Fair Catch

by Ruddick, Jessica

  “If something has to give, I’ll—”

  “No,” Emily said. “You love football. And you promised me I’d get to see you play on TV.”

  I hadn’t exactly promised her that, but I guessed we remembered that conversation differently. I had every intention of giving her bragging rights among her school friends, though. It surprised the hell out of me, but I found that I wanted my siblings to be proud of me.

  “You can’t give it up.” Ben had been silent throughout most of the conversation, so his vehement tone surprised me. “It’s a big deal to be on VVU’s football team. I may not be into sports like you and Dad were, but even I recognize that. Mom and Dad would be disappointed if you quit.”

  I looked around at my siblings’ solemn faces, and I knew they were right. I needed to practice what I was preaching, which meant that I needed to make our situation work.

  “I also have to take classes this summer. So between that and football, I won’t be around much.”

  Ben shrugged. “Like you said, I’ll be at summer school, so you don’t have to worry about me.”

  I looked at the girls. “I can look into hiring a nanny.”

  Ashley made a face. “A nanny?” The way she said it made it sound like I was planning to put her in a playpen like a baby.

  “Isn’t that what they’re called?” I asked. “You know, a babysitter.”

  “I’m twelve,” Ashley reminded me. “A lot of girls my age are already babysitting.”

  A lot of girls your age don’t meet up with older boys and get drunk. I still needed to address that issue, but I also kind of hoped that taking her out of the environment would fix it naturally. She obviously didn’t have access to whomever she had been meeting up with anymore.

  “But you don’t drive,” I pointed out more diplomatically. “We need someone who can drive you girls to different activities and maybe some other fun things.”

  Ashley huffed. “Just get someone cool.” And just like that, she’d morphed back into a sassy tween. Her moment of maturity was over.

  “Responsible,” I corrected. “I’ll get someone who is responsible.”

  “As long as she’s nice,” Emily said. “Cool would be good, but nice is most important.”

  “I’ll do my best,” I promised. The kids had a little more than a month before summer break. There were nearly thirty thousand college students in Bleaksburg. Surely, I would be able to find someone suitable in that amount of time.

  “Are we done?” Ben asked. “I was supposed to join a game five minutes ago.”

  “Put your dishes in the dishwasher, and then you can go.” I nearly patted myself on the back for that fine piece of parental instruction. Though Ben rolled his eyes at me, he did as I said.

  The girls also cleared their plates and went their separate ways. As I dealt with the dirty griddle, I rolled my shoulders, feeling a lot less stressed than I had an hour ago. I was cautiously optimistic.

  CHAPTER 14

  Rachel

  OBSERVING THE FIFTH-GRADE class was much more enjoyable, but the experience still didn’t change my mind about my future—or non-future—in the classroom. On my third day with Mrs. Tillman, the kids were stuck in a computer lab taking a standardized test, so she suggested I observe the guidance counselor as she met with a small group of students who were struggling. Crammed in the tiny guidance office with the counselor and five kids, I had a revelation—this. This was exactly what I wanted to do—work with kids on a more personal level. I couldn’t believe the answer had been practically under my nose the entire time, and I hadn’t seen it. When I thought back to all the times I’d felt fulfilled when working with children, I realized they all had one thing in common—I was helping kids in their times of distress, like when Emily had missed her bus and when Ashley had locked herself in the bathroom.

  At the end of the school day, I raced off to meet with my academic advisor. I practically floated into the meeting, but I left deflated. Apparently at that point, my best option was to stay the course with my education degree and pursue a master’s degree in school counseling. If I had taken a second to talk with the counselor I was observing, I would have learned that a master’s degree was required. Another degree meant more debt in the long-term, and in the short-term, it didn’t get me out of student teaching in the fall. So that pretty much sucked.

  Such was life—two steps forward, one step back. At least I had a path in mind now, even if it would take me longer than I wanted to get to my end goal.

