Thursday at 4:00. It's open practice. I'll watch. No pressure. Thank you.
Foster looked at her steadily. You done this before? Gymnastics until I was 12. Not official nodded. A beat of silence.
How many schools is this? Fourth. Something moved through Fosters's expression. Recognition. Maybe the specific recognition of a person who understood what fourth meant.
Not as a number, but as a quantity of adaptation, of starting over, of learning to read rooms you'd never seen before. You know how to work hard, Foster said. Yes, ma'am. Thursday at 4. Don't be late.
I be, Ren said. And she wouldn't. That was one of the things about Ren Ashford. She didn't say things she didn't intend. She was almost at the front entrance when the boy from the hallway stepped out from a side corridor, not blocking her path, just appearing with the timing of someone who had chosen the moment.
He had one other person with him, a boy she'd later learned was named Kyle Webb, whose primary function appeared to be serving as an audience. "You're meeting with Coach Foster. " The first boy said, "I already had that meeting. Trying out for cheer open practice Thursday. " He looked at her. Not aggressive exactly. More like appraising, measuring something he hadn't decided the value of yet.
It's a competitive team, he said. Same group for a while. They don't usually take people midyear. Coach Foster invited me to open practice, Ren said. So, I'm going to open practice.
She held his gaze for exactly as long as felt appropriate. No longer. Not a challenge, just presence. Have a good afternoon, she said, and walked out the front door. She heard Kyle say something behind her, something she didn't catch.
She heard the first boy say nothing in return. She walked to the pickup where Boon was waiting. Got in, buckled her seat belt. "How was it? " he asked. "Educational? " she said.
He glanced at her, looking for what she wasn't saying out loud. "He'd always been able to do that. " "Good educational or bad educational? " "Both," she said. He nodded and pulled out of the lot. 3 days in, Boon developed a habit without planning to. 6:30 every morning, Callahan's black coffee, corner booth, sometimes eggs.