Triple Threat

by Mike Lupica

  “Don’t apologize for being upset,” she said. “You’re allowed to feel this way. And I’m sorry something you love is tied up and tangled with all this hate. It shouldn’t be like that.”

  Alex could feel the frustration boiling up in her, so she inhaled deep and let it out through her nose.

  “But you’re wrong,” Sophie said. “There is a bright side. Like anything else, after a while the guys are going to get bored and move on to something more interesting. The novelty of a girl on the team won’t be the hot new scandal anymore.”

  “I know,” Alex said, head hanging between her legs. “But that might take a while in Orville, Pennsylvania.”

  Sophie laughed. “Is your coach doing anything to shut them up?”

  “Who, the guys?” Alex said.

  Sophie rolled her eyes back, as if to say, Who else?

  “Not as much as he could be,” Alex admitted. Thinking it would be nice to have the full support of an authority figure, and not have to always fly solo. She also couldn’t forget that Coach was originally opposed to having Alex on the team. He was slowly coming around, but at this point, she couldn’t consider him a true ally. Not yet.

  Sophie listened. Then shrugged. “It’s not an ideal solution, but if you ignore the teasing and resist their jabs, they’re going to back off. And honestly? It’s not exactly in their best interest to purposely mess up plays. In the end, they all want to win.”

  “I try not to let them get to me,” Alex said.

  “Block out the negativity as best you can.”

  “I guess in order to be QB I have to learn to block things out,” Alex said.

  “That’s the spirit!” Sophie said, leaping up from her swing.

  Alex got up, too, and decided to thank Sophie in her own way.

  “You mean . . . I got spirit, yes, I do, I got spirit, how ’bout you?” she said, perfectly clasping her hands like the cheerleaders did. It was a cheer she’d heard on the sidelines during games.

  Sophie doubled over laughing. “Yes!!” she yelled. “You got it!”

  “See, I can still be fun.”

  “Now you’re your own cheerleader,” Sophie said. “And you just gave me a brilliant idea.”

  * * *

  • • •

  Sophie asked Alex to grab her football from inside. Alex was happy to oblige, even if she was a little curious what Sophie had up her sleeve.

  “Okay,” Alex said, ball in hand, “you want to start with some pass drills?”

  Sophie shook her head. “First, you’re going to learn a proper cheer.”

  “Uhh, excuse me?” Alex said. “Did I not just perform one two minutes ago?”

  Sophie snorted, “Ha! Please. That was just a chant.”

  Clearly there was a lot Alex didn’t know about cheerleading.

  “Okay, well, I’m just letting you know now?” Alex said, tossing the ball to the side. “This won’t end well.”

  They stood in the middle of the yard as Sophie began to show Alex some basic cheerleading moves. Apparently, there was even a right and wrong way to clap.

  “Okay, back to basics,” Sophie said, and had Alex face her. “Do what I do.”

  She put her arms at her sides, then bent them at the elbows and cupped her hands together in front of her face. “This is called a clasp.”

  “I don’t see how anybody could call this clapping,” Alex said. “Or clasping. Or whatever.”

  “You know what it really is?” Sophie said happily. “Cheerleading.”

  “For the record,” Alex said, “after today, I’m never doing this again.”

  “Fair enough,” said Sophie.

  They went through other moves. One was called a high V. Tight fists. Arms in the air forming a perfect letter V.

  “And I assume you know how to signal for a touchdown, right?” Sophie said to Alex.

  “Well, yeah,” Alex said, showing her, with arms out, elbows bent, and hands up.

  “Now we do some jumps,” Sophie said.

  “We’re not done yet?” Alex complained.

  “Come on,” Sophie said. “That was just a warm-up.”

  She demonstrated the correct approach for what was called a toe-touch. You started with a high V, then swooped your arms down into a squat before using the force to pull up and jump, touching your toes on either side. The key, Sophie said, was to land with your feet close together.

  “Like sticking the finish in gymnastics,” Sophie said, after illustrating what the jump should look like. Sophie’s legs went into an almost perfect split in the air. Alex had to admit, she was impressed.

  The first time Alex tried that one, she landed on her butt. And the second time. And the third. She was determined, though, to get the hang of it. Sophie made her do it a few times in a row, just to prove she had it down.

  After about a hundred jumps, or so it seemed to Alex, she tumbled to the ground in exhaustion.

  “Aw, don’t tell me you’re tired!” Sophie said, still full of pep.

  “You weren’t the one doing all the jumps!” Alex laughed, breathing heavy.

  Sophie replied, “That’s because I do this every day. Now get up. Time to move on to the hard ones.”

  “Wait,” Alex said, catching her breath. “These were the easy ones?”

  Sophie rolled her eyes and pulled Alex up off the ground.

  “I’m tired,” Alex moaned.

  “Is that what you say to Coach Mencken?” Sophie said.

  Alex made a sound that was half sigh, half groan. “What now?” she said.

  Sophie showed Alex the pike jump and the tuck jump and a side hurdler, which Alex found the most difficult of all.

  Once Alex was all cheered out for the day, she said to Sophie, “Okay, now it’s my turn.”

