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Capstone Global Library - Megan Sparks

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72 pages

English

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Annie and Tyler are going out! OK, he can be a bit controlling sometimes, but Annie's never had a boyfriend before so she assumes that's what they're like. Her roller derby team, the Liberty Belles, are in top position in the league - but are they getting over-confident? Annie misses a few practice sessions so she can spend time with Tyler. As punishment, she gets left on the bench at a big bout. The whole team needs to refocus - especially Annie.

Informations

Publié par	Capstone Global Library
Date de parution	12 septembre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781782020387
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0138€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published in 2013 by Curious Fox, an imprint of Capstone Global Library Limited, 7 Pilgrim Street, London, EC4V 6LB Registered company number: 6695582
www.curious-fox.com
Text © Hothouse Fiction Ltd 2013
Series created by Hothouse Fiction www.hothousefiction.com
The author’s moral rights are hereby asserted.
Cover designed by Jo Hinton-Malivoire, original concept by www.spikyshooz.com
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
ISBN 978 1 78202 038 7
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner.
ebook created by Hothouse Fiction Ltd
With special thanks to Alexandra Diaz
Special thanks to Matty, for everything
Chapter One
“Gooooooal!” the announcer shouted. “The Liberty Height Stags now lead the Prospect Park Panthers 3-2 in the final game of the season!”
Annie squealed and hugged her best friend next to her. “Did you see that, Lex? My boyfriend scored a brilliant goal!”
My boyfriend. Just the sound of those words on her tongue made her tingle with excitement. Tyler was by far the fittest guy at Liberty Heights High School. He had irresistible blond hair that always seemed to fall just right and green eyes that Annie could gaze into for hours. And his body ... wow! Lean and muscular, he was perfect. And he was all Annie’s. She couldn’t believe her luck.
Lexie grunted and looked up briefly from her sketchbook. “He’s awesome. Can we go now?”
“Course not,” Annie said. The cheerleaders came out and did a little number led by Annie’s favourite person in the world. Not. Blonde, popular, and with a personality to match the Wicked Witch of the West, Kelsey had been vicious to Annie since she’d moved to Liberty Heights. They’d got off to a bad start just because Annie had accidentally knocked into Kelsey on her rollerblades. Their relationship had got even worse when Annie turned down a place on the cheerleading squad in order to play roller derby instead, the best sport on four wheels. No, the best sport ever, full stop.
Annie definitely couldn’t leave the match now. Not with Kelsey prancing about, thrusting her hips and sticking her chest out as the cheerleaders danced. Kelsey had made it all too clear she wanted Tyler for herself.
“Come on, Lexie,” Annie said. “There’s only ten minutes left. And this is for the regional championship. Besides, what kind of person leaves before the end of a match?”
Lexie let out a breath that hung white in front of her mouth. “A cold one? It’s got to be below zero.”
Annie put her arm around her best friend and gave her shoulders a rub. It was pretty cold. In London, where Annie had grown up, it wasn’t often this cold. But Annie figured she might as well get used to the weather. She had moved here a few months ago with her dad. Although she missed her mum and England, Liberty Heights, Illinois had some great things going for it and a little bit of cold wasn’t going to send her packing.
Annie kept watching Tyler and the match while trying to comfort Lexie. “Pretend you’re Vincent van Gogh and can’t afford heat in your garret, but you’re on the verge of finishing your masterpiece.”
“No good, I can’t feel the pencil to draw any more.” Lexie flexed her hand to get the blood flowing again.
Annie tore herself away from the game for just a second to glance at her friend. Lexie’s fingers poking out from fingerless gloves did look a bit blue. Lexie was passionate about her art and never missed an opportunity to work on it. Maybe , Annie thought, she’d enjoy the match if she gave it a chance .
But Annie wasn’t going to say that to her best friend. Lexie and sports were like ice cream and garlic; they just didn’t go well together. The last thing Annie wanted was to argue with her.
“Tell you what. Stay with me, just until it finishes, and I’ll make you the most gorgeous hot chocolate you’ve ever had when we get back to Rosie Lee’s.”
“Fine.” Lexie was pawing at the page of her sketchbook, struggling to turn it. “But it better have lots of whipped cream.”
“Well, yeah. You know my dad makes it himself.” Annie imagined the freshly whipped cream and decided that she might just have to enjoy a gourmet hot chocolate too.
After Annie’s mum and dad separated, Dad had decided to return from London to his hometown in Illinois to follow his dream of opening up an English-style café. It was called Rosie Lee’s, Cockney rhyming slang for tea. While it had got off to a slow start, business was steady now, especially with the Christmas season approaching.
