Saving the Team

by Alex Morgan

  “Frida, watch number ten!” Emma shouted.

  “I got her,” Frida hollered back. A motivated Frida was like a freight train. She had eagerly agreed to step out of the goal for Emma and move to midfield instead. For this game she was playing the part of a girl whose mother wanted her to become a dancer and forbid her to play soccer. She had to sneak out to get to practices and games. It seemed crazy, but it was working! Frida with a part to play was more committed than I had ever seen her. She turned back another Viper attack with ease.

  For offense we had Zoe, Brianna, Grace’s friend Megan, and me. Coach Flores started Zoe, Megan, and me. Without Jessi and her speed to stretch the defense, the middle of the field was crowded. I wasn’t good enough to dribble through multiple defenders—that was Mirabelle’s specialty—but I could be enough of a threat to attract some attention. We still didn’t know what Zoe would be able to do, but I was hopeful.

  Before the game had begun, Frida had made Zoe drink some orange juice. “It lowers blood pressure and lessens anxiety,” she’d explained. Then they’d gone over Zoe’s positive visualization and deep breathing techniques. This game would be the real test to see if it worked.

  Coach’s strategy going into the second half of the game was something she called the “rope-a-dope.” We weren’t sure what that meant, but when she explained it to us, it made a lot of sense.

  “They’re crowding around the ball whenever we hold it for a while. Midfielders, try to keep it on one side of the field, so they get used to looking only that way.” Rancho Verdes was disorganized on defense, just like we’d been a few weeks ago. Coach explained the rest of the plan to us. It was crazy, but it just might work!

  When we got back out on the field, Grace and I did exactly what Coach wanted us to. We used short passes to keep the ball on the left side as much as possible. What we were hoping would be our secret weapon, Zoe, was stationed way across on the other side. Because she looked so small, so unthreatening, Rancho Verdes soon started ignoring her. Which was good for our game plan, and good for Zoe’s nerves. The fewer people watching her the better!

  Zoe just kept hanging out, sneaking up when she could. Finally, when she had so much space around her that it looked like she was on an island, I boomed a pass all the way over to her. Even then their defense was slow to recover, because, really, what reason did they have to be afraid of Zoe?

  Their goalie wasn’t ready when Zoe pulled up thirty yards away. I held my breath. Would Zoe freeze up? But she planted her foot and blasted a shot toward the goal. With nobody to get in the way, and their goalie totally unprepared, Zoe’s shot zoomed right in. We were tied, 1–1! Not only had we scored but it looked like Zoe’s soccer stage fright was cured!

  Now that the Vipers knew how dangerous Zoe was, they overcompensated by concentrating on her. Meanwhile, the ball got passed up the field, making its way to right in front of me. With all the attention on Zoe, I had just one defender to beat, which was easy.

  I made sure to follow through on my kick, and my shot caught the goalie flat-footed. It was my first goal as a Kangaroo! It was a huge moment for me. Plus now the score was 2–1, Kangaroos. We were actually leading a game! My family was going nuts up in the stands—especially my dad.

  “Go, Devin!” he yelled, as Maisie jumped up and down with excitement.

  With a few minutes left our defense stuttered a little, and Emma collided with Frida on a loose ball, which rolled on into the goal. Still, when the referee blew the whistle to stop the game, the score was 2–2.

  “Tie game!” the referee declared.

  I couldn’t believe it. We hadn’t lost! Zoe charged from across the field and leaped into my arms. I tried to catch her, but her forward momentum knocked us both onto the ground. Emma ran over to pick us up, and then we linked arms as we skipped all the way back to the Rancho Verdes visitors’ locker room, cheering with our teammates all the way. The only bummer was that Jessi wasn’t with us. I wished she could have been in on the action or at least seen us!

  Inside, everyone pounded on the lockers, all of us giddy. Sure, it wasn’t a win, but who cared? After five straight losses this tie was HUGE. After a few minutes of letting the racket continue, Coach shushed us.

