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“Pressley? Jalesia?” Rylah called at the end of practice. “We need to talk. Oh, and Aubin Frazier will be coming in again tomorrow to critique you all,” she told the room, “so be on your toes because she’s fully Chichén Itzá.”
I glanced around and tried to gauge the general reaction to my sister’s presence. Out of everyone, it was her two friends, Erin and Mia, who seemed the most annoyed by this announcement. The other girls were focused on Pressley and Jalesia.
“What did you guys do?” Ani whispered to them as Sam and Rylah left the studio.
“Nothing that someone else hasn’t done worse,” Pressley said, and looked over at me. “I mean, are there standards or are we allowed to act however we want? If Jay and I get punished after nothing happened to Sissy for what she did, then I’m going to…I’m going…”
She came up with a blank about what she was going to do, but I understood. “I’m sorry,” I told them all. “I really am.”
“You were the one who was upset about the double standards between us and the Woodsmen players,” Trinity reminded me. “You were encouraging us to be mad that they didn’t have to worry about rule-breaking, and the whole time you were breaking rules yourself. You knew you couldn’t get in trouble because you had Bowie backing you up, threatening to quit or whatever. You were making a whole other standard, one just for yourself.”
“I didn’t mean to,” I said. “But you’re right. I met him and I kept seeing him and I kept it a secret. You’re right to be angry.”
“What was she supposed to do?” Quinn asked, looking around at the angry faces. “If she’d come out and told anyone that they were together, she would have been kicked off the team.”
“She deserved to be,” Brielle answered her, and glared in my direction. “You did,” she told me. “You should have been kicked off.”
“What would that have done to our squad?” Malina demanded. “What about all our routines?”
“It’s not like there are no other gymnasts in this town!” Brielle spat back.
“Gymnasts who can dance like Sissy? I don’t know about that,” Quinn retorted. “Gymnasts who would jump in and learn everything and be willing to work this hard for the crappy paychecks? I don’t know about that, either.” She looked away from Brielle and spoke to someone else. “Go ahead and rat me out. Go run and tell Sam and Rylah what I just said about our paychecks!”
I turned to see who those words were directed at, and there were my sister’s friends and bridesmaids, Erin and Mia.
“I know it was one of you who told on Jalesia and Pressley and that’s why they have to go talk to the coaches,” Quinn said. “I was here early today and I saw you coming out of their office. You told on them just like you told on Sissy.”
“They could have been talking about anything when you saw them,” Danni put in soothingly. “Right, ladies?” She also turned to Mia and Erin and waited. The silence felt like the moments before a thunderstorm, with so much pressure in the air. “Right?” she prompted.
“We weren’t the ones keeping track of bad behavior and we’ve only been doing what we think is best for the team,” Erin said. “Was I supposed ignore Sissy on her walk of shame outside of a Woodsmen player’s apartment?”
“I’m not ashamed in the least for being with Bowie,” I told her. “I am ashamed that I kept it hidden because I should have come out and said it proudly, and I should have taken my licks and gotten fired. You’re correct about that, Brielle, and I regret it now.”
Erin seemed taken aback. “Well, you should know that I feel that way, too. I’m sorry that I didn’t ignore what I saw. Or I should have talked to you about it first, because I didn’t know all the stuff that was going on with your ex-boyfriend.” Then she spoke to everyone. “Mia and I aren’t the ones keeping track and trying to control what you girls are doing. We aren’t the ones following everything on social media, checking all the fan accounts, worrying about every little detail and keeping score.”
Maybe they weren’t, but that behavior did remind me of someone. My thoughts had flown back to the meeting I’d had here at the stadium, when Aubin had shown up and Bowie had announced that he and I were getting married. My sister had said…what had she said? I tried to remember. It was something that I’d forgotten in the swirl of the overwhelming developments of that day. Something about how she’d told the coaches to only give me a warning about our social media post…
Good Lord. “It’s Aubin,” I said. “Is that right? Is she the one who has been telling on us, is she the informer?”
Mia and Erin didn’t answer at first, but the truth was clear. “We went and talked to the coaches today and said that there shouldn’t be an outside influence like that. She’s always watching,” Mia said finally. “She needs to leave this team alone.”
Without another word, I stormed out of the stadium, my injured foot fully killing me. It wouldn’t stop me from killing my sister, though. My car flew out of the gates as I imagined our confrontation, me picking her up and flinging her up to the ceiling and her sticking there like she’d been glued. I went very, very fast and ran a few yellow lights and when I got to Aubin’s condo, I didn’t even see the guard that Bowie had hired to watch me. I’d lost him somewhere along the way with my NASCAR driving.
No matter. I limped fast to my sister’s door and then I pounded on it. “Open up!” I yelled, but the door of the unit next to hers opened instead and a teenager stuck his head out.
“She’s in there,” he told me. “She’s been in there all day.” He disappeared.
“Aubin!” I hollered, and finally she came.
“Sissy, why are you out here screaming on my steps?” As always, she looked totally calm and unruffled. She smoothed down her hair. “Can I help you with something?”
“Are you the one? Have you been talking to the coaches and to the team officials, reporting on the Wonderwomen?” I hadn’t lowered my voice and Aubin grabbed my arm. She tugged me inside, but remembering the thinness of her walls, I wasn’t sure that would make a difference.
“I’ve never heard you talk like this, Sissy!”
“I’m mad! And I’m not afraid anymore, so—so what? And don’t try to get me off-topic, because I know that you’ve been—is that how you knew the Woodsmen executive at my meeting? Because he’s the person you’ve been spilling information to?”
My sister looked around her living room and I followed her eyes. It seemed different, somehow, but I was too mad to catch the subtleties right now. “Aubin!” I bellowed.
