“You have to use stuff like bike racks and light poles. Watch this!” Shelly cried. She swung around and hopped onto a sewer grate.
“Uh-huh,” Tomoko said.
Kenzie watched Tomoko carefully. She hid under her backpack like a turtle. Where was all the star power from the basketball court? Kenzie was starting to worry that Tomoko had changed her mind about joining the team.
“This is my block,” Tomoko said. She hitched her thumb toward a side street.
“Bye!” Shelly called. She flapped her arm back and forth. “Don’t step on the lava!”
Tomoko hardly waved back as she turned around the corner.
Kenzie looked at Shelly.
“We have to do something,” Kenzie said. “Tomoko seems so shy around us.”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Shelly asked.
The girls closed their eyes. Sometimes, when Kenzie and Shelly really focused, they could leave their regular brains behind and jump into one brain, the M&M brain.
“We were shy when we were little—” Shelly began.
“Because we didn’t have each other,” Kenzie added.
“Right,” Shelly said. She paused. “Tomoko needs a friend. Like, a good friend.”
Kenzie nodded. It wasn’t easy having three people in a Dynamic Duo. But maybe once another person joined the team, she could be Tomoko’s friend. She could even be her best friend! Then there would be two Dynamic Duos.
“It’s a plan,” Kenzie said. She opened her eyes. Shelly was already looking back at her.
Operation Double Dynamic Duo.
The girls bumped fists and spit into the lava.
The next day, Kenzie walked to school alongside Verona. Kenzie scrunched her mouth in concentration. She was hard at work coming up with plans to help Tomoko with her own Dynamic Duo.
Verona skipped ahead. “Greetings and salutations!” she sang out.
She waved at everyone they passed on South Congress between their apartment and school. She waved at the manager of the fancy hotel. She waved at the hostess of the café that had “the best bagels in Austin,” according to their dad. She waved at the man who owned the flower shop, and the couple who ran a shop that only sold cowboy shirts and miniature cat paintings.
“Greetings and salutations!”
“Greetings and salutations!”
“Greetings and salutations!”
“Would you cut it out already?” Kenzie said. Her brain was twisted in knots from imagining how to find their next player for the team. She kicked a rock that bounced back on her toe.
Verona gripped her backpack straps and stuck her nose in the air.
“Everyone is my friend,” she said. “And you always say hello to your friends.”
“Just say hello then,” Kenzie said. “No one says ‘Greetings and salutations.’”
Verona looked at Kenzie very seriously. “They do in the book Ms. Sigler is reading to us,” she said.
Kenzie rolled her eyes and followed Verona the rest of the way down the block. The girls hopped up the school steps and made their way to the kindergarten wing. Verona hugged Kenzie’s waist.
“Greetings and salutations,” she said. “That means goodbye too.” She turned and ran to a group of kids inside her classroom. Kenzie sighed. Even though Verona could be annoying, she was really good at making friends. Kenzie was so used to being an M&M that she had almost forgotten how to make new friends. She needed some of Verona’s skills if she was going to help Tomoko form her own duo. Or maybe even trio, since they needed two more players.
At lunch, Kenzie, Shelly, and Tomoko sat together. The cafeteria was filled with smells of garlic bread and spaghetti sauce. Tomoko poked at the pile of spaghetti on her tray. Shelly shoved half a meatball sub into her mouth. Kenzie munched on her own sub and peered around the lunchroom. She snuck looks up and down the lunch line and over the tables. There had to be someone else to add to the team.
“Have you ever roller-skated before?” Shelly asked Tomoko. She finished the last of her sandwich and licked her thumbs.
Tomoko looked up from her spaghetti.
“I think so,” she said. “But it was a long time ago. Is that OK?”
“Of course!” Shelly said. “We just need to find a couple people who have skated a lot. To make things even. Like a certain person at the park . . .”
Shelly looked at Kenzie and wiggled her eyebrows.
“What person at the park?” Tomoko asked.
“Oh, just this girl Kenzie doesn’t like,” Shelly said.
