Chapter 15
SOPHIA
It had been raining hard for two straight days.
The campus’s grass was soggy, and the pathways were lined with pockets of puddles.
The students, though teenagers, pulled on colorful galoshes and happily splashed each other with water.
Sophia, who had only her Mary Janes, miserably tramped through campus with damp water sloshing between her toes.
The rain had fallen in such a relentless downpour that the roof leaked in the girls’ gym and the janitors had to rotate buckets to keep the parquet floors from being damaged.
As a result, Monday’s practice had been canceled.
On Tuesday, Coach Fletcher had the girls meet him in his physics classroom, where he drew plays and game-day strategies on the blackboard.
Today when Sophia arrived, there was a note tacked to the door that instructed them to report to the boys’ gymnasium.
When Sophia stepped over the threshold of the boys’ facility, she spotted Max with the ball in his hand, going up for a jump shot.
His long legs were sculpted and tight, his Converse All Stars a gleaming fresh white.
As Max shot the basketball around the world, Claude caught the ball and fed it back to him.
Sophia had met Claude at dinner a few weeks back, and despite Willa’s best intentions of getting them together, Sophia felt nothing for him.
The best way Sophia could describe Claude was that he was average.
He slouched when he walked, and as a result, his back was bent.
His skin was reddish brown; he was about Sophia’s height, with long arms and buckteeth.
The girls clustered around Coach Fletcher.
“Ladies, I know this isn’t ideal,” Coach said as he opened the mesh bag of basketballs. “But we have our first game on Friday, so we can’t afford to miss another day of practice. I’ve arranged with the boys to split the gym with us.”
As the girls grabbed balls and started warming up, Sophia tried to forget that Max was in the same room, but she couldn’t help sneaking furtive glances his way.
Sophia had begun to find her place among the other girls, except Patty and Opal.
Once a week, Coach Fletcher had conducted trust exercises in the form of three-legged races, willow in the wind, and human knots to help them form bonds and connect.
“Let’s make two lines. Layup drills. Let’s go,” called Margaret.
She was the center, a senior, and the captain of the team.
Margaret was over six feet tall and wore her straight hair pulled back into two braids.
It was easy for Sophia to follow Margaret’s lead, because from their first practice, it was clear that the most important thing to Margaret was winning, and she’d do whatever it took to uplift the team.
After their warm-up drills and conditioning, the girls broke into two teams. The blue team was the starters; Sophia played on the red team and found herself guarding Patty. Sophia kept her hands up in Patty’s face, and when Patty went up for a shot, Sophia jumped and blocked it.
“Foul! You scratched me,” Patty exclaimed, holding out her arm. “And gave me cooties!”
Opal and another girl laughed, and Sophia felt the skin around her neck heat up. Was Max watching?
Sophia sucked her teeth. “You’re a liar. That was a clean block.”
“Who are you calling a liar?”
“And a sore loser,” Sophia added, and a few girls nodded.
Coach Fletcher blew his whistle as he rounded the two girls. “Enough.” He looked from Patty to Sophia. “Now, listen up. To prepare for Friday’s game, we are going to have a friendly scrimmage against the boys.”
“Let’s do this,” Margaret called out, circling the team and high-fiving each girl. Her energy was contagious.
The girls formed a circle around Coach Fletcher while he drew out a play on his clipboard. “Anna and Sophia, I want you to play guard against McBay and Collins.”
“What?” said Patty. “Why is she going in first? I’m the starter.”
“Because this is my team. I make the calls, Patty,” Coach Fletcher said frankly.
Patty crossed her arms over her chest and poked her lips out, sulking. Only Opal paid her any attention. The boys’ coach blew the whistle, and the teams met at half-court.
“Let’s play a fair game.” The boys’ coach tossed the ball in the air, and Margaret hit it to Anna. The girls ran their offense first, forcing the boys to play defense.
Max guarded Sophia. “You aren’t touching that ball,” he said, snickering, and his sloppy grin sent a tingling sensation through her chest.
