“I can’t believe that bridge used to make me scared,” Teddy said.
“Nobody gets to pick the things that make them scared,” Jack said.
Cassie saw just the hint of a smile from him.
“I mean, who knew,” he said, “how scared Cassie was going to get pitching at Fenway Park.”
“Was not,” she said, and leaned over and pinched his arm. Then she smiled herself and said, “Well, maybe a little bit at first.”
“Maybe a lot at first,” Gus said. “I thought you might have been greener than the Green Monster.”
Now Cassie pinched him. Teddy moved away from her.
“Who cares whether it was a little or a lot?” she said. “Did we win the title or not?”
“You did,” Teddy said.
“Did we get to play on television, thank you very much?” she said.
“You did,” Jack said. “Thank you very much.”
The Red Sox had won the two games they’d needed to get to Fenway, one in Hartford, Connecticut, and one in Providence, Rhode Island. Then the games at Fenway were on Saturday and Sunday, before the real Sox returned from a West Coast trip the next day. And the last two games of the tournament had been just like the last two games of their league season. Allie had started in the semis; Sarah had finished. Then in the finals it was Cassie going all the way again, this time against a team from Newton, Massachusetts. She struck out ten batters. The Red Sox won 3–0. Two of the runs had come when Sarah had hit a double off the bottom of the Green Monster.
“Maybe it’s the way it had to end,” Teddy said. “It was like the two of you against the world one last time.”
“She never thought of it that way, trust me,” Cassie said.
“How are things now with you guys?” Jack said.
“Pretty much the same,” Cassie said. “I forgot to tell you guys that after the championship game was over, she came over and told me she thought I had done a very good job. But that I should remember that the team couldn’t have won without her.”
“Like you kept saying,” Gus said. “Black and white.”
“What did you say to her?” Jack said.
“What could I say? I told her she was right. And I told her that even though she thought I talked way too much—”
“You?” Teddy said.
Now he got pinched.
“That even though she thought I talked way too much, I had to tell her that I’d learned more about how to be a friend and a good teammate than I ever had before in my life.”
“You think you guys will stay in touch?” Jack said.
“She’s going into ninth along with the rest of us,” Cassie said. “You know what? I hope so. Sarah says she tries to picture things the way they’re supposed to be inside her head.” Cassie nodded. “I can see that,” she said. “But it’s pretty much up to her.”
“Wait, something’s not up to you?” Gus said.
“Guess what?” Cassie said. “Even though you guys are always telling me how controlling I am, I learned something else this summer: Sometimes not being in control isn’t such a terrible thing. Sometimes you just gotta let go and make a leap.”
“Like into ninth grade,” Jack said.
They were all quiet for a moment.
“It’s gonna be the same kids, basically,” Gus said.
“Still gonna be different,” Teddy said.
“But one thing won’t be,” Cassie said. “We’ll still have each other.”
She smiled at all three of them.
Then she pointed across the water.
“Just the next bridge to cross,” she said.
“Together,” Jack said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Taylor McKelvy Lupica
MIKE LUPICA is the author of multiple bestselling books for young readers, including QB 1, Heat, Travel Team, Million-Dollar Throw, and The Underdogs. He has carved out a niche as the sporting world’s finest storyteller. Mike lives in Connecticut with his wife and their four children. When not writing novels, he writes for the New York Daily News, appears on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters, and hosts The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN Radio. You can visit Mike at mikelupicabooks.com.
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Text copyright © 2018 by Mike Lupica
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names:
Lupica, Mike, author.
Title: Team players / Mike Lupica.
Description: First edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers, 2018. | Series: Home team | Summary: “A girl with Asperger’s joins Cassie’s softball team but not everyone on the team welcomes her, creating a rift between Cassie and her teammates”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017022014 (print) | ISBN 9781481410090 (eBook) | ISBN 9781481410076 (hardback)
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