Live Love Lacrosse

by Barbara Clanton

  “Karate? Yeah!” Troy practically spit his food out. “Do they teach Ninjutsu? That would be awesome. When do I go? Tomorrow? Can I get nunchucks? Oh, my God. Can I get throwing stars?”

  He babbled on until their mother said, “I guess that’s a ‘yes.’”

  “I guess it is,” Grandma agreed.

  Addie looked down at her plate. She had plowed through most of the meatloaf and mashed potatoes, but her small helping of green beans still remained untouched. She sighed. Why didn’t they ask her if she wanted to join karate? She was older than Troy. Why did the jerk get to do karate and not her? Whatever. She didn’t even like karate. She liked lacrosse.

  The thought startled her. Lacrosse. Apparently she had made up her mind and was going to play. “Hey, Mom?” she blurted. “Can I get a lacrosse stick?”

  Grandma burst out laughing. “A lacrosse stick? Whatever for?” She looked at Addie’s mother. “A library card maybe, but lacrosse?”

  A fleeting look of hurt flashed over her mother’s face. She turned to Addie. “You’re serious about this lacrosse?”

  Addie nodded vigorously.

  “Oh, I don’t know, honey. Sticks are probably a lot of money.”

  “Maybe Daddy can help.” The words were out before she could help it.

  “That good-for-nothing cheatin’ bum is only out for himself,” Grandma roared.

  The tirade went on, so Addie resigned herself to finishing her plate. And just to spite her grandmother, she ate a forkful of the green beans whole-heartedly. They weren’t too bad, actually. They were mushy and didn’t taste like anything.

  Addie grabbed a dinner roll out of the basket and split it open. As she reached for the butter, she heard Kimi’s voice in her mind. “What nutritional value does that butter have?” Right. Maybe she should put jelly on it. That was fruit at least. She was about to push her chair back and get the grape jelly from the refrigerator when she remembered a conversation she and Kimi had about bread. “White flour,” Kimi had said, “has all the nutrition bleached out of it. It tastes good, but it’s empty calories, calories that don’t help your body at all. Whole grains. That’s the way to go.”

  Addie put the roll back in the basket. She picked up her glass of root beer and tried not to listen as her mother weakly defend her husband, listing his good qualities. Ever since they had arrived, dinner conversations typically went this way. Addie tuned it out.

  She took a sip of the sugary soda and wondered what kind of nutrition it had. She put her glass down and pulled the three-liter bottle toward her. She spun it around in order to see the nutrition label. The serving size was eight fluid ounces. How much was that? Did she have more or less than eight ounces in her glass? She’d have to find a way to check that out later. Hey, look. There was zero total fat in root beer. Zilch, zero, nada. That was good, right? She read on. There was some sodium in it, but she didn’t know if that was important or not. One thing was for sure, she’d ask Kimi tomorrow. And if Kimi didn’t know, Kimi’s mother surely would. She moved her finger down the label. There were thirty grams of carbohydrates in one serving. Whoa. The thirty grams were all from sugar. That sounded like a lot. How much sugar was too much? It said that thirty grams of carbohydrates was 10% of the Daily Value. Hmm, so that meant if she had ten servings of soda in a day, she would max out on the total carbohydrates recommended by whoever recommended those things.

  She pushed the soda bottle away and looked up to see a questioning expression on Troy’s face. She maturely stuck her tongue out at him. He made a face at her and then started giggling. She caught his mirth and cracked up with him. She had no idea why they were laughing so hard, but it felt good.

  “You’re at the dinner table,” Grandma growled.

  Addie pressed her lips together and looked away from Troy, because if she made eye contact with him, she would start giggling again, and that would be bad. Very bad. Their grandmother did not like to be disobeyed. In fact, Addie wasn’t sure the woman even liked them. Didn’t she get it, though? Didn’t she get that they didn’t like the way she badmouthed their father? Okay, maybe he wasn’t perfect, but he was their dad, and they loved him. Whatever he had done wrong, if anything, he’d make it right.

  Their mother sighed and stood up from the table. She rooted around in the refrigerator and pulled out a glass baking pan filled with green Jell-O. Addie’s mood lifted. Jell-O was awesome. Of course it wasn’t chocolate cake, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, her father always said. Whatever that meant.

