A Whole New Ball Game (5 page)

Ava smiled. “I hope that's in alphabetical order,” she teased. She was happy to be joking around with Alex; it meant that things were all right with them again.

Their dad looked up from his clipboard again and stared at his daughters over his half-glasses.
“Go to the mall with your sister, Ave,” he commanded. “It will be good for you two to see more of this town.”

“Can I get a new pair of kicking shoes?” Ava asked eagerly. “My feet have grown, like, half a size in the past three months.”

Their dad exchanged a quick look with their mom. Then he grumbled under his breath and looked back down at his clipboard.

Ava bounced in her chair. That meant yes!

“Shotgun!” Ava called as she walked out the front door toward their mom's red SUV.

“Ugh! Not fair!” cried Alex. “You always get to sit in front!”

“Because I'm better at Shotgun,” Ava said matter-of-factly. Alex muttered something about Ava just having better reflexes as she climbed grudgingly into the backseat.

“We're not in Massachusetts anymore,” said Ava, staring at the houses in their subdivision as they drove through. “I think I just saw a cactus in someone's front yard. An
actual
cactus.”

“What did you expect? A polar bear?” said
Alex without looking up. She was studying a map of the mall on her smartphone, strategizing the most efficient shopping route.

They passed the little park where Ava had met Jack the day before. Ava thought about him for the hundredth time. He did have a nice smile. She hadn't even asked him what grade he was going into, or what his fall sport was. It was probably football. She wondered if he liked soccer. Here in Texas, people played soccer as a spring sport, so it wouldn't interfere with football. But on the other hand, they were almost as crazy about baseball as they were about football—at least that's what Charlie had told her.

They turned onto a busy four-lane road, flanked with car dealerships and fast-food places. And then they were out of the bustle and Ava stared across vast, flat fields, filled with the same greenish-brown, wispy vegetation. Far off on the horizon, she could see an oil rig silhouetted against the morning sun.

“Have you found the public radio station?” Mrs. Sackett asked Ava. “I haven't unpacked the kitchen radio yet. It feels like days since I've heard any news headlines.”

Ava fiddled with the dial. “I think it's all country
music,” she said. “Unless you want sports talk.”

Mrs. Sackett shuddered. “I think we'll be hearing quite enough of that, too.”

The mall loomed up on the left.

“Everything is bigger in Texas,” said their mother when she turned into the huge parking lot.

“I heard there's an amazing art supply store here,” their mother said, as the three of them stepped into a huge atrium. It was delightfully cool, and classical music was playing.

They all stopped and stared upward at the two-story vaulted ceiling. Even Ava was impressed, although she was aware that people were staring at them.
We might as well have a neon sign over our heads that says “New in Town.”

“Why don't you go to the art store while we head to Spruce?” Alex said to their mom. She was lucky her favorite clothing store had shops in Texas. “You can come meet us when you're done. We'll be there awhile—I have a lot of fashion research to do.”

Ava groaned. “Can I go look at shoes at the sports store?”

Mrs. Sackett shook her head. “Not if you don't have your phone with you. Do you have it?”

Ava hung her head. “I just misplaced it.”

“Again,” said Alex.

“I'll find it. It's probably in my room somewhere.”

“All right, then I want you girls to stay together,” said Mrs. Sackett. “I'll meet you at Spruce in half an hour.” She shot Ava a look, which Ava knew meant
Take this one for the team
. Ava sighed and resigned herself to a long morning.

“Spruce is this way,” said Alex, looking up from her phone. Ava followed her sister tolerantly through the mall.

They passed an older couple. Ava saw them abruptly stop talking to each other in order to stare at the twins.

“Hey, Al?” said Ava, tugging at her sister's T-shirt. “Alex!” she hissed more urgently.

Alex had been looking over her shopping list but looked up when she heard her sister's tone. “What's up?”

“Have you noticed people . . . staring at us?”

Alex furrowed her brow and scanned the passing shoppers. “No.
Are
they? Why would they stare at
us
?”

Ava shrugged. “No idea. I mean, I'm starting to get why they stare at Coach. They're all obsessed with finding out what he plans to do with the team. But they have no clue who
we
are. Look! See? That guy over there, near the fountain. He just pointed at us and said something to his wife. It's weird.”

“You're just imagining things,” said Alex. “It's because you hate malls so much. Come on. I just saw some girls our age wearing the cutest outfits, and they were heading into Spruce. Let's follow them and see what they buy. Our school colors are blue and orange. That's kind of hard to work with, but I'm going to try to find some wardrobe basics in those colors.”

Suddenly Ava stopped. Alex heard her sharp intake of breath and turned to follow her gaze.

It was a boy with dark hair and an athletic build. He was heading in the direction of the food court and didn't appear to have seen them.

Alex nudged her sister. “Who's that?”

“Who? Oh. Him? No one. Well, okay, it's Jack. The kid I played basketball with yesterday.”

Alex craned her neck to take a closer look before Jack was swallowed up in the crowd of shoppers. “He's cute,” she pronounced.

Ava shrugged. “I guess.”

By that time they had lost sight of the group of girls they'd seen heading into the store, but when they walked in, Alex quickly became focused on the latest fall displays. It wasn't long before she was heading into the dressing room with an armload of clothes to try on.

