Page 52 of Ready to Score

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For the first time in months, the halls of Greenbelt Senior High were filled with people. It wasn’t development week yet, but teachers had flooded the dual-floored school for a late-summer meeting called by Principal Coleman. The meeting had been long and mostly boring, with the announcement of upcoming workshops and new changes for the year. They’d also gotten their new classroom assignments. Thankfully, Jade’s room hadn’t changed once in the years she’d been teaching there. So instead of seeking out the real estate of her new digs like many of her coworkers, she’d made her way to Landry’s office.

Earlier that morning, she’d gotten an email—rather than a text message, which was strange—from the man, asking that she meet with him after the staff gathering. That was all the information he’d provided—nothing more, nothing less. Jade had spent all morning trying to figure out what he wanted to speak with her about. The school year started in a couple of weeks, and their season opener was only a week after that. He hadn’t planned to name his successor until then, but maybe he’d decided to break the news early.

She felt like she was walking on a cloud as she floated down the hall, fully preparing herself to receive what would be the best news of her life.

Landry’s small office was on the basement level of the school, next to the large utility office the groundskeeper and maintenance staff worked out of. Like always, she entered without knocking. Landry was sitting at his desk, readers perched on his red nose as he typed at his computer.

From across the room, Jade could see that the man looked unhappy. She knew that the logistics were his least favorite part of the job. She also knew that there were quite a bit of logistics involved. Planning and scheduling, communicating with other coaches as well as their own principal, making sure stipends for the other coaches were handled appropriately, and dealing with the questions, concerns, and complaints of parents.

Taking on this job in addition to her current duties as a teacher would be grueling for a good part of the year. But she was ready for it. The constant emails, the late nights, grading and playmaking. She was hungry for it, even, salivating.

“Hey, Coach,” she said softly, trying not to startle him.

Landry looked away from the computer slowly, and Jade could immediately tell by the way he took his readers off and tossed them across his desk that he hadn’t called her in here for the reason she’d thought.

His face was contorted in frustration—no, anger. He’d never been angry with her, not once since she’d started working under him. In an instant, she felt like a child about to be scolded for doing something bad.

Only she had no idea what she’d done wrong.

“What in the hell were you thinking, Dunn?” His tone was furious.

“I—” Jade swallowed, racking her brain. “I don’t know what you mean, Coach.”

Landry picked up his phone, tapped a few things into the screen,then turned it around to face her. She had to walk over to him to get a closer look. The second she started to make out the image, her stomach seized up.

It was her at the West Beaufort game, sitting on the bleachers in her wig, not looking nearly as inconspicuous as she’d thought.

“Coach, I—” She broke off, wanting to explain, but the words wouldn’t come.

“Somebody sent me this clip of you snuck into one of their games dressed up like goddamn Batman.”

Landry handed her the device, and her throat dropped into her stomach when she saw herself on the screen. Even with the footage blurred and shaky and the wig firmly on her head, it looked exactly like her. She was embarrassed and ashamed. She felt incredibly silly. How could she have thought that had been a good idea?

Her pain was only made worse when she saw the text message that accompanied the footage. The gray bubble on Landry’s phone contained large black letters that read, “This is one of yours, right? See what happens when you let little girls on the field?”

It was a vile, disgusting string of words. So demeaning and degrading it made bile rise in her throat. She didn’t recognize the name of the man who’d sent it, but an intense hatred from him settled over her.

“Who is that?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about that. Worry about the fact that I’m about five seconds away from kicking your ass off my coaching staff right now. Do you have any idea how this makes us look, Dunn?”

Tears immediately sprang to her eyes, and she had to blink rapidly to get them gone. “How it makesyoulook? Do you see those disgusting things he said aboutme?”

“I got on him about that, trust me,” Landry argued. “He ain’t right for what he said, but…”

“‘But’?” Jade’s voice went steely. “What do you mean, ‘but’?”

“Maybe you aren’t ready for this after all, Dunn. This was a major fuckup. It makes me look bad, and it makes you look even worse.”

“I was just trying to see how they played,” she argued. “The pros do it all the time, studying their opponents’ game tapes.”

Landry sighed, tossing his phone on the desk next to his glasses. “This isn’t the pros, Dunn. This is Greenbelt.”

“I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“So why the disguise?”

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