Kimi did the same, so Addie decided she’d try it, too. The moment she sat on the ground, though, she regretted it. The candy bar in her back pocket squished flat. Hopefully it would stay in its wrapper and not stain her shorts brown in the back.
They contorted their bodies in all kinds of different ways that Addie had never done before, but she did her best to keep up with their stretching routine. The other girls were definitely more flexible than she was, and her denim shorts weren’t helping either.
The summer sun felt great on her skin. Maybe she’d come back here later to finish reading her Star Trek book. That tree by the playground looked like a perfect spot. The grass had been newly mown, too and made the park smell like summer.
Kimi leaped to her feet, so Addie did the same. Or tried to anyway. It didn’t look as smooth, that was for sure, but she wanted to show Brooke that even though she was a little overweight, she could still keep up with them. She kept her back away from her new friends and took a quick look behind her at her shorts. Nope, no brown stain. The candy bar was still in its wrapper. A quick reach inside the pocket confirmed it. She’d gotten lucky. This time. Next time maybe she’d have to stash the candy bar somewhere and come back for it later.
“Hey grab that.” Kimi gestured to her extra lacrosse stick lying on the ground. “Let’s have a catch while Brooke gets her gear on.” She turned and sprinted down the field a few dozen yards.
Addie reached down for the extra stick and admired the dark brown leather netting at one end. That was obviously the place where you caught the ball. The long handle was smooth, black, and cool looking. She looked at Kimi to see how to hold it.
“That’s it,” Kimi said. “Left hand down at the butt.”
Addie burst out laughing. “Really? It’s called a butt?”
“Yep. Right hand up here by the stick head.”
“The stick head is this net thingy?” She poked at the leather.
“Yep.” Kimi nodded her approval as Addie placed her hands on the stick. “That’s it.”
Addie had her hands in place, and it felt really weird.
“Ready?” Kimi asked.
Before Addie could answer, Kimi flung the small yellow ball toward her. Addie squealed and did her best to catch the ball. Unfortunately it hit the plastic part of the stick head and bounced away. Addie ran after it and rolled it back to Kimi.
“Use your stick to throw it back,” Kimi said. “Like this.” She scooped the ball up with her stick and flung it at Addie again.
This time Addie didn’t squeal, but she completely missed the ball and had to run it down. She hoped Kimi, and especially Brooke, wouldn’t notice her cheeks turning red from embarrassment. What a stupid game this was. She put the ball in the stick head as Kimi had done, and kept her hands far apart as she tried to fling it. The ball dribbled out, hit the ground at her feet, and rolled away. The only thing she succeeded in doing was looking dumb and awkward.
“Try again,” Kimi said. “Put your hands closer together like this when you throw.” She moved her top hand down a bit.
“Then what?” Addie was keenly aware that Brooke was watching them. She could feel Brooke’s eyes burning holes in the back of her head.
“Throw it like you’re throwing a softball.”
Addie groaned. Oh, great, because I’m so good at throwing softballs, too. She picked up the ball where it lay at her feet, took a deep breath, and put it in the stick head. If she held the stick back a little bit, the ball didn’t seem like it wanted to fall out as easily. In her head she replayed what Kimi had done to toss the ball and pulled her stick back further.
Wanting to impress not only Brooke, but Kimi as well, Addie put all her might into the stick head’s forward motion. Her hands seemed to work against each other, but to her relief the ball flew in the air toward Kimi. It bounced way before it reached her, but at least it was a start.
“Not bad, Addie,” Kimi called as she scooped up the ball with her stick. She took a few steps forward and then suddenly spun around and changed directions. She tossed the ball to Addie who was completely not ready and missed it again. She had been watching Kimi run.
“Sorry.” Addie ran after the ball and tried to scoop it up with her stick the way Kimi had done, but after three unsuccessful tries bent down and picked the ball up. “Crud. I really suck at this,” she murmured under her breath.
“Nice and easy this time,” Kimi said. “You don’t have to muscle it. Let the stick do the work.”
