Two Cool for School (5 page)

“I was just leaving,” said Coach, yawning and stretching as he stood up. “It's been a long day.”

“I know this is a tough week for you, and for
Mom,” said Alex. “What with her big order and everything. And next week's going to be even crazier, because of Thursday.”

“You're right, sweetheart,” he said. “It's a pretty tough stretch, but—wait. Next Thursday? You mean Friday, don't you?”

“No, Thursday. But don't worry. Ava and I will help you with the planning, won't we, Ave?”

He nodded. “Great. Thanks.” Then he paused. “So, um. What's happening on Thursday?”

Ava was also baffled. “Yeah. His first football game's Friday, not Thursday.”

Alex looked from one of them to the other, as though she wasn't sure if they were kidding. Then she clapped a hand to her brow and shook her head as though it pained her. She took a step into the room and dropped her voice. “Um, guys? Hello? It's Mom and Dad's anniversary next Thursday? Like, their twentieth?”

Coach's jaw dropped open as though it had become completely unhinged. He fell backward into the chair and looked from one girl to the other with a stricken face. “You're right, Alex. It's a week from Thursday. Holy cow. I completely forgot about our anniversary.” He massaged his temples. “And your mom has been so
overwhelmed lately with the team duties. I need to do something really special for her.”

Alex moved briskly toward Ava's bed and shoved the untidy heap of books and papers out of the way so she could sit down. She took out her phone and opened it up to the notebook app. “Don't worry, Daddy. Ava and I will take care of this,” she said.

Ava grinned. It was times like these that she loved her sister's efficiency and knack for planning.

“How about a nice romantic dinner for two?” asked Alex. She began typing away, searching the Internet.

“Um, great. Romantic dinner. Sounds perfect, Al.”

“Not a barbecue place,” Alex said firmly. “Mom only goes to those places because of you and Tommy and your desire for protein in the form of red meat. What about that adorable little French restaurant that we've passed on the way to the stadium?”

Ava moved from her chair and sat next to her sister, looking on with her. “I know which one you mean. It does look cool. I think it's called Le Pain,” she said.

Alex giggled. “It's not pronounced ‘pain,' ” she said. “You pronounce it ‘le pehn.' It's French, silly. It means ‘bread.' ”

“Okay, so, how about there, Coach?” said Ava. “It's fancy, and it's close. You can get to it right after practice. Alex and I can go there after school and make the arrangements and stuff, you know, make sure they know it's a really special evening and to give you a good table.”

“And flowers and candles,” added Alex.

Coach moved to the bed and took both girls into his strong arms and gave them each a kiss on the head. “You guys are the greatest. I don't know what I'd do without my girls,” he said.

“I'm forced to agree, Daddy,” said Alex with a grin. “I don't know what you'd do without us either.”

In Ava's English class on Wednesday, Ms. Palmer handed out another pop quiz.

Ava stared down at the page. There were only five questions. They would be five easy questions, if she'd managed to make it through the reading. But she'd fallen asleep again after staring at the same sentence for five minutes. She had no clue who Henry was, whether he was a wolf or a dog or a human, let alone what happened to him at the end of chapter 3. When Ms. Palmer asked them to put their pencils down, Ava turned her quiz over. She had left three of the answers totally blank. She avoided Jack's eye throughout class and hurried from the room as soon as the bell rang, feeling sick to her stomach.

At dinner that night, Ava considered telling her mom and dad about her struggles in school. But the conversation swirled around the PTA meeting Mrs. Sackett had just attended, and Ava didn't want to make her mother more upset than she already was.

“I was swarmed,” Mrs. Sackett said. “Even when I had nothing to say, they called on me and asked me for my input on pretty much every item on the agenda.”

“You're a rock star, Mom,” said Tommy, pronging another piece of grilled chicken and depositing it on his plate.

“Why would they care what I think about whether the basketball team has orange or white piping on their new uniform shorts? Or whether the refreshment stand at the football game should add veggie burgers to the menu?”

“Ooh, they definitely should!” said Alex. Mrs. Sackett gave her a look. “Sorry.”

“But that's nice, honey,” said Coach, a hopeful tone in his voice. “That they look up to you. Isn't it?”

“Sure, I suppose, but I don't know what makes me qualified to be in charge of all this. There are plenty of impressive parents in these
meetings,” Mrs. Sackett continued. “April Cahill is a surgeon, and Dion's mom is an attorney, and I even met a dad who works at the local TV station as a sports broadcaster.”

“So there are people you like?” Ava asked. She and her mom were so much alike, often quiet and reserved. Ava knew Mrs. Sackett had left some good friends behind in Massachusetts—she hoped her mom could find some good friends here, like she'd found Kylie.

“There are a few people I like,” she admitted. “But I feel this pressure to be so outgoing and authoritative, and that's just not my personality. I'm not sure I'm up for this challenge, Michael.”

“Mom, you have to be up for it! For my sake!” Alex cried. “Student elections are just around the corner, and the more that you do, the better I look.”

Tommy snorted. Ava sighed.

“Alex, honey, you don't need your mother's help to get yourself elected into the student government,” said Coach. “Your classmates would be crazy not to vote for you.”

“Oh, and one other thing,” said Mrs. Sackett. “Somehow I got roped into baking twelve dozen cookies for the Activities Fair this Friday night.
I don't even remember agreeing to it, but then at the end of the meeting they reminded me about it. Everyone looked so excited that I was doing it that I just couldn't bring myself to say I wouldn't.”

“We'll all help you,” said Alex quickly.

Ava's heart sank. She hated baking cookies.

“Won't we?” Alex said, more as a threat than a question, looking around the dinner table.

