Between Lies Read online

  To my satisfaction, I wasn’t the only one who seemed gloomy about being there. Most of the girls looked as unhappy as I felt. There were only a couple in the front row who echoed Ms. Kimberly’s joy. They must be cheerleaders. Ugh.

  “Okay, is everyone ready? Phones put away? Eyes and ears on me? Okay, great. I know yesterday was more of a getting to know each other kind of day since students were still shuffling their schedules around, but now that the grace period has ended, it’s time we talk about what we’re going to be doing going forward. As y’all know, the shipment of our uniforms were delayed at the beginning of the semester and we’ve been managing with our school clothes. But I have great news! They’ve arrived, so we’re going to hand them out and start working on kickball!” She clapped her hands together in excitement. “Doesn’t that sound like fun?” The two peppy girls in front were the only ones who answered. The rest of us looked at each other with various expressions of doom. Ms. Kimberly continued. “Now, your uniform is yours for the rest of the year. All uniforms go home on Friday to be washed, and it’s your responsibility to make sure they’re back here on Mondays. If you are not in uniform, you do not get to participate, resulting in an Incomplete for the day. Three Incompletes will count as one failing test grade. So, does everyone understand?” A few mumbled yeses could be heard, but Ms. Kimberly acted like we’d broken out into applause. “Fantastic! Let’s head into the locker room where we’ll hand out uniforms and assign lockers to those who are new in the class.”

  We moved in a herd toward the door marked “Girls”. Ms. Kimberly led the way, happily chattering to one of her comrades at the front. I was one of the last inside. At first glance, it reminded me a lot of the girls’ locker room at University, but upon closer inspection, it was much dowdier and more cluttered than I thought. Rows of dull gray lockers stood in the middle of the room with long benches down the middle of the aisles. The walls were painted in the red and gold colors of the school. Off to my left was a separate room full of showers and bathroom stalls. And to my right was another wall lined with floor-length mirrors. In front of it, a table had been set up with boxes of shorts, T-shirts, and socks. Ms. Kimberly stood behind it with her clipboard and a line had formed as, one by one, girls searched for their sizes. I was near the tail end, waiting impatiently, terrified there wouldn’t be any more left in my size. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other as I watched the medium box empty faster and faster. My palms grew sweaty. I hated this and I hated everyone in the room, especially Ms. Kimberly.

  Just as I was about to make it to the tables, I heard the locker door open. I turned to look, and there was Harper, a cat-ate-the-canary smile on her face and a slip of paper in her hand. She walked up to Ms. Kimberly and they held a brief discussion in low voices. When they broke apart, Harper was still smiling.

  “Hey, it’s your turn. Hurry up.” It was the girl behind me, a frown on her face. “Go,” she hissed.

  I moved forward and reached into the medium size box. My hand frantically groped around, searching for material, but it was empty. My heart raced. “Um, Ms. Kimberly, do you have any more size medium shorts? There aren’t any left in the box.”

  “I’m sorry, Sadie. What’s in the boxes are all we’ve got. See if there’s one in the next size for you. It shouldn’t be too much of a difference.”

  My stomach was in knots as I fished around in the Large box. It was empty, too. The girl behind me had moved around me as I was talking and took the last of the size small. Leaving me with the only ones left. Extra-large. I pulled a pair of shorts and a T-shirt out and grimaced. This wasn’t going to work. Ms. Kimberly would have to do something.

  I moved down to where she was standing, ready to enter my size on the clipboard. “What did you get, Sadie?”

  “The only thing left was extra-large, but this isn’t going to fit me. They’re way too big.”

  “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. I can try to order a few more in the medium, but until then, you’ll have to make do with this. Maybe you can bunch the elastic up and tie it with a rubber band?”

