Even the Score (6 page)

Alex peered around her shoulder. Pretty slim pickings. Unless they were having a meal of condiments, cheese, and a wrinkled red pepper.

“There must be something in the freezer.” Her mom pulled open the bottom drawer.

“Everything's frozen,” Alex said. Her mom usually had casseroles or stews ready for dinner, but she'd been at her potter's wheel all weekend. They'd barely seen her.

“Michael, I wish you had gone to the market this weekend,” Mrs. Sackett said, eyeing her husband.

“It's football season, Laur, you know that,” he replied.

“The game was
Friday
night,” her mother pointed out.

“And on Saturday I started preparing for this week's game. This is a big one coming up. The Cleary Titans. Besides, you didn't tell me to go to the market,” he protested.

“I need to tell you? You could figure it out too.”

“You can't blame me. Maybe you're in over your head with these orders—”

“I'm not in over my head!” her mom shot back. “I've got it all covered.”

“Actually, I think it's covered you. The pottery, that is,” Tommy joked.

Besides her hair, Mrs. Sackett had streaks of clay on her bare arms and shirt.

Alex tried to stifle her giggles. Ava laughed and their mom grinned, pausing to look down at herself.

Alex was glad Tommy had defused the tension. Her parents had rarely snapped at each other back in Massachusetts, but the move to
Texas had been hard. Her dad was under a lot of pressure to produce a winning team. Her mom had left behind her friends and job and now was starting a new business. A few weeks ago, the first time their mom was swamped with work, they had spent a lot of time bickering, but then Alex and Ava helped Coach surprise Mrs. Sackett with a special anniversary dinner, and things seemed to get better. Alex vowed to try to help keep her parents happy this time too.

“I'm craving pizza. Anyone else?” Alex hurried to the desk and opened the top drawer, where they kept the take-out menus. “Sal's Pizzeria delivers. Good?”

Her parents both nodded.

“Extra sausage on mine,” Tommy said. “Or meatballs.”

Alex grimaced. “You're such a carnivore!”

“Grr! I'm an Ashland Tiger,” he growled with a mischievous grin.

Alex rolled her eyes. She called in their order for two pizzas and made sure the second one had no meat. She'd been a vegetarian for several months now.

Once the steaming pizzas arrived and the table had been set, Alex could see her mom relax. She
told them about the new pots she'd created. Her dad worried over the weather report. It looked like heavy rain was coming later in the week. He hated having his team play in the mud.

“Enough football,” their mom chided. “Tell me something good that happened today at school.” She liked to ask variations on this question. Some days she asked for something funny that happened at school. Or something strange. Even something bad.

“The student council did something
colossally
good,” Alex said proudly. She told them about the drama club decision.

“Wait! We're not getting the new scoreboard?” Ava asked mid-bite.

“Not this year,” Alex explained. “The drama club's need is bigger.”

“That's not fair,” Ava protested.

Coach nodded. “You did make a commitment, Al. You gave your word.”

Alex was surprised. “But you always taught us to help those in need. Look out for the underdog.”

“True, but I also believe you shouldn't duck out on a promise,” he said. “That scoreboard is a big deal to the community.”

“So is the school musical,” her mom said, coming to her defense. “Schools should promote the arts. The arts should play as significant a role as sports do in students' lives.”

“But everyone in Ashland would rather have a scoreboard than a school show,” Ava remarked.

“Not everyone,” Alex shot back. “I can't believe you, Ave. I thought you were better than all those jocks. Not so single-minded.”

“I'm not that way, and you know it,” Ava said, sounding hurt. “I love
The Wizard of Oz
, but I just don't agree with your decision. I think a lot of other kids will disagree too.”

“You're overreacting,” Alex scoffed. “Kids will be fine with waiting for the scoreboard in order to save the show. It's not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?” Tommy snorted. “The whole town shuts down when the lights go up on Friday nights.”

Alex sighed. The football players in her family didn't get it. They were imagining a problem where there wasn't one. “Everything's going to be fine,” she assured them.

Tommy wagged his finger at her. “We're not in Massachusetts anymore, Dorothy.”

Alex finished her math problems in record time that night, moving on to plow through her science lab report. Across the kitchen table, Ava chewed the eraser on her pencil and stared at the ceiling.

How can we do our homework so differently?
Alex wondered.
We look exactly alike. We came from the same parents and entered the world at the same time.
Technically Alex showed up twelve minutes before Ava. “Alex is always first out the door,” her mom liked to joke.

Yet Ava had barely finished half her math problems. She stared distractedly around the room between each one, while Alex pushed
through, as if running a race. Tonight she wanted to spend time on a new room makeover website. Instructions for a do-it-yourself fabric bulletin board had caught her eye. If she could get her mom to help, she thought it didn't look too tricky.

“Ready to work?” Luke sauntered into the kitchen, surprising both of them. “Tommy let me in.”

“Hi!” Alex sang, stunned by his warm smile. She quickly straightened the gray T-shirt and flannel pajama pants she'd changed into after dinner. Why hadn't anyone told her Luke was coming? She would have worn something pretty. And put on makeup. Oh no! What did her face look like? She hadn't looked in the mirror since she'd come home.

“Oops, I forgot about you,” Ava admitted. “But I'm glad you're here. I'm kind of stuck.”

Luke pulled out a chair, then turned to Alex. “Sorry to kick you out of your study space.”

“No problem.” Alex gathered her books. “I was done anyway.”

“Okay, cool.” He pointed to her pencil sketch on her lab report. “Awesome cell diagram.”

“Really? Thanks!”

We're having our first real conversation!
Alex realized.

