Chapter Twenty Nine

Raleigh



It’s Friday night, the first game of the playoffs and we’re up against the Hennessey Titans. I haven’t seen or spoken to Lincoln since Wednesday after I walked away from him. I got his voicemail, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to call him back, my head is just too screwed up right now with everything that Brady said. He hasn’t tried reaching out to me again since then either.
All of us cheerleaders, as well as almost everyone from the stands, have lined up at the gate, waiting to welcome our Rydell Red Raiders onto the field. As the guys make their way out of the field house, we all begin cheering, “Let’s go Rydell!” and “Go Red Raiders!” as they pass each of us by and make their way onto the field to begin their warmups.
“I’m already ready for this night to be over,” I say with a sigh to Serenity as we make our way over to the sidelines. Suddenly, I hear one of the guys do a count and then as a group, a chorus of “We are the Raiders, the mighty mighty Red Raiders,” echoes throughout the field.
“Oh, my God!” Ser gasps, her eyes wide as she watches the scene before her. Turning around, I take in the field as the entire football team begins dancing instead of doing their warmups.
“What the hell is this?” I hear one of their coaches shout, just as the sound of laughter pours out from the crowd as all of the fans take in the show out on the field. I can’t help but laugh to myself, a smile turning up my lips for the first time in two days as I watch the entire football team dancing through their warmups—thinking about how it’s very ‘*Remember the Titans*’ of them.
The Hennessey players have all stopped their warmups to watch our guys as they bust a move out on the field. You can hear chuckles and snide remarks coming from them as their coach shouts, “Get your asses back to work, boys. If this is how they think you play football, we’ve got this one in the bag.”
As soon as they're done, a voice comes over the sound system, “Now, if you would all please stand, turning your attention to the flags at the west end of the field, please join Andrea Clark as she sings the National Anthem.”
Placing our hands on our hearts, we do as instructed and sing along with Andrea as she sings our national Anthem. The entire stadium quiets down and the lights dim, signaling that it’s game time. When they come back on, both teams make their way out onto the field and the team captains, one of them being Brady, meet out in the center of the field for the coin toss.
We win the toss but give the opening kickoff to the Titans. They make the kick, landing us at the 10-yard line. Both teams line up again but my attention is pulled from what is going on on the field as we turn to the crowd, Lexi Rydell leading us in our first cheer of the night.
I vaguely hear Brady calling, “White 80, white 80. Hut-hut.” I turn back just in time to catch Hudson snapping the ball to Brady. Brady rears back and sends the ball sailing down the field just as one of Hennessey’s players gets past our offensive lineman and lays Brady out. You can hear the crowd as an echo of, “Oh,” makes its way onto the field. Seconds later, the crowd starts screaming and shouting, angry at the chaos happening out on the field as the two teams begin to go after one another.
“Break it up!” Shouts Coach Carter as he and several other people from the sidelines rush out onto the field, trying to break up the fighting.
As soon as everyone is separated, both teams walk off in opposite directions, coaches from both teams ripping into their players.
My stomach drops when I see that we still have a player down on the field, he’s not getting up. Not moving.
“Oh, shit…” I whisper, bringing my hands to my mouth as my heart pounds in my chest, the sound echoing in my ears as I watch the team medic run out onto the field along with Coach Carter.
The entire stadium is dead silent as we all wait with bated breath to see which of our guys it is that’s down and if he’s going to be okay.
I’m close enough to the action that I can hear the tremble in Coach Carter's voice as he kneels down next to the player and says, “Stevens, can you hear me?” After that, I can’t hear anything more as my pulse echoes louder and louder in my ears as I wait for some kind of sign that he’s okay.
I may not like what went down the other night, or all of the things that he’d said, but just because I don’t see him in that way, don’t want to *be* with him in that way, doesn’t mean that I don’t care about him, or that I want something to happen to him.
After a few very long minutes, both Coach and the medics help Brady slowly get up. “I think you need to sit out the next play, get your bearings, and then I’ll let you back in,” I hear Carter say although I don’t hear Brady’s response. I can see him shaking his head, *no*.
“Are you sure that you’re good to go back out there? I don—” Brady must cut him off because he doesn’t finish what he’d been about to say, and instead Coach slaps him on the shoulder pads, whispers something to him and only after Brady nods in response does he and the medic begin to make their way back over to the sidelines.
After that, our guys hold nothing back and by the time we’re at the half, we’re up 27-6.
When they come back after halftime, it’s like they're a completely different team. Our guys are on freaking fire as they annihilate Hennessey, causing several of their players to have to sit out the rest of the game due to injuries.
52-14 and there are forty-eight seconds left on the clock. Our guys are lined up at the thirty-yard line and Brady calls the hike. He rears back and sends a rocket down the field, Rowdy Adams easily catching the pass at the thirteen-yard line. I’m holding my breath as two guys come up behind him, bringing him down right before he makes it to the endzone. The hit is hard and he doesn’t immediately get up.
“Shit,” I breath out the word, concern flooding me that he’s hurt, not caring at all that we didn’t get the point because the win is already ours.
Once again, Coach Carter as well as a medic makes their way onto the field. I glance at Jenny Garcia, knowing that she has to be freaking out about her boyfriend. I find her surrounded by Emmalynn and Ashley as they hold her, red-rimmed eyes locked on the field where Rowdy lies unmoving. Not a single sound is heard as we all hold our breath, waiting to see if he’s okay.
You can hear sirens in the distance, and my heart hammers in my chest, as the severity of his injuries sinks in.
Jenny collapses to the ground, and I go over to her, falling to my knees when I reach her and reaching out, I grasp ahold of her face, making her look at me as I say, “Don’t automatically assume the worst. They have to take precautions.”
“But what if—” she starts, but I cut her off with a shake of my head.
“Don’t go there. Okay?” She nods and movement catches my attention as more medics rush out onto the field carrying a stretcher. They gently place him onto it and strap him in. When they begin making their way back off of the field, we help Jenny get to her feet and nudge her to go with them. “Go.” She turns unsure eyes on me but I don’t give her a chance to say anything as I say, “The game is over. He needs you. Go,” and shove her towards the exit. She doesn’t need any more encouragement as she takes off running after her injured boyfriend.
“What about Coach?” Ashley asks, “Won’t she be mad that she left?”
“If she doesn’t understand that she needs to leave because her boyfriend is injured, then that’s Coach’s problem, not ours,” I tell them as we too begin making our way off of the field.
The atmosphere is somber, the win being overshadowed by Rowdy having been injured. The guys are quiet, not shouting and celebrating the win as they make their way to the fieldhouse, their cleats clicking against the asphalt, the sound echoing in the silence surrounding us.