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the ball. A woman with spiky dyed blond hair was standing on the sidelines, watching them with hawk-like eyes. She wore a pink, white, and blue T-shirt that said GRIFFONS on the front.
    â€œThat must be our coach,” I said.
    â€œShe looks tough,” remarked Jessi.
    â€œWell, looks can be deceiving, right?” I said. “At least, I hope so.”
    But we learned pretty quickly that Jessi was right. At four o’clock on the dot, the coach blew a whistle.
    â€œLine up, please!” she barked.
    She had the kind of voice that got you moving. We lined up along the field and faced her.
    â€œI’m Coach Darby,” she said. “Please go down the line and tell me your name and what position you played on your school team.”
    Jamie from the Riverdale Rams had scored the first-place line position.
    â€œJamie Quinn, forward!” she said.
    I listened as the other girls spoke up. There were eighteen girls on the team, but besides Jamie and Mirabelle, the only other girls I knew were Zarine and Sarah from the Kicks. I started to feel a little bit nervous. Some of the girls were taller than I was, and I’m pretty tall. What if they were all better players than I was?
    Then came my turn.
    â€œDevin Burke, forward,” I said.
    Jessi started to speak next to me, but Coach Darby held up her hand.
    â€œDevin, are those regulation socks you’re wearing?” she asked.
    I looked down at my striped socks. I could feel my cheeks turn red.
    â€œNo, Coach,” I replied.
    â€œWell, those socks are ridiculous. White socks only for practice, and regulation socks for games. Got it?” she said.
    â€œYes, Coach,” I said, feeling my cheeks get even redder. Luckily, that was all she had to say about my socks. She nodded for Jessi to continue.
    â€œAll right, team,” Coach Darby said when everyone had finished. “Let’s get warmed up.”
    Coach led us in some stretching exercises, and then we did some squats and push-ups. I’d been expecting that. But what she said next surprised me.
    â€œWe’re going to scrimmage, nine on nine,” she told us. “I want to see how you look on the field. I heard a lot of you say you played forward on your school teams. Well, the Griffons will have two forwards, and not all of you will get to play it. I need forwards who are confident on the field and not afraid of the ball.”
    â€œTwo forwards?” I whispered to Jessi. On the Kicks we’d always had three. So that meant we’d have four midfielders and four on defense. With our goalie, we’d have the standard eleven players on the field each game.
    â€œAll right, count off by twos!” Coach Darby ordered.
    We counted off and then split up into two teams for the scrimmage. I gave Jessi a sad little wave as she jogged off to join the opposite team.
    Coach assigned us positions.
    â€œJamie, Devin, play forward,” she said, and I felt pretty good about that. She wouldn’t have let me start at forward if she didn’t think I could do it, right?
    That must mean she’s not too mad about the socks, I reasoned, and I jogged onto the field with confidence. Mirabelle was on my team for the scrimmage, and she gave me a nod as I passed her.
    â€œMirabelle, take center and kick off,” Coach Darby instructed, and we all took our places on the field.
    Mirabelle kicked it deep into the opponent’s side, and Jamie and I ran toward the goal. Jessi got control of the ball, but Jamie shot up to her like a streak of lightning and kicked the ball away from her. I saw Jessi grab her side, like she had been hurt.
    Jamie charged toward the goal but got blocked by a defender. I ran up toward her as fast as I could.
    â€œJamie! I’m open!” I yelled, but Jamie did a fancy move where she turned her back to the defender and dribbled the ball to the side. It looked pretty impressive, but a girl with short hair on Jessi’s team swooped