/43472pdf_00000006015

Katie heard music. At first she batted at the snooze on her alarm clock, until she finally realized the sound was coming from her cell phone. Fumbling for it, she flipped it open, and croaked, “Hello.” She didn’t need to check the caller ID. Only one person had the guts to call her this early—her best friend Sarah Talbot.

“Goooooood morning, Katie Irwin!”

Sarah’s wake-up calls had started after Katie’s third homeroom tardy. One more and she’d spend a week in detention.

“I’ll be at your front door at seven-fifteen,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Katie said, yawning widely.

“Get a move on!” Sarah chirped.

As Katie brushed her teeth, she wondered if she’d ever have another friend like Sarah. She was beautiful— coal black hair and blue eyes—a straight-A student, and she always found a way to make Katie feel good about

3

55978-SPIKED-DM.indd 3

11/28/05 2:52:08 PM

> > > > > > > GAME ON! < < < < < < <

herself. They had been best friends since kindergarten.

Katie turned on the shower and glanced in the mirror. Long brown hair, hazel eyes, and way too tall at five foot eleven inches. Most people mistook her for a high school student. On the volleyball court, her height was an advantage, but she towered over everyone else at Lincoln Middle School. That is, until Grant Fosmore came last year. Grant was actually taller than Katie.

Katie sighed. Then there was school. She hated it! She was lousy at math, and earth science? Forget about it! But on the volleyball court, she was a natural.

She was team captain and leading scorer. Eighth grade had been a great season for her, but she knew once she entered high school, she’d be at the bottom of the heap.

Worst of all, her parents had big plans to send her to a private high school. They’d both gone to St. Bernard’s, and family tradition dictated she would go too. She couldn’t bear to think of leaving Sarah behind.

After getting dressed, Katie ran down the stairs, slid into her coat, and grabbed the sack lunch her mom had left for her on the hall table. She opened the front door and shivered in the frigid Lincoln, Illinois, morning. Sarah and Holly waited on her front steps.

“Hey, guys,” Katie said. “Ready for practice?”

“Uh, helloooooo,” Holly said. “We have a little

4

55978-SPIKED-DM.indd 4

11/28/05 2:52:08 PM

> > > > > > > SPIKED! < < < < < < <

thing called school in between now and volleyball.”

“Yeah, I try to forget that part,” Katie answered.

“Seriously, are we ever going to use any of that stuff?”

“Nope,” Sarah replied matter-of-factly. “We won’t.

Volleyball will bring us fame, fortune, and retirement security.”

“Very funny,” Katie said.

“There’s more to life than volleyball, Katie,” Holly said, picking up her book bag.

Katie turned her head and rolled her eyes. Holly lived around the corner from Sarah, and when she found out the two best friends always walked to school together, she invited herself along. Sarah didn’t seem to mind, but it really bugged Katie.

“Was your dad really mad about your English paper?” Sarah asked as they walked.

“Yeah, I can’t do anything right these days,” Katie said. She and Sarah exchanged a secret look. “One more C- and he’s threatened to make me sit out a game.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Sarah said. “Next time, we’ll talk through the assignment first, and you won’t have any problems with Mrs. Voss.”

“Wow, Katie,” Holly said snidely, “Sarah takes care of everything for you, doesn’t she?”

What was that supposed to mean? A couple of times Katie had tried to talk to Sarah about Holly— about how Holly was butting in on their friendship.

5

55978-SPIKED-DM.indd 5

11/28/05 2:52:08 PM

> > > > > > > GAME ON! < < < < < < <

But Sarah would always say, “Holly doesn’t have a best friend like you and me. She just wants to hang out with us,” and then Katie would feel guilty for bringing it up. If Sarah had a flaw, it was that she was just too nice.

“So what did you do Sunday?” Holly asked Sarah, shuffling her feet through the rust-colored leaves.

Sarah looked at Katie and then back to Holly.

“I stayed over at Katie’s Saturday night to help her with earth science and math,” Sarah said. “Then we went to church yesterday.”

