Two Cool for School (13 page)

“We get to attempt the extra point,” said Ava. “The question is, are we going to kick for the extra point to tie, or are we going for two?”

“I certainly don't know,” said Kylie. “I'm going to sit down and put my head between my knees.”

Many people around them groaned.

“Did we lose?” asked Kylie, lifting her head back up.

“No. They're worried because we're going for two points. They think it's risky and we should take the tie.”

Time seemed to stand still again. Once more, the huge stadium got quiet.

Ava watched Tommy take the snap and fake a handoff to the running back. And then—

“It's a bootleg!” screamed Ava. “Tommy's running!”

Kylie jumped to her feet.

Ava gasped. “He's down—”

Tommy was buried under a mound of defense at the goal line.

Ava realized she hadn't breathed in quite some time.

There was utter silence in the stadium for what felt like the longest second of Ava's life.

Then the Ashland fans went crazy as the referee in the end zone raised both arms straight above his head.

Tommy had scored. The scoreboard clicked to twenty-one to twenty. The Tigers had won.

After the game the crowd swarmed the field. Tommy was carried off on the other players' shoulders. Coach was doused with the ice-water bucket. Ava was as delirious as everyone else, dancing with Kylie, hugging Alex, hugging her mom. Jack came running up to her and gave her a double high five. Even Ms. Palmer, the English teacher, gave the girls a big hug. It was a little weird being hugged by a teacher, Ava thought, especially one in whose class you'd flunked two quizzes. But she went with it.

“Don't forget that we're all going to Sal's for pizza!” Alex yelled into Ava's ear. “But not right away. I'll text you when we're all heading over!”

Ava gave her a thumbs-up. It was too noisy to have a real conversation, and she couldn't really put into words what she was feeling anyway, but she knew her twin felt it too. It was exhilaration,
relief, and something else, something neither probably knew how to explain. Ava wondered if it was a little bit of fear. The fear that this evening was short-lived, that every Friday night this season would be a new and fretful experience, and that like it or not, the two of them were going to be in the spotlight.

Kylie promised to show up at Sal's with only a little persuasion, and then went to find her sister.

Ava's throat had gone hoarse from all the cheering. She went in search of a drinking fountain. She was wandering in a semiquiet corridor of the stadium when she felt her phone vibrate. Her eyes widened. It was Tommy!

She hurried to a place in the corridor where the wall jutted out, squeezed herself into the corner, and answered.

“Tommy! Hey!”

“Hey yourself, dude. Pretty cool, huh?” It was extremely noisy in the background where Tommy was. Ava had to strain to be able to make out what he was saying. He was probably calling her from the locker room.

“Tom, that was an unbelievable game,” said Ava.

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “But things are a little messed up with the team. Hold on. I need to go into the trainer's office a second where they won't hear me.”

She heard the noise fade somewhat and a door close.

“That better?”

“Much. So what happened? What's going on with the team?”

“I'll tell you, Ave, but you can't go running to tell all your friends. This isn't something we want circulating on Ashland Middle School's social networks.”

“Duh, of course not,” said Ava, feeling slightly hurt. Tommy knew perfectly well that she was not a gossip.

“Not even Alex, okay? She's my sister and all, but I wouldn't be surprised if she put it into one of her campaign commercials.”

“Okay!” said Ava. Her curiosity was overwhelming. “Tell me what happened!”

“Coach is super mad at PJ,” said Tommy. “All game long he was running audibles at the line.”

“What are those again?”

“It's when the coach signals a play and then the QB calls a different play when he sees how
the defense is lining up. It's totally okay to do once in a while. But PJ did it the whole game. He kept running a different play from the one Coach wanted him to run. Like he didn't trust him or something, like he thought he knew better than Coach. And then during that final drive, he totally ignored Coach's signal to pass, and ran his own running play. So Coach finally yanked him.”

“Oh wow,” said Ava.

“Yeah, so it's great we won and all, but we've got some team stuff to work through.”

“Well, I'm really proud of you, Tom,” said Ava.

“Thanks,” said Tommy. “I'm enjoying the moment, but I don't know if I'm cut out for this kind of stardom.”

“I understand,” said Ava, and she did. She knew Tommy's heart was more in his music than football. “But enjoy the moment tonight, okay? Seize the day, as Alex has started saying. She learned about it in her English class for geniuses.”

He promised he would. As soon as the call ended, Ava got a text from Alex saying it was time for the pizza party.

Alex and Ava stood outside Sal's.

“I think the gang is already in there,” said Alex. “But it's just as well that we got here a little late. We can make an entrance.”

“I don't especially want to make an entrance,” protested Ava. “And I told Kylie she had to come even though she said she didn't want to. What if she's in there and has no one to talk to?”

“She'll be fine,” Alex assured her. “I think this is our moment, Ave. I mean, no matter what people really think of us—like Lindsey, who, by the way, I've managed to upset again—winning that game makes it all just fine, at least for one night. And not only is our dad the coach, but our brother was the star! Did you see him, Ave?”

Ava laughed. “Yep, I saw him, Al. I was there too. He was awesome.”

“You know what? I kind of, sort of get what you see in football. I was totally into the game. I've been reading up on the rules, and from now on I'm going to pay attention when you and Daddy and Tommy talk about the game.”

Ava smiled at her sister. “Thanks, Alex. I'm kind of, sort of starting to see your point about planning ahead. I've been trying to do stuff ahead of time and not wait till the last minute. And now that I'm in the right English class, I even like what we're studying. It's a strange feeling.”

“Good, but let's not think about all that stuff now,” said Alex. “Tonight we're going to be celebrities, whether we want to be or not. Personally, I'm looking forward to it. Come on. Let's go in.” Alex linked arms with her sister and took a breath, and in they went.