“Watch me,” she said, giving him a little elbow in the ribs before stepping out of his reach. Anna spotted that she was open and swung the ball in her direction. Before Max could recover, Sophia took the jump shot. Swish.
“What did you say?” she asked, toying with Max as she hustled to get back on defense.
They played three-minute quarters, and by the third quarter, Sophia was spent because she had played the entire first half without a substitute.
At the top of the fourth quarter, the boys were leading by ten when Max came charging down the court with the ball.
Sophia stepped in front of him to stop him from an easy layup, and he barreled right into her.
She fell backward and slid on her bottom across the court.
“Es tut mir soleid. Moge Gott mit dir sein,” Max said, his eyebrows furrowed.
His words covered Sophia, and she felt as if she were floating outside of her body. When he reached for her hand and pulled her to her feet, she stumbled. Where had she gone?
“I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, sure.” She wrung her fingers. “What in the world did you say to me?”
Max shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t know where that came from.”
“Sub,” Coach Fletcher called, beckoning Sophia to get off the court. Sophia tried to hustle to the bench, but she felt off-center. Patty bumped her hip as she took Sophia’s place.
After the boys beat the girls by fifteen points, the boys cheered while heading to their locker room. Most of the girls dressed and exited quickly, but Sophia had moved slowly, with her eye on the boys’ door. Max was the first to bound out of the locker room.
“You sure you’re all right? I didn’t mean to charge you so hard.” He looked her up and down for bruises.
“I have three brothers. Trust me, I’ve been hit much harder.” She shifted her bag. “But what language was that? What did you say to me?”
“I said ‘I’m so sorry, may God be with you’ in German.”
Sophia looked up. “How do you know German?” And why had her body reacted that way?
“They have German as a language here, you can take it next semester if you are interested. I’ve been taking it since last year.”
“Wouldn’t Spanish or French be more useful?”
“I was born in Germany,” he revealed. “I came to this country when I was around five.”
Something stirred inside her. Was it his words, or was it his nearness that was making her feel woozy, not at all steady?
“Tell me about Germany.” She turned her body toward him.
“Oh, I don’t remember that much. I lived in an—”
“Hey, wait up,” Claude called while walking across the court. “Sophia. Nice game.” He gave her a playful pat on the back.
“Thanks,” she said, straining her face to keep her irritation from showing.
“Max, don’t forget, we have Debate Club tonight.” Claude slipped a small umbrella from his bag as the three walked to the exit. “Sophia, have you joined any clubs yet?” he asked.
“I haven’t had much time.”
“Well, you should join the Debate Club. We have a lot of fun.”
“You have a lot of fun,” Max corrected. “I just go because it will look good on my college applications.”
“Whatever, man.” Claude held the door open. The rain was coming down from the dark sky in sheets. Sophia yanked her jacket up and pulled it over her head.
“You don’t have an umbrella?” Max turned to Sophia.
“I did, but the wind tore it to shreds this morning, so I threw it out.” That was probably why she had found it in the lost-and-found bin in the first place. It didn’t work.
“Here, take mine, and I’ll share with Claude.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“It’s nearly a ten-minute walk to W5, and it’s raining cats and dogs. I insist.” Max removed the umbrella from his bag and held it out to her.
Their fingers brushed, and Sophia felt herself shudder. “Thank you.”
Claude pushed his umbrella up and said, “I would have offered you mine too. We can’t have one of our star basketball players sick before the game on Friday.” He flashed her a wide smile, but it dulled in comparison to Max’s.
“Star? You must be joking.” She pursed her lips.
“Really, you played well,” Claude said. “I was watching you.”
Sophia frowned as she pushed Max’s umbrella up over her head. She didn’t want Claude watching her.
“Good night,” she said as they went their separate ways into the rain. As she walked, careful to avoid the puddles, she revisited the words that Max had said to her.
Moge Gott mit dir sein. Where had she heard that phrase before?