by Belle Payton
No more holding back. Time to shine! Ava thought.
She broke for the basket. Tamara blocked her path. Ava faked right, then dodged left. Tamara stuck with her.
“Here! Over here, Ava!” cried Jane. Jane was wide open.
Ava knew she should pass. Tamara was taller and bigger, and left her no clear path. But she desperately wanted to show PJ her layup.
“Ava!” Jane called again.
Ava hesitated, and in that moment, Tamara swiped the ball from her. Ava watched in disbelief as Tamara executed a perfect layup. Her layup.
“You rock, Tam!” cheered PJ. Even Coach Rader clapped.
Ava felt the air seep out of her. On the football field, she was special because she was the only girl—and because she was better than a lot of the boys. She’d thought that on an all-girls’ team, she’d automatically be the star. Now she saw that she wasn’t.
“I’m out of practice,” she announced suddenly. But no one answered.
The scrimmage started up again, and Ava got back into the game.
Maybe not today, but before the season ends, she vowed, I’ll show them that I’m as good as Tamara—maybe even better.
CHAPTER
TWO
“Wait up!” Alex called to Ava the next afternoon. Her sister didn’t usually walk so fast. Ever since they were toddlers, Ava had been the one who had to keep up with Alex—their mom said Alex walked with a purpose.
“I’m sweaty,” Ava complained, slowing down on the sidewalk outside their house. “I want to get inside and take a shower.”
“Was practice rough?” Alex asked. They’d both taken the late bus home from school. Ava had stayed after for basketball practice, and Alex had stayed for a student council meeting.
Ava shrugged. “I’m out of shape.”
“You?” Alex laughed. Somehow all the sporty genes had gone to Ava. Her twin was the most athletic girl she knew.
At that moment, their dad’s car pulled into the driveway. Tommy, the twins’ older brother, burst out of the passenger side and sprinted for the front door. “First shower!” he called.
“No way!” Ava cried. She dashed up the front walk and struggled with her key in the lock.
“Move it, squirt.” Tommy reached for the handle. “I quarterbacked all practice. I need that shower.”
“Back off!” Ava cried. “Why’d you QB?”
“PJ never showed up.” Tommy tried to push around her.
“Well, he wasn’t at our practice,” Ava said as she pushed back.
Alex watched her sweaty brother and sister jostle their way inside to fight for the hot water. Tommy had just come from high school football practice with Coach. He must have been tired because he let Ava shoot past him into the house. Alex was the only one who looked fresh in her black leggings and green-and-violet-striped shirt with her matching green headband.
“Hey there, pumpkin!” Coach Sackett pushed his baseball cap back and walked toward the door. “How was your day?”
“Good, but I’m starving,” Alex said. “I ate my lunch early so I could help Ms. Palmer organize the student council raffle during my lunch hour.” When Ms. Palmer had asked for her help, Alex had hesitated. Not because she’d miss eating, but because she’d miss the chance to sit with Corey. She wanted to talk more about their date—and exactly when they would go out. It was the only thing she could think about all day. But how could she say no to Ms. Palmer as seventh-grade class president?
“Food. Right.” Coach stepped inside and greeted their dog, Moxy, who ran in excited circles. Moxy was an Australian shepherd, and she almost never ran out of energy.
As she followed her dad into the kitchen, Alex’s eyes swept the family room. Random pieces of clothing, magazines, dog toys, and popcorn crumbs littered the sofa. Dirty breakfast dishes lay on the kitchen table. An opened carton of milk had been out on the counter all day. Stray cornflakes crunched under her feet on the tile floor.
“Your mom would not be too happy about all this.” Coach began to collect the dirty dishes and dump them into the sink, which was already overflowing with pots and pans.
“You think?” Alex teased. Her mom had left yesterday morning to go to an artist retreat in the Texas hills. Ever since her ceramics business had taken off, she’d been dying to go to this special place with a fancy ceramics studio to work on her more complicated designs. The official football season was done, and Coach Sackett had convinced his wife that this week was a great time to go and he had everything at home under control.
