Nothing But Horses (17 page)

“All guys who do rodeo aren’t boys,” Olivia
said.

“The ones who date my mother are.”

Cedar looked up at the grandstand and waved
at my family. “The one with her tonight doesn’t look much like he
does rodeo.”

“No, he’s her latest flavor of the month.
He’s pretty decent.” I shrugged. “He won’t last. I give it six
months. She’ll dump him by March.”

“That’s pretty cynical,” Olivia said. “Don’t
you want your mom to be happy?”

“I love my mom, but I know her.”

“Like I know my dad.” Kanisha tossed a smile
my way. “I’ll be okay now.”

“You’ll do great,” I said. “I’m counting on
you to hit the basket every time like you do during practice. I’ve
never seen you miss a shot.”

Her smile widened and she straightened.
Olivia frowned, but before I could ask what was wrong now, the ref
blew the whistle. The players circled for the tip-off. I expected
Patricia to choose Zoey to represent us. She was taller than me,
but no way. Patricia went up, lost the ball and Baker got
possession.

Game on and we were already behind. It didn’t
get much better through the first quarter. Baker scored repeatedly.
Their squad was in sync and ours was all over the floor. Patricia
managed to get two baskets, but Baker was up by twenty at the end
of the first quarter. Coach thought I was a diva. He should open
his eyes and see what his princess was doing tonight.

Second quarter, I ran out and took over for
Zoey. She bumped my shoulder. “Good luck.”

“I make my own.” I glanced at the rest of the
group. Okay, it was me, Kanisha, Patricia and two other girls that
I didn’t know very well, Didi, and Willow. We’d practiced together,
so it was going to work.

Baker had the ball when the ref blew the
whistle, but that didn’t last long. I shadowed the tall brunette
from the other school and stole the ball in mid-dribble. Time for a
turn-around. Lincoln was winning tonight and I took the ball down
the floor. Kanisha was by the basket, so I passed to her and she
scored. All right! We’d catch up by half-time. I ignored the cheers
and jogged partway down the court, ready to do it again.

Chapter
Fifteen

Marysville, Washington

Thursday, January
9
^th
, 7:40 pm

Four minutes until half-time. I’d played the
way our coach wanted, passing the ball to whoever was closest to
the basket. I didn’t diss Patricia. She called the plays we’d
practiced, using different numbers for each one. I tried to follow
her directions, but my bottom line was keeping Baker from scoring
while Lincoln narrowed the gap.

Three minutes. I passed to Kanisha. I heard
someone yelling her name from the stands. And she air-balled. How
could she miss now? It didn’t matter. I caught the ball, dunked it.
The crowd went wild. I heard them yelling my name and number
thirteen. She ran beside me. “You okay?”

“I’m sorry.” Kanisha took a breath. “Skip me
next time.”

“No. You’re the best out here.” I went for
the ball.

Patricia and I took turns dribbling it down
to our basket. Willow was closest, so she scored the next time. One
minute left. I stole from the Baker brunette who tried to keep the
ball back at the start of the quarter. She failed. I headed down
the court. Kanisha was in position, so I passed.

Air-ball again. I didn’t freak out. I got the
ball back and shot from the three-point line.

Time!

And we were ahead by two points!

The ref blew his whistle and we were off the
court.

In the locker room, I chugged water and
listened to Coach Norris. He praised the way we worked together.
Kanisha told him she couldn’t play again and he asked if she was
injured. When she admitted that she wasn’t, he told her to get it
together by the last quarter and she’d be fine. He gave her the
“winners never quit and quitters never win,” line. Olivia leaned in
and whispered that Kanisha wouldn’t be an asset the last quarter.
Once she fell apart, she never got back the magic.

“Then, have everyone do assists at the end of
the game,” I said softly.

Olivia nodded. She had a strategy now and
both of us could sit and listen to the coach’s pep talk. He
signaled for me to walk out beside him when we headed back to the
game.

“Did you hear the crowd tonight? They think
you’re the new star. I don’t like heroes.”

“Actually, Coach, when I’m playing, I ignore
them.” That got me a long, disbelieving look and I shrugged.

