It was noon before the girls’ roster finally got posted.
Andi had walked back to the gym office at the start of lunch break and found a note pinned up that said, The girls basketball team roster will be posted at noon. Sorry for the delay. —Coach Josephson and Coach Axelson
“Well, at least they apologized,” said a voice behind Andi.
It was Jeff.
“Since we can’t use our phones during the day, I figured I’d come down and see if they’d posted it yet. I know you just want it over with.”
“You aren’t just kidding,” she answered.
They went to the cafeteria and got their lunches. Andi filled Jeff in on what had happened earlier that morning.
“Sounds like you’ve got some Arlow wannabes on the team,” he said.
She smiled and looked up at the clock on the cafeteria wall. It was almost noon.
“Should we go look?” she said.
“Wait a few more minutes,” Jeff said. “My guess is they won’t be right on time.”
He was right. When they reached the gym office’s door at 12:05 p.m., there was a crowd of girls standing around Coach Axelson, who was just putting the list up.
Jeff felt a little embarrassed because he was the only boy in the hallway. He felt worse when one of the girls—who he didn’t recognize—turned to Andi and said, “Did you bring your boyfriend for support, Carillo?”
Wow, Jeff thought, Arlow could learn a lesson from these girls.
Coach Axelson, who Jeff thought was strikingly pretty and looked young enough—at least to him—to still be in college, held her hands up for a moment once she had the list up.
“Girls, we’re really sorry this took so long, but the fact is, we had some tough decisions to make. You all worked so hard last week, we hated to cut anybody. But, it’s done.”
She turned and more or less fled up the hallway, probably not wanting to hear the anguished wails from those who were cut.
Andi and Jeff stood back, letting the other girls look at the list first. There were shrieks of pain and of joy—the shrieks of joy coming from girls who had no doubt been on the bubble and had made it. Girls, Jeff noticed, were a lot more willing than boys to wear their emotions on their sleeves.
One girl was sobbing, and as she walked past Jeff and Andi, she shot Andi a look of true hatred.
“You and your buddies made it, Carillo,” she said venomously. “Big surprise.”
“Who’s that?” Jeff whispered as the girl kept going.
“Carly O’Hara,” Andi whispered back. “She’s the one I told you about from this morning.”
“So, good news she’s not on the team then, huh?” Jeff said.
It was good news. But even before she actually looked at the list, Andi knew that several members of Jamie Bronson’s crowd would be there.
She was right. Once she found her name, she looked up and down the list:
Hope Allison
Ronnie Bonilla
Jamie Bronson
Andi Carillo
Lisa Carmichael
Eleanor Dove
Randi Eisen
Brooke Jensen
Alayne Jolie
Debbie Lee
Jenny Mearns
Maria Medley
So Eleanor and Maria were there, too. She smiled seeing that Lisa was also there. She had expected nothing different but was glad to see their spots confirmed.
Also on the list, though, were Jamie Bronson and her pals Hope Allison, Alayne Jolie, and Jenny Mearns. But at least O’Hara wouldn’t be there, too. You take your victories where you find them, she thought. Something her mom liked to say.
The five-minute bell to start afternoon classes was chiming.
“Good luck at practice,” Jeff said.
“I guess I’ll need it,” she said, with a laugh that was probably more of a sigh.