“That’s not true,” Kenzie said. “I like Bree. I just don’t like her as a friend.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Kenzie froze. Her heart raced behind her sandwich. Did she just say what she thought she said? She looked across the table. Shelly was busy inhaling her dessert. But Tomoko was looking right back at Kenzie.
“What does that mean?” Tomoko asked.
“Nothing,” Kenzie said quickly. She wasn’t going to explain the jitters she felt every time she looked at Bree. Tomoko didn’t even know Bree.
“It doesn’t mean anything.” Kenzie forced herself to take another bite. “We need to get looking for more people,” she said between chews. “I was thinking we could try—”
The lights flicked off and then on again. The chatter in the room died down.
“Draw if you be men!”
Two girls stood up in the middle of the cafeteria, each holding a wooden ruler toward the other. They tapped their rulers back and forth, as if they were sword fighting.
“What’s going on?” Kenzie whispered.
“I think it’s the drama club,” Tomoko said. She pointed to the doors, where the drama teacher stood with her arms folded, smiling.
Kenzie nodded. She watched the girls wave the rulers around.
One of the girls had long, shiny brown hair. She held her ruler lightly. The other girl was small, with frizzy blond hair that hovered over her like a tumbleweed. The smaller girl jumped and dove across the tables.
“Hi-yah!” she yelled with each move.
A boy suddenly stepped between the outstretched rulers. He opened his arms wide.
“Part fools! Put up your swords. You know not what you do.”
The girl with long hair let her ruler fall at her side, but the shorter girl lunged across the boy, her ruler outstretched.
“En garde!” she yelled.
“Jules, that’s not the line,” the boy said.
“How dare you insult the Montagues?” the small girl cried. “Fight or be a coward!” She prodded her opponent with the end of her ruler.
The other girl turned to the drama teacher. “Miss Moss, she’s changing it again!”
“Cut,” Miss Moss called hurriedly. She clapped her hands together like she wanted everyone to join in, but only a few kids applauded. “Look out for our upcoming production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet,” she announced to the room. Her voice dropped to a low growl as she turned to Jules. “My office. Now.”
The cafeteria had gone completely quiet. Kenzie watched wide-eyed as Jules strode to the doors. She didn’t even seem embarrassed.
“This Shakespeare dude’s got it all wrong,” Jules said. “What’s the point of putting a sword fight in the play and calling it off after two seconds?”
No one got to hear the drama teacher’s answer. She whisked Jules out into the hall. The doors flapped back and forth behind them. After a moment, the room exploded in voices. Pairs of kids picked up their stale chunks of garlic bread and thwacked them together.
“Draw if you be men!”
“Can you imagine if she had a real sword?”
“Miss Moss would have to call an ambulance!”
“Whoa,” Shelly said, turning back to the table. “That kid was nuts.”
“Are you kidding?” Kenzie grinned and set down her sandwich. “That kid is going to be our next team member!”
CHAPTER SIX
The warehouse
speaker crackled on in Kenzie’s head.
“Attention derby devotees, skating supporters, athlete aficionados,” the announcer crooned. “Introducing our newest player to the track. Part roller girl. Part stage diva. The one. The only. The bejeweled Jules!”
Jules, her hair wilder than ever, wheeled across the derby rink. She was in full Shakespearean costume, with emerald roller skates that matched her tights. Her sword clanged and shone as she slashed it through the air. The derby crowd threw roses at her feet.
“Bravo!” the crowd yelled.
Kenzie pushed her food away and stood up from the table.
“I’m going to talk to Jules,” she said to Shelly and Tomoko. “Before she gets detention, at least.”
“Want this?” Shelly held up her spoon. “You might need it to win her over.”
Tomoko laughed. Kenzie rolled her eyes and waved the spoon away. She threaded through the tables and turned into the hall, her shoes squeaking against the linoleum.
Maybe Jules was a little out there. Maybe she didn’t follow the script exactly. Maybe she was too rowdy for being in plays.
But that’s what made her great for derby.
