes. Andy was such an idiot.

She stepped behind a stand-up sign advertising tropical smoothies. Corey followed. Luckily, Andy stayed back with Tim and Greg. Now that she was here with Corey, she felt her nerve going. She studied the pattern of rhinestones on the toes of her ballet flats.

“So?” Corey prompted.

She raised her head, and they locked eyes.
Oh, wow! She thought about how great his eyes were for the millionth time. Dark blue like the water in a swimming pool on a cool day.

“So.” Alex had no idea where to begin.

“You wanted something?” Corey leaned against the sign, and they both watched it teeter. He steadied it.

“I wanted . . .” What did she want? She wanted to go out with him. “Do you like me?”

“What?” Corey startled at the directness of her question. She was startled by it too. Had she really asked
that
?

“I mean, I thought you liked me.” For a moment, her statement hung large in the air.

Corey's face flushed. “Yeah, well, yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Corey studied the list of ingredients in the tropical smoothie.

He liked her! He did!

“So? I mean, what happened?”

“It's just that—”

“Alex.” She felt a tap on her shoulder. She spun around to find Luke pointing to his phone. “We need to go.”

“Oh, hi. One minute, okay?” She turned back to Corey.

Corey stared at her, his face filled with disbelief. Then he frowned.

“It's just . . . ,” she prompted him. Finally she was going to find the answer to the mystery.

“It's just nothing. He's waiting.” Corey's voice came out icy.

“But . . .” Alex fumbled, acutely aware of Luke listening to every word. “So . . . are we good?”

“No.” Corey shook his head, then walked away. When he joined Andy, Tim, and Greg, they immediately left the food court.

Alex started after him, but Luke stopped her. “Tommy is waiting with your mom and Ava. We've got to go.”

Alex watched Corey. He never looked back.

“I don't get him,” she said quietly to Luke.

“Boys are weird,” he agreed.

Ava waited until Coach swallowed his first bite of supreme pizza before she spilled the story of the super team and the Kellys' deception. As she spoke, Tommy and Mrs. Sackett exclaimed and ranted, but Coach stayed silent. He merely nodded and chewed thoughtfully.

Ava wasn't sure what this meant. She shared a questioning look with Alex. “I'm sorry we didn't tell you this part before.”

“We never thought he'd leave. We didn't want to upset you over nothing,” Alex added.

“Bad call. PJ's leaving sure isn't nothing,” Tommy quipped. “Maybe if Coach knew, he could've stopped him.”

“We're really sorry.” Ava glanced at Alex. She was sure her twin would be angry with her, but she had to ask. “Are we in trouble?”

“It goes back to trust and honesty,” Coach said.

“We get that. We
really
do,” Ava said. She wondered why Alex was staying silent. Why wasn't she fighting harder not to be punished?

“How about you girls make dinner one night this week?” Mrs. Sackett suggested.

“Totally!” Ava smiled at Alex. That wasn't bad at all. Her twin had to be happy. Now she could go to the movies with Corey.

“PJ should try some trust and honesty,” Tommy muttered.

“I talked to him today,” Ava said, reaching for another slice.

“PJ? Why would you do that?” Tommy cried.
“Everyone at school froze him out.”

“He was at my game,” Ava explained. “You know, he didn't seem super excited about transferring to Saint Francis. His dad is making him do this. You should talk to him, Coach.”

“Look, there's nothing I can do if Mr. Kelly has his mind made up, and believe me, I've tried. All day, I've tried. I'm not calling PJ blameless. The boy is almost eighteen, and he needs to start making himself heard, but I don't live under his roof, so I don't know how things are done at his home.” Coach turned to Tommy. “Neither do you. There is no reason not to talk to him.”

“But what about the super team?” Alex asked.

“My team won state—if that doesn't make us the super team, I don't know what does,” Coach scoffed.

“I'm telling the other players about this. They can't keep thinking that you forced PJ off the team,” Tommy said.

“That's so unfair,” Alex protested. “I mean, logically, why would the coach force his best quarterback off his team?”

“Oh, thanks!” Tommy clutched his heart. “Nice to support your brother.”

“I didn't mean that you weren't—”

Tommy jumped in before she could finish. “Dion is coming back next week. He's been cleared to play. He'll be QB1 now. All's good. I'm happier at number two.”

“You know, you have the talent to play QB1 if you would only apply yourself and focus,” Coach started.

“Yeah, yeah.” Tommy stopped him. Ava—and Coach—knew his heart wasn't fully into football. He loved playing piano and making music, too. But now wasn't the time to get into that.

“Do you think other players will go to Saint Francis too?” Ava asked. “If Mr. Kelly said they're looking to recruit a new team?”

“I hope not.” Coach folded his napkin and sneaked a piece of crust to Moxy under the table. “We'll have to wait and see.”

“We can't wait! We need to do something to make sure they all stay,” Ava said. Suddenly she was angry at herself for not jumping in earlier. Maybe she could've made PJ stay. He seemed like he wanted to.

