Belle Payton – författare

Middle school gets multiplied in this new series about twins Alex and Ava, whose father is the coach of a small-town Texas football team!When twelve-year-old twins Alex and Ava Sackett move from the East Coast to Texas so their dad can coach an elite high school football team, they have to get used to not only a whole new school and town, but also the fame that comes with being football’s first family. They’ve got a plan to make it through: stick together! Because even though Alex and Ava are total opposites, they’ve always stuck together. But then Ava cuts her hair short, and Alex fears that Ava wants a new town to mean a new start—as an individual. At the same time, Alex’s concern has Ava wondering if she’s no longer cool enough for her twin. Are Alex and Ava still the same dynamic duo they’ve always been, or are they headed down different paths?

The start of seventh grade and the first football game of the year keep Alex and Ava on their toes in the second book of the It Takes Two series.Seventh grade has finally begun, and the Sackett twins are ready to take their new school by storm! Alex thinks she still has a shot at getting in with the popular crowd and becoming class president—but is she willing to sacrifice having cute quarterback Corey be her boyfriend? Meanwhile, Ava’s worst fears are coming true: middle school is really hard, and she’s already failing English! When Alex reveals that she’s breezing through her class, they investigate a mix-up that leads to a surprising discovery about Ava. Then, at the first football game of the season, the twins find out just how football-crazy their new town really is. Because their dad is the coach, their reputations depend on whether the Tigers win or lose—will they be celebrating a victory, or will they be defeated from the start?

In the third book of the It Takes Two series, Alex runs for class president and Ava tries out for the football team. Can both twins win?It’s school election time, and Alex is determined not to let a small thing like a move across the country stop her from becoming seventh-grade class president! She may be new, but she’s probably the most ambitious candidate Ashland Middle has ever seen…and it does help that she’s the coach’s daughter, so everyone knows who she is. It’s also time for football tryouts, and the boys are more than a little surprised when Ava shows up on the field! She’s a fantastic kicker, but she’s causing quite a bit of controversy as the first girl to want to play football in Ashland…and possibly stirring up trouble for Alex’s campaign. Will Ava’s attempt to follow her dreams cost Alex the presidency, or can Alex use her platform to convince the town that it doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl, as long as you’re serious about football?

Ava pretends to be Alex at the cheerleading tryouts in the fourth book of the It Takes Two series! Will the twins get away with their big switch?All of Alex’s new friends are trying out for the cheerleading squad, and they convince her to try out with them. There’s only one problem: she’s the least coordinated person on the planet! Alex knows she can never actually be a cheerleader, but she wants to avoid total humiliation at tryouts, so she enlists Ava to pretend to be her and try out in her place—sometimes having a twin really comes in handy! Alex instructs Ava to be good, but not good enough to make the squad. But Ava finds herself enjoying the routines, giving a great performance, and making the team! Ava can’t be a football player and a cheerleader at the same time…what’s a scheming pair of twins to do?

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!

A rival football team refuses to play against Ava—and her twin wants to cover the story for the local news in the sixth book of the It Takes Two series!Alex is thrilled when she finds out she’s won a young reporters contest to produce her own piece on the local news. What a great thing to add to her resume...and what a great way to show her crush, high schooler Luke Grabowski, that she’s super mature for her age. She’s on the prowl for a juicy story when one pops up right under her nose: the Tiger Cubs’ biggest rival is refusing to play football against her twin! Ava’s conflicted: should she let her team stand by her and refuse to play, or should she spend this game on the bench? She doesn’t quite know what to do, but she does know one thing: she’s not interested in being the subject of Alex’s news story! Is Alex willing to give up her big scoop to support her sister?

