by Mikki Sadil
“Oh…do you…uh, what about your friends? Won’t they…uh…well, laugh at you for spending time with me? I’m sure everyone thinks it was my fault that we lost the competition.”
Cooper’s dark green eyes got even darker. He seemed to be embarrassed, and he actually blushed. “Nah, my friends won’t care. Um, look, I’d…I’d li—like to walk home with you. Is th—that okay?”
OMG! He was stuttering! Boys didn’t do that unless…unless they liked you, did they?
“Yeah, I’d like that, Cooper. Thanks a lot. See you later.”
When I opened the door to homeroom, the noise that jumped out at me sounded like an angry bunch of bees. Everyone was crowded around Celine and the J’s, but as soon as I limped in, the noise turned to a thick-as-honey silence.
I heard Jaime say, “If you think coming to school with your ankle all taped up is going to make people feel sorry for you, you got it wrong. You deliberately lost the competition for us. I’m surprised you even want to show your face!”
Comments like “Yeah, AJ, we don’t feel sorry for you” and “Jaime’s right. It’s your fault we lost the competition” were all around me.
I couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. I didn’t know how to defend myself. Even if I said that Celine hadn’t told my team about those last two stunts, who would believe me? Everyone was upset because we lost, and I was getting the blame. I looked at Celine, who was standing with her arms crossed, that malicious glint in her eyes and her usual smirk on her face. She didn’t say a word, but she didn’t have to. She had already done all the dirty work.
Miss Gorman opened the door, stopped, and frowned. “Class, please explain to me why you are not in your seats? This is not a party. Sit down immediately and without another word.”
She looked at my ankle. “AJ, I’m sorry you got hurt on Saturday. Perhaps if your captain had only done routines which were approved by the School Athletic Committee this would not have happened.” She sent an angry glance at Celine. “I wouldn’t like to be in your shoes today in gym, Celine.”
Celine shrugged, as if she couldn’t be bothered by what Coach might say. She didn’t seem to mind that Miss Gorman was obviously upset with her.
No one spoke to me the rest of the day. It was okay, because I had nothing to say to anyone. I knew practically the whole school blamed me for losing. With Celine being Queen of Popularity now, nothing I could say would be listened to or believed.
Finally, it was time for gym. I dreaded hearing what Coach Williams was going to say. We lined up on the football field. I parked myself at the end of the squad, put my backpack on the ground, and looked around. Lisa saw me and looked quickly away, but Amberley wasn’t there.
Coach Williams stood in front of us, totally silent. His face was so sour it would have made a lemon taste sweet, and his squinty blue eyes looked like the first frost of the season had hit him square in the face. When he spoke, his voice was soft, but his words were hard and angry.
“I’m not sure what I should say to you. Except that you all disgraced me, yourselves, and this school by your outrageous performance Saturday. Miss Carroll, as captain of this squad, would you care to explain to me exactly what happened on Saturday?”
Celine looked up, her face properly sad. “Oh, Coach, I’m just so sorry. I don’t know what happened. We wanted to do something different, so we practiced the Pike and Bow and Arrow routines for hours. Everyone knew them. Well, everyone but AJ’s team.”
Coach kept his eyes on Celine but addressed me. “Miss Devlin, what do you have to say about this?”
I glared at Celine. “Coach, we didn’t know anything about either routine. We didn’t practice at Celine’s house, because …well, for a couple of reasons, and Celine never said a word about any new routines. Besides, I didn’t think we were supposed to be doing advanced moves.”
Before Coach could reply, Celine turned to me, her face twisted into an angry grimace. “You’re lying, AJ. I gave you a note telling you we would be doing those routines, and if you and those two klutzes had practiced with the rest of the squad like you were supposed to, this would never have happened. We would have won the match.”
“But I’m not lying, Coach,” I protested. “Celine didn’t give me any note. She didn’t…”
“Ha! I can prove it, Coach. Just make her open her backpack. The note’s probably still there because Jaime says AJ never cleans out her pack. Besides, I put it in her library book so she’d be sure to see it.” Celine’s voice was high and shrill.
