Choosing Sides

by Alex Morgan

  “Full of drama,” I replied, and then I told her everything that had happened. Kara’s eyes got wide.

  “So I guess things aren’t any better with Zoe and Emma?” she asked.

  “No, and I don’t know how to fix it,” I said.

  Kara frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe you can’t fix it, Devin. Maybe this is something the two of them have to work out for themselves.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “But you know me. I like to fix things.”

  Kara laughed. “Yeah, I remember last year when Aimee and Alexis got into that big fight, and you held, like, a court proceeding at the cafeteria table.”

  I laughed. “I hate drama! And things usually get better when you talk them out.”

  “Well, Aimee stormed away from the table, remember?” Kara asked.

  “Yes, but she and Alexis made up the next day,” I pointed out. “And I think it’s because I put the idea into their heads. Broke the ice.”

  “Hmm. Good point,” Kara said. “Maybe you need to break the ice somehow with Emma and Zoe.”

  I sighed. “Maybe. If I can get them into the same room. Zoe hasn’t been sitting with us recently.”

  “Wow,” Kara said. “And that’s not your only problem. I do not understand what is up with Grace. She is making a big deal out of nothing.”

  “I know!” I agreed. “And now it’s affecting the team. And that is not good.”

  “Not good at all,” Kara agreed. “But if anyone can bring the team back together, it’s you, Devin.”

  I suddenly felt really sad that Kara was three thousand miles away and not right next to me.

  “I miss you so much!” I blurted out.

  “Miss you too!” Kara said. She leaned forward and kissed the camera, and I laughed.

  “Maybe Emma and Zoe just need to live across the country from each other,” Kara said. “You and I never fight!”

  “True,” I said, “but there’s got to be a simpler way.”

  I said good night to Kara and headed downstairs to dinner, the wheels turning in my head. I knew they wouldn’t stop turning until all of this drama was over!

  Chapter Eleven

  My eyes went wide when I saw the food that Jessi was pulling out of her lunch bag the next day in the cafeteria. A container of perfectly shaped tiny globes of cantaloupe and honeydew melon. A green salad with artfully rolled-up salami and cheese, and radishes cut to look like flowers. A tiny container of dressing.

  “Fancy,” Frida said. “Did Emma’s mom pack your lunch?”

  Jessi shook her head. “No. Mom’s been feeling all guilty because I’m going to feel ignored when the new baby comes, so she stayed up late last night making this. There’s even a tiny ice pack in here to keep it all fresh.”

  “Wow!” I said, peeling the lid off my yogurt cup.

  “And there’s a note,” Jessi said. She pulled out a piece of pale purple paper. “Mom wrote me a poem, like those poems we learned how to write in English. Where you take a word, and each letter in the word begins a line of the poem.”

  The name for that popped into my head. “An acrostic,” I said.

  Jessi nodded. “Yup.” She read the poem and started shaking her head. “Oh gosh. She’s gone off the deep end. ‘J is for the joy you bring me. E is for every day you’ve been in my life.’ ”

  “That’s so sweet!” Frida said.

  “I guess,” Jessi replied. “She’s just so emotional lately! Dad says it’s the pregnancy hormones. I guess maybe I’ll be glad when this baby finally comes.”

  She took a bite of her salad. “Mmm. This is almost as good as what Emma’s mom would pack,” she said, and then she looked around. “Where is Emma, anyway?”

  I glanced around the crowded cafeteria and saw Emma sitting with her friends from the Tree Huggers.

  “Tree hugging,” I replied. “Well, not literally, but you know what I mean.”

  “I guess it’s just the three of us, then,” Frida said. “Have the fabulous five broken up?”

  “First of all, when did we ever call ourselves the fabulous five?” Jessi asked. “Secondly, nobody’s breaking up. Look, here comes Zoe.”

  Zoe walked over to our table carrying a lunch tray. I noticed that she had a blue streak in her blond hair.

  “Hey,” she said, sitting down as though she hadn’t stopped sitting with us for the last week.

  “Zoe, your hair looks amazing!” Frida said.

  “Kicks blue!” I added.