  “And look what Grandma bought.” Addie’s mother pulled out a brand new, unopened can of whipped cream. The good kind, not the kind in the stupid plastic tub.

  Addie didn’t care about nutritional value at that moment. She eagerly pushed the last of her uneaten green beans aside and made way for dessert. How bad could Jell-O be, anyway? And whipped cream was made from milk, which was supposed to be good for you. She had skipped the roll and the butter, so she felt justified devouring dessert. Oh, yes, roll skipping would now be an official part of her bicep-growing, lacrosse-playing regimen.

  Chapter 10

  Carbs and Proteins and Fats. Oh, My!

  ADDIE LEAPED OUT of bed and stretched. Okay, leaped wasn’t exactly the right word. Her muscles were still sore and tight, so it was more like grunting her way out of bed. After a quick bathroom trip, she changed into loose shorts and an even looser t-shirt. She had to be at Kimi’s house by nine for her boot camp workout, and it was already eight-thirty.

  She raced down the stairs to find that no one else was up yet. Well, except for Grandma who had already left for work. She opened the fridge. Yum. There was leftover Jell-O. Would that make a good breakfast? Ha ha. Even she knew it wouldn’t and wondered what Kimi would say about Jell-O and whipped cream for breakfast. She saw the milk and decided on cereal. After rooting around in the cereal cabinet, she decided on Frooty-O’s with marshmallows. Hey, it kind of had fruit in the title, so it had to be a little bit healthy, right?

  She filled her bowl to the top and poured on the milk. She pushed the colorful loops under the milk to soften them up a little. There was a delicate balance to cereal. Right out of the box, they were too crunchy. Leave them in the milk, they were too soggy. She ate her first spoonful and reached for the cereal box to read the nutrition label. There were 110 calories in the cereal. How many calories did you need every day? Oh, wait, there were 150 calories if you counted the milk, but that was skim milk, and only one-half cup. She definitely had more than that in her bowl, and the milk definitely was not skim. She had never tried skim milk and didn’t think she’d like it. Her grandmother, after all, said that any other kind of milk was just white-colored water.

  Addie went back to the nutrition label as she crunched on her cereal. Incredibly, there was one whole gram of fat in there. To confuse things, the label listed four different kinds of fats. There was saturated fat, trans fat, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat. She blew out a sigh. This was way confusing. She moved on to the carbohydrates. This time there were twenty six, but only thirteen were from sugar. Root beer had almost three times as much sugar than cereal. That was interesting. And the cereal had fiber, too. Was that important? Since it was on the nutrition label it was either really good for you or really bad. She considered having a banana, too, but decided against it figuring she had eaten enough calories already and didn’t want to overdo it.

  Confused as ever, Addie pushed the box away, drained the bowl, and then put her dirty dishes in the sink. Just as she finished a quick note to her mother, telling her where she was going, there was a knock on the front door.

  Addie knew Kimi would be standing on the other side of the door.

  “Hi, Addie,” Kimi said. “Are you ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be, I guess.”

  “Did you stretch yet?”

  “Nope.” Addie closed the front door behind her and stepped onto the porch beside her friend. Kimi wore a tank top with a Nike symbol on it and what looked like r
unning shorts. Addie couldn’t help but feel self-conscience about her clothes. Maybe she could get her mom to buy her some workout gear like Kimi’s. And a lacrosse stick. And cleats maybe. What else? Oh, a faceguard thingie and a mouth guard, too.

  “Nice and slow,” Kimi said and reached down to touch her toes. “We’ll do a short stretch now, jog to the end of the street, and then head back to my house to work out, okay?”

  “You’re the boot camp boss, so whatever you think is best.”

  Kimi turned her head and gave Addie a wicked grin. “Oh, you are going to be so sorry you said that.”

  Addie groaned and followed Kimi in a few more stretches and then down the porch steps into a jog. The full bowl of cereal sat like a lump of clay in her stomach as she tried to keep up with Kimi. Maybe tomorrow she would skip breakfast entirely and just eat lunch after she and Kimi practiced at the park with Brooke. Yeah, that seemed like a much better idea, because jogging on a full stomach was kind of making her sick.

  “Kimi, Kimi,” Addie gasped after they’d only been jogging for a few minutes. She bent over on the side walk trying not to be sick.

  Kimi sprinted back. “What’s wrong? You look like you’re going to throw up.”

  Addie closed her eyes and fought back her nausea. All she could do was nod her head twice.

