Go! Fight! Twin! (8 page)

On Wednesday morning the twins raced toward the girls' locker room before school started. The list was posted on the bulletin board just outside. A clump of girls was already there, so they had to wait before they could get close enough to see the list. Some were looking thrilled. More than a few looked like they were about to cry.

“Madison Jackson must not have made it,” Alex whispered to Ava, as Madison walked past them dejectedly.

Ava nodded grimly.

Finally Alex and Ava were able to step up to the posted sheet. They stood side by side, scanning the names.

Alex saw her own name first, but she couldn't get her brain to compute. “Wait,” she said. “If my name is on the list, does that mean I was cut or that I made it?”

Ava made a little fist pump upon seeing Alex's name, but almost immediately seemed to regret
having done so. A stricken look appeared on her face. “Al, it means we made it.” She pointed to the note at the top of the sheet:

The following girls should report to cheerleading practice today, Wednesday, at three fifteen p.m. Thank you to everyone who tried out.—Coach Jen

Alex was still having trouble absorbing this information. “Wait. When you say I made the team, do you mean, I made the team?” She looked at Ava reproachfully. “This wasn't supposed to happen, Ava. What did you do? Execute a back aerial or something?”

Ava started to retort, but several more girls were crowding in to have a look at the list. So she pulled Alex back a few steps, out of earshot.

“I'm sorry. I tried. It isn't easy to flub up on purpose. You'll have to tell Coach Jen you can't do it,” said Ava.

Alex shook her head. “Not after all this. I can't.
Why would I go through three days of tryouts and then quit? You just have to go back today.”

“Al, you know I'm not going to do that. You're on the team now. You either do your best or you tell the coach you're quitting. You'll just have to figure this out,” said Ava.

And Alex could see that she meant it. This time, there would be no talking her into it. Ava cared too much about football to miss another real practice. Besides, she was right. What good would it do if Ava showed up today? There would be tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. At some point, Alex was either going to have to start going to practice, or she would need to quit.

“Congratulations, Alex!” said a girl passing them.

Alex smiled weakly. “Thanks.” She was struggling not to reproach Ava for being so competitive. Couldn't she have been a little less good, for once? But knowing Ava, Alex should have realized this would happen. This was a disaster. A horrifying realization dawned on her. “There's a pep rally last period on Friday,” she said. “What am I going to do? I have no idea how to do the routine!”

“Go to practice today and learn it,” said
Ava, and she headed away to class.

Alex stared after her sister. Ever since she'd told Ava about the date with Jack that she'd said yes to, Ava had seemed very irritable with her. Really, Alex was the one who had the right to be mad at her. This was all so wrong.

At cheerleading practice that afternoon, Alex joined Lindsey, Emily, and Rosa for stretching.

“We're going to be so awesome!” squealed Emily excitedly as she stretched out her long legs in front of her and bent over to effortlessly touch her nose to her knees.

Alex tried that too. She couldn't get within ten inches of her knees. She tried the stretch Lindsey was doing, which looked slightly more manageable. One leg bent in a half cross-legged position, the other crossed over it, her body turned to one side. Wait. How did this work? She was getting it all wrong. She stretched out her triceps instead, which was much easier. You just pointed an elbow up alongside one ear and pulled it gently with the other hand.

“I was a little afraid Molly might make it
instead of you, Alex,” said Lindsey in a low voice. “She still gets a day more to try out, but I don't think she's totally back to normal. Coach told my mom that if Molly's good enough, we'll just have one extra girl on the squad. But I don't think she's anywhere near as flexible as you are. Maybe she can try again in the spring.”

Alex looked over at Molly, who was sprawled out in a split. She gulped as she watched Molly bend her head over her knee and touch it with her nose. She was as graceful as a swan. Alex redoubled her efforts at stretching out her triceps.

“How's your ankle, by the way?” asked Emily.

“My ankle? Fine. Why?” asked Alex.

“Um, because you said it was bothering you yesterday,” prompted Emily. “After you landed on it funny?”

“Oh, yes, right,” said Alex weakly. “It's better.”

Coach Jen called the team over and practice began.

On the late bus home, Ava tried to console Alex. “You can't have been that terrible, Al.”

“Oh, Ava! I was beyond terrible!” moaned Alex. “I was a catastrophe! I didn't know any of the routines! I had no clue what anyone was talking about! Coach Jen just looked dismayed every time she looked at me. I almost dropped a girl when I was supposed to lace my fingers together and then boost her up onto Emily's knee!”

