The Lie

by Glasko Klein

  Defeated, Leanna dragged herself to the net to shake Kelsey’s hand. “Don’t tell anyone I said this to you, Lee, but you were on fire out there. Normally you’re not half bad—of course, I’m a lot better—but you were really in the zone today,” Kelsey said. “I think it rubbed off a bit on me too. We’re going to rock JV this spring, just as long as you don’t get any big ideas about who’s going to be the star.” She patted Leanna on the shoulder.

  Leanna was too tired to care if Kelsey was being genuine or just trying to rub it in that she won. Instead, she placed her own hand on Kelsey’s shoulder and gave it a friendly squeeze.

  “You weren’t half bad out there yourself. Why can’t we always have that much fun?” Leanna asked.

  Kelsey grinned, but there was a hard edge in her eyes that made Leanna feel a little uneasy. “Oh, this season is gonna be a blast, Lee. By the way, where’s your little friend? You know, the one who’s bad at tennis?”

  Leanna winced. Here she was trying to make nice with Kelsey and she hadn’t even bothered to go see how Jenny’s tryouts had gone. Judging by the fact that she was nowhere to be seen, Leanna realized with a sinking feeling that it must not have gone well. She let out a heavy sigh and shoved her racquet into her bag, trying not to feel guilty for ignoring Jenny during tryouts. But there’s not much I could have done to help her anyway, she tried to remind herself.

  “I don’t know, she must have left already,” Leanna said. “I guess I should go find her.”

  As she biked to Jenny’s house, she started feeling annoyed that Jenny hadn’t stuck around to see how her tryouts had gone. When she arrived, she saw Jenny’s bike out front, but when Leanna rang the doorbell, there was no answer. She rang the bell again, and when there was still no answer, she tried knocking. Finally, the door creaked open, but it was just Jenny’s mom.

  “Sorry, Leanna, she’s uh . . . not here. Why don’t you come back some other time?”

  “Oh,” Leanna said, glancing up the stairs behind Jenny’s mom and seeing light coming from Jenny’s bedroom. “I guess I’ll come back tomorrow then.”

  Jenny’s mom gave her a sad smile and gently shut the door while Leanna tried her best not to let this ruin the evening for her.

  7

  By the time Leanna got home, she could barely contain her anger. She was mad at Jenny for pretending not to be home when she stopped by, and she was mad at Jenny’s mom for going along with it. She was mad at her own mom for constantly reminding her how much a tennis scholarship would help them afford college. Most of all, she was mad at herself for talking Jenny into going to the tryouts in the first place. Deep down she had known how this was going to go, she just hadn’t wanted to step out of her comfort zone and do it on her own. Now she was mad at Jenny and Jenny was mad at her, and what should have been the best night of her high school career so far ended on a sour note. If I had another chance, she thought, I bet things would turn out differently. Too bad life doesn’t work that way.

  At dinner, Leanna tried to explain the situation to her mother, but she was much more interested in Leanna’s performance than how things turned out with Jenny.

  “But you said you did great, I just don’t understand how you can be so down in the dumps about it,” she repeated for the third time.

  “Because Jenny didn’t do well, and I kept telling her she’d do great, and now she’s mad at me,” Leanna said again.

  But her mother wouldn’t have any of it. “You don’t have any control over Jenny’s performance,” her mom insisted. “I’m sure Jenny’s just upset with herself and will be more understanding in the morning.”

  Leanna sighed and watched her mother cut the cake she had made to celebrate her tryouts. If she was being honest, her mother did have a point—Jenny was responsible for her own tryout, and it had been her choice to go. She couldn’t be mad that she’d decided to try out and done badly. Still, Leanna didn’t exactly feel like having a piece of cake and celebrating while she knew her friend was probably embarrassed and upset.

  When her mother returned to the table carrying two plates of large slices of cake, Leanna said, “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m exhausted from tryouts and way too full to eat anything else. All I really want to do is go to bed.”