Only then did Coach look at me. “Miss Devlin, since you are somewhat incapacitated, I will open your backpack.” He walked over, picked the pack up, and turned it upside down on the grass, right in front of everyone.
Celine was right about one thing, my backpack was a mess. Out streamed three notebooks; five class books; an assortment of pens and pencils, most with lost caps and broken points; a couple of used tissues; an open lip gloss covered with some gross looking stuff; an old denim wallet that was empty and dirty; a wrinkled picture of me and the J’s; a hairbrush with a lot of kinky red hairs; a bronze horse key ring with my keys to the house and the barn; a shiny bracelet with small twinkly bells that I thought I had lost, and several crumpled up candy wrappers. And…a small library book, with a neatly folded piece of white paper sticking out of it.
I stared at the piece of paper, wordless. So did everyone else. Even Coach wasn’t saying anything. Celine picked the book up, slipped the paper out,, and unfolded it.
“See, Coach, I told you. Here, you can read it. I even put the date on it, which was last week. AJ knew about it all the time, she just didn’t prepare her team and she lost the competition for us. She should be off the squad right now. We don’t need someone who deliberately doesn’t practice and makes the whole squad lose.” Celine gave me a triumphant look, and I knew immediately what she had done.
Jaime was right about cleaning out my backpack. I just kept stuffing more junk in until I couldn’t even carry it, and then I took out only what seemed unnecessary at the time. It resembled me, always a mess. When we were on the field, all our packs were left in a heap. Celine could have put that note in the bottom of my pack at any time, covered it with all the rest of the stuff I had in there, and I probably wouldn’t have even known about it for months. Until now, that is.
Coach had a puzzled look on his face. “All right, Miss Devlin, here is the note that Miss Carroll said she gave you. Explain, if you can.”
“I can’t explain. Celine didn’t say a word to me about any note, I don’t care what she says. I’m not the one who is lying. She could have put it in my pack any time when I wasn’t looking.”
“Oh, AJ, pul…eeaze! That excuse is so not going to do it. Coach isn’t going to be taken in by your ‘poor little me’ act.” Celine spoke through the sneer on her face, which I really didn’t think was possible.
Coach’s face changed into a mask of pure anger as he turned to Celine. “Miss Carroll! You will not put words into my mouth, and you do not speak for me. Is that clear?” His bushy eyebrows drew down into the fiercest scowl I’d ever seen, completely hiding his eyes. Celine took a couple of steps back, and for a moment, there was a flash of fear on her face.
Coach looked at all the girls. “This squad had no business doing those advanced moves. Regardless of what your captain said or thought, the routines were beyond the ability of everyone on this squad, and they definitely were not approved by me or the SAC. In addition, AJ was hurt…” He looked at my ankle before he continued. “Although not seriously, but that was pure luck. I am ashamed of all of you. I am not at all sure that this squad will be allowed to continue as cheerleaders. And you, Miss Carroll, have some explaining to do. You will go to my office and wait for me. The rest of you are dismissed.”
I breathed a sigh of relief that was short-lived. Coach reached out and grabbed my arm. “I’m not through with you, either, Miss Devlin. You will wait outside my office until I have finished talking with Miss Carroll
.”
I sat and waited for what seemed like hours. The room outside of Coach’s office kept getting smaller and smaller. I got up and looked at the trophies in the display case. Twice. I picked at the cuticle on my nails. I limped all around the room. Twice. I pulled my hair band off, twisted it around and around, and made it into a ponytail holder. Twice.
Finally, Celine walked out of his office, her face white and her eyes red. She ran past me as though I wasn’t even there. I hobbled into Coach’s office and softly closed the door. He motioned for me to sit down, and then he came over and sat on the edge of his desk.
“All right, AJ. I want the truth about the note. No punishment, no repercussions, but I want the whole truth, starting right now.”
