Live Love Lacrosse

by Barbara Clanton

  They stood several yards apart and Kimi tossed her the ball. Addie smiled when the ball actually hit the pocket in her stick head, but then frowned when it bounced out.

  “Addie, think of it like catching an egg in an egg toss. You have to have soft hands and receive the ball. You know? Give with it?”

  Following Kimi’s advice, Addie was much more successful keeping the ball in the stick head. Kimi also showed her how to pick the ball up off the ground with her stick by thinking about it as if she were scooping up cigarette ashes off her grandmother’s front porch with a dust pan. Addie wasn’t perfect at it, but it felt so much better than the other day when she’d tried it.

  Brooke was huffing her impatience at one end of the practice field, so Kimi took off running with a ball in her stick. She moved the head of the stick from side to side and Addie couldn’t figure out why the ball wasn’t falling out. It looked weird and cool all at once, and when Kimi took a shot on the goal and scored against Brooke, Addie had to try it. She scooped up a ball the way Kimi showed her and tried to keep it in the stick as she ran toward the goal. The ball kept falling out, so she had to scoop it up again. She realized that the back and forth motion that Kimi had done as she ran toward Brooke must be the secret to keeping the ball in the stick. Determined to show Brooke that she could play lacrosse and that she wasn’t an embarrassment, Addie moved the head of her stick back and forth as she resumed her jog toward the goal. She got close, and Brooke turned her attention to Addie and thumped her chest with a gloved hand.

  It was a challenge, and Addie knew it. She pulled her stick back, slid one hand down toward the butt like Kimi had showed her, and sent the ball flying straight at Brooke.

  “Denied!” Brooke shouted as she caught the ball in her stick. “Is that all you got, Addie?” She grinned at her, but it wasn’t a nice grin. Her eyes were fierce like she was ready to attack at any second. It was kind of scary.

  Addie turned away as tears formed in her eyes. Why did Brooke have to be so stupid all the time? She brushed her tears away and set her chin. She’d show Brooke.

  Kimi ran over as if she knew Addie was upset. “Addie, that was awesome. It looked professional.”

  “Thanks.” Addie couldn’t meet Kimi’s eyes.

  “Yeah, right,” Brooke said and pounded her chest again. “C’mon, Kimi, give me some real shots. My goal is to deny yours.”

  There was no fun over the next half hour as Kimi and Addie took turns shooting on goal. Kimi was usually a happy person, but not now. She was mad. Addie knew it and so did Brooke. Kimi’s shots on goal were fast and furious. Even Addie managed to get a couple by Brooke which made her even more determined to score.

  “Okay, okay, guys.” Brooke put up both arms in surrender. “Let’s take a water break and then you guys can work on Addie’s cradling because it sucks.”

  Addie would have been mad, but she couldn’t be because she had no idea what cradling was.

  They headed to the sideline where they had tossed their gear and Addie was grateful for the water bottle Kimi handed her. She had to start bringing her own, that was for sure. Wait, that meant she’d be playing again. She checked in with herself. Did she really want to play lacrosse? Did she really want to try out for the Owls? Maybe. And that was definite.

  “Hey, Kimi.” Brooke held up her arm and flexed. Her bicep muscle rose up into a mound. “Can you beat it?”

  Not to be outdone, Kimi flexed. “Look at mine.” Her bicep was more defined than Brooke’s.

  “Nice, Kimi. Hey, Addie, let’s see yours,” Brooke challenged.

  Addie rolled up her t-shirt sleeve and made a muscle. Nothing happened. With her mind she willed a bump to form on her arm like Kimi’s.

  Brooke burst out laughing. “Nice. Real nice.” She laughed again, took another swig from her water bottle, and flopped to the ground to do push-ups.

  Kimi’s face was beet red. She leaned over to Addie and whispered, “Hey, chillax about Brooke. Just do a million push-ups and your muscles will be popping out in no time.”

  Addie nodded, but couldn’t reply past the knot of tears building in her throat. No, maybe she wouldn’t play lacrosse. If getting teased by Brooke came with playing lacrosse, then why bother? She kind of wanted to pack it in and go home right then, but Kimi would call her a quitter.