  Zoe shrugged. “Yvette did it for me last night,” she said. “It is so boring being grounded. But I can thank Emma for that.”

  Jessi and I looked at each other. It sounded like Zoe was about to get into it.

  “So, your mom was pretty mad at you, huh?” Jessi asked. “For going to that concert?”

  “She never would have known about it if Emma hadn’t called her,” Zoe said.

  I couldn’t keep my thoughts to myself any longer. “But it’s not like Emma called your mom on purpose. She honestly thought you were supposed to be at the Brady McCoy concert with her, and she was worried about you.”

  Zoe’s blue eyes flashed. “I tried to tell Emma a million times that I wasn’t going to that dumb concert! But she wouldn’t listen!”

  Frida nodded. “That’s true.”

  “See? Frida’s taking my side,” Zoe said.

  “Well, actually—” Frida began, but Zoe interrupted her.

  “What about you, Devin and Jessi?” Zoe asked. “Whose side are you on? Because it seems like you’re on Emma’s side in all of this.”

  “Listen, it’s not fair to ask us to take sides,” Jessi said bluntly. “Emma should have listened to you. But it’s your own fault that you went to that concert without telling your mom.”

  “Because I couldn’t tell my mom. Don’t you get it?” Zoe shot back. “She’s getting all freaked out about me hanging out with Jasmine and Arthur. She says they’re a bad influence, which is so dumb. Just because their parents let them go to all-ages clubs and take the bus by themselves to places where interesting things happen.”

  I thought about my own mom, who I knew wouldn’t let me go to all-ages clubs or take the bus with my friends either. Then I remembered something. “Jasmine has a pink streak in her hair, right? Did your mom let you put the blue in?”

  Zoe grimaced. “I didn’t ask her. She grounded me for an extra week.”

  “That stinks,” Jessi said. “I’m sorry.”

  “Then you get it,” Zoe said. “So that means you’re definitely on my side, right?”

  “Zoe, we can’t choose between the two of you,” I said. “Like Jessi said, it’s just not fair. We love you both.”

  “This is not about love,” Zoe said firmly. “It’s about what’s right and what’s wrong.”

  “How Shakespearean!” Frida chimed in.

  “Can’t you and Emma just talk it out?” I suggested, remembering Kara’s advice. “You guys have been friends forever.”

  “Well, things change,” Zoe said darkly. “People change.”

  Then she got up and walked over to Jasmine and Arthur and sat with them.

  “Well, that certainly was a dramatic exit,” Frida remarked.

  “This has to stop,” Jessi said. “Like, now.”

  “Yeah, but what can we do?” I asked. “Maybe we should wait and let them work it out.”

  “Or maybe we should help them,” Jessi said. “Because as my mom’s poem states, ‘S is for your seriousness about your friends and family.’ ”

  “Wow, she’s a pretty bad poet,” Frida said.

  “Definitely,” Jessi said. “But she’s right. I am very serious about my friends. If Zoe and Emma won’t work this out, we’ll make them work it out.”

  I had no idea what Jessi had in mind, but I was glad that she was taking charge of the situation. I just hoped that she could make her plan happen before things got out of control!

  Chapter Twelve

  “Go, Kicks!”

  At
our Saturday morning game against the Newton Tigers, the stands were packed with fans wearing blue. We always got a bigger turnout on our home field, and the temperature had returned to a reasonable 75 degrees, with blue skies overhead.

  We were on the field, doing a shooting drill before the game started. I stood in line behind Zarine, waiting for my turn to shoot.

  While we waited, Zarine turned and nodded toward the other end of the field, where the Tigers were warming up. They looked like tigers in their white, orange, and black uniforms.

  “See that girl?” Zarine asked.

  “Which one?” I replied.

  I shaded my eyes with my hand to get a better look, not sure what Zarine meant. And then I spotted her.

  A girl with bright red hair was zooming around the field, dribbling the ball as she went. Her ponytail bounced against her neck. She wasn’t just fast—she was fast.

  “That’s Kathy Finnegan,” Zarine explained. “She just transferred to Newton from New York a few months ago. She’s so fast that they call her the Flying Finnegan.”