  She reached down to grab the football and taught Sophie how to grip it, with her fingers lining up with the laces. Alex went long and had Sophie throw her a few passes. She actually had a pretty decent arm.

  “The result of lifting people over my head on a daily basis,” Sophie said, squeezing her biceps.

  Alex showed Sophie how to put a spin on the ball and even how to hike it to Alex. They went through drills and patterns. Alex had Sophie running all over the backyard.

  “Most I’ve run since cheer tryouts,” Sophie said, panting.

  Alex laughed. “This is what we call payback.”

  * * *

  • • •

  When they were done for the day, hair a mess, dirty and aching, Sophie bumped Alex in the hip.

  “So?” she said. “Did you have fun, despite yourself?”

  “Gotta admit,” Alex said, “I did.”

  “You know what I think is the best move for you?” Sophie said.

  “What’s that?”

  “Getting out of your own way.”

  26

  Their third game was against the Seneca Bears, and they were off to a rough start. The Bears were ahead by a touchdown by the middle of the second quarter. Jeff had already thrown an interception and fumbled in the pocket when he didn’t see the pressure coming from behind him.

  During a change-of-possession time-out, when the Owls had the ball back, Coach told Alex he was putting her in. Then he walked over and told Jeff he was coming out.

  “It’s only the second quarter!” Jeff said in a voice that Alex thought was loud enough that the parents and fans in the bleachers could hear.

  Coach leaned down and said something quietly in his ear. Alex saw Jeff shaking his head.

  “I’m the quarterback of this team,” Jeff said, pumping a fist to his chest.

  Alex moved a little closer, trying to hear Coach’s side of the conversation.

  “We have two quarterbacks on our team, son,” Coach Mencken said.

  “Yeah, and one�
��s a girl!”

  He said it in what Alex could only describe as a growl. Like it had been pent up inside him, waiting to burst out.

  Alex thought Jeff was way out of line, talking back to Coach like that. But Coach was keeping his composure. Alex wondered if Coach was being easy on him to soften the blow of getting pulled out of the game. Unfortunately, Jeff wasn’t done with his little temper tantrum.

  “You honestly think she’s a better quarterback?” Jeff yelled, pointing at Alex. “You think she’ll give us a better chance to win the game?”

  “Maybe today,” Coach said. Though to Alex, he sounded more curt than before. Like he was losing patience with Jeff.

  Right then, the ref blew his whistle and was waving the Owls back onto the field.

  Coach held up a finger to Jeff. “Now I’d appreciate it if you’d not say another word to me right now. And you better start supporting your teammates.” He paused. “All of your teammates.”

  Jeff stood there frozen a moment longer. Whatever he had left to say would remain unsaid. Then he walked away from Coach and down the sideline until he was standing alone at the Owls’ thirty-yard line.

  Coach waved Alex over and gave her the first three plays he wanted to run. A handoff to Tariq. Slant pass to Gabe. Then an option play, where Alex could either pitch the ball to Tariq or keep it herself.

  The Owls already had one loss. Maybe they could survive another and still make it to the championship game. Of course, nobody on the team wanted to find out.

  “What we need,” Coach said, “is a couple of first downs.”

  The Owls were starting the drive at their own twenty-yard line. On first down, Tariq gained twelve yards, running behind Perry Moses through a huge hole and up the middle. On the next play Alex got some pressure but had time to get the ball cleanly to Gabe, who gained ten yards and another first down.

  On the option play, Alex noticed the defenders were cheating toward Tariq, sure that Alex was planning to pitch him the ball. So she kept it instead, cutting to the inside. Then she gained ten yards on the play.

  Just like that, they were past midfield.

  Jake Caldwell came in for the next play. Alex came to meet him, then knelt down in the huddle. Hunched over in the circle, her teammates surrounding her, Alex noticed something. There was no chatter now. She was the only one talking, calling the play. She had their attention. They could all feel the game changing a little bit.

  She wasn’t the girl quarterback right now.

  Just the quarterback.

  The call was a swing pass in the flat to Tariq. When he caught it, it was as though the whole Owls team was in front of him, blocking. He finally ran twenty yards before getting shoved out of bounds.

  They were inside the Bears’ thirty-yard line now.

  The next play Coach sent in was for Gabe. Coach must have sensed the same shift in the game as his players. They had the Bears backing up. TV commentators talked about guys running downhill, and that’s the way the game felt now. Coach decided to go for it, calling one of Gabe’s favorite patterns: a fake to the inside and then a deep cut toward the corner of the end zone.

  Alex had all the time in the world to set herself in the pocket, then wait for Gabe to make his cut and—hopefully—be open when he did.

  He was.

  Alex put just enough air under her throw, dropping it over the safety scrambling to catch up to Gabe just as Gabe crossed into the end zone.

  The Owls were on the board. Then Tariq ran the ball in for the conversion.

  Now they were ahead, 7–6.

  As Alex ran off the field, she noticed Gabe running to catch up with her, probably to say something about the touchdown play.

  “Nice throw,” he said.

  “Nice catch,” she replied.

  It wasn’t much.

  But it was something.

