Free Go! Fight! Twin! by Belle Payton Page A

table.
    â€œMom, could you drive me to school?”
    Her mom frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a great idea. The school day is almost over. What’s the point?”
    â€œI need to talk to Coach Jen. My chin is fine. It’s really important that I do this. I want to set something straight. Please, Mom? The rally starts at two thirty, and it’s over by the end of the school day.”
    Mrs. Sackett stood up. “Okay, honey. If it’s important to you, I’ll bring you to school.”
    Alex hugged her. Sometimes her mom just seemed to understand.

    Ten minutes later Alex knocked softly on the open door of the English department office. Coach Jen was also a sixth-grade English teacher. By a stroke of luck, she was the only teacher in the office. She was grading a stack of papers.
    â€œAlex!” said Coach Jen, standing up and coming around her desk. “How are you, you poor thing?”
    â€œHi, Coach,” said Alex. “I’m okay. I got three stitches. My jaw hurts a little, but other than that, it’s not so bad. Can I talk to you for a minute?”
    Coach Jen’s eyes flicked to the clock above the doorway. “The rally starts in twenty minutes, and I should go check on the team soon, but sure, if we make it brief.” She pulled up a chair for Alex. “Sit.”
    â€œIs Annelise okay?”
    â€œShe’s fine. A little bruise on her elbow, but you bore the brunt of the fall. Rosa feels terrible about slipping. She says she stepped on something and just went down.”
    Alex’s memory flashed back again to Rosa going down and Annelise tumbling. She stared down at the floor. “Coach Jen,” she said in a tiny voice, “it was my fault Rosa slipped.”
    Coach Jen crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow. “You were nowhere near her, Alex.”
    â€œI dropped my tube of lip stuff. And she slipped on it.”
    Coach Jen pursed her lips. “Ah,” she said. “Well, it was an accident.”
    â€œNo, but it’s worse than that,” said Alex. “I shouldn’t be on the team at all. I’m terrible.”
    â€œWell, ah, you started out strong, Alex. Thosefirst three days of tryouts, you looked like you deserved to be out there, but then—”
    â€œCoach. There’s something else I really need to tell you.”
    Coach Jen folded her hands in her lap and waited.
    â€œI did something really bad. Those first three days of tryouts? When I was so good? That wasn’t me. It was my identical twin. She and I switched places and she tried out, pretending to be me.”
    Coach Jen’s eyes widened ever so slightly, but she said nothing and allowed Alex to continue.
    â€œBut it wasn’t my sister’s idea at all. I’m the one who should get into trouble, not Ava. She just went along with my plan. See, I wanted to make the first round so badly. But then I planned to get cut and no one would be worse off. Plenty of girls made the first round, so it wouldn’t be like I was keeping someone off the team.”
    Alex paused. She waited for Coach Jen to say something, to yell, to pick up the phone and call the juvenile detention center. But she just sat there quietly and waited for Alex go on.
    In a rush, Alex finished blurting out her confession. “But then everything went really wrong when Ava was too good, and she made it. Ishould have told you right then and there, but, well, I really wanted to be part of the group. And I thought—I thought maybe I could do it. Which was crazy, because I stink.” She hung her head, her cut chin starting to throb. “I’m really, truly sorry. Please let Molly take my place. I don’t deserve to be on the team. I’ll go apologize to them and tell them the whole story, even though they’re all going to hate my guts and—”
    â€œAlex.”
    â€œâ€”I’ll probably lose my class presidency and maybe even get