“Mom!” Ava caught sight of her mom as she emerged from the locker room after the game. She ran to her and hugged her. If she hadn’t been in the school hallway, she would have wrapped her legs around her mother in the full-body hug she’d done when she was little. “I missed you. You were gone forever!”
Laura Sackett laughed. “Only a week, honey. But yes, it felt like a long time.”
As they drove back home, Mrs. Sackett told her about the other artists she’d met at the retreat, and Ava filled her in on her tense return to the basketball team.
“That’s not good timing,” Mrs. Sackett murmured, adjusting her sunglasses from the Texas glare.
“What’s not?” Ava had explained all her fouls and Tamara’s bad attitude. PJ’s deception remained her and Alex’s secret.
“An interview with your father came out today on TexasHighSports.” Mrs. Sackett chewed her lip worriedly.
“Coach talked to them on the phone the other night,” Ava said.
“Yeah, well, whatever he was trying to say didn’t come across or they misinterpreted it. It’s not good,” she said.
Ava quickly pulled up the site on her phone. At the top of the page, a bold headline screamed:
WHERE HAVE ALL THE PLAYERS GONE?
SACKETT BRUSHES OFF INJURIES
Coach Michael Sackett of the State Championship Ashland Tigers should be riding high this spring with his young, talented team, yet we have received reports that practices are lackluster at best. Sackett finds himself with a roster that’s severely depleted by injuries. Football is dangerous, even at the high school level, and will never be injury free. However, the Ashland players “are dropping like flies,” according to one anonymous Ashland fan. “We’ve lost six out of twenty-two players, and most of those kids were starters.”
At last week’s practice, three players watched from the sidelines with crutches. In addition, quarterback Dion Bell is still recovering from a concussion, which has deeply concerned the parents of several players, so much so that they have pulled their sons from the program. Ashland is also seeing numbers drop at the youth level.
When reached for comment, Sackett belittled the seriousness of the situation, saying, “All teams experience this kind of thing.”
Is Sackett too focused on winning and not enough on the welfare of his players? According to Doug Kelly, father of starting quarterback phenomenon PJ Kelly, who is currently out with a strained knee, Sackett’s unrelenting conditioning drills are the cause of his son’s injury. “Winning is good, but not at the risk of injury and permanent damage,” Kelly said. “We need to make the sport safer.”
Once again, Sackett failed to express concern when Kelly’s injury was brought up. “The boy will heal,” he remarked.
But at what cost? we ask. Wake up, Sackett! These injuries can be prevented, especially in a nongame situation. Let’s hear what you have to say, Ashland!
Ava started to scroll through the comments.
“Don’t do that. Seriously, Ava, stop. People are mean,” Mrs. Sackett said as she pulled into their driveway.
“This article is false. Coach cares about his players so much. How can anyone believe this?” Ava cried.
“I know that. But for some reason, people delight in tearing down winners.” Mrs. Sackett opened the car door. “Mr. Kelly likes to stir up trouble, that’s for sure.”
Ava stayed in her seat and fumed. Mr. Kelly’s accusations were outright lies. She and Alex had heard him and PJ. She couldn’t believe she had started to like PJ just a few minutes ago! How could he and his father do this?
She suddenly sprang out of the car. She needed to talk to Alex. They had to tell Coach that Mr. Kelly was playing him.
“Where’s Alex?” Ava smelled a pot roast cooking when they entered the kitchen.
“Tommy was going to pick her up from Lindsey’s house on his way home from the mall. He said something about picking up an engraved birthday gift for Cassie.” Mrs. Sackett pulled lettuce, a cucumber, and tomatoes from the refrigerator that had magically been filled. Her mother must have been home a while. The house was clean and tidy, too. “Do you know what he got her?”
“A silver bookmark, which makes no sense to me, but I guess she likes to read.” Ava shrugged. “He had the store engrave something sappy on it.”
“I think that’s wonderful.” Mrs. Sackett grew quiet.
Coach Sackett’s tightly controlled voice floated in from the family room. “That’s not what I said, Mr. Ganes. I have always followed all rules of safety.”
“Your dad’s obviously on the phone. Why don’t you help me make a salad?” Mrs. Sackett suggested.
Ava was shredding lettuce when Coach stalked into the kitchen. He frantically typed on his phone.
“All okay?” Mrs. Sackett asked hopefully.
“Far from it.” Coach waved his phone. “I’m being flooded by e-mails, and the phone keeps ringing.”
“No one can really believe that you don’t care about your players,” Ava said. “That’s just crazy.”
“I don’t think they believe that. At least, I hope not. They’re concerned for their sons’ safety, and rightly so, after Mr. Kelly accused me of pushing the boys too hard,” Coach said.
