Live Love Lacrosse (6 page)

Chapter 9

Roll Skipping

DINNER TIME ROLLED around, and Addie was the first one at the
table. She was starving.

“Can I help you with anything, Mom?”

“You’ve already wiped and set the table for me. Just relax.”

“Okay.” Addie placed her napkin in her lap. She was ready.

Her mother pulled the delectable-smelling meatloaf out of the
oven. “Tada! Meatloaf and your favorite, mashed potatoes.” She put the meatloaf
on the table. “Troy?” She called up the stairs. “Dinner’s ready. Wash your
hands.”

A muffled response came from the upstairs bedroom.

“Honey, actually, you can help me. Can you open that can of green
beans, put them in that bowl, and microwave them on high for about three
minutes?”

Addie took a deep breath for strength. She had taken a vow earlier
that day on the front porch after slamming the potato chip bag against the
screen door. She had vowed that she would actually eat whatever fuzzy green
things her mother put on the table. And tonight it would be green beans. Kimi
would definitely approve of her “good nutritional choice.”

“Smells good in here.” Grandma tossed a pot holder on the table
and the pot of instant mashed potatoes followed.

“Thanks, Mom,” Addie’s mother said.

Grandma started fussing with dinner rolls and butter.

“Just sit down, Mom. You’ve worked all day, and the kids are
helping.”

“So far I only see one kid helping.” Grandma raised one eyebrow at
Addie who was standing in front of the microwave. She had a way of making you
feel unhelpful even though you were the one helping.

“Is this what you did for him, Lydia?” Grandma said. “Did you
slave for him? Did you make dinner for him after he came home from the floozy’s
house? That man doesn’t deserve you. He–”

“Mom!” Addie’s mother said sharply. “Not in
front of the kids.”

“Bah. Whatever. You deserve better. And he does not deserve you.”
Her grandmother huffed her way to the refrigerator. She grabbed a half-empty
bottle of Price Chopper root beer, and thunked it on the table. 

Troy came bounding in the kitchen.

“Troy,” she barked, “help your mother. Get those rolls and butter
on the table.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Troy said. He knew when to jump, just like Addie
did, when it came to their grandmother.

Addie placed the now heated green beans on the table, sat down in
her usual seat, and put her napkin in her lap. Hers was not a family that said
grace. Hers was a family that dug right in as soon as the last person sat down.
Addie and Troy battled over the mashed potatoes. Troy won that time, but not
without a reprimand from Grandma to mind his manners. Addie wanted to stick her
tongue out at him so badly but decided not to agitate things any further. And
besides, she was tired. Tired from doing jumping jacks and sit ups and
three-inch push-ups. Three inches was about all she could do. Maybe tomorrow
she’d be able to do four-inch push-ups and be on her way to out-biceping
Brooke.

“Troy,” their mother said, “Grandma and I were talking, and we
thought you might want to sign up for karate.”

“Karate? Yeah!” Troy practically spit his food out. “Do they teach
Ninjutsu? That would be awesome. When do I go? Tomorrow? Can I get nunchucks?
Oh, my God. Can I get throwing stars?”

He babbled on until their mother said, “I
guess that’s a ‘yes.’”

“I guess it is,” Grandma agreed.

Addie looked down at her plate. She had plowed through most of the
meatloaf and mashed potatoes, but her small helping of green beans still
remained untouched. She sighed. Why didn’t they ask her if she wanted to join
karate? She was older than Troy. Why did the jerk get to do karate and not her?
Whatever. She didn’t even like karate. She liked lacrosse.

The thought startled her. Lacrosse. Apparently she had made up her
mind and was going to play. “Hey, Mom?” she blurted. “Can I get a lacrosse
stick?”

Grandma burst out laughing. “A lacrosse stick? Whatever for?” She
looked at Addie’s mother. “A library card maybe, but lacrosse?”

A fleeting look of hurt flashed over her mother’s face. She turned
to Addie. “You’re serious about this lacrosse?”

Addie nodded vigorously.

“Oh, I don’t know, honey. Sticks are probably
a lot of money.”

“Maybe Daddy can help.” The words were out before she could help
it.

“That good-for-nothing cheatin’ bum is only out for himself,”
Grandma roared.

The tirade went on, so Addie resigned herself to finishing her
plate. And just to spite her grandmother, she ate a forkful of the green beans
whole-heartedly. They weren’t too bad, actually. They were mushy and didn’t
taste like anything.