The restaurant was crowded with kids, mostly middle schoolers. Alex immediately spied Emily, Lindsey, Corey, Jack, and even Ava's friend Kylie, who was chattering away with a group of girls.

Suddenly a cheer rose up. Everyone had spotted the twins standing in the doorway.

A man in an apron ran over to greet them, and Alex deduced that he must be Sal. By this time Alex had stopped asking how people knew who she and her sister were. She was used to people in the town just knowing. Sal gathered the two alarmed girls into a huge bear hug. As soon as he'd released them, they were clapped on the back by so many people, so enthusiastically, that Alex had to suppress a small coughing fit.

“Free Cokes all around!” shouted Sal exuberantly, and an even louder cheer went up around the restaurant.

“Over here! Over here, Alex!” shouted Emily.

Alex waved back happily, glanced toward Ava, who nodded back to say
sure, go ahead,
and headed over to the group. As she sat down in a chair that had been hastily vacated for her, she saw Ava sit down next to Kylie.

The waiters and waitresses were busily weaving through the tables with laden trays, doling out the free sodas. Alex was swarmed with well-wishers, congratulating her on her brother's amazing game. Through a gap in the crowd, she and Ava caught each other's eye across the restaurant in a look of happiness and giddiness
tinged with a bit of apprehension. From across the restaurant, Alex raised her soda in a little toast and mouthed the words, “Seize the day!”

Just as Ava did exactly the same thing.

“Alex?”

No answer.

“Alex?”

Not so much as a twitch. Ava took a step into the room. The shades were up, but it was still dim and shadowy in her sister's bedroom, as the September sun had not yet risen.

“Al!”

Alex, a gray lump beneath the gray covers, mumbled something Ava couldn't hear and turned her back to her sister.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Ava strode in and sat down heavily on her twin's bed, causing the lump under the covers to give a little bounce. Then she pulled the pillow
out from under her sleeping sister's head.

Alex sat up, her long, curly hair wild, her hands groping blindly. “What? What! Time to get up! What day is it?” A second later, her eyes focused on Ava. Her expression turned from sleepy confusion to wide-awake panic. “Ava!” she whispered, throwing back the covers. “Did I oversleep?”

Ava stood up. She was glad Alex wasn't sick or anything, but this was still weird: Alex never overslept. She was always the first one up; annoyingly chipper in the morning, to the dismay of Ava, who was not a morning person, and their older brother, Tommy, who wasn't a morning person either.

“Yes, but you're not going to be late,” said Ava. “We have plenty of time before the bus comes.”

“Plenty of time!” repeated Alex as she flew to her chair and grabbed the clothes she'd laid out the night before. “Twenty minutes is not ‘plenty of time.' ” She headed toward the bathroom. “How could I have overslept today, of all days! I have seventy-eight signatures, and I still need twenty-two more by the end of the day.”

“Relax, Al,” said Ava. “Just don't spend
nineteen minutes on your hair today and you'll be fine.”

Ava heard her twin grunt and slam the door to the bathroom, which was between their bedrooms. A second later, she heard the shower going.

Ava stood and contemplated her sister's neat-as-a-pin bedroom, now bathed in pinky-gold tones as the sun rose in the eastern sky. Alex's clipboard was on the top of the tidy pile of books on her desk. She was running for seventh-grade class president at Ashland Middle School, and campaign petitions were due today. But today was a big day for both of them; she, Ava, had slept fitfully all night long and finally gotten up before her alarm had rung. This afternoon was the first day of football tryouts, and she was a combination of excited and nervous.

The kitchen was bustling when Ava entered. Coach Sackett had his orange Ashland Tigers hat on, his briefcase was near the door, and he had just finished packing the girls' lunches. Mrs. Sackett was still in her workout clothes—an oversize Patriots T-shirt and yoga pants—her long, curly hair pulled back into a ponytail. She had just come back from walking Moxy, the Sacketts' Australian shepherd. Tommy's mouth
was full—a common occurrence—as he downed what remained of his bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich and stood up from the table.

“Alex overslept,” announced Ava.

Coach froze in mid-swig of coffee.

Tommy stopped chewing.

Mrs. Sackett stood, holding Moxy's food dish.

They all gaped at Ava.

“Wow. Alex overslept?” said Tommy.

“Is she feeling sick?” asked Mrs. Sackett. Moxy thumped her tail loudly on the kitchen floor, waiting for Mrs. Sackett to set the bowl down.

“Nope, she's fine,” said Ava, pouring out her cereal. “She was probably up late texting with Emily about her campaign strategy.”

Coach grabbed his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Sackett good-bye on the cheek, and leaned across the table to ruffle Ava's already-mussed-up hair.

“Hey, careful there, Coach. I worked hard on my hairstyle this morning,” said Ava. She twirled a piece of short, curly brown hair around her finger and laughed.

“Good luck at tryouts today, darlin',” he said, heading for the door. “Remember to stay low and move those feet.”

Ava grinned. “I will, Coach. I will.” Was his
Texas accent re-emerging? He had grown up near Ashland but had lived in the Northeast for most of his adult life. They'd been back in Texas for several weeks now, and Ava was starting to detect an accent creeping back into his voice. Subtle stuff—like dropping the g's on his –ing word endings. She made a mental note to ask Alex if she had noticed this too.

Alex hurried into the kitchen just after Tommy and Coach had backed out of the driveway and driven away. Her expression was frazzled, but the rest of her looked as smooth and put-together as ever. “Mom, no time for breakfast,” she said, picking up her lunch and swinging her backpack onto her shoulder. “I need to get to the bus stop in time to plan my strategy. I need seventh graders to sign my clipboard.”