A Game Worth Watching (19 page)

It
was all Ashley’s fault. If Emma had never started coaching Ashley, she wouldn’t
have thought twice about letting girls work out their own salvation. Despite
Coach’s increased efforts, some of the girls still had a long way to go in
developing their basketball skills. Madison looked at Emma with admiration. Or
maybe it was disgust. Emma couldn’t quite tell from her scrunched up face. At
least Madison didn’t freak out when Emma touched her. She just stared at Emma,
not sure what to do next.

Emma
pointed to the basket. “Shoot.”

Madison
did as instructed. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head as the ball swished
through the net.

Thank goodness
,
Emma thought. She rebounded the ball and passed it back to Madison. At least
Madison had enough sense to try and copy Emma’s changes to her form. Emma only
had to adjust the position of her shooting arm and her hand placement on the
ball.

Two
in a row. A smile crept onto Madison’s face when she looked at Emma. An actual
smile. Emma was impressed it wasn’t a sneer. Maybe there were differences
between Lauren and her groupies.

Rather
than acknowledge Madison’s smile with one of her own, Emma ignored it and
turned away. Another smile was plastered on Ashley’s face, like she’d known all
along how great Emma could be. Emma dropped her gaze to the floor.

Six
attempts later, Madison sunk her final free throw. The girl screamed and flung
herself at Emma before Emma could defend against an attack. Way to go Madison
for overcoming her Emma-has-cooties mentality, but a little personal space
would be appreciated. What was with girls and all the hugging?

When
the psycho girl’s arms didn’t budge after five seconds, Emma couldn’t take it
anymore. “Okay, okay. Off.”

Madison
released her, but the girl’s grinning face and hysterical giggles didn’t
retreat far enough away. Emma took initiative to put five feet of distance
between them, deterring any thought of additional hugging action.

The
team gathered at mid-court for their end of practice huddle, an action devised
to promote team unity. Smashed into a huddle to shout a meaningless word at the
top of her lungs with a bunch of girls didn’t feel like team closeness to Emma.
If guys surrounded her, she’d smell the sweat from their bodies and traces of
food on their breath. Girls coated themselves with so much deodorant and
perfume it was hard to breathe without choking.

Before
the team could disperse, Lauren’s high-pitched shriek ricocheted off the gym
walls. “Wait, wait, wait.” She ran to the sidelines and returned carrying a
stack of papers. “I just wanted to remind everyone about our annual
team-building event this Friday.”

Team-building
event? No one had ever said anything about a team-building event. Wasn’t there
enough team building going on during practice? Too much could be detrimental.

Lauren
shoved a flyer in her hand.

Emma
looked at the pink and blue flyer and her mouth dropped open in horror.

“Riley
Aaron Ledger, get out here!” Emma screamed. “Now!” She pounded on the Ledgers’
front door, ignoring the pain in her fist each time it struck the wood. If the door
hadn’t been locked, she would have burst into the house and forced Riley to
show himself. He had to be home. His jeep was in the driveway. He couldn’t
evade her. Not this time. Of all the dirty, rotten moments in her life, the
team-building event would definitely take spot number one. She pounded harder.

The
door finally swung open and Riley appeared in front of her.

“Geez,
Em. You’re going to—” One full look at her face made his eyes widen with
concern, and he grabbed her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

Her
hands made fists at her sides, crumpling the flyer still clutched in her
fingers. “You got me into this, now you have to get me out.” Her whole body
shook, and it took all of her self-control not to scream.

“What
are you—”

“I’ve
done everything expected of me and more.” The words tumbled out of her mouth.
“I’ve attended every practice and busted my butt in every game. I’m teaching
Basketball 101 to some annoying freshman and her two sidekicks. I attended the
stupid school dance to build team unity.” She held up the flyer. “But I am
not
doing
this.”

“Em,”
he said, holding up his hands to prevent her from attacking him. “You’re
seriously freaking me out right now. Slow down and tell me what you’re talking
about.”

“I’m
talking about this stupid team-building event,” she said through clenched
teeth.

“Okay.”
He shook his head, his forehead scrunching in confusion. “I think I’m missing
something.”

