that she could compete. That wasn’t happening.
Finally, with only seconds on the clock, she got her chance. She was playing forward and the ball was passed to her. She was being double-teamed and one of the defenders fell. Courtney used the player’s body as interference and got past the second defender. It was now one-on-one between Courtney and the goalie. This was her moment… her chance to put a solid exclamation point on the game. She wanted this goal bad. She needed this goal. She dribbled the ball in quickly, deeked a kick that made the goalie move right, then drew back to fire the ball into the opposite corner of the net. It was perfect.
Almost.
Just as she was about to deliver the killer kick, the defender sprinted up from behind and took her out. It was a totally illegal move. The defender slid into Courtney’s feet like a baseball runner sliding into second base. Instead of putting her foot into the ball, Courtney landed on her back. Hard. Whistles blew, a penalty was coming, but it didn’t matter to Courtney. Her moment was lost.
She jumped to her feet, screaming, “What was that?”
Before the defender knew what was happening, Courtney gave her a wicked shove that sent her sprawling back onto the grass. She put her knee on the player’s back so she couldn’t get up. All her frustration finally came pouring out.
“I beat you and you know it!” she shouted.
A second later the other players descended and pulled the two girls apart. It was tough pulling Courtney away because she was so enraged. The defender got back to her feet and was ready to take Courtney on.
“Come on!” she taunted Courtney.
Courtney tried to lunge at the girl, but the other players held her back. Finally Coach Horkey ran in between the two girls and restored order.
“Enough!” she shouted. “Laura,” she said to the defender. “Inside. All of you, locker room.”
The fight was over. So was the scrimmage. The girls walked off, grumbling.
“Courtney,” Coach Horkey said firmly. “Stay here.”
As Laura, the defender, walked off, she looked over her shoulder and snarled, “Loser.”
“Enough!” shouted Coach Horkey. Laura put her head down and kept walking. Courtney didn’t budge. She was breathing hard, still fired up from the fight.
“She deserved it, Coach,” Courtney pointed out. “It was a total cheap shot.”
“It wasn’t” Horkey countered. “She had a point to give and made the aggressive play.”
“But don’t you see? All they care about is shutting me down! It’s been that way since day one!”
“I’ll tell you what I see,” Horkey said. “I see a girl who is faced with a challenge for the first time in her life. A true challenge. And she is losing. Courtney, you are a talented athlete. But it takes more than skill to be a winner. You know how to handle success, but not failure. Until you can do that, you won’t help this team, or any other.”
Courtney didn’t say anything. As much as she hated to admit it, Horkey’s words rang true.
“I’m suspending you for two weeks,” Horkey added. “What!”
“Players on my team don’t fight. Especially with each other. Think about that and come back in two weeks.” Horkey jogged off the field.
Courtney was left stunned. Not only was she demoted from varsity to JV, now she was kicked off JV! She stood in the middle of the field, covered with dirt, unable to accept this impossible turn of events. How could this have happened? How could she have fallen so far? In her heart she still believed she was as much of a competitor as ever, but reality was telling her otherwise.
D. J. MacHale
The Reality Bug
Courtney walked off the field, but didn’t go into the locker room. She didn’t want to face the other girls. She knew the old Courtney would have walked right into that locker room and taken the heat. But then again, she’d never had to take any heat before. Not like this. Courtney began to wonder if there was ever such a thing as the old Courtney. Maybe this is who she always was… a gutless coward.
She walked past the locker room and made the commitment to walk all the way home. It was going to be a long walk. But she wasn’t about to take the late bus, either. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed. Since it was Friday, she wouldn’t have to worry about facing anybody for a couple of days.
“Courtney!” a familiar voice shouted.
Courtney had rounded the school and was headed for the sidewalk when Mark came riding up on his bike. He was out of breath and excited.
“You’re not going to believe it!” he exclaimed. “I was-” Mark focused on the fact that Courtney was still in her soccer uniform, totally dirty, still wearing her cleats, and walking away from school. “What’s going on?”
“Don’t ask” was all Courtney could get out. Mark got off his bike and walked alongside her.
“You’re walking home?” he asked, confused.
“I’m really hurting, Mark,” she said. “Can we talk about it some other time?”
“Yeah, sure.” They walked in silence. Mark was dying to tell Courtney what had happened at the Sherwood house, but wasn’t sure if she was in the mood to talk about anything. Still, she had to know.
“Can we talk about something else?” he asked tentatively. “Whatever.”
“Something happened today,” Mark said. “I… I’m not sure exactly what it means, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the acolyte thing.”
Courtney stopped short. A second before, she looked like the walking dead. Now a spark had returned to her eyes. Mark thought that whatever had happened at soccer, it had beaten her up pretty badly. But the fire still burned inside her. He knew Courtney too well to think otherwise.
“Another journal?” she asked.
“No,” Mark answered. “Let’s go for a ride.”
Mark tried to ride Courtney on the handlebars of his bike. It didn’t work. Courtney was too tall and Mark was too… Mark. So they switched places and Courtney gave Mark the ride. Along the way Mark told her everything that happened at the Sherwood house. Courtney didn’t ask any questions. She just listened. By the time Mark had finished the story, they found themselves parked right back where the mystery began. They were in front of the locked iron gates of the spooky old house.
Mark held up his ring. The symbol was glowing again.
“What do you think?” Mark asked.
“I think we’ve got to find out what’s inside that house,” Courtney answered.
“Easier said than done,” Mark replied. “You didn’t see those dogs.”
Courtney looked up at the sky and said, “It’s gonna be dark soon. I say we come back tomorrow, with some help.”
Courtney’s idea of help was an obvious one. They waited until the next morning, then Mark came over to Courtney’s house and they put a call into their friend on the Stony Brook police force, Captain Hirsch.
They had met Captain Hirsch when Bobby and his family first disappeared. Since then Hirsch had been working on the missing persons case. Of course, Mark and Courtney knew the truth about what had happened to Bobby, but decided not to tell, for fear of interfering with Bobby’s mission as a Traveler. Still, they kept in touch with Hirsch. He was a good guy. Now, they hoped, he was going to help them get one step closer to unraveling the mystery of the acolytes.
Mark told Captain Hirsch about there being strange dogs running around the Sherwood property. He really built it up, saying how the dogs were vicious and wild. There was no way these dogs were somebody’s pets. Of course, Mark left out the part about having been trespassing on the property. He also didn’t mention that the dogs might be evil quig beasts who were guarding a secret inside the house. That wouldn’t have been cool.
A half hour later Mark and Courtney met two uniformed police officers outside the front gate to the Sherwood house.
“Hi, guys,” one of them said. “Remember me? Officer Wilson?”
“Sure we do!” Courtney said.
Officer Wilson had once given the two kids a ride to the police station. He was a good guy, too.
“This is Officer Matt.” Everybody shook hands. “Tell us what you saw.”
Mark again explained how there were three dogs inside. Big, vicious, slobbering dogs with sharp fangs. Mark
