Alex parted the curtains in the family room and stared out at the empty street. The rain had started up again and the wind, although greatly lessened, still swayed the trees. Branches and twigs littered their lawn. No one was outside. The town felt eerily silent.
Would another tornado follow? Sometimes that happened, she knew.
The house looked the same as it always had, except the lights, TV, and phone didn’t work. She glanced at her phone. “How can it only be four o’clock?” The ride home and the huddle in the bathroom felt as if it had lasted a lifetime.
“No game tonight,” Coach said, sending the announcement out through his cell phone.
“Really?” Ava asked. “Because our team looks ready to take the field.”
Alex laughed. They all still wore their helmets! What would Johnny from student council think if he could see her now? The Sacketts really were all about football!
“Friday night and no game,” Tommy muttered, pulling off his helmet. “Can I go to Luke’s?”
“No way,” their mom said. “You’re staying put until we’re sure this weather has passed.”
“What are we going to do here with no power?” Tommy grimaced. “You know, if I had a real piano instead of an electric keyboard, I’d be able to play it now. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“Nice try,” Coach said. “Not happening.”
“Thought it was worth a shot.” Tommy had been angling for a piano ever since they’d moved.
“I know! Game night!” Alex cried. She loved board games. She didn’t stand a chance out on a field with her father, Tommy, and Ava, but board games were her thing. And her mom’s, too, but Alex was way more competitive. She grabbed a flashlight and pulled her favorites from the shelves. Coach lit candles and they all gathered around the table.
“Kylie just texted. Her family is fine. And Jack texted that they’re all good too,” Ava reported.
“Phones away,” Alex commanded. “You too, Daddy.”
“Did that tornado rattle your brain?” Tommy asked. “The Queen of Texting is asking us to power down?”
“You’ll all need your full attention if you have any chance against me in these games!” Alex crowed, turning off her phone.
After several rounds of Apples to Apples, Scrabble, and Clue, Tommy gave up. “I’m losing because I’m hungry.”
“That’s a lame excuse,” Alex replied. “You’re always hungry.”
“Actually, hungry is good. Very good,” Coach said. “We need Tommy to devour the food in the fridge and freezer. Without power, it’ll melt or go bad.”
“Oh no!” Mrs. Sackett jumped up. “Everyone follow me!”
They trailed her into the garage. Even Moxy followed. Mrs. Sackett pulled open the freezer door of the extra refrigerator in the corner.
“Is that all ice cream?” Alex asked. Forty cartons were stacked inside. Chocolate, vanilla, cookie dough, peanut butter fudge swirl . . . She couldn’t read all the different flavors.
“The Ice Cream Chow-Down. Wow! It’s tonight. Or I guess it was supposed to be.” Coach scratched his head.
“Are you surprised I remembered?” their mom asked.
“Well, you have been a bit preoccupied lately . . . ,” Coach started.
“You shouldn’t doubt me,” she teased.
“You’re so right.” He groaned. “But for once, I decided not to bother you with the team. I called the Creamery yesterday. They’re scheduled to deliver twenty gallons of ice cream to the house later!”
“More ice cream?” Alex cried.
“And we’re not even having all those guys over,” Ava added.
“There’s still going to be an ice cream chow-down tonight, just with a different team. The Sackett team. Ava, go grab five spoons,” Mrs. Sackett said. “Everyone pick a flavor. We need to eat as much of this as we can before it melts!”
“And before the ice cream truck arrives,” Coach Sackett added. “I don’t think I can cancel the delivery.”
Alex reached for the cherry vanilla. She gazed at the pots and bowls on the drying rack. Her mom had run out this morning to buy the ice cream and prepare them for the storm when she should have been getting the ceramics ready to ship.
“I have an idea,” she announced, and in minutes she formed everyone into an assembly line. Sharing ice cream straight from the cartons, they wrapped, packed, and labeled by candlelight.
Tommy popped the bubble wrap as they worked. “Name that tune,” he said.
“ ‘Row, Row, Row Your Boat,’ ” Alex guessed. Tommy was forever tapping out tunes on odd objects.
“No! It’s ‘Yellow Rose of Texas.’ ” Tommy scowled and tried to pick out the notes again.
“What’s that song?” Ava asked, sticking her spoon into the peanut butter fudge swirl.
“Only the best Texas song ever,” Coach said. Then he began to sing. His voice was deep and very flat.
“No!” Alex and Ava teased, plugging their ears.
“You want to talk Texas?” Their father didn’t wait for an answer and launched into a story of a huge storm he’d been through when he was growing up in Texas.
The hum of the refrigerator suddenly filled the air, and the lights turned back on. Ava cheered, but Alex felt a bit let down. Having the tornado come through Ashland had been strangely fun. She loved having her family laughing and talking together on a Friday night. When was the last time that had happened during football season? Had it ever happened during football season?
Moxy barked and paced in front of the side door that led into the garage.
“Knock, knock!” called a man’s deep voice.
Her dad opened the door to find Doug Kelly, their neighbor, on the stoop. Mr. Kelly, whose son PJ was the high school quarterback, had broad shoulders and a hulking frame that made Alex suspect he’d played Texas football when he was in school.
“You folks all right?” Mr. Kelly asked, pushing his thick, graying hair from his eyes. “Figured I’d walk about and check up on y’all.”
“That’s mighty kind of you,” Coach said. “We’re fine. Your family?”
Mr. Kelly nodded. “This section of town fared okay. Some downed branches and a missing shingle or two, but that’s nothing. But I’m hearing reports that over at the middle school—”
“Is everyone okay?” Alex jumped in. She thought of all the kids waiting for their parents when she and Ava had left with their mom.
“All the kids and teachers took cover long before it hit. The warning was early this time,” Mr. Kelly said. “It’s the football field and the baseball diamond. The twister churned them up something good.”
“Churned them up?” Ava asked.
“The tornado missed the school buildings but bulldozed its way down the fields. Trees are uprooted. The bleachers are in pieces, and the scoreboard splintered. One goalpost is leaning. And grass and dirt are everywhere,” he said.
“But we have a big game tomorrow,” Ava cried.
Mr. Kelly shook his head. “Not on that field, you don’t. The game’s been canceled. I have no idea where the middle school will play or practice for the next few weeks. They say the field is destroyed.” Alex couldn’t tell if he was happy or sad about this. He had tried to prevent Ava from getting on the football team; he was one of the people who didn’t think girls should play.
Ava’s eyes grew wide. “But we were just starting our season.”
Alex felt horrible for Ava. And for the team. True, they hadn’t been so nice to her lately, but they’d been upset about losing their new scoreboard. She got that, even though she didn’t agree with them. And now they’d lost their home field. Alex knew that was a big deal. Her dad always told her teams played better on the grass they knew and practiced on.
She wished she could find them a new field. But where? She’d only just moved to Ashland. She knew nothing about fields.
Mr. Kelly changed the conversation to the high school team’s prospects, and Alex tuned out. She placed the final box on top of the pile of boxes that were labeled, packed, and ready to ship. She was proud they’d banded together today to help her mom. Then she thought back to the drama club’s flood. The student council had banded together to buy them new costumes and props.
Maybe they could do the same for the football team.
She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. She needed to make a list. And turn her phone back on.
They didn’t need a new field.
She was going to fix the old one.