That afternoon Alex broke her “not talking to Ava” rule by announcing she was coming along with her twin to see their dad’s second practice of the day. Ava seemed pleasantly surprised.
The sun had come out, and the rain had cooled things off considerably. Alex felt like things had cooled off a little between her and Ava, too—her hurt and anger had dimmed from a huge flame inside her to more of a flickering light. Plus, she’d felt a twinge of satisfaction seeing the look on Ava’s face when she noticed Alex’s straight hair; maybe her sister did care a little bit about looking different from each other.
“Have you suddenly taken an interest in football?” Ava asked as the two sisters mounted the steep stadium steps a few rows above the team locker room.
“Not exactly,” said Alex, pushing a silky strand of straight hair away from her face. “But I realized I haven’t seen the high school yet,” she continued, settling into her seat and adjusting her fashionable dark sunglasses. “And I should really check it out, since it’s right across the parking lot from Ashland Middle School. I saw on the website that the AMS student government has done some joint fund-raisers with AHS, so maybe I can do some networking today. Wow. There are a ton of people watching practice.” She scanned the bleachers. “Don’t they have to go to work and stuff?”
“I guess it’s like this every day,” said Ava. “They come and sit and watch. Some of them take notes. When Coach yells at PJ or Tyler or even Tommy, I see them whispering to one another, or writing stuff down. It’s weird.”
Alex looked at Ava over her dark glasses. “Are you still worried about Daddy? He told me there was absolutely nothing to worry about. And haven’t you noticed? He’s a rock star in this town, from the amount of attention we always get when we go places.”
Ava shook her head. “I am still worried about him—he’s under a lot of pressure. If they lose too many games this season, his job could be in trouble. Plus, I’m hearing people say he’s being too harsh with some of the players. I heard that the mother of PJ Kelly, the quarterback, was complaining about Coach to one of the assistants.”
“How did you hear that?” asked Alex.
“Shane told me. He’s Coach Byron’s son. He’s only six, but he’s doesn’t miss much.”
Alex furrowed her brow and stared down at the field. Hadn’t their dad just told her not to be worried? Now Ava was saying there were a lot of reasons to worry.
Their dad whistled to a kid and called him over. They watched him talking animatedly, waving his arms and pointing.
“That’s PJ,” said Ava. “See? The other players are talking behind Coach’s back. And look at the people in the stands. People don’t like it when PJ gets yelled at. What if they’re complaining about Coach?”
Alex raised her sunglasses to look, a troubled expression on her face.
The two girls watched the team divide up into its specialty areas and head off with the various coaches. Because it was the third day of practice, the players were now wearing some pads underneath their practice uniforms.
Just then, Alex noticed that four kids were making their way up the stands to where she and Ava were sitting. She couldn’t see the ones in the back very well, but the girl in front was Emily, whom they’d met at the mall yesterday.
“Pssst,” said Alex to Ava. “Don’t look now, but I think that group goes to AMS.” She bounced up and down excitedly. “And they look like they’re coming over here to talk to us!”
As the group came closer, Alex saw Ava’s face light up too. Alex followed her sister’s gaze to a dark-haired boy who was bringing up the rear of the group. He grinned at Ava with a cute half smile. Oh—that’s Jack, Alex realized. She recognized him from yesterday at the mall. When he’d been with his girlfriend. She looked at him coolly.
“Hey, y’all!” said Emily. “Oh my gosh, I love your hair, Al—wait, are you Alex or Ava?”
“Ava,” she said shyly. “And thanks!”
“Wow, you guys look so different!” Emily said. “Now we’ll definitely be able to tell y’all apart!”
Alex kept a bright smile on her face, but she was fuming inside. She didn’t want to look different from Ava! And they weren’t that hard to tell apart anyway, considering that Ava never wore anything nicer than jeans and a T-shirt.
“I heard you might be at practice today, so I wanted to introduce you to some kids,” Emily went on. “This is Jack, and you met Rosa yesterday at the mall. And this is Corey.” She gestured to another boy, who had reddish hair.
Alex looked at him for the first time, and all angry thoughts flew out of her head. She couldn’t speak. All she could manage was a goofy smile. Corey was tall. Athletic. And heart-stoppingly gorgeous.
Wait, why was Ava nodding so coldly at him?
