I looked down at the floor to see something black peeking out between the dresser and the wall. I leaned down to pick it up.
“It’s right here, Amy,” I said, as I passed it to her in my outstretched hand, and she got quiet.
“Oh. Thanks,” she said. “Now get out.” Then she turned around to apply the lip gloss in her mirror.
I left the room, hopeful that she might have considered my help a type of olive branch, but I was mistaken. She went right back to loathing me by the time we were in the kitchen.
At school, things were no different. Brooke and Amy went out of their way to give me mean looks whenever they saw me. Chris did his best to shield me from them, but I was learning to live with it. Throughout the day, Isabelle rambled on about the dance that night and what she was going to wear. She was clearly excited, and I wished I had more energy to give to her. I was just emotionally torn into too many pieces.
As the day went on, I headed to French class, where Chris was saving me a seat in the back like always. He patted the seat and flashed me a warm smile as I walked into the room. I slid in next to him and leaned my head onto his shoulder. He reached a hand up and ran it through my hair.
“Hey,” he said softly. “It’s time for you to get into the zone, Superstar. Big game this afternoon.” He knew not to push, but he was also right. I sat back up and turned to him.
“Yeah. Thanks. You’re right,” I said, as Madame Holly walked into the room and clapped her hands to draw everyone’s attention to the front.
Before the game, we had to get through the Homecoming parade. Our team had spent the last month decorating our field hockey-themed float. As team captain, I was supposed to ride at the front of it and throw out candy with Coach DeLaney. I was not looking forward to being the center of attention.
The bell finally rang, which meant it was time for me to gather my books for that weekend’s homework. Chris followed me out of the room to my locker, where he watched as I gathered what I needed. There was a big math test on Monday that I needed to study for in order to maintain my current GPA for Wake Forest. I already had a scholarship, but I couldn’t let my grades slip.
“How are you feeling about your Calculus test on Monday?”
“Nervous. I’ve actually been studying for it. My mom has been taking me to a tutor at U of R to get me caught up. The concepts are just so difficult for me to grasp, but I want to get a good grade,” I said, as I looked up at him. Math was his best subject, and I needed this grade, but I also didn’t want to embarrass myself by doing poorly.
“You’ll do great. I’ll see you at the Homecoming parade! I need to head down to our soccer field to get it ready. I wish I could come watch your game, but we have ours too. I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
“Good luck at your game, too!” I replied.
Before he left, he quickly kissed me on the cheek, then leaned in close and whispered in my ear. “Mmm, I just can’t get last night out of my head. I can’t wait to see you in your dress tonight, baby.”
As he walked away, I reached up to touch his lingering kiss left on my cheek, and I smiled. I was still thinking about last night, too.
I gathered my Math book and binder, then zipped my backpack and headed down to the gym to get ready. Everyone in the locker room was getting changed for the game since there wouldn’t be time after the Homecoming parade. I already had my field hockey skirt on, but still needed to get on my jersey. I would put my cleats and shin guards on once we were out on the field.
We all headed out of the locker room to the front of the gym where our float would be waiting. All of the other teams and organizations were busy still adding the finishing touches to their floats, and I was suddenly glad that Coach DeLaney had made us finish ours a few days ago, so we weren’t out here scrambling at the last minute. These other teams really looked unorganized.
“Grab some candy and climb on,” I instructed my teammates as I passed out sand buckets for them to fill with Starbursts and Skittles. By the time I climbed on the float, the floor was already littered with wrappers from my teammates who had eaten a few pieces.“Don’t leave trash on the float, it will get blown off when we start moving,” I said, as I helped them clean it up, then I headed to the front of the float to take my place with Coach DeLaney, who was already there waiting.
“Hey, Allie. I heard you committed to Wake Forest! I am so proud of you. I wish I could have heard that news from you, though. Why haven’t you been sharing it with people? That’s a huge deal!” she asked with a look of confusion on her face. “Is everything ok?”
“I’m so sorry, Coach. I’m really excited about it, but my mom doesn’t seem as thrilled. She doesn’t believe field hockey is a viable endgame after college, so she doesn’t understand why I would want to go somewhere just to play a sport. When I told her about it, she said we could go do a school visit and see how I liked it. She doesn’t understand how excited I am, or how much I love field hockey. I really did want to tell you. I guess I just wanted more time to see if she would come around to the idea to make sure it was official before I spread the word.” Coach’s expression changed from confusion to a smile.
“I wondered if that might be the case. I noticed that I have never seen her at any of your games, so I gave her a call. She told me that she wanted to make sure that you were picking the right school for you, not just because of sports. I talked her into coming to the game today. Look,” she said, pointing out into the crowd.
And there, standing among the other parents, was my mom wearing her custom knitted green and gold Cougar sweater with a paw print on the front. She was waving and smiling back at me. The effort that she made to be there did mean a lot, but Coach didn’t understand that it might be mostly out of guilt.
“Thanks, Coach, I appreciate you trying to help.”
“You’re welcome. I would hate to see you lose that scholarship,” she said, then she turned away to greet the Headmaster of the school as he arrived to admire our float.
Throughout the parade, the enthusiasm from the crowd really got me in the spirit for the upcoming game. I fed off their energy and found comfort in knowing that maybe my mom might actually be trying to make an effort. By the time it was over, we climbed off our floats and ran back to the locker room, revved up for the game ahead.
Once everyone was dressed and ready, I grabbed the chair and stood on it in the middle of the locker room. Then I paused for a moment before sticking my fingers in my mouth and letting out a shrill whistle to get their attention. Everyone ground to a halt.
“COUGARS READY?” I shouted.
“READY!” they screamed, then they grabbed their sticks and followed me as I led the tradition of tapping our sticks on the top of the door frame as we exited onto the field.
As soon as we stepped out, I looked around the field, surprised to find my mom sitting in the front row of the bleachers. She waived at me and I waived back.