  Did she care what Kimi thought? She looked over to the basketball courts to see what Troy was up to. Wow, they were letting him play with them. There was a break in the action and he looked in her direction. She gestured to him to come over so they could go home. He shook his head and went back to the game. And so she was stuck. Stuck playing a game she never wanted to play in the first place.

  Chapter 8

  WWJD?

  THE WAR INSIDE Addie started the day before at the park when Troy shook his head from the basketball court telling her he didn’t want to go home yet. It was Monday morning, one day later, and for some reason she was jogging in place in her bedroom. The rhythmic sound of her feet hitting her carpeted bedroom floor was soothing. She’d show Brooke she could play lacrosse and she didn’t suck at cradling.

  Addie laughed and jogged three steps to the window to look out on the sunny July morning. Once Kimi told her what cradling was, she admitted that she did suck at it, but that was only because she hadn’t learned how to do it yet. Kimi ran her through some great drills to get the hang of it and she was getting better.

  Addie stopped jogging and sprang into jumping jacks. She couldn’t do as many as Kimi and Brooke could. Not yet, anyway, but soon. And after she did a zillion push-ups, she’d show Brooke her bicep muscles and Brooke would be embarrassed at how small her own muscles were. She went back to jogging and then started punching an imaginary Brooke in front of her like a boxer.

  The door to her room burst open. “What are you doing in here, Lardo? The whole house is shaking.”

  “Shut up.” Addie continued jogging in place, but stopped boxing.

  “Mom sent me up here to get you to stop. She said you were going to crash through the floor into the kitchen.”

  Addie groaned and stopped jogging. “Okay, whatever.” As soon as the jerk left, she’d work on push-ups to make her biceps bulge. And maybe do some sit-ups, too. She bent over and tried to touch her toes.

  Troy bounded over. “This is how you do it.” He stood next to her and not only reached down and touched his toes but took it one step further by placing both palms on the floor. His legs were straight, not bent at all.

  “Show off.” Addie nudged him with her shoulder.

  He laughed and then climbed up to his bunk. “I’m in shape because I skateboard and play basketball all the time. You just read. That’s why you’re not in shape.”

  “Shut up, jerk. I know that. Don’t you think I know that?” She stood up and did some lunges and sit-backs that Kimi had shown her. She could feel every single muscle that was used in playing lacrosse, and yikes there were a lot of them.

  “Why are you playing lacrosse anyway? You read and watch TV. You eat junk food. That’s what you do. You don’t do sports.”

  “I know, but it’s kind of fun.” Addie turned away from him, grabbed her Star Trek book off her bed, and headed out their shared bedroom door. If the jerk wasn’t going to leave, then she was. She could do push-ups and sit-ups on the front porch.

  As she headed down the hallway toward the stairs, he yelled, “You don’t even have a lacrosse stick or cleats or the right clothes. You can’t play sports in jean shorts.”

  She hated to admit it, but he was right. She couldn’t keep borrowing stuff from Kimi and Brooke, especially because Brooke didn’t like her anyway. Whatever, she’d figure it out.

  It was no surprise that Addie found her mother sitting on the couch. She was watching a Monday morning talk show. She had taken to wearing Grandma’s baggy jogging pants, even though neither of them had ever jogged a day in their lives. They made good TV-watching clothes, apparently. Even though it was weird seeing her mother laz
ing around on the couch instead of doing her usual mom things like gardening or cooking or baking, Addie loved the fact that her mom was finding time to relax. It was like her mom was in a self-imposed time-out.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Hey, honey.” To Addie’s amazement, she looked away from the TV to gaze at her. “Are you going to the park to play with Kimi? She seems like a nice girl. I’m glad you’re making friends.”

  Addie hesitated. Should she ask? In a split second she decided that she wouldn’t. She didn’t want to know if she and her dad were getting a divorce and if they were really moving to Syracuse. “No, Mom, I’m just gonna hang out on the front porch for a little while.” She waved her Star Trek Voyagerbook back and forth. “I’ll probably read.”

