Blow Out

by M. G. Higgins

  Nita trotted over, carrying a ball. “I’ll be A. Do you want to attack or defend first?”

  “Neither,” Lacy said.

  “Don’t worry. You’ll do fine.” She handed the ball to Lacy. “I’ll be careful of your leg, but I still have to play full out. Coach will kill me if I don’t.”

  “I know. I just…” Lacy wanted to finish her sentence with “. . . want to put it off forever.” Instead, she took a deep breath and dropped the ball on the touchline. Nita backed up a few paces, and Lacy started dribbling.

  Almost immediately Coach Berg yelled, “Head up, Sheridan!”

  Lacy couldn’t believe she was making such a beginner’s mistake. But she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off the ball and Nita’s feet. As soon as she lifted her head, Nita tapped the ball away from her.

  “Ugh,” Lacy muttered. She started attacking, but Nita had a big jump. She made it to the sideline without Lacy touching the ball.

  Coach Berg blew his whistle. “A’s move to your left!”

  Nita gave Lacy’s shoulder an encouraging squeeze before she sidestepped down the touchline.

  “Hey.”

  Lacy looked over at her new opponent—Raven. Lacy’s heart sank. She could have sworn the scorpion on Raven’s neck waved its tail.

  “You’re pretty good at free kicks,” Raven said. “I’m pretty good at tackling.” She tapped the ball to Lacy and backed all the way to midfield. “Go ahead. Start dribbling.”

  Lacy stood on the touchline. She couldn’t get her feet to move.

  “Sheridan!” Coach yelled. “What’s the holdup?”

  “N-nothing!” She took a deep breath and forced herself to dribble, keeping the ball close. Within seconds Raven was sprinting for her. Frozen by fear, Lacy watched as Raven went into a slide. She hit the ball and Lacy’s right leg along with it. Lacy fell to the grass. She grabbed her knee and began crying, waiting for the pain to start.

  Raven squatted next to her. “Sorry.”

  “Get away from me!” Lacy screamed.

  Raven rose as Nita and Coach Berg trotted over.

  “McAlister, this wasn’t a sliding drill!” Coach yelled.

  “I’m sorry. I guess I misunderstood.”

  “Lace, are you okay?” Nita asked.

  Lacy slowly extended her leg. It didn’t hurt. She nodded. She couldn’t believe she was crying in front of Coach and the whole team.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” Coach Berg asked. He gently pressed around her knee. “Does any of this hurt?”

  “No. I’m okay. Her tackle just scared me.”

  “I really am sorry,” Raven said. “I didn’t realize you had a leg I had to be careful of.”

  Nita burst out, “Yes, you did, you little—!”

  “Hey! Cool it!” Coach Berg yelled. He watched as Lacy slowly got to her feet. “Do you want to keep practicing?”

  Lacy brushed the tears off her face. She felt too shaky to play—especially the one-on-ones. “No. I don’t think so.”

  Coach Berg’s lack of a response told her she’d given him the wrong answer. He wanted fighters, not quitters.

  L

  acy had never been so glad to see the end of a week. Late Friday night, she got a text from Nita:

  UR coming shopping w me 2morrow. No excuses! And… I’ve got big news.

  Lacy wasn’t really in the mood for a walk around a busy mall. But she wanted to know what Nita’s news was. She texted back:

  K. I’m in. And curious. :)

  . . .

  As usual, Lacy did the driving. Nita didn’t have her own car, and borrowing her family’s minivan meant getting in line behind her parents and older brother. In other words, it never happened.

  The mall was crowded. But all of the activity helped Lacy perk up. She wandered around Macy’s with Nita, helping her find the perfect jeans.

  “Here.” Lacy held out a red pair. “Not a UNC color, but you look good in red.”

  “Ooh, I like.” Nita added it to her growing pile of try-ons. “And if Stanford happens to call…”

  “You’d actually move to the West Coast?”

  “They’re a Division I powerhouse. Yeah, I’ve thought about it.” She shrugged, then grinned. “Especially if those cardinal red jeans fit.”

  Lacy tried on a skirt and a top in the dressing room next to Nita’s.