AJ? Coach never called me AJ. He never called any of us by our first names. He leaned down to me. “I’m waiting.”
“Coach, I’ve told you the whole truth. Celine did not give me the note. She did not tell me, or Lisa, or Amberley about those routines. The first time I saw the note was when it came out of my pack. I swear that’s the truth. I’ll even put my hand on a Bible and swear, if you want me to.”
He looked at me as though he was trying to read my mind. He pushed himself off the desk, walked behind it, and stood looking out of his window. “All right, Miss Devlin. That will be all. You may go now.”
I stood there uncertainly. Did that mean he believed me, or just wanted me to go away?
“Coach, um…”
“Miss Devlin, I said you may go. Now.”
* * * *
Cooper met me at the bottom of the front steps after our last class and swung my backpack over one shoulder with his over the other. His eyes twinkled when he said, “I don’t know how you ever carry this, AJ. It weighs a ton. Hey, I heard you and Celine got into another fight today and Coach was really mad. What happened?”
“Well, it wasn’t a fight, exactly. At least not a physical one.”
I limped along slowly beside him as I told him the whole story. He stopped abruptly and had a strange look on his face. I was scared that he didn’t believe me.
“Cooper, I’m telling the truth. Celine didn’t say anything, honest. She’s just a liar. I don’t even know why she hates me so much.”
“Yeah, I believe you. I was just thinking…well, I’ll tell you later. I’ve got an idea. Look, we’re at your house, so I’m going to leave your pack on the porch for you, and then I’m going. See you tomorrow.” Before I could say anything, he dropped my pack and ran off.
Aaghh! That was strange. But everything with Cooper was strange. Right now, my whole life was strange. Sighing, I picked up the pack and limped up to my room.
I sat on my bed and stared at my backpack. Something was bothering me about it. Something just wasn’t right about this note thing, and… Of course! AJ, you’re such a dummy. I slid down and turned my backpack upside down. Bits of grass and leaves from the field were added to the mess that was now all over my floor, but I didn’t care. I was searching for just one thing…and there it was. The library book. Celine said she put the note in my pack a week before the competition, which was last Saturday. So, she had to have put it in the book a week ago on Friday, but she couldn’t have. The book proved it. The library only allows seven days to check books out for classes, unless they are fiction and then we have ten days in case we have to write a book report. My library book was for science, so I could only have it for a week, and it wasn’t due until this Thursday. Celine couldn’t have put the note in the book when she said because I didn’t check the book out until last Thursday, two days before the competition. Of course, I hadn’t taken the book out to study, but that was beside the point. I could hardly wait until tomorrow when I could show it to Coach. The next day when I got to school Lisa was waiting for me at the steps. “Um, AJ, could I…uh…could I talk to you?”
It was the last thing I expected. I thought she was still mad at me, and right now she didn’t even sound like herself. She seemed to have lost all that precise diction. Then I realized her eyes were red, like she had been crying. Oh my gosh, had something happened to Amberley?
“What’s wrong? Is Amberley okay? Tell me.”
“I do not know about Amberley, she still has not answered her phone. But that’s…that is not the reason I want to talk to you. AJ…I, uh, I am sorry. About everything. You see, I know that you did not fall at the competition. I was looking up at you and I saw you deliberately step down. You were afraid you would hurt Amberley and me, weren’t you?”
I shrugged. “I felt Brianna and Taylor drop their hands, and I knew you and Amberley couldn’t hold that position by yourselves. We didn’t know how to do the stunt, and I didn’t want either of you to get hurt.”
“But you have taken all the blame. You should tell the coach. I will come with you. Of course, only if you want me to.” Lisa looked down at the ground as if she were suddenly shy.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve got more important things to tell the coach today. Uh, Lisa, I thought you were still mad at me. You know, for the things that Jaime said.”
