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The Panthers played at Rangeley the following weekend, but Emily didn’t give the away games an ounce of thought. Even when she entered the hallway on Monday morning and found the place as somber as a morgue, she still didn’t connect the dots.
She wondered who had died and tried not to gawk at all the long faces as she made her way to her classroom. Confident that Chloe and Thomas would be waiting for her, as they always were, she opened her door to find only Thomas.
She started to shut the door behind her, so she could ask him for the scoop in private, then thought better of it and left the door open. She knew better than to put herself in a situation that might look anywhere near suspicious.
With only a glance at Thomas’s face, she could see that whatever had sobered the kids in the hall wasn’t affecting him. “What’s going on out there?” she whispered.
He cocked a cocky eyebrow. “You didn’t hear?”
She rolled her eyes. “If I had heard, I wouldn’t need you, my spy, now would I? Now spill it.”
He laughed. “The girls lost to Rangeley.”
She let out a long breath. “Is that all? Didn’t we know that might happen? Where’s Chloe?”
“I don’t know where Chloe is, and no, as far as I know, people didn’t think it would happen, and Miss M, you should know ... everyone is blaming MacKenzie.”
“MacKenzie? She wasn’t even there, was she?”
“Exactly. They’re all saying that if she hadn’t quit, they wouldn’t have lost.”
“Oh well.”
“No, Miss Morse, you’re acting like it’s not a big deal. It is a big deal. Everyone on the island hates MacKenzie right now. This loss is going to put us in third place!” He added that last part as if it were the most horrifying development of all.
“OK, well, we’ll just have to look out for her. Have you seen her today?”
“No. If she’s lucky, she won’t come to school today.”
“Chloe’s coming, isn’t she?”
As if on cue, Chloe walked through the door. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming. I’m late because I was talking to MacKenzie.”
“You’re not late,” Emily said.
“Well, I’m not early because I was talking to MacKenzie.”
“Is she OK?” Emily asked.
“Yeah, actually. Her mom doesn’t want her coming to school today, but she seems to be fine. I actually think she’s enjoying this a little.”
“Enjoying it?” Thomas sounded horrified.
“Yeah, well, you know, she’s kind of like, well maybe they should have appreciated me more when they had me.”
Thomas made an irritated, and irritating, pfft sound and crossed his arms over his chest.
“How about you, Chloe?” Emily asked. “Are you OK?”
“I’m not great.” She plopped down into a chair. “I played fine the first night, and we beat them easy—”
“Easily,” Emily interjected.
“Easily. Whatever. Anyway, but then I guess their coach is some kind of genius because she figured out how to stop us. Well, stop me, anyway. They put on this wicked press and I just couldn’t get the ball up the court. I had like ten turnovers in the first half. I thought Milton was going to kill me. But they weren’t all my fault. No one would come get the ball, or no one could come get the ball. Finally, Hailey came to help me, and together, we could break the press, some of the time.”
Emily only understood part of what she was saying, but she nodded empathically throughout the story. “Chloe, you did your best, and that’s all anyone can do.”
“It’s MacKenzie’s fault,” Chloe said. “I mean, I get that she’s my sister in Christ now, but man, she really burned us.”
Emily was stunned. “Is that why you went to talk to her this morning? To give her grief?”
“No, I went to beg her to come back on the team! I’m not a point guard!” she said, as if her being a point guard was the most preposterous thing she’d ever heard. “We need her! She needs to snap out of whatever she’s going through and get back on the team.”
“Would Milton even take her back?” Thomas asked.
“Of course. All Milton cares about is winning. He’d make her run like a zillion suicides and then welcome her back with open arms.”
“Suicides?” Emily repeated.
But Chloe ignored her. “Rangeley already beat Valley twice. That means we’re going to face Rangeley in the Southern Maine finals. That means we need MacKenzie.”
“How could you possibly know whom you’re going to face already?”
Chloe looked at her as if she were stupid. “Because number one team plays eight. Rangeley will beat whoever that is, probably one of the Christian schools. Then we’ll be either two or three, which means we’ll beat either seven or six, and then we’ll beat three, and then we’ll have to play the winner of the other bracket, which I promise you, will be Rangeley.”
Emily had no idea what had just been explained to her.
“But you split with them, correct? So didn’t you come out even?”
“No, because we beat them first, and then they beat us, so they get their Heal points back.”
“What?”
The bell rang. Emily was relieved.
“You don’t have to understand,” Chloe said, a little patronizingly. “Just trust me. I don’t want to go to the playoffs without MacKenzie. I can’t face that press again.”
Unsure what a press even was, Emily said, “I’m sure that you can. Milton knows what he’s doing, right? He’ll prepare you.”
As the freshmen filed into Emily’s room, Chloe leaned forward and lowered her voice. “He is wicked smart, but they are good.”
“I’ll pray about it. You pray about it. You’ll be fine. It is only a game, you know.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Right.”
Thomas gave Emily a fist bump and then trotted out of her room.
––––––––
When Emily walked into the teacher’s room to retrieve her salad from the fridge, the three teachers who’d been chatting in a small group looked at her and then promptly left.
Kyle was sitting at a table, reading the paper.
“Was it something I said?” she asked. She was completely kidding.
His expression as he folded the paper told her the dramatic exit was no kidding matter. “Did Mr. Hogan talk to you?”
“About?”
“Oh don’t play coy. About your Jesus fetish.”
“He’s not a fetish. And yes, he talked to me.”
“Good.” He stood up.
“Good? Why’s that good?”
“Because I don’t want you to get clotheslined by this. If you’re going to be hanged, you should know it’s coming. Give you time to prepare, and maybe dodge the garrote?”
“The garrote? What are you talking about?”
He came over to her then, stopping only a foot in front of her. “I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong, Emily, but new teachers, they have it rough here. If someone has decided they don’t like you, as Milton apparently has decided, they will find a reason to get rid of you. Apparently, the reason they’re going to use with you is Jesus.”
“Milton? Milton hasn’t given me any trouble in weeks.”
“That’s because he’s afraid of your boyfriend.”
Emily felt her cheeks flush. But her heart also skipped at someone calling James her boyfriend. Was he her boyfriend? “Did James do something to Milton?”
“I have no idea,” Kyle said quickly, suddenly acting as if he was above such matters. “I’m just saying, the other teachers might distance themselves from you, to avoid the fallout.”
“But not you?”
He smiled, and it was a charming smile indeed. “No, not me. I know how this island works, and I’m not scared. Besides, I’m on continuing contract. They’d have to work pretty hard to fire me.”
