Two Steps Back (10 page)

“Well, you're going to break into the big time yourself, with your pottery,” said Alex loyally.

The news van pulled up alongside the curb in front of them.

“They're here,” said Alex. She blew her mom an air kiss. “Gotta go.”

“Good luck, sweetie,” said her mother, as Alex hopped out.

Marcy had on another stunning outfit, this one a formfitting, royal-blue sheath dress accessorized with a gold link necklace and knee-high patent-leather black boots. Alex immediately felt little-girlish in her black-and-white-striped tee and green skirt with flounces, but it was too late now. As she'd been getting dressed earlier, she'd thought her outfit looked older and more sophisticated than what she usually wore. But next to Marcy's, it seemed so immature.

Alex greeted Marcy and Candace and the rest of the crew and led the way through the stage-door entrance to where Tommy and Harley and Jackson were getting set up. Harley looked breathtaking in a short black dress with a halter-type neckline and slightly forties-style black pumps. Who was the movie actress her mom had pointed out a few Sunday movie nights ago? Lauren Bacall. That's who Harley resembled.

The place looked different than it had earlier that afternoon. The lighting was soft and romantic, and spotlights were beamed toward the stage area. Luke stood in the back near the coffee counter, consulting with a guy who looked like a sound technician.

The band began rehearsing a song. It had a saucy, swinglike beat. Alex gathered the crew together, out of earshot of the band, and spoke. “So I thought I would start by introducing the band members, and then you guys can shoot them playing a song or two?” She didn't mention Luke. She had a funny feeling Marcy would not approve of the plan to have him ask a surprise question on camera.

“All right, yes,” said Marcy, “and what time is your father arriving?”

Candace took up her clipboard and held her pen poised above the schedule, waiting to hear Alex's response.

“Oh! Um, I don't think he'll be here,” said Alex. “My brother didn't want our parents here.”

Candace whispered something in Marcy's ear. Alex thought this was not very polite.

Marcy nodded at whatever it was Candace said, and then glared at Alex, tapping her toe. “This is not going well, Alexandra,” she said.

“No, it really isn't,” agreed Candace.

“You do realize that after you sent us away from your sister's game this morning, every other news station in the area showed up to cover the story except us?”

“Every other one,” echoed Candace. “Even the
public
television station.”

“I know.”

“We were the
only
ones not there,” Marcy continued. “It seems your decision to be a loyal sister has resulted in our missing out on a story.”

“We really missed out,” agreed Candace. “We got scooped.”

“I know,” said Alex. “I'm really sorry.”

“And now, after I give you a second chance, you tell me that all we have to shoot here is your brother playing a few songs with his two friends? That's not a story, Alexandra.” Marcy turned to Candace. “I don't think this is worth our staying for the show,” she said in a low voice. “I'm thinking we should run that story about the dog rescued from the storm drain in this slot.”

“What about the cat that likes to ride on the vacuum cleaner?”

“Hmm,” reflected Marcy. “That might be good too.”

Candace took out her phone to make a call.

Alex knew she had to think of something fast. “Wait!” she said, her mind racing. “What about the football angle?”

Marcy and Candace had already turned to leave, beckoning the cameraman, sound guy, makeup artist, and lighting woman to follow them, but at Alex's outburst Marcy held up a manicured hand, and everyone else stopped. They set their gear back down. Candace paused, her phone clamped under her chin.

“Well, Alexandra?” demanded Marcy. The others turned toward her expectantly.

“Okay, so we have footage from Friday night's game, right? Of Tommy in his football uniform and my dad coaching?”

“Yes,” said Marcy. “But that's not very useful, is it, if we don't have an exclusive with Coach Sackett.”

“No, it's not useful,” agreed Candace, still holding her phone with her chin. “Not without an interview with her father.”

“Wait, hear me out. So let me interview the trio, and we can approach the story from the angle that my brother is a musician who also plays football, like you said. And we can talk about how much he yearns to pursue his art, but was born into this family where he was destined to play football.” Would Tommy mind if she brought football into this story? Alex wondered again. She really didn't think so. He was a lot less camera shy than Ava.

Marcy pursed her lips. “Hmm. Pretty thin. Now, if we could also talk about your twin sister who was born to play football but has been prevented by external forces from pursuing her dreams just because she's a girl, that might be a nice parallel. But we have no footage in the can of your sister and today's game.”

Candace nodded. “Because you sent us away,” she reminded Alex.

“I'll text Ava and see if she'll show up so I can interview her,” said Alex quickly. “She—she might.” Would Ava show up?

Marcy turned to the crew and gave an almost imperceptible nod. They began unpacking their gear.

“All right, Alexandra,” said Marcy. “We'll film the group and do the interview. But no promises. And I must tell you, my patience is wearing thin.”

Ava was still in the park shooting baskets. It had been nearly two hours, though, and her stomach growled. She took it as a sign that it was time to go home to eat dinner.

As she unzipped her backpack to put away her ball, she noticed a text that had come in a while ago from Alex.

Ava, can you please, please come to the Press as soon as humanly possible? I'll explain when you get here. Please?

