Page 4 of Foul Line

I give him a too innocent, too wide smile.Screw you, Ryan,I think.Then, I focus back on his mom for the rest of the night.

All in all, this first taste of what it will be like gives me the strength I need to get through tomorrow when it won’t be just one Baller I have to deal with, it’ll be all of them. They won’t get the better of me again. That much I can promise.

3

Idrag my last bag down to the foyer, then turn toward the kitchen. I can already smell the breakfast my mom made for me. She’s yawning, one hand over her mouth, the other clutching a spatula. When she sees me, she shakes her head until the yawn ends and then smiles over at me.

“I told you you didn’t have to wake up with me,” I chastise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled she did, especially since I feel like I abandoned her last night in favor of Dad. Hell, I’m abandoning her for weeks and probably at the time when she needs me the most.

She gives me a look but accepts my hug when I wrap my arms tight around her. “Come on, Tess. You know I always see you two—” She clears her throat and rubs my shoulder. “You know I always see you off the morning of camp.”

Pulling away from her, I take a seat at the breakfast nook and pretend I didn’t hear her slip about adding Dad into the equation. This year, I’m driving to camp by myself. I’m excited about having my car there since those of us who are going into our senior years are allowed to leave camp on the weekends as long as we have parental permission. All the other years, I didn’t have my car because I rode up with Dad, and I was also too scared to sneak out with the rest of the guys, being Dale’s daughter and all.

She finishes making the eggs and scrapes them into a serving dish before putting them on the table. There’s already a plate in front of me along with a dish of bacon, so I help myself to it all. Camp food isn’t bad, but it’s not homemade either.

Mom sits down opposite me in the circular seating area and shovels a small handful of eggs on her plate and then grabs two slices of bacon. We eat in silence until she places her fork down on the table and wipes her face with a napkin. “I want you to be careful at camp this year, Tessa.”

I take a drink of the orange juice she had waiting for me, swallowing it down forcefully like there’s a blockage in my throat. “I will, Mom.”

“I mean it,” she says. “I don’t like all this going on. This playing on the boys’ team has affected you and not for the better. Those boys…” She trails off. I have a suspicion she knows more than she’s letting on, or maybe it’s just a gut feeling she has about the boys. She asked me about the panties that were thrown onto the court last year. She knows they were actually mine, and even though I told her it was none of the guys’ fault, she doesn’t believe me. Even if I had told her Lake was most certainly behind it all, there’s nothing she could have done. It would have just caused more trouble for me. Another excuse people could use for girls not being allowed to play on the guys’ team.

“Nothing like that is going to happen,” I promise her. There will be no other girls around. Just me, the Ballers, and a handful of other guys who are into basketball just as much as we are. We don’t have time for petty Baller Bitch shit at camp. No keyed cars, no jeering. Ryan, Sloan, Alec, Hayes, and Lake aren’t the Rock Ballers of Rockport High at Camp Holly. Everyone there is as good as they are. Well, almost. They are pretty damn good.

She reaches over the table and covers my hand with hers. I push my plate away and finally give her my full attention. She starts off with a small smile. “I know you want this so badly. I can see it in your eyes. I just don’t know if it’s worth suffering through all this.”

“I’m not suffering through anything, Mom,” I try to tell her.

She isn’t buying it. She pierces me with another look. “You mean that wasn’t you crying your eyes out the night Rockport won the state championship game?”

My jaw snaps shut. “I just really wanted to play,” I tell her. It’s the truth. Despair, disappointment, all those feelings come rushing back to me. I deserved to play.

She pulls away, crossing her arms over her chest. She’s got her serious face on, which makes me squirm. “I’ve been thinking.” She breathes out. “I’m fine with you going to camp since your father will be there and you’ve been going there for a few years now, but while you’re gone, I’m going to look into enrolling you into Springs for your senior year.”

I gasp. “Mom.”This can’t be happening. I don’t want to go to Springs.

“They have a girls’ basketball team.”

My eyes practically bug out of my head. “They’re not good.”

She holds her hand up. “They have a girls’ basketball team that you could come right onto the team and be their best player. You can still get colleges to notice you even if you’re not playing at Rockport. There’s other ways to go about what you’re doing.”

My fingers grip the side of the table as anger sweeps through me. “Like getting a scout to come to my game?”

“You know I had nothing to do with that,” she says. “But I understand why your father did it. Did you think we liked hearing what those awful girls had to say to you the whole season? I don’t know how you could bear it, Tess. It’s not right. At Springs—.”

“It’s just a game,” I tell her, even though I know it’s not. I know Lake’s minions are terrible human beings. They wanted to hurt me. They came to every game to make sure everyone else knew what they thought of me, and I only had one chance to prove them wrong. Which I did, until they brought out the panty crown.

We never heard from the scout again, by the way. I guess my father’s connections only go so far anyway.

I grind my teeth together. There’s no way in hell I’m going to Springs next year. It’s further away, their basketball team sucks, and besides, none of that matters because the Ballers aren’t at Springs, they’re at Rockport. This has become just as much about proving myself to them than it has trying to make a name for myself. I just need them to see.

Mom stands, taking her dishes with her. “We don’t have to make a decision right now, but I am getting the information from them, Tess. I’ll talk to the coach; I’ll see what she can do for you. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to find out you’re even considering going to their school. Your talent was wasted at Rockport last year.”

“I’m not con—”

Mom drops her dishes into the sink. They clatter, silencing my refusal to even consider what she’s offering. “I thought this was about playing basketball. You didn’t even play basketball this season, Tess.You didn’t play.”

My jaw snaps shut. I stare at my mom, her hands shaking as she holds onto the edge of the counter. I try to soften toward her reaction of all this. I know she’s just worried for me, but her words cut deep. In a way, she’s right. If this was just about playing basketball for the love of basketball, I’d go play on any team. I would have gone to Springs to begin with just so I could play. Girls’ team, boys’ team, whatever. It wouldn’t matter. But it’s not about that. It’s about playing for agoodteam. It’s about playing fortheirteam. Am I wrong to think that I have to prove myself more than others because I’m a girl?

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