  “Great job today, Kangaroos,” she said.

  “But I’ve got a confession to make,” Coach Flores continued, suddenly serious. “When we first started the season, I didn’t know you cared this much. I figured we’d just kick a couple of balls around, spend some time outside, with no pressure whatsoever. I see now that you girls wanted more than that. And I hope that these last couple of weeks I’ve shown you that I’m here to help.”

  She looked over at me, giving me a wink. “I think it’s safe to say that we all learned it’s possible to play hard and still have fun, right?”

  Everyone cheered. We got together for a group hug. “Kangaroos on three,” Coach Flores said. ”One, two, three!”

  “Kangaroos!” we all cheered.

  I don’t know where this Coach Flores had been earlier in the season, but she was now one of the best coaches I’d ever had!

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  One thing was missing from all our success: Jessi. She had been off the team for a week now, and we knew she was miserable missing out on all the fun we’d been having lately. I had an idea to try to cheer her up at least a little bit. After the Rancho Verdes game, when my family came to congratulate me, my dad clutching his video camera, I asked him, “Can we put this game on YouTube?”

  “Sure!” he said, beaming. This was the first time I had asked him to do that with a Kangaroo game. Let’s face it, none of the previous games had been worth sharing!

  Later that night, when the video was finally done uploading, I sent Jessi an e-mail with the link.

  Missed you today! I wrote. But guess what? We tied! Check it out!

  After practice on Wednesday, Emma, Zoe, and I decided to stop by Jessi’s house for a surprise visit. I called ahead to make sure it was okay with her mom.

  “Hi, girls,” Mrs. Dukes said, greeting us at the door quietly. “Come on in. Jessi’s in her room. But don’t stay too long. She’s got to finish her homework.”

  “Sure thing, Mrs. Dukes,” I said.

  When we got to the door of her room, Jessi was on her bed, turned away from us, watching the YouTube video of our soccer game on her laptop.

  “Hey, Jessi!” Emma exclaimed.

  Surprised, Jessi screamed, slammed her computer lid down, and threw her laptop off her bed before shouting, “Homework! It’s homework!” The three of us collapsed on the ground, rolling around in laughter.

  “You should have seen your face,” I said, trying to point at her while holding my sides.

  “I thought you guys were my mom!”

  After Jessi cleared clothes off her huge bed, we all squeezed onto the mattress together.

  “I can’t get over the video of the game,” Jessi said, her eyes shining. “You guys were awesome. It’s like you’re a totally different team.” Then she frowned. “And I’m not on it! At this rate I’m going to be grounded forever,” she groaned. “My grades are so not getting better fast enough. You wouldn’t believe how often my mom calls my teachers now. I swear she has Mrs. Clarke on speed dial.”

  Jessi picked up a tennis ball and threw it against the wall, over and over. “I’m gonna go crazy if I stay cooped up!”

  Suddenly I got an idea.

  “Hey,” I said. “Did your mom get you a tutor to help you with math?”

  Jessi shook her head. “No,” she said. “We talked about it, but I haven’t gotten one yet.”

  “Hang on a sec,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”

  Leaving the three of them behind and confused, I went down the hall to find Jessi’s mom. I should have done this a lot earlier, but Jessi hadn’t seem interested. Now I was sure she’d be all for my idea—especially if it meant getting her back on the Kicks! But I wanted to clear it with her mom first.

  Jessi’
s mom was in the kitchen, cutting apples and pears into slices for us. I blurted out my plan.

  “I’d love to be Jessi’s math tutor,” I said. “I know I can get her to concentrate. I’m in eighth-grade algebra. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but I’m really good at math.”

  Mrs. Dukes laughed. “Jessi, concentrate on studying? I’ve been trying to get that girl to do that for years!”

  “Can we try it?” I said. “We can see how it goes. If it doesn’t help, then we won’t do it anymore. But if it does help, if her math teacher sees an improvement, maybe she can come back on the team? We really, really need her back in time for the Pinewood game,” I pleaded.

