out of the pajamas she wore to bed and is now in a pair of jean cutoffs, a thin white ribbed tank top, and her Wildcat varsity jacket. Though they washed their faces at the sink together, Mel’s got eyeliner and a sheer peachy gloss on again.
“Let’s go, newbies! Rise and shine!”
The new players exchange wary looks, unsure whether or not to smile. A girl next to Luci reaches for her sleepover bag and digs for her clothes.
Mel toes it away. “Sorry, girls. No time to change. We’ve got so much to do!”
Luci looks down. She went to bed wearing a big T-shirt and a pair of Mickey Mouse boxers. But at some point she got cold and slid on her hoodie. Thank goodness. She doesn’t have a bra on.
“Can we wear shoes?” Luci meekly asks, standing up.
Mel turns, blinks a few times. “Luci. Of course you can wear shoes. We aren’t monsters.”
Ali walks through the room with a pillowcase. “All phones in here, please!”
The girls turn them off one by one and drop them inside the pillowcase. Not just the new girls, but the returning players too.
“Phone,” Ali says when she gets to Luci.
“I … I don’t have one.”
“You don’t have a phone?” Ali asks, a blend of pity and confusion. Ali glances backward at Mel. “Luci doesn’t have a phone.”
“No … wait.” She shakes her head, starts over, talking mostly to Ali but also to Mel, who edges her way through the crowd toward them. “I mean, I do. I just don’t have it with me.” Which isn’t a lie.
Mel is toe to toe with Luci. “Why wouldn’t you bring your phone with you?”
For a second Luci thinks about telling her the truth. Not here, in front of everyone. If she could speak with Mel privately in the laundry room or whatever.
Except Coach had said to trust him.
“The thing is, I dropped it in water after practice today and so now it’s sitting in a bowl of rice. I don’t know if it’s ruined or not, but we just got new ones because we signed up for a new plan, so if it is ruined, my mom is going to kill me. She said if it’s dead, she’s buying me a flip phone. I doubt I’ll even be able to text.”
Luci crouches down and pulls a pair of sneakers out of her bag, using the time to catch her breath. What the hell did she just say?
Thankfully, the girls seem to buy it. At the words “flip phone,” they groan in unity. Mel even chimes in, “I have an old iPhone you can have, Luci. We won’t let that happen to you.”
A few minutes later, Mel holds her finger to her lips and the girls file past her up the basement staircase. Everyone waits in the dark kitchen while Phoebe slips outside alone and looks up to a second-floor window—Mel’s parents’ bedroom, likely. Phoebe gives a thumbs-up. Then the team tiptoes into the backyard, through the side gate, and out to the driveway.
While the older girls unlock their car doors, the new Wildcats form a line, ragtag in their pajamas. Luci needs to make sure she rides in Mel’s Mini Cooper, so she positions herself as near to it as possible.
Phoebe clutches her heart. “Oh my God, you girls are so adorable.
“Were we ever that young?” Mel says while hip checking Phoebe.
“Nope,” Phoebe says. “Okay, newbies. Pick a car, any car, the night is young!”
Luci takes off sprinting. She pulls on the door handle, climbs into the back seat, and sits on the hump. As inconspicuously as possible, she finds the cell phone where she left it and slips it into the front pocket of her hoodie.
Grace, strolling at a more leisurely pace toward Ali’s Jeep, says to her, “See, Luci? I knew you and Mel would get along.”
The Wildcats split themselves up into a total of six cars and drive off into the night.
Phoebe takes Mel’s phone and cues up a song. “Okay, Luci. This is the first song I’m putting on your mix. It’s a classic.”
“I’m all ears!” Luci says.
They aren’t even at the end of Mel’s block when Luci feels her phone buzz in her hoodie pocket. Eyes wide, she glances at the teammates sandwiched on either side of her in the back seat. They don’t seem to have noticed. Nor have Phoebe and Mel. They are all belting out lyrics Luci doesn’t know.
The warmth of her secret seeps into her.
In no time at all,