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“I could carry you,” Bowie suggested and when she nodded, he swept her off her feet. Literally. Her beautiful auburn hair tumbled down and they walked off quickly toward the stadium. I stopped and watched them.
“Jesus fucking Christ, that’s exactly what we need,” Sam barked out as he came abreast of me. “Sidney N.’s with him? Are they screwing yet?”
His language filter had come off, as it did sometimes when things got tense or emotional. “No, they’re not together,” I answered. “He’s only helping her right now.”
“Sure, of course. He’ll help her orange halter top right off. I’ve seen this before!”
“He’s a nice guy, that’s all,” I said. “He’ll help anyone.”
Sam didn’t appear to hear me. “Exactly what we need,” he repeated, “a cheerleader and a Woodsmen player. God damn it!” He turned on the jets and scooted off to catch them.
I thought about what I’d just said, that Bowie would help anyone. That was why he’d come to my aid, after all. It was only because he was a nice, caring person, that he was worried about other people, and in my case he had also wrongly assumed that I was being…well, he’d thought that I was being abused by my boyfriend like his uncle had done to his aunt. My fall had been an accident, just as I’d told everyone who’d asked how it had happened. Sidney N.’s apparent injury was definitely an accident too and now, because he was a nice person, Bowie was helping her as well. He must have been watching our performance but that was because he was interested in dance, like how he was recording that TV show competition.
“Don’t be upset, Sissy!” our team captain said as she caught up with me. She stopped and smiled. “It was a mess, but that’s ok. I don’t think anybody is really hurt. Sidney N.’s just shook up because Trinity took her down.” Danni slung her arm over my shoulders. “I’m sooo glad it’s over. You were great today, by the way.”
“Thanks, Danni. You were, too.”
My sister had a different opinion when I saw her after I’d changed. She had taken a position outside of the bathroom where we’d had to get ready and was chatting with some other of the girls, but she came over when she spotted me.
“That Danni is a disgrace,” Aubin whispered. “I can’t believe they picked her to replace me as captain. Hey there, Jackie!” she smiled as another Wonderwoman emerged from the bathroom. They hugged lightly and talked about Jackie’s boyfriend, a cornerback for the Cottonmouths. “He’s cheating on her,” she whispered when Jackie walked away.
“How do you know that?” I whispered back.
“Everyone knows but her and you, Sissy. Why didn’t Danni do something about that horrible stage that you girls were on today? I never would have allowed that to happen. Now you’ll be down a few dancers because of injuries, and how is a tiny squad going to look on the football field?” She checked her phone. “Oh, Billy’s waiting for me in the players’ tent. Are you coming?”
“Sure,” I agreed, because hanging out with Bill was fun, and I hadn’t done that since the day I’d ruined his wedding. I needed to work on making things up to him. I’d texted since then but he’d only answered that I didn’t need to worry and it was ok. That just couldn’t have been true, not when I’d made such a terrible spectacle.
Aubin and I hurried through the rain, which was starting up again. “Did you see Bowie carrying Sidney H.?” she asked as we walked. “She fell so badly! I’ve never seen the Wonderwomen perform like that. It’s a reflection on Danni and her poor leadership.”
“That was Sidney N., not H.,” I said, “and Bowie was only doing it to be nice. There’s nothing happening between them, I’m sure of it.”
“I know that,” she dismissed me. “Billy would have told me.”
“How would Bill have that information?”
“The guys all talk when they get treatments from the trainers,” she said. “He knows everything about their personal lives, but he won’t repeat most of it.”
“Then how do you know—”
“If it was something about the Wonderwomen, he would say. He knows how much I’m still involved with the squad.”
I didn’t respond to that remark, but it wasn’t exactly true. Former cheerleaders were always welcomed back, and in fact, the team was going to have an event later in the season to honor them and the former mascots, too. But when my sister had hung up her iconic orange halter top, she wasn’t a part of the squad anymore, even if she wanted to be.
“Are you sorry that you stopped cheering?” I asked her.
“No, of course not. I’ve moved on to other things,” Aubin said quickly. But then she hesitated. “It was really fun, though. It was great to be with all the girls. And when we went out together, to bars or whatever, everyone got so excited.”
“Yeah,” I said. I’d seen that in action, both when I’d trailed after Aubin and her friends and also now that I was on the squad myself. Wonderwomen were welcome in any establishment in the city, much like the football players were. They got free drinks, free food, free entry into almost every bar, club, and restaurant—but that may have sounded more significant than it actually was. There weren’t that many party- and drinking-based establishments here that would cater to a crowd like the Wonderwomen. In comparison to a city like Detroit, we were pretty small, no matter what Bowie had said…
I had told myself to stop thinking about him. As I’d struggled out of my wet Wonderwomen uniform, I’d also struggled to put him out of my mind, to stop picturing him carrying Sidney N. and how she’d rested her head against his shoulder, like I’d done when he’d carried me. He was just some kind of knightly person, carting around injured women wherever he went. Maybe now, he’d go have food at her house and swim. Sidney N. didn’t live on a lake but her little apartment complex did have a hot tub.
“Did you hear what I just said to you, Sissy?” Aubin asked.
I’d been lost in a daydream of Bowie wearing armor. “Sorry.”
She sighed. “It was really important,” she informed me. “Listen, ok? I know you won’t tell anyone so I can say this to you.”
I felt pride at her trust in me. “No, I won’t repeat anything.”
