Chapter 37

"If you were grinning any harder, you'd hurt yourself," Tami said as I slipped into the seat beside her.

"Nothing wrong with being in a good mood," I said defensively, but my grin didn't slip. I checked the whiteboard in the front of the room, but Mr. Walker hadn't written anything, so it was business as usual.

Tami looked at me suspiciously. "What are you working on?"

"Nothing exciting. Just the grades list." The school paper printed a list of everyone with a three point or better at the end of the nine weeks.

Tami looked at me appraisingly. "Wouldn't happen to include the class standings too, would it?" she said after a minute.

"Well, yeah." We always included the top five students in each class.

"You wouldn't happen to be on it?" she asked, a smile starting to appear.

"I usually am," I said without false modesty. I was almost always in the top ten, and better than half the time, crept into the top half of that.

"Your best friend wouldn't happen to be on the list too?"

"She always is," I admitted. Robbie hadn't missed top five since she arrived.

Tami shook her head gently. You two wouldn't happen to be in alphabetical order for once?" I hadn't beaten Robbie in three years of trying.

"Now that you mention it."

Tami held out her hand, so I opened my notebook and handed her the list I'd gotten from the office. Tami scanned it. "Tony, number one. I don't believe it."

"It just proves what I've always said: school gets in the way of education." I'd been suspended for the first week and a half of the grading period and for the first time topped the list.

"I see Kelly Dubrey placed fifth," Tami said, handing back the list.

"If the school didn't make her take things besides math and science, nobody could beat her."

"You weren't planning on rubbing this in, were you?"

I put my hand over my heart. "I wasn't planning to say a word."

Tami cocked her head to the side and kept looking at me.

"Okay, the banners are ordered and the sky writer's scheduled for two."

"That's my Tony."

I shrugged.

"Just don't rub it in too hard. Knowing Robbie, you might not heal in time for the honeymoon."

I started to protest that the honeymoon was a year-and-a-half away, then remembered we were talking about Monster Girl.

"My boyfriend and my best friend, one and two on the class list. I feel positively stupid by comparison." Tami had placed fourteenth, which was about average for her.

"You have other talents," I leered.

"We'll assume you mean her writing," Mr. Walker said, standing over our table. I nodded quickly. "Back to work. We have a paper to get out."

As he walked to another table, I leaned back, my hands behind my head. "Last week was a good week, but this one's going to be even better."

Tami grinned. "Now you've done it. Maybe I shouldn't sit so close."

"Good job, Monster Girl," I said as we caught up to her in the lunch line. "Number two in the class."

Robbie smiled. "Who beat me? Toby Mather again?" Toby was the uberstudent. Not as smart as Kelly Dubrey, but good at every subject. Plus, he had no life.

"Nope, he's third."

"Kelly?" Robbie asked as she paid for her lunch.

"Fifth," I said with a straight face.

Robbie looked at me. "No, the world isn't that warped."

I just smiled.

"Ladies!" I yelled about medium loud.

Nobody paid any attention.

"Not like that," Stephy Ward said. "You got to do it like on the bus after a meet." She took a deep breath, "Get your butts over here!" she yelled at full volume.

The girls all stopped talking and came over in front of us and sat down.

"See?" Stephy said looking at me.

I patted her on the head, then looked at the group.

"For any of you who don't know me, I'm Tony Sims." There was some whispering back and forth, especially from the new girls. "This is Tami Sharp," I said indicating Tami. More whispers. "And you probably all know Stephy Ward," I added. "We're your assistant coaches." I noticed some of the looks that Stephy got and mentally recorded the lookers.

"Miss Calloway won't be here today. She broke a tooth on the mac and cheese." You've got to love cafeteria food.

"There are a couple of things you need to know about Stephy. She's a freshman. I know some of you are thinking 'she's only a year older' or 'she's only two years older', but you better understand right now that she IS your coach. If you don't treat her like that, you WILL deal with me or Miss Calloway. Just remember, we need Stephy more than we need any of you."

"Even me?" Kelly asked coyly.

"Especially you," I pretended to snap. I knew Kelly wouldn't be a problem and probably would be the captain of this mob.

"There are advantages," I continued. "Last year, the coaching staff was Miss Calloway, Tami, and me, with zero experience between us. This year, the three of us each have a year of experience and Stephy has about three times as much as all of us combined. She may not be able to spot you on some things some of you are bigger than she is but if you're smart, you'll listen when she talks."

I watched the faces I'd noticed before, and I think most of them got the message.

"Any questions so far?"

Susie Calloway raised her hand, and I nodded at her. "How come we aren't in the splits?" A couple of girls groaned.

I grinned. "That's a good question. Susie knows that we always do team meetings in the splits. The answer is, you aren't on the team yet.

"One thing we want to see on this team is support for each other. Last year we went to our first meet and did bad.