The Lie by S. Syed, G. Klein (reading well TXT) 📕

But her mother wouldn’t have any of it. “You don’t have any control over Jenny’s performance,” her mom insisted. “I’m sure Jenny’s just upset with herself and will be more understanding in the morning.”

Leanna sighed and watched her mother cut the cake she had made to celebrate her tryouts. If she was being honest, her mother did have a point—Jenny was responsible for her own tryout, and it had been her choice to go. She couldn’t be mad that she’d decided to try out and done badly. Still, Leanna didn’t exactly feel like having a piece of cake and celebrating while she knew her friend was probably embarrassed and upset.

When her mother returned to the table carrying two plates of large slices of cake, Leanna said, “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m exhausted from tryouts and way too full to eat anything else. All I really want to do is go to bed.”

“Okay, honey, I know how it can be,” her mother sighed, trying to hide her disappointment. “I used to get so worn out after practice I could hardly even make it back to the dorms. You get some rest and we 7

By the time Leanna got home, she could barely contain her anger. She was mad at Jenny for pretending not to be home when she stopped by, and she was mad at Jenny’s mom for going along with it. She was mad at her own mom for constantly reminding her how much a tennis scholarship would help them afford college. Most of all, she was mad at herself for talking Jenny into going to the tryouts in the first place. Deep down she had known how this was going to go, she just hadn’t wanted to step out of her comfort zone and do it on her own. Now she was mad at Jenny and Jenny was mad at her, and what should have been the best night of her high school career so far ended on a sour note. If I had another chance, she thought, I bet things would turn out differently. Too bad life doesn’t work that way.

At dinner, Leanna tried to explain the situation to her mother, but she was much more interested in Leanna’s performance than how things turned out with Jenny.

“But you said you did great, I just don’t understand how you can be so down in the dumps about it,” she repeated for the third time.

“Because Jenny didn’t do well, and I kept telling her she’d do great, and now she’s mad at me,” Leanna said again.

But her mother wouldn’t have any of it. “You don’t have any control over Jenny’s performance,” her mom insisted. “I’m sure Jenny’s just upset with herself and will be more understanding in the morning.”

Leanna sighed and watched her mother cut the cake she had made to celebrate her tryouts. If she was being honest, her mother did have a point—Jenny was responsible for her own tryout, and it had been her choice to go. She couldn’t be mad that she’d decided to try out and done badly. Still, Leanna didn’t exactly feel like having a piece of cake and celebrating while she knew her friend was probably embarrassed and upset.

When her mother returned to the table carrying two plates of large slices of cake, Leanna said, “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m exhausted from tryouts and way too full to eat anything else. All I really want to do is go to bed.”

“Okay, honey, I know how it can be,” her mother sighed, trying to hide her disappointment. “I used to get so worn out after practice I could hardly even make it back to the dorms. You get some rest and we can celebrate tomorrow. After all, now that practice is going to start, you’ll want to avoid going too heavy on the sweets.”

Leanna just nodded weakly and headed to her room. She felt bad that she couldn’t fully share in her mother’s enthusiasm, but she really was exhausted. Sleep sounded like just the ticket.

She changed into an old T-shirt and pair of shorts and stretched out across her bed, allowing her aching muscles to sink into the sheets. But she couldn’t quite manage to fall asleep. It didn’t feel right to not at least try to talk things through with Jenny. After tossing and turning for almost half an hour, she decided to try calling her. Even if she doesn’t answer, at least she’ll see that I called.

Leanna grabbed her phone off the nightstand and dialed Jenny’s number, but the call went straight to voicemail. After a letting out a frustrated sigh, she set her phone back down and pulled the blankets over her head. Well, she thought, there’s nothing else I can do about this right now. She’s just going to have to get over it. And with that, she drifted off into a troubled sleep.

***

The harsh buzzing of her phone jolted her awake. Dazed, Leanna reached an arm out from under the blankets to grab it, thinking it might be Jenny. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she found that she had received several text messages from an unknown number.

They all said the same thing:

If you had the chance, would you do it differently?

