Two Steps Back (5 page)

It doen't matter,
she decided.
Either way I'll get to go with Luke.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Honey?” Mrs. Sackett said, stepping over to Alex's desk. “May I ask that you not interrupt Luke and Ava while they're working together? You know your sister has a hard enough time concentrating. I thought putting them in the study would be a good plan, but we all need to let them work in peace.”

“Yes, sure, Mom,” said Alex, trying to keep her tone neutral. “Sorry about that.”

Mrs. Sackett nodded appreciatively and left.

Just like Romeo and Juliet,
Alex thought. Their
families tried to keep
them
apart too. But true love will prevail.

“Okay, Bryce, that was better,” said Ava. She trotted back to Bryce Hobson, a skinny sixth grader who also played kicker, and dumped the four footballs she'd retrieved onto the ground in front of him. “Now this time, make sure to keep your head down and kick through the ball,” she said. “And don't forget to keep your shoulders and hips in line with the center of the goalpost.”

Bryce blew out a puff of air and picked up one of the footballs. “It's hard to get fired up when I know we don't even have a game this Saturday,” he grumbled. Then he looked at her guiltily, as though it had just dawned on him that she was the reason they weren't playing. “No offense,” he added.

Ava pretended not to be bothered. “Yeah, I know it's hard to keep the energy up, but Coach wants us to go hard in practice like it's a game situation,” she said. But she knew he was right. She could sense a general feeling of “why bother?” from her teammates, and she didn't blame them. Without the Briar Ridge game to look forward to, it was tough to feel enthusiastic and to give it their all in practice. They'd worked so hard, all season, and Briar Ridge was one of their biggest opponents. For the zillionth time, she felt guilty, knowing she had the power to change the situation. All she had to do was to say she would sit out, and the game could go on.

But wasn't that giving in? Wasn't that letting them get away with it? She thought back to what Coach had said the night before. “Whatever you decide, I'm sure it will be for the good of the team.” Why was she the one who had to decide? It didn't seem fair.

When practice was over, Coach K called the team together for a talk. For a fleeting moment Ava's hopes soared, thinking that maybe Briar Ridge had backed down and she'd be allowed to play with her team. But one look at Coach K's grim face told her the Briar Ridge parents hadn't changed their minds.

“The situation with Briar Ridge has not changed, unfortunately,” he said.

A loud groan arose from the boys. Ava stared at the ground. Where was that little ant when she needed it?

“Isn't there
anything
we can do, Coach?” asked Andy Baker.

Ava didn't look up, but she felt him look her way and was well aware of the emphasis he'd placed on the word “anything.”

Corey spoke up. “Listen, guys, we play with Sackett or we don't play,” he said. “She's our best kicker. She's our
only
—” He stopped. “She's an important part of the team,” he corrected himself.

Ava knew he had been about to say
our only kicker
but must have realized he would hurt Bryce's feelings. Bryce wasn't terrible, but he was still so young, and still learning the technique. Plus, being a kicker meant you had to be able to deal with high-stress, high-pressure situations. Bryce was untested, and she was pretty sure Corey didn't trust him to be calm under difficult conditions. And Xander was a punter, which was a completely different kind of kicking, and he had more or less decided he wanted to play defense.

The other boys mostly nodded in agreement with Corey, but Andy and some of his buddies didn't look happy.

“Guys, the decision is yours, and I'll stick by it,” said Coach K. “I like your team spirit. It's a credit to AMS and to your character.”

Which only made Ava feel worse than ever.

By lunchtime on Thursday everyone at school had heard Briar Ridge was forfeiting, and everyone knew why. Ava was once again aware that she was the center of attention, the last place she wanted to be. As she wound her way through the tables toward where Alex and their friends were sitting, she sensed that kids stopped talking as she passed them. Her face was burning by the time she slid in between Kylie and Lindsey. Alex was across from her.

“We are so bummed!” said Lindsey before Ava had even taken a bite of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. “The cheer squad has been working really hard on a new routine for Saturday's game! I can't believe the Briar Ridge players and cheerleaders are accepting this ridiculous decision! I mean, hello? Can you say ‘twenty-first century'?”

Ava managed a tight smile, and then took a glum bite of her sandwich. Coach had forgotten to cut the crusts off this morning, a sign of how distracted he was these days. He always cut them off for her. Well, she could hardly complain. She chewed the dry crust and swallowed it down.

“Are you going to do your news piece about this?” Kylie asked Alex. “About Ava and football and Briar Ridge forfeiting the game rather than playing against a girl?”

Ava looked at Alex sharply. She waited to hear Alex tell everyone publicly that she wasn't going to do the story.

“Oh—ha-ha, that's a crazy idea,” said Alex. “Ava hates being the center of controversy. Kylie, I just love your shirt. Is it new?”

Ava looked at Alex with narrowed eyes. Was she trying to change the subject? Well, if she was, maybe that was a good thing. Because Ava didn't want to talk about the stupid Briar Ridge game either. Knowing her sister, she'd probably thought of five new ideas for her story. Thank goodness Alex had gotten
this
idea out of her mind.

