Chapter 21: Final Day

By half past two, forty-one people were in our house, and I had counted every one of them.

My grandmother held the armchair by the window with her purse on her lap.

My uncle had set up three folding chairs in the den, and my two aunts were passing a bowl of pretzels back and forth without speaking.

The team parents filled the kitchen.

They had come for the final, and they had stayed because somebody had texted the group chat that something was about to happen.

"Don't look at me," said Mara, at my elbow, in a green dress and her work boots. "I only told six people."

"Mara."

"Seven. My mom doesn't count."

I laughed, and it came out unsteady.

I was wearing the yellow dress again, the one from the watch party.

I'd chosen it on purpose, because I had won a fight in it, and I wanted the luck.

Devin came up behind me with two glasses of lemonade and put one in my hand.

He didn't say anything.

He put his palm flat against the small of my back and left it there, and he kept it there when my uncle walked past.

My uncle looked at the hand.

He looked at Devin's face.

Then he sat down in his folding chair and gave all his attention to the pregame show.

"That was easy," Mara muttered.

"It's not done," I said.

At twenty to three, a car door slammed in the drive.

I knew the sound of it.

Every head in the front room turned toward the door, and the noise dropped.

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