Ava grimaced. “So what happened?”

“I told Emily and Lindsey I'm going to quit.”

“Smart.”

“But they talked me out of it.”

“They—they talked you out of it? How?”

“They said that everyone has an off day, and that I've got too much talent to quit. They made me realize that the team needs me. And Molly wasn't very good either. Emily and Lindsey said so themselves. They said maybe she'll be okay when her ankle heals, but that I'm bigger and stronger than she is so they can use me to spot until I'm ‘back to my old self.' ” For the last part she crooked her fingers in air quotes.

“What if you tell Coach Jen your ankle is too sore? She knows I landed on it funny the other day. You can tell her it's bothering you and ask if you can be the manager.”

“I think she already has a manager. She picked Ariel Salina, who got cut on the second day. So if I don't stay on the team, I'll have to do some other sport instead!” She buried her face in her hands.

“Maybe you weren't as bad as you thought,” said Ava uncertainly.

Alex lifted her head out of her hands. She'd brightened considerably. “Do you think so?”

“Um, well . . . ” To be honest, Ava didn't think so. She was just trying to cheer Alex up. Chances were Alex had been worse than she thought.

“Because that's what Emily and Lindsey told me, too!” Alex said eagerly. “Maybe I wasn't as bad as I thought!”

Ava's heart sank. Alex was so willing to take people at face value. She doubted Emily and Lindsey had really meant what they'd said to Alex, any more than she'd meant what she'd said.

“And Coach Jen must not think I'm all that awful, because she assigned me to be a spotter for the pep rally,” Alex continued. “I guess I'm pretty strong for my size. Or, well, you are. But how badly could I mess up spotting?”

Ava grimaced. “Well, Al, as Tommy pointed out, it's kind of important not to drop someone on her head.”

Alex laughed. “I think I can handle it, Ave.”

Later that evening Ava and Tommy reviewed the plan for Friday night.

“So I'll meet you outside the locker room as soon as halftime starts,” said Ava. “I'll have your bag of concert stuff ready for you.”

“Good,” said Tommy. “And Luke says he'll be waiting to take me to the concert. Mom's definitely going out with her friend, so that part's all set.”

“Did she tell you who her friend was?” asked Ava. “Because she was kind of mysterious with me about it.”

“Just a friend from back in Massachusetts who's in town for the night, was all she said,” said Tommy with a shrug. “She said it was someone passing through on her way somewhere else.”

That reminded Ava about Charlie. She needed to figure out what to do about him. Should she
tell him about Jack? Or just let things . . . fade out naturally?

Her phone buzzed with a text from Jack. Was that fate speaking to her? She felt her face get warm and hoped Tommy wouldn't notice.

Of course Tommy noticed. He raised one eyebrow. “Need to reply to that, Ave? Don't let me stop you.”

She flushed deeper. “Guess I better,” she said, and left the room.

Alex swallowed hard and braced herself. It was Thursday afternoon, at practice, and Annelise, the flier, stood above Alex's head. One of her feet was in Lindsey's intertwined hands, the other foot was in Rosa's. Her arms were up in a high V. Alex was the back spotter. Emily was the front spotter.

Coach Jen was counting them through the high stunt called an extension prep. “. . . Five, six, seven, eight!”

Lindsey and Rosa hoisted Annelise up into the air. She twirled once around, her body taut, her arms clasped to her chest, and then bounced down into the girls' waiting arms. Alex caught
her from behind, and together they lowered her feetfirst to the floor.

“Nice, girls,” said Coach Jen. “Let's do it one more time.”

Alex reapplied her lip balm from the tube Ava had loaned her. As Coach Jen began the count, she hastily shoved it into the tiny pocket of her shorts and braced herself to spot Annelise again.

“. . . Five, six, seven, eight!” The two bases and two spotters clapped, turned, and hoisted Annelise.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!”

Up she went in a high V, and then dipped down.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!”

Up she went, spun, and—

“Eeee!” shrieked Rosa, as all of a sudden she toppled to the ground.

In slow motion, Alex saw Annelise spin once in the air, and wobble lopsidedly where Rosa was no longer standing.

Alex lunged to the side and threw her body underneath the spinning girl, who fell down to the floor on top of her. Alex's chin hit the ground hard and Annelise landed mostly on Alex's back and upper thighs. She felt a sharp pain radiate
from her chin to all her nerve endings.