  “Wow,” I said. “I can see that.”

  “This should be an interesting game,” Zarine went on. “The Tigers beat us in the fall. And now they’ve got a secret weapon.”

  “Well, not so secret,” I said. “But, yeah, it will be interesting.”

  Suddenly I realized that Zarine and I were having a normal conversation—and she was an eighth grader. She didn’t seem mad at me at all. Maybe she could help me straighten out the whole thing with Grace.

  “Zarine, I need to ask you something,” I began, but then Coach called out to us and I couldn’t finish.

  I ran onto the field and took my position as forward along with Hailey, who smiled at me, and Grace, who didn’t even look at me. When the game started, the Tigers got control of the ball. One of the players passed it to the Flying Finnegan—and she charged down the field like a rocket.

  I ran as fast as I could, but I couldn’t catch up to her. Our midfielders couldn’t catch up to her either. And she blew past our defenders to then make a shot at the goal.

  Emma was on goal, and she jumped up high as the ball soared above her. She batted it away with two hands. It was a magnificent save, but I knew that Emma was going to need to make a lot more of those before the game was over.

  And I was right. The Tigers’ strategy seemed to be to pass the ball to Kathy Finnegan and let her run for the goal. Emma stopped three more goals, but then one landed in the net. Coach switched out Emma for Zarine halfway through the first half, but that made total sense; any goalie going up against the Flying Finnegan was going to need a rest!

  While our defense couldn’t stop the Flying Finnegan, our offense couldn’t score. Part of the problem was that Grace wouldn’t pass to me, and I knew she was doing it on purpose. There were plenty of times when she could have, and she either passed to Hailey or kept plowing through the Tigers defense, who kept taking the ball from her.

  So I was relieved when the second half started and Coach replaced us with Megan and Brianna. The two of them worked well together on the field, and each of them scored pretty quickly. So with six minutes left to go, the score was Kicks 2, Tigers 1.

  Sitting on the bench, I realized that one of the problems with the Flying Finnegan strategy was that while Kathy Finnegan was fast, her goal shots were what I would describe as messy. She just kicked it when she got close, without really setting up or strategizing the shot. So a few of her shots just missed, and a lot of them were kicked directly into Emma’s or Zarine’s waiting arms.

  Even so, I still admired the Flying Finnegan. Because the idea that I might someday go pro had been implanted in my brain, like a seed, and I knew that if I wanted to go pro, I had to be fast too. As fast as Kathy Finnegan, if not faster.

  The Flying Finnegan scored again, tying up the game 2–2. Coach Flores called Megan and Hailey out and put in me and Jessi as forwards along with Brianna.

  The three of us had a lot of energy, and we stayed focused on getting to that goal. First Jessi passed the ball to me, and I passed to Brianna, but the pass got intercepted by one of the Tigers and ended up with the Flying Finnegan. This time she didn’t get to make her shot.

  “Be gone, foul speed demon!” Frida cried, running up to the Flying Finnegan faster than I’d ever seen her run. She kicked the ball away from Kathy, and Zoe got it. Zoe brought the ball up to the midfield and then passed it to Brianna. Jessi and I chased after Brianna as she dribbled to the Tigers’ goal.

  Two Tigers caught up to Brianna, so she passed the ball to me. When I had a clear shot, I aimed for the left corner of the goal. The goalie dove for it, but it whizzed past her. The score was Kicks 3, Tigers 2, and the game ended a minute later.

  “Yay, Kicks!” The fans in the Kentville stands went wild, cheering for us. We lined up on the field to shake hands with the Tigers, and when Grace jogged past me, she actually smiled at me!

  “We’re all going for frozen yogurt!” Grace announced when we were gathered around Coach Flores. I grinned at Jessi. Grace had said “all.” The team was back together again!

  Soon we were sitting at three picnic tables outside the yogurt shop. I was digging into a cup of banana yogurt with chocolate chips, because I was starting to become obsessed with that combination. Frida was explaining how she had channeled enough speed to catch up to the Flying Finnegan.