“It's hard to compete with Saint Francis,” Alex pointed out. “Did you see the water fountains in their halls? They have buttons to choose different flavors of water!”

“Seriously?” Tommy's eyes widened. “I heard they give every student a customized laptop
and
a watch-computer!”

“I bet they buy the students robots to do their homework, too,” Mrs. Sackett added with a laugh.

“And program the robots to do the football practice sprints,” Tommy suggested. “If they do that, I'm in!”

Ava listened as her family laughed and poked fun at fancy Saint Francis. She wondered what PJ and Tamara would make of them. She tried to imagine dinnertime with Mr. Kelly and Mrs. Baker and gave a little shudder. She was glad she was a Sackett.

Then she had an idea.

“You know how you said the football team is just like a family?” she asked Coach. “We should make the guys part of our family too. We should invite them to dinner. You haven't had a team-bonding event in a while.”

“That's actually a good idea,” Mrs. Sackett said. “I think it would do the team and the town good to see Michael Sackett relaxed and off the field.”

“I can cook,” Coach offered.

“Me too,” Tommy chimed in.

Ava wrinkled her nose. “I think not.”

“I have a better idea. We can have a big barbecue here in our backyard.” Alex jumped up and found a pad of paper and a pen. “Okay, how many hamburgers will a team of football players eat?”

“You'll make your famous chocolate chip cookies,” Mrs. Sackett told Coach. “We can even make the barbecue a monthly thing.”

“Tommy's jazz trio can play music,” Alex suggested.

“Should we invite PJ?” Ava asked after they'd planned the menu.

Coach shook his head. “That ship has sailed. Let's concentrate on the boys who are committed and focused.”

But Ava wasn't ready to give up on PJ just yet. There were still six months until the first fall kickoff. Maybe she could find a way to get him back. Maybe Alex would help. Alex was good at fixing things.

Later that night Ava pushed open Alex's bedroom door. “Hey, Al!”

“Knock much?” Alex lay on her bed, reading her English book. She scooted over for Ava to join her.

“That went okay, right? No grounding.” Ava rested her head on Alex's pillow. She reached for Alex's stuffed bunny and began to toss it. She couldn't help it. Whenever she saw the bunny, she just had to toss it.

“I was kind of hoping we'd get grounded,” Alex confessed.

“Really? Why?” Ava cradled the bunny and faced her twin.

“Then I would have an excuse why I wasn't going on Friday. I'd just tell Emily and Lindsey that I was grounded. I could blame Mom and Dad,” Alex said.

“But why?”

Alex told her about Corey blowing her off. Not once. Not twice. But three times!

“That's harsh,” Ava agreed. “But Corey's a good guy.” Ava had played football alongside Corey. She'd done sprints in the mud with him and push-ups in the grueling heat. Of all the boys on the team, he'd always been one of the nicest and most easygoing. “It doesn't make sense.”

“It makes sense if he doesn't like me anymore.” Alex thought for a moment. “I'm going to tell everyone that my parents won't let me go to the movies. Corey hasn't told anyone yet, as far
as I know, so he probably won't care what I say. We're grounded, okay, Ave? Back me up.”

“Sure.” Ava had gone along with plenty of Alex's crazy schemes in the past—saying she was grounded when she really wasn't was not a big deal at all. “But after everything that's happened this week with PJ and Coach, I'm not sure lying is the best idea.”

“Everyone's going to think I'm a loser if I tell the truth,” Alex moaned.

“Maybe they'll think Corey's the loser,” Ava suggested. “For not going out with you.”

“Really? Corey?”

Ava nodded. Alex had a point. Corey was one of the most popular guys in school. Everyone liked him, whereas right now, it wasn't that cool to be a Sackett.

“We can fix this,” Ava insisted.

“How? I've tried,” Alex put her hands over her eyes. “I'll never have a boyfriend.”

Ava tossed and caught the bunny a few more times. The PJ mess involved a lot of adults and a private school with big money. She had no idea how to solve that. The Corey mess was just Corey, and she and Corey were pals. “Don't worry, Al. I've got this.”

“No! Don't talk to him. It's over. I'm fine,” Alex insisted.

“But—”

“Seriously! It's too embarrassing if I send my twin. It's like I'm begging him to go out with me.” Alex sat up. “Promise me you won't.”

Ava stood. She pulled the pink coat from the back of Alex's desk chair and draped it over her shoulders. “I kind of like this, after all. Can I borrow it again?”

“Fine, whatever.” Alex gritted her teeth. “You didn't promise.”

“What? Oh, that.” Ava wasn't going to make a promise she couldn't keep.

“Ava!” Alex cried.

Ava twirled, watching the coat billow like a superhero cape. Then she flew out of the room.

“Promise!” Alex called.

But Ava was already across the hall and in her own room. She closed her door. She would confront Corey tomorrow.

“Think fast!” Tamara turned the corner and bulleted a basketball at Ava.

Ava caught it easily. She dribbled it around her legs as Tamara jogged over. “Why aren't you in the locker room?” Tamara asked. “We have practice.”