  A rubber band. She wanted me to tighten my shorts with a rubber band and still be able to run around in them? I longed to argue about the absurdity of that idea, but she’d already moved down to the end of the table to grab me a lock for my locker. I dragged my feet to meet her, still in disbelief at her ridiculously positive attitude over my shorts. When I reached her again, she was consulting her clipboard. “Hmm, let’s see. Wow, this class is bigger than the rest. I’m running out of space.” I waited for what seemed like an eternity as she hemmed and hawed over her stupid clipboard. Finally, she seemed to have an “Aha!” moment and made a note on the paper. “Here you go! Locker one sixty. Here’s the combination lock. Don’t lose it, hon. It’ll be fifteen dollars to replace it.”

  Whatever. I grabbed it from her, irritated with the whole situation, and walked up and down the aisles looking for my locker. I found it along the back wall, in the corner, and to my delight, saw Harper sitting on the bench two lockers down.

  When she spotted me, she smiled. “Told you.”

  I laughed, suddenly feeling much better. “You sure did. I’m not even going to ask. I’m just glad you’re here. I was about to start crying.”

  “Why?”

  I showed her the uniform in my hands. “This is all they had left. Ms. Kimberly said I should just tighten up the shorts with a rubber band. Can you believe that?” I noticed something. “Hey, you’re about my size and came in after me. How’d you get one that fit?”

  “I already had it from last year. She won’t notice.”

  I sighed. Lucky duck. If they weren’t such a glaring red and gold color, I might have considered trying to find something in a store that I could switch them out with. But I doubted anything could come close to matching the ghastly hues of these uniforms. For once, I thought longingly of University. In Maneuvers, we’d worn black and white. As sleek and stylish as a gym uniform could be.

  A piercing whistle sliced through the locker room chatter. “I want everyone dressed and out in the gym in three minutes!”

  Crap. I rushed to change clothes and memorize the combination on the lock. When I pulled on the shorts, they immediately sagged down to my knees. The only thing keeping my underwear from being on full display was the large swath of T-shirt material hanging down to my mid-thighs.

  “Harper, what am I going to do?” I wailed.

  “Come here.” She pulled a hair tie out of her backpack and cinched the extra material around my waist into one spot. She wrapped her hair band around it until it was as tight as she could make it and tugged a little on the legs. She stepped back to look at me. “Aside from the bulge that knot creates under your shirt, nobody will ever know.”

  “Yeah, until my shorts fall down to my ankles while I’m running.” I couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

  “Well, yeah, until that happens.” She grinned at me, and I returned it, albeit begrudgingly.

  I slammed my locker shut and snapped the lock on. “I guess we should get moving. I don’t wanna get in trouble for straggling.”

  We left the locker room and arrived where everyone was gathered right as Ms. Kimberly started breaking us into teams. “Harper, you’re on team A. Sadie, team B.”

  I groaned. I hated this. Hated it. As a group, we moved outside to the baseball practice field. I’d never played kickball and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I hoped I’d be one of the last to take a turn so I’d have a chance to watch everyone else. I was not going to ask how to play. The two cheery girls from earlier were carrying a large container between them. They set it down by the tall fence behind home plate and pulled a few big red balls out of it. I eyed them suspiciously, thinking of all the ways this could go wrong.

  Another whistle blow interrupted my thoughts. “Okay, girls. Team A kicks first. Team B, you’re on defense. I’ll give you five minutes to assign your positions.”

  Assign our positions? Wha
t did that mean?

  One of the girls took charge. She looked familiar and I tried to think of what class I’d seen her in. As if reading my thoughts, she glanced my way and I realized she was the errand girl from the main office I’d seen yesterday.

  “I’ll be team captain, if nobody else wants it.” Her words were met with silence and she continued. “I’ll play first base, Ginger is on second, and Lily on third.” She went around the group giving assignments, and when she got to me, she said, “You’ll play outfield.”

  Hating that I had to ask, I half raised my hand. “What exactly do I do?”

  She simply stared at me. Another girl, Ginger, I think it was, answered for her. “You stand out in the back part of the field and catch the ball if it comes your way. If you do catch it, throw it to one of us on the bases or someone else on our team who may be closer to you. It’s easy.” She smiled at me and I felt a bit better. Nodding in understanding, I smiled back.

