Offsides—Excerpt

Chapter One, The Fake Out (cont'd)

"Peaches," Mama cut in, "You tell your sister that I know she can do it. She can handle any difficult situation. All of you can. You're the children of a football coach."

"Mother, spare me. I can see right through that cheerleader mentality," I replied,keeping my eyes fixed on Anna Karenina.

"When am I going to be old enough to be a cheerleader?" asked Peaches.

"We'll look into cheerleading squads when we move to Cincinnati, sugar." Mama smiled at Peaches. "At least you're trying to be positive." She glared at me. "If there's one thing I won't tolerate, it's a bad mood."

That wasn't news to me. My mother didn't believe in moodiness and insisted upon the same lack of it from her four children. "Life's too short. Here's fifty cents. Now cheer up." As the wife a coach, Mama was expected to maintain an circumstances.