  * * *

  • • •

  It was still Owls 7, Bears 6 at halftime. But that wasn’t the news, at least not to Alex. The news was that she was staying in the game to start the second half.

  They’d had a couple of promising drives at the end of the second quarter that stalled after her touchdown pass to Gabe. Tariq had fumbled, and Alex had a pass tipped by one of the Bears’ defensive linemen, which was intercepted by their middle linebacker after they’d gotten back inside the Bears’ twenty-yard line.

  But they’d clearly moved the ball better with her in there. So Coach let her stay in there.

  “Girl,” Jabril whispered as the two teams lined up for the kickoff, “might be the second half. But you’re looking first string to me.”

  Alex beamed.

  “Now don’t screw it up,” he said.

  “That’s your pep talk?” she said.

  “Tough love,” he said, giving her a wink from behind his facemask.

  Once again Coach scripted the first three plays for her. Quick sideline pass to Lewis. Straight handoff to Tariq. But Alex overthrew Lewis, and Tariq only got two yards during his play. So it was third-and-eight.

  The call was to Gabe again, a post pattern deep down the middle.

  “Gonna need some time,” Alex said to the guys in the offensive line.

  “You got it,” Cal said.

  They gave her the time. Gabe beat his man and got behind the safeties. Then, as if she and Gabe were the only two on the field, Alex gunned the ball in his direction. Gabe didn’t have to break stride, catching it easily in his gloved hands. Then he was in the clear, veering toward the sideline and running toward the end zone.

  Now it was 13–6, Owls. Sophie and the rest of the cheerleaders were positioned at that end of the field. As Gabe crossed the goal line, Alex saw a blur of high Vs and toe-touches and clasps. Sophie picked up the megaphone beside her and shouted into it, “Way to go, Alex!!”

  Alex locked eyes with Sophie from across the field and saw her do a high kick while shaking her poms in the air. A special cheer for only Alex.

  Afterward, Jake dropped the conversion pass, so the score remained 13–6.

  For the second time that night, Alex and Gabe ran off the field together.

  “Nice throw,” he said again.

  Alex couldn’t help herself.

  “I know,” she said.

  Gabe shook his head, but Alex could swear she saw him smiling. He ran ahead of her, passing Jabril, who’d come out onto the field to slap Alex a high five so enthusiastic it nearly knocked her to the ground.

  “Hey,” Alex said. “I’m on your side, remember?”

  She was getting a drink of water at the cooler when she heard a voice behind her.

  “Have your fun while you can.”

  She didn’t have to turn around to know it was Jeff Stiles. Even with their team ahead, this was his idea of being a good teammate.

  “Excuse me?” Alex said.

  She’d heard him perfectly the first time but wanted him to repeat it to her face.

  “I said that you should have your fun while you can,” he said, louder this time.

  Remembering what Sophie had told her about not playing into their nonsense, Alex tipped back her helmet and gave Jeff the biggest smile she could muster.

  “Okay,” she said, and walked away.

  The Owls quickly realized the game was far from over. On one of their best drives of the game, the Bears returned the Owls’ punt, taking the ball down the field for a touchdown. It was 13–12. But on the conversion attempt Jabril was somehow able to travel from one side of the end zone to the other, to knock down a pass attempt to their tight end, keeping the Owls ahead by a point.

  One point. And just under two minutes to go, with the ball on their forty-one-yard line.

  “They’ve got two time-outs left,” Coach said to Alex. “We get one first down and this baby is over.”

  “Got it,”
she said.

  “Hand it to Tariq the first two downs,” he said. “Protect the ball and tell him the same thing. We’ll see where we are if we don’t have the first down by then.”

  Alex nodded. She started to run out to the huddle, but Coach stopped her by placing a hand on her arm.

  “Go win the game,” he said, a silent message passing between them. Alex knew his perspective of her had changed since the beginning of the season. Coach had faith in her, just like she had faith in herself.

  She sprinted to join her teammates. This wasn’t the fourth quarter of a blowout game. This was a one-point game. One they needed to close out and win.

  This was football.

  People kept asking her why.

  This was why.

  She told the guys the play and the snap count. They began to turn toward the line of scrimmage.

  “Hey?” Alex said.

  They turned back around.

  “Do your jobs,” she said.

  Where did that come from?

  She knew it was something Coach Bill Belichick told his players all the time. Now she got to say it to the Orville Owls.

  She felt herself smiling as she got ready to do her job.

  But the Bears stacked the line and stopped Tariq for no gain. They called their first time-out. On second down, Tariq got just three yards before they stuffed him again.

  The Bears called their last time-out with a minute and forty seconds left.

  Third-and-seven.

  If they got the first down here, the Bears couldn’t stop the ball again. If they didn’t, they’d have to punt, and the Bears would get the ball back with around a minute left. Still enough time to make a big play and win the game themselves.

  Jake brought in the play from the sideline.

  A pass play. To Gabe. Over the middle.

  “He wants me to try a throw?” Alex said, knowing an incompletion would stop the clock and give the Bears even more time when they got the ball back.

  She didn’t even allow herself to think what another interception would mean, even though she’d thrown one today already.

  She saw Jake grin.