Operation Get Rid of Mom's New Boyfriend (14 page)

“
Sure, honey, we can go”
Sammi replied to Kennedy. “I parked in the back lot. The front lot
was full when I got here.”

Yes!
Kennedy shouted inside. The gods were on her side. Now there
was no way they’d bump into Bo. Surely, with a majority of the
try-outs over with, parents had left, leaving ample parking for Bo
out front.

“
Who wants ice-cream?”
Sammi asked the girls as they piled into the car.

“
Me!” each girl shouted,
including Kennedy. The girls knew their mother was taking them out
for ice cream to make Kennedy feel better about Bo being a no-show
and forfeiting her chances of being in the tournament. But the
girls wanted ice cream for different reasons. They had to celebrate
their victory. Maybe their celebration was a bit premature, but how
they saw it, surely they’d gotten rid of their mom’s New Boyfriend
this time…forever!

Chapter
Seventeen

Triple Threat

“
I still can’t believe the
way Mom told Bo off,” Daryn laughed as she walked on one side of
Kennedy while Joy walked on the other. “She didn’t let him get a
word in edgewise. And lucky for you, Kennedy. I’m not sure Mother
wouldn’t have believed him when he told her you’d texted him a new
time to show up for try-outs.”

“
Yeah, but Mom didn’t even
give him a chance. She went right in and didn’t come up for air,”
Kennedy bragged.

“
And then the way she
slammed the phone down in his ear,” Joy added. For affect, she
slammed her hand against Kennedy’s locker.

“
Yeah, that was something
else,” Kennedy said as she put in her combination and opened her
locker. She then shook her head in awe. “We did it, girls. We got
rid of mom’s new boyfriend.”

“
Yeah, we did it,” Joy said
and then added, “I kind of feel like Dora the Explorer.” She began
imitating Dora’s theme song after she and her friends accomplished
something. “We did it, yeah yeah, we did it!”

All three girls laughed,
but their laughter soon came to a halt.

“
That must have been some
funny joke,” Lilac said as the Triplets walked up to her
locker.

“
I knoooooow,” Vanilla then
cooed.

“
Yeah, that must have been
some funny joke,” Hennessey repeated.

Kennedy buried her face in
her locker as she retrieved her books.

“
But you know what was
really funny, girls?” Lilac asked her two sidekicks. “Kennedy
showing up at the Father-Kid Basketball Tournament tryouts. I mean,
I know Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead and all, but did she really
think He was gonna go through all the trouble just so her Daddy
could be at some basketball tournament?”

The triplets roared out in
laughter.

“
I mean, did you see her
sitting there waiting, watching the door like her father was going
to walk through it at any moment?” Lilac laughed.

“
I knooooow,” Vanilla
chuckled.

In between laughs,
Hennessey managed to get out, “Watching the door….like he was going
to walk through it.”

The slamming of Kennedy’s
locker quickly ceased all laughter. The Triplets were startled by
the loud noise.

“
What’s your problem?”
Lilac asked Kennedy as she scrunched her face up.

Kennedy didn’t say a word.
She moved in nose to nose with Lilac. She still didn’t speak. The
look in her eyes said it all. Kennedy’s eyes watered and her bottom
lip quivered. The dam was about to break, but just then the bell
rang.

“
Come on,
girls,” Lilac said to Vanilla and Hennessey. “Let’s get to home
room.” Lilac closed her own locker and then walked away, exhaling
with a look on her face that read,
Saved by the bell
. Vanilla followed
right behind her. “Hey, you coming?” Lilac called out to Hennessey
once she noticed that she wasn’t walking with her and
Vanilla.

Hennessey was still
standing at Lilac’s locker looking at Kennedy with regret in her
eyes. By the expression on Hennessey’s face, she looked as though
she wished she’d had no part of Lilac’s little joke. Making fun of
the fact that Kennedy’s father was no longer there for her seemed
to be exceptionally cruel. That seemed to have pushed the envelope
of joking around for Hennessey’s taste.

