Lucy’s “Perfect” Summer

by Rue, Nancy

  “Are you okay?” she said as she dove against his chest.

  “I had an adventure, that’s all.” Dad chuckled. “The good thing is, it didn’t make any difference to me that the lights were out. You survived okay?”

  “Yeah, me and Mora didn’t hurt each other, so I guess that’s good.” Lucy looked at Mr. Auggy through the crook in Dad’s arm. “Mora and I. ”

  “See that?” Dad said. “She’s improving already.”

  Lucy almost groaned. She’d hoped with the storm, he might have forgotten about the whole tutoring thing. Fat chance, evidently.

  “So you and I are going to be working on all your skills this summer, captain,” Mr. Auggy said. “Not just soccer.”

  Lucy sank into a chair and rolled up the edge of the tablecloth. “I don’t see how we’re gonna work on my soccer skills without a field.”

  Mr. Auggy smiled his small smile. “Oh, ye of little faith.”

  “What does that mean?” Lucy said.

  “It means I have a plan, if you and your dad can work it out.”

  “What plan?” Why could grown-ups never just get to the point?

  “I’ve been asked to work at a youth soccer camp in Las Cruces,” Mr. Auggy said. “It’s a day camp, lasts three weeks, and even though it’s a little late, they have some spaces left for the Dreams.”

  “You mean, our whole team?”

  “Anybody who can get the money together by Monday.”

  Before Lucy’s heart could sink too far, Mr. Auggy put his hand up. “Don’t worry about J.J. and Januarie. I can bring two players for free because I’m going to be on staff. I’m pretty sure everyone else will be okay — it isn’t that expensive.”

  Lucy looked at Dad, but he was already nodding.

  “Are you serious?” Lucy said.

  “As a heart attack,” Mr. Auggy said, “And here’s the best part for you, captain.”

  Lucy didn’t see how it could get any better, but she bobbed her head anyway.

  “This is a top soccer camp, which means scouts from the Olympic Development Team will be there to watch the final games. If they like a player, they’ll invite her to participate in the regional tryouts, without even having to apply.”

  A thrill charged straight through Lucy.

  Mr. Auggy stood and passed a hand over Dad’s shoulder. “I’m going to leave you two to work the rest of it out.”

  Dad went to the door with him and they stepped out onto the back porch. Lucy was pretty sure they were picking up where they’d left off when she got home, and she was tempted to tiptoe over and eavesdrop. But Dad could practically hear a flea springing off one of the cats, and he had special radar for her, so she stayed at the table and let Marmalade curl up in her lap.

  Was she really going to get to go to soccer camp, she thought as she stroked his orange back. And have a chance at ODP even sooner than she thought? It sounded like it — and yet there was whatever Mr. Auggy said she and Dad had to ‘work out.’ That never ended up being a good deal. The last thing they’d ‘worked out’ was her having to do schoolwork over the summer.

  Dad came back to the table, but she couldn’t read his face, so she went right in.

  “What ‘rest of it’?” she asked. “Dad — I totally want to do this.”

  “Just one small piece,” he said. He sat down again across from her, and Marmalade jumped back to his lap, which he much preferred over anybody’s.

  “I can already tell it’s not that small,” Lucy said.

  “That’s up to you. I think this soccer camp will be a great opportunity for you, Luce — ”

  “What’s the but?”

  “No but, just a because. It’s going to be good for you because it’ll teach you how to handle both your sport and your schoolwork the way you’re going to have to do next year in seventh grade.”

  Sure sounded like a ‘but’ to Lucy.

  “You can stay in soccer camp,” Dad said, “as long as you make weekly progress with your reading skills. Fair enough?”

  His eyes settled on her. It was one of those times she just knew he could see her. She wrestled a smile to her face.

  “Is that all?” she said. “I thought you were going to ask me to do something hard.”

  “That’s my Champ,” Dad said.

