she’d be severing something. But then Marie shook her head, saying, “I think I want to stay.”
A flash of surprise crossed Lynn’s face, but she recovered quickly, tossing off a chipper “Okay, then,” before she sauntered off.
Though Marie stayed, a few other girls followed Lynn’s lead and left. Bobby did nothing to stop them, either. There were maybe thirty of us left now.
“Let’s see those laps,” Bobby said, and blew his whistle like nothing had happened.
I took an easy early lead, grateful that we didn’t have to do more push-ups. Running with the longest strides I could, I was the sleek-limbed creature in the Nova special and I wanted Bobby to watch me, like a hungry tiger—or at least nod to himself, like, “That’s who I’m looking for.” To do what, I didn’t care.
Behind me, some girls were chatting.
“Jesus, if he wasn’t so hot, I’d be out of here.”
“I know. I thought this was going to be kind of a joke.”
“How do you play soccer, anyway? Is there this much running?”
“Maybe he’ll stop us after one lap.”
But after the last person rounded the playground, Bobby yelled, “Nice! Nine more!” The chatter fell away and was replaced by a chorus of huffed breaths as we churned into the second lap. Several girls gave up and went to gather their stuff. I kept going. I was surprised that nothing so far had been too hard for me to do. As I ran, I focused on keeping my chest out and not looking too sweaty. I wasn’t even going as fast as I could, and I was at the front of the group.
Still, by the sixth lap, I felt a stitch in my side. I gritted my teeth and told myself I just had four more to go. Tina was a few paces behind me, and I could hear the footfalls of other girls farther back. Candace was so far behind that I was coming up on lapping her.
As I puffed by Bobby, he called out, “Looking good. Love the spirit!”
He loved my spirit. It gave me a fresh burst of energy, and I sprinted fast past him with my head thrown back.
The stitch went away, and Tina pulled up next to me. “Were you always this fast?” she said.
“I am now,” I huffed, wondering what would happen if I were the only one to finish. “You scared?”
“No, just thinking we could go faster.”
Playing anything with Tina was like a blood sport—we both liked to win. Still, I was surprised at how much I liked running out ahead of everyone like this. Each time I turned at the slides and saw Bobby waiting for us to make it back around, I liked it a little more.
Fifteen of us finished the laps without bailing. Well, Tina and I finished first, then a handful of other girls came in behind us, with Candace and Sharon Henderson at the end.
When they finally did, Bobby asked us all for our names, which he wrote down as we took turns waiting to take drinks from the park’s crusty-looking water fountain.
“Hmm, fifteen girls. Great,” he said.
“What do you mean, ‘great’?” Dana Miller asked, wiping a dribble of water from her mouth.
Bobby threw his hands out to gesture at all of us. “I mean, it looks like we have our team.”
Four
Practice wouldn’t start until next Monday, but the day after tryouts, Bobby made us each sign a contract for the season stating that we’d be on time and dressed to play, and we’d keep our grades up and take care of our bodies.
“I know you might have a beer at a party. I was your age once, too,” he said at the team meeting where he’d passed out the contracts. “But don’t overdo it. And no smoking or drugs.”
Normally, we’d have mocked a teacher for being so square. But it felt like Bobby really cared about us. Or maybe we just wanted to believe he did.
He also tacked up a sheet with all our names on the bulletin board in the lunchroom, and people actually looked at it. Paul Mahoney, who was the kind of guy who asked if you had your period for not saying hi to him, gathered a group of football players and lurched over to our lunch table. “Trillo, Klintock, Warner. You girls think you’re athletes now? Do you even know how to handle balls?” Some of the other guys laughed.
“It’s less about handling than kicking, which sounds okay to me,” I said.
“Nice, Suze,” Tina said.