Sabotage Season (7 page)

I had to agree with Jessi that that seemed really fishy.

“And now somebody called the community center pretending to be Coach and canceled our practice,” Jessi continued. “Mirabelle knows that we practice on the community field, not the school field. It
had
to be her. I bet the reason Zoe got hurt is her fault too.”

“Now you're being ridiculous,” I argued. “Zoe and Brianna bumped into each other. That wasn't sabotage.”

“Okay, maybe not,” Jessi admitted. “But your duffel bag and the field—come on. Something bad is going on here.”

I still didn't want to believe it. “We've got to forget about this stuff and just concentrate on the game against the Roses tomorrow.”

“Well,
I'm
not forgetting,” Jessi said, and she looked more
determined than I'd ever seen her. “If Mirabelle is behind this, there is no way she's going to get away with it.”

“Yay! Devin's here!” Emma squealed as I walked into Cosmic Bowling later that night. She slipped a blue fluorescent necklace over my head. “Coach Flores got us these. Aren't they cool?”

“Awesome!” I replied. I scanned the bowling alley, transfixed. The room was bathed in black light. The bowling pins and balls glowed in fluorescent green, yellow, orange, and pink. Bowlers wore glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets, and people even sipped sodas from glow-in-the-dark straws. I had never seen anything like it.

“Where is everybody?” I asked.

“We've all got lanes,” Emma reported. “Come on. We need to get you some shoes.”

A few minutes later I was walking through the bowling alley in smooth-soled bowling shoes. Emma led me to a lane where Jessi, Frida, and Zoe were all waiting.

“I can't bowl, but I can cheer everybody on,” Zoe said, wiggling her arm like a chicken wing.

“Aw!” I said, hugging her. “Well, I'm going to need a lot of cheering on, because the last time I bowled, I used bumpers.”

“You mean we can't use bumpers?”

Anna, another member of the Kicks, had asked the question. She was in the lane to the right of us with Sarah.

Jessi made a muscle with her right arm. “We don't need no stinkin' bumpers!”

“Speak for yourself,” I said.

Brianna ran up, carrying her bowling shoes. She plopped down in a seat next to me.

“Sorry I'm late. I had a piano lesson,” she said.

“I thought you had a dance lesson today,” Anna said.

“I did,” Brianna replied. “Right after soccer practice.” She swept a lock of her long blond hair behind her ear. “Oh, that reminds me. You know Jamie from the Rams? Well, she's in my dance class and all she could talk about was how the Rams are going to win the district this year. It was obnoxious.”

“She thinks the Rams can beat the Panthers?” Jessi asked. “Aren't the Rams, like, in fourth place right now or something?”

“Well,
we
beat the Panthers, and I think we're in fifth place right now,” I pointed out.

“I know,” Brianna said. Then she rolled her eyes. “That Jamie was acting like they'd already won.”

“Well, the Rams did really well last year,” Emma pointed out. “Jamie was, like, the star of the team. It's actually kind of weird that they're not doing better this year.”

Then Coach Flores walked up to us. “Glad to see all of you girls here! It looks like most of the team made it.”

I looked at the lanes around us. To our left were Grace and her three best friends on the team, Giselle, Megan, and Anjali. The other girls on the team were all in lanes close by.

“Are you bowling too?” I asked Coach.

She nodded to a lane. “Maya and Jade invited me to play
with them. But I'll stop by to see how you guys are doing.”

I shook my head. “You might not want to do that. I haven't bowled in ages. So I'll probably just be throwing gutter balls.”

Coach Flores smiled. “Just have some fun. I'll see you later!”

She left, and I looked up at the scoreboard screen to see that Jessi had entered our names. Then she picked up a glowing pink ball.

“Let's roll!” she yelled, and then she sent the ball sailing down the lane and knocked down a bunch of pins.

“Whoo!” she cheered, and Emma gave her a high five.

Jessi, Emma, and Frida had to go before me, so I looked around at the other bowlers. Anna pushed the ball with both hands, giggling as it slowly made its way down the side of the lane before dropping into the gutter. The eighth grade lane was another story. Grace slid up to the line like a real pro and sent her ball spinning right down the middle. She pumped her fist as the word “Strike” blazed across the scoreboard.

“Devin, it's your turn,” Emma called out.

“Oh, boy,” I muttered. I wasn't nervous, exactly, just not sure how I was going to do. I picked up a fluorescent orange ball and walked up to the line. Then I swung with all my might and dropped the ball. It quickly skidded down the lane—and right into the gutter.

Secretly I was embarrassed, but I decided to make the best of it.

“Yes!” I cheered, pumping my fist like Grace had. “I totally meant to do that!”

Zoe giggled. “That was the most awesome gutter ball ever.”

The ball came back, and I tried again, this time focusing as hard as I could on the middle pin. But the ball rolled right into the gutter again!

“Thank you, thank you,” I said, taking a bow.

“Devin is the gutter ball queen!” Frida yelled.

“No way! I am!” Anna protested.

“We'll see about that,” I said.

On my next turn I danced up to the line to the music and then threw the ball—another gutter ball, but I didn't care, because my friends were giggling so hard. I hopped up to the line like a bunny on my second throw.