  But Lucy didn’t feel like much of a champ as she skipped a kiss over the top of his head and went back out to look for J.J. Maybe she’d convinced Dad, and maybe Marmalade, that she thought this was going to be a piece of cake. But she sure hadn’t convinced herself

  4

  Why I Think You (God) Might Be Making This Summer Perfect After All

  1. Everybody on the team gets to go to soccer camp.

  2. Even Oscar, because after we found out his mom didn’t have the money and he doesn’t have an “old man” like he always says, Dusty had a pool party for her birthday and asked everybody to bring money for Oscar instead of presents for her.

  3. Mr. Auggy said we were good Christians for doing that for Oscar, but it was all Dusty’s idea. She’s so good, I feel like a jerk next to her sometimes.

  4. Dusty and Veronica and Emanuel and Carla Rosa’s moms are taking turns driving us to camp. It’ll take two vehicles to get all of us in plus our cleats and shin guards and water bottles and towels and stuff.

  Lucy scratched behind Lolli’s left ear with her pen. She was feeling so perfect, and then that missing-Mom twinge happened in her throat. Her mom would have been the best soccer-mom ever. She’d have juice boxes for everybody, even though they all had their own water, and she wouldn’t make them listen to elevator music in the car, and she would know good questions to ask about soccer — not just, “So how was it? Did you have fun?”

  Lucy swallowed the twinge and went back to the Book of Lists. Since it had been her mom’s, it was the closest Lucy was going to get to her. It wasn’t like sitting up front with her in their own van, but it was better than nothing.

  5. Felix Pasco gave a party for the whole team at the café Saturday night. It was kind of weird because Felix had tears in his eyes when he wished us good luck and gave us all new T-shirts with Los Suenos Dreams on the back. It’s always sort of scary when grown-ups look like they’re going to cry.

  There wasn’t time to try to figure out more than that now because she could hear J.J. and Januarie arguing as they crossed the street to her gate where they were supposed to meet this morning to be picked up.

  “No fighting with Artemis today,” Lucy said to Lollipop over her shoulder as she rode the yellow Navajo rug down the hall to the kitchen.

  “I don’t fight with Artemis,” Mora called sleepily from the living room where she’d dropped the minute she and Inez arrived. “I don’t even know which one that is.”

  Lucy didn’t remind Mora that not everything was about her. She had probably already gone back to sleep anyway.

  Nobody on the Los Suenos team acted like they had wanted to sleep in — although Carla Rosa did say to Januarie, “Guess what? Your breath smells like you forgot to brush your teeth.” Carla Rosa was always saying stuff like that, but nobody minded that much anymore because they knew she kind of couldn’t help it. She and Dusty, Veronica, Januarie, and Lucy just jabbered, one voice on top of the other, all the way in Dusty’s mom’s SUV and howled over the signs the boys pressed to the back window of Emanuel’s family minivan.

  “Boys Rule; Girls Drool,” one of them said.

  “If Yer So Smart, How Come We’re Ahead of U?” said another.

  “If you’re so smart, why can’t you spell?” Dusty’s mom said, which set the girls’ group giggling. Lucy felt the twinge again. Her mom would have been funny like that too. Maybe even funnier.

  But sad thoughts got left in the car when they arrived at the “ginormous” (as Veronica called it) High Noon Soccer Complex in Las Cruces, tucked into the shadows of the Organ Mountains.

  “Yikes,” Veronica said, lip hanging like a sofa cushion. “We’re lucky to have one soccer field. The
y have one, two — ”

  “Four,” Lucy said.

  All with bleachers on both sides under roofs. And two buildings with restrooms and drinks, and a whole pavilion with picnic tables, and a grassy area with swings and stuff to climb on. There were even two rows of cottonwood trees for shade, which you didn’t find much of in New Mexico. She’d never been to Disneyland, but this had to be better than that.

  “This is fabulous,” Dusty said to Mr. Auggy when he jogged up to them, smiling his small smile.

  “Yeah, I come here all the time,” Gabe said. “It’s okay.”

  Lucy looked at J.J. If he’d been a girl, he would have rolled his eyes with her.

  Mr. Auggy glanced at his watch. “Okay, I need to get you guys to your coach before the opening starts.”

  Lucy felt her eyes spring open. “Aren’t you our coach?”

