14

Three weeks had passed since Leanna had last talked to Jenny, but life without her got a little easier every day. Soon she started to think her mother might have been right about their fight—that Jenny would stay mad all season. But Leanna also realized that this might not be such a bad thing. Both she and Kelsey made the JV team, but it didn’t take long for the thrill to wear off and be replaced with focused determination. Most of the squad was older than her, and they had also been playing competitively for at least a year and were used to balancing their schoolwork with the rigorous practice schedule. Yet despite her inexperience, Leanna quickly rose up the JV ranks—but the higher she was ranked, the harder she had to fight to keep her spot on the lineup, which was always changing.

Kelsey found herself in the same situation. While she was clearly seen as a talent by the coaches, her spot was far from assured. She had managed to remain slightly ahead of Leanna for the first couple of weeks, but now the two traded spots on an almost daily basis. With the season now underway, there wasn’t much time left before the first match, which the older girls told both of them usually cemented players into more permanent positions in the lineup. Skill mattered to the coaches, but what really mattered was performing well in actual match play.

“So, do you think you can keep it together against East?” Kelsey asked. She and Leanna were both packing up their things after a long afternoon of practice. In the past, Leanna would have thought Kelsey was just being snarky, but since they’d been spending so much time together at practice, it seemed like they might be shifting from rivals to friends, or at least friendly rivals.

“I think I’ll be able to manage,” Leanna said. “What about you? Are you getting worried about the rankings yet?”

Kelsey snorted. “Of course not. East is one of the worst teams in our conference.”

Kelsey was right. It was pretty well known that the girls’ team at East wasn’t able to compete. Still, Leanna knew the first match was a huge opportunity to impress her coaches, and she didn’t want to screw it up.

“Yeah, I know. I just wish that I had a nicer racquet,” Leanna said. “This one is getting a bit worn out.”

“Why don’t you just buy one?” Kelsey asked.

Since she had joined the team, Leanna had started to fall in with the other girls, but there were some things about her life that they just didn’t understand. Like money, and how not everyone had it. They knew her pretty well on the court, but they didn’t know much about her personal life. They didn’t know that her dad was gone, or that her success on the court meant a lot more to her family than bragging rights—that how she did over the next few seasons might determine whether or not she could afford to go to college.

“I’m saving up for a car,” she said quickly. Leanna had also found that since she’d joined the team, lying had become a much bigger part of her life. It had started with the Jenny situation, but since then she had realized that life was easier when she didn’t worry too much about telling the truth.

“Real ambitious there, Lee,” Kelsey said, rolling her eyes. “With that job you don’t have, I’m sure you’ll have enough money in no time. But I don’t want us to get embarrassed playing against East because you can’t afford to shell out for proper gear. Normally I wouldn’t do this, but what do you say to me picking up a racquet for you before the match? You can pay me back later.”

Leanna felt her ears turn red. On the one hand, getting a new racquet was something she had wanted to do for at least a year. On the other hand, she knew Kelsey would never let her forget about it if she bought her a racquet. They’d definitely gotten closer, but not that close. Of course, Kelsey would also never let her forget it if she didn’t manage to win her match against East, and Leanna didn’t want to be blamed for a loss for any other reason than a legitimate lack of skill. She’d much rather get made fun of for playing poorly than for being poor.

“Wow, Kelsey, that’s really generous,” Leanna said. “Sure, I’d love to get a new racquet. Do you want to go pick it up together tomorrow after practice?”

“No, don’t worry about it,” Kelsey said. “I want it to be a surprise.”

Leanna didn’t like the way that Kelsey said “surprise,” but she also didn’t like having the shabbiest racquet on the team, and the next chance she’d get to replace hers wouldn’t be until her birthday in July. Besides, she thought, what could go wrong?

“Okay, well just try to make sure that it’s like this one, but you know, new,” Leanna said. She couldn’t help but think back to the time when it really didn’t matter what sort of racquet she had or how well she did in a given match, back when she played tennis for fun. Things change though, she reminded herself, and this is just one more part of that. She just wished that not everything had to change. For the first time in a while, she found herself missing Jenny and how easy it was to meet at Tetterman’s for a friendly pickup match.