“
Hennessey, you coming?”
Lilac asked her once again with aggravation.

“
Uh, yeah, sure,” Hennessey
answered. She cast her eyes down from Kennedy and then slowly
walked away. She walked two steps behind Lilac and Vanilla the
entire time, looking over her shoulder at Kennedy. She never said a
word to Kennedy. The look in her eyes said it all.

“
Are you okay?” Daryn asked
Kennedy, putting her hand on her shoulder.

“
Why wouldn’t I be?”
Kennedy yanked away from Daryn’s touch with an attitude. “Anyway,
the operation is over. Our mission is accomplished. We said after
that things would go back to normal, right?”

Daryn and Joy looked at
each other before saying, “Well, yeah.” They didn’t know exactly
where Kennedy was going with this.

“
Good, then you two scram,”
Kennedy scolded.

“
But-” Joy started before
Kennedy cut her off.

“
But nothing. We agreed.
Now go!” Kennedy pointed in the direction of Joy’s
classroom.

Joy put her head down sadly
after looking at Daryn. “Okay then,” she finally agreed, then
headed off to class. “Back to normal it is.”

Kennedy watched Joy walk
away and then she shouted, “Hey, Joy, wait.”

With a gleam of hope in her
eyes, Joy turned around. “Yes, Kennedy.”

Kennedy stared at her for a
minute. “Isn’t that my sweater you have on?”

Joy looked down at the pink
hooded sweater she had on that zipped up the front. She didn’t
really need it. Her outfit looked just fine without it.
Nevertheless, when she saw it hanging up in the laundry room while
ironing her clothes, it seemed to be calling out her name. “I guess
it is your sweater,” Joy answered as she began to take the sweater
off.

Kennedy slowly approached
her. “I thought so.” She looked Joy up and down.

Joy was nervous as her big
sister’s eyes seemed to be burning a hole through her. But if Joy
wasn’t mistaken, she suddenly saw what looked to be a slight part
in Kennedy’s lips that almost looked like a smile was trying to
force its way through.

Kennedy took one step
closer to Joy, touched the sweater and then said, “It looks good on
you,” then headed off to her own class.

Joy, shocked, looked back
at Daryn who was still standing by Kennedy’s locker. The two smiled
at each other and then went their separate ways. Yep, things were
back to normal. Almost anyway.

Chapter
Eighteen

The Game Must Go
On

“
Well, look who’s here,”
Lilac said as Kennedy walked past her and her father. It was the
evening of the basketball tournament and all the players were
warming up.

Although Kennedy was glad
that her and her sisters’ operation had been successful, that they
had gotten Bo out of their mother’s life for good, a part of her
almost regretted not being in the tournament with him. As she
dribbled her basketball to her seat, there was nothing she would
have liked to do more than take on Lilac and her father, walking
away with the trophy. Well, actually, there was one more thing she
would have liked to do more. A smile spread across her lips as she
envisioned her basketball hitting Lilac right smack in the middle
of her face. Kennedy chuckled just imagining it in her head. She
knew she’d never do anything like that, so the image alone was
satisfying enough.

“
Hey, Vanilla and
Hennessey,” Lilac said to her partners in crime who were also
warming up. “Looks like Kennedy’s back to watch me take the trophy
this year. She must be a glutton for punishment.”

“
I knooooww,” Vanilla
said.

All eyes were on Hennessey,
waiting for her regular parrot routine. Surprisingly, she didn’t
say a word. She just gave Lilac a quick look, practically rolling
her eyes at her, and then continued warming up.

As Kennedy continued her
trek to her seat, she looked up in the stands and saw Joy sitting
with her friends. Daryn was a couple of sections over sitting with
hers. Right before she sat down, her eyes were shocked to see yet
one other person walking toward her.

“
Mom, what are you doing
here?” Kennedy asked.

“
Mmm, I don’t know. I heard
there was a basketball tournament going down at Saint Amos, so I
decided to drop in and see what it was all about.”

