Gimme Everything You Got - Iva-Marie Palmer Page 0,61
might have been there already.
Seventeen
Friday morning, I had my mom sign my permission slip for the Wisconsin trip; we’d be leaving that afternoon. “Here,” she said, handing it back to me. Then she took her purse off the counter and fished two tens out of her wallet. “For emergencies, or a souvenir.”
I felt bad taking the tens, but not because of the money. The permission slip was a fake. Franchesa, Arlene, and Sarah had all worried their parents wouldn’t let them go with only Bobby as our chaperone, so Dana had used official school letterhead to compose a letter stating a female chaperone would be coming on the trip with us. Dana, it turned out, loved school rules, but not enough to give up the game because we didn’t have enough players. Even though most of our parents—Mom included—didn’t necessarily care who the chaperone was, we’d all agreed to have the permission forms signed, in case somehow our moms ran into each other at the store that weekend. If our parents asked who was going, we decided we’d say Ms. Cuddle. We figured the only reason the school lacked rules for students traveling with a teacher of the opposite sex was because there’d never been a girls’ team going on an overnight with a male coach before. “We really are pioneers,” Wendy had said.
“Are you excited?” Mom asked me. “Your first real game.” I was about to say yes when the phone rang, and Mom answered it with an enthusiastic “Hello,” just as she had answered every phone call since the job interview. After a pause, though, she said, “This is Dierdre Evans,” correcting whoever must have used her married name. Her face fell. “I’m sorry, we’re not in the market for air-conditioning at this time.” She put the phone back glumly.
“I am excited,” I said when she hung up, but the spark of interest in her eyes was gone. “I hope we win.”
“I hope so, too,” she said a little flatly as she gave me a hug. She gently pulled my head into her shoulder like she had when I was little, and I squeezed her more tightly. She may have needed the hug more than I did.
The day at school passed more slowly than ever, and by last period in Kitchen Arts, Tina, Dana, and I were stir-crazy. Just not stir-crazy enough that any of us was doing a very good job actually stirring the little pots of hollandaise sauce we each had atop our burners.
“Do you think the hotel will be nice?” Dana asked us.
“It’s a motel, so probably not that nice,” Tina said.
“Is that the difference between hotels and motels? Motels are gross, hotels aren’t?” I said.
“I’m sure Bobby won’t have us stay anywhere gross,” Tina said. Then, realizing Candace hadn’t said anything in a while, she asked her, “What are you doing this weekend?”
Candace smiled. “Something with George, probably. Maybe a movie. Some of the other football girlfriends might get together, too.” She attacked her sauce furiously.
“Sounds fun,” I said, even though it didn’t. The football girlfriends again? It sounded so boring, like being a member of the PTA.
My weekend was going to be so much better. I kept picturing walking out onto a real field for our first game. I wouldn’t have to pretend to like some football girlfriend. I’d only have to smile at some Wisconsin girl as we took the field. And then I’d kick her ass, maybe.
“It will be,” Candace said tersely, without looking up from her pot. I’d known Candace for long enough to see that she was jealous. She’d acted this same prickly way when I’d first started bringing Tina around to hang out. Now Tina and I were going to Wisconsin together, something Candace and I had talked about doing after graduation. But she would have been going, too, if she hadn’t quit the team.
I wanted to say something else—some comment to let her know we were still friends, even if things were different than they’d been. But I didn’t know what that would be, and so at the end of class, I said to Candace, “See you on Monday.”
“Yeah, have fun. I hope the motel doesn’t have roaches,” she said, but I knew she hoped there’d be at least a tiny one.
When three p.m. finally rolled around, we met at the side of the school near the football fields. The plan was to get to Wisconsin late afternoon so we’d be fresh for the game tomorrow morning.