  “Was it something you ate?” Kimi squatted in front of her. “I get that sometimes if I eat too much and then try to go for a run.”

  Addie took a deep breath and stood up straight. “I just finished breakfast when you knocked on the door.”

  “Oh,” Kimi said knowingly. “We have to give your system a chance to digest some of the food before we head out into battle.”

  “Battle?”

  Kimi stood up tall, lifted her arms up, and flexed both biceps. “Lacrosse! Making women into warriors, one game at a time.”

  Addie cracked up. Yeah, she’d like to be a woman warrior!

  “C’mon, Addie, let’s walk back to my house and get some water. We can boot camp it up when your stomach feels better. Maybe in, like, a half hour or something.”

  As they walked back to Kimi’s house, Addie caught her breath sufficiently and began to feel better. The Frooty-O’s cereal lump was still there, but walking made it hurt less.

  Kimi ran inside for some bottled waters and after handing one to Addie, sat down on the grass in her front yard and did some stretching.

  Addie took a sip of water and sat next to Kimi. She did some butterfly stretches while Kimi did an entire routine of sit-ups and push-ups. She made it look so easy. Despite feeling lousy and getting out of breath within the first minute of running and despite her sore muscles and her fat stomach, Addie vowed to one day get in as good of shape as Kimi.

  Having firmly decided to become a warrior like Kimi, she asked Kimi a thousand questions about eating and nutrition. She hadn’t been sure what to ask at first, but once they got going, she had more and more questions. When one was answered, fifteen more popped into her head.

  Addie wondered if Brooke knew as much about food and nutrition as Kimi did. Thinking about Brooke and knowing she would be practicing with her the next day, Addie got to her feet. “Let’s get this boot camp thing started.”

  Kimi leaped up. “How about we finish that jog we started earlier?”

  “You got it.” Addie sprinted down the street ahead of Kimi, knowing full well that Kimi would catch up instantly. Which she did.

  Later on at dinner that evening, Addie thought about all the running and circuit training she and Kimi had done earlier that day. She never knew that squats could be so tiring, or that burpees were an actual exercise. Kimi knew so much about exercising and getting in shape that Addie couldn’t help but be swept up in her enthusiasm. Oh, her muscles and lungs protested every step and jumping jack, but she didn’t care. She liked the idea of having a friend, maybe even a best friend, that she did every crazy stretch and exercise that Kimi asked her to do.

  Lunch at Kimi’s was about the same as the last one, but this time she ate most of the actual green leafy salad. Not all of it. One day maybe. Soon. She just wasn’t used to chewing, chewing, chewing on green stuff. It was like eating grass. Like cows. Oh well, it was supposed to be healthy.

  “You were up and out early this morning, Addie,” her mother said as she pulled the French fries from the oven and dumped them in a shallow bowl before putting them on the table.

  “Yeah, Kimi is making me do a boot camp thing. We have lacrosse practice with Brooke tomorrow and then I might . . .”

  “Might what?” her grandmother prompted. “Speak up.” She placed one hamburger and roll on each plate.

  “Uh, I might try out for the lacrosse team on Saturday.”

  Troy burst out laughing. “You? What’re you going to do? Be the mascot?” He pounded the table. “No, wait, wait, wait. They’re going to make you the goalie! All you have to do is stand there and you’ll block the whole goal.” He held his hands out wide to indicate her massive girth.

  “Troy! That’s enough,” their mother said. She turned to Addie. “This lacrosse thing means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”

  Addie couldn’t trust her voice past the knot that had grown in her chest and throat from Troy’s teasing. She simply nodded.

  Her mother smiled. “How about after dinner we go to that sporting goods store at the mall and get that stick you want.”

  “Really, Mom? Really?”

  “Lydia, why bother?” Grandma grumbled. “She’ll just lose interest and then you’ll be out a lot of money. Money that you don’t have right now, I might add.”

  “I have some emergency money for times like these, Mother. And since we’ll be here all summer, Addie will have to promise to honor her commitment. Right, Addie?”

  Addie nodded vigorously. “I will, Mom. I will.”

  “Pfft,” Troy spluttered in disbelief.

  “And you, young man, will show more respect for your sister.” Their mother pointed at Troy. “Do you understand me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Speak up, young man,” Grandma commanded.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Troy said, this time with defeat in his voice.

