Page 61 of TJ Powar Has Something to Prove

“But nothing after?”

Yara frowns. “I haven’t seen her around the editing room, no.”

Well, that says a lot. By the time TJ heads to Whitewater for her after-school soccer game, she sorely regrets participating in the whole thing. It feels like Amy played her.

She dumps her bag at the side of the bench and glances towards the school building. Speaking of annoying student council people, she’s supposed to meet Charlie today. They agreed to rendezvous in Whitewater’s library after her game and his council meeting. It’s been hard, squeezing debate sessions in between all their schoolwork and extracurriculars, but they make it work. And if she’s not lying to herself... well, she sort of looks forward to it.

A shadow falls over her while she’s stretching. When she leans back, Coach is standing there, blocking out the sun andmountains behind him. “So,” he says. “Were you ever going to tell me you’re not playing the final tournament?”

TJ nearly chokes on her own spit. “I—what? How do you know that?”

Coach crosses his beefy arms, the result of afternoons spent in the weight room, bench-pressing to intimidate his eighth-grade gym class. “Mrs. Scott.” At her confused look, he says, “Teachers talk to each other, you know.”

Something’s not right. He’s too calm about this. “Listen—”

“First you started missing practices,” he interrupts. “Then you ignored your opportunities to go varsity. You blew off the scouts. Now I hear you’re not even coming to our final game because of this”—he waves a hand dismissively—“speech contest.”

“Debate,” she automatically corrects, but he goes on.

“I can’t keep ignoring this, kiddo. You’ve stopped taking this sport seriously. This speech thing—it trumps everything, doesn’t it?”

TJ swallows. Well, he’s on the money. “Yes.”

He nods slowly. “I was afraid you’d say that.” TJ’s brows furrow, at least until he adds, “I’m taking you out of play.”

TJ’s standing before she realizes it.“What?”Her voice is loud enough to carry to the others, but she doesn’t care.

Coach hardly blinks at her outburst. “There are players on this team who want to get noticed by scouts. They can’t do that from the bench.”

TJ’s jaw drops. “You’re saying I can’t play? That’s so unfair! I’ve been on this team for years—”

“So what?” Coach says. “My newer recruits work twice ashard as you do, and it shows. Jesus, kid, don’t look at me like that. I’m not saying you can’t play at all. You’ll just be a substitute from now on.”

“But, Coach—”

“Don’t you think someone who actually wants to play should be on the field?”

TJ opens her mouth to argue—of courseshe wants to play—but then she notices how quiet it’s become around them. She glances towards the bench. Piper gives her a helpless shrug, but several of her other teammates look away, going back to their stretches. They’re who Coach is talking about. Some of them won’t even be on the field today, but they’re here anyway, warming up. Looking for any chance to prove their worth. To convince people that they deserve to be here.

And that’s a feeling TJ knows a little bit about.

She glances back at Coach. He’s standing there, expression guarded, clearly waiting for her to keep arguing. Everyone is.

TJ goes back to stretching without another word.

∗

After the game, TJ sits on the floor of one of the long aisles of Whitewater’s library, books piled around her. She stares into space as Charlie reads across from her. They’re in a corner farthest away from the checkout desks and the study tables, so can talk freely without being shushed. Or, in her case, wallow in self-pity without being disturbed.

Usually at soccer, she plays the whole match. But this time, thanks to her new benchwarmer status, she was only on the field a few minutes. She didn’t even break a sweat. So after thegame, instead of using Whitewater’s fancy private shower, she headed straight to the library. Now she’s wishing she’d changed out of her jersey at least, but she couldn’t bear to hang around for another minute.

It had never occurred to her before that Coach might bench her. It should have. It made sense, with her performance this season. She’s almost surprised Coach didn’t try it earlier; maybe he expected her to argue more. Hell,sheexpected herself to argue more. She’s done so many out-of-character things lately, but this one takes the cake. Who evenisTJ Powar if she walks away from a fight?

“I’m getting the sense you’re not listening,” Charlie says. TJ blinks. She was definitely not listening.

“Of course I’m listening.”

“Then answer my question.”