I was happy now. Or at least...content? No. Something else. It would come to me.
That wasn’t what stopped me, but I certainly couldn’t tell that to my mom, who only ever supported me. I had to keep the truth about what happened with the band to myself. I couldn’t handle her reaction.
When I said nobody could make me go to the game, I hadn’t considered that my own mother was sick of me being here. If the wisest set of the population thought I needed to leave the house, what did that say about me?
I would go to the high school football game just to show Janice that I was perfectly capable of leaving the house, even if it was my idea of hell. Just to show that I was well-adjusted and doing just fine.
I would hide under the bleachers like I used to. I wasn’t going to talk to anybody. I would go for her. But only because Janice devoted her life to teaching kids, and I wouldn’t besmirch the Cooper name. At least not in that regard.
CHAPTER 7
MARI
Iswelled with pride as the Marching Black Bears made Green Valley look great during the halftime show in the game against Merryville High. I couldn’t focus much on the game as I kept looking for a curly-haired man. The coach didn’t seem happy. Not that Nick ever seemed happy. Poor Coach Easton was beaten down and worked way too hard. And that said something coming from me.
The marching band killed the halftime show. The air was electric; the crowd screaming louder at Cath’s drum solo on the quads, backed up by the snare line, than they had at the one and only touchdown. The rest of the band wiggled their fingers in support as she hammered out the insane tempo. Her face remained unchanged with her success, but her eyes flicked up into the stands as if looking for someone.
Leo was nowhere to be seen. We’d set up Cath to show off to him, and he’d not even bothered. My chest seized with a familiar defeat.
That spineless little jellyfish.
I stood trying to summon the anger, trying to find a way to use it to catapult me into my next choice. My whole life felt like moving one foot after the other, trying to find my footing, acting without thought. Disappointment after disappointment.
But now, I couldn’t muster offense. As Cath performed her incredible solo on the quad, I felt a crushing sadness. It wasn’t enough that her parents were here, they were already stretched so thin. She looked up to Leo, idolized him, in fact. Not that I would tell him that. He already walked around with massiveneck muscles from holding up that giant head. Metaphorically. To be fair, he did have good muscles and was perfectly proportioned.
I shook my head.
Cath needed a mentor. A helping hand. When I’d suggested Leo, she’d been more excited than I’d seen in ages. I wanted to give that to her. What was this guy so afraid of that the thought of a little girl made him hide out? I wouldn’t take no for an answer. Her future was more important than whatever else he had going on.
The crowd went wild with cheers as the band finished. Clara came to my side as the band jogged back to their seats in the stands.
“They sound really good,” she said.
“Thanks,” I beamed, slightly breathless.
“Cath is just . . .” Clara started.
“I know. So good.” I shook my head. “I’m going to go to jail. Sheriff James is gonna put me away.”
Her head snapped toward me. “What happened?”
“Nothing yet. But Leo didn’t show up, and I cannot be responsible for what I do next.”
A knowing grin transformed her features. “Did you know I was a bit of a wild child in my youth?”
“I heard rumors . . .”
“It’s the past, and I don’t think about it. I spent a lot of time doing unmentionable things under the bleachers. All the ne’er-do-wells did.”
“I’m aware.” I had never been there. I was too much of a Goody Two-shoes and busy playing the flute. “Where are you going with this?” I asked.
“I always look there now. Just to see if the kids today still do it.”
“And?”
“They do. But tonight I happened to see a shaggy-haired grown man hiding down there in glasses and toboggan,” she said.
“Who wears abeaniein this heat?” We’d debated the term for a winter cap before and called a truce. Her time away had changed her.