Ava drifted from one carousel display of clothes to the next, fingering a shirt here, a skirt there, but she didn't see anything she felt like trying on. She definitely needed some new jeans. Hers were getting too small on her. And a new bathing suit, but they were so boring to try on. She wished she had her sister's focus, her ability to zero in on a goal. Maybe that's why teachers all seemed to like Alex but were exasperated by Ava. Ava
meant
to focus, to pay attention. But she was always distracted.

She moved toward the dressing room to find Alex, just as her sister stepped out in a cute white eyelet top over skinny navy-blue shorts. She did a little pirouette in front of the mirror.

“What do you think?” she asked Ava.

“It's pretty,” said Ava.

Thankfully, there was a chair at the entrance to the dressing room. Ava sat down wearily as
her sister tried on outfit after outfit.

“I'm ready,” said Alex at last, emerging in the mint-green ruffled shirt and yellow shorts she had been wearing with a huge pile of clothes draped over her arm. “Mom just texted to say she's on her way. I need to prepare my defense for why I need each of these items.”

As they approached the register, Ava heard a flurry of whispering behind her. She turned.

It was the group of girls they'd seen before. One of them stepped forward. “I just figured out who y'all must be!” said a tall girl with straight blond hair. “Aren't you the Sackett twins?”

“Yes!” said Alex eagerly.

Ava was rattled.

“How did you know who we were?” asked Alex.

The other girls tittered. The blond girl opened her phone and sent a quick text. Then she smiled. “The whole town is waiting to meet you. Haven't you noticed how football-crazy everyone is? Your daddy's the main attraction! I'm Emily Campbell, by the way. And this is Annelise and Rosa.”

Ava and Alex introduced themselves, just as Mrs. Sackett appeared. They introduced their mother, too.

“I'm sorry to do this, Mrs. Sackett,” said Emily, “but my dad just arrived to drive us home, and I told him I'd met y'all. He's parking the car and coming inside to say hello.”

“Well, isn't that nice,” said Mrs. Sackett, glancing quickly at her watch. “This is such a friendly town!”

“As I'm sure he'll inform you, he used to run the fifty in four point seven seconds, so he should be here very soon. Oh, here he is now.”

A man was running through the mall toward them, weaving between shoppers. He skidded to a stop at the front of the store, pivoted quickly like a wide receiver in the open field putting a fake on his defender, and then trotted toward them, thrusting out a huge hand.

“Howdy, ma'am! Bob Campbell!” said Emily's father. He whipped off his hat and shook Mrs. Sackett's hand, still panting slightly. “It's an honor to meet you and your lovely daughters!”

“How nice that our girls have met one another before school starts!” said their mom.

“So tell me, Mrs. Sackett—,” said Mr. Campbell.

“Oh, please call me Laura!”

“All right, then, Laura,” he said, his grin widening. “So tell me, Laura. How's the team looking?”

She smiled. “Well, they just started practice yesterday. Michael is certainly focusing a lot of energy on it,” she said. “It seems to be all he thinks about right now!” She laughed.

Mr. Campbell laughed heartily. Then his face turned serious. He leaned in and spoke to Mrs. Sackett. “I hear he likes to throw the smash concept versus a two high shell,” he said in a conspiratorial tone, “but what's his favorite route against a one high safety look?”

“He . . . safety . . . uh, sorry?” asked Mrs. Sackett, looking flustered.

Ava and Alex exchanged a quick glance.

“Aw, Daddy, not now!” pleaded Emily, looking at the twins apologetically.

“And how does he plan to stop Lewisville's spread passing attack?” Mr. Campbell continued. “Against their ten personnel, I imagine he's planning to bring in a nickel corner and add boundary pressure with a fire-zone blitz. Right?”

“What is he
talking
about?” hissed Alex in Ava's ear.

“I barely know!” Ava hissed back. “So Mom has no clue. Look at her face!”

Emily jumped in. “Daddy!” she said, drawing the word out in an exasperated, singsong voice.
“Leave them alone! There'll be plenty of time for you to interrogate Coach Sackett without torturing his family, too!”

Mrs. Sackett laughed weakly, but Ava and Alex could see she was shaken. As were they.

As soon as Mr. Campbell and the girls had left, their mother's smile vanished. “Poor Michael,” she murmured, steering Alex toward the register.

Alex's brow furrowed. “Why poor Daddy? Isn't it a good thing that everyone is so interested in his team?”

Her mother pressed her lips together. “Maybe. But he's under a lot of pressure to do well. Although he
did
warn me, I hadn't quite realized the depth of people's passion for this sport.” Then she noticed the pile of clothes Alex was holding and frowned.

“Since you guys have all these clothes to argue about, can I go to the sports store and meet you at the haircut place?” Ava pleaded.

“This
is
a very large selection, Alex,” their mom said. “Surely you don't think I'm going to buy all of it?”

Alex smiled at their mother. “I was assuming we were just going to begin the process of negotiations.”

“I'll meet you guys at the salon,” said Ava, suppressing a smile.

“All right, but your appointments are in twenty minutes. And Ave, we
have
to get you some school stuff,” her mother called after her. “You
can't
wear football jerseys every day.”

“Sure I can,” said Ava. “There's no dress code at Ashland Middle, remember? It's a public school! No more collared shirts and skirts to iron like at Randall Prep!” Ava grinned and waved to them over her shoulder as she headed out of Spruce and toward the sporting-goods store.