  “You and your grandmother, always reading. It skipped a generation with me, I guess.” Her mother turned her attention back to the talk show.

  Apparently their conversation was over, so Addie made a beeline for the front porch. Grandma wasn’t due to come home from work until late afternoon, so Addie had the front porch to herself. She threw her book on the table, making sure it didn’t touch the ashes overflowing from the ashtray and reached down to touch her toes. She tried to anyway. The tips of her fingers reached to about where the knobbies on her ankles jutted out. Kimi told her over and over again not to bounce or she’d pull muscles. Addie willed her fingertips to reach lower, to touch the top of her foot maybe. She held in a groan as her muscles strained, but to no avail. Her fingertips would go no further.

  “Whatever,” Addie said to no one.

  She stretched her arms overhead and pulled back like the lacrosse girls had done at Saturday’s practice. It felt good. No pain this time. Only a little tension release.

  She took a deep breath, knowing she was avoiding the task before her. She raised her right arm and made a muscle, tried to anyway. Still no bulge. Just fat.

  “Whatever,” she said again.

  She squatted down on the floor and lay back. She’d do a million sit-ups before doing a million push-ups. She put her hands behind her head, lifted her knees up, and used her stomach muscles to lift herself up, but she could only go up a few inches. She scrunched her stomach muscles tight and grunted as she lifted herself up a few more inches. Kimi said you were supposed to lower yourself slowly and controlled, but Addie’s muscles gave out and she crashed back on the hard wood of the front porch. She tried again, only to reach the same pitiful height. On her third try she took her hands out from behind her head and reached forward forcing herself up even further. She fell back and threw herself up again several more times until she fell back breathless.

  After staring at the dirty porch ceiling for a while, she turned over on her hands and knees and then lifted her knees off the ground into what Kimi called a plank position. Since she couldn’t see herself, she couldn’t tell if her plank position was “perfectly straight” like Kimi told her it should be. Kimi had also said to do a million push-ups.

  In order to get to a million, she had to start with one. She let herself down gently all the way to the floor. With all her might she pressed her hands against the floor and pushed with her arms. Nothing happened. She kept pushing until her arms shook. She blew out a breath in frustration and punched the floor with the side of her fist. She let her arms relax. Okay, fine. She’d catch her breath and try again. With determination, she pushed with all her might, but could not for the life of her raise her body a fraction of an inch off the ground. She stopped pressing and pounded the porch floor again.

  “Whatever, whatever, whatever!” she yelled to the wooden floor. Images of Brooke rolling her eyes and making fun of her lack of bicep muscles sailed through her brain. “Jerk.”

  The screen door opened and she leaped up into a sitting position.

  “You know,” Troy said, “you don’t have to start from the floor.”

  “Shut up, Troy.” Why can’t pesky little brothers just stay out of their big sisters’ business?

  “I’m just saying that you could just lower yourself, like, halfway, or just a couple of inches and then push back up. Keep doing that until you can go further down. Didn’t you learn that in Phys Ed?”

  “No.” She stood up and sat down hard in the glider. “What do you care?”

  His eyes grew dark. “I don’t, Lardo. Do whatever you want. I’m outta here.” And with that he raced off the porch and headed down the street toward the sound of a bouncing basketball.

  “Whatever,” she said to his retreating figure.

  Willing herself not to cry, she stomped into the kitchen and flung open the refrigerator door. After pouring herself a glass of root beer, she snagged the already opened bag of potato chips and headed back out to the porch.

  She settled onto the glider and opened her book. Where was she? Oh yeah, the Kazon had Captain Janeway and her crew surrounded and were about to board Voyager. “C’mon, Captain Janeway, blast ’em with the phasers,” she said as she turned the page. “Oh, no.” Before any kind of phasers were fired, the chapter ended with the Kazon taking control of the bridge.

  Addie closed the book and looked at the sky through a flapping porch screen. She imagined Voyager out in space battling aliens. She reached into the potato chip bag and took out a big chip. She held it up and examined it. This one greasy chip probably wouldn’t make her any fatter, but one chip always turned into a dozen which turned into the whole bag. She glanced at her yet unsipped soda. Kimi would have a conniption fit if she saw Addie drinking it. She could hear Kimi say, “We’re lacrosse players. We have to keep our engines stoked.”

