by Alex Morgan
Not too long ago, Jessi had been failing math and Spanish, and her mom had taken her off the team. Thankfully, Jessi had started studying hard and Mrs. Dukes had let her back on the team, and I helped Jessi study whenever I could.
“Well, I’ll be out in the garden if you need me,” Mrs. Dukes said, and then she headed into the backyard.
Jessi and I ate our sandwiches, and Jessi was chatting a mile a minute about how she wanted to go back to the mall to get this shirt she’d seen in a magazine, and how there’d been a big fight between Belinda’s and Julianna’s pet psychics on The Real Teenagers of Beverly Hills, but I wasn’t really listening. I couldn’t stop thinking about the goof-up over the field that morning. Our team always practiced there. It didn’t make any sense. While Jessi talked, I did that thing where you just said “Mmm-hmm” and “Yeah” and nodded your head every few seconds. Then Jessi’s voice broke through my fog.
“Devin? Are you listening?”
“Oh, sorry,” I replied. “I’m still upset that we missed practice this morning. The whole thing about the wrong schedule is bugging me. I should call over to the community center and make sure our next practice is scheduled. Do you mind?”
Jessi shook her head. “Fine. Do whatever you need to do to clear that head of yours!”
I looked up the number on my cell phone and then called the center. Luckily, somebody picked up on the first ring.
“Hi, um, I’m wondering about the schedule for the field on King Street,” I said. “There was a mix-up this morning with our soccer practice, and I just want to make sure we’re still scheduled for Monday afternoon.”
“Give me a second,” said the female voice on the other end, and I heard the sound of shuffling papers. “Let me see . . . It doesn’t look like there was a mix-up. Coach Flores called yesterday to cancel the use of the field for the Kicks.”
“Coach Flores?” I asked, shocked. “I saw Coach Flores this morning, and she was just as surprised as everyone else that the field was being used by the tai chi group. I’m sure she never called, I swear.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s what I have here,” the woman said. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, no,” I said, frustrated. “Just please don’t cancel any more of our dates, okay?”
I hung up, upset, and Jessi was looking at me strangely. “What was that?”
“Somebody claiming to be Coach Flores called the center and canceled this morning’s practice,” I told her, and her mouth dropped open.
“No way!” she cried. “Devin, don’t you see? Somebody is definitely trying to sabotage our team. This can’t be a coincidence.”
I frowned. “Jessi, that sounds crazy. Who would want to do that?”
“Mirabelle!” she shot back. “I’ve been thinking about it. Mirabelle hated being on the Kicks because she thought we were losers. When she went to the Panthers, she thought she’d be on the top team in the league, and then we beat them. She’s probably trying to make sure we don’t win.”
“That sounds drastic, even for Mirabelle,” I said.
“Think about it,” Jessi said, her eyes shining with excitement. “Mirabelle was at the game the day your uniform was stolen. She knows the locker room well. So she calls the office pretending to be your mom. You go to the office, and she sneaks in and grabs the duffel bag. She knew it would throw you off your game.”
I nodded, thinking. Jessi was actually kind of making sense.
“I also asked Coach Flores about the e-mail. You know, the one telling the girls that practice was moved up?” Jessi asked. “She said she never had the e-mail address [email protected]. Not ever! Someone created that e-mail address to send out the fake e-mails, I just know it!”
I had to agree with Jessi that that seemed really fishy.
“And now somebody called the community center pretending to be Coach and canceled our practice,” Jessi continued. “Mirabelle knows that we practice on the community field, not the school field. It had to be her. I bet the reason Zoe got hurt is her fault too.”
“Now you’re being ridiculous,” I argued. “Zoe and Brianna bumped into each other. That wasn’t sabotage.”
“Okay, maybe not,” Jessi admitted. “But your duffel bag and the field—come on. Something bad is going on here.”
I still didn’t want to believe it. “We’ve got to forget about this stuff and just concentrate on the game against the Roses tomorrow.”
