The Last Song(100)

The ball came arcing over the net with a heavy topspin; anticipating its drop, he scrambled forward and set up the ball perfectly. With flawless timing, Scott rushed up and leapt before spiking the ball crosscourt, returning the serve to their side. They won the next six points in a row before the other team got the serve back, and as he settled into position, he quickly scanned the stands for Ronnie. She was sitting in the bleachers opposite his parents and Megan—probably a good idea.

He’d hated that he couldn’t tell his mom the truth about Marcus, but what could he do? If his mom knew who’d done it, she would go for blood… which could only lead to retribution. He was certain the first thing Marcus would do if arrested would be to get his sentence reduced in exchange for “useful information” about another, more serious crime—Scott’s. It would cause problems for Scott at a critical time in his scholarship search, not to mention hurt Scott’s parents—who also happened to be close friends of his own parents. So he’d lied, and unfortunately his mom had chosen to blame the whole thing on Ronnie.

But she’d shown up this morning and told him that she loved him nonetheless. They’d talk later, she’d promised. And she’d told him that more than anything, she wanted him to play his best in the tournament, which was exactly what he was going to do.

As the opponents served again, Will raced across court to make the shot; Scott followed with a perfect set, and Will spiked it home. From that point on, their opponents scored only one more point before the game ended; in the next game, they scored only twice.

He and Scott advanced to the semifinals, and in the stands, he could see Ronnie cheering for him.


The semifinal match was their toughest yet; they’d won the first game easily, only to lose the second game in a tiebreaker.

Will was standing on the service line, waiting for the official to signal the beginning of the third game, when his gaze wandered first to the bleachers and then to the pier, noting that the crowd was three times larger than it had been the year before. Here and there, he saw clusters of people he’d known in high school and others he’d known growing up. There wasn’t an open seat in the stands.

At the referee’s signal, Will tossed the ball high in the air and took a series of quick steps. Launching himself into the air, he sent a driving serve down the baseline, aiming for a spot about three-quarters of the way back. He landed, ready to scramble into position, but he already knew it wasn’t necessary. By splitting the court, both of his opponents had frozen for an instant too long; the hard-driving ball sent up a plume of sand before skating off the court.

One to zero.

Will served seven times in a row, putting Scott and him comfortably ahead, and they ended up alternating points from then on, leading to a relatively easy victory.

Walking off the court, Scott slapped his back.

“It’s over,” he said. “We’re on fire today, so let Tyson and Landry bring it on!”


Tyson and Landry, a pair of eighteen-year-olds from Hermosa Beach, California, were the dominant junior team in the world. A year ago, they’d ranked eleventh in the world overall, which would have been good enough to represent virtually every other country in the Olympic Games. They’d been playing together since they were twelve years old and hadn’t lost so much as a game in two years. Scott and Will had met them only once before in last year’s semifinal of the same tournament, and they’d walked off the court with their tails between their legs. They hadn’t even made a game of it.

But today was a different story: They won the first game by three points; Tyson and Landry won the next game by exactly the same margin; and in the final game, they found themselves tied at seven.

Will had been outside in the sun for nine hours. Despite the liters of water and Gatorade he’d consumed, the sun and heat should have worn him down at least a little, and maybe it had. But he didn’t feel it. Not now. Not when he realized they actually had a chance to win the whole thing.

They had the serve—always a disadvantage in beach volleyball, since points were scored with every volley and the team returning the serve had the chance to set and spike the ball—but Scott sent a knuckleball serve over the net that forced Tyson out of position. Tyson was able to reach the ball in time, but he sent it flying in the wrong direction. Landry charged and somehow got his hand on the ball, but that only made matters worse; it soared into the crowd, and Will knew it would be at least another minute until the ball was back in play. When that happened, he and Scott would be leading by a point.

As usual, he turned first toward Ronnie and saw her wave at him; then, facing the other set of bleachers, he smiled and nodded at his family. Beyond them on the pier, he could see the crowd packed in the area closest to the courts, but it was clear just a little farther away. He wondered about that until he saw a fireball arc through the air.