Addie grabbed a dinner roll out of the basket and split it open.
As she reached for the butter, she heard Kimi’s voice in her mind. “What
nutritional value does that butter have?” Right. Maybe she should put jelly on
it. That was fruit at least. She was about to push her chair back and get the
grape jelly from the refrigerator when she remembered a conversation she and
Kimi had about bread. “White flour,” Kimi had said, “has all the nutrition
bleached out of it. It tastes good, but it’s empty calories, calories that
don’t help your body at all. Whole grains. That’s the way to go.”

Addie put the roll back in the basket. She picked up her glass of
root beer and tried not to listen as her mother weakly defend her husband,
listing his good qualities. Ever since they had arrived, dinner conversations
typically went this way. Addie tuned it out.

She took a sip of the sugary soda and wondered what kind of
nutrition it had. She put her glass down and pulled the three-liter bottle
toward her. She spun it around in order to see the nutrition label. The serving
size was eight fluid ounces. How much was that? Did she have more or less than
eight ounces in her glass? She’d have to find a way to check that out later.
Hey, look. There was zero total fat in root beer. Zilch, zero, nada. That was
good, right? She read on. There was some sodium in it, but she didn’t know if
that was important or not. One thing was for sure, she’d ask Kimi tomorrow. And
if Kimi didn’t know, Kimi’s mother surely would. She moved her finger down the
label. There were thirty grams of carbohydrates in one serving. Whoa. The
thirty grams were all from sugar. That sounded like a lot. How much sugar was
too much? It said that thirty grams of carbohydrates was 10% of the Daily
Value. Hmm, so that meant if she had ten servings of soda in a day, she would
max out on the total carbohydrates recommended by whoever recommended those
things.

She pushed the soda bottle away and looked up to see a questioning
expression on Troy’s face. She maturely stuck her tongue out at him. He made a
face at her and then started giggling. She caught his mirth and cracked up with
him. She had no idea why they were laughing so hard, but it felt good.

“You’re at the dinner table,” Grandma growled.

Addie pressed her lips together and looked away from Troy, because
if she made eye contact with him, she would start giggling again, and that
would be bad. Very bad. Their grandmother did not like to be disobeyed. In
fact, Addie wasn’t sure the woman even liked them. Didn’t she get it, though?
Didn’t she get that they didn’t like the way she badmouthed their father? Okay,
maybe he wasn’t perfect, but he was their dad, and they loved him. Whatever he
had done wrong, if anything, he’d make it right.

Their mother sighed and stood up from the table. She rooted around
in the refrigerator and pulled out a glass baking pan filled with green Jell-O.
Addie’s mood lifted. Jell-O was awesome. Of course it wasn’t chocolate cake,
but beggars couldn’t be choosers, her father always said. Whatever that meant.

“And look what Grandma bought.” Addie’s mother pulled out a brand
new, unopened can of whipped cream. The good kind, not the kind in the stupid
plastic tub.

Addie didn’t care about nutritional value at that moment. She
eagerly pushed the last of her uneaten green beans aside and made way for
dessert. How bad could Jell-O be, anyway? And whipped cream was made from milk,
which was supposed to be good for you. She had skipped the roll and the butter,
so she felt justified devouring dessert. Oh, yes, roll skipping would now be an
official part of her bicep-growing, lacrosse-playing regimen.

Chapter 10

Carbs and Proteins and Fats. Oh, My!

ADDIE LEAPED OUT of bed and stretched. Okay, leaped wasn’t exactly
the right word. Her muscles were still sore and tight, so it was more like
grunting her way out of bed. After a quick bathroom trip, she changed into
loose shorts and an even looser t-shirt. She had to be at Kimi’s house by nine
for her boot camp workout, and it was already eight-thirty.

She raced down the stairs to find that no one else was up yet.
Well, except for Grandma who had already left for work. She opened the fridge.
Yum. There was leftover Jell-O. Would that make a good breakfast? Ha ha. Even
she knew it wouldn’t and wondered what Kimi would say about Jell-O and whipped
cream for breakfast. She saw the milk and decided on cereal. After rooting
around in the cereal cabinet, she decided on Frooty-O’s with marshmallows. Hey,
it kind of had fruit in the title, so it had to be a little bit healthy, right?

She filled her bowl to the top and poured on the milk. She pushed
the colorful loops under the milk to soften them up a little. There was a
delicate balance to cereal. Right out of the box, they were too crunchy. Leave
them in the milk, they were too soggy. She ate her first spoonful and reached
for the cereal box to read the nutrition label. There were 110 calories in the
cereal. How many calories did you need every day? Oh, wait, there were 150
calories if you counted the milk, but that was skim milk, and only one-half
cup. She definitely had more than that in her bowl, and the milk definitely was
not skim. She had never tried skim milk and didn’t think she’d like it. Her
grandmother, after all, said that any other kind of milk was just white-colored
water.

