Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter Five

“Calm down. We’ve got the better half of an hour.” Carmen said biting into an apple.

“We have twenty-two minutes and nine seconds. Could you please put a bit more thrust in it sir? If you had been tailing that grey van in front of us we could’ve skipped that last light.” Sienna’s shoulders were tight. “You hardly had to bring the whole pantry with you.”

Sienna sneered at the selection of foods sitting on Carmen’s lap. Carmen had made them late on today of all days. Today San Antonio’s was selecting the girl’s lacrosse team for the year, a major ordeal. Only the years ten, eleven and twelve were permitted to trial for the only team. Making girl’s lacrosse team was a major honor much like the boy’s rugby first fifteen. As far as status, making the team was a must. Sienna had been driving hard all summer to make sure she was in tip-top shape for this very day. Carmen had been dragged along too. But she never took anything seriously enough. She had no idea how badly they needed this. Luckily she had Sienna to keep her on the track to success. This was their moment.

“I need breakfast. Would you like something?” Carmen handed Sienna the Greek yogurt. And Sienna accepted, silently so she didn’t have to take back all the complaining she’d done while Carmen had been grabbing breakfast.

“Where’s the spoon?”

“Must have forgotten.”

“Well the yogurts pretty useless then.”

“Nobody’s watching.”

Carmen finished off her croissant and brushed the crumbs off her San Antonio’s Adidas blue lacrosse skirt. Sienna was in a bit of a twist because Carmen had forgotten to mention on their phone call last night that she was staying at Trent’s. But Carmen had seen this a thousand times before; even a hair out of line could send Sienna in a flurry. It was only lacrosse after all. Button Edwards was on the selecting panel as captain and Button and Carmen were close.

“Carmen-a.” Button Edwards squealed rushing across San Antonio’s field a tin whistle bouncing on her chest.

“Button!” Carmen ran towards her and threw her arms around her. Sienna followed doing the fire breaths she’d learnt in yoga to detract her stress.

“Hey and Sienna.” Button punched Sienna lightly in the forearm. “So are you guys excited for the trial? Today we’re just filtering out the losers. Come get warm up with me Carmen-a.”

“I thought you were selecting.” Sienna frowned.

“I thought so too. But the new coach wanted to select for himself. So I guess I’m trialing. A bit old for a lacrosse coach I thought. Anyway he does coach the Sydney team every other day so I best be grateful.” Button sniffed.

“Leanne Bedell’s trialing.” Sienna stretched her neck as they made their way to the group.

“That average brunette in your year. Thinks she’s all that.” Button clicked her tongue. “Come on. Warm up with me Carmen-a.”

“Go warm up with Button, Carmen-a.” Sienna mocked in Button’s octave up squeaking voice.

“You too silly.” Carmen grabbed Sienna’s wrist.

Carmen drifted through the trials like life was a butter-dream. The ball was practically drawn to her racquet and she easily scored many points. Mr. Spinelli had even taken Button and Carmen off the field after the first ten minutes because they were stealing the ball and giving nobody else a chance. After spending a good ten minutes laughing at the less coordinated players and those who forgot to wax the backs of their legs the two of them got bored. So Carmen and Button had snuck off to Optimum Sunrise, the breakfast bar around the corner for something more substantial.