Kenzie’s squeaky steps echoed as she crept farther down the hall toward the auditorium. Lunch still wasn’t out yet, and if she got caught sneaking around, she might land herself in trouble right alongside Jules. The door to Miss Moss’s office was slightly open. An angry-sounding voice drifted out.
“I have to get special permission for us to perform scenes during the school day,” Miss Moss said. “The principal is putting a lot of trust in us. If you touch another student with anything, I’ll have to report that as actual fighting, and next time you’ll go straight to his office. Do you understand?”
Kenzie leaned toward the doorway.
“Yes,” Jules said. She paused. “But I was only trying to make the play more realistic. I mean, if the Montagues and Capulets are already getting mad at each other, I don’t think they would stop fighting just because some guy called them ‘fools.’”
A long sigh came from the office.
“Just give me the ruler and we’ll talk about this after school.”
“Fine,” Jules muttered. The ruler clacked onto the desk. Kenzie heard a chair scrape against the floor. Her heart jumped in her chest. What if the teacher saw her waiting outside? She scrambled toward the main hallway, searching for a broom closet to run into or trash can to hide behind.
“What are you doing?”
Kenzie turned. Jules stood in the hall, her hand on the doorknob.
“Who’s out there?” Miss Moss asked.
Jules looked at Kenzie for a moment. “No one,” she said. “Just my imaginary friend.”
The drama teacher sighed again. Jules closed the door the rest of the way.
Kenzie signaled Jules to stay quiet as they crept around the corner. They found a door that opened onto the playground, where everyone would come streaming as soon as lunch let out. The girls crouched under a big tree. The branches did a pretty good job of hiding them, at least for the next few minutes.
“What were you doing back there?” Jules asked. She raised an eyebrow. “Spying on me?”
“Sort of,” Kenzie admitted. “I really liked your sword fight.”
Jules picked up a twig and twirled it in her hand. “Yeah? I practiced way more moves at home, but Miss Moss never lets me use them in scenes.”
“I think the sword fighting is more fun to watch than the talking, anyway,” Kenzie said. “Do you know how to sword fight for real?”
“I wish,” Jules said. She tossed the twig to the side. “It’s fun to pretend, though. That’s why I joined drama club in the first place, when I saw the sword fighting.”
“Do you like acting?” Kenzie asked.
Jules shrugged. “It’s OK,” she said. “I had wanted to go out for football, but they don’t let girls on the team.”
Kenzie grinned and squeezed her hands together. Sword fighting? Football? She could hardly keep from flapping her arms around the way Shelly did when she was really excited. Jules was perfect for derby.
Hopefully she would also be perfect for Tomoko.
The bell rang inside the building. Five seconds later, the first wave of fifth graders rushed onto the playground. Now Kenzie and Jules were free to go where they wanted. But Kenzie had to get Jules to say yes before she brought her back to the group.
Kenzie stood up and dusted off her pants, then offered a hand to Jules. “Have you ever thought about knocking people around on wheels?”
“Like in go-carts?”
“Nope. On skates. You would make a great derby player.”
Jules still looked confused. “I thought derby was in go-carts,” she said. “Or on horses or something.”
“I’m talking about roller derby,” Kenzie said. “You’d be on skates, and it’s a lot more like football than like go-carts.”
She took off toward the swings. “Come on, I’ll show you one of our moves.”
Kenzie approached the swing at the far end of the playground. She gripped the chains, then stepped onto the seat. Jules hoisted herself onto the swing next to Kenzie’s.
“Why are we standing on the swings?”
“You’ll see. Move your weight from one foot to the other,” Kenzie said. “Then stick your hips out side to side. See if you can move the swing without stepping down and pushing.”
Jules shook the chains hard for a minute, but all that did was make her wiggle in place. She jabbed her shoulders out. She flapped her elbows like a chicken.
“Use your legs,” Kenzie instructed. “Try to be like one of those clocks that swings back and forth.”
Jules paused. She took a breath, then leaned to the left. She jerked and leaned to the right. She leaned to the left again. The swing was starting to move.