Addie went back to the nutrition label as she crunched on her
cereal. Incredibly, there was one whole gram of fat in there. To confuse
things, the label listed four different kinds of fats. There was saturated fat,
trans fat, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat. She blew out a sigh. This
was way confusing. She moved on to the carbohydrates. This time there were
twenty six, but only thirteen were from sugar. Root beer had almost three times
as much sugar than cereal. That was interesting. And the cereal had fiber, too.
Was that important? Since it was on the nutrition label it was either really
good for you or really bad. She considered having a banana, too, but decided
against it figuring she had eaten enough calories already and didn’t want to
overdo it.

Confused as ever, Addie pushed the box away, drained the bowl, and
then put her dirty dishes in the sink. Just as she finished a quick note to her
mother, telling her where she was going, there was a knock on the front door.

Addie knew Kimi would be standing on the other side of the door.

“Hi, Addie,” Kimi said. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be, I guess.”

“Did you stretch yet?”

“Nope.” Addie closed the front door behind her and stepped onto
the porch beside her friend. Kimi wore a tank top with a Nike symbol on it and
what looked like running shorts. Addie couldn’t help but feel self-conscience
about her clothes. Maybe she could get her mom to buy her some workout gear
like Kimi’s. And a lacrosse stick. And cleats maybe. What else? Oh, a faceguard
thingie and a mouth guard, too.

“Nice and slow,” Kimi said and reached down to touch her toes.
“We’ll do a short stretch now, jog to the end of the street, and then head back
to my house to work out, okay?”

“You’re the boot camp boss, so whatever you think is best.”

Kimi turned her head and gave Addie a wicked grin. “Oh, you are
going to be so sorry you said that.”

Addie groaned and followed Kimi in a few more stretches and then
down the porch steps into a jog. The full bowl of cereal sat like a lump of
clay in her stomach as she tried to keep up with Kimi. Maybe tomorrow she would
skip breakfast entirely and just eat lunch after she and Kimi practiced at the
park with Brooke. Yeah, that seemed like a much better idea, because jogging on
a full stomach was kind of making her sick.

“Kimi, Kimi,” Addie gasped after they’d only been jogging for a
few minutes. She bent over on the side walk trying not to be sick.

Kimi sprinted back. “What’s wrong? You look like you’re going to
throw up.”

Addie closed her eyes and fought back her nausea. All she could do
was nod her head twice.

“Was it something you ate?” Kimi squatted in
front of her. “I get that sometimes if I eat too much and then try to go for a
run.”

Addie took a deep breath and stood up straight. “I just finished
breakfast when you knocked on the door.”

“Oh,” Kimi said knowingly. “We have to give
your system a chance to digest some of the food before we head out into
battle.”

“Battle?”

Kimi stood up tall, lifted her arms up, and flexed both biceps.
“Lacrosse! Making women into warriors, one game at a time.”

Addie cracked up. Yeah, she’d like to be a woman warrior!

“C’mon, Addie, let’s walk back to my house and get some water. We
can boot camp it up when your stomach feels better. Maybe in, like, a half hour
or something.”

As they walked back to Kimi’s house, Addie caught her breath
sufficiently and began to feel better. The Frooty-O’s cereal lump was still
there, but walking made it hurt less.

Kimi ran inside for some bottled waters and after handing one to
Addie, sat down on the grass in her front yard and did some stretching.

Addie took a sip of water and sat next to Kimi. She did some
butterfly stretches while Kimi did an entire routine of sit-ups and push-ups.
She made it look so easy. Despite feeling lousy and getting out of breath
within the first minute of running and despite her sore muscles and her fat
stomach, Addie vowed to one day get in as good of shape as Kimi.

Having firmly decided to become a warrior like Kimi, she asked Kimi
a thousand questions about eating and nutrition. She hadn’t been sure what to
ask at first, but once they got going, she had more and more questions. When
one was answered, fifteen more popped into her head.

Addie wondered if Brooke knew as much about food and nutrition as
Kimi did. Thinking about Brooke and knowing she would be practicing with her
the next day, Addie got to her feet. “Let’s get this boot camp thing started.”

Kimi leaped up. “How about we finish that jog
we started earlier?”

“You got it.” Addie sprinted down the street ahead of Kimi,
knowing full well that Kimi would catch up instantly. Which she did.

Later on at dinner that evening, Addie thought about all the
running and circuit training she and Kimi had done earlier that day. She never
knew that squats could be so tiring, or that burpees were an actual exercise.
Kimi knew so much about exercising and getting in shape that Addie couldn’t
help but be swept up in her enthusiasm. Oh, her muscles and lungs protested
every step and jumping jack, but she didn’t care. She liked the idea of having
a friend, maybe even a best friend, that she did every crazy stretch and
exercise that Kimi asked her to do.