“Oh…that. Well, you did hurt my feelings. Amberley’s, too. But, I told my parents about everything. We talked a lot, and I have decided to forgive you. Maybe you were like the other kids and were jealous of my European experience. But it is okay now. I really do want to be friends with you.”
Well, her shyness didn’t last long, and we were back to her ‘European experience.’ But that didn’t matter, because I was suddenly very happy that we were friends again. Only now, I was shy. I really wanted to give her a hug, but that was what started this whole thing, so I just said, “I’m not jealous of you, Lisa, honest. I do want to be friends. What about Amberley? Is she…does she hate me now?”
“No, I think she is okay about everything, too. Kids have always put her down,, and I guess she realized that you just went along with everyone else until you got to know her. But that is why it was such a shock to us. We thought we had been friends all along.”
“We have been friends all along. I was so wrong in what I said before I got to know you and her. Honest, I won’t ever talk about kids I don’t know like that again. But…where is Amberley? Is she sick again?”
Lisa shook her head and frowned. “I do not know. She has not been in class, and no one is answering the phone. I went by her house this morning but no one came to the door. I do not know what is wrong, and it is scaring me.”
Before I could answer, the ‘almost late’ bell rang, and we had to go in different directions. I yelled over my shoulder that we would talk at lunch.
We met at lunch and talked about Amberley, but we still couldn’t come up with any reason why she was out of school so much lately. We decided that we would just have to corner her when she came back and make her tell us what was wrong.
The rest of the day seemed to last forever, because I was anxious to get to gym. I wanted to show Coach the library book that proved Celine was lying.
Coach sent everyone out to run laps, except for the squad. Everyone was looking at Celine and moving nervously in line. I guess it had finally sunk in that letting her talk the squad into doing those advanced moves was going to get everyone in trouble.
He stood quietly, looking at us with his ever-present frown. “I want all of you to know that no one in cheerleading will receive an A at the end of the term. The best any of you can hope for is a B, and I seriously doubt if many of you receive that.”
A collective groan arose from the girls on the squad. They all started talking at once until Coach yelled, “Quiet! Not another word from any of you.”
Before he could continue his lecture, I raised my hand. “Coach Williams, I have something for you to look at. Please, it’s really important.”
“Fine, Miss Devlin. Bring it here and be quick about it.”
I picked up my library book and hobbled over to him. I stood with my back to the squad so they couldn’t hear what I was saying. “This is my library book, Coach. The one Celine pu
t the note in. Look at when it’s due…this Thursday. Celine said she put the note in here a week before the competition, but she couldn’t have because I didn’t even have the book then.”
I wanted to say “She’s lying and this proves it” but I decided I’d better let Coach figure that out for himself. He didn’t care much for people who thought for him.
Coach squinted at the return date on the book. He checked his calendar watch and looked at the book again. He handed the book back to me, and said, “All right, Miss Devlin. Since it’s obvious you can’t do anything today, I suggest you go to the library and use this book for study. That will be all.” His rough voice was very soft, and I knew from experience that when Coach spoke softly, it was not a good thing.
He turned to the squad. “This was the first competition for this squad this year, but it was also the last. There are State and Nationals coming up, but West Haven will not be invited to compete. You have brought this disgrace upon yourselves by allowing your captain to engage you in advanced routines that are not approved for the middle schools. See if you can begin to redeem yourselves by practicing what you are supposed to be doing. NOW!”
I listened to what he said before I hobbled off to the library, and when I heard him say softly, “Miss Carroll, I want a word with you. Now, please.” For a moment I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Celine. That didn’t last long, though.
* * * *
When school was out, Cooper met me outside the rotunda. “Come on, let’s go sit out on the grass where we can talk in private. I’ve got some news.”
He wouldn’t tell me anything until we were alone, so I limped as quickly as possible out to the big oak tree and sat down. “Okay, Cooper, what’s the big mystery?”
He plopped down beside me. There was excitement on his face and in his voice. “Well, guess what? Celine is not this wonderful, sophisticated girl from New York that she pretends to be. She’s not even from New York!”