Soccer practice on Wednesday was brutal. You’d think the coach wanted us dead, not at the top of our game. I was starting to feel more confident about my abilities. We’d been scrimmaging for an hour each practice, and I’d taken the ball away from some of our best players.
The best part was when Amy was in goal. She didn’t call the ball, so I cleared it. Then, she snapped at me again.
“Call it then,” I said with all the attitude I could muster.
She sulked, but when the forward shot the ball next time, she yelled, “Goalie!”
I moved and she caught it.
“Much better girls,” the coach said from half field. “Now you’re working together. Amy, it’s the goalie’s job to communicate.”
I couldn’t help smirking.
I didn’t run into Jonathan when I got home, so I waited for the sound of his basketball. I never heard that either. MC had called three times. I really needed that information.
Finally, I went next door and got Mojo. I tapped on the back door.
Jonathan came out. “Hey, what’s the verdict?”
“I can go,” I said. “I’m supposed to find out if Colin and Dave are coming, and if they have girlfriends.”
“You can tell MC and Madison that they always come, and neither of them are seeing anyone right now.”
“Have they mentioned my friends?”
He shook his head. “They both like all cute girls. I’m sure they’ll find time to hang with your friends. A lot of girls will be there though.”
Oh. “Is that why you go?”
“No. Just for one girl.”
Caroline appeared at the gate. “Mom’s looking for you.”
“Bye,” Jonathan said. “See you soon.”
Chapter Thirteen
Parents are totally unpredictable. No matter how hard you try, you’ll never understand them.
–Ally’s Brutal Teen Truths
Thursday had to be the slowest school day of my life. I was antsy about the game, and I couldn’t help thinking about the lock-in. School was really interfering with my schedule. We put on our shiny uniforms, Fighting Irish green, for the first time and hit the field. We were playing a rural public school team that no one expected to be very good. Of course, they didn’t expect us to be any good either. The game could go either way.
Coach Borkman told me she was starting me at left fullback. My stomach rebelled, but after a quick trip to the restroom, I decided I might live. Several other girls had hotfooted to the restroom too, so I figured it was normal.
The other team kicked off, and panic rushed through me as the ball headed toward my end of the field. MC was at center halfback, and she was all over the girl with the ball. The girl lost control, and the ball came hurtling toward me. Without any time to think, I got my foot on it and pounded. The ball sailed up the sidelines to Katelyn at left forward. My heart soared. I’d done it, just like at practice. Actually better. Half the time at practice, I kicked the ball out when clearing it.
Ninety minutes later, I walked off the field with an unparalleled feeling of elation. Why had I wasted so many years not playing soccer?
The water in my bottle had gotten warm, but I didn’t care. I gulped it down. I’d sweated at least two gallons. I set down my empty bottle and turned to find MC and Madison when I heard my mom calling my name.
Maybe I’d lost too many electrolytes because I knew my mother was nowhere near Charlotte. I swiped at my brow as I caught sight of my mother. She really was there! She ran down the bleachers and hugged me even though I got sweat all over her pristine track suit.
“Oh, Ally. I missed you. I just caught the end, but you were fabulous! I didn’t know you could do that!”
“Me either.” I pulled out of her hug. “Mom, what are you doing here?”
She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a very long story, but the bottom line is that I’m home for good.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“It was a four?” I searched for some sadness in her eyes and didn’t find any.
She shook her head. “More like a one point five.”
“Sorry,” I said.
“I’m not.”
MC squealed behind me. “Mrs. Wright!”
Mom waved and MC and Madison mobbed her for hugs. Mom responded enthusiastically despite the sweat rolling off of them.
“I think we all need showers,” I said.
Mom laughed.
She dropped me at Dad’s and picked up Mojo from next door. Then, she came back for me after I’d grabbed a shower and packed enough stuff to tide me over until the weekend.
When Diane told me goodbye, I just barely resisted saying that it was good I left now before she showed any little sign of allergies.
“Tell me about the one point five.” After dropping my stuff in my room and taking Mojo out to pee, I joined Mom on the couch.
Mom rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t good. First of all, he never wears pants when he’s at home. Just boxers. Even though we’d just met, and he should have been trying to impress me. At least a little.”
Ew. I pictured the guy from the Internet in boxers. Luckily, his bottom half was cartoon on the website. I didn’t want to picture…Eeeewww!
“Then, I realized that he didn’t know anything about his own business. His secretary did all the work. He had to ask her questions about everything.”
Mom hated when people didn’t stay on top of their jobs.
“And I liked the firm, but I had to work seventy hours a week to keep up. They have a huge caseload, and I had to learn all the local rules. It took much more time than I thought. I started to wonder why I was there to spend time with Donald when I wasn’t even seeing Donald.”
“Sounds reasonable.”
“But the kicker was the gifts.”
“He gave you gifts?”
“He gave me all this gawdy gold jewelry which he had custom made. I couldn’t refuse it because he couldn’t return it, right? It was bad enough that the stuff wasn’t tasteful, but then I found out what it really was.”
“Huh? What was it?”