The girls sat down on either side of Alex and Ava and were soon chatting away. Alex did what she could to join in, but she could feel Corey staring at her. Every time she looked up, he looked hastily away. He and Jack were sitting just in front of them, but they turned around to join the girls’ conversation.
“So Ava here is great at basketball,” Jack said to Corey, gesturing toward Ava.
Ava’s ears turned red. Alex knew her well enough to know this meant she liked Jack. Her heart sank. Well, of course, Ava was a good athlete, but Alex could only hear the flattery part. The nerve of the guy! He already had a girlfriend!
Speaking of girlfriends . . . She wondered if Corey had one. He seemed like he could be an ideal boyfriend candidate. She wondered if he was a good student. If so, he really would be perfect!
Then she heard Jack mention Corey’s name. She tuned back in.
“Corey plays quarterback for AMS,” Jack said. “Although we could totally use him on the basketball team.”
Corey shrugged and scuffed a foot. “My older brother just graduated from AHS,” he said. “He taught me how to play football. I like to come to AHS practices because I learn a lot.” He turned to Alex. “Do you like sports?”
Alex still couldn’t form words. Why did she have to get so tongue-tied around guys? She had no trouble talking to anyone else! All she could manage was a sort of gulping sound.
Ava jumped in. “Alex was huge on school spirit back at our old school,” she informed the group.
Alex finally found her voice. “Yeah, but I didn’t do anything that involved any actual moving. I’m a total klutz athletically,” she said. “I think ‘ungainly’ is a good word to describe me.”
Corey laughed. Alex noticed her sister scowl. What was her problem with Corey?
“Ava’s the athlete,” Alex continued loyally, smiling at her sister. “She’s awesome at any sport she tries.”
Jack grinned at Ava.
Ava glared at Corey.
Corey was hanging on every word Alex said.
Alex sniffed and turned away from Jack.
Then Emily and Rosa steered the conversation toward school and teachers and classes, and Corey and Jack went to join another group of boys a couple of bleacher sections away. As they headed off, Corey glanced back and almost smashed into a stair railing, catching himself just in time. Alex giggled and then joined the animated conversation with her new friends. Ava, as usual when around new people, was pretty quiet, only speaking when someone asked her a question. Alex tried bringing her into the conversation, but it seemed like Ava’s mind was elsewhere. After a while, Alex heard their father calling.
Alex exchanged phone numbers with the other girls. Ava had forgotten her phone again.
They followed their dad and Tommy toward the car a few minutes later. “Jack’s great, huh?” Ava said when they were in the backseat (shotgun rules didn’t apply after practice; Tommy automatically got the front).
Alex shrugged. “He’s okay. How much do you really like like him?” She knew she should say something to her sister about how she’d seen him in the mall that day with the blond girl; how she was 98 percent sure she was his girlfriend. She just couldn’t bring herself to deflate Ava’s first crush in their new town.
Ava reddened. “I never said I like liked him. We just played basketball, that’s all.”
“Okay,” said Alex, deciding to let it drop. “So, what’d you think of Corey?”
“Oh. Corey. Yeah. He’s okay,” said Ava.
“You don’t think he’s supercute?”
Ava shrugged.
They were silent for a few minutes, and then Ava blurted out, “You weren’t too friendly to Jack.”
Alex shrugged. “He’s fine,” she said carefully. She didn’t know what to say! “He just . . . well, he strikes me as a little inappropriate for you.”
Ava’s eyes narrowed. “Inappropriate? You sound like a teacher, Al. I’m not saying this because I like Jack or anything. I don’t. But you were turning your back to him and practically ignoring everything he said. Do you think he’s inappropriate because he isn’t on the middle school football team, like Corey? Or part of student government? Or just because he’s not cool enough?”
Alex was outraged. “No! I never implied that! I just think he—he lacks character. Anyway, you weren’t especially friendly to Corey. What was that about?”
Ava shrugged again.
“Maybe you like him?” accused Alex.
Ava’s eyes widened with horror. “Him? Ew! No!”
Alex’s eyes flashed with anger. She thought again about telling Ava that the guy she liked was a double-crossing two-timer. “Scoundrel” was a good word for him. But this time she chose not to out of anger.
By the time they got home, neither girl was speaking to the other.
Again.