Lucy Doesn't Wear Pink (11 page)

At least Mr. Auggy didn’t give their papers back with big red Fs on them the next day. He didn’t even mention the assignment all morning, and by the time recess came around, Lucy could even get a little bit excited about playing soccer. Maybe Mr. Auggy would teach her about that thing he’d mentioned yesterday.

But when she ran onto their little playing field, ball tucked under her arm, J.J. stopped her with a jerk of his head. His eyes were colder than the air.

“What?” Lucy said.

“What’s he doing here?”

Lucy twisted to see where J.J. was directing his icicle stare. A big, dark-haired boy stood with his back to them, talking to Mr. Auggy. Lucy put the ball up so she could make a face at J.J. behind it.

“That’s Gabe,” she said.

“Duh,” J.J. replied.

“Did he get in trouble?” Lucy peered hopefully over the top of the ball. “Is Mr. Auggy yelling at him?”

“I don’t hear any yelling.”

“Lucy.” There was a tug at her sweatshirt sleeve. Januarie was using the Chihuahua voice.

“Not now,” J.J. said.

“No —listen. Mr. Auggy’s telling that mean kid he can play with us.”

Lucy watched J.J.’s eyes turn to ice cubes. Lucy was sure her own eyes weren’t a whole lot warmer.

“I don’t want to play with him,” Januarie said. “He called me a name one time.”

“Only once?” Lucy said. “You got off lucky.”

“I’m not playing with him,” J.J. said between his teeth, and he slunk, head down, to the nearest wall and stuck himself against it.

“Are you playing, Lucy?” Januarie said. “’Cause if you’re not, I’m not.”

Lucy watched as Mr. Auggy dropped a ball to the ground. Where had that come from? She always brought the ball. He said something to Gabe, who tapped it with the side of his foot and caught it lightly with the other one, dribbling several feet before Mr. Auggy smiled his small smile and captured the ball from him.

“He knows how to play,” Lucy said, more to herself than to Januarie.

Mr. Auggy blew his whistle, and the little team straggled toward him, all except J.J. Lucy saw Oscar and Emanuel and Carla Rosa casting cautious glances at Gabe, who ignored them all as he bounced the ball off his knee.

“Are
you?” Januarie said. She was pulling so hard on Lucy’s sleeve it was sliding off her shoulder.

“He won’t want to stick around for very long,” Lucy said. “I guess I’ll play.”

Januarie gave a final yank and held most of Lucy’s sleeve in her hand. “Don’t let him hurt me.”

It occurred to Lucy that Mr. Auggy wouldn’t let Gabe hurt anybody. He was all about rules and being fair. Lucy grunted. Everybody was about rules these days.

“You all know Gabe?” Mr. Auggy said when they’d gathered around him in a ragged circle.

Nobody looked at Gabe. They just nodded at the ground. Lucy sneaked a peek at him as he swept his gaze at the tops of their heads and shrugged, like it didn’t matter whether they knew him or not. Lucy looked back at the still-icy J.J., frozen to the wall.

She tilted up her chin. “Yeah,” she said. “I know him. He almost ran over me with an ATV one time.”

Carla Rosa gasped. Mr. Auggy’s eyebrows went into upside-down
V
s. Gabe muttered something about being sorry he’d missed. If Mr. Auggy heard it, he didn’t show it. Of course not. No teachers ever came down on Gabe. He was in the smart classes, and he was never mean to white kids in front of the faculty. Besides, he was the sheriff ’s son.

“Nobody’s going to be running over anybody on my soccer field.” Mr. Auggy danced his eyes over them. “Understood?”

Everybody gave an automatic nod.

“Then let’s play some soccer!”

So now it was “his” soccer field. And his ball. And his choice of players.

What was up with everybody taking over everything that was hers?

“Lucy — throw in,” Mr. Auggy said.

And then the ball was in her hands, and she was sailing it over her head, and Gabe was trapping it with his thigh. Then Mr. Auggy was calling for Oscar to pass the ball — to plant it first and then —

They were playing soccer.

As Mr. Auggy darted back and forth among them, he captured the ball and taught them the push pass, and then he let them practice driving the ball up and down the field. Carla Rosa fell down a lot.

Januarie mostly stood there and squealed happily. Gabe passed fast and crisp and got the ball to somebody every time. Emanuel and Oscar sometimes actually got control of the ball. After the first time, when Gabe smirked and told Lucy under his breath that she played like a girl, she never missed it.

“Lead your teammate!” Mr. Auggy called to Gabe. “Don’t pass it to where she is now — think about where she’ll be in two seconds.”

Lucy knew where she wished Gabe were, but she didn’t pass it all the way there — to Texas. It was too good, keeping up with this kid who thought he was David Beckham. It was way good.

“You guys rock!” Mr. Auggy said when the bell rang.

“What about us girls?” Januarie said.

Gabe hissed through his teeth, but Mr. Auggy high-fived the breathless Januarie. “You are all gonna rule the field pretty soon if you keep this up.”

The rest of the group headed for the water fountain, except for Gabe. He sauntered off to the regular sixth-grade wing, and Lucy expected him to kick back dust like a dog.

“So, Miss Lucy.” She looked at Mr. Auggy, who was now strolling beside her, twirling the soccer ball on his finger. “What’s up with J.J. Do you know?”

Lucy shrugged.

He stopped twirling. “Guess I’ll have to ask him.”

“No,” Lucy said. “I’ll ask him.”