  “I had to reach down deep into my soul,” she said. “I imagined that I was a cheetah, racing across the savanna.”

  “I’m sure the fact that you’ve been hitting the gym regularly has something to do with it too,” Jessi said.

  Frida nodded. “It was a mind, body, and spirit experience, for sure.”

  “Well, I’m glad you did,” Emma said. “Fending off goals from that girl was exhausting!”

  “They call her the Flying Finnegan,” I reported. “Zarine told me.”

  “Well, even with the Flying Finnegan, the Tigers couldn’t beat us,” Jessi said. She held up her yogurt cup. “Cheers!”

  Everyone at our table clinked yogurt cups. I glanced over at the table next to us, where Zoe was sitting with some of the other seventh graders. I caught her looking at us, and then she looked away.

  I frowned, and then whispered to Jessi, “Well, we may be closer to solving the eighth-grade problem, but our Zoe-Emma problem is only getting worse.”

  As I was saying this, a bunch of girls in Roses jerseys walked up to the yogurt shop. I waved at Sasha, who waved back. Then two of the girls stopped in front of the Kicks tables. They looked older, like they might be eighth graders.

  “Look, it’s the Kicks,” said one of the girls, with straight, sun-streaked brown hair.

  “We’ll see you in the play-offs,” said the other girl, whose black hair was pulled back into a short ponytail.

  “You’ve got to win some games to get to the play-offs, Ashley,” Grace said, and then she and the girls at her table started laughing.

  The girl with sun-streaked hair glared at Grace. “Oh, we’re winning, Gross—I mean, Grace,” she said, and the girl next to her giggled. “We won again today. And if you make it to the play-offs with us, we’ll win again.”

  The two Roses girls walked away.

  Grace got up from the table and stomped over to me. “Are you happy now, Devin?” she asked, and then she walked away from the yogurt shop and sat on a bench down the street, fuming. Megan got up and ran after her.

  “I guess that eighth-grade problem is still on,” Jessi remarked.

  “Yeah,” I agreed, but something was bugging me. I had a feeling that this whole thing was about more than just me helping Sasha.

  I got up and approached Zarine at her table. “Can I talk to you for a sec?” I asked.

  Zarine nodded. “Sure,” she said, and she followed me a few feet away, to where we could talk.

  “I’m just wondering if something is up between Grace and that girl from the Roses,” I said.

  “Ashley,” Zarine rep
lied. “She’s captain, and the girl with her was Kinsley, her co-captain. Ashley and Grace got into it back in soccer camp this summer. They met, and it was like fire and ice. Or oil and water, or something like that. They just can’t get along and are supercompetitive with each other. So Grace took it personally when you started helping Ashley’s team.”

  That made perfect sense. “But I didn’t go to soccer camp this summer! I had no way of knowing. Why didn’t she just tell me?”

  Zarine shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s Grace, I guess.”

  “Is there anything I can do?” I asked. “I hate that she’s so mad at me about this.”

  “Keep winning games,” Zarine said. “And stop helping the Roses. Once Grace sees that, she’ll come around.”

  “Um, sure,” I said. I understood the “winning games” part, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about the “stop helping the Roses” part. That was my decision, not Grace’s, right?

  Zarine sat down, and as I walked back to my table, Sasha and some Roses came out of the shop carrying their yogurts.

  “Hey, Devin!” Sasha called out cheerfully.

  I nodded. “Hey,” I said, smiling back at her. “See you around.”

  I still wasn’t sure if I was going to keep helping the Roses with advice. But I was still going to be nice to Sasha, no matter what Grace said!

  “What did Zarine say?” Jessi asked me, and as I started to explain, in a low voice, Grace and Megan came back. They sat back down at their table, and Grace motioned for the other girls to lean in. They started whispering.

  “That’s weird,” Jessi remarked.

  “Yeah,” I agreed, and I had a funny feeling in my stomach. I finished my banana yogurt with chocolate chips, Frida started doing her impression of a British whale (which is a lot funnier than it sounds), and the sun was shining—and for a while I could enjoy the fact that we had faced the Flying Finnegan and won!

  Chapter Thirteen