  “If you can get her grades up, we’ll see what we can do about her being on the soccer team,” Jessi’s mom said. “I’ll tell you what. Mrs. Clarke said she has a big math test coming up in a week. If she does well on it, then she can play.”

  “No problem, Mrs. Dukes. We’ll handle it!” I ran up the stairs two at a time to go tell Jessi what the deal was.

  “Seriously? She said I can play if I get a good grade on my next math test?” Jessi was beyond excited. “I’d do anything to be on the team again!” She gave me a huge hug. “And I don’t want to miss our rematch against Pinewood. I want to prove to Mirabelle that we’re not losers!”

  “We’re doing so much better, but we can’t win without you,” Emma said. Zoe nodded in agreement.

  I moved back a few steps and looked right into Jessi’s eyes. “Jessi, you gotta step up! You actually have to study. No goofing off or procrastinating. Got it?”

  Jessi stood up tall and gave me a mock salute. “Yes, sir!” she said.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  It was almost October, and the Pinewood game was only a week away. I couldn’t believe how fast time had gone by, and how much things had changed since my first day at Kentville Middle School.

  Kara and I still texted every day. When I woke up Monday morning, a text was waiting for me.

  Ruffle cardigan, denim skirt! What r u wearing? Have a gr8 day!

  I grinned as I looked at the photo of Kara’s smiling face. I was so glad we were keeping our morning tradition, even though my look had changed. Mom had taken me shopping a few weeks before to revamp my wardrobe from Connecticut prep to California fresh. I threw on a polka-dotted cami in cobalt blue and a pair of skinny jeans, finished off, of course, with flip-flops! I had a pair in just about every color now. Today I wore my blue ones.

  I raced out the door and hopped into the van, where my dad was waiting. Mom had driven Maisie to school, so we had some alone time to chat about the team.

  “The only thing is, we need more fans to cheer us on at the Pinewood game,” I told him. “When we went to Pinewood, their entire stands were filled with people in purple and yellow. It was pretty intimidating. I want the Panthers to feel the same way when they come here, especially Mirabelle.”

  “You know you can count on me, your mom, and Maisie to be there cheering you on,” my dad said.

  “I know,” I said. “But we need an extra boost of people, not just our families. We need all of Kentville Middle School behind us to give us a true home-field advantage!”

  “Devin, after seeing how you took on the role of leader with the Kangaroos, I know there is nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it,” my dad said as he pulled up to the school.

  As I went to meet Jessi at the library during lunch later that day, I tried to think of some ways to fill the stands. I had started tutoring Jessi over the weekend, and she was already showing a lot of improvement. I had my fingers crossed that she’d rock her math test! It was in only two days. If she did well, her mom would let her back on the team! When I got to the library, Jessi was waiting, eager to get started.

  “Practice test?” she asked excitedly.

  I had to laugh. This was a different Jessi. All it took was some strong motivation, and all her crazy Jessi energy became concentrated on her schoolwork like a laser beam. If she kept it up, she could join Brianna in the 4.0 club!

  I handed over the practice test I had made the night before. Jessi put her head down and scribbled furiously. After ten minutes she slapped her pencil down. “Bam, all done,” she said. “Go ahead, check my work!” she crowed, handing the papers to me.

  I carefully checked them over. “Wow, Jessi, you aced it!”

  She smiled and pumped a fist in the air. “I’m awesome!” she said, and laughed. “Actually, you are. You’re the best tutor ever.”

  If Jessi could keep it up, she’d be a part of the Kicks again in time for our rematch against Pinewood!

  After school I headed for the locker room to change for practice. None of us were expecting what was waiting for us on the field.

  Coach Flores stood there, which was no surprise. But next to her was the coach of the boys’ team, Coach Valentine. And on the field warming up were the boys!

  “Seriously?” Zoe asked. She was still totally angry over how they’d called us losers at the dance. We all were.