It had been a hard choice for Annie to choose which parent she wanted to live with. She had grown up in London and definitely felt British, but Dad pretty much raised her single-handedly while Mum worked at her law firm. Dad had always been there for Annie and she couldn’t imagine life without him, even if it meant leaving the familiarity of England. Still, Annie couldn’t help but hope that maybe her parents would get back together one day.
Annie got to her feet as the Panthers pushed forward, trying to score a goal, but before it got to the keeper, Tyler somehow soared a metre into the air to head the ball back to Javier. Great play!
Five minutes left on the clock and Annie couldn’t keep her eyes off the pitch. The ball was going back and forth between the teams, but the Stags still held on to their one goal lead. If they could keep it up, Annie might be kissing a regional soccer champion tonight. Annie let out an excited high-pitched squeal and Lexie responded with a sound of exasperation.
Annie offered Lexie her scarf, but Lexie shook her head. Poor Lexie. If only she could enjoy the game. There had to be a way to make her feel more connected.
“Did I tell you what the team did to the coach?” Annie smiled at the memory of Tyler telling her the story. “Tyler and Ethan bought a live turkey from a farmer the other day and put it in the coach’s front garden. The coach freaked out when he came home. The bird started chasing him and wouldn’t let him get in the house. The coach had to call animal control and they spent hours chasing after the bird through the neighbourhood!” Annie laughed as she imagined the scene.
“Hilarious,” Lexie muttered.
“Don’t worry, they caught the turkey and took it to an animal sanctuary.”
This time Lexie grunted but didn’t look up from her sketch. Maybe it was more than just the cold. Maybe Lexie and her mum were fighting again. Although Annie got along well with Lexie’s mum, she knew Mrs Jones wished her unconventional daughter would be more normal. It wasn’t fair how parents always wanted their kids to be different to who they were. Annie had the same problem with her mum back in London.
She hugged her legs to her chest and tugged on the hat that covered her long brown hair. OK, maybe it was a bit colder than she admitted. That was the disadvantage of being so tall (five foot eleven and a half) and slim. There was nowhere to store body heat. Everyone had already warned her about the Midwestern winters and it was only November. At least there wouldn’t be any more soccer games until next autumn.
Annie glanced at the sketchbook again. Instead of complimenting Lexie’s artwork, Annie frowned at the sketch. Lexie’s gloved hands were covering most of it.
“Hey, what’s that?” Annie asked, reaching over for the sketchbook.
Lexie quickly flipped the book over to hide what she had been doing. “Nothing. Just something I messed up on.”
Annie didn’t know what to say. She’d seen the sketch for the briefest second when Lexie had moved her hands. Still, it was long enough to know what she saw: a soccer player with an uncharacteristically large head, cheesy grin, and a speech bubble that said, “I’m so awesome.” It could have been any of the players, but Lexie was too good an artist not to make him clearly identifiable. Even without the exaggerated cheekbones and the perfect hair, Annie still recognized him easily. Tyler.
Annie realized that Lexie didn’t really like her boyfriend. But then again, Lexie didn’t like most jocks and the attention they got. She was resentful that athletics got much more funding than the arts. But getting together with Tyler was one of the best things that had happened to Annie since she moved to the United States. Surely Lexie could make an exception and like this one particular jock. Annie knew, though, that it wasn’t exactly one-sided. Tyler thought Lexie was a bit eccentric (he used the term “weird freaks” to describe Lexie and her friends from manga club). But Tyler read the comics in the newspaper and that was kind of close to the graphic novels Lexie read. They had that in common at least. Annie really liked both of them and giving up one for the other wasn’t an option. Maybe if they spent more time together, they’d realize how great the other was. They would just have to find a way to get along. Besides, they did have another important thing in common...
Annie.
Chapter Two
“I still can’t believe we won!” Annie danced around Lexie, half with excitement, half to warm up, as they headed to her dad’s café. “I was sure that last shot was going to go right in. If Tyler hadn’t cleared it, it would have been a draw.”
“We call it a tie,” Lexie mumbled.
Annie frowned. Normally Lexie didn’t correct her British terms. In fact, Lexie often tried to incorporate British words into her own vocabulary. For instance, Lexie now went to the “loo” instead of the “bathroom”.
She’s probably just cold and hungry . Some people got all grumpy when they felt like that. Dad was a miserable old git if he worked too hard and forgot to eat. Annie linked her arm through