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  “Maybe we could trade off which table we sit at.”

  “Yeah, you missed out on the conversation today.”

  My heart broke a little, leaving me feeling left out. “Oh? Was it interesting?”

  She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Not really, but Emily, Holly, and I talked about going dress shopping the week before homecoming. Are you in?”

  “That’s right. Homecoming is early this year.” I couldn’t help but picture Aaron and me dancing together in the decorated gymnasium. “Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. Count me in.”

  ***

  After school, I headed to the football field for cheer practice. While we stretched, Dani drilled me on the words to some of the cheers I’d learned at our last practice.

  “The ‘Hit ‘Em’ cheer,” she instructed.

  I reached for my toes and recited the lines back to her. “Hit ‘em, Hit ‘em, knock them down. We’re the Eagles, and we’ll take your town.”

  “Good.” Dani shifted to stretch her other leg. “Victory?”

  “V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, victory, victory, that’s our cry. Go, Eagles!”

  “Bang Bang Choo Choo Train?”

  I spread my legs wide on the grass and leaned forward to stretch the inside of my thighs. “Bang bang choo choo train, watch the Eagles do their thang—”

  “Okay, girls,” Coach called, interrupting me. “We’re going to start by practicing the school song today.”

  “Hey, Dani,” I said, pushing up from the ground as we headed to line up in our formation. “Would you be interested in helping me out with some of the other cheers outside of practice? I’m still missing something from that touchdown cheer.”

  “Sure thing. I’m not busy after practice if you want to stick around.”

  “Or we could go over to my house,” I suggested.

  “Five, six, seven, eight,” Coach called, ending mine and Dani’s conversation.

  By the end of practice, I was again mentally exhausted, trying to remember all the moves and chants they’d taught me in the past week. Another week at it, and I might finally feel comfortable with the cheers. At least I was doing well with the stunts as a spotter.

  “Ready?” Dani asked, slinging her bag over her shoulder and grabbing her pompons.

  “As I’ll ever be. Let me just tell Aaron I won’t need a ride.”

  She again quizzed me on cheers on our way back to my house. I pushed my bike along slowly beside her. It wasn’t the words that I was having trouble with; it was remembering which motions went to which cheers and which arm or leg went up at the right time.

  “Don’t worry so much,” Dani told me when we reached my house. “We’ll only stick with the easy cheers for Friday night since you, Rachel, and Tess are all new. That’s, like, a third of the squad right there.”

  I wheeled my bike into the garage. “That’s comforting, but I still feel so behind.”

  “You’re doing great, though.”

  We entered the house through the garage, and I was surprised to see Parrot at my feet right away.

  “Oh my gosh!” Dani’s pitch rose. “Your cat is so pretty.” She knelt to pet him.

  I almost laughed, but it came out sounding like a grunt. “And hungry. He’s only ever downstairs if he wants food. Otherwise, he sleeps on my bed.”

  Dani picked him up, but he struggled for his freedom. As soon as he heard the clink of the food against the side of his bowl as I poured it, he fought harder, and Dani dropped him. She laughed while he dug into his food.

  I moved to the back doors that led to the patio and found my parents sitting outside. Mom held a book in her lap, and Dad typed on his laptop like usual.

  I poked my head out the door. “Hey, I brought a friend over. I hope that’s okay.”

  My parents turned and noticed Dani behind me.

  “That’s fine,” my mom said, “but have her come out and meet us first.”

  I slid the door open further, and Dani nervously stepped closer. “Hi, uh, Maddie’s parents.” Her voice came out sounding more confident than her words.

  They questioned her on cheerleading, who her parents were—they knew them, no surprise—and all of that. After a couple of minutes, I rescued her from my family’s inquisition and told my parents we had to practice.

  “There’s some space in the living room if we move the coffee table,” I offered.

  Dani shrugged. “The living room is fine.”

  We ran through the cheers I was having trouble remembering, and then we practiced the school song before repeating it all again. After about forty-five minutes, I really felt like I was finally getting somewhere.

  I dropped my pompons to the couch after our final run through with the school song and plopped my body down beside them. “Thank you for the one-on-one instruction, Dani. It really helped.”

  She fell to the cushion on the other end of the couch. “No problem. I should probably be getting home soon, though. I’m pretty hungry.”

  At the mention of food, I suddenly realized how hungry I was myself. “Hey, I’m not a savage! I have food in my cupboards, too. Let’s go find something.”

  My parents had no doubt eaten before I arrived home, so it was another night of checking for leftovers or making my own dinner. I remembered how it used to be when my sisters were in high school. They were always out late for one thing or another, and my parents said that if they had to wait for everyone to be around at the same time, none of us would ever eat. Apparently they continued that tradition with me, but I honestly didn’t mind.

  I led Dani to the kitchen and opened the pantry in search of a meal idea. “Hungry for anything specific?”

  “Really, Maddie, I can just eat at home.”

  The thing was, I was starting to like Dani, and I didn’t have anything else to do tonight besides a math worksheet. It’d become awfully quiet around the house now that my sisters were off at college again.

  “Dani, seriously. You’re not intruding.”

  She seemed to accept this and eyed the food in my pantry. “Ooh, chocolate chips.” She reached for the package.

  I laughed. “If that’s what you want …”

  “No.” She shook her head so that her brown pony tail swayed from side to side. She set the bag back in the pantry. “I was just teasing.”

  “Actually,” I reached for the bag, “we might be able to do something with this.” I pulled a mixing bowl out from under the counter and began gathering ingredients.