Ava frowned down at her phone. So now Alex needed
her
? Ava had thought Alex didn't want anything to do with her tonight. And suddenly she was all “come right away, it's urgent” when she had been extremely casual about responding to Ava's urgent text earlier. Humph. Ava was still pretty upset with Alex, and she still didn't want to admit to herself that Alex's urging her to bow out so the game could be played actually
had
influenced her feelings about the whole thing. And now Alex needed her again, probably for this dumb news story. Was she planning to try to thrust Ava into the spotlight again in order to get a better story? Then there was the whole Luke issue. Luke was her tutor. Luke
couldn't
be interested in Alex. That seemed so wrong. On so many levels. She shuddered.

Ava reread the text and shook her head. The last thing she felt like doing was hopping on her bike and riding all the way to the Press in the growing darkness to bail Alex out of some harebrained scheme.

She decided to head home instead.

Alex checked her phone again. No response from Ava. And there was nothing she could do about Coach. There was no way he would show, especially after Tommy had asked him not to. Well, maybe Alex could convince Marcy that the footage they'd taken of Coach at the game would be good enough to “round out” the story.

“All right, Alexandra, we're ready,” said Marcy. “Gather the band in and we'll have you start with your interview.”

The trio must have been waiting for Marcy to say that, because they immediately stopped playing and headed over to the area where Marcy and her crew had set up the cameras and the lights. The audience members were filing in and taking their seats, but Candace was circulating around the room, asking people to be quiet and pointing to the camera crew.

The sound guy clipped a little microphone to Alex's collar and threaded it around behind her back, where he clipped a small black box to her skirt at the waist. Then he handed Alex a microphone with
KHXA
on it. The makeup lady zoomed in and fussed with Alex's hair. She whipped a can of hair spray out of the holster on her hip and sprayed a cloud of it over Alex, which made Alex cough. Then she did the same to Harley. She even dusted Tommy's and Jackson's faces with some sort of powder on a big, puffy brush.

Alex stood in the center of the group. On one side of her were Harley and Jackson. On the other was Tommy.

She felt a tiny bit nervous, but also strangely energized. She could see Luke waiting off to the side. Their eyes met, and he winked at her. She still hadn't told Marcy about including Luke in this interview. There was no sign of Ava, and Alex had a sinking feeling her twin wasn't coming. But she couldn't think about that now.

“Are you ready, Alexandra?” asked Marcy.

Alex nodded.

“Musicians?”

The three of them nodded.

“Audience?”

The people sitting in the café, which was now full to capacity, applauded quietly and were immediately shushed by Candace.

“All right, we're rolling,” said the cameraman.

All nervousness left Alex. She smiled easily at the camera. “This is Alex Sackett, kid reporter for KHXA, and we're here at the Press in downtown Ashland, in front of a live audience with the hot new jazz trio of the moment!”

Her eyes flicked to Marcy. Marcy looked pleasantly surprised. Alex knew she was doing great. She was pretty sure she was a natural in front of the camera.

One by one, she introduced the band members, and asked each of them a question or two about themselves. When she got to Tommy, she asked, “So, Tom Sackett. You play piano for the group. And you're also a sophomore quarterback for the Ashland Tigers. How do you feel about your double life as an athlete and an artist?”

Marcy beamed and gave her a hearty, manicured thumbs-up.

“I love both music and sports,” said Tommy. “I like to think I'm a combination of my twin sisters' passions. You're an artist, Alex, and our sister, Ava, is an athlete. Me? I'm both.” He smiled charmingly.

Alex knew without turning her gaze that Luke was standing just off camera. Now was the moment. “Thanks, Tom. And yes, it's true we Sackett kids all inherited some combination of sports and artistic genes,” she said with a winning smile. “But that's not all we think about! Some of us also have a romantic side. Luke, did you have something you wanted to add to this interview?” She beckoned to Luke to step into the shot, and he did so quickly, looking slightly ill at ease and holding something behind his back.

Alex could see Marcy's perfectly shaped eyebrows go up. Alex guessed she had been right in assuming the reporter was not a big fan of surprise appearances.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Luke Grabowski, the band's manager and producer. And he told me he would like to ask a question. Luke? What was it you wanted to ask?” Alex smiled encouragingly at him.

From behind his back, Luke drew out a bouquet of red roses wrapped in white tissue paper and tied with a pink ribbon.

Alex turned to smile into the camera, her heart fluttering. This was it!

“Thanks so much, Alex. I'll be quick here,” said Luke. Then he turned from Alex to Harley. “Harley? Would you go to Homecoming with me?”

The smile on Alex's face froze. Disbelief swirled around her in a cloudy haze, so that suddenly she felt she couldn't see anything clearly or hear anything except faraway, muffled sounds. Had she heard correctly? Had Luke just asked
Harley
to Homecoming?

“I'd love to,” came Harley's voice, and through the fog Alex watched her accept the bouquet Luke was holding out to her.

A moment later Luke stepped out of the shot, and Alex was still staring into the camera, frozen. Thoughts whooshed through her mind. Hadn't Tommy mentioned something about the “cute ask” contest for the high school Homecoming? Hadn't he told her how the person who asked a date in the most innovative and clever way would win some prize or other? Suddenly, like a person falling off a cliff whose life is zooming past in a rush, Alex's own mind recalled all the clues that should have told her it was Harley, not Alex, whom Luke wanted to ask to Homecoming. But she'd willfully ignored the signs. And now here she was, the classic deer in the headlights, unable to move or say or do anything. And the camera was rolling!