"This is my first here," Peter told her. "And I don't think I attended more than two at my previous school."
"It's a lot different from chess," she muttered.
"Not really," Peter said. "Strategy is strategy."
She began to ask him questions about his Indian heritage. I was happy when we pulled into the parking lot of the school where the game was being held. I knew what it was like to feel you were being interrogated.
"Sorry about all that," I whispered when we got out and started toward the gymnasium entrance. There was already quite a crowd at the door.
Peter said nothing. He didn't look at me, either.
We entered and took our seats in the bleachers. Now that we were under the bright lights. I couldn't help feeling self- conscious again. I was waiting anxiously for some comment from Peter about my hair, my face, anything. Instead, he concentrated on the game, the players.
"Who is your sister?" he asked.
"Oh. I'm so stupid not pointing her out. She's number eighteen." I told him.
He watched her warming up. "She looks strong," he said.
"Just wait until you see her in action," Celia bragged.
As it turned out, however, this was not one of Brenda's best games. I could see from her expressions and the way she moved at the start of the game that she was still quite upset with the coach. The plays he designed and the position she was in often caused her to be in awkward or more difficult places for her shots. The other team had a very quick series of successful plays, and as the game progressed, the distance between them and Brenda's team grew wider and wider. Twice Brenda was taken out and sat on the bench. She was there for almost the entire third period, in fact, and when she was put back in, she was raging and so aggressive she quickly fouled her opponent.
Peter said little about it. I made some comments about Brenda's unhappiness and how it was affecting her performance. Celia kept saying, "Oh, we're in for it now,"
When the game ended. Brenda's team had lost by twenty points.
"Your sister is going to be fit to be tied. This is the worst. It would have been better if she hadn't been chosen." Celia said.
She turned to us as we were leaving the gymnasium.
"You two, just go off. I don't think it's a good time to have Peter meet Brenda."
"Okay," I said. I was eager to be alone with Peter, anyway, and I agreed with Celia. Brenda wouldn't be good company. "I'm sorry about all this," I said as we walked to my car. "It was supposed to be a fun night. Brenda is a much better player than the Brenda you saw playing this game. She hated her coach."
"Focusing on her dislike of him did nothing to help her," Peter said. "If a branch doesn't bend, it breaks."
"Brenda is very serious about her career in athletics. She could be in the Olympics," I said, a little annoyed with his comment,
"All I mean is she will have many coaches or people she dislikes, and she has to learn how to compromise and deal with it so she can still do her best," he said.
We got into the car. It wasn't until then that I realized I didn't know where we were going.
"You want to come to my place for a while?" I asked. "It's not much to see."
"Then why do you want me to see it?" he asked.
I suddenly felt so small. I could feel his attitude toward me changing. Whatever warmth there had been between us seemed lost.
"Let's go to my house," he said. "It's my aunt's bridge night, and she's out."
Oh, that's good, I thought, and drove out of the school parking lot. Feeling even more nervous than I had at the start of the evening. I began to talk a blue streak about Brenda's athletic achievements, her trophies and honors, the scouts who had visited in Hickory, her plans to be a physical education teacher in a college, and the possibility that she really would play in the next Olympics.
"It's good that you have respect for your sister and are so interested in her," Peter said. "Now you must have respect for and interest in yourself." he added.
I know he meant well, but the remark brought tears to my eyes because he sounded so critical.
I drove into his aunt's driveway, and we got out and entered the house.