What If... All the Rumors Were True by Liz Ruckdeschel

said Coach Tygert. “I like to see confidence in a leader.”
    â€œHaley Miller,” a junior named Dee chimed in. “She and Sasha are our best players. No offense, Jen,” she added, looking in the annoyed senior’s direction.
    â€œAny other nominations?” Coach Tygert asked. The girls were quiet. “No? All right, let’s vote. The three nominees are Sasha, Haley and Jen. Nominees, turn around, please, so the voters won’t be intimidated by your scorching glares.”
    The girls laughed as Haley, Sasha and Jen turned around on the bleachers, their backs to the rest of the team. “All right,” Haley heard the coach saying. “Who votes for Jen? Hands? Okay. Sasha?”
    Haley thought she heard more movement this time, more of a rustle, but it was hard to tell.
    â€œNow, last but not least, hands for Haley.”
    Haley glanced at Sasha, who rolled her eyes and said, “Do you believe this foolishness?”
    â€œI should be captain,” Jen butted in. “Seniority should count for something.”
    â€œOkay, nominees, you can turn around now,” Coach Tygert said. “Well, it looks like we have a tie. Haley and Sasha got nine votes each.”
    Haley was stunned. Her teammates looked up to her that much? She knew a lot of girls would vote for Sasha, but she hadn’t expected to do just as well. She did the math in her head. That meant the whole team had voted for either Haley or Sasha—except for one. Haley was willing to bet that Jen’s one vote had come from her fellow senior, Tessa.
    â€œSo I have a proposal,” the coach said. “What do you think of Haley and Sasha as cocaptains? Since they’re both busy juniors, they could share the responsibility.”
    â€œYeah!” the girls shouted.
    Sasha shrugged. “Cool with me.”
    â€œMe too,” Haley said.
    â€œExcellent,” Coach Tygert said. “Girls, meet your new leaders, Sasha and Haley!” He held up an arm of each girl in a victory salute. Haley felt her face turn red. She was embarrassed but thrilled at the same time. She and Sasha got along great, and being cocaptains of the varsity soccer team would look awesome on their college applications.
    â€œI’ll have
Captain
embroidered on your team jackets,” the coach said. “You should get them next week. Okay, three laps around the field and then we’ll scrimmage. Go!”
    Christina clapped Sasha and Haley on the back. “Congrats! You guys will be awesome.”
    â€œThanks,” Haley said. She fell into step beside Sasha as they jogged around the field.
    â€œYou busy after practice tomorrow?” Sasha asked.
    â€œWhat, you mean besides having a jillion hours of homework and a thousand SAT vocabulary words to memorize?” Haley said. “Not really. Why?”
    â€œI’m playing open mike at Drip,” Sasha said. “Busting out some new material I worked on over the summer. I could sure use a little support, a friendly face or two. Those open mike crowds can be brutal. What do you say?”

    Good for Haley—she’s racking up the accomplishments and her high school transcript is looking more impressive by the minute. Who knows—as cocaptain of the soccer team, could she be lining herself up for a future athletic scholarship? Unfortunately, even student-athletes can’t neglect the student part of the equation, though. Sasha is burning the candle at both ends, as usual. That doesn’t mean Haley has to follow in those sometimes less-than-graceful footsteps. On the other hand, good friends—and cocaptains—support each other. So what should Haley do?
    If you think Haley is curious to hear Sasha’s new songs (maybe some of the lyrics are about people she knows!), take her to Drip for "OPEN MIKE" . If you think Haley has a budding actress inside her dying to get out, and she can always see Sasha sing another time, send her to