I mixed it up on each turn, cracking up my friends every time. I twirled around like a ballerina. I stomped like a sumo wrestler. I swung my arms like a monkey. And the ball went into the gutter every time.

“Enough!” Jessi yelled finally through her giggles. “Devin, you have got to hit at least one pin this game!”

“Pretend the ball is a soccer ball and the pins are the goal,” Frida suggested.

“Okay, okay,” I said. I picked up the ball, and this time I really tried. I took Frida's advice. The glowing orange ball became a black-and-white soccer ball. The fluorescent pins became goalposts and a net. I took three smooth steps, like I had seen Jessi and Grace do, and let go of the ball.

It slid down the middle . . . and kept going . . . and then veered to the left right before it hit the pins.

Bam!
Four pins went down.

“I did it!” I cried, and Emma gave me another high five.

I knew it was only four pins, but at least it wasn't a gutter ball. Jessi shook her head.

“It's a good thing you're a better soccer player than a bowler,” she said.

I laughed. “No kidding!”

The next morning Dad dropped me off early at the Santa Flora field for our game against the Roses. Santa Flora was only one town away from Kentville, so it wasn't far. It looked like a pretty normal school field except that there were rosebushes planted all around the parking lot, which was really pretty.

I walked to the Kicks side of the field, where some of the girls were already warming up. Coach Flores approached me.

“Devin, Grace, and Megan are both out today with a stomach bug,” she informed me. “But we've got plenty of players, so we should be fine.”

I couldn't answer her right away, because I was kind of freaking out inside. Fine? Grace was our strongest midfielder, and Megan, who was also in eighth grade, was a
solid striker. Now we'd have a forward line without Megan
or
Zoe. Not good.

“Okay,” I said finally. “So, what are you going to do, Coach?”

“I thought I'd start you, Brianna, and Maya as forwards,” Coach Flores replied. “Maya's a great midfielder, but I think she'll do well in the forward position.”

I couldn't really argue with that; Maya was another eighth grader and I didn't know her that well, but she was definitely solid on the midfield. Still, I didn't feel like it was our strongest front line.

“Coach, could we put Jessi as a forward too?” I asked.

Coach Flores raised an eyebrow. “You mean four forwards? I wouldn't normally recommend that, Devin.”

“I just think we need to beef up our front line,” I said. “It's worth a try, isn't it? I mean, we've tried stuff before that has worked.”

Coach Flores nodded. “They say the best way to learn is by doing, right? Let's give it a try.”

By now most of the team had showed up, and Coach explained the new formation. When she finished, I yelled out, “Sock swap!” All of us gathered in a circle, took off one of the colorful, crazy socks we were wearing, and handed it to the person on our left. Then we put on our socks and our cleats and were ready to go. Coach Flores led us in some warm-ups and drills. Before long, spectators began to fill the stands, and the Santa Flora Roses showed up in their red-and-white uniforms.

I wasn't too worried about the Roses. They'd had almost as many losses as we had, although theirs had been spread out a little more over the season. But we still had to win this game to stay in the running for the play-offs.

We had retreated to the sidelines to get ready for the start, when Jessi poked my arm.

“Cody and Steven are up there,” she told me in a loud whisper. “Just don't point this time!”

I followed her gaze and saw Cody and Steven in the stands with some of the other players from the boys' team. Steven saw me and waved, and I smiled and waved back.

“What are you doing?” Jessi hissed.

“I'm waving, not pointing,” I protested, but then I quickly turned away from the stands. Waving at Steven was
not
a good way to get focused before a game.

Frida ran up. “So what's my motivation today?”

“I've got one,” Jessi offered. “You're a military operative guarding a top secret base, and inside the soccer ball is a secret spy camera. If the ball gets into the goal, your enemy will learn all the details of your secret base.”

Frida made a really serious face. “Military. Got it.” She saluted and then marched away just as the ref's whistle blew. I ran out onto the field for the coin toss, and the Roses won, which meant they would start with control of the ball. Both teams spread out on the field, and Jessi, Brianna, Maya, and I took our places on the forward line. The ref blew his whistle again, and the Roses charged forward.

Right from the start we were in trouble. I thought having four forwards would be good, but it caused us a lot of problems. For one, it meant that we had only three midfielders on the field—Alandra, Taylor, and Anna. They were the ones who did the most running on the field, because they were in a position to defend the goal from the opposing players, as well as trying to get the ball up to the forwards. It was a lot of ground to cover, and the three of them got tired out quickly, so the Roses offense got past them pretty easily and kept breezing past our defenders.

“The spy camera is about to infiltrate headquarters!” Frida yelled as the ball whizzed past her. The Roses midfielder chasing after the ball looked at her quizzically as she passed, but that didn't stop her from shooting the ball past Emma and into the net.

“I have failed!” Frida cried dramatically, dropping to her knees.

“Don't give up hope!” Emma called back. “Hold that line. I'm counting on you, Agent Frida!”

Frida saluted. “I won't fail again.”

But the tired midfielders couldn't hold off the onslaught of the Roses' offense. One of their strikers tore down toward the goal. Frida, Anjali, and Sarah all converged toward her, but she kicked it right past them. Emma dove for it, and her fingers brushed it, but she couldn't stop it.