Coach Tara yelled. “Go—you can do it!”
Izzy gritted her teeth and tightened her grip. Tara was making them climb the big, ceiling-height cargo net without using their feet. Izzy’s arms were burning, her hands raw from the rope. But finally she made it to the top.
“Good job,” Tara said. “Noah, you’re up.”
Izzy climbed down—using her feet as much as possible this time—and collapsed on the floor beside Kevin.
“He’s good, isn’t he?” Kevin said as he watched Noah tackle the cargo rope.
“He’s fit, that’s for sure,” Izzy said.
She still wasn’t sure what to think about Noah. Ty wasn’t happy about the newcomer—he was making no secret of that. But the others seemed to be okay with him. And so far he was keeping up with the rest of the team, even though Tara was working them pretty hard. He’d made it up the Crazy Cliff on his second day and was starting to get the hang of the Loco Ladder.
He’s good, I guess, Izzy thought. I just hope he doesn’t mess up the team spirit thing we have going on. She sneaked a look at Ty, who was scowling as he watched Noah scale the net.
After Noah finished, it was JJ’s turn and then Mackenzie’s. Finally Tara seemed satisfied. “Water break, everyone,” she said. “We’ll pick up in ten.”
Izzy climbed to her feet and wandered over to her gym duffel. She grabbed her phone along with her water bottle, checking her texts.
Her eyes widened when she saw that there was one from Jess. A couple of days had passed since they’d run into each other, and Izzy had just about decided that Jess was finished with her. But maybe not. She clicked the text open and scanned it.
Hey, you’ve heard about the big LD party down at the quarry, right? Wanna go?
Izzy turned away to hide her grin. She didn’t want the others to see how psyched she was or to start asking questions. She was pretty sure that none of them would get an invite to this particular party. Not until they were in high school, anyway. Besides, she’d have to sneak out to go, and she didn’t want too many people knowing about that, just in case.
The quarry party was legendary. It happened every year to celebrate the end of summer on the Friday of Labor Day weekend.
Labor Day weekend. Suddenly Izzy’s heart sank.
“Oh, no,” she mumbled.
Mackenzie glanced up from her water. “What? Did you say something, Iz?” she asked.
“No, nothing.” Izzy quickly clicked off her phone and shoved it back in her bag.
The Friday of Labor Day weekend—that was the night before they were all leaving for the finals. Their flight to the West Coast left at some ridiculously early hour on Saturday morning. How would she manage that if she was out all night at the quarry party?
Mackenzie was still watching her. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“I’m fine, okay?” Izzy snapped.
The younger girl looked slightly wounded, but Izzy hardly noticed. Her head was spinning as she tried to figure out how she was going to make this work. Because if she didn’t make it to that party, Jess would probably never invite her to anything cool ever again.