Coach had just taken a drink of his water. He froze midswallow, and then gulped. “Sweetie, Tommy and I have practice on Friday. You know that.”

Mrs. Sackett stood up. Her lower lip trembled. “I'm not even a good baker,” she said in a high voice that Ava had never heard before. “I didn't sign up for this, Michael. I don't have time for my job, for my family, or for myself.”

Coach stood up too and went around the table to take both of her hands in his. “Honey, I totally understand your frustration,” he said quietly. “But my job, my role here in town, they depend a lot on your relationship with the town.”

Mrs. Sackett nodded and grasped his hands for a moment. “I know. I just—I need some time to—to adjust, Michael.” She left the room.

The dinner table was quiet, except for Tommy, who had just taken a large bite of salad. He paused midcrunch, mouth bulging, looking guilty.

Alex broke the silence. “Don't worry, Daddy,” she said brightly. “Ave and I will help her bake cookies, right, Ave?”

“Sure,” said Ava weakly. She studied Coach's face and noticed that he had tiny worry lines around his eyes. She felt almost as bad for him as she did for her mother.

“And we'll make your anniversary dinner the best ever, right, guys?”

Tommy and Ava nodded vigorously.

Coach's mouth was set in a grim line. “Thanks, kids.”

That night Ava fell asleep after just three pages of
White Fang
.

On Thursday she got back the previous day's pop quiz. There wasn't even a grade on it; in large red letters across the top of the paper, Ms. Palmer had written “SEE ME!”

But when the bell rang, Ms. Palmer was bent
over another student, answering a question. Ava glided out of the classroom, like a fish underwater, without getting stopped.

Ms. Palmer caught up with her before the end of the school day. “Ava Sackett!” she called as Ava was emerging from social studies with Kylie. Kylie gave her an
uh-oh
look and walked away.

“Did you see my note on your quiz?” asked Ms. Palmer, staring at Ava over her half-glasses.

“Um, yeah, sorry, had to get to my locker,” Ava mumbled, looking down at her green sneakers.

“Ava, I'm baffled by your uneven work,” said Ms. Palmer, not unkindly. “You are clearly very bright, and you say insightful things when called on in class discussions, but you don't appear to be keeping up with the outside reading. Is everything all right at home?”

Ava thought about the sort-of fight her parents had had the night before, but she nodded. “Everything's fine,” she said. “I just . . . I guess I just have trouble concentrating sometimes.”

“What do you mean, exactly?” asked Ms. Palmer.

“I don't know . . . my mind just sort of wanders when I try to do the reading,” Ava replied
truthfully. “I've been trying really hard, but . . .” Her voice trailed off as she remembered Coach's pep talk from the night before. “I just have to try harder. And I will, I promise.”

Ms. Palmer nodded thoughtfully. “Thanks for your honesty. You know, I'm going to recommend to Mrs. Hyde, the learning specialist, that you participate in after-school study until you can improve on your homework performance,” she said. “Why don't you try it out today, to see what you think?”

Before Ava could respond to say she had to do something after school, the bell rang.

“Go on to class,” said Ms. Palmer. “We can talk more about this later.”

Ava scurried away, wondering how this after-school study thing would work. She was supposed to meet Alex to go to Le Pain after school today. And very soon, football tryouts would start.

“You're late,” said Alex. She closed her math book and stood up.

She hadn't meant it in a mean way, more of a concerned way.

She was worried about Ava; her sister seemed even more flustered and distracted than usual lately.

“I know, I'm sorry. I had to go check out an after-school study thing, which felt an awful lot like detention to me.”

Alex had already started down the school steps, but at Ava's words, she turned around. “You had detention?”

“No,” said Ava quickly. “I said it felt like detention.”

“Are you in trouble academically?” asked Alex, alarmed.

“No!” Ava said more emphatically. “It's just a study group, that's all. Come on. Let's hustle before they have to start setting up for dinner and stuff.”

Alex's mind snapped back to their to-do list. “The good thing is we can walk to Le Pain from here,” she said. “Although it is a zillion degrees out and I
was
having the world's best hair day.”

Le Pain was midway down an otherwise unassuming stretch of stores, two blocks from the high school. They stopped in front of the restaurant.

A few small tables were set up on the sidewalk, although it was too hot to even think about sitting outside. Alex loved the looks of the plum-colored wooden door and the quaint small-paned windows. “It's right out of Paris!” she said excitedly.

Ava pulled open the heavy door. A little bell tinkled, and a cool rush of air greeted them. Inside, it was hushed, the dim light a relief after the heat and glare from outside.

“May I 'elp you?” asked an elegantly dressed older woman. She wore a beautifully cut yet
simple navy sheath and a necklace of blue and silver-gray baubles that looked so perfect Alex resisted a strong impulse to take out her phone and snap a picture so she could copy the look.

“We'd like to make a reservation,” both girls said at the same time.

The woman smiled. “You are twins,
non
?”

“Yes,” the two girls answered together. All three laughed.

Alex explained to the woman about their parents' upcoming anniversary. “We'd like to reserve a special table for them,” she said. “With candles and flowers and everything. For next Thursday at six thirty.” The girls had already spoken with Coach about ending practice promptly at six.

“We will take very good care of your parents,” the woman assured them. “I am Madame Nicole, the co-owner, and my 'usband is the chef. We will prepare a special
amuse-bouche
for them, and perhaps a cake for dessert?”

The girls agreed that those would be wonderful, and Alex made a mental note to look up what an “amooz-boosh” was. As they turned to leave, Ava stopped, her hand on the heavy door. “Oh, and by the way?” she said to Madame Nicole. “We'd appreciate if no one knew about
the reservation.”