by Rue, Nancy
“The people that want to put a stupid mini-mart there?” Lucy said.
“They’ve talked to Felix Pasco and Mr. Benitez and Claudia and Gloria, saying they — the corporation — will put money into the the café and the grocery store and the flower shop and the beauty salon in exchange for their votes on the council to sell the field.”
Lucy got on both knees. “But they can’t do that, can they?”
Both Dad and Mr. Auggy nodded sadly.
“We just want you to know that some of them are considering changing their votes,” Dad said.
“What?” Lucy cried. “I thought they were proud of the team!”
“It isn’t that they’re not, but times are hard, Luce. People have to keep their businesses going or they can’t pay their bills.”
It looked to Lucy as if her Dad had a sudden pain. Mr. Auggy was trying to smile, but Lucy didn’t believe it was for real.
“Nothing has been decided yet,” Mr. Auggy said. “But we thought you should know what’s going on.”
“It’s something we have to pray about,” Dad said. “Things are changing, and we need to be ready.”
Nobody said anything for a minute, although Lucy’s silence was louder than anyone’s. She didn’t want ‘change’, and she had no intention of getting ready for it.
Mr. Auggy finally cleared his throat. “Meanwhile, you and Marmalade — did I get it right that time?” He managed to get a grin going. “You two can dive into that soccer book. For the time being, you do have a field to play on at camp. How’s that going for you?”
“Fine,” Lucy lied. She stood up and scooped Marmalade and the soccer book into her arms. “Could I be excused, Dad?”
“You okay, champ?” he said.
“Yes,” she said.
As she escaped to her room, she thought that she was sure doing a lot of lying right now.
Once she was there, she didn’t feel much like reading to Marmalade, but she did hold him on her lap as she slipped the Book of Lists out from under her pillow and wrote.
Dear God:
What Am I Supposed To Do About All This Stuff?
1. How am I supposed to keep Felix and Mr. Benitez and all those people from selling our soccer field?
2. How am I gonna stand being on the Select Team with Rianna in my face all the time? And Coach Neely not doing anything about it? And nobody else on the team even talking to me?
3. How can I convince J.J. that it doesn’t matter if they make fun of me? I want to be with MY team!!!!!!!!
Marmalade didn’t even seem to notice the exclamation points. Not like Lollipop who was flicking a jealous tail up on the windowsill.
4. What if Marmalade doesn’t help me learn to read better? What if I don’t do it right?
5. How do I get that sad look off of Dad’s face? Because it’s way too worried for just me “improving my reading skills” or even us losing our field.
Lucy rubbed at her nervous stomach with her pen. She knew her dad. He always said God could help them through anything. He didn’t get that maybe-even-God-can’t-this-time worry in his eyes unless something was way wrong.
Things are changing, and we need to be ready, he’d told her.
What else could possibly change? What exactly was he getting ready for?
Lucy hugged the Book and checked out the window for a possible J.J. signal and made exclamation points in Marmalade’s fur with her finger. But nothing took away the dread that clung to her like a cobweb. The one thing that always helped was soccer. And now, she wasn’t even looking forward to that.
But things started off better the next day at camp. Coach Neely divided the team in half, and Lucy nearly cheered when Rianna ended up on the other side. She was looking pretty grumpy and didn’t have much to say to anybody, but Lucy had a feeling that was going to change, and she didn’t want to be on the other end of it.
Lucy stood in a line with Bella-with-the-braids, Sarah-of-the-long-ponytail, and tiny Kayla and tried to concentrate on what Coach Neely was saying. It was a little hard with Patricia-with-the-out-of-control-hair muttering under her breath like she never stopped doing and toothy Taylor and Waverly-no-smile glaring at Rianna and Rianna glaring back. Lucy decided she had the better team. At least they didn’t look like they wanted to eat each other.
“Lucy’s side is going to have four balls,” Coach Neely said. “Rianna’s side will have none.”
“How come?” Rianna said.