  “Okay, honey, I know how it can be,” her mother sighed, trying to hide her disappointment. “I used to get so worn out after practice I could hardly even make it back to the dorms. You get some rest and we can celebrate tomorrow. After all, now that practice is going to start, you’ll want to avoid going too heavy on the sweets.”

  Leanna just nodded weakly and headed to her room. She felt bad that she couldn’t fully share in her mother’s enthusiasm, but she really was exhausted. Sleep sounded like just the ticket.

  She changed into an old T-shirt and pair of shorts and stretched out across her bed, allowing her aching muscles to sink into the sheets. But she couldn’t quite manage to fall asleep. It didn’t feel right to not at least try to talk things through with Jenny. After tossing and turning for almost half an hour, she decided to try calling her. Even if she doesn’t answer, at least she’ll see that I called.

  Leanna grabbed her phone off the nightstand and dialed Jenny’s number, but the call went straight to voicemail. After a letting out a frustrated sigh, she set her phone back down and pulled the blankets over her head. Well, she thought, there’s nothing else I can do about this right now. She’s just going to have to get over it. And with that, she drifted off into a troubled sleep.

  * * *

  The harsh buzzing of her phone jolted her awake. Dazed, Leanna reached an arm out from under the blankets to grab it, thinking it might be Jenny. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she found that she had received several text messages from an unknown number.

  They all said the same thing:

  If you had the chance, would you do it differently?

  It wasn’t like Jenny to try and get back at her with creepy practical jokes. Leanna knew that more often than not, angry Jenny meant an absent Jenny, then after some time passed Jenny would move on. The angry part never lasted long, and it definitely never included anything this confrontational and weird. Jenny must be really mad this time, she thought, worried and a little irritated herself.

  Leanna brushed the hair out of her eyes and sat up in bed, thinking about how to respond. She briefly considered just ignoring it but knew that wouldn’t solve anything. Instead, she decided to go with a straight up apology.

  Jenny, I’m really sorry I pressured you into trying out and things didn’t go so well. I really would do things differently. Did you block my number?

  Moments later, the phone vibrated again. Leanna pulled up the message.

  Good to know. I guess we’ll see.

  Leanna wondered what the message meant, but she was far too tired to think about it any longer. At least Jenny is talking to me again, she thought as she returned her phone to the nightstand. When she settled back into bed this time, she dropped straight off to sleep.

  8

  The next day when she woke up, every muscle in Leanna’s body was sore. But the pain practically disappeared as soon as she remembered how well she’d done at tryouts the night before. Then she remembered the she and Jenny were in a fight—a big, stupid fight that never would have happened if she’d just let Jenny make her own choice about tryouts. Leanna knew she’d have to figure things out with Jenny today, or it would ruin her whole week. I’ll start by figuring out if those weird text messages from last night had just been a dream or if they were actually from Jenny.

  She grabbed her phone off the nightstand and began searching through it, but the messages were nowhere to be found. Well, Jenny will come around, she thought. In the meantime, she realized that she hadn’t been very nice to her mother the night before. Tennis meant so much to her mom, and she had even gone to the trouble of making a cake. Leanna decided to make up for it over breakfast by making sure her mother knew just how excited she really was, and how much she apprecia
ted all the support she had given her.

  When she got to the kitchen, she immediately feared that things were worse than she thought. There was no sign of the cake on the counter. Was Mom so upset that she threw it away? Leanna wondered as she poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the table. A few moments later, her mother emerged from the bathroom in her robe and made herself a cup of coffee.

  “Good morning, sweetie,” she said, taking a long sip from her steaming mug. “How are you today?”

  Leanna decided to hold off on mentioning the cake thing for now—she didn’t want to upset her mother any more than she already had. Instead, she put on a big smile and hoped for the best.

  “Great!” Leanna said. “I’m just so happy tennis is going so well. I’m sure I’m gonna make JV!”