“A rough beginning, I know.” He filled the sink with water and soap bubbles. “We just need teamwork. You straighten the family room. I’ve got the kitchen.”
“What about dinner?” Alex asked, grabbing an apple.
“Go for the first down, then you try for the end zone.” Coach Sackett often spoke as if he were in the football locker room.
Alex guessed dinner would take a while. She checked her phone as she cleaned, hoping Corey would text. Should she text him? No, that would be weird, she decided. They’d never texted before. But maybe now was different.
“Moxy needs to go out!” Ava hurried down the stairs. Her wet hair was uncombed, and she wore a football jersey and flannel pants. Moxy scampered anxiously at her heels.
“Why don’t you both take Moxy for a walk?” Mr. Sackett suggested. He came out of the kitchen holding Moxy’s leash in one hand and a frozen chicken in the other. “I need to defrost this. The banana muffins I baked this morning won’t do double duty for dinner.”
“We better make it a long walk, Ave,” Alex joked. “The pizza delivery guy takes a while.” Coach was a great baker, but unfortunately not nearly as good of a cook as their mother.
“Do not doubt your dad. Somehow, someway, I am cooking chicken.” He clipped the leash on Moxy. “Ava, your hair is wet. Put a coat on.”
“But it feels like spring,” Ava protested.
“No buts.” Coach Sackett handed Alex the leash. “A coat, and stay only on our street. Promise?”
“Promise,” the girls agreed.
Alex grabbed her new plaid peacoat from the front closet, while Ava pulled on the navy Windbreaker she’d worn last spring.
“Did this shrink?” Ava demanded. The jacket’s sleeves ended just below Ava’s elbows, and the fabric strained tightly across her back.
Alex doubled over in laughter. “You look ridiculous, Ave!”
“You grew a lot,” Coach said. “Wear another jacket.”
“I don’t have another one.” Ava pulled the navy one off. “Just my winter coat.”
“That’s because you always refuse to go shopping. Mom wanted to take you.” Alex never refused a mall run.
Moxy let out a series of short, high yelps.
“I have an extra.” Alex pulled out her cute hot-pink jacket with a trendy shawl collar. “You can wear this one.”
“Seriously?” Ava rolled her eyes. “Never! That’s so pink and so not me.”
“Just throw it on.” Coach sighed. “Help me here, Ava. Moxy needs to go pronto, and I need to make dinner.”
Ava echoed his sigh, reluctantly slipping on the hot-pink jacket. They hurried Moxy outside.
“Hey,” Alex called to Ava, who had already been pulled ahead by Moxy as they headed down their block. “You look like me.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you? We’re twins,” Ava called back.
“Obviously! I mean from the back, with the pink coat. Plus, your hair has grown out a lot,” Alex explained.
Ava touched the ends of her wet, tangled hair. They now grazed her shoulders. “I need a haircut.”
When they’d first moved to Ashland, Ava had cut her hair just below her chin without consulting Alex. At the time, it had felt like a betrayal to Alex. They’d always had different interests, but Alex took comfort in looking exactly the same as Ava. Now that they were no longer the “new girls,” she knew it would take a whole lot more than a haircut to weaken their twin bond.
&
nbsp; Alex and Ava walked side by side with Moxy on the leash between them. The air was warmer than it had been in months, although it had never gotten anywhere as cold as it used to in Boston during the winters. It had snowed only once, and that was just flurries!
“Time to turn around,” Ava said when they reach the end of their street.
“Let’s keep walking. I have something amazing to tell you,” Alex said.
“But we promised—” Ava started.
“I know, but it’s so nice out, and Coach will need forever to try to cook that frozen chicken. We’ll just walk down Ridgewood. It’s no big deal.” Alex grabbed Moxy’s leash and headed right before Ava could protest. Then she called over her shoulder. “Corey asked me out.”
Ava raced after her. “What?”
“You heard me,” Alex said breezily, as if it weren’t the big deal that it clearly was.
“When? How? I need details!” Ava cried.
As they walked down Ridgewood, then turned onto Quincy Street, Alex told Ava everything she knew, which she soon realized wasn’t much.
“Does this mean you guys are a couple?” Ava asked
“I don’t know,” Alex admitted.