I’d always considered my mom’s husbands and
boyfriends, her “scout troop,” and they usually wanted to impress
her by telling me what to do on the court or soccer field. A couple
managed to distract me when I played in middle school. My coach
back then told me that if I focused on the game, we’d win. If I let
a bunch of losers influence me, we’d lose. Since I didn’t like
losing, I quit listening to the audience.

I headed to the bench and sat next to
Kanisha. A pony-tailed, short guy in faded blue jeans and a plaid
shirt that stretched over his beer gut was behind us. He started
telling her everything she’d done wrong in the last quarter. I
turned and looked him up and down. “She doesn’t need you nagging
her right now. She has a coach and he’s happy with her.”

“What? How can he be? She’s a failure.”

“Yeah, right. You couldn’t run from one end
of the court to the other without having a heart attack. Go harass
Coach.” That silenced the moron for a moment. I leaned forward and
caught Zoey’s eye. The tall blonde stood and came to me.
“What?”

“Trade places with Kanisha.”

“Then, I can’t tell her how to play next
time.” The middle-aged wanta-be player in the stands protested.

I glanced at Zoey and Kanisha before I eyed
her father again. “That’s the idea, jerk-brain.” I elbowed Kanisha.
“Move down.”

She did and Zoey sat beside me. We ignored
the idiot behind us. He squawked and muttered for a while because
there wasn’t any room behind Kanisha. Soon, he was back to watching
the game and hollering whenever our team scored. So, he wasn’t all
bad.

I flicked a glance at Zoey. “Thanks.”

“No. Thank you. I can’t believe you got us
ahead after that dismal first quarter.”

“Yeah, well Olivia’s keeping us there.”

We sat and watched while Lincoln piled up the
points. As point guard, Olivia had a different style than Patricia.
The plays might be the same, but Olivia knew the squad’s strengths.
She was better than I had ever been. She alternated passing to the
wings and forwards. Baker never figured out who would have the ball
or be scoring for us. At the end of third quarter, we were ahead by
nineteen points.

Zoey, Kanisha and I went in for the last
quarter. Cedar stayed and so did Olivia. We had a rhythm.
Dribbling, passing and scoring. Anytime, it looked like Kanisha
would have the ball, one of the other three was there to assist. I
stayed to the side and saved the day, either dunking or shooting a
three-point whenever she missed a shot. The little Junior Varsity
cheerleaders spent more time dancing than sitting and the audience
was yelling. Grandpa and Autumn were the loudest of them all.

Two minutes left and Didi ran up to me.
“Coach wants you out and me in.”

“You’re kidding.” I glanced at him, saw the
fierce frown and sighed. “Crap. Okay, help Kanisha as much as you
can.” I ran off the court and sat down between him and Patricia.
“This majorly sucks. We’re winning.”

“Because you’re showing off.” Anger showed in
his tense body. “I told you when you arrived, you could either be
good or great. Tonight, you’re good. But, you’re not a team
player.”

Tears burned. I bit my lip. I never cried. I
wouldn’t do it here. I grabbed Patricia’s towel and buried my face
for a moment. I knew everyone would think I was wiping away sweat.
She elbowed me and I handed back the towel. “Thanks.”

“No worries.” She passed me a bottle of
water. When the coach turned back to face the ref, Patricia leaned
in close and whispered. “He’s wrong. We are a team.”

The clock dinged, the buzzer sounded, the ref
blew his whistle, cheers and more yelling from the crowd. Game over
and we won by thirty points. If I’d been in during the last two
minutes, the margin would have been greater. That was a fact. I
knew it even if nobody else admitted it. Everyone gathered around
Patricia and Olivia telling them what a great job they’d done.

When I came out of the locker room, I saw Mom
talking to Coach Norris. “Was Sierra hurt? Is that why you had her
stop playing?”

“She’s not a team player,” Coach Norris said.
“She needs to work with others.”

“It looked to me like she was covering for
their mistakes,” Grandpa said. “Lincoln won.”

“There’s more to playing basketball than
winning,” Coach Norris told him. “Sierra will learn to be one of
the girls, not try to be the star.”

“It’s never worked before. I wish you luck.”
Mom gave him a sweet smile and he glazed over.

Great, Mom. Really great. Sign him up for
your scout troop. I appreciate the support! Not!

