Even the Score (7 page)

“It's pretty,” Alex agreed, making a mental list for Ava. Already she could see why Owen liked her sister. “Anything else?”

“He likes sports and, oh yeah, he hates cats. Can't stand them.”

“Good to know,” Alex remarked. Where could she rustle up a cat for Ava?

“I need a list like this for Greg Fowler,” Emily said with a sigh.

“Isn't he a twin too?” Alex asked.

Emily nodded. “Greg is so much cuter than his brother Tim.”

“I want Em to hurry and get together with Greg, and then Corey and I can go with them to the dance,” Lindsey confided.

Instantly Alex saw them in her mind. Lindsey and Corey entering the dance, hand in hand, everyone turning to admire them. The perfect couple. Her insides twisted at the vision, and then the vision itself twisted. Now she stood in Lindsey's place.

Hand in hand with Corey, their fingers intertwined.

“I'm working up my nerve,” Emily said, jolting Alex back to reality. “I borrowed Greg's pencil yesterday.”

“What about you, Alex? Who's your dream date for the dance?” Lindsey prodded.

Your boyfriend.

Alex gulped. Yeah, right. But she had to say something.

“He's in high school,” she blurted out.

“For real? Tell all!” Lindsey commanded.

“His name is Luke, and he's friends with my brother Tommy,” Alex explained. “He's over at our house a lot, and we've talked a bunch.”

“Just you and him? Without Tommy?” Emily asked.

“Yeah. Really deep conversations. Not like this middle school stuff, you know?” Alex didn't mention that he was Ava's tutor. She didn't think her sister wanted that private information circulating either. “He appreciates how much I care about school. And he's so insanely cute!”

“A high school boy!” Emily squealed. “Do you think you'll see him again soon?”

“He told me specifically he was coming by my house later this week,” Alex said.

Emily's eyes bulged with admiration. Even Lindsey looked impressed.

“Well, got to get to class,” Alex said, knowing that if she stayed any longer, she risked messing up her story. As cute as Corey was, her high school guy totally outranked a middle school quarterback.

I did not lie,
she reminded herself as she walked away. She pushed down the tendril of guilt snaking through her brain. Luke
had
told her he was coming back for another tutoring session. Besides, Lindsey had asked about her dream date. Luke was the definition of a dream date.

If she couldn't go out with Corey, she might as well dream about Luke.

Ava was dying to turn around.

Eyes on the board,
she reminded herself. She watched Jack find the missing angle of an obtuse triangle. He attacked the problem, writing on the board with sure, certain strokes.

I'll look back after he finishes. No, after the next problem is solved,
she decided.

Ever since the beginning of math class, Ava had been twisting in her seat to catch a glimpse of Owen.

Owen watching her.

His gray-green eyes trained on her.

As if she were doing something interesting.

She didn't get it. She'd barely had time to
brush her hair and throw on a sweatshirt this morning before racing to catch the bus. He'd be better off staring at Bridget Malloy, who sat next to her. Her shiny hair was woven into an intricate French braid with turquoise ribbon expertly threaded through it. And the ribbon matched her turquoise ruffled shirt!

Ava shook her head. No, Owen should be thinking about Kylie. She hoped Alex was getting good dirt on Owen, so she could shut down this staring business. But she also needed to get him interested in Kylie. Maybe that was the trick. If she could show him how great Kylie was, he'd stop caring about
her
. Kylie was awesome. He just didn't know it yet.

She jolted when the end-of-class bell rang. She hadn't noticed the time. As all the kids pushed toward the door, she gathered the worksheets scattered haphazardly across her desk.

I have to get organized,
she thought for the millionth time as she shoved the papers into her binder, not bothering to open the rings. Two worksheets fluttered to the floor, and she knelt to pick them up.

“Need help?” Owen hovered above her, looking amused.

“No, no, I'm good,” she assured him, righting herself. She glanced around. They were the only two left in the classroom. Even Mrs. Vargas had fled.

Another awkward silence.

Owen watched her expectantly.

Ava wished a football would suddenly appear. If she had a football to toss with him, things would feel normal. They wouldn't have to talk if they had a football.

“Great kick yesterday,” Owen said.

“Thanks,” Ava replied shakily.
Why is he repeating himself? And why am I so nervous?
She never usually had problems talking to boys about sports.
And that's what this is,
she reminded herself.
We're talking about football.

“The wind was cooperating yesterday,” she went on. “I hate that dry wind you have here in Texas. Do you know what I'm talking about?”

Ava babbled on about velocity and wind speed as they headed for the door. She wondered how to transition the conversation to Kylie.

“My friend sometimes helps me with my kicks,” she began, although this wasn't true.

“Look, uh,” Owen broke in. “Thisisforyou.
Ithoughtyou—ImeanIhopeyou—” His words rocketed out in an enormous run-on sentence that she couldn't decipher.

Face flushed, Owen tried to continue. “Iboughtthisforyou.” He thrust a small pink box with a tiny bow into her hands. Then he took off down the hall, racing away as if the opposing team had sent all their linebackers after him.

Ava watched him go in a daze. Slowly she lifted the top off the box. A delicate silver bracelet lay nestled in a fluff of white cotton. She lifted it to the light. A tiny silver football charm dangled from the bracelet's center.

She blinked rapidly. A boy had given her jewelry.
Her! Jewelry!
The concept was too unreal.

She wished she liked him back. But she didn't.

She thought of the team. Of Coach K's disapproving glare. Of Corey and Xander's frustration as Owen failed to complete pass after pass. And of Kylie's eager face.

She tucked the bracelet back into its box. She would give it back. No question about that.