  Feeling vindicated, Addie dug into her hamburger, deciding not to eat the bleached-out-nutrition white bun. The hamburger had protein, which Kimi said was the building block of muscles and would help Addie get stronger faster. Addie was all for that, but wasn’t sure how to get at least forty-five grams that Kimi’s mother said girls needed every day. She had been amazed to learn that almonds and walnuts and even sesame seeds had protein. Maybe she could get her mother to buy some the next time she went food shopping.

  The hamburger roll she decided not to eat was full of carbs; that’s what Kimi called carbohydrates, but apparently white bread didn’t have good carbs. Kimi said it had simple carbs, but apparently complex carbs were better for you. You could get complex carbs from whole grains in bread and rice. At lunch Kimi’s mother said that everyone had a carb budget and those carbs should be spent on food that did the most good. Like the carbs in veggies and fruit. Salad, like the one she had eaten for lunch she said, was an excellent way to spend your carb budget. More bang for your buck, Kimi had added. And whole grains, too. Those were good-money complex carbs. Whole grains included the grainy bread she’d seen on the counter at Kimi’s house and brown rice, both of which Addie had never eaten before. Hers was a white rice, white bread family. Energy from whole grains, Kimi’s mother had explained, took all day to burn, giving you a slow and even release of energy throughout the entire day. She’d said that people who ate whole grains usually didn’t have that afternoon starvation crash right before dinner. Addie knew all about that. She usually ate potato chips in the afternoon because she’d get so hungry.

  Oddly, that afternoon, she wasn’t really hungry when dinner rolled around. Addie put a few French fries on her plate, but wasn’t sure what nutrition the fries had. She knew better than to get up and read the nutrition label on the
box while they were eating. Her grandmother would pitch a fit. It was better to eat a few and look it up later. Maybe fries had some of those good carbs. She frowned. Probably not. So far the food she’d eaten at Kimi’s was weird and foreign to her. She couldn’t imagine Kimi and her family eating French fries or her own family eating the stuff Kimi’s family ate.

  Too bad Grandma didn’t have a computer, because Addie wanted to look some of the confusing stuff up online. Maybe one day she’d get her own computer or tablet or even a cell phone. But those things were expensive, and they didn’t have the money for “extras” like that. She instantly felt bad that her mother was going to use her emergency fund to buy her a lacrosse stick. She was about to tell her mother to forget the trip to the sporting goods store, but then she pictured Brooke looking at her with disgust. She changed her mind again. She would get that lacrosse stick and find another way to make it up to her mom.

  Chapter 11

  It’s Okay to Feel Hungry – Part 1

  ADDIE WOKE UP earlier than usual. Probably because she was excited to show off her new lacrosse stick to Brooke and Kimi later that afternoon. A quick trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods the night before yielded an awesome STX stick. Of course, Troy was jealous and kept trying to get their mother to buy him something. Addie felt smug when she said they’d be spending enough once his karate lessons started on Saturday. She hated to admit it, but Troy was kind of helpful, too. He helped Addie convince their mother to buy goggles and a mouth guard, too. The stick, goggles, and mouth guard were all the same baby blue color. Even though Troy made fun of that, Addie didn’t care. She had her own gear like Kimi and Brooke and like real lacrosse players. Everything cost almost a hundred and fifty dollars, and Addie promised her mother a thousand times that she wouldn’t quit lacrosse after they’d spent so much money on equipment.

  After dressing and heading downstairs, she wasn’t quite hungry for breakfast, so headed to the bookshelf instead. She was almost done with her Star Trek book and would need another one soon. Her grandmother’s floor to ceiling book shelf loomed over one entire wall of the living room. Oh, Addie knew exactly where the science fiction and fantasy books were, but decided to be nosy and see what other kinds of books her grandmother liked. One high shelf held old musty hardcover books, but she wasn’t interested in those. Another shelf held a million gardening books. Grandma’s roses were definitely awesome, but Addie wasn’t interested. Another shelf held a combination of scary-looking horror, thriller, slasher-type paperbacks. Nope, she’d have nightmares for months if she read those. There were a lot of mysteries and a handful of cheesy romance books, but nothing caught her eye. That was until she looked on the bottom shelf. She bent over at the waist to read the title, since squatting was still way too painful. The book’s title read, “Your Body Wants to be in Shape.”