  “So was that your big secret?” she said through the thin wall. “You’re running away to California?”

  “Uh. No.” After a pause, Nita said, “Oh, crap. I think I’ve gained weight.”

  “Not possible. You’re all muscle.”

  “Yeah, well. I guess one of these will do. Just not the red pair. Maybe that’s a sign to stay loyal to my state.”

  Nita swung her shopping bag as they left Macy’s. “Food court! I am craving a power shake!”

  “Ick.” Lacy laughed. “So, share your news. Before I strangle you.”

  “Okay.” Nita lowered her voice and looked around. “It’s about your friend Scorpion Neck.”

  Lacy shivered, her good mood instantly gone. “What about her?”

  “I was bored out of my mind with history homework last night and did some online snooping. You know, just to see if she has a criminal record or whatever. One of us had to do some digging.”

  “Nita!”

  “Lace, after all that’s happened, you can’t possibly doubt she’s after you.”

  Lacy took a deep breath. “No, I guess not.”

  “Well, it looks like she’s done this before. I pieced together info from Facebook and one of her old teammates’ blogs. I know it’s Raven. Get this. You ready?”

  Lacy groaned with impatience.

  “She was expelled from her high school last year for injuring one of her own teammates. Well, allegedly injuring. She said it was an accident. But they expelled her anyway.”

  “What?” This was starting to get creepy. As they walked into the food court, Lacy wasn’t sure if she was hungry anymore.

  “And get this,” Nita said as they stood in line at the Smoothie Factory. “The teammate—whose leg she broke with a well-placed kick—was the team’s best scorer.”

  Lacy had a hard time believing what she was hearing. Could anyone be that ruthless about playing soccer? But after Thursday’s practice, it was clear Raven was at least trying to frighten her.

  “This is creeping me out,” Lacy said. “Should we tell Coach Berg?”

  Smoothies in hand, Nita led Lacy to one of the big tables near the windows.

  “I’m wondering if he already knows,” Nita said. She sucked on her straw. “He must have all her school records.”

  “But would her records mention something like that?”

  Nita shrugged. “Coach isn’t a bad guy, but you know how focused he gets on winning. He wants aggressive players. Period.”

  Lucy knew this was true. But she couldn’t imagine him knowingly recruiting someone with a violent history.

  “Hey! Are these seats taken?”

  Lacy looked up from her peach smoothie. Nita’s boyfriend, Reggie, and his friend Peyton stood next to their table, holding trays loaded with pizza slices and soft drinks.

  “Yeah, by you!” Nita grinned.

  You set me up! Lacy mouthed to Nita as the guys sat down across from them. Nita had been trying to set her up with Peyton forever. This run-in was no coincidence.

  Nita shrugged innocently.

  Lacy had too much on her mind to chitchat with boys. Lacy paid little attention as they went through the usual small talk—mutual friends, teachers, music. So she was caught off guard when Peyton asked her, “How’s soccer practice going?”

  “Soccer practice?” Lacy mumbled. “It’s okay.”

  She glanced at Nita for help, but her friend’s fingers were playfully traveling up Reggie’s arm as he whispered in her ear. Lacy felt so awkward. Peyton wasn’t Sam, whom she could flirt with and not have it mean anything. When Peyton’s deep brown eyes met hers she look
ed away, almost afraid she might melt.

  “How’s your knee?” Peyton asked.

  “It’s coming along. I’m just…” She hesitated, not wanting to sound like a wimp.

  “Scared?” he finished for her.

  “Yeah,” she said, letting out a breath.

  “I had an ACL thing a year and a half ago.”

  “You did?”

  He took another bite of his pizza. “Yeah, it totally sucked! Did you need surgery, too?”

  Lacy nodded. “It was horrible. But I think the worst part was physical therapy.”

  “Yeah, I felt like punching my therapist a few times. ‘Come on, give me ten more!’”

  Lacy laughed.

  “Scared the crap out of me to play again. Well, for a while, anyway.”

  “You’re not worried about it now?”

  “Not really. I’m still pretty good at one-touch scoring off crosses. I don’t think twice about sprinting into a crowd anymore.”