  Her mother pulled up a chair and sat down next to Leanna. “That’s great, honey! I’m glad you’re so excited,” she said, smiling. “Just don’t get too far ahead of yourself—you won’t know for sure which team you’re on until after tryouts on Monday.”

  Leanna’s mouth dropped open in surprise. Wait, what? She slowly took another bite, confused. Her mother seized the opportunity to continue.

  “And by the way, I think going to a movie with Jenny tonight is a great idea. I know you two had your fight about tennis last night, and I think it might be good for both of you to take a day off. You don’t want to wear yourselves out, and you definitely don’t want to risk getting injured out there. I swear they’ve been promising to resurface those courts at Tetterman’s since you started playing there in elementary school.”

  Leanna swallowed her cereal with a gulp. What is going on?

  “Uh, are you feeling all right, Mom?” she asked. She felt truly awful about refusing the cake, but that couldn’t be causing this—was it a fever maybe?

  “Yes, sweetie, I’m fine, although you’re looking a little pale,” her mother said, raising her eyebrows with concern. “Make sure you and Jenny aren’t out at the movies too late tonight. You don’t want to get sick this close to tryouts.”

  Leanna dropped her spoon with a clatter. As much as she didn’t want to, she couldn’t help but think back to the text messages from her dream. Was that real? Did I make some kind of agreement with . . . something . . . without knowing it?

  She didn’t want to trouble her mother any more than she already had, so she said, “Yeah, Mom, I’m fine. But I just realized that I didn’t finish my math homework. I should get to school and see if I can get it done before class.” Luckily, in all of last night’s excitement, she really hadn’t finished her homework, and for once that was a good thing. She was far too confused to come up with a convincing lie.

  Leanna set her bowl in the sink, grabbed her backpack, and headed out the door. Whatever was going on, things were far from normal. She just hoped everything would start to make more sense once she got to school and talked to Jenny.

  9

  Leanna took a deep breath as she approached Jenny, who was standing in front of her locker and staring down at her phone. She had no idea what she wanted to say, but she also didn’t know what she wanted to hear. If Jenny acted like nothing had happened and asked about the movie, it would mean that somehow Leanna had traveled back in time to the week before tryouts. But it also wouldn’t be good if Jenny was still mad at her. Fighting with her friend was bad enough, but that would also mean something was seriously wrong with her mom, who seemed to think it was last week.

  “Hey,” Jenny said, glancing up as Leanna reached her. Before Leanna could respond, she said, “Are you excited to hit the town tonight?”

  So time travel it is, then. Leanna tried not to panic as a million questions raced through her mind: Am I dreaming? How did this happen? Will I be stuck in this reality forever?

  Realizing she wasn’t going to get answers anytime soon—if ever—she decided to just go with it. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself. “Uh, um, yeah!” she stammered. “Sorry I was just thinking about . . . math class.” Leanna felt stupid for using the same lie with both her mother and her best friend.

  “Sure you were,” Jenny said, cracking a small smile. “Come on, Leanna, you know you don’t have to lie to me.”

  Leanna felt the color drain for her cheeks. Does Jenny somehow know?

  “I’m not lying, Jen,” she said. “I’ve been having trouble with the proofs we’re working on. Geometry is hard enough, and Mr. Kurr is so boring I can hardly stay awake during class so my notes are awful.”

  “Oh please, Leanna, I’ve seen your notes—they’re perfect. I know what’s really bothering you,” Jenny said.

  Leanna’s mind raced as she tried to come up with a response that wouldn’t make her sound crazy. She knew that she had somehow traveled through time, and it was definitely bothering her, but how on earth could Jenny know?

  “What?” That was all Leanna managed to come up with.

  “It’s the whole reason we’re going to the mall instead of Tetterman’s tonight—you told me what your mom said, remember? I know she puts a lot of pressure on you about the tennis thing because of her being a big deal on the college team, but you can’t let it get to you,” Jenny said.