  Mr. Auggy wasn’t that successful with his smile this time.

  “No — they’ve asked me to work with a junior boys’ team — but you’ll all be together because we signed up late.” He batted at the crooked ponytail on top of Januarie’s head. “Except you, Jan. We’re putting you with girls your own age.”

  She opened her mouth, and Lucy braced herself for a Chihuahua yelp. Mr. Auggy headed that off with, “You’ll get to play all the time with them — nobody’ll be telling you you’re too little.”

  Actually, the Los Suenos Dreams never told her she was too little. They just told her she was bad at soccer, which made it that much better that Mr. Auggy was steering her toward a knot of giggling nine-year-olds, all with crooked ponytails.

  “Sweet,” J.J. said.

  It was shaping up to be a really perfect summer for him. Lucy felt a little pang for Januarie, even though she was mostly a pain in the neck. She herself would hate to be separated from the Dreams. It was bad enough not being with Mr. Auggy, but at least they were all together.

  “So — you guys the Los Suenos team?”

  Lucy turned to see a taller-than-Dad guy with blackish stubble on his face that matched the fuzz on his head. He wore sunglasses that weren’t all the way dark, and he only smiled with one side of his mouth.

  “Oh yeah, I see it on your shirts. My bad.” The guy folded his arms across his own T-shirt that said Las Cruces Soccer Camp Coach. “I’ll be working with you guys.”

  “Guess what?” Carla Rosa said. “Some of us are girls.”

  Lucy thought he blinked behind the sunglasses. It was hard to tell. She looked around for Mr. Auggy, but he and Januarie were already gone.

  “Yeah, well, anyway, I’m Seth. I play soccer at New Mexico State.”

  “Cool,” Gabe said. He puffed out his chest. J.J. gave Lucy another look.

  Dusty flung her arm around Lucy’s shoulder. “Lucy’s our captain.”

  “Okay, so, yeah,” Seth said, “we need to get over to Field A for some kind of opening gig. I guess we’re supposed to sit together so — ”

  He pointed in a vague direction and started walking.

  “I think he wants us to follow him,” Dusty whispered to Lucy.

  “It would be nice if he’d tell us,” she whispered back.

  Veronica joined them on Lucy’s other side. “Okay, he is hot.”

  Ew, Lucy thought. She was glad Mora wasn’t here.

  Once they got to Field A, Seth finally looked back at the team and then shaded his sunglasses with his hand as he surveyed the bleachers. All the top rows were taken, and the rest was filling up fast too. Lucy had never seen so many kids gathered in one place. Everyone was talking and moving at the same time. It all made Lucy feel small.

  Seth finally herded them to the third row in the left-of-center section, right in front of a college-looking girl who was also wearing a coach T-shirt. She pulled her very-blonde hair back to say something into his ear.

  “She’s crushing on him,” Veronica said.

  Lucy squinted at the couple. “She’s not even touching him.”

  Dusty patted Lucy’s knee. “That means she likes him.”

  Lucy was glad when the microphone squealed. She didn’t want to have that conversation.

  “Welcome to LCSC!” a male voice boomed over the speakers. “Are ya happy?”

  While everyone yelled that, yes, they were happy, Carla Rosa reached across Veronica and tugged at Lucy’s shorts. “What does LCSC mean?”

  “Las Cruces Soccer Camp!” Lucy shouted above the other voices. Only they had all stopped, which meant Lucy’s words echoed across the field and up and down the bleachers like she was screaming through a megaphone.

  “That’s the kind of spirit I’m talkin’ about!” the man with the microphone called out. “Everybody — Las Cruces Soccer Camp!”

  The crowd yelled it with him — except for Lucy who put her hands up to her burning face. The way the kids around them were staring at her, she wanted to hold up a sign that said, “Yes, I Have the Biggest Mouth in the Mesilla Valley.”

  But the attention went back to the man on the stage on the other side of the field, who introduced himself as Hawke Somebody. Everybody cheered when he said his first name, and Lucy figured they’d all been to his camp before. She was definitely feeling like the new kid.