“Why are we called ‘Rianna’s side’?” Taylor said.
Coach Neely parked her ball on one hip. “This is the reason we’re doing this exercise,” she said. “You girls have to start talking to each other instead of about each other. When you’re out on the field in a game, you can’t depend on me to tell you what to do. You have to rely on one another, which is why I didn’t stop Rianna from ‘coaching’ you yesterday.” She didn’t appear to see Rianna looking like she’d just scored a goal — or hear Patricia muttering or Taylor snorting. “At least somebody was talking. Now, here’s the way this game works — ”
Within a few minutes, Lucy’s side was dribbling around the area Coach Neely marked off. Whenever they heard someone on Rianna’s side call their name, they had to pass their ball to that player and run off and find someone with a ball who they could call to.
Lucy’s name was called a lot. When she had to call, it was hard not to say, “Long Ponytail!” or “Toothy!” She was amazed that by the time Coach Neely blew her whistle, she finally knew everybody’s name. She just wished Rianna didn’t know hers.
When Coach Neely had them sit down and drink water while she explained the next thing, Rianna maneuvered herself to sit right next to Lucy. Lucy was afraid she was going to start in about lunch yesterday, but Rianna smiled — a sort of curled-lip smile — and scooted in close.
“What I just saw on the field,” Coach Neely said, “that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” She flashed her very white teeth in a rare smile. “I think you’re getting the idea. Now, let’s work on strategy. We’ll start with when you should dribble instead of passing or shooting — ”
“I already know that,” Rianna whispered to Lucy. “I bet you do too.”
Lucy nodded and kept her eyes frozen to Coach Neely.
“If you’re all by yourself and no one is challenging you, by all means dribble.”
“Like a mad dog,” Mr. Auggy would have said. Lucy felt a pang of homesickness.
“Take as much of the field as the defenders will give you.”
Rianna poked Lucy. “Which isn’t going to be much if we’re the defenders, right?”
“If the defenders do approach you, what are your options?”
The girls called out things like, “Send the ball to an open player,” and “Do a wall pass.” Rianna put her lips close to Lucy’s ear and said, “Fall down.”
Lucy pulled her gaze from Coach Neely and stared at her.
“Later,” Rianna whispered.
It was hard to soak in the rest of what Coach Neely said, with fall down racing through her brain. Did Rianna mean on purpose? Why would she want to do that? Nah, there was no way that’s what she meant.
“We’ll work on this stuff in our practice game this afternoon,” Coach Neely said. “Have a good lunch.”
Lucy hurried to join the Select Team at the table this time, before Rianna could try to drag her off alone. She was just settling in between Kayla and Bella, since they seemed like the least likely to torture her with their eyes, when Patricia leaned across the table and muttered something.
“Don’t you even know how to talk out loud like a normal person?”
Rianna said.
Patricia just muttered again. It sounded like Lucysomeguywantsto-talktoyou. Lucy looked back over her shoulder and saw J.J. jerking his head at her.
“Is that your boyfriend?” Sarah said.
Taylor gave her signature snort. “He’s cute.”
“Tell him to come over here,” Rianna said.
&
nbsp; Lucy scrambled out of her seat before Rianna could beat her to it. She really didn’t want to see what would happen if Rianna did her pushy thing with J.J.
Her thoughts tumbled over each other in a confused mess as she hurried to him. First he tells her not to even talk about him and the rest of the Dreams to her new team. Now he calls her out when she’s right in the middle of them. What was up with that?
The moment Lucy got close to him, she knew why. His skin pinched around his eyes, and his jaw clenched like he’d just tightened it with a screwdriver.
“Did somebody get hurt?” she said when she got to him. “Is it Januarie? Did she get in trouble?”
J.J. didn’t even bother to shake his head as he led her behind the restroom building, out of sight of her team. Lucy’s stomach tied itself into a knot. Was she going to have to add something else to the list she’d made last night?
“What is going on, J.J.?” she said. “You’re scaring me.”