  “Am I a lacrosse player?” Addie said to the potato chip she still held in her hand. She looked back out at the sky. “What would Janeway do? WWJD? What. Would. Janeway. Do?” She’d seen bumper stickers with those letters, WWJD. She still wasn’t sure what they really stood for, but for now it meant something to her. So really, what would Janeway do? One thing she knew for sure was that Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager would find a way to show whoever was bothering her how strong and mighty she was. She’d show them how determined she was.

  Addie flexed her bicep muscle. There was nothing there, of course, so she pushed up from behind to make a bump. One day there would be something there. And if Captain Janeway were in Addie’s place, she would lose weight and would show Brooke and everybody how strong she was. She would show them she could be a good lacrosse player. And because that’s what Janeway would do, Addie would do it, too.

  With slow and deliberate movements, Addie placed the chip back in the bag. With as little sound as possible, she folded the top of the bag down and clamped it shut with the clip. Picturing the smug look on Brooke’s face, she heaved the bag across the porch where it smacked against the screen door with a resounding and satisfying thump.

  “That’ll show you, Brooke. You just wait.”

  Chapter 9

  Roll Skipping

  DINNER TIME ROLLED around, and Addie was the first one at the table. She was starving.

  “Can I help you with anything, Mom?”

  “You’ve already wiped and set the table for me. Just relax.”

  “Okay.” Addie placed her napkin in her lap. She was ready.

  Her mother pulled the delectable-smelling meatloaf out of the oven. “Tada! Meatloaf and your favorite, mashed potatoes.” She put the meatloaf on the table. “Troy?” She called up the stairs. “Dinner’s ready. Wash your hands.”

  A muffled response came from the upstairs bedroom.

  “Honey, actually, you can help me. Can you open that can of green beans, put them in that bowl, and microwave them on high for about three minutes?”

  Addie took a deep breath for strength. She had taken a vow earlier that day on the front porch after slamming the potato chip bag against the screen door. She had vowed that she would actually eat whatever fuzzy green things her mother put on the table. And tonight it would be green beans. Kimi would definitely approve of her “good nutritional
choice.”

  “Smells good in here.” Grandma tossed a pot holder on the table and the pot of instant mashed potatoes followed.

  “Thanks, Mom,” Addie’s mother said.

  Grandma started fussing with dinner rolls and butter.

  “Just sit down, Mom. You’ve worked all day, and the kids are helping.”

  “So far I only see one kid helping.” Grandma raised one eyebrow at Addie who was standing in front of the microwave. She had a way of making you feel unhelpful even though you were the one helping.

  “Is this what you did for him, Lydia?” Grandma said. “Did you slave for him? Did you make dinner for him after he came home from the floozy’s house? That man doesn’t deserve you. He–”

  “Mom!” Addie’s mother said sharply. “Not in front of the kids.”

  “Bah. Whatever. You deserve better. And he does not deserve you.” Her grandmother huffed her way to the refrigerator. She grabbed a half-empty bottle of Price Chopper root beer, and thunked it on the table.

  Troy came bounding in the kitchen.

  “Troy,” she barked, “help your mother. Get those rolls and butter on the table.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Troy said. He knew when to jump, just like Addie did, when it came to their grandmother.

  Addie placed the now heated green beans on the table, sat down in her usual seat, and put her napkin in her lap. Hers was not a family that said grace. Hers was a family that dug right in as soon as the last person sat down. Addie and Troy battled over the mashed potatoes. Troy won that time, but not without a reprimand from Grandma to mind his manners. Addie wanted to stick her tongue out at him so badly but decided not to agitate things any further. And besides, she was tired. Tired from doing jumping jacks and sit ups and three-inch push-ups. Three inches was about all she could do. Maybe tomorrow she’d be able to do four-inch push-ups and be on her way to out-biceping Brooke.

  “Troy,” their mother said, “Grandma and I were talking, and we thought you might want to sign up for karate.”