CHAPTER

FIVE

“Gah!” yelled Alex out loud. She was in her room, sitting on the floor with a fan of poster boards around her, her laptop on her lap.

Ava was just passing by her room and poked her head in. “Was that you who just yelled?”

“Yes!” Alex said hotly. “Sorry,” she added, more calmly. “I didn’t mean to startle you. But it’s been really frustrating trying to come up with a decent slogan. Nothing rhymes with ‘Alex.’ Not a thing!”

Ava suppressed a grin and came in and sat down on Alex’s bed. “Need some help brain-storming?”

Alex scowled. “I doubt you can help,” she said. “Why couldn’t they have named me Ann or Pat, or even Sandy?”

“How about ‘Sackett’?” suggested Ava. “ ‘Sackett to me’?”

Alex gave her a look.

“Yeah, no,” said Ava after some consideration. “How about, ‘Sackett can hack it!’?”

Alex blew out a frustrated breath. “No, thanks,” she said.

“I have one!” said Ava, bouncing up and down on the bed excitedly. “How about ‘Count on Someone Who Counts!’? See? Kind of a play on words—they can depend on you, plus everyone knows you’re really good at math.”

“Yeah, great, so I’d get all of three votes. From the math club,” said Alex dryly. “And probably not even those—I’m sure Ella’s got the whole math and science clubs voting for her.”

“Well, I know Corey’s going to vote for you,” said Ava. “He told me at tryouts today.”

That got Alex’s attention. She closed her computer. “How did it come up?” she asked Ava eagerly.

Ava shrugged. “He just said it as we were stretching after practice was over,” she said.

Alex felt herself flushing. Good thing it was just in front of Ava. She’d vowed to treat Corey like any other seventh-grade guy. But she couldn’t stop her heartbeat from quickening when she thought about him. She needed to get more control over this situation. She didn’t want anyone to think she still had a crush on him.

Ava must not have noticed her sister blushing, because she’d moved on in the conversation. “But both Logan and Xander are also on the team,” she said. “And Logan was going on and on about how he’s definitely got the jock vote.”

Alex’s eyes flashed. “I can’t believe how arrogant that guy is!” she said. “Did it ever occur to him that a few jocks might vote for me because of my last name? I mean, being Coach Sackett’s daughter has got to count for something.”

“Maybe,” said Ava. “And also, his friend Xander is a kicker like me. It looks like we’re both competing for the same position. So that should be fun.”

Alex considered this new information. It was definitely not a good thing that her twin sister was competing for a position with Logan Medina’s best friend. “Wow, Ave,” she said. “I didn’t really think about how much this football tryout of yours might adversely affect my campaign.”

Ava stood up. Her lips were pressed together into a tight line, and her chin was all crumpled up.

Alex felt alarmed. Why was Ava so upset? What had she said that was so bad?

“Ave? What’s wrong?” asked Alex.

Ava didn’t answer. She shook her head quickly and moved toward the door.

“I was just saying things are really complicated,” said Alex. “I mean, they’re already complicated, with you being Daddy’s daughter and all, and everyone in my homeroom knows that Mr. Kenerson is, like, a fanatic about Daddy’s team. There’s no way you trying out isn’t going to be complicated, since your dad is the high school coach. I was just saying—”

“I heard what you were saying,” said Ava, her voice full of hurt. “You’re worried that what I do is going to affect your precious campaign. Well, it’s pretty mean of you to bring up the fact that Coach Kenerson might keep me on the roster just because my last name is Sackett.”

“I was only—”

“Especially after you just finished saying you might have a chance to get jock votes because you’re the daughter of the high school football coach. Talk about double standards! What makes it okay that you want to use your last name to get yourself elected?”

And before Alex could answer, Ava left the room, shutting the door behind her with force.