A Lot to Tackle (4 page)

“Me? You're pinning the blame on me?” Ava widened her eyes.

“You didn't make the kick.” Andy shrugged.

“That was an impossible kick,” Corey retorted, coming to her defense.

“It was,” Charlotte agreed, even though Ava was certain she knew nothing about football.

“One kick and we'd be going on to the championships,” Andy sneered. “Just saying.”

On the field and at home, Ava had felt responsible and sad. Now she was angry. Ever since the first practice, Andy had resented having her on the football team because she was a girl. He was the only one who couldn't move beyond that.

“One more
touchdown
and we'd be going to the championship,” Ava shot back. “There was that missed opportunity in the second quarter, wasn't there?” She stared at Andy. He knew she was referring to the ball he'd failed to catch. She wasn't giving him the satisfaction of rattling her, especially in front of the other
guys. Besides, who was Andy Baker to make the whole loss her fault?

“Whoa!” Corey waved his arms. “Everyone chill out. That game is over. Done.
Finito.
Next year will be our year to go all the way.”

“You got it,” Andy agreed. “And we won't have to worry about Ava kicking for us.”

“What are you talking about?” Ava demanded. Andy made her so angry! Did he really think she wouldn't make the team next year? She could run and kick circles around him.

“I'm talking about the game in Austin,” Andy said with a self-satisfied grin. “If your dad can't bring home the State Championship trophy, the town will fire him. Coach Sackett and your whole family will be out of Ashland for good.”

“Are you crazy?” Xander cried, jumping to his feet. “The Tigers are not going to lose.”

“Yeah, you can't even think that.” Corey shook his head. “The high school guys have the game in the bag.”

“The Tigers are going to win, for sure,” Jack agreed. He turned to Ava. “You're not going anywhere.”

“I know that,” Ava scoffed. “Andy's talking crazy.”

“Dessert time!” Lindsey's voice rang out. She carried out a heart-shaped cake. Alex and Emily trailed in with the plate of brownies. The boys dove into the sweets.

Ava sat back, turning over in her head what Andy had said. On Friday night she'd believed that the Tigers would easily win the big game. Her dad was a great coach, and the Tigers were a skilled team. But after her own game yesterday, she saw that sometimes the talent and training didn't come together. What if the Tigers lost in Austin? Would Coach be fired? Would they have to move to a different town?

Her stomach tightened. She'd miss everyone here. Maybe not Andy, but everyone else. She liked living in Ashland. She belonged here.

She needed to talk to Coach.

“Attention, class!” Madame Knowlton rapped her knuckles on her desk on Monday at school.

Alex looked up from the poster she and Charlotte were coloring.

“She's not adding something else, is she?” Logan groaned next to her.

Madame Knowlton, their French teacher, was famous for assigning a project and then adding a new part to it each day. Alex found this infuriating. She liked knowing what was what before she started.

At least I have Charlotte, Jack, and Logan in my group,
she thought.

Usually group projects were torturous, and
Alex ended up doing all the work. She knew she shouldn't, but rarely did anyone do things exactly the way she thought they should be done. Her mom had warned her over and over that she was too much of a perfectionist. Even now, she had to try super hard not to criticize the haphazard way Charlotte was coloring the cow's spots. Each group had to create their own restaurant, with a complete menu and poster in French. They'd named their restaurant La Petite Vache—or the Little Cow.

Madame Knowlton adjusted her round, wire-framed glasses on her long nose and fidgeted until the class quieted down. “Remember that we have a test tomorrow.”

“I have two other quizzes tomorrow,” Jack grumbled.

Alex nodded. She also had a ton of homework and had forgotten about this test.

“The test will cover the vocabulary in this French restaurant unit, including all the new verbs, and you will need to know the conjugations,” Madame Knowlton explained. “Use this study guide.” She passed out a stapled packet of paper just as the bell rang.

“Let's go to the media center now and do the
study guide together,” Charlotte suggested to their group. French was their last-period class.

“I can't—wait, I can.” Logan shook his head in amazement. “No more football practice this year. That's weird.”

“I can stay until the late bus too,” Jack said.

“Alex, what about you?” Charlotte asked.

Alex wasn't a fan of group study sessions. She studied better on her own. She didn't need their help. “I have to see Ms. Palmer about the student council bake sale.”

“How long will that take?” Charlotte asked. “Couldn't you meet us after? Come on, it'll be fun.”

“We need to finish writing our cow menu too.” Jack held up the half-finished menu. They'd created a menu with all beef and dairy dishes.

“
Oui
,” Alex agreed in French. She slung her backpack over her shoulder. “I'll see you there.”

She hurried down the hall. First she stopped at the main office to hand in the money from the raffle she'd organized for the cheerleaders. Then she found Ms. Palmer, who was locking up her classroom.

“Hi, Alex, I'm glad you caught me. My son has a doctor's appointment, so I need to go.” Ms. Palmer adjusted a folder of quizzes to grade in
her canvas tote bag. Alex wondered if hers was one of them. She had Ms. Palmer for English.

“Okay, I just wanted to know what I should do to get ready for the bake sale. It's this Friday,” Alex said.

“We have a student council meeting on Wednesday. It would be great if you made a sign-up sheet to pass out and organized the volunteers.” Ms. Palmer smoothed her frizzy hair with her palms as they walked back down the hall together.

“About that meeting,” Alex began. “I don't love a lot of the ideas for the Variety Show.”

That was an understatement. Alex thought most of the ideas were horrendous, but she knew that she couldn't come right out and say that. The Variety Show was a yearly talent show organized around a central theme. Students and teachers performed skits, dances, songs, and even magic acts, and the goal was to draw in a big crowd from the town to raise a lot of money for student activities. Last week the student council had brainstormed ideas for a theme, and they would put them to a vote on Wednesday.

