Thursday afternoon Ava emerged from the girls’ locker room in her helmet and full pads. The girls in the locker room from the volleyball and cross-country teams had all high-fived her and congratulated her. She was happy the whole controversy was over and just wanted things to get back to normal so she could concentrate on football.
“Hey, Sackett,” said a voice as she passed the boys’ locker room. She turned. It was Xander, also wearing his practice uniform and pads. His helmet was under his arm.
“I just wanted to say congratulations on making the team,” he said, his eyes cast down.
“Thanks. You too. I’m sure you’ll be an awesome punter,” she said.
“I’m going to be a lineman, too,” he said, and Ava could hear the pride in his voice. “So, um, I also wanted to say I was sorry,” he said in a low voice.
“For what?”
“I’m the one who stuck that picture in your locker. It was dumb. I was just afraid, well, afraid of what people would say if I got cut from the team, beaten out by a girl.”
Ava nodded. “I get it,” she said. “But I wish people would stop looking at me like a girl who plays football, and just look at me as a football player.”
“Yeah, well, you mow down enough guys, they’ll forget pretty quickly,” he said.
Ava grinned at him. “I hope so,” she said.
The two walked up to join the rest of the team. For the warm-up run, Ava noticed that Xander pointedly ran next to her, rather than with Andy. After the run, the captains told Ava to move to the front line for stretching.