Sabotage Season (9 page)

When I woke up the next morning, my usual morning text from Kara was waiting for me.

Blue button-up shirt, skinny jeans, ballet flats w/ bows. Wish I could wear flip-flops too, but it's getting cold here!

I looked at the attached photo and at Kara's grinning face, her long, brown hair pulled into a ponytail with a
cute ribbon. When I'd lived in Connecticut, Kara and I had always picked out our school outfits together. With a three-hour time difference and a totally different climate, that had become impossible. But I was so glad we kept the tradition as much as we could. As soon as I got dressed, I snapped a pic of myself and sent it to her:

Layered blue and orange tanks, jeans, and of course flip-flops :)

What people wore at Kentville Middle School was a lot different from the preppy Connecticut school I had gone to, but I found myself liking the relaxed Cali style.

Jessi, Zoe, Emma, and I sat in the courtyard behind the library at lunch, in our usual spot. (Frida sat with us sometimes, but mostly she hung with her drama club friends.) The sky was bright blue and the sun was shining, with big, fluffy white clouds dotting the sky. I thought of the cool, autumn air that was descending on Connecticut (and Kara!) right then and shivered. California definitely had its perks!

I had just finished the yogurt parfait my mom had packed for me and was licking the spoon (it was so delish!) when Jessi pulled me aside.

“Devin, come with?” she asked.

“Where?” I said nervously. She had that I'm-up-to-something look in her eyes.

“I want to go to the cafeteria to find Cody and Steven,” she said. “As Kangaroos I think they need to know that someone has been targeting the Kicks. And now it looks as if the boys' team is in danger too!”

Boy, and I thought Frida was the dramatic one. But I could tell there would be no point in arguing with Jessi. It would just be easier to get it over with.

“Fine,” I sighed as I slowly got to my feet. Emma and Zoe were deep in conversation about a social studies project they were working on together and barely noticed we were leaving.

We walked through the crowded cafeteria and found Cody and Steven eating with a bunch of the other boy soccer players.

“Hey, can we talk to you guys alone?” Jessi asked, her hands on her hips.

“Ooooooooooh,” one of the boys at the table called out, while another made kissing noises.

“Oh, grow up,” Jessi said with an eye roll.

But Cody just laughed. “Sure,” he said, while Steven gave me a grin and a wave.

We walked over to an empty table in the very back of the cafeteria, and before we even had our butts in the chairs, Jessi launched into it.

“The Kicks are being sabotaged and we think someone is after your team too!” she said urgently.

“What?” Cody asked, surprised, while Steven's eyes grew wide.

Jessi outlined everything that had happened so far: the fake e-mail from Coach Flores, the stolen duffel bag, and the canceled practice.

“And then at your game against the Roses, the exploding
soccer ball. When has that ever happened in all the years you've played soccer?” she asked. “Someone is out to get us. And I'm pretty sure that someone is the Pinewood Panthers.” She leaned back in her chair and looked expectantly at Cody, waiting for him to see her point.

But instead Cody opened his mouth and started to laugh, like someone had told him a really funny joke. Jessi looked angry.

“The Panthers aren't even in the picture this year, not after their last couple of games,” Cody said once he'd stopped chuckling. “The boys' team has zero chance of making it to the play-offs. So why would they try to take us out?”

Steven nodded. “Cody's right. Our main competition right now is the Rams.”

“Yeah, and their girls' team is awesome too,” Cody said. “Well, they were last year, anyway. Have you seen their captain, Jamie, play? She's so fast.”

Jessi scowled, annoyed. “Everyone knows the Panthers-Kangaroos rivalry goes way back. And you remember what Mirabelle's like,” Jessi insisted.

“Okay, say for a second it's true. That soccer ball bursting didn't even hurt us. We still won the game,” Cody said. “Besides, I've heard that soccer balls explode sometimes.”

“That's what I said,” I chimed in.

Jessi placed her palms on the table and leaned toward Cody. “Don't you get it—they're mind games! They are meant to psych us out. When Devin's uniform was stolen,
we didn't lose either. But it totally got under Devin's skin.”

I blushed at that. I didn't want Steven to think I was easily rattled, but he gave me a sympathetic grin.

“But how would someone even do that to a soccer ball?” Cody shook his head. “It was just a freak accident.”

“It happened right after halftime,” Jessi said, not backing down. “Someone could have easily swapped one of the game balls with one that was rigged to go kablooey.”

Cody laughed again. “Seriously, Jessi, I didn't think you were the type to go in for all this drama stuff.”

Uh-oh,
I thought. I nervously looked at Jessi, waiting for her to erupt. Her eyes flashed for a second. “Okay. Sorry to bother you,” she said in a voice full of sarcasm.

She got up and stalked away from the table. I followed her. As I was leaving, Steven gave me another grin while shrugging his shoulders helplessly. That had not gone well.