  We jogged out to our positions on the field; I went way out until I stood alone. I wondered if the team captain—I still didn’t know her name—had put me out here because she sensed my lack of athletic ability or because she didn’t like me. The first person on the other team walked up to home plate and waited for the red ball to roll her way. She kicked and it skipped along the ground toward second base. Ginger scooped it up and threw it to first, but not before the runner had safely made it there.

  That’s how it went for the next few minutes. I started to understand the basics, but so far nobody had kicked it high or hard enough to come anywhere near me. I found myself losing interest in the game and, instead, staring at the sky, watching as the dark and light gray clouds swirled together like a vanilla and chocolate ice cream cone. Years of being indoors during the daytime had left me in awe of what the sky looked like in all its weather patterns. The sun, clouds, and even the moon—now that I had other things to compare it to—were all fascinating.

  A loud yell broke me from my thoughts. I looked up and saw a streak of red flying through the air directly at me. Panicked at the speed it was moving, I instinctively threw my arms over my face and head in protection. A hard blow slammed my left elbow, causing me to stagger backward until my right heel hit a small hole in the ground and I stumbled, landing on my butt. The ball changed course after hitting me and rolled to a stop about ten feet away. I heard all sorts of yelling and looked back toward the bases to see what was happening. Runners were streaking around the bases and high-fiving each other as they crossed home plate, while my teammates were all screaming at me to get the ball and throw it. I scrambled to my feet and ran for the ball, launching it in the direction of the nearest person. Yet by the time she threw it toward home, all the runners had scored. Ms. Kimberly blew her whistle and motioned for the teams to switch places. I jogged in, trying to ignore some of the looks my team were giving me. As I passed Harper, she gave me a reassuring smile and wink, but I still felt terrible.

  We lined up behind the fence in the order we were going to kick. I ended up in the middle, and I watched anxiously as I got closer and closer to the front of the line. I’d already let my team down by allowing the other side so many points, and I didn’t want to be the cause of a screwup on this side of the ball, too. I watched carefully each time the pitcher rolled the ball and tried to pay attention to how the girls positioned themselves when getting ready to kick. It didn’t look that hard, but then again, neither had hanging out in the backfield and look what happened. When my name was called, a few girls shouted some words of encouragement, but I knew there were just as many giving me looks of death behind my back. I straightened my shoulders, hitched up my shorts, and got in position. I knew I had three tries, but I wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. When the ball bounded my way, I drew in a deep breath and kicked with all my might. I got my toe under it, so it flew high and hard, and for a second I let the pleasure of it wash over me. But shouts of “Run, Sadie!” reminded me my part wasn’t done yet. I held onto the waistband of my shorts as I took off toward first base. When the bag passed under my feet, I wanted to scream and jump. I did it! I’d made it onto first base!

  Hoots and hollers confirmed I’d done well and I grinned. The girl on first smiled at my pleasure. “Hi, I’m Cordie. Good job!”

  “Thanks. I needed that to redeem myself.”

  She gave me a light punch on the arm. “Hey, it’s okay. There’s a first time for everything.”

  Feeling much better, I watched as Ginger moved up to kick. It sailed over everyone’s head and looked like it was going to go past Harper, who was manning the outfield. Harper ran backward to keep pace with it, and just as it started to come down, she twisted and leaped, snagging it right out of the air. I watched in amazement as she hit the ground, rolled, and popped back up on her feet in one smooth move. It happened so fast I thought for a minute I’d imagined it. But her team’s screams told me otherwise. Looking pleased with herself, she hurled the ball back to the second baseman, hitting her hard enough to make her stumble a bit while catching it.

  The whistle blew and Ms. Kimberly shouted, “Time’s up. Hit the locker room, ladies!”

  A collective groan went up from my team, but I couldn’t help sighing with relief. I waited for Harper as she jogged back in and fell in step with me.

  “Nice moves,” I congratulated her. “You made it look easy as cake.”

  “Thanks. I’m just used to doing stuff like this. I’m the only girl in a family of boys, so I kind of get forced into playing a lot of sports and stuff.”

