car’s Bluetooth while Mel drove them out of the high school parking lot. When Phoebe pressed play on the first track, Mel legit gasped, and then the two best friends busted out the dance they used to do on the varsity team bus to burn off their nervous energy. Despite being restrained by seat belts, not a shoulder shimmy or hand gesture popped off-beat.
Mel could have fooled herself into thinking no time had passed between that first season and this one, if not for the glimpses she caught in her rearview mirror of their newest and youngest teammate. Luci, wide-eyed and rod straight, in Mel’s back seat, her hands tucked under her thighs.
Phoebe twisted around, stunned that Luci didn’t know the song, even though Luci would have been only like nine or ten when it came out. Despite Mel’s protest, Phoebe abruptly skipped to the next track, another favorite. At first Luci played like she’d heard this one before—clearly wishful thinking, because by the chorus, it was obvious she hadn’t. Before Phoebe jumped ahead to the third track, Mel shut her car stereo off and didn’t let Phoebe turn it back on until after they’d dropped Luci at her house. These were their love songs after all, and with everything their friendship had endured in the last few months, Mel didn’t want to squander a single note on a third wheel.
When this last song ends, Mel opens her eyes and turns her head to face Phoebe. The girls smile at each other. It reminds Mel of this very night three years ago. Mel and Phoebe, pre-boobs but post-periods, wearing their brand-new varsity jerseys like nightgowns, were tucked in their sleeping bags, smiling at each other through the dark while their teammates snoozed around them. They felt like the two luckiest girls in the whole world.
And really, all things considered, they still are.
Phoebe turns her head and says, “I can’t believe this is our last season.”
Mel nods. “It’ll be a miracle if I get through tonight without crying.” She’s quick to add, “Happy tears,” despite already knowing she’ll cry tears of sadness, too. How could she not, when it marks the beginning of the end of her time as a Wildcat.
Mel cuts the engine and grabs her wallet from the center console. Phoebe heads straight for the entrance, but Mel circles around and clicks open her trunk to grab a hoodie. This Starbucks is always freezing. She’s got so many packages and shopping bags stuffed inside—plus her and Phoebe’s field hockey gear—that it takes a bit of digging before Mel eventually pulls out a slouchy cotton sweater instead of a hoodie. Which is fine.
She slips it over her head and checks her reflection. Maybe cuter, actually.
Mel quickly adjusts whatever stuff she disturbed, though she takes extra care when repositioning an enormous gold pi?ata, making sure it won’t get crushed when she closes the hatch.
It was a last-minute impulse buy—not accounted for in Mel’s carefully laid plans, a bullet-pointed rainbow of ink copied in her very best penmanship—but this pi?ata might very well come to define her entire Wildcat legacy. She runs her hand lightly over the shimmering paper, her reflection mirrored in the hundreds of metallic snips. The confidence she’s known for comes back from whatever mysterious place it drained to.
Mel feels ready. And not a moment too soon.
Tonight is the first Psych-Up of their brand-new season.
Coach has always been brilliant at coming up with different ways to keep his field hockey girls close. At the very core of his coaching philosophy is the belief that cultivating bonds off the field translates to bonds on the field. But Coach’s implementation of Psych-Ups is, undoubtedly, his most genius idea. It’s become such an important and beloved tradition, she can’t imagine it would ever be abandoned by the Wildcats, not even when Coach eventually moves on and coaches somewhere else.
Psych-Ups are when the entire varsity Wildcat squad is invited to a senior player’s house for a team dinner and sleepover before their weekend game. So either a Friday or Saturday night, depending on the schedule.
Coach always shows up for the dinner part. And depending on the vibe or what else he has going on, he sometimes sticks around and hangs out for a little while afterward.
A good bet is to get him talking about field hockey. Movies are also one of Coach’s favorite topics. The girls have fun winding him up about famous movies they haven’t seen. He can’t believe they’d rather watch