“Good job!” Kenzie said. “Now stick your hips out. Try to touch my swing.”
Creeeeaaaak. Creeeeaaaak.
The chains moaned as Jules shifted her swing closer and closer. Jules huffed and pulled herself back and forth, back and forth, until finally—boop! Her hip tapped Kenzie’s.
“Yes!” Kenzie said.
Jules let her swing hang down again. “What was that for?”
“That was a hip check,” Kenzie explained. “In derby, a bunch of kids put on skates and go around a track. The whole time they’re trying to knock each other down, but they can’t use their hands. Only their hips. They’re called hip checks, and they’re really hard to practice since you only use your leg muscles. Your arms are mostly there for balance.”
“Hip checks?” Jules blinked. Her eyes were wide and bright.
Kenzie laughed. “I knew you’d like it. My best friend and I are forming a team, and we start on Saturday. You should join!”
She paused a moment. “Also, you would love Tomoko. She plays basketball, and she’s so much better than the teams that play at the park. She’s really tough, like you, and she’s just starting on skates.”
“Tomoko’s your best friend?” Jules asked.
“What? No. That’s Shelly. She’s . . .” Kenzie thought about all the amazing things she could say about Shelly. But then she remembered the Dynamic Duo plan. She had to find Tomoko a best friend so she would feel better about the team. Jules didn’t need to know so much about Shelly.
“She’s cool too, I guess,” Kenzie said. “So what do you think? You want to come play derby with us?”
Jules rested her chin in her hand. “Hmmm,” she murmured. “We’re supposed to practice more scenes from Romeo and Juliet this weekend.”
Kenzie’s shoulders sagged. “Oh. I get it.”
“Hold on,” Jules said. “I haven’t decided yet. The truth is, I think Miss Moss wants to replace me anyway. She says it would be better if my character didn’t hold any weapons. But I’ve never even hurt anyone! And what’s the fun of Shakespeare without a sword?”
She tapped her chin.
Kenzie held her
breath.
“Oh, what the heck,” Jules said. “Derby sounds awesome!”
“Yes!” Kenzie hopped out of her swing. “Come on, let’s go find the others!”
By now the whole fifth grade was swarming over the playground. Two girls grabbed Kenzie’s and Jules’s swings before they even let go of the chains. Kenzie was too excited to care. Now that Jules was in the group, Kenzie and Shelly were only one player away from a whole team. And even better, Tomoko would have her own best friend to help her come out of her turtle shell. Everything was working out perfectly.
Kenzie and Jules waded through the crowds. Kenzie heard basketballs bouncing over the court. Maybe Tomoko was practicing basketball. She made her way under the hoops, but neither Tomoko nor Shelly was there. Kenzie heard a laugh that sounded a lot like Shelly’s. She looked around.
Under a tree near the building, exactly where Kenzie and Jules had been sitting before the bell rang, Shelly and Tomoko were huddled close together. Shelly tapped her knuckles to Tomoko’s, then spit over her shoulder.
Kenzie’s throat went dry. The invisible splinter in her heart throbbed with pain. She hunched over. She and Shelly were supposed to be finding Tomoko a new best friend. Not showing her all of their secret M&M moves. What was going on?
“What is it?” Jules asked. “Did you lose something?”
Kenzie rubbed the sting out of her eyes. She glanced at her best friend again.
“I hope not,” she said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Kenzie stared at her ceiling the next morning for a very long time. Staring at the ceiling was a lot like staring at clouds, because she always saw different shapes pop out from the textured plaster. Today, Kenzie saw two hands high-five each other. She thought about Shelly and Tomoko bumping fists and spitting over their shoulders.
How could Shelly have gotten the Double Dynamic Duo plan so wrong? They had jumped into the M&M brain. They came up with the idea together! Usually Shelly and Kenzie were on the same page about everything. But the derby team was throwing them off. What if the closer they got to a team, the further away they got from their own Dynamic Duo?
Kenzie shuddered.
Kenzie Kickstarts a Team Page 3