  Fearless scoring had been one of Lacy’s strengths too. She’d come up with creative goals no matter what was happening around her.

  “I think I’m jealous,” Lacy said.

  “Don’t be. I’ve still got the same problems I always had.” He shoved the last of the pizza into his mouth. “Coach had me try a penalty kick in our last game. Overflew the net by five feet. Totally embarrassing.”

  “Huh. I’m just the opposite.”

  “You’ve got a good kick?”

  “She’s got a killer kick with a wicked curve,” Nita said. She grinned at Lacy.

  Lacy felt her cheeks warm. Talking to Peyton was fun. She wanted to punch Nita for being right.

  O

  livia made a brilliant takeaway, stealing the ball from the opposing attacker. She dribbled and passed to Elise in center midfield. As Lacy sprinted to get into position, she glanced over her left shoulder to keep her eyes on the ball. Elise sidestepped a defender and chipped the ball to Nita. With a perfect first touch, Nita got the ball from her thigh to the sole of her foot and jerked away from another defender.

  Yes! Lacy thought. The pattern they’d been practicing was working exactly as planned.

  Lacy ran across the field, and Nita tapped her the ball. Two defenders charged for it, but Lacy’s timing was perfect. She had pulled her foot back to hammer the ball into the net when she heard, “I’ll take that.”

  Raven knocked the ball out from under Lacy, tripping her in the process. With pain surging through her right knee, Lacy fell to the ground. She saw Raven’s strike float over the keeper’s hands and into the back of the net as Coach Berg yelled, “Good strike, McAlister!”

  Lacy sat up with a start. Sweat had soaked through her T-shirt.

  Her door swung open, and the light switched on. “Are you all right?” Lacy’s mother asked as she stepped to Lacy’s bed.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “I was walking down the hallway and heard you shout.”

  Instinctively, Lacy touched her knee. The nightmare had felt so real. “I … I’m okay.”

  Her mother sat on the edge of the bed and brushed the hair off Lacy’s forehead. “You’re perspiring. Do you have a fever?”

  “No, Mom. It was just a bad dream. I’m fine. Go back to sleep.”

  “What was the dream about?”

  Lacy wanted to tell her about the nightmares, but she hesitated. Her mother was not Carrie. Her sister would have figured out that the episode was triggered by Lacy’s upcoming scrimmage. Her mother didn’t have a clue. “Nothing. I don’t remember.”

  Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Did it have something to do with your soccer problems?”

  Okay, maybe she had more of a clue than Lacy thought. Lacy sank back onto her pillow. “I told you, I’m fine.”

  Her mother murmured, “I’m worried about you. Don’t you think this has gone on long enough?”

  If she’d asked the question harshly, Lacy would have immediately tuned her mother out. But the caring in her voice made Lacy want to cry. Part of her agreed. It would be easier to quit soccer. Fighting a lump in her throat, Lacy said, “I don’t know.”

  Lacy’s mother sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “Anxiety is a part of life, Lacy. When you’re an adult, you’ll have to decide for yourself if whatever is stressing you is worth working through. But you’re not an adult. And I’m your mother. I don’t like seeing you in this much pain.”

  She patted Lacy’s head and rose. “I’ve found you an adorable dress for the Belle League luncheon.”

  “Mother—”

  “It’s really fabulous,” she said, and winked. “I think you’ll be surprised.” She walked to the door and turned. “The league is not just a social club, you know. We do wonderful work for Fraser. Who do you think is funding the hospital’s new maternity wing?”

  She paused with her hand on the doorframe. “It’s a legitimate future for you, Lacy. A husband, children, community service. Think about it.” She shut off the light and closed the door.

  Lacy lay in the darkness. The Belle League. A husband and children. Those were things her mother wanted for her. But did she want them for herself? She hated thinking about her future.

  Lacy didn’t like thinking about her present, either. She wanted to go back ten months to last year’s regionals, when she was playing at the top of her game and life was perfect. No past, no future, just now.

  She sighed and rolled over. She wanted that feeling back. Of running fearlessly and making goals. Like in the dream she’d just had, before it turned into a nightmare. And she could have that, couldn’t she? Her leg was fine. She was playing on it, falling on it. Nothing terrible had happened.