Mom had really gotten into the telling and didn’t answer my question. “You know how he had that comic book obsession. Well, one day I noticed that one of the comic book characters was wearing a necklace just like the one he’d given me. Let me tell you, that was a creepy realization. So I put all the jewelry in a bag and took it down to the comic book store. The guy identified all of it. The pieces were all jewelry from comic books.”
“That’s weird.”
“Yeah! My spine crawled when he told me. I didn’t even discuss it with Donald. I just told him I was leaving and gave the jewelry back. And instead of being upset, he just pulled the jewelry out of the bag and started laying out the pieces to look at.” She shivered. “It was disturbing. I’ll tell you that.”
“Was he crazy?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I think he was just weird. In an eerie, unsettling sort of way.”
“That’s better then,” I said, with sarcasm evident in my voice. “Are you disappointed?”
“Not really,” she said. “I’d rather find someone right for me who lives on this end of the world.” Before I could speak, she said, “And I know you would too.”
I laughed. “You do realize that every gift I ever give you from now on is going to be from a comic book.”
“That’s fine,” Mom said, crossing her arms. “And every gift I give you will be as well.”
I immediately saw the error of my ways. “Truce?”
“Truce.” She put her arm around me and gave my shoulders an affectionate squeeze.
I had my room pretty much set up when my cell rang.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Ally. It’s me, Jonathan. I found my phone.”
Jonathan. I shut my door. Having Mom listen in made me nervous.
“Hey,” I answered, trying to sound peppy.
“What the heck!” the deep
voice on the other end complained. “I get home late and you’ve been kidnapped.”
“Sorry,” I said, glad to hear some distress in his voice. “She surprised me.”
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Mojo.”
“We could probably work out some kind of visitation.”
He laughed. “We may have to.”
“I’m glad my mother came back. But it does suck that we aren’t living next door to each other anymore.”
He sighed. It warmed my heart. “I guess we wouldn’t have seen each other much anyway with your father all ticked off.”
“True. Actually, I may be able to see you more with Mom here. Like the other day when your mother invited me in, and my dad said no. My mom would have been cool with it.”
“Your mother isn’t upset about the, um, situation?”
I shook my head although he couldn’t see me. “No, she’s not. She gets it.” I lowered my voice. “It probably helps that she feels guilty about the whole Mojo adjustment problem.”
“Whatever works.” I could hear his smile through the phone. “So I’ll see you at the lock-in tomorrow.”
The lock-in! Oh crap.
“Ally, does that silence mean no?”
“I don’t know, Jonathan. I had forgotten about it. I don’t want to miss it, but I can’t exactly bail on my mother right when she gets home.”
He groaned. “We are never going to get to see each other.”
“That’s not true. I just. I have to think about it.”
“The rate things are going we’ll have to join the Explorers after all.”
“We will if we have to. I’ll crawl through the woods with you if it comes to that.” Please, God, I prayed. Don’t let it come to that.
Caroline called on my cell soon after. It was the first time she’d ever called me.
“Hey,” I said, plopping down on my bed beside Mojo.
“I’m so sorry I missed you, Ally. But I know you’re glad your mom is back.”
“Yeah. I did miss her.”
“So now I don’t have to babysit Mojo while you go to the lock-in? Because Liam asked me out for pizza after the game.”
“Oh, right. Yeah. I guess you don’t need to worry. I probably shouldn’t go to the lock in anyway with my mother just getting home.”
“You cannot miss it, Ally. It’s your chance to spend some time with Jonathan.”
“I know, but there will be other chances. Mom wants to go see a movie.”
“Did you even tell her?”
“No.” She’d had a hard week.
“You should tell her.”
“Thanks, Caroline. I appreciate it and all, but I really think it would hurt her feelings.”
“I think she should know.”
Mom walked in so I lowered my voice. “Thanks for calling, Caroline. And again, I’m sorry I’m missing you cheer tomorrow.”
She growled, but said, “Talk to you later, Ally.”
Mom has a pensive expression. “Do you want to go to her football game, honey? It’s okay if you do.”
“No. I’ll catch her next week. It’s not like it’s something that only happens once a year or something.” Like the lock in.
Mom came to watch soccer practice on Friday. I thought it was really going above and beyond. I mean, our practices were pretty dull.
MC and Madison were disappointed about the lock-in.
“You guys can still go.”
MC shook her head. “Not if you won’t be there.”
“Plus, we don’t even know if Dave or Colin will come.” Madison had a point.
Mom let me jump in the shower, and then we headed out to dinner. We were almost to Chili’s when she got a call.
A strange call.
“Hello,” my mother answered.
Then, she said, “Oh, hi. Uh huh.”
After a few minutes of listening, she said, “Yes, dear. Okay, thank you for calling.”
“What’s up?” I asked after she disconnected.
“I’m not really in the mood for Chili’s after all. How about we just run through a Subway?”
Mom was always in the mood for Chili’s. “Are you sick or something?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“You aren’t leaving me again, are you? Was that Donald apologizing for the freaky jewelry?”
“No. You are safe. I promise. Now let’s grab some Subway.”