She
slammed the flyer against his chest. “This is all your fault.”

He
pulled the crumpled paper from her fist and straightened it. She watched as his
mouth upturned into a smile; his laughter started seconds later.

Her
eyes narrowed into slits. “This is so not funny.”

He
bent over in hysterics.

Shaking
her head in disgust, Emma spun around to leave. Help would obviously not come
from him. He caught her around the waist before she got to the edge of the
porch, and he positioned his body in front of her. “I’m sorry,” he said, the
traces of laughter still radiating from him. “I just can’t imagine you at
a—”

“Slumber
party!” she finished for him, throwing her hands in the air. “I can’t do it. I
won’t do it. I won’t spend an entire night surrounded by girls. I’d rather be
bitten by ten rattlesnakes and left to die in the desert.”

“That’s
a little extreme, don’t you think?”

“No!
It’s not extreme,” she yelled at him. “Do you have any idea what girls do at
slumber parties?”

He
shook his head.

“Neither
do I, but it can’t be good.” Images of mud masks and cucumber eyes formed in
her head and she cringed. Giggling and gossiping, squealing and screaming. Emma
gagged. She wouldn’t go, she couldn’t. Not if she had any dignity and
self-respect. But what choice did she have when Coach threatened to bench
anyone who didn’t attend? Did Coach actually think some stupid slumber party would
miraculously unite the team and help them win?

For
the next eight days all the girls talked about was the slumber party. What to
wear, what to bring, what to do. But the worst part, for once, wasn’t the
girls. It was the guys.

“Think
about it Emma, you’re going where no guy has gone before.”

“You’ll
be our inside guy.”

“You
go in, get the dirt, get out, and reveal all.”

Riley
didn’t help either. Sure, he stood beside her, but he couldn’t keep the smile
off his face. Emma was alone. Before she knew it, eight days had passed, and
she hadn’t managed to convince Coach to spare her sanity and let her off the
hook. Instead, Emma found herself packing a bag and preparing for the worst
night of her life.

***

Riley
stopped his jeep at the curb across the street from Lauren’s southern
plantation house and shut off the engine. Emma should’ve gotten out of the car,
but she remained frozen in the passenger’s seat, staring at the house. Lights
shone from the windows and silhouettes of girls danced on the other side of the
blinds. The sound of music drifted to her in the night.

“Would
it be wrong of me to admit I’m afraid?” she asked quietly.

He
turned toward her. “Afraid of what?”

“Of
not fitting in.” She didn’t know how to be a girl. She didn’t know how to
relate with people who despised her. Sure, they expressed signs of gratitude
when she gave them pointers on the court, but they had yet to form a sense of
camaraderie. She didn’t know how to survive an all-girls slumber party.

As
if to demonstrate her point, Madison and Christi walked up the driveway to the
front door, each carrying two bags, a sleeping bag, and a pillow. Emma and
Riley watched as they rang the doorbell. A few seconds later, Lauren threw open
the door and they all started screaming. High-pitched, glass-shattering
screams.

Emma
covered her face with her hands. “Kill me now.”

“It
can’t be that bad.” Riley squeezed her shoulder. “I mean, they are just girls.”

She
glared at him. He didn’t understand. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t
understand. Yes, these were girls. Girls who barely tolerated her existence at
practice and at school where authority figures maintained peace between them.
Lauren’s house was dangerous territory. Sure, her parents may be home, but no
way were they going to maintain visual on them during all hours of the night.
This was bad. This was very, very bad.

“Okay,
maybe it will be that bad,” Riley said, seeing the look on her face, “but you
can do this.”

She
could’ve stayed in the car with him all night, assessing the situation and
imagining how bad the slumber party would be, but life had other plans.

A
knock on the window caused Emma and Riley to jump. From the other side of the
glass, Ashley waved frantically, a huge smile on her face.

Riley
nodded at Ashley. “At least the freshman is excited.”

“And
that’s supposed to comfort me how?”

He
reached over and squeezed her hand. “You’ll be fine.”

Ashley,
unable to wait another second, yanked open the passenger door and practically
dragged Emma out. “Hi, Riley.”

