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Can you say ‘twenty-first century’?”
    Ava managed a tight smile, and then took a glum bite of her sandwich. Coach had forgotten to cut the crusts off this morning, a sign of how distracted he was these days. He always cut them off for her. Well, she could hardly complain. She chewed the dry crust and swallowed it down.
    â€œAre you going to do your news piece about this?” Kylie asked Alex. “About Ava and football and Briar Ridge forfeiting the game rather than playing against a girl?”
    Ava looked at Alex sharply. She waited to hear Alex tell everyone publicly that she wasn’t going to do the story.
    â€œOh—ha-ha, that’s a crazy idea,” said Alex. “Ava hates being the center of controversy. Kylie, I just love your shirt. Is it new?”
    Ava looked at Alex with narrowed eyes. Was she trying to change the subject? Well, if she was, maybe that was a good thing. Because Ava didn’t want to talk about the stupid Briar Ridge game either. Knowing her sister, she’d probably thought of five new ideas for her story. Thank goodness Alex had gotten this idea out of her mind.
    â€œWell, I think the whole thing with Briar Ridge is completely idiotic,” Kylie said. “I just wish they’d let you play, Ava. Someone should start a protest or something.”
    â€œI agree,” said Corey.
    Lindsey nodded. She picked up Corey’s baseball cap, which he’d placed on the table between them, and put it on her own head, backward.
    â€œThanks, you guys,” said Ava.
    After lunch, Alex hurried to catch up to Ava. They headed to their lockers, which were side by side.
    â€œSo have you decided what you’re going to do?” asked Alex, as she put her lunch bag away into her neatly organized shelving unit. “I mean, about the game.”
    Ava looked at her, confused. She was trying to tug her social studies book out of the unsteady pile of books and papers in the top section of her locker without dislodging the whole stack. “I’m not doing anything,” she said. “It was my teammates’ decision not to play without me, so Briar Ridge has chosen to forfeit the game.”
    Alex nodded. “Yeah, I know. Of course, no one on your team should ever ask you to say you won’t play. But I just wondered . . . if you had thought about not playing. Your decision, you know. It could be a statement of its own—you ‘taking one for the team,’ if you know what I mean.” She used air quotes to dramatize her point.
    Ava blinked at her. Was Alex suggesting what Ava thought she was suggesting? “You think I should cave in to the Briar Ridge people? That I should tell my team to play the game without me?”
    â€œWell, it’s just something I thought you might consider,” said Alex quickly. “I mean, it’s not the craziest idea in the world. Think about it: You’d be the hero for your teammates, and they’d probably be spurred on to win the game on your behalf.”
    Ava slumped against her locker, feeling utterly confused. Her empty lunch bag, which she’d stuffed into a corner of her locker, popped back out and landed on the floor. She wanted this situation to be out of her hands, to have the outcome determined by other people. She was just a kid, a kid who liked to play football. She hated the fact that something she agreed to do or not do would have such a huge impact on everyone concerned. First her dad, and now her own sister, encouraging her to make this into a decision? Her head began to pound. Maybe Alex was right.

    Just after the final bell rang that afternoon, Ava hurried to find Coach Kenerson before practice. He was packing up his stuff at his desk.
    â€œSackett,” he said. “What’s up?”
    Ava took a deep breath. “Coach, I’ve made a decision,” she said. “I’m going to sit out on Saturday. I want my teammates to be able to play that