  “What, is their perfect field not good enough for them, they’ve got to play on our crummy one now too?” Grace sounded pretty mad. And I didn’t blame her. The sight of Trey Bishop still made me want to punch him in the face, and he was there, warming up with the rest of them. I spotted Steven and Cody, too. What was going on?

  Coach Valentine blew his whistle. “Gather round!” he barked.

  We headed over, more than a little curious, yet eyeing the boys’ team nervously as we huddled around the coaches.

  “It has come to my attention that my boys have not been behaving with true sportsmanship off the field, which they know is required of them to be on my team,” he shot them a stern look. The boys shuffled nervously and suddenly found something very interesting about their sneakers, because they all started staring at their feet.

  Oops! I had forgotten that Coach Flores had gotten it out of me how the boys had teased us at the dance. So this is what this was about! I felt bad for Steven and Cody, who’d had nothing to do with it. But I know how team sports can be. If a few people mess up, the entire team can get punished.

  “You are ALL Kangaroos,” Coach Valentine went on, while Coach Flores nodded her approval as he spoke. “Not just the boys. Not just the girls. All of you. And you need to respect your other players always, no matter if they’re having a good season or a bad season. So today we’re all going to practice together to remind us that we’re all in this together!”

  Practice? With the boys? The girls’ team began to groan, but Coach Valentine shot us a fierce look. “Ladies, I’m not accepting complaints today, only hard work, so hit the field.” He blew his whistle.

  I exchanged wide-eyed glances with Emma. “Better do as he says,” she whispered.

  We ran onto the field with the boys’ team. It was a weird feeling to be sharing the field with them.

  First up the coaches had us practice passing, with the ball traveling through both teams. At first the teams stood apart, but Coach Flores put a stop to that. “Mix and mingle, people!” she said. I wouldn’t have minded being near Steven, but the lucky thirteen on my practice T-shirt must have been on the fritz or something, because I ended up next to Trey. He didn’t even look at me.

  “Okeydokey, fellow Kangaroo,” I whispered sarcastically under my breath. If he heard me, he didn’t let on, just kept his eyes on the ball.

  We kept doing drills. The boys’ team was really good, and I could see why they were state champs last year. But we weren’t the same team they had seen at the Pinewood game. We had improved a ton, and we held our own. The boys began to notice that.

  “Devin, over here,” Steven called when I got the ball. I lobbed a perfect pass to him.

  Turns out Trey was actually paying attention. “Nice one,” he admitted grudgingly.

  Wow, something could come out of his mouth other than the word “loser.” Impressive.

  The coaches kept changing up the drills. We were split into
two teams and played a basic keep-away game. Good old thirteen must have finally warmed up, because I was on the same team as Steven.

  “I’m sorry that some of these guys can be such jerks,” he said to me as we got started.

  “Me too,” Cody said. He was also on our team.

  “I’m just glad you’re both not jerks too,” I told them.

  The game opened, with the other team trying to keep the ball away from my team.

  Trey had control of the ball and needed to get rid of it because Steven was poised to pounce. I could see him looking for an open boy to pass it to, but there weren’t any. “Zoe!” he called.

  Zoe was ready. With Steven on him Trey got off a less than clean kick. It went wide, and another player from the boys’ team went for it. But Zoe zoomed in like a rocket, taking charge of the ball and moving it down the field before the other player had a chance to intercept. The other girls were equally impressive. Emma’s newfound confidence as goalie had improved her skills out of the goal too. She targeted one of the boys, swooping in and stealing the ball before he could receive the pass. And she didn’t trip once! We were holding our own and then some.

  We kept playing for a while and then switched to some other drills before Coach Flores blew her whistle. Practice was over.

  “Nice job!” she called. Coach Valentine smiled at us as we left the field. “Good hustle, girls,” he said.

  “That went better than I expected,” Zoe said as we left the field. “And I think we proved to them that we’re not losers!”

  Now all we had to do was prove it to Mirabelle and the Panthers, too!

  In homeroom the next morning an announcement was made over the loudspeaker that all of the Kicks needed to report to the gym during lunch. Now what?