“Yeah?”
He points his finger at the massive screen, and my head swivels in that direction.
There’s a series of text on the screen with blue and green bubbles, a string of text messages and conversations.
The crowd is snickering and snorting at the screen above, with a lot of pointing and elbowing their friends.
My eyes zoom in on the words, and that’s when my heart sinks.
I know those messages because I wrote them. Well, half of them anyway.
Do all these people knowI’mSoloSurfer.
What about BBUGirl?
What’s going on?
My thoughts drift to her, which they usually do, but a little less as of late if I’m being honest. There’s another female who’s also stuck there, one of the fierce hockey-playing variety.
But BBUGirl remains my number one,my first.
A snooty female voice blares over the stadium speakers. “Cinderella met her prince the old-fashioned way! Through the written word!”
The audience laughs and jeers at that.
“The prince is our very own Dallas Dawes, but who is the very lucky Cinderella, may you ask?”
I whip my head around, looking around the stands, but it does me no good. I don’t even know what I’m looking for. Is she even here?
“There’s a reason why Dallas wins every home game, because she’s here every week…” My heart is pounding, and my palms are going sweaty. “…serving you food and drinks! Cinderellaisa peasant after all.” All heads whip over in the direction of the concession stand near the front entrance. “Snack Bar Girl is Cinderella, also known as Ella Simmons, a wannabe student at Bristol Bay!”
Snack Bar Girl.
Ella.
BBUGirl.
My head is pounding, trying to process all the information that has been dropped on me in the last thirty seconds.
My BBUGirl is my fierce hockey-playing acquaintance, Ella?
I only had a crush on one girl after all.
Interesting.
The crowd is loud and boisterous, with most heads turned toward the snack bar. My eyes drift to her. Ella is a statue, standing straight and tall, but then spins around and rushes toward the exit, vacating the building entirely.
The crowd laughs as she disappears, but it dies down quickly so only arena noise remains.
“Ready?” Our captain pats me on the back.
I clear my throat. “Yeah,” I lie as I skate over to our bench before the game begins.
What just happened?
Chapter Seventeen
Ella
