EVEN THE SCORE

Product Description Alex makes an unpopular decision and Ava deals with an unwanted crush in the fifth book of the It Takes Two series!Sporty shy Ava is finally starting to feel like the guys on the Ashland Middle School football team are accepting her as a player despite the fact that she’s a girl. But then the star wide receiver Owen keeps missing his passes and his teammates are blaming it on a crush-on Ava! When he awkwardly gives Ava a gift that’s way too expensive she realizes they’re right. Can she find a way to let Owen down easy and still stay on the team’s good side?Meanwhile class president Alex has to choose how to spend some student council funds. The football team is scheduled to get a new scoreboard but the drama department desperately needs new sets and costumes. Alex decides it’s fair to give some money to the arts for a change but the football fans of Ashland don’t necessarily think so…and it may take a natural disaster for Alex to prove she’s not a football-hater! Review ForA Whole New Ball Game: The twin device is effectively deployed as each girl seeks to understand herself independently in relation to her twin and in the context of her new town; there's also appeal in the plot's sitcom elements of overheard conversations secret observations and all the uncertainty that comes with being a new place. ―The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books About the Author Belle Payton isn’t a twin herself but she does have twin brothers! She spent much of her childhood in the bleachers reading-er cheering them on-at their football games. Though she left the South long ago to become a children’s book editor in New York City Belle still drinks approximately a gallon of sweet tea a week and loves treating her friends to her famous homemade mac-and-cheese. Belle is the author of many books for children and tweens and is currently having a blast writing two sides to each It Takes Two story. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Even the ScoreCHAPTEROneThis is no big deal Ava Sackett thought. Then she turned and sprinted away from the boys.Her heart beat in rhythm with her feet. Thin lines of sweat trickled down her neck from the heat of the September Texas sun. Her fingertips tingled with anticipation. She sensed the coaches on the sidelines watching. Today is my big chance she thought. A chance to show she could do more than kick a football.She was now the official kicker of the Ashland Tiger Cubs. She was also the first girl in the history of Ashland Middle School to make the football team.Not that any other girl had tried out.She knew some boys in the halls had been whispering about her. They said that her being on the team was a pity thing or a special consideration because her dad coached the high school team. Her twin sister Alex told her not to listen to them.“You’re good at football. Really good. Better-than-most-boys good” Alex insisted. And when Ava kicked the thirty-three-yard field goal at the game last Saturday those boys finally stopped whispering.“I’m going to try mixing things up” Coach Kenerson announced at practice today. “Ava you go in for Ethan at wide receiver.”She couldn’t hold back her grin. Finally! A chance to be a part of the action.Wide receivers needed to be superfast to catch the pass from the quarterback and then sprint down the field for a touchdown. Running wasn’t a problem for Ava. She’d always been fast. Her mom said she ran before she learned to walk. Ava flexed her fingers readying herself for the catch.Corey O’Sullivan the quarterback torpedoed the ball toward the other wide receiver Owen Rooney. Ava wished Corey had sent it her way but he’d made the right choice. She was surrounded while no defenders blocked Owen. It was an easy grab-and-go.Ava watched the ball land in Owen’s outstretched hands. Then he pivoted his shoulders suddenly and just as suddenly the