We stopped for pizza on the way home. Grandpa
waited for our order and Mom took Autumn to the restroom. Grandma
chose a booth. I sat down and Dave eyed me. “What do you think,
Sierra? Does your coach have a valid concern?”

“About what?” I sipped my cola. “We won. If
he cared about the team, he should have listened to Kanisha when
she freaked because her old man hassled her. She ought to have been
allowed to sit out the last quarter like she wanted.”

“Then, what happens the next time she faces a
harsh critic?” Grandma asked. “Will she try or just bail?”

She had a point, but I wasn’t saying that in
front of Dave. He changed the subject to work and one of the new
cops calling him in to look at some horses who wore blankets when
they were out in the weather. Three officers later, they’d talked
to the owners and discovered that these were show champions, not
regular backyard mounts who had fuzzy winter coats. This was my
kind of conversation. I was glad that the new guy hadn’t been
allowed to seize the animals and Dave had stepped up to keep the
situation sane.

I still felt bad when I walked into the
house. When I opened his crate, Charlie bounced out to greet me
with puppy kisses. I snuggled him close and carried him out to the
yard to take care of his doggie business. Queenie came along. The
two of them didn’t know anything about basketball, so they loved me
no matter what happened tonight.

As soon as Charlie piddled, he pounced on one
of his toys, a soft plastic ring. He brought it to me so we could
play fetch. I gave it a gentle throw and he pelted after it. He
dragged it back to me, tail in full wagging motion. I was his
favorite person and I didn’t have to hear another lecture about
teamwork. Alone with the dogs, I cried.

* * * *

Marysville, Washington

Friday, January
10
^th
, 2:55pm

Despite hearing tons of praise all day about
the game, I dreaded practice that afternoon. I was the first one
out of the locker room. I wouldn’t let Coach Norris know how
vulnerable I felt. He nodded at me. “Lines, Sierra.”

“What?”

“Run lines.”

“How long?”

“Until I tell you to stop.”

“You’re the boss.” I hoped it didn’t sound as
snarky as I felt.

I stretched and then started with the short
runs from the base-line to the end of the key. I gradually added
more length until I was running back and forth from one end of the
gym to the other. Kanisha and Cedar were the next two people who
arrived. They saw me, shared a look and then jumped in to run lines
too.

I didn’t think it was what Coach had in mind.
He came out of the storage closet at the same time that Didi and
Willow showed up. They stretched and then began the first set of
runs. As the rest of the team trickled in, they joined us.

Coach Norris watched us for a few minutes,
then blew his whistle. We stopped and moved toward him. “Keep-Away
today. Sierra, run lines.”

“Why?” Kanisha asked.

“What?” Coach Norris glanced at her. “You’re
playing Keep-Away for fun because you had a good game yesterday.
Sierra is running lines to learn that she’s on a team and there’s
no room for showing off.”

Whatever
, I thought. He couldn’t make
me quit, so I went back to running back and forth, from one end of
the gym to the other. He’d get tired before I did. Kanisha paced
me. “What are you doing?” I hissed, barely above a whisper. “I’m in
trouble. You’re not.”

“You’re in trouble because of me,” Kanisha
said, in a normal voice. “I’ll run with you.”

I glanced toward the group of eight girls
clustered around the coach. He walked off to talk to Olivia and
Patricia. Then, he blew his stupid whistle and waved at me. I ran
over to him. “Yes, Coach.”

“Line up for Keep-Away.” He eyed me,
obviously still annoyed. “Next week, if you play the hero and show
off at the game, you’ll run lines for an entire practice.
Understand me?”

I nodded. “Yes, Coach. You’re the boss.”

I walked away with Olivia and Patricia to get
a drink of water before we played ball. “What did you two do?”

“I told him that you did what I told you to
do last night,” Olivia said. “You helped out Kanisha. If he was
going to be on your case for it, I’d have to run lines too.”

“And me,” Patricia said. “If we did, the rest
of the team would.”

“It was my idea to help her,” I pointed
out.

“Yeah, but I should have thought of how to do
it,” Olivia said. “I was the point guard.”

“And we won the game,” Patricia said. “I’m on
the team to win. I want the girls to beat the guys this season.
That would teach our V.P., Mr. Schuesser a serious lesson. He told
me that we did all right, but we don’t do real sports, not like the
boys do.”