Chapter 22 #2
Jake played the whole match at maximum volume, calling encouragement, slapping Olly on the back, and leading the team chant every single time they scored.
Marion stood up at the net in immaculate white linen, setting up perfect spike after perfect spike for Jake.
She gave him clean sets, sharp angles, a correction on his footwork that he actually took.
What she wouldn’t give him was the woof.
Every time they scored a point, he launched the chant, and she let a pointed little silence sit exactly where her bark was supposed to go, while Jake held his arms out and gave her the come-on, you know you want to grin.
Noa watched Marion with open appreciation. “She’s never gonna do it.”
Aspen tipped her water bottle toward the scoreboard. “She told the whole team she’d do the chant if they made it to the finals. My aunt is a woman of her word. She just also happened to think they’d never make it that far.”
Because the Dawgs were, actually, winning. The Ghost Peppers fell behind when Mia and Bella started arguing over whose ball it was, both calling out “yours,” and then it dropped, untouched, between them.
Olly scored the game-winning point and Bunny's voice rang out over the sand. “The DAWGS advance!”
Jake roared. Olly threw both fists in the air. And then the whole team turned, as one, and looked at Marion.
They started the chant at a low volume, crouching slightly as the three of them closed in on Marion, lightly rolling their fists in the air, and getting louder with the woof woof woof as they got closer to her.
Marion looked back at them. Aspen watched her aunt visibly weigh whether her dignity or her word mattered more, and land, with enormous reluctance, on her word. She straightened her spine. And then, flat and joyless, she said: “Woof.”
The beach erupted the loudest it had been all weekend. Maisie collapsed into the sand with a pretend faint. Noa shot straight up out of her chair applauding and cheering.
Marion let the noise run its course. Then she straightened the hem of her linen, looked Jake dead in the eye, and said, “We are never speaking of this again.” The corner of her mouth tipped up briefly, and then she smoothed it away and walked off the court.
Bunny climbed down from her tower and tapped the megaphone twice to make sure the whole beach was listening, and drew the moment out as long as she possibly could.
“My gladiators.” Her voice rolled out over the beach. “Three days. Eleven events. Twenty-three competitors, one egg-and-spoon ruling I will be taking to my grave—”
“FOUL,” Glenda contributed from her chair.
“—and it comes down to this. The SHARKS,” she swept an arm, “vs the DAWGS.” She swept the arm in the other direction. “The tug-of-war finale.” She let it hang. “Bring me the rope!” She roared with her head tilted back, hand extended towards the sky like she was summoning thunder.
Hector and Jake hauled the rope out that Maddy had shipped to Aspen’s bungalow for reasons Maddy had called “logistics” at the time. Aspen had texted her a photo of it when it had arrived and Maddy had texted back Fine, which back then had counted as flirting.
That was four weeks ago. Aspen could barely wrap her head around how much had changed since then.
“Sharks, west side! Dawgs, east side!” Bunny boomed. “Maisie, sweetpea, you come on up here front and center, darling.”
“I’m the front?” Maisie’s face lit up like she’d been named team captain.
“You’re the front because you weigh as much as a beach towel.” Noa said, ruffling her hair.
Maisie scowled at her.
Noa raised her hands and reared back. “And because you’re the most vicious person here, you didn’t let me finish.”
Maisie’s scowl transformed into a smile. “Okay!” And she skipped to the front where she struggled to lift the heavy rope on her own.
Noa stepped up directly behind her and lifted the rope so Maisie could hold on right in front of her. “Lean back and don’t let go.”
Maddy stepped up behind Noa and Aspen took the anchor, the rope wrapped once around her hips. In front of her, Maddy planted her feet and gripped the rope.
Across the centerline, the Dawgs set up as a mirror image. Marion up front, Olly behind her with his sleeves shoved up, then Chloe, and Jake at the anchor, digging two trenches with his heels, hollering woof woof woof at the sky.
Aspen leaned forward and said, low, near Maddy’s ear, “Your boyfriend’s very loud.”
“Ex,” Maddy said, not looking back, her hands tightening on the rope. “And if you make me laugh right now and we lose to him, I will end us.”
Aspen grinned and got into position.
“On my count!” Bunny called. “THREE. TWO. ONE. PULL!”
And the rope went taut and the world narrowed down to about thirty feet of rope and a lot of grunting.
Aspen dug in and pulled, the rope biting into her palms, her whole body a single straining line from her heels to her shoulders, and in front of her she could feel Maddy doing the exact same thing, the two of them pulling in the same direction with everything they had.
Up the line Maisie was leaning back so hard her feet were practically off the ground, shrieking, doing absolutely nothing mechanically useful but being the heart of the entire effort.
Noa had her head down, her heels dug deep in the sand.
“DIG,” Bunny howled. “I have NEVER seen such—Maisie, sweetheart, you’re turning a little purple, breathe—”
“I’M brEATHING,” Maisie screamed, not breathing.
And then Olly’s foot slipped.
It was small. But Aspen felt it travel down the rope like a current, felt the Dawgs lose a single inch, and she planted her heels and threw her hips back and Maddy threw her weight back at the exact same instant, and the centerline ribbon shuddered, dragged, and crossed.
“SHARKS,” Bunny shrieked into the megaphone. “THE SHARKS WIN THE CUP!”
The rope went slack. The Dawgs went down in a heap. And Aspen barely had time to drop her end before Maddy spun around and launched herself into her arms.
Aspen caught her on instinct, both arms wrapped quickly around her waist. Maddy’s arms went around her neck and her legs came up off the sand and Aspen lifted her clean off her feet, spinning a half-step with the momentum, and Maisie was shrieking somewhere nearby as Noa lifted her over her shoulder and ran in circles. The whole beach was a wall of sound.
And Maddy, six inches off the ground in Aspen’s arms, took Aspen’s face in both hands and kissed her.