It wasn’t like Jenny to try and get back at her with creepy practical jokes. Leanna knew that more often than not, angry Jenny meant an absent Jenny, then after some time passed Jenny would move on. The angry part never lasted long, and it definitely never included anything this confrontational and weird. Jenny must be really mad this time, she thought, worried and a little irritated herself.

Leanna brushed the hair out of her eyes and sat up in bed, thinking about how to respond. She briefly considered just ignoring it but knew that wouldn’t solve anything. Instead, she decided to go with a straight up apology.

Jenny, I’m really sorry I pressured you into trying out and things didn’t go so well. I really would do things differently. Did you block my number?

Moments later, the phone vibrated again. Leanna pulled up the message.

Good to know. I guess we’ll see.

Leanna wondered what the message meant, but she was far too tired to think about it any longer. At least Jenny is talking to me again, she thought as she returned her phone to the nightstand. When she settled back into bed this time, she dropped straight off to sleep.

The next day when she woke up, every muscle in Leanna’s body was sore. But the pain practically disappeared as soon as she remembered how well she’d done at tryouts the night before. Then she remembered the she and Jenny were in a fight—a big, stupid fight that never would have happened if she’d just let Jenny make her own choice about tryouts. Leanna knew she’d have to figure things out with Jenny today, or it would ruin her whole week. I’ll start by figuring out if those weird text messages from last night had just been a dream or if they were actually from Jenny.

She grabbed her phone off the nightstand and began searching through it, but the messages were nowhere to be found. Well, Jenny will come around, she thought. In the meantime, she realized that she hadn’t been very nice to her mother the night before. Tennis meant so much to her mom, and she had even gone to the trouble of making a cake. Leanna decided to make up for it over breakfast by making sure her mother knew just how excited she really was, and how much she appreciated all the support she had given her.

When she got to the kitchen, she immediately feared that things were worse than she thought. There was no sign of the cake on the counter. Was Mom so upset that she threw it away? Leanna wondered as she poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the table. A few moments later, her mother emerged from the bathroom in her robe and made herself a cup of coffee.

“Good morning, sweetie,” she said, taking a long sip from her steaming mug. “How are you today?”

Leanna decided to hold off on mentioning the cake thing for now—she didn’t want to upset her mother any more than she already had. Instead, she put on a big smile and hoped for the best.

“Great!” Leanna said. “I’m just so happy tennis is going so well. I’m sure I’m gonna make JV!”

Her mother pulled up a chair and sat down next to Leanna. “That’s great, honey! I’m glad you’re so excited,” she said, smiling. “Just don’t get too far ahead of yourself—you won’t know for sure which team you’re on until after tryouts on Monday.”

Leanna’s mouth dropped open in surprise. Wait, what? She slowly took another bite, confused. Her mother seized the opportunity to continue.

“And by the way, I think going to a movie with Jenny tonight is a great idea. I know you two had your fight about tennis last night, and I think it might be good for both of you to take a day off. You don’t want to wear yourselves out, and you definitely don’t want to risk getting injured out there. I swear they’ve been promising to resurface those courts at Tetterman’s since you started playing there in elementary school.”

Leanna swallowed her cereal with a gulp. What is going on?

“Uh, are you feeling all right, Mom?” she asked. She felt truly awful about refusing the cake, but that couldn’t be causing this—was it a fever maybe?

“Yes, sweetie, I’m fine, although you’re looking a little pale,” her mother said, raising her eyebrows with concern. “Make sure you and Jenny aren’t out at the movies too late tonight. You don’t want to get sick this close to tryouts.”

Leanna dropped her spoon with a clatter. As much as she didn’t want to, she couldn’t help but think back to the text messages from her dream. Was that real? Did I make some kind of agreement with . . . something . . . without knowing it?

She didn’t want to trouble her mother any more than she already had, so she said, “Yeah, Mom, I’m fine. But I just realized that I didn’t finish my math homework. I should get to school and see if I can get it done before class.” Luckily, in all of last night’s excitement, she really hadn’t finished her homework, and for once that was a good thing. She was far too confused to come up with a convincing lie.

Leanna set her bowl in the sink, grabbed her backpack, and headed out the door. Whatever was going on, things were far from normal. She just hoped everything would start to make more sense once she got to school and talked to Jenny.