“I heard something,” he said. “Something bad. And I think you’re the only one who can fix it.”
8
I can’t! Lucy wanted to scream at J.J. I can’t even fix the stuff I already have on my list!!!!
She was still adding exclamation points as J.J. looked over both shoulders, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“What did you hear, J.J.?” she said.
“I left my backpack in the parking lot this morning — ”
“Why?”
“By mistake.”
“Oh.”
“These two girls were talking by a car. They didn’t see me.”
“What were they talking about?”
“Cheating.”
“In soccer?”
“The one girl told the other one she knew ways to do it.”
“That’s ridiculous, J.J. How are you gonna cheat in soccer?” Even as Lucy said the words, she heard Rianna’s in her ear: Fall down.
“I don’t know,” J.J. said. The know shot up into another octave. “But the other one said she’d do it to show him.”
“Show who what?”
“She didn’t say what. She just said who.” J.J. shifted his eyes around again before he said, “Hawke.”
“Somebody wants to show Hawke something?”
“Yeah. She sounded like the girl that got kicked out.”
“Who was the other one?”
“I didn’t see her.”
Lucy shook her head. “So, how do you think I’m gonna fix this, J.J.?”
“You have to tell Hawke.”
“Me!”
“He knows you.”
“But I’m not the one who heard this whole thing.”
J.J.’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t believe me?”
“Of course I believe you, but Hawke said he didn’t want people tattling, remember?”
A whistle blew, and J.J. backed away. “Seth gets mad if we’re late. We gotta think of something.”
You mean I have to think of something, Lucy wanted to say. She turned to go.
“This is why,” J.J. said.
“This is why what?”
“These kids are mean. Meaner than in Los Suenos. This is why you gotta protect yourself. ”
Then he was gone. Lucy swallowed hard and went back to some of those mean kids. She would have been happier going to take an English test — and that was the last thing she ever wanted to do.
“Same teams as yesterday,” Coach Neely said when they were all there. “But let’s switch goalies. Waverly, you take Rianna’s place. Taylor, you’re in for Patricia.”
Lucy groaned inside. That meant she would have to play with Rianna. She would rather be the ball and get kicked around.
The good thing was that people remembered to talk to each other, and Two-Braid Bella, who never talked much otherwise, turned out to be very good at it. By calling the right passes, she got Rianna into the penalty box with a great chance to score. But Patricia and Kayla were “smokin’ defenders,” as Coach Neely called them, and Rianna found herself with no place to go.
“To me!” Lucy shouted.
Instead, Rianna was suddenly on the ground, holding her ankle and scrunching up her face. The ball bounced away, and Patricia and Kayla looked at each other like Rianna was speaking Swahili. Coach Neely blew her whistle and called a foul.
Lucy saw Patricia’s lips move, but of course she couldn’t hear what she was saying. Kayla looked tinier than ever and merely blinked at Coach Neely.
“You okay?” Coach called to Rianna.
“I think so.” Rianna motioned to Lucy. “Help me up.”
“What happens when a foul occurs in the penalty box, ladies?” Coach Neely asked as Lucy dragged herself over.
“Penalty kick,” Bella said.
“Then let’s get set up.”
Lucy squatted beside Rianna. Before she could ask if she was all right — only because it was the polite thing to do — Rianna whispered, “See how that works?”
“How what works?” Lucy whispered back.
“Flopping. We get a free kick out of it.”
Lucy felt herself go cold inside. She stood up without giving Rianna her hand.
Rianna struggled to her feet, wincing like a TV actor. “It’s easy when there’s only one official,” she said near Lucy’s ear. “Don’t try it in this game since I already did — ”
“Rianna — are you going to take the kick or not?”
“Can Lucy do it for me? My ankle really hurts.”
As if to prove it, Rianna limped over to the touchline and sank back to the ground. “I’ll be okay if I just sit here for a minute,” she said.
Coach Neely rubbed her own forehead. “All right — Lucy, take the kick.”
