Chapter 197
When the song was over, we headed to our spots on the track, and I watched Lucy, trying to keep pace with her. It was really cool having my own cheering section, even if having creepy Christian there made it a little hard to look at my sister (since he was sitting right behind her.) They all seemed to be enjoying the game, though, and Emma and Brandon were chatting it up. I hoped she wasn’t telling him anything I wouldn’t want him to know. I wasn’t worried about anything going on between them since Emma thinks most boys are disgusting. She doesn’t really like girls either. Basically, Emma thinks all people are revolting in general. It was a wonder she was talking to him at all….
I was super careful with my movements, taking things nice and slow and sticking to the beat. When we did our dances to the music the band played, I tried not to bounce too high, and when I jumped, I gave it as little effort as possible. I knew our half-time performance would also be tricky because I’d want to dance faster than the other girls if I wasn’t careful.
Brandon was a little distracting. He’d gotten up and moved with Emma at one point to a section where a lot of the other kids were sitting. I assumed it was his idea, but I had no way of knowing. Since he wasn’t directly in front of me anymore, it made staring at him more difficult, but then I reminded myself that I wasn’t supposed to be staring at him. I glanced at Lucy a few times, and she had her eyes glued to the guy sitting next to my sister. I heard a few of the other cheerleaders making comments about Aaron as well, but that wasn’t nearly as gross as when I heard Mrs. Jones say he was, “Mighty fine.” I had to swallow back some vomit. Really, she was young enough to be his… okay, his great-great-great-granddaughter. But she didn’t know that.
I swear every time the announcer said Liam’s name, which wasn’t that often because he really wasn’t that good, there was a collective groan from the stands. Maybe I was imagining it. Or maybe Brandon had brainwashed everyone sitting around him that Liam was a loser. I kinda liked my odds with the second bet.
I made it through the half-time show, and then we got a few minutes to take a break. By then, Brandon and Em were back with the rest of the gang, so that made it easier to go and talk to them all really quickly before we had to get back to business.
“Honey, your dance was so good,” my mom said, hugging me and scooting over so I could sit by Emma. “You looked so great out there.”
“Thanks,” I said, guzzling the water I’d brought with me. I knew she was just trying to be nice. Everyone else echoed her sentiments. “What were you guys doing over there?” I asked Em, pointing at the section she and Brandon had been sitting in.
“Well, I thought everyone might want to know the truth about stupid Liam. So I took Brandon over to introduce him to some of the other stupid people,” she shrugged. At least I knew where she stood.
“Don’t worry. She didn’t introduce me as your boyfriend or anything,” he said, a crooked grin on his face. “Though I may have made a few of them wonder.”
“Thanks?” I said, trying not to smile at him. I didn’t want to encourage him. He’s not my boyfriend, after all, and just as I had requested, we were not even discussing that.
“So… they may have more negative views of Mr. White after some of the ideas I planted in their heads.”
“You really shouldn’t be using your powers for such evil,” Cadence chimed in from the other side of him.
“I’m not evil. Number twenty-eight is evil,” Brandon countered. “What kind of an idiot does something like that?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “But I didn’t really let it bother me.”
“Well, I think you and Brandon need to go to Holt’s party tonight,” Emma suggested, and I stared at her like she had two heads. “Show him right in his face that he can’t talk about you like that.”
“Oh, yeah?” I asked my eyebrows still raised. “And are you going, too, Em?” Not that my parents would even think about letting me go. They wouldn’t even let me go to Lucy’s.
“If you’re going to confront him, yeah, I’ll be there.”
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen Emma at an actual party. I mean, she’d gone to Wes’s skating birthday party, where his parents and grandparents were also among the crowd, but that wasn’t a party. This was the type of social gathering that would likely have no chaperones and who knows what kind of craziness might ensue. “I seriously doubt my parents are going to let me go,” I said, knowing they were listening in.
“What’s this now?” my mom asked. She likely had no idea what had happened at school today.
I turned around to face her, expecting to have to fill her in. “Liam was spreading a rumor about me today….”
“Right. That you’d invited him to some silly party?” my mom nodded. “Emma told us all about it.” I turned back to look at my friend who had a defiant look on her face, like she really didn’t care if I didn’t want my parents to know. I spun back to face my mom. “And now you’re thinking of taking Brandon to show Liam you don’t need him?”
I brushed my hair back away from my face and straightened my ponytail. “Well, I mean, it’s an option. If you’d let me go. For a little while.”
My mom turned to face my dad and they began to whisper into each other’s ears for what seemed like forty-five minutes. I don’t know why I even cared what they said. This was a non-issue for me. I didn’t care what Liam thought or what he said. I didn’t even care what Jessica thought or said, even though I had to put up with her on the cheerleading squad for the rest of the season, which could be another month if we made the playoffs. Still… the idea of showing up at a party with Brandon did make my heart race a little bit. I was certain the other girls would like him, and then, maybe, they wouldn’t be so fast to believe rumors about me. Besides, if the boys in town thought I had a boyfriend, maybe no more of them would ask me out.
“Fine,” my dad finally said, making my eyes double in size. “But you can only stay out until 11:00.”
“And Cadence has to go, too.”
“Say what?” my sister asked, leaning around my two friends.
“Not to the party—but you need to be nearby so Brandon can call you through his eye computer if your sister gets in any trouble.” My mom and her “eye computer.”
“And if Brandon loses track of Cassidy for more than a few seconds, you need to go in and get her.” My dad had a no nonsense look on his face.
Cadence glanced at Aaron for a second, and I couldn’t tell if they were talking about it or not, thought it didn’t seem long enough to have a meaningful conversation. “Okay,” she finally said.
Mrs. Jones was calling us all back into position. “I’ve gotta go,” I said, standing. “Thanks again to all of you for coming.” I quickly hugged the few people I could reach, Jamie, Meagan, Aurora, and Em. I looked at Brandon for a second and gave him a small smile, knowing I’d see him in a little bit, and then I eyed the bar in front of me, thinking I, too, could flip over the top of it. Instead, I used the ramp like a normal human being, something I was growing less and less familiar with.
