By the time the lunch bell rang, Andi had decided not to bother going back to see the coach. It was clear to her from his attitude that he felt good about cutting her, and it was unlikely—more like impossible, she figured—that anything she said was going to change his mind.
She hadn’t wanted to involve her parents in the first place. She had known if Mr. Block ordered Coach Johnston to let her try out that he would resent it. It was now apparent that his resentment had led to her being cut.
Unfairly.
Which meant she had no choice. She wasn’t going to accept his decision without a fight. So instead of heading to the cafeteria to eat, she walked to the schoolyard, which was already crowded with kids digging into their brown-bag lunches and goofing around as they enjoyed the weather. After finding a quiet spot, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and powered it on.
She knew her mother would probably be in a meeting of some kind but was counting on her answering when she saw Andi’s number come up, since her daughter never called during the school day.
She was right. “Andi, I’m in a meeting,” she said. “Is something wrong?”
“Yes,” Andi said firmly.
“Can it wait five minutes?”
“Yes.”
It took only three minutes for her mom to call back.
Andi told her what had happened and Coach J’s response when she had gone to see him.
Her mother sighed. “Andi, I’m so sorry,” she said. “Dad and I will help any way we can. What do you want to do next?”
Andi thought about it. She knew now she had been right not to go back to Coach Johnston. He wasn’t going to change his mind, and she might lose her temper and say something she shouldn’t.
Both her parents were lawyers. She wondered if there was something to be done legally.
“Can we take him to court?” she asked. “Make him put me on the team?”
Her mom sighed. “What you’re talking about is getting some kind of an injunction right away,” she said. “Those are usually used to get someone to stop doing something. I think it would be tough legally for a judge to order a coach to put someone on a team.”
Sadly, that made sense to Andi.
“Let’s talk about it when you get home,” she said. “Dad’s coming home from Boston this afternoon, right?”
“Plane should be landing about now.”
That was good enough for Andi—for the moment.
She headed for the cafeteria, grabbed some chicken and a salad, and sat down by herself. She really didn’t want to talk to anyone at that moment. She especially didn’t want to talk to Ron Arlow, but there he was, walking in her direction and, uninvited, sitting down across from her.
“Got cut, huh?” he said, without bothering to say hello.
She kept her head down, as if the chicken was the most delicious meal she’d ever had.
“I don’t know why you bothered in the first place,” Arlow said. “The only reason you were even out there was that Block forced Coach J to let you try out. There was no way he was keeping a girl on the team.”
The comment about Coach Johnston being forced to let her try out got Andi’s attention. How did Arlow know that?
“Who told you that?” she said hotly, picking up her head to look at the smirking Arlow.
“Coach told my dad,” he said. “My dad wanted to know what in the world you were doing out there, and so Coach J told him. He also told him not to worry because you weren’t going to make the team.”
Now Andi was really angry. It sounded like she’d never had a chance to make the team.
“I was good enough to be on the team and you know it,” she said, glaring at Arlow.
“Not the point, is it?” Arlow said. “We don’t need anyone on the team who bursts into tears the minute things get a little bit tough, do we?”
“You see me crying, Arlow?” she said. “You were the biggest whiner out there if anyone even touched you.”
Arlow turned a little red, letting Andi know she’d hit some kind of nerve.
He was about to answer, finger pointed at Andi, when they heard a voice directly behind him.
“Give it a rest, Arlow.”
It was Jeff Michaels.
“Why don’t you go sit at that empty table over there with all your friends?” Jeff said.
Andi was the one smirking now. It might not have been an original line, but it was funny.
Arlow stood up. He was taller than Andi, which meant Jeff was giving up even more height to him. Not to mention weight and muscle.
“You want to be her knight in shining shin guards, Michaels? You want to take this outside? Is that what you want?”
Jeff put down his tray on the empty spot next to where Andi was sitting. Heads were turning in their direction at the sound of raised voices. The last thing Andi wanted was Jeff getting into a fight with Arlow on her behalf. For one thing, he would lose. For another, she didn’t want a knight in shining armor of any kind.
“Let’s go,” Jeff said, just a tiny quaver in his voice. “I’m not afraid of you.”
“Go where?” an adult voice said.
Walter Liggett, who taught eighth-grade English and looked old enough to have taught Benjamin Franklin’s kids, was walking up to the table with a stern look on his always-stern face. Apparently he had cafeteria duty this week.
Both boys began staring at the floor.
“Nowhere, sir,” Jeff said.
“Mr. Arlow?”
“Nowhere, sir,” Arlow repeated.
“Good,” Mr. Liggett said. “And just for the record, if I happen to hear about the two of you in a fight either during school, after school, or before school—and I will hear—you’ll both be on detention until spring break. Understood?”
Both boys nodded.
“Understood?” Mr. Liggett repeated in a raised voice.
“Yes, sir,” they both said.
Mr. Liggett turned and left. The two boys glared at each other for a moment, then Arlow picked up his tray.
“Watch yourself at practice, Michaels,” he said. Then, looking down at Andi, he added, “No need to give you that warning, huh, Carillo?”
He walked away.
Andi was tempted to chase him down. Maybe he’d go outside with her.
Bad idea, she realized. Liggett was still lingering.
Jeff slid his tray across the table and said, “Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all,” she said.
The funny thing about it was that Jeff probably never would have had the guts to sit down with Andi if he hadn’t heard Arlow picking on her.
He felt badly that she had to put up with the jerk but was, truth be told, delighted to have an excuse to sit with her.
“I’m really sorry,” he said softly, while she picked at her food, head down, still shaking a little bit with anger.
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for at all,” she said. “Thanks for trying to intervene.”
Jeff smiled. “I was actually glad Mr. Liggett showed up. Arlow probably would have killed me.”
Andi managed a smile. “Who’d have thought that Wally Liggett would save your life one day?” she said.
They both laughed.
“You know, I’ve been thinking about what happened this morning,” Jeff said.
“You mean—”
“You being cut,” he said. “It’s obviously unfair and wrong, and I might be able to help.”
Andi was puzzled.
Seeing the look on her face, he pushed on. “My dad works for Comcast—I mean NBC Sports–Philadelphia; they changed the name a while back. This is the kind of story that people will talk about, especially nowadays when girls playing on boys’ teams has been going on for years. It’s ridiculous and…”
She stopped him, putting a hand up.
“What if you and I go talk to Coach J together?” Jeff said.
“That’s really cool of you to offer,” she said. “But before anything else happens, I need to see what my parents think. My guess is that my dad’s first idea will be to go back to Mr. Block. He was the one who got me into tryouts in the first place.”
“That makes sense, I guess. I’ll talk to my dad about it tonight, see if he has any ideas.”
She knew who his dad worked for—she’d seen him often on TV and especially liked the fact that he didn’t just cover the Eagles and Phillies but also covered the Union and high-school football and basketball.
She reached a fist across the table.
“It will work out,” she said. “Thanks for wanting to help.”
Jeff smiled, bumping her fist with his own and trying to think of something clever to say.
Finally he settled for “You’re welcome.”