  She thought of telling Coach Berg about what Nita had found out about Raven. But there was no proof, only allegations. If Lacy tattled, it would look as though she was trying to get her position back without doing the work. No. If she wanted to play left forward, she had to earn it. That meant she had to impress Coach Berg more than Raven did. At tomorrow’s scrimmage she had to outplay Raven.

  N

  ita and Lacy stretched together on the field.

  “Reggie said he’d try to make it,” Nita said. “Let me know if you see him.”

  “You are totally hung up on that boy.”

  “Um … maybe. Yeah. As long as he doesn’t disrupt my game.”

  Lacy glanced into the stands. Since it wasn’t a regular conference match, only a few people were there to watch, including some parents and freshmen with nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon.

  Win or lose, the score of this match wouldn’t count toward in-season standings. But for the girls fighting for a position on the team, it was a very big deal. Coach said the game would sway his choice of starters for the rest of the season. If Lacy were to grade her practices since her meltdown after Raven’s tackle, she’d give herself a B+. Raven, on the other hand, had been playing at A-level. Lacy took a deep breath.

  “Hey, loosen up,” Nita said. “You could crack walnuts with that jaw.”

  Lacy gave her a tight smile.

  “You’ve got the experience, Lace. You’re the better all-around player. He’s going to start you.”

  What Lacy didn’t tell Nita was that after last night’s nightmare, she wasn’t sure she wanted to start—or to play at all.

  On the sidelines, Coach Berg cleared his throat. “Okay, listen up for today’s roster.” He looked down at his clipboard. “Defenders: Williams, Morris…”

  Lacy stopped breathing as he continued through the list.

  “Right forward: Frey. Center forward: Ortiz. Left forward … McAlister.”

  Lacy’s heart sank to the bottom of her chest. Nita muttered a slew of curse words and added, “You’re going to play today, Lace. One way or another.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m okay,” Lacy said.

  Coach Berg continued, “I want to see good performances. Get out there and win!”

  Lacy stayed on the sidelines as Nita and the ot
her Copperhead starters took the field. She’d rarely watched her team’s matches from the bench. While her ego felt about the size of an insect, it did give her a chance to watch the players from both sides. Lacy noticed that the Norcross defenders were aggressive, but their ball control was a little sloppy. One defender in particular, a tall girl with black hair, had a good shoulder charge. But she didn’t move the ball well once she stole it.

  As for their own team, Raven had two chances to score in the first half. One shot, a header off of a blistering pass from Elise, cruised into the upper corner of the net. Even Lacy had to admit it was a brilliant play. Raven’s other shot looked like it would score, but the Norcross keeper got her fingertips on the ball and slapped it away.

  Raven was clearly showing her talent at striking. She was also hogging the ball. Twice, she didn’t pass to Nita or Dayton even when they had better looks at the goal. She also kicked a player, but the ref must not have seen it clearly, because she let the team play on. Even so, Lacy knew Raven must be close to a yellow card.

  At halftime, the score was tied 1–1. Nita hopped off the field, grimacing. She fell onto the bench next to Lacy, grabbing her ankle.

  “Ouch! Holy crap this hurts!”

  “Nita, are you okay?” Lacy asked.

  Coach Berg strode over.

  “That big defender stepped on my ankle. She has elephant feet and weighs a ton.” Nita winced and looked up at Coach. “It really hurts. I don’t think I can play the second half.”

  Lacy was surprised. It wasn’t like Nita to make a big deal about an injury. The ankle didn’t even look swollen. Then, suddenly, Lacy knew exactly what Nita was up to.

  Coach must have had his suspicions, too. He raised an eyebrow and stared at Nita for a second. “Okay.” Then he glanced at his clipboard and at Lacy. “You’re at center, Sheridan. Warm up.”

  Lacy jumped off the bench. “Thanks, Coach.” When he was gone, she whispered to Nita, “I can’t believe you did that!”

  Nita’s eyes widened. “What? I am truly in pain.” She gave Lacy a wink.