Alex thought about the lame ideas. Princesses. Magical Creatures. Ninjas. Oh, please!

“The student council is a democracy,” Ms. Palmer explained while heading toward the main doors. “Each one of you was voted in by your grade, and each one of you has one vote. I can't get involved in campaigning for a theme.”

“So if I think my theme is the best, I should campaign for it?” Alex asked. She hadn't considered this approach.

“Not formally. But you could talk to the other student council members and try to convince them to see the show your way.” Ms. Palmer waved and hurried off toward her car.

I will make them see that my idea is the best,
Alex decided as she walked into the media center. She spotted Charlotte, Jack, and Logan in the back corner by the reference books. A half-completed study guide and a copy of their French textbook lay on the round table in front of them. Jack chewed the eraser on his pencil as he debated with Logan the proper conjugation of
manger
, the verb for “to eat.”

“It's
vous mangez
,” Alex said as she pulled up a chair.

Charlotte flipped through the textbook. “Alex is right.”

Alex bounced her knee impatiently. She was great at conjugating verbs. She didn't need to be here. She had so many other things to do.

She slid out her phone as they continued to fill in the conjugations on the study guide.

She texted Chloe Klein, the sixth-grade class president.

Think of all the great skits that go with Adventure of a Lifetime.

I still like Under the Sea.

Alex didn't want to knock Chloe's idea. Compared to the others, Under the Sea wasn't terrible.

Our ideas are so much better than the others.

For sure!

There are so many songs, skits, and dances you can do about adventure. Roller coasters, safaris, road trips, etc. Nothing more exciting than adventure!

Maybe. I'll think on it.

OK.

Alex planned to text her back tonight.

She texted Nate Nielson next. Then Tessa Jones. She easily convinced Nate to toss Ninjas as a theme and get on board with Adventure of a Lifetime. Tessa refused to let go of Magical Creatures, but finally she did waver.
A waver is a start,
Alex thought. Alex decided to text Tessa back tonight too. She still had five more student council members to track down. Convincing everyone was going to take a lot of time.

“Alex? Are you paying attention?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes. No. Sorry.” Alex raised her head.
They'd completed another chunk of the study guide without her. “Was that vocab you were reviewing?”

“Kind of, but there was a new part—” Charlotte reached for the paper.

“Wait a sec.” Alex looked down at a text from Lindsey.

Corey acted weird today.

Weird how?

IDK. Just weird.

What should I do???

Why are you asking me?

You give good boy advice.

“Lindsey thinks I give good boy advice,” she
whispered to Charlotte. She showed her the texts. She didn't want Logan and Jack to hear, but she was kind of proud.

“What are you going to tell her to do?” Charlotte whispered back.

Alex had no idea. She wasn't even sure what Lindsey was talking about. All of a sudden her ringtone started blaring, causing Ms. Majumder to abruptly stop shelving books. The librarian gave Alex the
no phones in the library
glare.

“Be right back,” Alex told Charlotte as she scurried into the hall. “Hello?” she answered the call.

“Hello, this is Mercury Grill calling Alexandra Sackett about making a reservation,” said a woman with a sugary accent on the other end.

“Right!” Alex lowered her voice to sound more grown-up. She booked the date and the time for dinner in Austin after the game. Her mom was going to be so happy and so surprised.

“We need a credit card number to hold the reservation, darlin',” the woman said sweetly.

“A credit card?” Alex didn't have a credit card. She promised the woman to get her a number later.

“We'll need you to call back within forty-eight
hours with a credit card number or we will release the reservation. Okay, darlin'?” the woman said.

“Sure, no problem.” Alex would ask her dad for his number tonight. She ended the call, and her phone immediately buzzed again. It was Lindsey.

U still there????

Yep. Can we talk 2nite? Crazy right now.

K. Don't forget!!

“Hey, Alex!”

Alex turned to see a man in a dark blazer and yellow tie standing before her. “Yes?” She didn't think she knew him.

“I'm Mr. Hess, the middle school athletic director. I was told by Mrs. Gusman in the office that you're the student I need to see.” He pointed his finger at her.

“Me?”

“The middle school Booster Club wants to support the high school team at the State Championships. By the way, I'm a huge fan of your dad's pass-rush bluff.” He paused, but when she didn't respond, he continued. “We want a big banner to fly at the game. We want to show our support.”

“Great idea. One of those shiny, silky banners?” she asked.

“See? I knew Mrs. Gusman would get me to the right student.” He handed Alex a piece of paper. “These are the instructions from the printer. Do you think you could design the banner for us and submit it online to the printer? Mrs. Gusman said you have access to the student council's account with that printer.”

“Sure, I can.” Alex found herself agreeing before she stopped to think. Besides the student council Variety Show campaign she had to wage, the boy advice for Lindsey she'd have to fake, and the piles of homework and studying she had to tackle, she was agreeing to make a banner. The more she did, the more people seemed to ask her to do.

“You're the best, Alex Sackett.” Mr. Hess
grinned at her before striding down the hall.

“Thanks!” she called, then turned to see Charlotte, Jack, and Logan heading out of the media center. “Where are you guys going?”

“The late bus is coming,” Jack said. “Besides, we finished the study guide.”

“Sorry I didn't help.” Alex felt bad.

“You were busy.” Charlotte shrugged. “And we know you'll do well anyway.”

“I better get my backpack before Ms. Majumder locks the media center doors.” Alex reached for the door's handle.

Charlotte held up her packet. “Do you want to copy down our answers, just in case?”

Alex shook her head. “No, I'm okay. I never use study guides. I'll review on my own. I've got it all under control.”