“Well, I’m not forgetting,” Jessi said, and she looked more determined than I’d ever seen her. “If Mirabelle is behind this, there is no way she’s going to get away with it.”
“Yay! Devin’s here!” Emma squealed as I walked into Cosmic Bowling later that night. She slipped a blue fluorescent necklace over my head. “Coach Flores got us these. Aren’t they cool?”
“Awesome!” I replied. I scanned the bowling alley, transfixed. The room was bathed in black light. The bowling pins and balls glowed in fluorescent green, yellow, orange, and pink. Bowlers wore glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets, and people even sipped sodas from glow-in-the-dark straws. I had never seen anything like it.
“Where is everybody?” I asked.
“We’ve all got lanes,” Emma reported. “Come on. We need to get you some shoes.”
A few minutes later I was walking through the bowling alley in smooth-soled bowling shoes. Emma led me to a lane where Jessi, Frida, and Zoe were all waiting.
“I can’t bowl, but I can cheer everybody on,” Zoe said, wiggling her arm like a chicken wing.
“Aw!” I said, hugging her. “Well, I’m going to need a lot of cheering on, because the last time I bowled, I used bumpers.”
“You mean we can’t use bumpers?”
Anna, another member of the Kicks, had asked the question. She was in the lane to the right of us with Sarah.
Jessi made a muscle with her right arm. “We don’t need no stinkin’ bumpers!”
“Speak for yourself,” I said.
Brianna ran up, carrying her bowling shoes. She plopped down in a seat next to me.
“Sorry I’m late. I had a piano lesson,” she said.
“I thought you had a dance lesson today,” Anna said.
“I did,” Brianna replied. “Right after soccer practice.” She swept a lock of her long blond hair behind her ear. “Oh, that reminds me. You know Jamie from the Rams? Well, she’s in my dance class and all she could talk about was how the Rams are going to win the district this year. It was obnoxious.”
“She thinks the Rams can beat the Panthers?” Jessi asked. “Aren’t the Rams, like, in fourth place right now or something?”
“Well, we beat the Panthers, and I think we’re in fifth place right now,” I pointed out.
“I know,” Brianna said. Then she rolled her eyes. “That Jamie was acting like they’d already won.”
“Well, the Rams did really well last year,” Emma pointed out. “Jamie was, like, the star of the team. It’s actually kind of weird that they’re not doing better this year.”
Then Coach Flores walked up to us. “Glad to see all of you girls here! It looks like most of the team made it.”
I looked at the lanes around us. To our left were Grace and her three best friends on the team, Giselle, Megan, and Anjali. The other girls on the team were all in lanes close by.
“Are you bowling too?” I asked Coach.
She nodded to a lane. “Maya and Jade invited me to play with them. But I’ll stop by to see how you guys are doing.”
I shook my head. “You might not want to do that. I haven’t bowled in ages. So I’ll probably just be throwing gutter balls.”
Coach Flores smiled. “Just have some fun. I’ll see you later!”
She left, and I looked up at the scoreboard screen to see that Jessi had entered our names. Then she picked up a glowing pink ball.
“Let’s roll!” she yelled, and then she sent the ball sailing down the lane and knocked down a bunch of pins.
Jessi, Emma, and Frida had to go before me, so I looked around at the other bowlers. Anna pushed the ball with both hands, giggling as it slowly made its way down the side of the lane before dropping into the gutter. The eighth grade lane was another story. Grace slid up to the line like a real pro and sent her ball spinning right down the middle. She pumped her fist as the word “Strike” blazed across the scoreboard.
“Devin, it’s your turn,” Emma called out.
“Oh, boy,” I muttered. I wasn’t nervous, exactly, just not sure how I was going to do. I picked up a fluorescent orange ball and walked up to the line. Then I swung with all my might and dropped the ball. It quickly skidded down the lane—and right into the gutter.
Secretly I was embarrassed, but I decided to make the best of it.
“Yes!” I cheered, pumping my fist like Grace had. “I totally meant to do that!”
Zoe giggled. “That was the most awesome gutter ball ever.”
