Chapter 196
The football game was at home again this week, so we warmed up in front of the high school for about thirty minutes before the game—which consisted mostly of gossiping, something I’ve always tried to avoid, but really try to keep my nose out of these days since I’ve realized none of that junk is really important. I knew it was killing some of the other girls not to say anything about Liam, especially Jessica. She just kept looking at me and shaking her head, like she couldn’t believe how pathetic I am. I wanted to straighten her out but didn’t see the point. If she wanted to believe Liam White and his little black lies, then so be it.
“Girls, it’s time to head over to the field,” our cheerleading sponsor, Mrs. Jones, who also happens to teach some of the freshmen and sophomore science classes, shouted to us. We grabbed our poms, water bottles, and other necessities, and followed her over. She’s not too much older than us and likes to spend her time gossiping as well, which is probably why we hardly ever get anything accomplished.
We headed to our spot on the track that runs around the football field to drop our stuff before we made our way out for the run-through, which is a giant banner we hold up for the football team to run through, hence the name. I was just setting my stuff down along the outer edge of the track near my spot when Lucy grabbed my arm and exclaimed, “Oh, my gosh! Look who’s here!”
I assumed she meant my mom had managed to talk Emma into coming with them after all, and looked up. I did see Emma’s smiling face sitting next to my mom—but that wasn’t all. My sister and Aaron were there, along with a whole bunch of their friends—my friends, too, I suppose. Jamie, Meagan, Shane, Aurora, Christian, Hannah, oh and… Brandon. Brandon was here. I felt my face turn red the second I saw him, but then, I also couldn’t stop smiling.
“Did you know they were coming?” Lucy asked, still standing next to me, pulling on my arm.
I couldn’t rip my eyes away from him to turn my head to look at her, so I just said, “No.” He was up now, and even though I knew I needed to get out on the field, I stood and waited for him to make his way down the few rows of bleachers to where I was standing. I expected him to go down the ramp like a regular human, but instead, he grabbed ahold of the top of the railing that runs along the front of the bleachers and flipped himself over the top of it so that he was standing next to me.
“Hi,” he said, smiling back at me.
I couldn’t really think of anything to say, so, “You’re not supposed to do that,” came out of my mouth first.
He shrugged. “What are they going to do? Kick me out of school?”
Before I could respond, Mrs. Jones suddenly decided she wanted to be a teacher. “Young man, you’re not supposed to do that!” she shouted from the other side of the track.
“Sorry!” Brandon hollered back, and then we both started laughing.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, hoping he could tell I was pleasantly surprised.
“We decided it would be cool to come and support you,” he replied. “And we wanted it to be a surprise.”
“You definitely got that part right,” I said, glancing over to see the rest of the cheerleaders making their way across the field. All but one.
Lucy cleared her throat.
“Oh, right. Brandon, Lucy. Lucy, Brandon.”
“It’s nice to meet you in person,” she said, hugging him. “I’ve got to go, but… thanks for looking out for Cass.”
“Uh, sure,” he stammered, not sure what to make of her enthusiasm.
Lucy turned back to me. “We’ve gotta go.”
“I know,” I said, and wanted to add, “so why don’t you stop hugging him and let me,” but kept that part to myself. She ran off, and I turned back to Brandon. “I’ve gotta go.”
“That’s cool. We’ve got a great view.” I raised my eyebrows, not sure exactly what he meant—of the game or of me? “Of… the football team.”
“Right,” I said, giggling. “Okay, I’ll see you later then.”
“Yep.” I realized he looked about as nervous as I felt, which also made me giggle. I decided if Lucy could hug him, then so could I, so I wrapped my arms around him quickly before I turned and waved at everyone else. I felt like a hundred eyes were glued on us, but everyone was smiling. Then I ran off toward the field, hoping Brandon would use the ramp to get back to his seat.
“OMG!” Lucy said, as I jogged over to take my spot next to her. “I can’t believe they’re here!”
“I know!” I agreed, picking up my part of the run-through banner. I wondered how in the world I was going to concentrate on cheering with them all sitting right in front of me the entire game.
Lucy was thinking the same thing. “I’m going to be staring at Aaron the whole game and end up falling on my face,” she muttered.
I couldn’t help but giggle. “You do know he’s marrying my sister, right?”
“Sure, I know that. But that doesn’t mean I can’t dream does it?”
I was about to say something back to her when Jessica’s shoulder ran into mine. Hard.
“Sorry,” she said and looked down at me, as if she wasn’t really. “I couldn’t help but see you invited your cousin or something. Pretty pathetic. If you think that’s going to keep people from talking about you and how Liam turned you down today, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Opening my mouth to say something in response, I thought better of it and zipped my lips. She was beyond a waste of words.
Lucy didn’t think so. “Whatev, Jess. You’re the one who’s pathetic. Couldn’t you tell who that guy was?”
The tall blonde’s forehead crinkled. “What are you talking about? Some guy who clearly couldn’t make his local football team that he’s here on a Friday night to see you two losers.”
“Let it go, Lucy,” I said under my breath as the football team lined up in the end zone to run through the banner.
“That’s because he’s not in high school, moron!” Lucy shouted at Jess as she scurried to her position on the other side of the poor girl who was stuck in the middle of all of this. Avery, a senior, but one of the more reserved girls on our squad, looked from me and Luce to Jessica and then back again, clearly wishing she could just disappear.
“Why? Did he get kicked out for being too lame?”
Before Lucy could respond, I elbowed her in the arm. Clearly, I do not know my own strength because she let out a whimper and had to let go of the banner with her other hand to rub it. “Sorry,” I said, “but please just ignore her. Brandon doesn’t need us to defend him. He’s more like his dad than you might think. By the time we get up there, he’ll already be charming the socks off of the entire student body.”
We tipped the banner up so the team could rip through the paper, which they did, as the band broke into our fight song. We all let go of the scraps, did our dance that goes along with that particular song, and then rushed to clean up the paper before the National Anthem started. One of the girls from our choir was singing it tonight, and Lucy and I barely got into position before the first notes echoed into the early evening sky.
“Slow down,” Lucy muttered out of the edge of her mouth.
I turned and looked at her raising an eyebrow, not sure what she was getting at at first, but then I realized I must’ve been running too fast and nodded in understanding. I’d have to be super careful when it came time to do jumps or I might look awfully strange to the people in the crowd who didn’t know what I was—which was most of them. Jumping fifteen feet into the air off of the track was not a good way to disguise my superpowers.
