"She cheated on me. He cheated on you. What do you say? Want to settle the score?"
***
Kate Wilson, a hot-headed Dragon striker, and Rosie Connelly, an uncredited behind the scenes Sea Lion captain; witness Kate's...
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The shopping cart squeaking several steps behind me wouldn't have been so annoying if it didn't follow me, even when I turned right four times in a row inside the grocery store. The noise grew closer after each corner. I stopped by the dairy section and glanced to my left to give the person behind the loud wheels a death glare.
Rosie Connelly walked toward me while examining two different brands of chocolate chip cookies. One was a bunch of mini cookies, and the other was regular sized.
Of course, Coach Connelly picked the wrong snacks.
We hadn't seen each other since our fight at the carwash last Sunday. A full week of stable blood pressure vanished in a millisecond.
There I was, in sweatpants splattered with old dry paint, a black tee that had a hole above my sternum and my hair was still wet from my shower two hours ago; a mess. And there Rosie stood, in the blue Sea Lions' shorts and a plain white t-shirt. Nothing special except the fact her olive-toned legs stretched out for days.
Dorothy skipped around the corner with the shopping cart. She ditched it by the side of the aisle and wandered ahead of the brunette, blocking her path toward me.
The only thing stopping Rosie from seeing me was Dorothy being a convenient and annoying sibling. How long could that last? It's not like I could leave the cart and hide in Mae's car.
Oh yeah, Mae, I dumped the cart because my mini soccer team rival was in the same aisle as me and was looking at cookies.
She'd never let me live it down.
I could not move.
"Come on, put down the cookies and talk to me," Dorothy's whiny voice interrupted my frozen moment of panic.
Rosie held up the cookies and said, "Choose first."
Dorothy whacked one packet out of Rosie's hands and sent it sailing behind Dorothy's shoulder. The packet skidded across the floor and stopped inches away from my foot.
"Rude," Rosie mumbled, trying to get a peek over Dorothy's shoulder, but Dorothy mimicked her movements, blocking her view of both the cookies and me.
"Quitting the team just because Hazel cheated on you is being a little overdramatic," Dorothy said.
"Over dramatic?"
"Don't be a coward."
"Coward?" Rosie repeated.
"Yeah. Coward," Dorothy confirmed. "You can't hide from your demon."
"Facing my inner demons can wait until summer when I don't have to see . . . them every day."
"Keep up. Demon. Singular," Dorothy corrected. "Hazel Harrison is the demon that tormented you. Her kissing the weirdo in the tree was . . . unfortunate. But you need to face her head on."
