Even the Score (12 page)

Maybe they could do the same for the football team.

She grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. She needed to make a list. And turn her phone back on.

They didn't need a new field.

She was going to fix the old one.

Alex tapped her clipboard with her purple pen and squinted into the Sunday afternoon sun at the football field.

“Your text blasts really worked,” Chloe Klein remarked. “All of Ashland is here.”

Alex couldn't get over all the people who'd shown up. Parents, teachers, middle school kids, high school kids, even little kids.

“We need to get all these folks working,” Ms. Palmer said to the student council, who stood together wearing red shirts.

“Watch this.” Johnny Morton placed two fingers in his mouth and let out an ear-piercing whistle. Everyone turned. “It's your show,” he said to Alex.

“Oh, no! This is a student council thing,” Alex said. “All of us.”

“Yeah, you've said that before,” Johnny said. “But you took the heat for the scoreboard. You should get props for this great idea.”

“Come on, Alex.” Chloe nudged her forward. “You already made all those lists.”

Alex gazed at the papers on her clipboard. She'd spent the last twenty-four hours calling the local hardware, lumber, and garden stores and asking for donations. She'd surprised herself. She was a pretty good salesperson. She'd gotten tractors, topsoil, grass seed and sod, wood, tools, and lots of trash bags. Then again, as Tommy pointed out, she was selling football in Texas, which was easier than selling ice cream to a hungry child on a hot summer day.

Alex didn't care. This was what she liked about being an elected official. Helping people.

She blushed and turned to Mayor Johnston. He was the real elected official here. “You should speak,” she said.

“Nonsense, Alex.” But his ruddy face broke into a grin. He proudly introduced her and the rest of the student council to the crowd.

Alex thanked everyone for their generous
help. With Ms. Palmer's guidance, she divided them into groups. Johnny handed out garbage bags to the middle school kids. The high school kids started clearing the field. Her dad, Mayor Johnston, Coach K, and a bunch of parents began to dismantle the mangled bleachers.

Girls on the dance team taught the younger kids line dances. Hordes of people waited by tables piled high with sweets to buy Coach Sackett's famous chocolate chip blondies and cherry crumble. Folks loved the idea of their big, athletic football coach in an apron. He'd spent all day yesterday in the kitchen. Next to the bake sale, her mom had set up a table with a new batch of ceramic pots, which she'd glazed in Ashland football colors. Several other parents and local stores had also put up tables. Alex was sure they'd be able to raise enough money for the new bleachers and scoreboard.

The sun was high in the blue sky, and the field bustled as if they were at a carnival, not a tornado cleanup.

“Where is he?” Emily asked, coming up with Lindsey behind Alex.

“Who?” She looked toward the battered ticket booth. The cast of
The Wizard of Oz
was in full
costume, charging parents to have their kids take a photo with Dorothy and her friends. Spencer the Scarecrow danced about, and the kids all wanted to pet the little dog that played Toto.

“Your high school guy,” Lindsey prodded. “Is he a football player?”

Their eyes traveled to the concession stand, where the football team was about to start the Ice Cream Chow-Down to raise money. People were betting to see which linebacker could out-eat the other. The cheerleaders had created the largest sundaes Alex had ever seen!

“No, he's not on the team. That would be too weird with my dad and all,” Alex said. She wished she'd never told them about Luke. She knew there wasn't anything really to tell. Yet.

“So true,” Lindsey agreed. “He is here, right?”

Luke was watching Tommy and his jazz trio perform back by the baseball diamond. A crowd of kids surrounded them. She pointed at Luke clapping along to the beat, his sandy curls covering his eyes. “That's him.”

“Wow.” Emily's eyes widened.

“He's so cute,” Lindsey agreed. “Can we go say hi?”

“No!” She hadn't meant to shout. “I mean, not
now. He seems really into the show, and oh, hey, the bake sale needs more help. Do you guys mind?”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief as they hurried off to sell cookies. She hadn't even said hi to Luke yet. She'd been too busy—and too nervous. Somewhere in the distance she heard Johnny, then her mom, call her name, but she didn't answer. Instead she stood with her clipboard, watching Luke.

Wishing he'd look up and notice her.

Ava placed a piece of crumpled notebook paper in her plastic garbage bag, but her eyes stayed on Owen. She'd been watching him for an hour. Now he joked with Logan as they gathered twigs.

She tried to mentally will Logan away, but the boy wouldn't budge from Owen's side.

She glanced down at the crumpled science notes in blue ink.
How did someone's science notes get blown onto the field?
she wondered.

The tornado had done some weird things. In the nearby town of Roscoe, where the twister had hit the hardest, several hay bales went flying
and landed on top of the church's pointy spire!

As she bent forward to grab more debris, she was aware once again of the little box with the delicate silver bracelet in the pocket of her thin hoodie. It felt like a twenty-pound boulder. All day Ava had kept to herself, avoiding Jack and Kylie. She couldn't laugh or talk with them.

She needed to do this.
Now
. She'd waited far too long.

“Owen!” she called. “Can we talk?”

Logan smirked. “Ohhh! K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” he sang.

“Grow up, Medina,” Ava scoffed. She motioned Owen over.