Kennedy half smiled. She
knew the real reason why her mother was there. Not only had Kennedy
not played in the tournament since the death of her father, but she
hadn’t even gone to the school activity to watch her peers play in
it. And it just so happened that the tournament was one of the most
talked about and most looked forward to event at the school. It had
been too hard for Kennedy to attend, though. It was too much of a
reminder of her father. Unfortunately, Lilac and her crew knew this
as well, and she knew she’d have to deal with their snide remarks.
It turns out things wouldn’t be so bad after all now that Kennedy
had her mother there to support her.

“
Thanks, Mom.”

“
Don’t even mention it,
kid,” Sammi smiled. There was no other place Sammi would have
rather been at that moment than right there with her daughter. Like
herself, she knew that it was time for Kennedy to move on with her
life. She’d seen the girls in so much pain-in so much anger-since
their father’s death. That’s why she excused many of their
shenanigans. She knew it was their way of acting out how they felt
about their loss. But things had to change.

Sammi thought Bo was going
to be the person that helped her to change and that she could move
on with. Sammi decided that before she moved on, she had to make
sure her daughters had moved on first. Kennedy and her sisters
getting through this game would be a first step.

Sammi looked up in the
stands and spotted Daryn and Joy. She winked and waved at them each
before sitting down next to Kennedy.

“
Welcome, students, friends
and family,” the gym teacher began to announce in the microphone.
“We are so glad you could make it to the St. Amos Annual Father-Kid
Basketball Tournament. Now without further ado, let the games
begin!”

The crowd started to cheer.
Just before the gym teacher put the microphone down and walked
away, her assistant ran over and whispered something in her ear. A
frown appeared on the gym teacher’s face as she placed the
microphone back to her mouth. “Well, everyone, it seems as though
already, one of our players has suffered an injury during warm
up.”

The crowd
sighed.

“
It’s okay. She’s going to
be okay. She just feels bad that she and her father worked so hard
preparing for the tournament, that she doesn’t want him to miss the
opportunity and the chance of taking home the trophy. So if there
is anyone in the gym willing to fill in for the student…” The gym
teacher’s words trailed off as her assistant, once again, whispered
something in her ear. Next, both the gym teacher and her
assistant’s eyes roamed over to Kennedy, who was just sitting there
holding her own basketball in her hands.

“
Hey, they’re looking at
you.” Sammi nudged Kennedy. “They’re coming your way,” she added as
she watched the two of them walk toward them.

Kennedy sat curious as the
gym teacher and assistant approached her.

“
Kennedy, I know initially
you’d planned on participating but then decided not to,” the gym
teacher spoke, “but we really need you.” She had a desperate look
in her eyes. “Not just because the student doesn’t want her
father’s hard work to be in vain, but if they drop out completely,
that means another team will have to drop. The teams were even and
we had everything balanced out. It would cause too much confusion
if we tried to make changes now, ultimately providing a chance of
us having to forfeit the entire tournament. Come on, what do you
say?” The gym teacher had a pleading look in her eyes.

Speechless, Kennedy looked
over at Sammi. Sammi smiled and said, “Go on, Kennedy. You can do
it. You and that ball of yours are practically joined at the hip.
You practice with it almost everyday anyway whether it’s basketball
season or not.”

Kennedy looked down at her
ball. She knew how important the tournament was and how hard her
fellow students had worked. She also knew how much work it must
have taken for her gym teacher and the staff to put it on. She
didn’t want to disappoint them. Not only that, but deep inside she
knew she really wanted to be in that tournament. So perhaps this
was really what the grown-ups meant by opportunity knocking. Maybe,
just maybe, this right here was what fate was really all
about.

Kennedy looked up from her
ball and at her gym teacher. “Can I play with my own
ball?”

“
Sure, I don’t see why
not,” the gym teacher replied, and then looked over at her
assistant for confirmation. The assistant nodded. The coach turned
her attention back to Kennedy. A slight frown covered her face when
she noticed that she was wearing jeans. “You’ve got something you
can wear in your gym locker, right?”