by Mike Lupica
She didn’t tell him it was her idea.
“Just run it,” she said. “And Jabril and I will take care of the rest.”
“Yeah, man,” Jabril said.
Jeff scoffed. “This will never work.”
“Attitude,” Alex said.
“You don’t get to tell me about attitude,” Jeff said.
“Dude,” Jabril said, “let go of the act already.”
There was no time to continue arguing. They had a game to win.
Alex split out to the left, and Jabril went right. Jeff took the snap in the shotgun, turned, and pitched the ball behind him to Jabril, who’d come flying from Jeff’s right. Alex waited a beat before taking off behind Jabril, receiving another pitch from him.
What Alex’s dad liked to call the old double reverse.
It looked like Alex was going to turn the corner and run for the right sideline. It’s what was usually done on a double reverse. But it wasn’t a run play.
It was now a pass play.
Jabril hadn’t even broken stride after tossing the ball to Alex. He was still charging up the left sideline.
Wide open.
The fastest kid on their team was finally getting the opportunity to show off his speed on offense. Showing off his jets, as he liked to say.
There wasn’t a defender within fifteen yards of Jabril when Alex pulled up and let the ball go. She knew it was a sweet throw as soon as the ball left her hand. Maybe the sweetest since she’d won Simba at the fair. The only thing that could possibly have gone wrong was Jabril dropping the ball.
He didn’t.
He gathered the ball in with both hands and cruised the last twenty yards into the end zone. It was 18–14, Owls. Tariq ran right behind Cal for the conversion. 19–14, Owls.
That would be the final score.
They were one win away from the championship game. Once again, it didn’t matter who had started the game for the Orville Owls.
Just who had finished it.
In style.
37
Before Alex knew it, the Friday before the championship game had arrived.
The Owls had beaten the Lenox Jaguars the previous Saturday with hardly any drama or sweat. The Lenox game turned out like many others the Owls had played down the stretch: Jeff struggling early, Alex coming in for him at the start of the second quarter. Then the next four times the Owls had possession, they scored every time.
By the middle of the fourth quarter, they were winning, 26–6. It was here that Coach put Jeff back on the field and let him finish off a blowout game, the way Alex used to.
Orville Middle had scheduled a pep rally during last period on Friday in the gym. Both the football team and the girls’ soccer team had championship games the following day. Alex’s new team and her old one had made it through the regular season with just one loss each. It made her wonder how things would have played out if she’d stayed with soccer. Would the soccer team have been better and gone undefeated? There was simply no way of knowing. And that was precisely what made sports so exciting for Alex. You could never guess the outcome.
“If the favorites always won and the underdogs always lost, why even suit up?” her dad would say.
But now that she had played almost an entire season, there was something she believed in her heart to be unquestionably true.
Her new team wouldn’t have a game tomorrow without her.
She wouldn’t dare say that out loud to anyone, for fear of sounding conceited.
But inside, she delighted at the thought.
On the bus ride to school, she told Sophie she’d never been to a pep rally before and wasn’t sure what to expect.
“Well,” Sophie said, “the stars will be the cheerleaders, of course.”
“Of course,” Alex said.
“We’ll do some of our totally awesome cheers,” Sophie said. “Then the principal will say a few words.”
“A few?” Alex said. They both knew Principal Ross was notorious for droning on way longer than necessary.
“Fingers crossed,” Sophie said. “Then both coaches will speak and call out some of their star players and talk about how they helped the team make it this far. Jabril will get to say something, as captain of your team. And Annie will do the same for the soccer team.”
“Bet Jabril’s excited about that,” Alex said.
“More like thrilled,” Sophie said.
“Finally,” she continued, “the cheerleaders will come out one last time and get everybody so fired up that both teams will go out tomorrow and win championships.”
“Piece of cake,” Alex said.
“Cake is probably the one thing that could make this pep rally any better,” Sophie said. “It’s gonna be awesome!”
Alex could see how pumped Sophie was to get the rally started. Her enthusiasm was contagious. Alex could feel herself getting psyched for the game tomorrow just by being in Sophie’s presence.
Later that day, once all the seventh graders had filed into the gym, Sophie and the cheerleaders assembled at the center of the floor and started up with a few simple chants. Alex felt the school spirit in the gym along with everybody else—it was impossible not to. Everyone was wearing school colors and shaking blue-and-white poms.
The girls on the soccer team hadn’t changed their attitude toward Alex, even though they’d made it to the championship without her. Things were pretty much the same, especially at lunch. Alex sat with Sophie, Gabe, or Jabril on most days. Sometimes she sat alone.
Maybe it was wishful thinking, but she told herself that things would improve once both seasons were over.
But what if things didn’t change?
Her mom often explained to her that when you made choices, you had to live with them.
Liza Borelli had made significant life choices. She never defended them but always recognized that there were pros and cons to each one.
