Twice the Talent Read Free

with pride. The game was off to a great start!
    The Cubs kept their lead in the second quarter, which ended 10–5 after one of the Mustangs made an impossible basket from past the three-point line. Otherwise, their defense kept making the mistake of converging around the player who had the ball while leaving other players open.
    Coach Rader put Ava, Callie, Madison, Tessa, and Tamara back in for the third quarter. By then the Mustangs seemed to have figured out their defensive problem, and only Madison was able to score. The quarter ended 12–9—too close for comfort.
    The girls came back to the sidelines.
    â€œTheir defense is getting better, but they’re still clumping up under the basket,” he told the girls. “Ava and Madison, stay close to the sidelines if you can, and try to shoot from there.”
    Ava and Madison nodded, and the girls jogged back onto the court. Callie got control of the ball, but one of the Mustangs stole it from her. She drove down the court and made a successful layup.
    The scoreboard now read HOME 12, GUEST 11, and Ava started to feel nervous for the first time.
    â€œAva!” she heard Madison cry out, and Ava realized she had lost focus for a second—long enough for one of the Mustangs to bat the ball out of Madison’s hands. She passed it down the court to her teammate, who took a shot and missed. Ava ran up to catch the rebound. Ava passed it to Callie, who passed it to Madison, but Madison missed her shot too.
    For the next seven minutes it seemed like neither team could score. Then one of the Mustangs fumbled a pass, and Tamara recovered it and passed it to Ava.
    Stay close to the sidelines, Coach Rader had said, and Ava stuck close to the left side of the court. One of the Mustangs came toward her, and Ava quickly looked to see if anyone was open—but nobody was. In the three seconds before the Mustang player reached her, she jumped up and took a shot, twisting her bodyto the right to avoid colliding with the Mustang.
    She watched the ball bounce off the backboard and sink right into the net—and then she landed. Hard.

CHAPTER
THREE
    Buzzzzzzzzzzz!
    The final buzzer rang, and a cheer went up from the stands.
    â€œWe won!” Madison cried, running up to hug her, and Ava winced. When she’d landed, she’d felt her right ankle buckle underneath her and a shot of pain jolt through her body. The victory cheers rang hollow in her ears as the pain in her ankle made her head feel fuzzy.
    Then the Cubs lined up to shake hands with the Mustangs, and Ava joined them, trying not to limp. Coach Rader approached her.
    â€œAva, I saw you come down hard on that ankle,” he said. “How’s it feeling?”
    â€œFine, Coach,” Ava lied. She had just played her first game of basketball and loved it. There was no way she was admitting that her ankle hurt—what if it was really messed up, and she was out for the season? That would be so unfair!
    She gritted her teeth and headed to the locker room without limping the whole way, but it was extremely painful. When she finished changing, she found her family waiting in the gym for her.
    â€œGreat game!” Alex cried, hugging her. “I think I might like watching basketball more than football.”
    Mrs. Sackett was concerned. “Ave, it looked like you twisted your ankle when you took that last shot.”
    â€œI’m fine,” Ava insisted.
    Her father looked up from his phone. “Uncle Scott just texted. He’s making a special sweet and spicy tofu for dinner to celebrate.”
    â€œOh, boy,” said Ava, and she and her dad exchanged sympathetic looks. While they had both gotten used to Uncle Scott’s cooking since he moved in, neither of them would choose tofu as their way to celebrate Ava’s big win.
    Ava ignored her painful ankle all throughdinner and while she was doing her homework that night. But the next morning, her ankle was as purple