“So is it just the two of you at the movies? Are other people going?” Ava asked.
“No clue,” Alex admitted. “Do you think other people should go too?”
“Definitely. Especially if you have this all wrong and he thinks you’re going to the movies as friends,” Ava said.
“Why would he think that?” Alex demanded.
“I’ve gone to the movies with Corey, Xander, and Kal, and I am sure not going out with any of them,” Ava said.
“That’s different,” Alex said, as they turned onto another street. “You went to the movies as a football team.”
“All I’m saying is we never go to a restaurant without you pulling up the menu online, analyzing every option, and knowing what you’re going to order before we even get there. It just seems odd to me that you don’t know what kind of date this is or if it is a date,” Ava said.
Alex slowed. Ava was right. How could she not know all this?
She loosened her grip on the leash and fumbled in her coat pocket for her phone. It didn’t seem to be there. She must’ve left it in the house. “Ugh, I need to text Emily—” Alex let out a shriek as a rabbit jumped out from a nearby bush and Moxy lunged after it, yanking the leash from her hand. With it flapping on the pavement behind her, Moxy raced down the street after the rabbit.
“Moxy! Stop!” Alex screamed.
But Moxy kept moving at top speed, intent on catching the rabbit.
“Come back!” Alex cried, as she and Ava started to run too. Moxy cut through lawn after lawn and zigzagged down unfamiliar streets. They chased her across backyards until she disappeared behind a cluster of trees.
Alex ran as fast as she could, gasping for breath. “Where is she?”
“There!” Ava cried. She pointed, and Alex glimpsed Moxy heading for a street behind the trees. She heard a car horn beep.
“Oh no!” Alex cried.
Ava’s body reacted to the car horn as if it were the starting gun at a race. Leaving Alex far behind, she burst forward and sprinted faster than she’d ever run on the football field.
Moxy! She had to get to Moxy before . . .
She spotted Moxy on a lawn, momentarily startled by the noise. Her dog stood, panting, alongside the curb. The rabbit was long gone. Ava didn’t bother to yell. She flung her body and tackled Moxy from behind, grabbing her collar with her hands. Moxy squirmed, but Ava held on tightly, rolling over in the grass.
“Hey, girl, hey, girl,” she repeated. “I’ve got you.”
Alex reached them and grabbed the leash. Then she waved to the woman in the stopped car. “Thanks so much! Sorry ’bout that!” The woman cautioned them to be careful, then drove off.
Ava stayed on the ground curled around Moxy, catching her breath. “I’m glad I was wearing sneakers.”
“You saved her.” Alex sat with them.
Ava looked around. “Where are we?”
“Someone’s yard?” Alex gazed around, disoriented. “I don’t recognize these houses.”
“Me neither.” Ava stood and whirled about. “Should we call Coach to come get us?” Ava asked.
“I don’t have my phone, remember? Besides, if we called him, we’d get in trouble. We promised we wouldn’t leave our block. We just need to retrace our steps,” Alex said. “I think we should cut through this yard. I’m pretty sure we came from the street behind this house.” She led them up a narrow driveway. A row of thick, high hedges bordered the backyard.
“Are you sure?” Ava asked. She’d never been great at directions. “Look, here comes someone. Maybe we should ask.” She pointed to a light-blue truck driving down the street.
“No way. I’m not talking to some stranger. I’ve got this,” Alex assured her. The truck slowed in front of the house and began to turn up the driveway. “They must live here. Hide!”
“What? Why?” Ava asked, bewildered.
“Quick!” Alex pulled her and Moxy behind the tall hedge.
“This is silly. We can run across the lawn. They won’t see us. And if they do, they don’t know us.” Ava pointed out the path they would take. The truck had pulled to the top of the driveway. Only the hedge separated them. “Ready? Okay—” Then she spotted the man stepping out of the driver’s side. Ava stared in disbelief. It was Mr. Kelly! He walked around the back of the truck. She knew the Kellys lived in their neighborhood, but how was it possible that she and Alex had ended up at their house?