As soon as we got out of the cafeteria, Jessi whirled around to face me. “And to think he wanted me to go to the fall carnival with him!” she huffed. “Well, he'd better think again now!”

“Wait. What fall carnival?” I asked.

Jessi sighed. “It's a big fund-raiser the middle school does every November. There are games, food, rides—it's really fun. A lot of boys and girls go together. You know, like on a date. Cody said that Steven might ask you and we could double-date.”

Double-date? I gulped. I wasn't even sure how I felt
about Steven. And I had never been on a date in my life! I didn't know if my parents would let me go on a date or not.

Trying to make the play-offs. Schoolwork. The possibility (according to Jessi) that someone was trying to sabotage our teams. And now dating? It was all too much!

“He asked you on a date?” Kara shrieked over the webcam.

“No, he told Cody he
might
,” I emphasized the word. It was a relief to talk to Kara. I felt like she was the only person in the world I could confide in about all this Steven stuff. Don't get me wrong. I was so glad I'd met Jessi, Emma, and Zoe, and they were awesome friends. But I'd known Kara for practically as long as I could remember. It just felt way too embarrassing to talk to the other Kicks about Steven.

Kara broke into her little “Devin and Steven” song. I had to admit, it was kind of catchy. She even got up and started doing a funny dance in front of the webcam. I started cracking up, and to encourage her to keep going, I started singing along. Loudly. So of course my dad picked that embarrassing moment to come into my bedroom!

“Devin, it's time for dinner,” he said. Kara didn't hear
him and couldn't see him, so she kept on singing.

“So who exactly is this Steven?” Dad asked. He had a little grin on his face.

I quickly lowered the sound on my laptop. “Nothing! Nobody!” I replied.

On the screen I could see Kara mouthing my name, confused.

“Why don't you wrap up your call with Kara,” he suggested. “And come downstairs and set the table.”

“Okay, Dad,” I turned the sound back up after he left. “My dad totally heard us!” I told Kara.

“Oops!” she laughed. “Oh my gosh, your face is so red!”

“I'm totally embarrassed,” I groaned. “Whatever. I can't even think about this stuff right now. I'm going to stay focused on soccer, not Steven, until the season is over.”

“Good luck with that!” Kara joked.

“Yeah, right,” I said, laughing. I had a lot going on—school, friends, soccer, and the whole thing with Steven. Life was pretty complicated . . . but it was all good!

The next couple of days were a busy blur of school, soccer practice, and homework. I had a book to finish reading for English class, a ton of algebra homework, and a paper to write for science. We were studying Newton's laws of motion, so of course I had to relate it to soccer. My paper was about how the laws explained the movements of the soccer ball during a game, and it was by far my favorite homework assignment.

“Only Devin would turn science homework into a soccer project!” Jessi said at lunch that Wednesday. “Too bad they don't have a soccer class. Soccer 101. You'd get an A plus!”

Emma and Zoe laughed, and I joined in. I totally could not stop thinking about soccer, and my friends knew it. Every free second I could find, I spent thinking about the Kicks: How many more wins did we need to get us into the play-offs? Which teams needed to lose? What drills could we do at practice to strengthen us as a whole? What would be our best option for field positions to maximize our offensive line while Zoe was benched?

I put away my science paper and grabbed a printout from my folder. “Look at this shooting drill I found. It should really help strengthen our offense. I e-mailed it to Grace, and she likes it, so we're going to ask Coach if we can run it at practice today.” After I'd finished my homework the night before, I'd spent the rest of the night looking up new drills on my computer.

Emma shook her head. “And I thought
I
loved soccer! Devin, you are obsessed!”

“Well, Devin's not the only obsessed one,” Zoe said. “All I can think about is getting back on the field. The doctor says he might clear me to play next week.”

Emma smiled. “Finally! We can be a complete team again,” she said. “Hey, you know what? I saw the Kicks' state championship trophy from when Coach Flores was on the team. It's on a shelf in the hall by the library. It's really cool.”

Jessi laughed. “Why did you tell Devin that? If she sees it, she'll just become even more obsessed!”

I laughed along with everyone else until I got the full impact of Jessi's words. Duh! I was so preoccupied that I had been overlooking one very important fact. The Kicks had been champions in the past. And our very own Coach Flores had been on that team. I needed to ask her, in detail, how they'd done it. Maybe someone had even videotaped their games, like my dad did with ours. My eyes lit up at the thought. I could study the videos to find ways to help the team!

After school that day I raced to Coach Flores's office, eager to talk to her before practice.

“Devin, what's up?” she asked as I came barreling into her office.

“Do you have any video recordings of your Kicks games?” I asked, panting.

“Whoa!” Coach said, laughing. “Relax. Have a seat and take a second to catch your breath.”

I collapsed into the chair. I guess I had been a little overexcited.