Lunch at Kimi’s was about the same as the last one, but this time
she ate most of the actual green leafy salad. Not all of it. One day maybe.
Soon. She just wasn’t used to chewing, chewing, chewing on green stuff. It was
like eating grass. Like cows. Oh well, it was supposed to be healthy.

“You were up and out early this morning,
Addie,” her mother said as she pulled the French fries from the oven and dumped
them in a shallow bowl before putting them on the table.

“Yeah, Kimi is making me do a boot camp thing. We have lacrosse
practice with Brooke tomorrow and then I might . . .”

“Might what?” her grandmother prompted. “Speak up.” She placed one
hamburger and roll on each plate.

“Uh, I might try out for the lacrosse team on Saturday.”

Troy burst out laughing. “You? What’re you going to do? Be the
mascot?” He pounded the table. “No, wait, wait, wait. They’re going to make you
the goalie! All you have to do is stand there and you’ll block the whole goal.”
He held his hands out wide to indicate her massive girth.

“Troy! That’s enough,” their mother said. She turned to Addie.
“This lacrosse thing means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”

Addie couldn’t trust her voice past the knot
that had grown in her chest and throat from Troy’s teasing. She simply nodded.

Her mother smiled. “How about after dinner we go to that sporting
goods store at the mall and get that stick you want.”

“Really, Mom? Really?”

“Lydia, why bother?” Grandma grumbled. “She’ll just lose interest
and then you’ll be out a lot of money. Money that you don’t have right now, I
might add.”

“I have some emergency money for times like these, Mother. And
since we’ll be here all summer, Addie will have to promise to honor her
commitment. Right, Addie?”

Addie nodded vigorously. “I will, Mom. I will.”

“Pfft,” Troy spluttered in disbelief.

“And you, young man, will show more respect
for your sister.” Their mother pointed at Troy. “Do you understand me?”

“Yeah.”

“Speak up, young man,” Grandma commanded.

“Yes, ma’am,” Troy said, this time with defeat in his voice.

Feeling vindicated, Addie dug into her
hamburger, deciding not to eat the bleached-out-nutrition white bun. The
hamburger had protein, which Kimi said was the building block of muscles and
would help Addie get stronger faster. Addie was all for that, but wasn’t sure
how to get at least forty-five grams that Kimi’s mother said girls needed every
day. She had been amazed to learn that almonds and walnuts and even sesame
seeds had protein. Maybe she could get her mother to buy some the next time she
went food shopping.

The hamburger roll she decided not to eat was full of carbs;
that’s what Kimi called carbohydrates, but apparently white bread didn’t have
good carbs. Kimi said it had simple carbs, but apparently complex carbs were
better for you. You could get complex carbs from whole grains in bread and
rice. At lunch Kimi’s mother said that everyone had a carb budget and those
carbs should be spent on food that did the most good. Like the carbs in veggies
and fruit. Salad, like the one she had eaten for lunch she said, was an
excellent way to spend your carb budget. More bang for your buck, Kimi had added.
And whole grains, too. Those were good-money complex carbs. Whole grains
included the grainy bread she’d seen on the counter at Kimi’s house and brown
rice, both of which Addie had never eaten before. Hers was a white rice, white
bread family. Energy from whole grains, Kimi’s mother had explained, took all
day to burn, giving you a slow and even release of energy throughout the entire
day. She’d said that people who ate whole grains usually didn’t have that
afternoon starvation crash right before dinner. Addie knew all about that. She
usually ate potato chips in the afternoon because she’d get so hungry.

Oddly, that afternoon, she wasn’t really hungry when dinner rolled
around. Addie put a few French fries on her plate, but wasn’t sure what
nutrition the fries had. She knew better than to get up and read the nutrition
label on the box while they were eating. Her grandmother would pitch a fit. It
was better to eat a few and look it up later. Maybe fries had some of those
good carbs. She frowned. Probably not. So far the food she’d eaten at Kimi’s
was weird and foreign to her. She couldn’t imagine Kimi and her family eating
French fries or her own family eating the stuff Kimi’s family ate.

Too bad Grandma didn’t have a computer, because Addie wanted to
look some of the confusing stuff up online. Maybe one day she’d get her own
computer or tablet or even a cell phone. But those things were expensive, and
they didn’t have the money for “extras” like that. She instantly felt bad that
her mother was going to use her emergency fund to buy her a lacrosse stick. She
was about to tell her mother to forget the trip to the sporting goods store,
but then she pictured Brooke looking at her with disgust. She changed her mind
again. She would get that lacrosse stick and find another way to make it up to
her mom.