Saint Mary’s shirt. Everyone cheered, and then it started, and there was nothing to be done but wait.
When it was my turn, I cleared my throat, puffed myself up to make an announcement.
“I’m excited for you all, and no offense, but I’m actually playing for the best team there is,” I said. Ronni watched me with a funny look that I ignored. I unzipped my jacket slowly, and then all at once. “WESTVILLE FOREVER, BABY!” I hollered.
Janelle and Alex cheered, and a few of the other girls clapped confusedly.
“I haven’t decided yet,” I explained.
“You haven’t heard from—” Halle started. She was interrupted by Ronni, letting her backpack fall to the floor with a thud.
“Last but not least, people!” she yelled, and whipped off her sweatshirt to reveal her Stanford T-shirt. Everyone cheered, and I gave her a small, grateful nod.
Then the first bell rang, and the few remaining doughnuts were quickly seized. “Thanks, Q!” my teammates said, running off to class, and soon I was left with just Ronni, holding the empty, sticky pink box. I wiped at a smear of raspberry filling with my thumb and stuck it in my mouth.
“Okay,” said Ronni. “The worst part is over.”
I nodded, though I wasn’t sure I believed her.
* * *
—
It started raining sometime during second period, and I spent the day shuffling between classrooms only to stare out different windows, praying, reciting the words Please lightning, please lightning, please lightning over and over inside my head. In order for a soccer game to be rained out, you needed lightning, or you needed such a torrential downpour that to play in it would significantly damage the field. (If you played on turf, you were out of luck.) The rain I watched was soft and pathetic, and even when it hadn’t stopped by fifth period, I knew it wouldn’t be enough.
So this is how the fall season ends, I thought. Damp. Gray. Collegeless.
In Civil Liberties the windows were behind me, so whenever I could I looked at Ruby instead. She teased me, batting her eyelashes and mouthing things I couldn’t read. Once, she even licked her lips, and I choked on nothing. She cracked up, silently, as I tried to cover for myself by taking a swig from the water bottle in my bag. After class, she met me in the hall, looking very pleased with herself. Jamie brushed past me, turning to wave.
“See you at the game?” I asked. She and Alexis had promised they’d come, though that was before it had started raining. Jamie nodded, and patted her backpack. “I have a poncho,” she explained, continuing on her way.
I grinned. Personally, I’d had no idea it might rain, but Jamie was on top of the ten-day forecast at all times. She had three different weather apps on her phone.
“I’m sorry I can’t make it,” said Ruby.
I turned back to face her, and she looked so cute and remorseful I couldn’t help but kiss her on the nose, then the forehead, then the mouth.
“It’s okay,” I said. “It’s gonna be miserable out there.”
“Yeah, but your friends are going.”
“Yes, but my friends don’t have important family stuff to do, which is a really good reason not to sit in the rain.” Ruby’s aunt (her mom’s closest sister) and her cousin, the aunt’s fifteen-year-old daughter, were in town, fresh off a separation from her uncle, who’d apparently been—rather uncreatively, I thought—sleeping with his administrative assistant. As Ruby had described it, they were having a forced “girls’ weekend,” involving lots of spa time, delivery food, candy for the girls and wine for the adults. “A total nightmare,” she’d called it.
“I honestly can’t tell you which sounds worse,” said Ruby. I made a mock-offended face, and she laughed.
“Can I call you after?” I asked.
“Text me,” said Ruby. “I might be forced to watch Legally Blonde or something.”
I stuck out my tongue, performing disgust (despite my actual feelings about Legally Blonde, which were that it was a perfect movie).