  The silver lining to my day was that it was girls’ movie night, which was always good for my soul. It was Danielle’s week to choose, and she selected the next Star Wars movie. Katie didn’t seem bothered by it, but Destiny and I looked at one another and cringed. I feared we’d created a monster the previous week when we’d unleashed Danielle’s secret obsession with the galaxy far, far away. Even Princess Buttercup seemed less than impressed, sauntering out of the room as the opening credits rolled.

  Promising myself I would try harder to pay attention this week, I settled in. This isn’t so bad. It was a hole in my pop-culture education that needed to be filled anyway. Or at least that was what I told myself. A glass-half-full attitude always served me well in life. Though lately, I hadn’t been practicing what I preached.

  My phone buzzed on the end table next to me, and I reached for it so fast, I nearly toppled off the couch.

  Destiny eyed my phone, a barely hidden smirk gracing her face. “Are you expecting an important message?”

  Katie smiled smugly. “It’s probably Jake.” Her voice had an annoying singsong tone to it. I couldn’t even give her shit about it because I’d probably done the same thing when she was getting together with Wyatt. I couldn’t recall. But this was different. My friendship with Jake was nothing like her relationship with Wyatt. Telling her that would only egg her on, though.

  Jake and I had been texting back and forth the last several days. It all started when Emily had asked him to text me a picture of how she’d fixed her hair. Then it had quickly morphed into flirty banter and sexy innuendo—all completely innocent. Yet as I suffered through my education classes and observation hours at the elementary school, I had begun to look forward to his texts as bright spots in my day.

  The text was indeed from Jake, but it wasn’t one of the flirty ones. Instead, he explained that Ashley had a dance at school on Friday, and he needed to take her dress shopping. But of course he had no idea where to go.

  I tried not to feel disappointed that his text was practical in nature. We were just friends anyway, so I had no place feeling disappointed. I quickly texted back a few options.

  “Is everything okay?” Katie sounded genuinely concerned.

  I frowned. “Yes, why wouldn’t it be?”

  She shrugged. “You don’t have the dreamy look on your face that you normally have when you’re texting with Jake.”

  I gaped at her. “Dreamy look? What the hell are you talking about?” Oh my God. She couldn’t be serious. I was not a stupid lovesick teenager. I had never fallen into that trap when I was an actual teen, and now that I was in my twenties, I sure as hell wasn’t.

  Danielle chuckled. “I hate to say it, but Katie has a point. I haven’t seen you texting with him this week, but I did see the look on your face a few seconds ago when you grabbed your phone.”

  I hadn’t shared with Katie what Jake and I talked about or how much I looked forward to hearing from him. I wasn’t hiding it, obviously, because I’d texted in front of her. Even though the conversations were more or less innocent, they were private. Through them, I saw a side of Jake that wasn’t on the surface. Likewise, my fingers were a lot looser than my lips, and I texted things I wouldn’t have dared voice—like how I couldn’t wait to see him in his tight football pants, and how I didn’t get along with any of my three sisters. Our conversations ran the gamut from coy to teasing to serious.

  “We’re just friends,” I said. That much was true. With summer looming
and our busy schedules, it was doubtful we would have time to see one another. And if I was going to spend the summer at home, it didn’t make sense to start anything with Jake. Besides, I had just gotten out of a relationship. That was another mark in the hold-off column.

  Or at least that was what the Jiminy Cricket on my shoulder was telling me to quell my disappointment. Because it indeed looked like I would be at home over the summer. I finally took the time to do the math and realized there was no way a summer job at a restaurant or store would pay as well as Miss Melinda did. She was generous, letting me take home ninety percent of the income from the five extra kids in our care all summer. And because she paid me under the table, I didn’t have to give forty percent to Uncle Sam, and that made a huge difference. So far, I’d been able to bank my earnings each summer to live off of the entire school year. But I had also used the money I’d stashed away my entire life to supplement. That resource was down to its last pennies, so I might have to work at Miss Melinda’s and get a weekend job. That wouldn’t make for an enjoyable summer, but oh well. It would mean less time spent under my parents’ roof. Glass half full, right?