  Hawke said welcome to the camp and he was glad they were all there and he liked hanging out with soccer players because they were the coolest people in the world. More cheering. Lucy joined in this time, because he was right about that.

  “We do have some rules here,” he said.

  A couple of people booed.

  “And one of them is, no booing.”

  The crowd laughed.

  “I’ll tell you the rest in just a bit,” Hawke said, “but first I want you to get a taste of what you all came here for — and what’s that?”

  “Soccer!” the crowd yelled.

  “What’s that — I didn’t quite get it.”

  “Soccer!”

  “One more time, and I think I’ll have it.”

  “SOCCER!”

  Lucy grinned as she shouted with them. It was definitely her all-time favorite word.

  While everyone was still cheering, two teams ran out onto the field, and Hawke announced that they were the winners of last year’s camp play-offs, here to inspire the camp with one quarter of exhibition soccer.

  Play-offs. Lucy felt another thrill go up her spine. Mr. Auggy had said that was when the ODP people would be there.

  She looked around Dusty at J.J. He was forming his own favorite word with his lips: Sweet.

  A referee in a real uniform, with black socks and everything, blew a whistle, and the game started. A team of all girls was playing a mixed team, and everybody looked like they must be in middle school. Only not Lucy’s middle school. These kids took their positions behind the center line on each side without looking at each other to make sure they were in the right place like Carla Rosa always did — in spite of all the hours Lucy had spent working with her in her backyard — or redoing their ponytails like Veronica, or punching each other for no reason like Oscar and Emanuel. From the moment a tall girl with muscles in her calves received the ball from the kicker over the center line, they were so intent on the ball, Lucy could almost hear their brains working.

  Work the ball sideways and backward till everybody gets into position.

  Kick it out to a wing player.

  There’s too much defense here — get it back to the midfielder.

  The team with the ball — the all-girl team — kept it while the offensive players moved into the attacking half of the field. The midfielder sprinted like a deer toward the goal so the wing would have somebody to pass it to. Lucy was a midfielder. She just didn’t always have a wing there, since that was supposed to be Veronica.

  The other team wasn’t making it easy for the all-girl group. Some of the defense was spread out to the wings, but they didn’t leave the middle open. They could get the ball anytime, and Lucy hoped they would, just to make it interesting.

  One boy tried, running at
the girl with the calves to challenge her just as her foot met the ball for a pass. It went wild and bounced out of bounds, and the official blew his whistle.

  “Bummer,” Dusty said.

  Everyone got into position for a goal kick — all except Calf Girl. She marched up to the referee, her face the color of one of Inez’s chili peppers, and from the third row, Lucy heard her scream, “That was a foul! He charged me!”

  The ref shook his head and waved her back, but she wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Not fair!” the girl screamed. “He should get carded for that!”

  “She’s gonna get carded if she doesn’t shut up,” someone said behind Lucy.

  She wasn’t sure what a card was, but it couldn’t be good. The ref pulled something yellow out of his pocket. Calf Girl swatted it out of his hand.

  The whole crowd groaned, the way people did at the movies when the bad guy made his move. Without even opening his mouth, the official pulled another card out, a red one this time. But before the girl could bat that one away, the microphone squealed and every kid in the stands went stone silent. Lucy held her breath.

  Hawke’s voice boomed low and scary. “Young lady, leave the field, and don’t plan to come back.”

  “I wouldn’t play here again if you paid me!” she shouted back. Most of the rest of what she sputtered out was lost as she marched, stiff-legged, off the field. Lucy figured whatever it was couldn’t be good.

  Before the crowd could start to mutter, Hawke raised his arm. “Soccer is the beautiful game,” he said. “It brings people together, teaches them how to work as a team. We reward that at LCSC. Every week, I’ll be giving a VIP award. What does that mean?”

  “Very Important Player!” the kids who had been there before all yelled.

  “And it won’t be going to people who behave like that. Or people who come running to me, tattling about every little thing. Or players who can’t think of the team instead of themselves. Am I clear?”

  He got a huge “yes.”

  “Then shall we play soccer?”

  He got an even huger “yes.”