Ava and Alex are taking sibling rivalry to a whole new level in the seventh book of the It Takes Two series!It’s Homecoming Week in Ashland! That means a big game, a big dance, and, most importantly, Powder Puff. But when Alex and Ava are placed on different teams for the middle school girls’ flag football game, trouble brews. Ava is getting loads of extra attention because of her athletic ability, but this leaves Alex feeling majorly left out. Not one to hide from a little competition, Alex is determined to beat her sister at her own game by becoming her team’s secret weapon! But Ava isn’t worried about her jealous sister or Powder Puff. Because she has ADHD, she’s supposed to get extra time on her tests, but her new substitute science teacher is refusing to give it to her. Ava knows it isn’t fair—but how is she supposed to fix things in her science class and win Powder Puff for her team?

Alex and Ava try to figure out if they can read each other’s minds in the eighth book of the It Takes Two series!Alex and Ava’s older brother Tommy always jokes that the twins can read each other’s minds. While it’s true that despite their differences Alex and Ava can usually tell what the other is thinking, that doesn’t mean they’re telepathic. But when the girls choose the same Halloween costume, buy Coach the same birthday present, and show up at school wearing the same outfit, they begin to wonder if Tommy might by right. Can Alex and Ava actually read each other’s minds? And if so, how can they use this to their advantage?

The Tigers have made it to the state championship in the ninth book of the It Takes Two series!Alex has just gotten the worst grade of her life in French, one of her best subjects! As she studies like crazy to make up for the terrible grade, she ends up missing an important student council meeting, leaving her more frustrated than ever. Alex begins to wonder why she should even care about her grades and extra curricular activities if she isn’t doing well… Meanwhile, Ava’s football team lost their last playoff game, leaving them out of the finals. Even though she didn’t play particularly well, Ava knows she wasn’t the only one, so she doesn’t understand why some of the boys on the team are blaming her. Her teammates are also saying that if the Tigers don’t win the state championship, her father will be out of a job…and he isn’t denying it! Ava is horrified by the idea of leaving Ashland behind for good, but Alex doesn’t seem to care. With so much going on at once, can Ava get her twin to snap out of it so they can rally around their family and cheer the Tigers on to victory?

Alex and Ava team up to take on the holiday season in Ashland in the tenth book of the It Takes Two series!Football season is finally over, and Alex and Ava can’t wait to spend some more quality time with their family. Until their parents start acting totally unfair, that is! First they tell Ava that she can’t join the basketball team because she needs to focus on her schoolwork, and then they tell Alex she can’t host a Secret Santa party at their house after she’s already agreed to it. What is Alex supposed to tell her friends? On top of everything, Coach and Mrs. Sackett decide that they’re all going to stay home for the holidays instead of heading back to the East Coast. What kind of Christmas could it be without snow? Will the arrival of an unexpected guest remind Alex and Ava of all the things they have to be grateful for?

Alex and Ava put their talents to the test in the eleventh book of the It Takes Two series!After spraining her ankle during her first basketball game, Ava’s feeling pretty sorry for herself…until her friend Kylie falls off a horse and breaks her leg! Kylie’s going to be okay, but she does have one request: will Ava take over for her in the big line dance in the school Variety Show? Looks like Ava’s once again being pulled into the one place she hates most: the spotlight. Meanwhile, Alex is working on a school project with a boy who’s been getting bullied—and he doesn’t even seem to appreciate it when she stands up for him! She wants to find a way to get him to come out of his shell a little, but will she be able to convince him to share his hidden talent at the Variety Show and win over their classmates?

Alex and Ava are giving each other the serious silent treatment in the twelfth book of the It Takes Two series.After Alex and Ava see star Ashland Tigers quarterback PJ Kelly coming back injured from a dirt-biking trip—which is totally against the team’s rules—they’re at odds about whether they should tell Coach. Ava thinks Coach needs to know what’s going on with his star player, but Alex doesn’t want the twins to get in trouble themselves for being somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. Plus, Coach’s team is already starting to shrink because people are worried about football injuries. The twins’ clash has them giving each other the silent treatment…which means Ava’s not there to help Alex figure out why her crush, Corey, is acting so weirdly toward her! It may have something to do with the fact that Ava’s been wearing Alex’s coat around town… Can Alex and Ava come to a decision that doesn’t hurt their dad’s team, or are they no longer twindivisible?