TJ’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since kindergarten. So you can imagine how bugged I was that she was at her grandma’s over Thanksgiving when all the shoe stuff was happening, and she wouldn’t return my texts.
“My phone died and I forgot to bring my charger with me,” was her excuse. “I can’t believe you’re in a commercial.”
“And I can’t believe I have a whole shoe collection named after me.” I lifted up my foot and pointed to my name on a pair of green cross-trainers.
TJ shook her head. “I just don’t get it. Why would they name shoes after you? It’s not like you’re famous. They usually name stuff after stars.”
“Yeah, it’s crazy how it all happened.”
We walked together all the way to English class, and TJ didn’t say another word, which meant something was up.
TJ took a brush out of her backpack and stroked it through her silky dark-brown hair, which perfectly matches her olive skin and brown eyes. I couldn’t help thinking that she looks more like a shoe model than I do.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about softball season.”
“That’s all you ever think about. It’s not even Christmas yet.”
“I know, but did I tell you that Dad hired me a new pitching coach? I’ve been throwing every night. You wanna come hit some balls during Christmas break?”
“You know I do.”
TJ’s dad is our coach, and he’s pretty serious about all the softball stuff. He had a batting cage built in the backyard of their house, and with the good weather in Fresno, we can pretty much practice all year long.
“I guess I have to keep getting better if I’m going to be a sports role model, right?”
That was meant to be kind of a joke, but TJ didn’t laugh.
“Yeah . . . right.”
I was pretty sure that my shoe contract was what was really bugging TJ, and I wanted to talk to her about it. But the bell rang for class, and TJ brought up softball again.
“Hey, put January 12th on your calendar. It’s softball signups, and as soon as we have our official roster, we can start practicing. Dad says with all the returning girls, we should have a championship season this year.”
I smiled as I thought of the four-foot trophy with the number one on the top that could be ours in just a few short months.
“No prob. I’ll be there.”