  Katie snorted. “Sure. Friends.”

  I rolled my eyes, knowing better than to get into an argument with her about it. “He had a question about where he could get a dress for his sister.” As I said that, my phone buzzed again.

  Jake: Ashley says she wants a strapless dress, which means she needs a strapless bra. I’m being punished for sins in a past life.

  His text included a blushing emoji. I giggled.

  “What’s so funny?” Destiny asked. “I’ve had kind of a shitty day, so I could use a laugh.”

  I gripped my phone tighter in case she decided to get bold and make a grab for it. “It’s nothing really. Jake is just embarrassed because it looks like he has to take Ashley shopping for a bra.”

  “He’s embarrassed? What about her?” Destiny’s expression was horrified. “I had a traumatic childhood experience with my dad in Victoria’s Secret. Traumatic, I tell you. I’m scarred.”

  If anyone else but Destiny had said that, I would have written the comment off as exaggeration. But my friend’s face was deadly serious.

  “Jake is her brother, not her dad,” I said. “He’ll be cool about it.”

  “Hell no.” Destiny shook her head emphatically. “I cannot stand by and let this happen to this poor girl.”

  “What do you think is going to happen?” I asked. “It’s not like he’s going to go in the dressing room with her.”

  “No,” Katie agreed. “He’ll just have to hover in the lingerie section while he waits for her. I’m sure he’ll love that.”

  I tried to picture Jake skulking through racks of panties and bras, his tall form looming over the displays. Yeah, I couldn’t picture it. But I could definitely picture him in another situation involving bras and panties, specifically my bra and panties.

  So much for only being friends.

  My friends looked gleefully at one another. I pretty much already knew the answer to this question, but I had to ask it anyway. “What do you have in mind?”

  “We are going to take that girl shopping.” Destiny grinned, seeming way too excited.

  Danielle sighed. “Well, I guess we can put off Star Wars since it’s for a good cause. I’m in.”

  Destiny and I shared a look, and I knew she was thinking the same thing I was. We thought we might have dodged a bullet, but nope. We’d only been granted a stay of execution. The Star Wars journey would be continued next week.

  “Hold on a sec,” I said. “Let me text him and see if he even wants us to take her.”

  His response was immediate and not surprising: Yes.

  Twenty minutes later, the four of us plus Ashley were on our way to the mall. There weren’t many shopping options in Bleaksburg or the neighboring Christiansburg, but Ashley only had two days before her dance, so we would have to find something. My friends were women with a mission, and I had no doubt they would be victorious.

  Destiny was driving, and Danielle was riding shotgun. Ashley was wedged between Katie and me in the back seat, but she didn’t seem to care one bit that she was riding bitch. Excitement radiated off her. I also would have been ecstatic if four college girls had taken me shopping when I was twelve, especially ones as cool as us.

  “How formal is the dance?” Katie asked, all business. She was like a general gathering intel so she could formulate a plan of attack.

  “Um… I’m not sure,” Ashley said.

  “It’s probably semiformal,” I speculated. “I doubt the middle school would throw a formal dance.”

  Danielle twisted in her seat so she could participate in the conversation. “But it’s not casual, right?”

  “We’re not supposed to wear jeans and stuff,” Ashley confirmed.

  “So definitely semiformal, then,” Katie said. “Okay, that makes it easier.”

  Destiny let out a long sigh. “I miss getting all dressed up for dances.”

  “You could have joined a sorority,” Katie pointed out. “They have formal events, right?”

  Destiny shrugged. “Eh. I have you three. We’re practically our own sorority.”

  “Aw,” Danielle cooed. “That’s so sweet.”

  Katie snickered. “Destiny just doesn’t know how to get along with a huge group of girls.”

  “That’s not true,” Danielle protested, coming to the defense of her bestie.

  “It kind of is,” Destiny admitted. “I don’t have the patience for most girls.” Ironically, Danielle, her BFF, was the most traditionally feminine out of all of us. The Double Ds were the epitome of opposites attracting.