The house phone and his cell rang simultaneously.
“Don’t answer,” Mrs. Sackett suggested. “Let this whole thing cool down.”
“I can’t do that, Laura. The parents deserve to hear from me.” He began to walk away. “I’ll be in my study.”
Coach stayed in his study for hours. He didn’t come out when Alex and Tommy got back. He didn’t come out for dinner. He didn’t come out when Tommy drove Alex to the library for a club meeting.
The phone kept ringing and ringing. Each ring shot through Ava like an electric shock. Each ring reminded her that PJ and his father were liars. And that she and Alex had become liars too.
“Don’t worry,” Mrs. Sackett assured her as they cleaned the dinner dishes. “Your dad will work this out.”
Then Coach appeared downstairs. He wore his navy suit, a crisp white shirt, and a dark orange tie. Ava only saw him in a suit when they went to church on Easter morning. Coach hated suits as much as she hated thick tights. He looked odd without his Tigers polo shirt and cap.
“Why are you dressed like that?” Ava asked.
“I need to go out. There’s a meeting at the school.” Coach tightened the knot of his tie.
“What kind of meeting?” Mrs. Sackett demanded. “It’s Monday night. And it’s late!”
“They called a special meeting of the school’s athletic board to discuss my behavior.” His voice sounded strained. “They want me to explain my off-season training methods and my plans for continued player safety.”
“I’m coming,” Mrs. Sackett announced abruptly.
“Laura, they won’t let you in the meeting,” he said.
“I don’t care. I’m coming anyway. Just let me throw on a dress.” She hurried upstairs. “I’ll only be a minute.”
“Can I come too?” Ava asked.
“No,” Coach said. “Tommy and Alex will be home in a few minutes. It may turn into a late night.”
Ava gulped. This had become very serious very fast.
She thought about the twin promise. She was sure that if Alex were here she’d let her break it, just this once. Alex wouldn’t want Coach defending himself against Mr. Kelly’s lies without even knowing that they were lies. Ava had to say something.
“PJ didn’t hurt himself practicing football. He fell off a dirt bike.” The words tumbled out. “He pretended it was overconditioning, but his injury had absolutely nothing to do with you.”
“How do you know this?” Coach asked. “Did he tell you this?”
“Not exactly.” Ava explained how Moxy ran away and how they’d ended up hiding in the Kellys’ yard. She told him they’d seen the dirt bike and heard Mr. Kelly warning PJ not to tell Coach and that they’d even gone to a Dr. Chang in a different town.
As she spoke, Coach’s brows knit together and his mouth hardened into a line. She decided to leave out the part about Saint Francis. She didn’t think PJ would ever leave the Tigers, and Coach looked angry enough as it was.
“You are one hundred percent sure about this?” he asked.
“Completely.” Ava watched him dial his phone.
“What did I miss?” Mrs. Sackett appeared in a simple royal-blue dress. Ava wondered when her parents had acquired so many clothes in the school colors.
Coach held up a finger, then disappeared into the family room. Ava dove into her mother’s arms and explained what she had confessed to Coach. Two minutes later he returned. “I just spoke to Dr. Chang. He can’t give me any specifics, because he needs to respect his patient’s privacy, but he did confirm that PJ came to see him last week.”
Ava nodded. “Now what?”
“Now, your mom and I are going to make a quick detour to the Kellys’ house for an overdue conversation. Then we are going to the school.” He gave her a stern look. “You and Alex broke your promise and lied. When I return, we will have our own conversation.”
Mrs. Sackett bent down and kissed Ava’s head. “Fill Tommy and Alex in when they get home. And don’t stay up if it gets late.”
Ava knew she’d never sleep without finding out what happened.
“Do you want to stop by and say hi to Cassie?” Alex asked her brother hopefully. “We could ring her doorbell and surprise her.”
“She has a big chemistry test tomorrow. She’s studying now.” Tommy concentrated on making a left turn out of the library parking lot. “Why would you want to visit Cassie?”
“No reason.” Alex stared out the window at the darkened storefronts. Should she tell Tommy? Would he help?
In the library, she’d decided she would fix this weird thing with Corey, and they’d go to the movies on Friday just like they’d planned, and then her friends would never have to know anything about this mortifying day. It would be a snap . . . if only she could understand why he’d been so cold to her at lunch. She couldn’t think of anything she’d said or did. She’d barely spoken to him since they’d planned to go to the movies. The whole thing made no sense.
Maybe it was a strange one-day blip. Maybe his mac-and-cheese had been poisoned. Maybe an alien had invaded his body.
Then Alex had decided that Cassie probably possessed some older-girl-with-a-boyfriend insight. And that was her big plan—to talk to Cassie. But that wasn’t happening tonight.