Alex was thinking about her mom now, as Sophie and the cheerleaders ran enthusiastically off the gym floor and sat cross-legged in a row along the baseline. She couldn’t lie to herself and say she was happy with the choice her mom made to leave her and her dad behind. But she was forced to accept that choice regardless. Thinking now about what she’d been through this season—was still going through—made her at least acknowledge her mom’s perspective in a new way.
Still, their relationship was less than ideal. She wished her mom had been around to see Alex chase her own dream. But she wasn’t. That was part of the choice she’d made, too. Alex had to respect it.
She just wished the girls she’d once played soccer with had respected hers.
Principal Ross stepped to the microphone now, asking everybody to give the cheerleaders one more round of applause and reminding them that the squad was on their way to the state championships for cheerleading in a few weeks. Then she launched into a long speech about how sports bring the school together.
Next to Alex, Jabril leaned over and whispered, “Well, maybe not the whole school.”
“Hush,” Alex said.
Then it was Coach Mencken’s turn. He talked about how proud he was of his team and the way it came together despite some difficult times early in the season.
Please don’t mention me, Alex thought.
Thankfully, he didn’t.
Afterward, Alex’s old soccer coach, Mrs. Williams, said she was proud of her players and praised them for stepping up to face new challenges this year.
Finally, it was Jabril’s turn.
By the way he walked up the center aisle, almost skipping, Alex knew whatever he said was going to be great. Sitting next to her, he’d been a little jittery, but not from nerves. More from anticipation.
And he didn’t disappoint.
He stepped up to the microphone, smiled, paused, then leaned forward and s
houted, “Jabril Wise . . . in . . . the . . . house!”
Everybody cheered.
Jabril cupped a hand to his ear to encourage them to cheer louder.
The volume in the gym reached new heights.
“Now, I’m not much for talking,” Jabril said.
A roll of laughter, then someone in the crowd yelled, “Yes you are!”
Jabril laughed, too.
“But I’m up here on behalf of my teammates,” he said, “to say that we’ve done everything great teams should do. We’ve overcome stuff.” Now he paused, just briefly. “Some more than others. But we didn’t let anything stop us. We’ve come from behind. Players got hurt, they came back. Now we’ve got one more hill to climb.”
His voice grew louder now, clearly relishing the moment and building to a big finish.
“Do you all think we’re gonna do it tomorrow?”
“Yes!” the crowd roared.
Jabril cupped a hand to his ear one more time.
“I . . . can’t . . . hear . . . you!” he yelled.
The screams echoed through the gym.
He walked off and came back down the center aisle, slapping kids five all the way to his seat. When he sat back down, he said to Alex, “Was I good?”
“Eh,” she said with a quick shrug, “I’ve seen better.”
“Over the top, huh?” he said.
She grinned. “Over-the-top awesome.”
Annie Burgess’s turn now.
There was one thing Alex really liked about her former team: they had voted Annie captain and not Lindsey Stiles. No co-captains. Just Annie. Although Alex had heard Lindsey fought tooth and nail for the job. It was a little silly, Alex thought, but Lindsey loved to be in control. After all, she’d managed to get the other girls to join her campaign against Alex. Acting like a leader, if for all the wrong reasons. To her credit, she’d gotten Annie to go along with her, even reluctantly. In that way, Annie had been a follower. But it was obvious to her teammates that she was a born leader on the soccer field.
Annie stepped to the microphone now.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Annie Burgess, and if you know me, you know I’m way better at kicking a ball than public speaking. But I just want to take this time to thank my teammates for supporting me this season and to thank all of you for the way you’ve supported us. I hope we don’t let you down tomorrow.”
There was a nice round of applause. Nothing like the response for Jabril. Then again, it was hard for anyone to measure up to Jabril.
But Annie wasn’t through.
“I’d like to say one more thing before the cheerleaders come back up,” she said once the applause died down. “It doesn’t just have to do with soccer.”
Annie stood close enough to the microphone that everyone could hear her inhale deeply. Alex waited with the rest of the crowd, unsure of what was coming next.
“Principal Ross said that sports can bring us together,” Annie said. “And they can. They just haven’t at our school this fall.”
She took another breath.
“But there’s someone in this gym who used to be my teammate, and she did something great on her new team,” Annie said. “Our team should have been behind her. Everybody should have been behind her. I wasn’t, and that’s on me.”
The gym had gotten very quiet.
“You know who should be up here today getting cheered?” she said. “Alex Carlisle.”
Another breath for Annie.
Alex held hers.
“Alex did something incredible. She was good enough to play quarterback on the football team, and she did exactly that. But too many of us turned our backs on her.” Annie gestured to the crowd.
“There’s not a person in this gym who hasn’t been told they can achieve anything if they work hard enough. Well, Alex worked her butt off and showed us all what grit and perseverance can do. And I think that’s pretty cool.”
Alex glanced down her row and saw Gabe’s jaw drop. Her own wasn’t too far behind.