“H-hi,” she stammered, once again feeling uncertain around him. “That was scary. The sirens. The tornado.”

“Yeah,” he agreed awkwardly. “And I've lived here forever. You must have freaked out.”

“Totally.” Ava babbled nervously about squeezing into the bathtub. Then she paused and pulled the little box from her pocket. “Look, I didn't want to talk about the weather.”

“I kind of figured,” he said, looking away from her and squinting into the distance.

“You did?” She couldn't hide her surprise.

He shrugged. “You don't really like me. You made that pretty obvious.”

Ava felt horrible. “Oh, no! It's not that. I mean, I don't like you in that way, but I do like you. As a friend. On the football field . . .” The words became tangled. “And this was very sweet.” She nodded toward the bracelet in the box. “But I can't accept it, because—”

“No big deal.” Owen cut her off and reached for the box.

“Really?” She studied his face. He didn't look too upset.

“Ava, you did everything but project it on the Super Bowl Jumbotron. It's fine. We're good.”

“Really?” she said again. How could he be so into her two days ago and now act as if he didn't care? If she had known it would be this easy, she never would have paraded around school in that hideous outfit.

“Yes, really.” His face went pink, and he pushed the box deep into his pocket. “I like someone else.”

Ava raised her eyebrows. “Who?”

Owen's ears burned red now. “You don't know her. She doesn't go to our school.”

Ava's heart broke for Kylie. Owen was already
onto another girl! For such a quiet guy, he sure moved fast.

Ava scooped a stray football from the ground and tossed it to Owen. He caught it easily and tossed it back. In a moment, they had an easy rhythm going. Toss, catch, toss, catch.

“So we're friends now?” Ava asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Owen agreed, sending the ball high. He wasn't very talkative.

“Tell me about her,” Ava pressed. “The girl you like.”

Owen hesitated. “I don't know.”

“Come on, we're friends,” Ava said. She owed it to Kylie to snoop for information.

“We met online,” Owen explained. “In a chat group. We've been talking all weekend since the crazy tornado. She's really cool.”

“So you connected on one of your fantasy fiction forums?” Ava asked.

Owen held on to the ball and gave her a perplexed look. “How did you know I go on those?”

Busted!

“Just a lucky guess.” She lifted her arms. “Throw it here. So what's her name?”

“I don't know.” Owen rocketed the ball to her. “I only know her screen name: ranchergirl722.”

Ava fumbled the catch. As the ball bounced on the ground, she fought back the urge to pump her fist.
Go, Kylie!

“You know, it was wrong of me to take the bracelet and not tell you right off,” she said. “I owe you for that.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think I may know your mystery girl.”

This has nothing to do with Luke,
Alex told herself as she headed toward the band.
As a student council officer, I need to check on the music.
Music was essential to the cleanup effort.

“Watch out!” Mr. Kelly called as a shower of soil rained down. Several men were laying sod nearby. Alex gasped as flecks of dirt landed on her shirt. She hurried to wipe them off, then stopped. She was wearing ripped jeans, sneakers, and a plain red T-shirt. Her hair was pulled back into two loose braids, and she hadn't bothered with lip gloss. The dirt added to the look.

She felt grimy, and so not herself. But if this was what it took to get Luke to notice her . . .

She spotted Corey heading her way. It startled
her to see him without Lindsey by his side. Alex looked toward the bake sale table. Lindsey and Emily were still selling cookies and brownies.

Corey took long, confident steps, his red hair glimmering in the sun. Then he shot her his megawatt smile, and she felt her insides melt.

She still liked him a lot.

As much as Luke.

Maybe even more.

What's with me?
she wondered. She had two crushes, and one had a girlfriend and the other barely knew she existed.

Alex smiled back. Why was Corey coming over to her now? Had Ava had it right all along? Did boys go for this natural look? Had she been wearing the wrong clothes her whole life?

“Hey, there!” Corey stood in front of her. “You're all dirty. Do you want a towel or something?”

“No.” Alex acted as if it were no big deal that her skin itched under her shirt from the bits of dirt. “Doesn't bother me.”

“I hate being dirty. My mom says I'm going to have to pay our water bill because I shower so much.” Corey grinned. “People can't believe that about me because of football, but hey, I like to look good.”

“Me too,” Alex admitted. She was now officially completely confused. One boy liked one thing. One boy liked the opposite.

“So listen,” Corey said, “I came over to say thank you.”

“To me? Why?”

“I'm saying thank you for the whole team. This cleanup and rebuilding was your idea.”

“Someone else would have probably thought of it too.”

“You thought of it first and put a plan into action. Now we'll be able to practice here this week and play our game next Saturday.”

Xander, Logan, Ryan, and several other football players gathered around.

“Alex is a hero,” Xander announced. “If she hadn't given the scoreboard money to the drama kids, our new scoreboard would have been standing right there when the twister came through.” He pointed to the far end of the field, where the old scoreboard was being lifted in pieces into the backs of several pickup trucks.

“That would've stunk if we'd put up a new one and then a day later it was smashed,” Ryan agreed.

By now, most of the team had wandered over,
including Ava and Owen. Watching the easy way they talked and tossed the ball, Alex knew Ava had finally fixed everything between them.