“What are you working on now?” he asked.

“Still scien—” Alex began.

“Math,” Ava answered, and Alex belatedly understood the question hadn't been for her.

“How are the problems going?” Luke had turned his full attention to Ava.

Alex felt hurt, then reminded herself that her parents were paying him to tutor Ava, not talk with her. She took her time organizing her papers.

“I can't answer a lot,” Ava admitted.

Luke glanced at her worksheet. “You're not trying. I know you can do these. Something is up, right?”

“Yeah,” Ava admitted slowly.

Alex gaped at Luke. How did he know? She was usually the first to sense when something bothered Ava.

“Football trouble,” Ava explained.

“You should talk to Daddy or Tommy,” Alex advised. “They'll help.”

“It's not
that
kind of football trouble.” Ava rapidly twirled her chewed-up pencil. “It's boy football trouble.” The story of Owen spilled out.
Ava squeezed her eyes shut as she finished. “Now the whole team is angry. They blame me.”

“How can they blame you? You didn't do anything,” Alex said. “You never asked him to like you.”

“Exactly!” Ava cried.

“It doesn't matter,” Luke interjected. “To a guy, it's very black and white. Owen's skills are tanking, and he's flipped out over you; therefore, other guys say you're the cause. No gray area there.”

“That's ridiculous!” Alex said. “Maybe I could talk to them.”

“Could you?” Ava sounded relieved.

“No,” Luke said. “Ava, you need to handle this on your own. Be proactive and stop it cold before this poor guy gets more lovesick and lousier on the field.”

“Stop what?” Ava asked. “What am I supposed to stop?”

“Stop him from liking you,” Luke said simply.

“Oh, yeah, like that's easy,” Ava scoffed.

“Find out all the things this Owen kid dislikes in a girl. The things that bother or annoy him.” Luke grinned. “Then do them. All of them!”

“I like the way you think!” Alex cried,
impressed with his take-charge attitude. “Owen will want nothing to do with you, Ave.”

A slow smile spread across Ava's face. “I could do that.”

Alex agreed. “You can fix this easily.”

Alex put Mission: Owen into effect Tuesday morning when she entered school. She'd agreed to help Ava, and her first stop was her friend Emily Campbell's locker. Emily lived next door to Owen, and as far as Alex knew, they'd known each other since they were in diapers.

“Love your top!” Alex called, as she approached.

Emily gazed up and grinned. “It's cute, right? I pulled it out of Julia's closet after she left this morning. She's only worn it once. I'm so dead if she finds out, but I figure I can put it back before she gets home. The high school lets out ten minutes after us.”

“Impressive! Living on the edge in the name of fashion.” Alex admired the rhinestones on the hem of Emily's blue-green ombré shirt. “You're so lucky that your sister has such an awesome
closet to raid. You'll have to run home fast. You live nearby, right?”

“Down the street.” Emily tucked her long blond hair behind her ears, as she leaned against her locker door.

“Oh right, aren't you on the same block as Owen Rooney?” Alex asked, as if she'd just stumbled on this fact. This was going easier than she'd planned.

“Next door. You know Owen?”

“Kind of. Not really.” Alex leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Can you tell me about him?”

Emily's eyes lit up. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything. Likes. Dislikes . . .” Alex's voice trailed off as Lindsey approached.

“Who are we talking about?” Lindsey dropped her canvas book bag onto the floor to rearrange her blond hair into its ponytail. Lindsey and Emily were the “three Bs”: blond, beautiful, and best friends. Alex had known instantly on the first day of school that they were the popular ones, and popular was where she wanted to be. She hadn't wasted any time becoming their friends. The added bonus was that they both turned out to be really nice.

“We're talking about Owen!” Emily squealed.

“Shh!” Alex cautioned, glancing around. The halls were crowded, but kids seemed more intent on putting books in lockers and getting to homeroom than listening to them. One more high-pitched squeal from Emily would quickly change that.

“Alex wants to know what he likes in a girl,” Emily confided to Lindsey.

“Really? You and Owen?” Lindsey sidled closer to Alex. She paused as if considering the match. “He seems a little quiet for you.”

“He's not bad-looking,” Emily put in. “And he's super nice.”

“I'm not asking for me,” Alex protested.

“Oh, please, like we'd ever believe that whole ‘I'm asking for a friend' routine.” Lindsey wrapped her arm warmly around Alex's shoulder. “You don't have to be shy with us. I like the idea of you being interested in Owen. I like it a lot!”

Alex was startled by Lindsey's reaction. Not that Alex had totally stopped liking Corey, but she'd assumed that with the two of them dating, and after she'd pretended to date and break up with Ava's best friend Charlie from back in Boston,
Lindsey no longer viewed Alex as a threat.

Maybe she'd been wrong.

“Em, tell her everything you know,” Lindsey encouraged.

“Seriously,” Alex said. “I'm not asking for me. It's for”—she knew Ava did not want her situation to go viral—“a girl on student council.”

“Really?” Emily asked suspiciously.

“Cross my heart,” Alex assured her. “I'm so not interested in him.”

“Who is?” Lindsey asked.

“A sixth-grade girl who'd be mortified if I told you,” Alex said. “So what's Owen's type?”

“I don't think he's ever had a girlfriend,” Emily said. “He's very chill, you know? He keeps things simple. He'd go for an easygoing girl he could pal around with. He doesn't like show-off girly-girl types. Whenever I wear makeup and go to the mall, he gets on my case. He hates the smell of hair spray and, get this, lavender. He gags when I wear my lavender hand cream.” She thrust her hand under Alex's nose. “I think it smells nice, don't you?”