The mood J.J. was in, he was sure to get himself thrown into detention if Mr. Auggy even said his name.

J.J. was only just beginning to peel himself away from the wall when Lucy reached him. She didn’t have to ask a single thing.

“I can’t believe you played with Gabe,” he said.

Lucy stared. “You’re mad at
me
?”

J.J. jammed his hands in his pockets and stalked toward the portable with Lucy on his heels.

“I didn’t ask him to play,” she said.

“Whatever.”

“J.J.!”

He stopped just short of the metal steps that led up to their classroom. “I’m done,” he said. “I’m not playing with Januarie or him. You can. I’m not.”

Lucy stood at the bottom and watched somebody she didn’t know disappear through the door. Had everybody in the world decided to have personality transplants, all at the same time?

The next day, she decided they had. Not only did J.J. sulk at the wall again when recess started, but as Lucy arrived with the ball — just in case they needed two — she saw two female figures flanking Gabe like a pair of giggling bookends.

“Will he let us play?” Veronica said, lip hanging almost onto Gabe’s shoulder. “Even if we don’t know how?”

Oh, nuh-
uh.

“I know how,” Dusty said. She waggled her head back and forth on her skinny neck. “Well, sort of.”

“Nobody else knows how to play either,” Gabe said. “ ’Cept me.”

Lucy chomped right down on her lip to keep from yelling, “Hel-lo-o!”

She didn’t want to sound like the two who were practically drooling on Gabe’s shoes and scooping their hair into ponytails as if they were actually going to do something athletic.

“Did you bring more recruits?” Mr. Auggy stopped juggling the ball with his thigh, to Carla and Januarie’s squeals, and tipped it to Oscar. He tried to catch it with his chest, and dumped himself straight to the ground on top of it.

“Is that how you do it?” Veronica said.

“I told you they don’t know how to play,” Gabe said to Dusty.

“To you, Mr. Gabe.” Mr. Auggy suddenly had the ball and was kicking it, high, to Gabe. He had no choice but to try to head it, but it bounced off the top and went straight up into nowhere.

“I guess we could all use some lessons,” Mr. Auggy said.

Lucy smothered a smile. Okay. She’d give him a point for that.

“You ladies want to play?” Mr. Auggy said.

Lucy felt her face stiffen again as Veronica and Dusty looked at Gabe and giggled and nodded and basically acted more like they were going out on a date than out on the soccer field.

“A few basics, then,” Mr. Auggy said.

While he was starting all over with them, Lucy took her own ball and motioned Oscar, Emanuel, and Carla Rosa over. Januarie stood watching Dusty and Veronica as if Hannah Montana and her sidekick Lilly had just joined the team.

“Let’s do that one juggling drill he taught us,” she said. “Get in a circle.”

“Hey,” Gabe said.

“What?” Lucy said. She bounced the ball off her foot once, twice, three times.

“How come your boyfriend isn’t playing?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.” Lucy sent the ball to Oscar with her thigh.

“You missed,” Carla Rosa said.

Gabe trapped it with his foot and bounced it up to his thigh where he kept it going for four, then five bounces. “He’s your boyfriend,” he said, and made a kissing sound.

“Then those two must be your girlfriends,” Lucy said.

The ball came at her. She caught it with her chest and started a juggle with her foot.

“They worship me,” Gabe said.

“Excuse me while I go throw up.” Lucy passed the ball to Emanuel, but it went past his foot and rolled to where Mr. Auggy was cheering Veronica on in a clumsy dribble.

“Hey, Mr. Aug — !” Oscar put his hands on his stocky hips. “Why can’t we just play?”

“You throw in,” Mr. Auggy said. “Miss Dusty, you’re on my team with Miss Januarie and — ” He looked back at the wall, where J.J. was pretending to be asleep. “Mr. E. — you come over to my side.”

Why couldn’t he take Gabe? Now it was her, Gabe, Oscar, Carla Rosa, and Veronica. She’d rather stick her hand in a blender.

“Choose a goalie!” Mr. Auggy said, over Januarie’s whining that she wanted to be on Lucy’s team.

“You,” Gabe said, pointing to Oscar. “With all that fat, you should be able to block a ball.”

Lucy looked at Mr. Auggy, but he was huddled with his team. They came out shouting, and Januarie headed for the cones at the other end of the area. It was pretty clear he didn’t expect anybody to get close to making a goal.

“Do you think Gabe is cute?”

Lucy turned to find Veronica’s lips almost at her ear. She was twiddling with her blackish ponytail, which hung down one side of her head.

“Huh?” Lucy said.

“Gabe. Do you think he’s cute?”

“No. Ick.”

Ickety-
ick.

“Heads up!” Mr. Auggy shouted.

The ball came out of nowhere, and Lucy ran right into it and kept going, that is, until a foot came between hers and she was on the ground spitting out playground dust. Above her, a whistle blew.

“There will be none of that,” Mr. Auggy said.

Lucy scrambled up in time to see Dusty blink at him as if he were speaking Chinese.

“Tripping,” he said. “That’s a foul. The other team gets a direct kick.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Dusty said.

“That’s good to hear,” Mr. Auggy said. “Because, seriously, if a fight breaks out, the game stops. Who wants that, right?”

“Not me!” Carla Rosa said.

There were some other mumbles. Gabe looked like he would love nothing better.

“I just want to play soccer,” Lucy said.

“Then let’s do it.” Mr. Auggy tossed her the ball. “You know what to do.”