Free Double or Nothing by Belle Payton

don’t get hurt, but cheerleaders get hurt just as much if not more than football players do. Plus, there are tons of boys who are cheerleaders. Has this person been living under a rock?”
    â€œJust ignore it, Ave,” said Alex. “Anyway, I better run. Emily and Lindsey promised to listen to me practice my speech.”
    Ava watched her sister walk away. She couldn’t believe how much Alex had downplayed this. It was a big deal. Someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make this dumb sign and shove it into her locker while she was at lunch. She looked around the hallway at all the chattering, laughing kids at their lockers. One of them had sent her this message. It could have been anyone.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN
    On Friday, Alex woke up with her stomach turning in somersaults. Today was speech day. It wasn’t like she wasn’t prepared. She knew her speech by heart. She’d practiced it over and over and over until close to midnight, and she could recite it in her sleep. She probably had said it in her sleep, come to think of it. Still, this was a big moment in her campaign. A speech in front of the whole seventh grade. They were rearranging the lunch blocks, extending them by fifteen minutes for each grade, to give the candidates for president time to make a three-minute speech, followed by a question-and-answer session. Due to time constraints, the other candidates—forvice president, secretary, and treasurer—would be distributing their one-paragraph speeches in written form to everyone in homeroom.
    â€œWell, now, don’t you look presidential!” said Tommy as Alex walked into the kitchen half an hour later. She hadn’t found a snappy red blazer, but she was wearing the next best thing—a crisp white blouse with a Peter Pan collar and an A-line red skirt.
    â€œPretty, hon,” said Mrs. Sackett, plunking down a plate of scrambled eggs with toast for Alex.
    Coach hurried in, fully dressed and tucking in his shirt. “Come on, Tom. We’ve got to get going. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”
    â€œGood luck in your game, you two,” said Alex as the two of them headed for the door. “Wish we could be there!”
    â€œThanks, sweetheart,” said Coach, giving her a quick kiss on the top of the head as he grabbed his coffee cup off the counter. “Good luck with the speech today.” He and Tommy hurried out the door.
    â€œWait, why can’t we go to the game again, Mom?” asked Ava, who had just come clattering down the stairs in—Alex noted with mild disapproval—a football jersey.
    â€œBecause it’s almost two hours away,” said her mother patiently. “And it would mean pulling you out of school early, which I do not think is a good thing to do for a football game. You can watch it on the computer—it’s streaming through the school website. I’ll have it all set up for you.”
    Alex pushed away the eggs she’d barely touched and stood up. “I’m too nervous to eat,” she said to her mom. “I’m going upstairs to practice my speech a couple more times. Call me when you’re ready to go, Ave.”

    After lunch, Alex sat up on the platform at one end of the cafeteria, looking out at a sea of faces. It was the old stage, one that was rarely used anymore since the school had added on the auditorium, but today it would come in handy as everyone was already sitting, ready for the show.
    â€œWe’ll go in alphabetical order,” Ms. Farmen had told the three candidates. “Remember—three minutes and then I ring my bell. We have to keep this moving so we don’t cut into the next class period.”
    So Alex was second. She sat in her seat between Logan and Ella, mentally preparing the speech she’d practiced. Neither Logan nor Ella said anything to her, or to each other. They must be as nervous as I am, Alex thought. She looked at Logan out of the