Logan laughed that casual kind of chuckle that seemed to come so easily to jocks and other popular kids. “Ladies first,” he said, motioning at Cassidy.
The girls let out a rally of whistles and “woot, woot”s before it was quiet enough for Cassidy to speak. Her back was to Ash at this point, but he could still hear everything she said clearly, thanks to the echo off the sport-court tiles.
“Tomorrow is a big deal to a lot of us,” Cassidy said. “The meettakes place on one of the steepest, twistiest trails of the season. North Pointe has been training hard, and they’ll have targets on our backs. On top of that, Coach has word that there’ll be scouts from Colorado, Oregon State, and University of Michigan.”
“All Division One schools!” someone said.
Cassidy nodded. “I know that might make you nervous. But we have no reason to be. We’ve worked for this, every day. We’ve earned our place on that medal stand. And most importantly, we’re a team. We pace together, we push together, and wewintogether. You hear me?” Her voice rose like a trumpet as she began their cheer. “Who’s gonna sprint past ’em?”
“Moonbears!”
“Who’s gonna punish ’em?”
“Moonbears!”
“Trample the weak! Hurdle the stragglers!”
“Goooo, Moonbears!”
Even Ash was moved by her speech, and he didn’t usually get into sports. But the fire in Cassidy’s voice and her ardor for camaraderie were two of the reasons he’d fallen for her. How she spoke to her team was the same way she encouraged Ricky as he practiced soccer footwork, and how she fired up Jordan as he ran shuttle sprints and worked on his dream of being a track star like his sister and grandpa. Cassidy just cared about everyone in her life so damn much.
Logan clapped obnoxiously loudly. “All right, let’s give it up one more time for Cap’n Cass!”
Applause erupted across the sport court.
Ash flinched at the fact that Logan had a nickname forCassidy. At school, it was pretty obvious that Logan had a crush on her, although she’d never gone out with him. At least as far as Ash knew. And he had pretty good intel—Onny kept up an extensive network of gossipers in Moon Ridge and the neighboring towns. If there was anything to know about Cassidy’s relationship status, Onny would have informed Ash ASAP.
So Logan’s nickname for Cassidy was probably just from being teammates, right?
“Your turn, Logan,” Cassidy said. “What’ve you got to rile us up?”
“I’m glad you asked,” he said. “I was going to give a rousing speech about our race tomorrow, but since you already did such a great job, I’ll just go straight to part two.” He let out a wolf whistle.
Suddenly, snare drums started up in the driveway out front. Woodwinds began to trill. And trumpets, trombones, and a tuba blared as the Moon Ridge band marched into Cassidy’s backyard.
Ash couldn’t help it now; he pressed himself to the hole in the fence to watch the scene unfold.
The drum major led the way with his baton, and the rest of the white-and-green-clad band followed in neat lines. Then they transitioned from the entry music to a hyper ensemble rendition of the oldie “Build Me Up Buttercup.”
And the whole time, Logan pretended to have a microphone as he sang about how he could be the boy that Cassidy adored, if she let him. He got the whole boys’ team in on the chorus, and it was a wall of sound sing-shouting, “DON’T BREAK LOGAN’S HEARTTTTT!”
The girls swooned so loudly, Ash could hear their cooseven over the marching band, and it was a miracle that they didn’t faint from Logan’s grand gesture and drop Cassidy on the ground.
But Ash couldn’t see how Cassidy was taking all this. Her back was still to him.
When Logan finished, the boys—still carrying him on their shoulders—pivoted him to face Cassidy.
“Cap’n Cass, I’ve asked you out a bunch of times before and you’ve always said no, but just give me one chance. Go with me to the Sadie Hawkins dance next month. Please?”
Ash cringed. He’d always thought the idea of a girl-ask-boy dance seemed horribly outdated. As if girls needed special permission to ask for what they wanted.
But the girls’ team didn’t seem to care. They broke out into an urgent mass of “say yes” whispers.
Cassidy laughed. “You do realize,” she said to Logan, “that thegirlis supposed to invite the guy for Sadie Hawkins?”
“Then ask me,” Logan said, and his expression was so painfully earnest that Ash momentarily felt for him. He knew what it was like to be hopelessly in love with Cassidy.
“Logan,” she began, her voice softer than when she’d given her speech. “Will you go to Sadie Hawkins with me?”