As they waited for the one traffic light in Ashland to turn green, Tommy let out a huge belch.
“Gross!” Alex cried. “That one smelled bad too!”
Tommy grinned and belched again, louder this time. He loved annoying Alex.
Alex held her nose as Tommy burped along to the song on the radio. Tommy was going to be no help here. She doubted Ava would either. She was running out of options. As soon as they reached their house, she hurried inside. “Mom?”
“She’s not here.” Ava was snuggling with Moxy on the sofa. She turned down the volume of the TV. “Neither is Coach.” She told Alex and Tommy what had happened.
“Oh, wow, man.” Tommy sat next to Ava.
“You shouldn’t have told Daddy without me,” Alex protested. “I have a phone. You could have texted.”
“I had to make a quick decision,” Ava said. “I was scared that Coach would get into big trouble or even lose his job.”
“Really?” Alex hadn’t considered this. She sat too. Together the three of them watched a cooking competition show. Alex knew that if Tommy was watching TV with them and not locked in his room playing his music or texting with Cassie, he thought the situation was serious. Alex forgot all about Corey and thought about her dad instead.
Finally Moxy barked excitedly, and the front door swung open.
“You’re all still up,” Mrs. Sackett said, reaching down to greet Moxy at her heels.
“What happened?” Tommy demanded.
Coach Sackett loosened his tie and threw his suit jacket over the back of the big armchair. “A lot of noise, that’s what. Everyone had something to say.”
“But you’re okay, right?” Alex asked. “I mean you’re keeping your job?”
“You father is fine. He’s a great and safe coach, and folks here know that.” Mrs. Sackett kicked off her shoes and perched on the arm of the sofa. “Well, everyone except the Kellys.”
“Did you confront them?” Ava asked. “Mr. Kelly so deserves it.”
“We had a discussion,” Coach Sackett said simply. “I explained that although I am against dirt biking for my players, I wasn’t so much upset about the injury. What upset me is the lack of trust. A team is like a family, and in a family there is trust, honesty, and loyalty. PJ failed to show me any of those when he lied about his injury.”
“Is he benched?” Tommy asked.
“No. PJ’s in a knee brace, so he can’t play anyway. Benching doesn’t send the message,” Coach Sackett said. “But for the spring season, he will no longer be team captain.”
“Seriously? You took away his captain title?” Tommy jumped up. “Did he freak?”
“PJ was upset, sure,” Coach said. “Mr. Kelly was livid.”
“No one’s ever been kicked off as captain.” Tommy shook his head in disbelief.
“He must be crazy mad,” Alex said.
“I told him we’d revisit it for the fall season, if PJ shows me he can be trusted. There’s no room for lies in my football family.” Coach landed his gaze on Alex and Ava. “Or in this family.”
Alex readied herself for her dad’s lecture. When they messed up with their mother, she could be awfully loud, but she got over it quickly. Coach simmered. Alex dreaded his disappointment and lectures more than her mom’s outbursts.
“We never meant to eavesdrop,” Alex said.
“We felt weird tattling—that’s why we didn’t tell you about PJ,” Ava put in.
“What I can’t understand is why you left our street when I clearly told you not to,” Coach said.
“Moxy ran,” Alex said. “She went after a rabbit.”
“She did,” Ava backed her up. “Moxy runs fast, and we had to chase her.”
“But did she run from our street all the way to the Kellys’ house?” he asked.
“Kind of.” Alex twisted her hair with her finger. She tended to do that when she wasn’t telling the truth. “Are we punished?”
Coach and Mrs. Sackett carried on a silent conversation with their eyes.
“We are going to sleep on it,” Mrs. Sackett announced finally. “It’s late now, and I, for one, have had an exhausting day. Up to bed, all of you. We’ll revisit this in the morning.”
In the bathroom they shared, Ava and Alex washed up at their side-by-side sinks.
“That wasn’t too bad,” Ava remarked.
“We’ll see.” Alex wasn’t letting Ava off so easily.
“I’m sorry, Al,” Ava said. “Let’s talk to Mom in the morning. You can tell her all about Corey. She’s a softie for that stuff. I bet she’ll go easy and not ground you and you can still go out.”
Tell Mom all about Corey? Alex almost let out a laugh. Where should she start? That she was the only one of her friends without a boyfriend, and when she finally got the boy she’d liked forever to go to the movies with her, he blew her off for no reason? And even if she managed to fix things and get him back into movie night, now she might be grounded!
“Whatever,” she said angrily to Ava, even though she knew none of that was really Ava’s fault. Then she stormed to her room and shut the door.
Ava winced. It’s not like Alex to be so mean, she thought as she turned out the light and went to bed.