I was chewing my sandwich when she said, “I don’t think I really want to see a movie. Let’s just order something on Pay-per-view.”
I nearly choked trying to swallow a half-chewed bite. “Mother, what is wrong with you? Who called? I know something’s wrong!”
“Nothing is wrong!” She rolled her eyes. “I wanted to wait until we got home to tell you this, but if you’re going to push me…There’s been a change of plans for tonight. I’m watching a sappy movie on Pay-per-view, and you are going to that lock-in.”
My jaw dropped. “You know about the lock-in? Who called? Madison? Or MC?”
“Actually, it was your stepsister.”
“Caroline!” I didn’t think Mom had ever spoken to her before. “She called you.”
“She was very nice and polite. She just said she thought you shouldn’t miss out and she didn’t think I’d want you to if I knew what was going on.”
I clenched my fist. “I told her—”
“She’s right, Ally. I don’t want you to miss it. You had these plans, and you should go. I promise, I’ll make you my slave tomorrow night. You’ll have to let me choose everything we do.”
I relented. “If you’re sure…”
“Now about this lock-in. I want to talk to someone at the door and verify the number of chaperones.”
That sounded more like my mother. “No problem,” I said. “It’s a church, Mother. They aren’t going to host an orgy.”
“Allison Margaret Wright!”
“What? I got an A on my report on ancient Greece in sixth grade.”
I tried calling Jonathan when I got back home, but he didn’t answer. He probably had already left for the lock-in. MC and Madison didn’t answer either. I called Caroline.
“You have to go with me now,” I informed her. “I’m not going alone!”
“Can’t, Ally,” she said. “But I’m glad you aren’t mad at me. Besides you aren’t going alone. You’re going with Jonathan.”
“I can’t get him to answer. He doesn’t even know I’m coming.”
I could almost see her shrug through the phone. “So, you’ll find him when you get there.”
“Thanks for nothing,” I said.
“Love you too,” Caroline said.
I disconnected and found Mom. She had pulled an old sleeping bag out of the closet. “There was a Barbie one in there too, but I figured you didn’t want that one.”
“Uh, no!”
Mom grinned. “This one should work.”
I toted the navy blue, nondescript sleeping bag to the car along with a backpack.
“What’s in there?” Mom asked.
“Cell phone, iPod, book for when I’m totally ignored.”
“You should probably take some change for soft drinks.”
“Good idea,” I said. Then I spent the next hour trying on everything I owned.
“How’s this?” I asked Mom after I threw on my new sweater and jeans.
“You look great. But aren’t you going to be in a hot gym? You don’t want to sweat all night.”
I was already pulling off my sweater. She was so right.
Finally, I settled on jeans and a cute little top. The bright blue brought out the green in my eyes, and the cut flattered my figure. Well, as much as anything could.
“Perfect,” Mom said when I came into the living room.
Mom dropped me at the door of the church’s gym. A guy with a clipboard took her name, my name, and an emergency phone number. Then he checked my backpack.
He pointed to the iPod and cell. “These are all
owed. Just so you know, they’ll probably get stolen.”
“It’s worth the risk,” I said.
Then, he said to my mother, “We don’t let them out for any reason. If she gets sick, we’ll need you to come get her. You’ll have to bring photo ID. Otherwise, she can be picked up in the morning at ten.”
Mom nodded. Then, she said to me, “Have fun.”
I stalled for a second, tempted to jump back in the car.
The guy waved his clipboard toward the door. “Go on in. There might be some pizza left.”
“Thanks,” I said. Then I walked into the building, bracing myself.
Chapter Fourteen
Sometimes you have to take chances, even if you’d rather go play in traffic.
–Ally’s Brutal Teen Truths
There was a hall outside the gym with various rooms. The noise from the gym indicated that it was the place to be. I peeked in, feeling like a total loser and wishing I knew somebody. A bunch of guys were running up and down the court playing b-ball. I didn’t let myself look long enough to determine if Jonathan was there. Instead, I went back out and found a pile of sleeping bags along the wall. I ditched mine with the others, immediately feeling less conspicuous. I walked down the hall and found a kitchen and a game room, both fairly crowded. I didn’t recognize a soul.
I found the girls’ bathroom and checked out the facilities.
Having stalled as long as possible, I went back to the gym. I entered through the door by the bleachers and sat as quickly as I could. There were a half dozen groups of people scattered around the bleachers. Most of the groups were girls, but there were some guys. A few guys were sitting out but had obviously been playing and were waiting for their turn. Jonathan, who I’d finally located, was among the group of guys running up and down the court. He passed the ball to another guy on the red team and they scored.
It sounded like a herd of elephants with ten guys running at full speed to the other end of the court. Apparently, I should have added ear-plugs to my backpack.
I didn’t want to look like some dork drooling over the players, so I started checking out the groups of people. Maybe I’d get lucky and find someone I knew. The only person I spotted was Haley. She was hanging all over some guy, still wearing her cheerleading uniform. A movie with my mother was sounding better and better.
My Life as the Ugly Stepsister Page 14