The ball came back, and I tried again, this time focusing as hard as I could on the middle pin. But the ball rolled right into the gutter again!
“Thank you, thank you,” I said, taking a bow.
“Devin is the gutter ball queen!” Frida yelled.
“No way! I am!” Anna protested.
“We’ll see about that,” I said.
On my next turn I danced up to the line to the music and then threw the ball—another gutter ball, but I didn’t care, because my friends were giggling so hard. I hopped up to the line like a bunny on my second throw.
I mixed it up on each turn, cracking up my friends every time. I twirled around like a ballerina. I stomped like a sumo wrestler. I swung my arms like a monkey. And the ball went into the gutter every time.
“Enough!” Jessi yelled finally through her giggles. “Devin, you have got to hit at least one pin this game!”
“Pretend the ball is a soccer ball and the pins are the goal,” Frida suggested.
“Okay, okay,” I said. I picked up the ball, and this time I really tried. I took Frida’s advice. The glowing orange ball became a black-and-white soccer ball. The fluorescent pins became goalposts and a net. I took three smooth steps, like I had seen Jessi and Grace do, and let go of the ball.
It slid down the middle . . . and kept going . . . and then veered to the left right before it hit the pins.
Bam! Four pins went down.
“I did it!” I cried, and Emma gave me another high five.
I knew it was only four pins, but at least it wasn’t a gutter ball. Jessi shook her head.
“It’s a good thing you’re a better soccer player than a bowler,” she said.
I laughed. “No kidding!”
CHAPTER SIX
The next morning Dad dropped me off early at the Santa Flora field for our game against the Roses. Santa Flora was only one town away from Kentville, so it wasn’t far. It looked like a pretty normal school field except that there were rosebushes planted all around the parking lot, which was really pretty.
I walked to the Kicks side of the field, where some of the girls were already warming up. Coach Flores approached me.
“Devin, Grace, and Megan are both out today with a stomach bug,” she informed me. “But we’ve got plenty of players, so we should be fine.”
I couldn’t answer her right away, because I was kind of freaking out inside. Fine? Grace was our strongest midfielder, and Megan, who was also in eighth grade, was a solid striker. Now we’d have a forward line without Megan or Zoe. Not good.
“Okay,” I said finally. “So, what are you going to do, Coach?”
“I thought I’d start you, Brianna, and Maya as forwards,” Coach Flores replied. “Maya’s a great midfielder, but I think she’ll do well in the forward position.”
I couldn’t really argue with that; Maya was another eighth grader and I didn’t know her that well, but she was definitely solid on the midfield. Still, I didn’t feel like it was our strongest front line.
“Coach, could we put Jessi as a forward too?” I asked.
Coach Flores raised an eyebrow. “You mean four forwards? I wouldn’t normally recommend that, Devin.”
“I just think we need to beef up our front line,” I said. “It’s worth a try, isn’t it? I mean, we’ve tried stuff before that has worked.”
Coach Flores nodded. “They say the best way to learn is by doing, right? Let’s give it a try.”
By now most of the team had showed up, and Coach explained the new formation. When she finished, I yelled out, “Sock swap!” All of us gathered in a circle, took off one of the colorful, crazy socks we were wearing, and handed it to the person on our left. Then we put on our socks and our cleats and were ready to go. Coach Flores led us in some warm-ups and drills. Before long, spectators began to fill the stands, and the Santa Flora Roses showed up in their red-and-white uniforms.
I wasn’t too worried about the Roses. They’d had almost as many losses as we had, although theirs had been spread out a little more over the season. But we still had to win this game to stay in the running for the play-offs.
We had retreated to the sidelines to get ready for the start, when Jessi poked my arm.
“Cody and Steven are up there,” she told me in a loud whisper. “Just don’t point this time!”
I followed her gaze and saw Cody and Steven in the stands with some of the other players from the boys’ team. Steven saw me and waved, and I smiled and waved back.
“What are you doing?” Jessi hissed.