  I shuddered. “That’s my worst nightmare. At least you come off looking like a hero in gym from it.” I tried not to sound glum but couldn’t help it. I knew most of my team hated me for being so awful.

  “Sadie, look at me.” I complied. “You’ve never played it before, and maybe sports isn’t your strength. Still, I bet you have tons of things you’re great at. Don’t let this bother you, okay?” She gave me another one of her side hugs. “I mean it. Nobody is going to remember this game, and I don’t want it to keep you up at night.”

  I sighed and leaned in to her for a second. “What makes you think I’ve got skills in other areas?” I was curious what kind of reading she was getting from me.

  “It’s a feeling I’ve had since I first met you.”

  “I was on my back in the middle of the hallway. How could that give you a feeling that I was good at anything?”

  She threw her head back and laughed. “Well, when you put it like that, it sounds pretty strange. But trust me, I knew. And, I can’t wait to find out what some of them are.”

  The look I gave her was doubtful. I didn’t even know if I was good at anything in particular.

  We made it back into the locker room and headed to our corner. I was eager to change back into my clothes. Some of the girls were showering, and others were hanging out on the benches in their underwear and bras. I even saw one girl naked on top. Uncomfortable, I averted my eyes and pulled on my jeans with my gym shirt still on, moving as fast as I could. I wasn’t bad looking or anything, but I also wasn’t used to being so open with my body. I noticed Harper didn’t have a problem with it. She didn’t flaunt herself, but she also wasn’t going out of her way to hide anything. We finished getting dressed in silence. When I pulled a brush out of my bag and started running it through my ponytail, Harper took it from me.

  “Here, let me. You’ve got some wispies that need to be pulled back in.”

  Giving no argument, I let her do what she wanted. I’d always loved it when Molly or my mom brushed my hair. It was calming. I felt Harper unwind the hair band and the long, loose curls as they fell around my face and shoulders. Working slowly, she brushed my hair in even strokes, counting under her breath. By the time she started pulling it back into the ponytail, I was so relaxed I wanted to fall asleep.

  “There you go. Much better. You have such pretty hair.”

  “I do?”

  “Yes, you do. Why is that hard to believe?” />
  I smiled. “I don’t know, but thank you.”

  The bell rang, and I grabbed my stuff. “Just one more class. I can do this.”

  “What class is it?”

  “Math with Mr. Cason.”

  “We’re in luck. I’m moving into that class, too.” She slung her bag over her shoulder and led the way out of the locker room.

  “Speaking of, how were you so sure you could get into my gym class?”

  She shrugged. “It’s a knack I have.”

  I wondered what that meant but didn’t have time to think about it. The gym was on the opposite side of the school from where our Math class was held. We booked it out the double doors and up two flights of stairs, dodging kids who were in as much of a hurry as we were. When the warning bell clanged, Harper picked up the pace and I followed. I remembered the route from yesterday and thought for the second time how ridiculous of a hike this was. How do they expect kids to do this without being late?

  Somehow, we made it to the room and into a pair of seats by each other before Mr. Cason shut the door. I was breathing hard, but Harper didn’t look taxed at all. It seemed like nothing fazed her and, again, questions flooded my mind about how that was. I spotted Maddie in the back corner and she waved when she saw me looking at her. I smiled back, feeling more relaxed in this room than in any other class. I tried to listen as Mr. Cason outlined that day’s agenda, but his monotone voice made it difficult. My mind wandered and suddenly everything bombarded me at once. Coach Anderson’s freakish resemblance to Kade, Ms. Stratha’s sudden appearance, and Harper’s hesitation when I mentioned the courtyard. Even Cam. I was anxious to talk to him and make amends for accidentally insulting him this morning.

  I doodled in my notebook as the teacher droned on and started drawing a face, shading in the eyes and the cut of the jaw. While I added hair and full lips, my mind still flitted from one question to another. I was too busy processing all the strange things I’d seen in the past two days and not focusing on who I was actually drawing. When I heard Mr. Cason announce a pop quiz, I looked up, trying to come out of my own thoughts and back into the real world.