  When Ashley saw that our first stop was JCPenney, she balked. “Isn’t that where old people shop?” Then her eyes widened, and she sucked in a breath, probably realizing she might have insulted us since we’d chosen the store.

  Katie wrapped an arm around her shoulders in commiseration. “We have slim pickings for shopping choices. Next time you have an event, let us know in advance, and we can take you to Roanoke. They have way better shopping there.”

  Ashley grinned, a welcome sight. The last time I’d seen the poor girl, she’d been sitting on the closed toilet seat, crying. It made me happy to see her happy, and it warmed my heart that my friends wanted to do this for her.

  But it quickly became obvious that my friends might be having more fun than Ashley. They scurried around, picking out clothes for her to try on, like they were playing dress-up with a real-life Barbie doll. The search quickly expanded from dresses to jeans, tops, and pretty much every other article of clothing a tween could want. When we’d picked her up, Jake had given me a stack of twenties and told me to text him if we needed more. It wasn’t until we were in the car that I’d realized he had given me four hundred dollars. Holy crap. So when Ashley found other things she liked, I texted Jake to ask if it was okay to spend the money on more than just a dress.

  Jake: Please do. You’re doing me a favor. Spend all of it and then some.

  I didn’t pass that info along to my friends—he didn’t know how dangerous that comment could be. When we’d gone shopping to outfit the kitchen, Jake had told me that budget wasn’t an issue. I guessed he’d really meant it. However, he didn’t seem to live an extravagant lifestyle and didn’t strike me as the sort who’d grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth. The money must have come as a result of his parents’ death. That was sad in a way, but I was glad he didn’t have to worry about finances in addition to being the guardian of his siblings.

  Another text from him came in.

  Jake: Is Ashley having fun?

  Rachel: If she’s having half as much fun as Katie, Destiny, and Danielle, then she’s having the time of her life.

  Jake: I can’t thank you enough. What about you? Are you having fun?

  I typed yes, then I hesitated. I added but I wish you were here. I held my breath as I waited for a response.

  Jake: I’m
sure Ashley is having more fun without me, but I wish I were with you too.

  As I stared at his words, warmth filled my chest. God, I wished I could manage a way to stay in Bleaksburg over the summer. But I’d done all I could do, including scouring online help-wanted ads for pet-sitting jobs, temp agency jobs, and basically anything that came with a paycheck. I’d come up with nada, zilch, zero. It wasn’t meant to be.

  We didn’t find a dress until the fourth store. When Ashley emerged from the dressing room, wearing a black strapless A-line that shimmered with gold when she moved, the four of us gasped and clapped our hands, not unlike bridesmaids in a movie when the bride emerged wearing her wedding dress for the first time. It was fully ridiculous, but none of us seemed to care. We were in the moment.

  “This is it!” Destiny shrieked.

  “I know!” Ashley jumped up and down. “It’s perfect, right?”

  What was perfect was seeing her so happy. And if she got a dress she loved out of it, then that was the cherry on top. I literally had to wipe a tear from my eye. This stupid shopping trip was giving me all the feels.

  Katie, who had worked with a professional stylist in her days as a child actress, stepped forward to tug on the bodice of the dress. “You definitely need a strapless bra for this.”

  Ashley beamed. “You think?” She could probably get away without wearing one at all since she was relatively flat-chested, but I remembered being twelve and wanting nothing more than to have to wear a bra. I had been the last out of all my childhood friends to grow boobs.

  “Of course,” Katie said. “And I hate to say it, but I think we need to go back to JCPenney.”

  “What about Victoria’s Secret?” Destiny asked. “Can’t we get a bra there?”

  “Of course,” Katie said. “But when you guys were in the dressing room at JCPenney, I wandered over to the shoe department, and I saw the perfect shoes for this dress. Black kitten heels with gold straps and accents. Perfect.”

  I checked the time on my phone. “We better haul ass then, ladies. Everything closes in less than an hour.”