“I’m waving, not pointing,” I protested, but then I quickly turned away from the stands. Waving at Steven was not a good way to get focused before a game.
Frida ran up. “So what’s my motivation today?”
“I’ve got one,” Jessi offered. “You’re a military operative guarding a top secret base, and inside the soccer ball is a secret spy camera. If the ball gets into the goal, your enemy will learn all the details of your secret base.”
Frida made a really serious face. “Military. Got it.” She saluted and then marched away just as the ref’s whistle blew. I ran out onto the field for the coin toss, and the Roses won, which meant they would start with control of the ball. Both teams spread out on the field, and Jessi, Brianna, Maya, and I took our places on the forward line. The ref blew his whistle again, and the Roses charged forward.
Right from the start we were in trouble. I thought having four forwards would be good, but it caused us a lot of problems. For one, it meant that we had only three midfielders on the field—Alandra, Taylor, and Anna. They were the ones who did the most running on the field, because they were in a position to defend the goal from the opposing players, as well as trying to get the ball up to the forwards. It was a lot of ground to cover, and the three of them got tired out quickly, so the Roses offense got past them pretty easily and kept breezing past our defenders.
“The spy camera is about to infiltrate headquarters!” Frida yelled as the ball whizzed past her. The Roses midfielder chasing after the ball looked at her quizzically as she passed, but that didn’t stop her from shooting the ball past Emma and into the net.
“I have failed!” Frida cried dramatically, dropping to her knees.
“Don’t give up hope!” Emma called back. “Hold that line. I’m counting on you, Agent Frida!”
Frida saluted. “I won’t fail again.”
But the tired midfielders couldn’t hold off the onslaught of the Roses’ offense. One of their strikers tore down toward the goal. Frida, Anjali, and Sarah all converged toward her, but she kicked it right past them. Emma dove for it, and her fingers brushed it, but she couldn’t stop it.
“Nooooo!” Emma wailed.
The Roses had scored two goals in ten minutes. After the second goal Coach switched out Anna for Gabriela, one of the eighth grade players, and that helped for a little bit. But then when the midfielders passed the ball up to the forwards, things got confusing. A
t one point Alandra sent the ball skidding across the grass up the middle of the field, and Jessi and I charged toward it at the same time. At the last second I remembered the Zoe-Brianna crash and I stopped short—and Jessi did the same. One of the Roses forwards swooped in and got control of the ball for their team.
Maya got the ball a couple of times, but while she was petite and full of energy like Zoe, she had more stamina than speed. She couldn’t zigzag her way through the Roses midfielders the way Zoe could. At one point one of the Roses midfielders got the ball and dribbled it all the way up the left flank, which was wide open because Gabriela couldn’t get to her in time. The Roses midfielder kicked the ball hard and high past Frida on the defense line, and my heart sank as it looked like the ball would fly right into the goal. Then Emma jumped up and swatted it away—but still, it was a close call.
Coach Flores took advantage of the break and called Maya off the field.
“Olivia, play midfield!” I heard her yell, but Olivia must have gotten confused, because she thought she was supposed to replace Maya, so she ran up to the forward line. For the last five minutes of the first half, the Roses kept getting past the midfielders again and again.
Finally the first half ended. I ran up to Coach Flores, panting a little.
“So I guess that was a bad idea,” I admitted.
“Well, now we know,” Coach said with a sympathetic smile. “So let’s try something different in the next half, okay?”
I nodded. “Definitely.”
I kind of felt bad about how the first half had gone down, so I stepped back a little and let Coach Flores run things. We went back to a pretty standard three-four-three formation (three defenders, four midfielders, three forwards). She put Maya back in the midfield with Anna, who’d sat out most of the first half and was pretty fresh; Jade, who normally played defense; and Taylor. Anjali, Sarah, and Giselle played defense, and Coach kept me, Jessi, and Brianna as forwards. Emma was exhausted from defending so many goals, so Coach put Zarine on the goal. This made me a little bit nervous until I remembered how well Zarine had performed during the shoot-out drill.