“Oh, yes. I want to forget it. It didn’t make me sick at all, though Mother kept me at home from school for several days. She wasn’t sure what sort of a snake it was, you see, so she had everything attended to. I’m going on hikes and everything just the same, though I’ll not try to pick a flower without looking. That serpent ought to have been in winter quarters and wasn’t.”
“Are you going in for athletics?”
“Some of it. I’m going to swim, like Betty Lee, and then I ride, though I may not enter their course here. I play hockey on the ice, but I don’t know about it here. You have regular class teams, don’t you, and have to be elected in some way before you can be on one?”
“Yes, in a way you’re chosen.”
“Well, I’m not an applicant for anything.” Lucia smiled but tossed her head up a little proudly, and a look was exchanged between two of the sophomores. If Lucia played hockey in Switzerland, she might not be a bad person to have on the team. Perhaps she could be persuaded to “try out” for it. They would get her to play on a “scrub team” some time for fun.
But what was that junior saying?
“What is a mere hockey team to the Queen of Sheba?”
[CHAPTER XII: BEATING THE JUNIORS WITH LUCIA]
Life went on in such a rush! It always did, but that was half the fun now, Betty thought. At home little was demanded of her except the regular little duties, given to each of the children and expected more by their father than their mother, though for her benefit.
Athletics started off with a boom, pep meetings, the new football team on the platform, the organization of the girls’ teams, all sorts of try-outs and some scheming. Alas, the seniors who had been on last year’s champion football team left such a hole that it was hard to fill with material good enough to make a winning team. And oh, how sad it was when a series of defeats made the championship out of the question for Lyon High. At least they must beat the Eagles, and the coach tried to prepare them for that almost final game. But no! Betty, who sat beside Louise Madison, loyal enough to see the great game of the year by her beloved high school, and they shook their heads sadly at each other as the time passed first with no score at all on either side for the first half, then with the Lions unable to “hold them” and the Eagles scoring both by forward passes and “straight football.” It was awful, Louise said, but “Maybe the Lions have it coming to them,” said Louise. “And it isn’t good for a high school to get too cocky. We’ve got about all the cups there are—so let the Eagle scream this time!”