“Wait!” She grabbed Alex’s arm to stop her. Ava squeezed her other hand around Moxy’s snout to keep the dog quiet.
Mr. Kelly would surely recognize the Sackett twins. How would they explain why they were in his backyard? He hated Coach already and loved making trouble for their family. It was less risky to hide behind the thick leaves until he went inside.
She caught Alex’s eye. Ava could tell her twin knew exactly what she was thinking.
Ava held Moxy tightly and watched through gaps in the leaves as Mr. Kelly opened the passenger door. PJ Kelly hobbled out. Ava held back her gasp. Coach’s star quarterback was injured! PJ’s left knee was cased in a big black brace, and he leaned heavily on crutches. Dried mud covered his track pants and arms. A large bruise bloomed on his left cheek. Even from where she hid, Ava could see him cringe in pain.
Alex nudged her and raised her eyebrows in alarm. “What happened?” she mouthed silently.
Ava raised her eyebrows back. She remembered that Tommy said PJ hadn’t been at practice today. And he hadn’t been at her basketball practice either. So what had happened? Did Coach know?
“I didn’t like that doctor,” PJ said to his dad. “Dr. Rodriguez is much nicer.”
“Do you think I wanted to take off work and drive you five towns away to Hellman? You’re lucky I got Dr. Chang to see you at all. And that he promised to keep his mouth shut,” Mr. Kelly grumbled. “Dr. Rodriguez’s office is crawling with folks from Ashland. Coach Sackett would already know what you’ve been up to if I were stupid enough to take you to him.”
Mr. Kelly moved around to the back of the pickup. “Speaking of stupid . . .” Mr. Kelly lifted a mangled dirt bike from the truck’s bed. “What would possibly possess you to go dirt biking by that quarry?”
“You said you wanted me to bond with the guys from Saint Francis,” PJ replied.
“Bond, yeah. Have a burger. Watch some movies. Not twist your knee so you’re benched from football!” Mr. Kelly yelled.
“I wasn’t trying to do that,” PJ shot back. “We’d had a great practice, and they were all going, so it seemed like the right thing.”
“You’re just not getting it. They want your skill and talent. That’s why they invited you to their football practice. Their quarterback is graduating,” Mr. Kelly said. “They need you. You have nothing to prove to them.”
PJ l
eaned against the truck. “I don’t get why leaving Ashland High is a good thing. It feels wrong. I mean, we just won state.”
“Look at the big picture, son. Saint Francis is a private school with a lot of money to spend on football. They are putting together a super team of the best players in the state, and you will be the face of that team. The men behind this team—the men with money and power—will get you into the college of your dreams, and then they will get you into the NFL.” Mr. Kelly beamed. “Boom! Just like that.”
“But Coach Sackett—” PJ started.
“Coach Sackett is small-time. Outside Ashland, he has no connections and no power. Saint Francis is your ticket to the big leagues.” Mr. Kelly opened the garage door and tossed the mangled bike inside. “No one can know about this. The dirt biking or the Saint Francis practice.”
“Coach Sackett is not going to be happy that I’m injured,” PJ said.
“No one is happy, believe me. Now go put some ice on that knee. That knee is your future!” Mr. Kelly stalked into the garage.
As PJ began to hobble after him, Moxy wriggled her mouth free and let out a strained yelp of frustration.
PJ stopped. He looked over his shoulder and squinted in their direction.
Ava heard her own heart pound. She clamped her hands tighter over Moxy’s mouth. Had PJ seen them?
CHAPTER
THREE
Go away, go away, Alex chanted silently, trying to motivate PJ with the power of her mind.
PJ’s eyes scanned the yard as he balanced on his crutches. Alex, Ava, and even Moxy froze.
Go away.
PJ turned and slowly made his way into the house. Mind-power triumph!
“I was sure he saw us. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.” Alex exhaled loudly.
“Me too. Let’s get out of here.” Ava tightened her grip on Moxy’s leash and ran across the yard.
“I’m pretty sure I know the way,” said Alex. She led them in and out of a few yards until she found Quincy Street again. They slowed to a walk and caught their breath. “Okay, what just happened back there? Is PJ really ditching the Tigers?”