“Hey,
kid,” he said, raising his hand in greeting. “Go easy on our girl, will ya?”

Ashley
giggled. Emma grabbed her stuff from the backseat and followed Ashley around
the front of the jeep. She took one look at the house and returned to the car.
Her hands clutched the window frame of Riley’s door. “Keep your cell phone on
and with you in case I need to be extracted. I expect you to come in full
armor.”

Ashley
yelled to her from across the street, telling her to hurry.

“And
bring back up,” she added.

“You
got it,” Riley said. “And Em?”

“Yeah?”

“Try
to have fun.”

The
screaming started as soon as the door opened. Fun was not an option.

***

For
some girls, spending an entire night dressed in cotton candy colors, dancing
around like
Spiderman
on jetpacks, and stocking up on gossip may have been a dream come true, but for
Emma it was cruel and unusual punishment. She didn’t know where she fit among
the giggling clusters of girls, so she lingered in doorways and observed from
the shadows, not wanting to draw attention to her oversized sweat pants and
faded t-shirt. On the basketball court with her teammates, she could at least
pretend to fit in, but no matter how many pointers she gave the girls, they
would never accept her. Not that she wanted to be friends with them or
anything, but maybe it wouldn’t be horrible to not feel like such an outcast.
Maybe.

When
the energy level began to fizzle and pizza arrived, the girls couldn’t resist a
nice and quiet game of Truth or Dare. Evidently it was a popular game at the
female watering hole. To make it more interesting, Lauren stripped it to just
Truth.

Madison,
not shy about revealing her secrets to anyone willing to listen, volunteered to
go first. Sitting in a circle, all the girls focused their attention on Madison
as she revealed her latest crush victim. Alex. Poor guy. What did he ever do?

“Last
week in Physics when I dropped my pen and it rolled under Alex’s desk, he bent
over to pick it up, and when he gave it back to me,” Madison’s eyes widened in
excitement, “he smiled.”

Emma
snorted. One smile from a guy was all it took to get girls to swoon? Note to
self, tell the guys never to smile at a girl unless they wanted to be marked
and targeted for marriage.

“What?”
Madison asked innocently. “We definitely had a moment.”

“Must
have been a short-lived moment,” Emma muttered, unable to bite her tongue and
remain silent.

Madison’s
face retracted in hurt. More hurt than Emma would have thought possible by a
comment coming from her mouth.

“Is
hurting me your favorite thing to do?” Madison whimpered.

Six
heads swiveled in Emma’s direction to see if she’d admit to being the heartless
and cruel person she portrayed. It didn’t help when Madison’s chin started to
wobble. Tears would soon follow, and Emma didn’t want to go down that road
again.

“I—”
Emma started, but she was cut off by Madison’s outburst.

“What
do you know anyway?”

Six
pairs of eyes snapped back to Emma, and she froze. She knew Alex was a nice guy
with a sweet smile he used on everyone. Consider it one of his bad habits, but
Emma doubted Alex could get through an entire hour without smiling at someone.
He was the type of guy who cut out early on Saturdays to spend time with his
little sister, rescued kittens from trees, and would rather be picked last for
a team to spare someone else the embarrassment. To sum him up, Alex was the
smiling type of guy. Based on the unpredictability of girls, Emma figured the
truth probably wasn’t something she should vocalize amid a half-dozen boy-crazed
girls.

“I
know I need more pizza.” Emma jumped up from the floor with plate in hand and
practically sprinted to the kitchen. She cringed when she heard footsteps.
Madison and the rest of the girls surrounded Emma, trapping her with the pizza.
Not such a bad predicament considering there were still two pizzas left and she
was hungry.

“Tell
me what you know. Please.” Madison’s face had never looked so pitiful. Was this
what guys had to deal with? One word and a girl broke down in tears. No wonder
guys were weak. It was better to give in than to be the cause of a girl’s
waterworks.

Emma
looked around at everyone watching her and knew she wouldn’t be able to escape,
so she caved. “Last weekend at the basketball court, Alex mentioned that he
asked a girl from another school to the winter formal.”