Addie worked on passing the ball to Kimi and was getting fairly okay with it. She never did catch one, but she didn’t have a chance to work on it because Brooke barked, “Hey, I’m ready. Let’s go.”
She stood in front of a big net thing that Addie hadn’t noticed earlier. The net was torn and looked like it had seen better days. Kimi said it was the goal.
Addie and Kimi spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to throw the ball with their sticks into the goal. The only problem was that Brooke was trying to stop that from happening. According to Kimi, Brooke was a shoo-in to be the starting goalie on their summer traveling team.
Addie reached down for one of the balls, she still hadn’t quite figured out how to scoop them up like Kimi did. She waited for Brooke to get ready. She wound up and aimed toward the top right corner of the net where she’d seen Kimi get it past Brooke. Nothing doing. The ball dribbled out of her stick head in front of Brooke, who looked annoyed and picked it up with her big goalie stick. She tossed it back to Addie.
“Hey,” Kimi called to Brooke, “you need practice with those kind, too, right?”
“Yep.” Brooke took off her face mask helmet thing. “Let’s get water.”
Addie sat down and made sure to sit on her left butt cheek this time, keeping the candy bar safe. She used the sleeve of her t-shirt to wipe the sweat off her face. This lacrosse stuff was hard work.
Kimi handed her a bottle of water from her bag. She pulled another one out for herself. “Not bad for your first time playing.”
Addie snorted. “Thanks, but I have no clue what I’m doing.”
“That’s okay.” Kimi wiped her face with a towel that read Onondaga Owls across it. “I’ll teach you.”
Brooke snorted and without a word, lay down on the ground, her eyes closed.
Kimi cleared her throat, obviously aware of Brooke’s bad manners. “Hey, Brooke, I think we should do some running before we go back to drills. Coach Marks is going to kill us next Saturday with laps and sprints.”
Brooke groaned. “We only have a few more days to get ready. And you know he’s gonna make me run with all my gear on, too.” She sat up, took another long swig of her water, and got to her feet. “Three laps around the whole field and then some sprints?”
“Sounds good to me.” Kimi jumped up.
Why would anyone be so excited to run? Addie had absolutely no desire to join them in their self-inflicted torture.
“Run with us?” Kimi asked.
“Uh, I think I should get back home.” Dealing with Troy the jerk at home was infinitely better than running. Addie got to her feet slowly, careful not to squish the candy bar any further. She brushed the dirt off the back of her shorts just to make sure the candy hadn’t burst in her pocket. Nope. Still good.
“Okay, Addie,” Kimi said. “You should come to our real practice on Saturday with the whole team. It’s a tryout, but Brooke and I played on the team last year, so we should make the team, no problem.” The look on Addie’s face must have been one of panic because Kimi quickly added, “You don’t have to try out if you don’t want to; you can just hang around. I mean, you know, if you want.”
“I have to ask my mom.” Addie didn’t think she really needed to get permission from her mother, she just wasn’t sure if she wanted anything more to do with lacrosse. It was tiring and kind of pointless. Who cared if that stupid little ball went in that stupid goal anyway? All she wanted to do was go home, resurrect her candy bar, and finish reading her book.
Chapter 3
About Your Mom and Me
ADDIE HAD BUTTERFLIES in her stomach. Her father had driven a whole hour and a half from Watertown to pick them up and take them out to dinner on Sunday afternoon. She and Troy sat across from him in the booth at Ginny’s Hometown Diner. They were even going to the movies after. Of course they were going to see some kind of martial arts war movie that Troy wanted to see, but Addie didn’t care because she was with her dad. It had been over two weeks since she’d last seen him.
Her father and Troy were talking about the Red Sox, their favorite team, but she wasn’t the least bit interested. She bent her head to take a sip from her Pepsi and slyly looked up at her father. He’d cut his short ginger hair into a crew cut, almost a baldy, but it still looked good. How could it not? Daddy was so handsome. He looked a little tired around his eyes though, but his tan looked nice. He worked for the Watertown Department of Public Works, so he was out in the sun all the time.