Then Annie looked over toward Alex and said, “I can’t speak for everyone. But from me to you, Alex, I’m sorry.”
Alex nodded her head at Annie to acknowledge the apology, hoping Annie wouldn’t ask her to come up. For someone who hated being the center of attention, that would be more than Alex could endure.
What Annie Burgess did instead was start to clap. Jabril and Gabe were the first to join, and slowly, some of the other kids did the same. Alex ducked her head. It would be super embarrassing if only a handful of kids applauded her in a gym full of hundreds. But soon, the sound began to amplify until it overwhelmed the room. There were probably a few stragglers, but that hardly mattered to Alex.
So many of them had gone along with the crowd early in the school year. Now they did it a different way. A better one. Jabril threw an arm around Alex and gave her shoulder a squeeze.
“Shoulda been like this from the start,” he said.
38
The Palmer Lions had lost to only one team: the Owls. So even though both teams were tied with one loss, that head-to-head win was the reason the championship game would be played at Orville Middle. The Owls had earned the home field advantage.
But when Alex, Gabe, and Jabril checked the Lions’ record, the scores showed that they had rolled over most of their opponents the way the Owls had rolled over them.
“They’re going to want payback,” Alex had said to Gabe and Jabril on Friday night.
“Doesn’t scare me,” Jabril said.
“Explain, Wise Man,” Gabe said.
“First of all, it’s the championship game, so nobody needs extra motivation,” Jabril said. “And second? They can want payback all they want, but they remember the beating we already gave them, same as we do.”
The kickoff was scheduled for eleven o’clock the next morning. Alex woke up at seven without having to set her alarm. Her dad had left her jersey folded on the seat of her chair and her gear on the desk. Jack Carlisle liked to be organized. Lying in bed, Alex looked at the helmet she’d left sitting on Simba’s head and remembered back to the day she and her dad had picked it out at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
When her dad poked his head in to see if she was up, he nodded at Simba and said, “Helmet looks much better on you.”
“You know what, Dad?” she said. “It fit great in the store. But it suits me better now.”
Then she said, “Tell the truth. Did you really think I could do it?”
He leaned against the wall, just inside her bedroom door. “I thought you could be a player,” he said. “I just didn’t know you’d turn into this kind of player so quickly.” Then he paused and said, “What about you?”
“It’s weird,” she said. “Once I suited up that first day of tryouts, I felt like I belonged. Even if I was the only one who did. Then I had to prove it when I got on the field.”
“Which you did.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess I did.”
“My girl,” he said. “When do you want to head over to the field?”
“Now?” she said.
They both laughed. There had been other big games in Alex’s life. She’d played championship games in soccer and softball. They’d just never felt quite like this, with so much at stake.
“You know how proud I am of you, right?” he said.
“Like I know my passwords,” she said.
* * *
• • •
They got to the field at ten. Jabril and Gabe beat her there, so Alex joined their warm-up. Jabril and Gabe jogged out for passes, and Gabe threw a few to Alex, too. All of them were trying to play it cool, as if this were just another game.
Knowing it wasn’t even close.
Jabril pointed to the other end of the field, where some of the Lions were beginning to arrive.
&nb
sp; “Look,” he said, “your friends are here.”
Leading the way were No. 14 and No. 58. Alex knew their names now. The quarterback was Sam Pickett. The linebacker was Kenny Vila.
“They’re going down,” Gabe said.
“We just need to be one point higher on the scoreboard when the game’s over,” said Alex.
“Gotta start with us,” Jabril said. “The Three Musketeers.”
They formed a small huddle before joining the rest of their teammates for stretching. Jabril put out his hand in the middle. Gabe placed his on top, and Alex placed hers on top of Gabe’s.
“Let’s finish what we started,” Jabril said.
Right before the kickoff, Coach gave his shortest pregame talk of the season, which meant it only lasted seconds. Alex thought it was his best.
“Took us a while to be the team I wanted us to be,” Coach Mencken said. “But now we are. So go be that team today.”
Problem was, the last game of the Owls’ season started out like their first.
They quickly found out why Sam Pickett and the Lions had rolled through the rest of their season after their horrible loss to the Owls. Sam came out mixing passes with runs. His blockers managed to neutralize Jabril on the Lions’ first drive, going right down the field and making it look way too easy. It took four minutes in game time. The Owls were able to block the extra point, but when the drive was over, the Lions were ahead, 6–0.
The Owls came back. At this point in the season, they knew they could get back up after getting knocked down. They got back up, mostly running the ball on their own first drive. Jeff attempted only one pass. They were finally facing fourth-and-goal from the four-yard line when Coach called for an option play, with Jeff and Tariq running to their right, Jeff with the option of keeping the ball or pitching it. Jeff saw an opening and decided to keep it. When he got close to the goal line, he launched himself into the air, ball outstretched in front of him.
Kenny Vila, coming from the left, got to Jeff before he crossed the line. He knocked the ball loose, recovering it himself at the Lions’ one-yard line.