“Well, I think the whole thing with Briar Ridge is completely idiotic,” Kylie said. “I just wish they'd let you play, Ava. Someone should start a protest or something.”

“I agree,” said Corey.

Lindsey nodded. She picked up Corey's baseball cap, which he'd placed on the table between them, and put it on her own head, backward.

“Thanks, you guys,” said Ava.

After lunch, Alex hurried to catch up to Ava. They headed to their lockers, which were side by side.

“So have you decided what you're going to do?” asked Alex, as she put her lunch bag away into her neatly organized shelving unit. “I mean, about the game.”

Ava looked at her, confused. She was trying to tug her social studies book out of the unsteady pile of books and papers in the top section of her locker without dislodging the whole stack. “I'm not
doing
anything,” she said. “It was my teammates' decision not to play without me, so Briar Ridge has chosen to forfeit the game.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, I know. Of course, no one on your team should ever ask you to say you won't play. But I just wondered . . . if you had thought about not playing. Your decision, you know. It could be a statement of its own—you ‘taking one for the team,' if you know what I mean.” She used air quotes to dramatize her point.

Ava blinked at her. Was Alex suggesting what Ava
thought
she was suggesting? “You think I should cave in to the Briar Ridge people? That I should tell my team to play the game without me?”

“Well, it's just something I thought you
might
consider,” said Alex quickly. “I mean, it's not the craziest idea in the world. Think about it: You'd be the hero for your teammates, and they'd probably be spurred on to win the game on your behalf.”

Ava slumped against her locker, feeling utterly confused. Her empty lunch bag, which she'd stuffed into a corner of her locker, popped back out and landed on the floor. She wanted this situation to be out of her hands, to have the outcome determined by other people. She was just a kid, a kid who liked to play football. She hated the fact that something she agreed to do or not do would have such a huge impact on everyone concerned. First her dad, and now her own sister, encouraging her to make this into a decision? Her head began to pound. Maybe Alex was right.

Just after the final bell rang that afternoon, Ava hurried to find Coach Kenerson before practice. He was packing up his stuff at his desk.

“Sackett,” he said. “What's up?”

Ava took a deep breath. “Coach, I've made a decision,” she said. “I'm going to sit out on Saturday. I want my teammates to be able to play that game.”

Coach K stopped shuffling through a stack of papers and blinked at her over his half-glasses. He seemed to be struggling to figure out how to react to Ava's decision. Finally he said, “You sure about that, Sackett?”

Ava thought she detected a hint of eagerness in his tone, and immediately she felt better about her decision. Even her coach wanted the game to be played! “I'm sure,” she said with more confidence now. “It's not everyone else's fault that the other team is being stupid and refusing to play. Our team shouldn't be punished for that. And I'll work with Bryce today and tomorrow and help him with his kicking. He's improved a lot, even this week.”

Coach K came around his desk and extended his large hand out for Ava to shake. She did, awkwardly. His grip was strong.

“I like your sense of team spirit, Sackett,” he said. “That shows real character, real class. What Briar Ridge is doing is wrong, and I hate letting them get away with it, but I appreciate you putting the team ahead of all this nonsense.”

“Thanks, Coach,” said Ava, quietly nursing her throbbing hand behind her back.

“Also,” he added with a sly grin, “I'm not going to lie. I'm looking forward to playing on Saturday because I want to kick Briar Ridge's butt.”

At dinner that night, Alex was once again preoccupied. What a mess. If Ava would only agree to sit out, she'd have a story. But Ava could be so stubborn, so
principled
sometimes. Alex gloomily rolled a pea back and forth across her plate.

Tommy was chattering away about his concert on Saturday night. “We've just recorded our first EP, and we're going to be selling it at the door.”

“What's an EP?” asked Coach.

Tommy rolled his eyes. “The fact that you don't know that, Coach, is precisely why you and Mom are not allowed to be there,” he said. “No offense.”

“It means an ‘extended play' sound track,” explained Mrs. Sackett. “He thinks it's embarrassing to have his old, uncool parents there, even though one of us knows what an EP is.”

Alex kept rolling the pea around, only half listening.

“You looked it up online,” said Tom with a grin. “And you still can't come. Coach tends to attract his own crowd when he goes out into the world, in case you hadn't noticed.”

“I understand, darling,” said Mrs. Sackett.

“Um, I made a decision,” said Ava suddenly.

Something about her tone caused everyone to stop and pay attention to her. Even Alex stopped playing with her food and looked at her.

“I've decided to sit out the game on Saturday.”

Coach and Mrs. Sackett both set their forks down and stared at Ava. Tommy's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Alex couldn't believe what she'd just heard Ava say. It was as though Ava had read her thoughts! The twins had, of course, been doing just that their whole lives—Tommy called it their creepy twin thing. They didn't just finish each other's sentences. They often seemed to sense what the other was thinking before the other had thought it yet. But how amazing was it for Ava to sense how badly Alex wanted to do this story about her, even if Ava didn't realize it herself?

Finally Tommy gave a low whistle. “You sure, Ave?” he asked. “That's kind of an epic decision.”