“Three game series with the Yanks next week,” her father said to Troy.
“Sweep!” Troy punched a fist in the air.
“I dunno, Troybot,” her father said, using the nickname Troy hated, “they’re playing in the Bronx. It’s hard to win all of ’em away from home, but, who knows? One game at a time, eh, Troybot?”
If the two of them weren’t talking about the stupid Red Sox, then they were talking about the stupid Buffalo Bills or Syracuse football or Syracuse basketball or Syracuse anything.
If she didn’t find a way into the conversation, they’d go on for years. “I played lacrosse yesterday,” she blurted.
Troy burst out laughing, so she shot daggers at him from her eyes. Her father’s smile made her heart melt instantly. Deep down she hadn’t been sure if she’d ever see it again.
“Lacrosse is it, Weeble?”
“Da-ad,” Addie whined, “don’t call me that.”
He called her Weeble because she had wobbled when she was a baby taking her first steps. Apparently Weebles were fat roly poly dolls that he played with when he was a kid or something. They wobbled, but they didn’t fall down. Something like that. Personally she had never seen one and didn’t want to. She didn’t like being compared to a roly poly anything.
“Sorry, Weebs. So tell me about this sudden interest in lacrosse. In sports. In something other than reading.”
She caught the twinkle in his eye and all was forgiven.
“I made a friend. She lives on Grandma’s street. She’s Chinese, I mean, Japanese, and she likes lacrosse. A lot. So we went to this park and met her other friend Brooke, and I used a stick and threw the ball at her to score goals.”
“Did you score any?”
Addie felt her cheeks get warm. “No, but Kimi said I did pretty well for my first time ever.”
“That’s great, Weebs. When’s your first game?”
“Ha, ha, Dad.” She shoved a few French fries in her mouth. “It’s not like I’m on a team or anything.”
“Why not?”
She almost choked on the fries. “I just helped out my friend. Crud, I’m not making this a permanent thing.”
Her father laughed and told them to hurry up and finish their burgers. She noticed that he had barely picked at his own food. It was no wonder he was always so thin. Guess he’d never heard of Grandma’s “don’t waste food”rule. Maybe her father would let her have the rest of his fries.
Troy beat her to the punch. “Can I have your fries, Dad?”
“Split them with your sister.”
Troy groaned, but did as he was told.
After snarfing down the fries, they slid out of the booth. She reached back and grabbed her father’s half-finished chocolate shake.
“Don’t waste food,” she mumbled and then sucked down the remainder. With a satisfying burp, she ran after her father and brother.
It was her turn to ride shotgun, so she didn’t even call it. Troy knew his place and slid into the tiny backseat of the extended cab on her father’s battered pickup truck. Addie wanted to turn and stick her tongue out at him, but didn’t want her father to yell at her. Things were going pretty okay up to that point, and if she and Troy could be good then maybe, just maybe, their parents would stop fighting and they could finally go home to Watertown.
“So tell me about living at Grandma’s,” her father said as he pulled the truck onto the main road. Before Addie or Troy could answer, he said, “What’s with all the ripped screens on the front porch? I could have those screens replaced in an hour. Not that your grandmother would let me anywhere near her front door.”
Addie nodded, not quite sure what to say. It was true. For some reason, her grandmother got cranky at the mention of her father. He didn’t even go up to the front door when he picked them up. He sat in his truck across the street and honked the horn. He didn’t need to honk, though, Addie had been dressed and ready since seven that morning.
“And the front lawn,” he added. “Doesn’t she even care how crappy her yard looks?”
Addie wasn’t sure how to answer, and got a little nervous about the strange look on her father’s face.
“I mean, where’s the grass? It’s full of weeds and garbage. And leaves. She could at least rake up the leaves. Take pride in your house, for God’s sake. Jesus.” He shook his head, obviously disappointed in the state of his mother-in-law’s home.
“I think she works long hours at the plant,” Addie offered.