“Oh,” Holly said. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“We tried,” Katie lied. “The line was busy.”

“I must have been online,” Holly said.

Katie knew Holly didn’t like it when they left her out. But sometimes she just wanted to spend time alone with her best friend.

As the girls climbed the school steps, Holly said to Katie, “Have a great day.”

Deep down, Holly was a good person and could be a lot of fun, but still she irritated Katie.

“Thanks,” Katie said. “You too. See you at practice.”

Holly headed down the north hallway to her locker, while Katie and Sarah walked in the opposite direction toward the locker they shared.

During lunch period, Katie sat with Sarah, Holly, and a few other girls from the team.

6

55978-SPIKED-DM.indd 6

11/28/05 2:52:08 PM

> > > > > > > SPIKED! < < < < < < <

“How was your weekend, Katie?” Laurie O’Flaherty asked. Laurie was Katie’s setter on the team. With her red hair and freckles, Laurie lived up to her last name. Some of the girls on the team used to call her the Irish Setter, but Sarah made them stop.

“Great!” Katie said. “I watched the beach volleyball tournament on TV. Anybody else see it?”

“Do you ever think of anything else?” Laurie snapped.

The girls at the table got quiet, and everybody looked at Katie. Katie wanted to dump chocolate milk in Laurie’s lap. Instead, she said, “No! Do you?”

Sarah giggled. Holly and some of the other girls joined in, and before long, they were all in stitches.

A sudden clatter and splash startled them. Turning around, Katie saw Lance Brown sliding to a stop on the floor next to her. He was covered in spaghetti sauce.

Katie giggled. She knew it wasn’t really funny, but once she got tickled about anything, she couldn’t stop. She looked up and saw Grant, who was also grinning. She hoped he hadn’t knocked Lance down.

Grant was always making cracks about Lance, but she didn’t think he would actually trip him.

“Here,” Grant said, “let me help you.” He held a hand out to Lance, but Lance pushed it away.

“Brainless ape,” Lance muttered. Red-faced, he

7

55978-SPIKED-DM.indd 7

11/28/05 2:52:08 PM

> > > > > > > GAME ON! < < < < < < <

scrambled up and walked away with his empty tray.

“What did you say, bookworm?” Grant called out.

“What’s the problem, Mr. Fosmore?” said a voice from behind them. It was Principal Walker.

“Nothing, sir,” Grant said. “Just helping a kid who slipped on the wet floor.”

“Helping him up or helping him down?” Principal Walker asked. He was about to say something more, when he was paged over the loudspeaker. “We’ll discuss this later,” the principal said and walked away.

After lunch, Sarah and Katie went to their locker to drop off their books. They’d be spending the next two hours in their homerooms taking what they referred to as “some lame vocational exam.”

“Did Grant knock Lance down?” Sarah asked.

“No,” Katie answered. “At least, I don’t think so.

Grant wouldn’t do anything like that!”

“Wouldn’t he?” Sarah asked. “I just hope Lance is OK. I’ll see you at practice.”

For being so nice, Sarah never had much good to say about Grant. That bugged Katie. She knew Grant was confident—cocky even—but he treated Katie well.

Katie didn’t usually see Grant in the afternoon, but since they were in the same homeroom, they would be taking the vocational test together. She sat at an empty desk right in front of him.

8

55978-SPIKED-DM.indd 8

11/28/05 2:52:08 PM

Before the bell rang, she turned around and asked, “Hey, you didn’t trip Lance in the cafeteria, did you?”

“That brainiac loser?” he said, laughing. “Would it matter if I did?” Katie frowned. “I didn’t knock him down, Katie-bear. I don’t do that kind of thing.”

Katie wished she could believe him, but doubts niggled at the back of her mind. Had she made another bad choice like she had last summer?

> > > > > > > SPIKED! < < < < < < <

9

55978-SPIKED-DM.indd 9

11/28/05 2:52:08 PM