She wondered what would happen next. Would returning Owen's gift make things better—or worse?

“Alex! I've been looking for you!”

The halo of Ms. Palmer's frizzy auburn hair rose above the crowd in the hallway.

“Alex!” Ms. Palmer's voice grew louder, and kids turned. “It's urgent!”

Uh-oh. Ms. Palmer was her English teacher, as well as the student council adviser. Alex quickly reviewed what had happened in class yesterday. Had she done something wrong? Ms. Palmer had given them a timed write on
Lord of the Flies
, but Alex thought she had done fine. She knew she had written at least a page more than the girl next to her had.

“Quick! Come with me. We'll talk and walk.”
Ms. Palmer reached for Alex's shoulder and guided her down the hall at a clipped pace. “I need you to jump in.”

“Where?” Alex dodged elbows and shoelaces in an effort to keep up. She gripped her brown paper bag that held the turkey sandwich her dad had made for lunch.

“Chloe went home sick. She was supposed to announce the student council's reallocation of the funds over the loudspeaker.”

“When?”

“Right now.” Ms. Palmer slowed in front of the office. “I need you to make the announcement. I wrote it out for you. Short and sweet. Okay?”

Ms. Palmer didn't leave her any time to decide. Before she knew it, she stood in front of the microphone. Ms. Palmer thrust a smartphone in front of her with the screen open to a paragraph.

“And now a special announcement from seventh-grade class president Alexandra Sackett,” Mrs. Gusman, the school secretary, said over the loudspeaker. Alex cleared her throat and began to read from the tiny screen.

A moment later Mrs. Gusman was back on, reciting a list of after-school activities.

“Thank you,” Ms. Palmer breathed. “You were great. Professional, even.”

Alex thought her voice sounded good. She'd made herself speak slowly. “No problem!” She waved as she left the office.

The smells of taco sauce and nacho cheese assaulted her as she pushed through the cafeteria door. Lunch period was halfway over, and the overcooked scent of the hot lunch made her hungry. She glanced toward her usual table in the back. Shrieks of laughter, the clatter of silverware, a chant from the girls' volleyball team filled the tightly packed room. She wondered if her friends had even heard her over the roar in here.

The noise was so soft at first that she didn't register it.

Then it rose around her. A low rumbling.

Alex glanced sideways toward a table crammed with boys sitting shoulder to shoulder. Paper plates piled with taco remains littered the surface in front of them. They booed in unison.

Alex startled, frozen to the spot.
Are they booing at me?

She checked her clothes. Everything was in place. No embarrassing stains that she could see.
No sticky notes with weird messages attached.

The booing grew loud enough for her to hear, but not loud enough to attract the teachers' attention. She recognized a few faces. Football players. Boys on Ava's team.

They kept booing.

And it was definitely meant for
her
!

Alex bolted toward Lindsey and Emily. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Ava across the large room, but Lindsey and Emily were closer. All she wanted was to sit with her friends and figure out what was going on.

“Hi.” Alex fought to keep the strain out of her voice. She squeezed onto the bench alongside Emily and Rosa Navarro. Breathing deeply, she forced her body to relax and pulled her sandwich from her bag. Everything would be okay now.

“Hi,” Emily said, the single word noticeably frosty.

“Traitor,” muttered Xander, who sat across from her and next to Corey and Lindsey.

“Excuse me?” Alex asked.

“That was really harsh, Alex, what you did.” Xander crossed his arms defiantly across his chest.

“What I did?” Alex's eyes darted nervously
about the table, landing on Corey. Corey's usually warm, playful smile had turned icy.

“You canceled the scoreboard,” Lindsey explained.

“That wasn't me. That was the student council,” Alex defended herself.

“But aren't you on the student council?” Xander asked.

“Yeah, aren't you our
president
?” Rosa added, emphasizing her title and the blame that suddenly came with it.

“Yes, but—” She explained the drama club's plight and repeated her promise to buy the scoreboard next year. “The team can still play this year without a new scoreboard. A touchdown is a touchdown even if you have to scratch the score in the dirt.”

“What?” Xander cried. “You want us to do
that
?”

Corey echoed his outrage.

Immediately Alex realized her mistake. “I didn't mean it like that. All I'm saying is that the scoreboard you have still works, and whether it's new or old, it doesn't affect how you play or if you play. Without sets and costumes, there'd be no musical.”

“That makes no sense,” Corey scoffed.

“Girls shouldn't be allowed to make decisions like this,” Xander added.

“It's not a girl thing.
I
would have chosen the scoreboard,” Rosa insisted, tearing into a bag of chips. She offered some to Emily and Lindsey.

“It wasn't just me!” Alex repeated. She chewed her sandwich slowly. The turkey felt dry against her throat.

For a moment, no one said anything. Then Lindsey began comparing flavors at a new frozen yogurt place. Everyone chimed in, but only Emily bothered to ask Alex her favorite.

Suddenly she wasn't hungry. “I'm going to toss this,” she announced, rewrapping her sandwich. She headed across the room toward the one person who would always be on her side.

“Ave, I don't get it,” Alex said, as she plopped down next to her twin.

“Get what?” Kylie leaned forward. She sat across from Ava.

“I'm guessing the football players and the cheerleaders aren't skipping down the yellow brick road after your big announcement?” Ava said.

“More like they're about to drop a house on me!”

“Sorry,” Kylie said, shaking her head. “That's rough.”

“And those guys”—Alex raised her chin in the direction of the boys—“were booing me! Can you believe it?”

“I told you so.” Ava sighed.

Alex tilted her head. “What's that mean?”