“Don’t worry about it, Weebs,” he said, without looking at her. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Addie searched her brain for something to break up the ever-increasing awkward silence. “How’s Miss Sheila?”
“Why, did Mommy say something?”
Addie was startled by how quickly he had answered. She wished she’d never opened her mouth.
“No, Daddy, she didn’t say anything. I was just wondering how her new puppy was.” That wasn’t exactly true, but she had to think of something.
“Chance? He’s fine. Getting big. She’s got a baby kitten now, too.”
“She does?” Addie loved going next door to Miss Sheila’s house. She lived there all by herself and made cookies whenever Addie came over. Her mother always made her go over with her dad. She was supposed to be her father’s handyman apprentice or something, but that never happened. He and Miss Sheila always said she could sit in the big recliner and read her book. And eat cookies, of course. “What’d she name the kitten?”
“We named him Prince Charles.”
We? She wanted to ask why he had helped her name the new kitten, but instead said, “That’s cute. Tell Miss Sheila I said hi.”
“Me, too,” Troy said from the back seat.
Her father nodded once, and they rode the rest of the way to the Eastwing Mall in silence. Seeing her father today was supposed to make everything right again. But instead, it made her hyper aware of everything. Her parents’ fight, staying at Grandma’s, no friends . . . except maybe Kimi. Was Daddy always going to be this mad when he came to visit? Why did her stupid parents have to be in a fight anyway? And why couldn’t her grandmother take better care of her house and yard? Even though Addie had no clue how to fix screens on a front porch, she did know how to rake a front lawn. Next time her father pulled up, the yard would look a thousand times better.
The mall loomed large ahead of them as they pulled in. There was a Dick’s Sporting Goods right in front, just like they had at their mall in Watertown, and a Sears around the corner. The mall was kind of boring looking, all gray cement and old. Old like a lot of buildings in Syracuse.
Her father pulled into a parking spot near the AMC Theater. Surprisingly, they were able to park pretty close to the side entrance. That never happened in Watertown. Maybe Syracuse had more movie theaters to choose from, or maybe people didn’t go to the movies on Sunday afternoon. Addie wasn’t sure, and she didn’t really care, because soon enough she’d be back home in Watertown.
Once inside, Add
ie and Troy ran to the concession stand. The cool thing about going to the movies with their father was that she could get her own big bucket of popcorn, candy, and her own soda. When they went to the movies with their mother, she made her share everything with her jerk brother.
Troy went in the row first, then their dad, then Addie. Once seated, she dug into her popcorn even though she was still stuffed from lunch. Throughout the movie she kept sneaking peeks at her father to make sure he was really there. Her heart ached a little bit knowing that once he dropped them back off at Grandma’s he’d go back home and leave them there. Would they see him every week? The ache in her chest tightened and she moved to share the arm rest with her father. The feel of his flannel shirt against her bare arm eased the squeezing in her heart a little.
After the movie they went for ice cream in the mall food court. Even Addie had to admit she was stuffed when they pulled up to Grandma’s house. Neither she nor Troy opened their doors to get out. She could sense that even Troy, the ninja-in-training, was upset over their father leaving.
“When can we come home, Dad?” Addie blurted.
Her father looked away, but not before Addie saw the tears in his eyes. He wiped at his eyes before turning to face her. “I don’t know, honey. I don’t know.” His voice cracked with emotion, so he cleared it. “Did Mommy say anything?”
Addie shook her head.
“About your mom and me . . .” He cleared his throat again. “I have to let her cool down, before I can even begin to apologize.”
Addie wanted to ask what he had to apologize for, but didn’t.
“That’s why you guys are spending the entire summer here at Grandma’s,” he said.
“The whole summer?” Addie burst out. She leaned toward the front seat. Her mother hadn’t said a word about them being there for the whole summer.
Troy looked as dumbfounded as she felt. “Are we going to school back home or here?”
“I don’t know. It’s up to your mother.”
Addie deflated against the back seat. There was a buzzing in her ears as her mind went numb.
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