But it wasn’t fair. Rianna should be the one getting a penalty. Lucy marched toward Coach Neely, but something caught her waistband. She looked down to see Kayla tugging at her.
“Just take the kick,” she said in a voice as tiny as she was.
“But she — ”
“Don’t mess with her. She won’t get away with it in a real game anyway.”
Coach Neely straightened from inspecting Rianna’s ankle and tossed the ball to Lucy, who felt like she’d just shoplifted from Mr. Benitez’s store. If she scored for her team this way, it was as bad as if she was the one who’d faked being fouled. And there was a good chance she would score. A penalty kick was a free kick 12 yards from the goal line, with no defenders inside the penalty box. Only Taylor the goalie stood in her way, and Lucy knew she could fake her out.
But when Coach Neely blew the whistle, Lucy kicked the ball right to her. Taylor looked so surprised she almost missed it before she scooped the ball easily into her hands and put it back into play.
Lucy didn’t look at Rianna. She didn’t have to. She could feel her eyes drilling holes through her.
As soon as camp was over that day, Lucy raced to find Mr. Auggy.
J.J. was wrong. She couldn’t fix this, but their coach could.
She located him on the junior boys’ field where a pack of seven-and eight-year-olds were still smacking the ball around and calling for “Coach A” to “Watch this!” while he called back that it “really is time to leave, guys.” When he spotted Lucy, he made them all get their stuff and scoot.
“What’s up, captain?” he said. “You okay?”
Lucy wiped the sweat from her upper lip and shook her head.
“You’re not having fun on the Select Team?”
“No.”
To Lucy’s dismay, she felt tears threatening at the back of her throat. If she cried, it would just look like she was being a whiner. He had enough of that with Januarie.
She swallowed hard. “There’s this one girl,” she said. “I think she’s trying to get me to gang up with her against the rest of the team — and I’m not sure, but I think she — well, she fell down today, and I don’t think it was — ”
She stopped, becauseMr. Auggy was shaking his head at her. Mr. Auggy, who always listened.
“Sorry, captain,” he said. “But this sounds like girl drama. I know the girls on our team are done with that, but this is a new group — ”
“It isn’t just that!”
He smiled his small smile and motioned for her to walk with him. “I think you ought to talk to Coach Neely about this.”
“Coach Neely likes this girl! She doesn’t say anything to her when she’s bossy, and she’s all concerned about her ankle — ”
“Coach Neely’s good. She’s more hands-off than what you’re used to with me, but she’ll listen.”
Which was more than he was doing right now. Lucy’s eyes stung with disappointment.
“Speaking of coaches, I have a meeting,” he said. “But you talk to her tomorrow, okay?”
And say what? Lucy thought as she dragged herself toward the waiting car. If she told Coach Neely she thought Rianna was trying to cheat, would she even believe her? Rianna could say the same thing about her — and Coach at least paid attention to Rianna, especially now that she was all worried about her injury.
No, J.J. was wrong. She wasn’t the person to try to fix this.
Besides, the next day, Friday, Rianna didn’t show up for camp.
“Did Rianna drop out?” Sarah asked Coach Neely. Lucy heard the hope in her voice.
“I told her she had to have a doctor’s note before she could come back,” Coach said. “Camp rule for liability reasons. She’s probably having her ankle checked out.”
“I hope that appointment takes all day,” Patricia muttered.
Lucy smothered a smile.
“Don’t let Coach Neely hear you say that,” Sarah whispered as they gathered to pull soccer balls out of the bag.
“Why?” Waverly said.
Taylor snorted. “Because Rianna’s her pet.”
“I hate it when coaches have pets,” little Kayla said. “Ours does in Cloudcroft.”
“Yeah, well, this one thinks she, like, has a pedigree or something.” Sarah flipped her long ponytail. “I wish somebody would put her on leash.”
Lucy felt a little better. At least she had one thing in common with her team. Too bad it had to be we-all-despise-Rianna.