  Relief washed over her and she let out a forced laugh. “Yeah, you’re right, Jenny. This whole tennis thing with my mom really has been bothering me. But we can talk about it later,” Leanna said, before adding hurriedly, “or not. Totally up to you. If you just want to hang out at the mall and not even think about tennis, we can do that too.” It’s not like it won’t come up anyway, she thought.

  Jenny frowned for just a moment before she managed a tight smile. “Yeah, I don’t know. I’ll see how I’m feeling when we get there. In the meantime, try and think about what movie you want to see.”

  “Sure thing!” Leanna said, rushing off to math class. “I’ll see you later!”

  Well, she thought, at least I have one thing going for me—I did all of today’s lessons last week, so I can devote my full attention to figuring out how to stop Jenny from trying out. And how to make her think it’s her idea.

  10

  Leanna and Jenny met up outside the mall, just like they had the first time. And just like before, when they got their meals, Jenny went for the breadsticks and Leanna went for the salad. Leanna had spent all day trying to figure out the best way to approach the situation, but she realized that when it came down to it, she’d just have to wing it. She knew how things went last time, but she didn’t know how Jenny would react if she did things differently and let her talk herself out of trying out. Despite not having a plan, she had decided to just bring it up and see what happened—she wasn’t going to waste this perfect opportunity. If she didn’t force the tennis issue tonight, it was bound to come up sooner rather than later, and after missing her chance that morning, she wanted to tackle the issue now.

  “So I know we weren’t going to talk about tennis . . .” Leanna started before either them even sat down.

  “Yeah, and maybe that was a good idea,” Jenny said, sliding into the plastic chair across from Leanna and grabbing a breadstick. “I mean, if it’s really bugging you, we can talk about it, but can we figure out what movie to see first?”

  Leanna had already seen this play out before, so she decided to try and get ahead of it. “Okay, let’s see College Party.” If she could throw Jenny off right away, it might be easier to have an honest conversation about tryouts, which was what they really needed right now. Well, mostly honest anyway. I don’t think I need to mention the time travel piece—she’ll just think I’m crazy.

  Jenny stared back at her blankly for a moment before responding, “That’s . . . surprising. I was actually going to suggest the same thing, but I figured you wouldn’t want to risk sneaking in to see a movie we’re not even interested in.”

  “See, that’s it right there, Jen. Why would we go through all that trouble just to see a movie neither of us actually wants to see?” Leanna said.

  “What?” Jenny asked
, setting down the breadstick as if she was preparing to have a deep conversation. “So hold on, you don’t want to see the movie that you just suggested that we go see?”

  “Do you?” Leanna asked.

  Jenny tilted her head to the side thoughtfully before narrowing her eyes and letting out a deep sigh. “I mean, not really I guess, but—”

  “So then why were you going to suggest it?” Leanna asked, cutting her off before she could finish her thought.

  “I guess,” Jenny started, then paused, trying to figure out the right words. “I guess it’s kind of about the tennis thing. I know that tennis is our thing and why we’re friends to begin with, but I feel like lately it’s starting to come between us, which is weird. I really don’t like that something we used to love doing together is turning into this weird problem. I guess I’m just not used to you being this super athlete girl.”

  It was Leanna’s turn take a moment to come up with a response. “But we literally met on a tennis court. We’ve probably spent more time playing tennis with each other than doing pretty much anything else, other than going to the same school.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Jenny said, looking down at her plate. “But it’s a game, you know? Like, we always play to win against the other kids at Tetterman’s, but it’s not like anybody is really keeping track of who’s better than who.”

  Jenny sighed and cautiously looked up at Leanna. “Truthfully, this whole ‘making the team’ thing kind of takes all the fun out of it for me. I know you’re going to do great, but if I don’t make JV and you do, it’s going to be really embarrassing. Plus you’re going to start hanging out with all the girls on JV while I’m playing on the C-squad trying to be competitive in a game I don’t really care about being all that competitive in. It sucks.”