“Good. I’m glad.”
“Now I just need to make it through half-time tonight.”
“It will be great.” Ford squeezes my shoulders. When we get to our lockers, I decide this is the last chance to talk about Homecoming Queen and King.
“Ford, I’ll be fine when I don’t win Homecoming Queen. I’ll smile and put on a pleasant face. It’s just a dumb crown.”
“Okay,” he says, leaning in and kissing me. His answer surprises me. I was ready for an argument.
“Okay, good.” Maybe he’s preoccupied with the game and the colleges and recruiters here to watch him. I’m not going to make a big deal out it if he’s not.
The atmosphere at the stadium tonight is electric. This is the accumulation of this week’s activities. I thought it would be the dance tomorrow, but not everyone attends it. This is where all the excitement happens. I’m covered head to toe with t rub-on tattoos, body paint, and glitter. We’ve pained red, white, and silver stars on our legs and arms. Aubrey even painted a star all around her eye. We’ve even decked the stadium with posters along all the rails and fences.
Cheers erupt from the stadium when the football players walk out onto the field. I look for Ford, Jack, and Ty, but I don’t see them. They’re probably doing their usual pump-up session before they come out. I watch for them, but after fifteen minutes, I still haven’t seen any of them. I pull my phone out of my bag, but I don’t have any missed calls.
Finally, the guys come running onto the field, and the stadium erupts into deafening cheers. “What the hell took them so long?” Leah asks, coming to stand next to me.
“I have no idea. I’m just glad they’re finally here.” The usual fanfare occurs with the teams being announced and running through the cheerleader’s banners. Our school acapella group sings the national anthem, and the captains come out on the field for the coin toss. I made Leah promise me that the cheerleader’s wouldn’t make a tunnel for Ford to walk down to kiss me this week. It was too much last week. When they finish the coin toss and announce that Lake City won and will receive the ball, Ford turns around to walk back to the other side of the field. I’m stunned. He’s made a big deal the last two weeks about getting a good luck kiss. I thought for sure he’d want one tonight. He texted me the stats last night, and this is going to be a tough game for team. Plus, Sutherland University is here watching. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t want a kiss. He doesn’t want to make a scene in front of them.
“What the hell!” Leah yells, and several of the other cheerleaders give me funny looks. I don’t know what to say or do so I just shrug.
Fans in the stadium scream, “kiss her!”
“Go to him.” Leah pushes me toward the field.
“What?”
Aubrey yanks on my hand pulling me toward the field. “Go. You have to go. He needs you,”
I don’t know what overcomes me, but I run out onto the field. I’m going to get into so much trouble for this. “FORD!” I scream, running toward him. He’s almost to the sideline, and he didn’t hear me. But Jack did. He grabs Ford’s arm, saying something to him. I slow to a walk. When Ford turns around and looks at me, a stop. This was a bad idea. What was I thinking? I glance back across the field, wishing at this moment I had invisibility as a superpower. Ford chucks off his helmet, and it goes flying. We make eye contact and runs out to meet me. The stadium behind me roars with approval.
Ford sweeps me into his arms, kissing me. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he chants against my lips.
Stupid tears cascade down my cheeks. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Coach Anderson,” is all he says.
He sets me down, dipping his head and kissing my charms, and I pick up his hand, kissing his palm. “Make this moment matter.”
“I will, I promise. I need you to walk away first.”
I nod and turn around, running with all my might off the field. Leah has a tissue ready for me when I get off the field. I hurry and wipe my cheeks. “Am I okay?”
Leah looks me over. “You’re great no smears.”
“Did he say why he didn’t come over?” Aubrey asks.
I shake my head. I don’t want rumors to spread, and there are too many people around to tell my friends what Ford said.
When halftime starts, the score is zero to three. Central Valley has managed a field goal, but neither team has scored.
Leah is still fuming that Mrs. Bouchard’s making us wear formal attire for the Homecoming Court presentation. But we showed her—I guess. Leah talked all the cheerleaders nominated into wearing the same dress, only in a different color. Leah picked the dresses out. It’s a short sparkly dress that’s sleeveless on one side and a puffy sheer long sleeve on the other. Since there are only four of us, we could use school colors. Leah let me have the red dress, since I have a fair complexion. She took the white dress. Piper got the silver, and Bailey wanted the black. The girls line up on one side of the fifty-yard line, and the guys line up on the other as we wait for Mr. Higbee, the vice principal, to announce the winners.
48. 32 Red Blast
I’m so tense that my back aches. I want to take my football pads off and stretch, but that’s impossible. I’m standing waiting to be crowned Homecoming King. I’ve been looking forward to this all week, but now everything feels dull and muted. However, standing here is better than the ass chewing the rest of the team is getting. Coach Anderson has been in a foul mood all night. He pulled me into his office right before the coach’s pep talk tonight and told me, under no circumstances, was I in his words, ‘to make a spectacle of myself’ by kissing Hannah after the coin toss. He threatened to bench me if I did. He knows who’s in the stands watching tonight, and he knew he had me by the balls with his threat. What he didn’t know was what Hannah would do. I was utterly shocked myself. I didn’t believe Jack until I turned around and saw for myself. I popped my helmet off and ran. At that moment, I didn’t care if I got benched. I wasn’t going to leave her standing out on that field alone. She was so scared she was trembling, and tears were streaming down her face, but she did it anyhow. She did it for me.
Coach Anderson didn’t bench me, but this game has been rough both our offense and defense are struggling. I’ve been sacked twice. Ty got crushed under a mountain of defensive linemen and had to be helped off the field. He’s all right, thankfully, just a little shaken from being smashed. We’ve only moved the ball a total of thirty-four yards. Something’s got to change, or we’re going to lose this game.