  “What are we making?” she asked curiously. “Cookies?”

  I turned to her with a smile on my face. “Pancakes. It was something my sisters and I used to make all the time when we would stay up late on Friday nights.”

  Dani shifted to lean against the counter. “It sounds like you miss them.”

  “Make no mistake,” I said, pointing my mixing spoon at her. “They’re pains in my butt.”

  She threw her head back and laughed at me. “I know exactly what you mean, except my sisters are younger than me. Our tradition is strawberry-banana smoothie nights.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Well, aren’t we the healthy one?”

  “Hey,” she defended lightheartedly. “I can cheat every now and then.” She turned to the ingredients on the counter. “So, what comes first in the recipe?”

  ***

  Dani hung out at my house after practice the next two nights to help me with my cheers, and I finally began feeling comfortable with them. Alaina stopped by my house on Thursday night, the one night Dani didn’t come over, and we caught up on everything I’d missed the past few days that she hadn’t had a chance to discuss with me in art class. It wasn’t anything special, but I began to miss my friends.

  “I’ll sit with you at lunch tomorrow. I promise,” I told her before she left.

  That night, I texted Logan again.

  You can’t avoid me forever. Can we talk?

  I didn’t hear back from him all night, but by the time I woke up, I found a text w
aiting from him.

  There’s nothing to talk about.

  I sighed angrily as I rolled out of bed. This boy made no sense to me. If he was “fine” and “nothing was wrong,” then why did it seem like he didn’t want to be friends with me anymore? Lunch was going to be awkward.

  By the time lunch arrived, I’d convinced Aaron to share me with my friends, and we found our way to my table. I purposely sat us on the opposite end of where Logan normally sat. Alaina jumped on the topic of our first major art assignment, and I spent my meal discussing ideas with her for our first sketch. I glanced at Logan a couple of times, but his eyes remained locked on his food in silence.

  Will we ever be friends again? I wondered.

  ***

  After school, I texted my parents telling them I was going to Aaron’s house before the game and that, yes, his mom was going to be home.

  I plopped down onto his couch. “So, is there anything fun to do around here?”

  Aaron sat next to me and slung a muscular arm around my shoulder, pulling me into his warm chest. I could smell the Irish Spring soap he used. The scent made me go weak at the knees. Thank goodness I was already sitting down.

  He touched his lips to the top of my head and wrapped his other arm around me in an embrace. “I’m fine just holding you,” he said into my hair.

  I curled into him and closed my eyes, simply enjoying every second of his company. We didn’t move for a long time until his mother interrupted us several hours later asking if we were hungry. We ate, and then Aaron drove me to my house to change into my uniform and pick up my poms before heading to the game.

  “You nervous?” he asked on the car ride to the field.

  I immediately tensed my legs so they’d stop shaking. “That obvious?”

  “Oh, come on. You’ll do fine.”

  “I’ve never really performed in front of anyone before. My talent is drawing, not … being in front of people.”

  “Just keep your eyes on me. Cheer for me, and it’ll be like no one else is there.”

  The thing is, he was probably right about that. It felt that way every time I looked at him.

  “But I’ll be facing the crowd for some of the cheers,” I pointed out.

  He squeezed my hand for encouragement. “You’ll do great. Trust me.”

  And I almost did.

  Once we reached the field, Aaron pulled me into a hug and planted a long kiss on my lips. All too soon, he had to escape to his team, and I had to find my squad.

  Yell loud. Arms straight. What was the other one? Right. Clap on the beat.

  And I did it all. I didn’t miss a single step in the school song, and once we started cheers, the nervous patter of my heart had dropped back to its normal rate. It’s not like the crowd was really watching us anyway. Their eyes looked straight through us onto the field, invested in the game. Even Logan, who was sitting by the pep bad, seemed to be watching the game.

  My heart flipped in my chest when Aaron prepared himself to kick a field goal. That’s my boyfriend, I thought proudly.

  “Go Aaron!” I yelled.

  He caught my eye, and though it was hard to tell at this distance, I was sure he was smiling. He ran at the ball and sent it flying through the air. I held my breath as it soured in an arc. The split second it hung in the air felt like minutes. Finally, I released my breath when he made it. I jumped up and down in excitement.

  After the Eagles won, Aaron found me on the field and pulled me into a hug.

  “Congratulations!” I told him before brushing my lips against his.

  “You were great,” he said, finally releasing me.

  I couldn’t hide the blush rising to my cheeks. “Not as good as you are at football.”

  He playfully poked me in the ribs, and I recoiled with a laugh. “That’s because you’ve only been practicing for a week. For some of us, it takes years to get good at something.”

  He poked me again, and I let out a yelp, playfully running from him. He chased after me and caught me at his vehicle, whipping me around and pressing me between his body and the cool metal of the car door. He paused for a moment, gazing down at my lips. The air between us seemed charged with energy, and suddenly, my body grew warm. I no longer noticed the chilly night breeze brushing across my exposed arms and legs. My breathing slowed, and then he pulled me into a passionate kiss.

  CHAPTER 9

  LOGAN

  Classes seemed to come and go in a breeze, and I spent my days looking forward to lunch with Logan, art class, and—can you believe it?—choir. Emily nearly fell out of her chair in excitement when I told her I’d been placed in the soprano section. I struggled with sight reading at first, but once I heard the tune a couple of times, it wasn’t hard to follow along.

  Logan stopped me after the final bell rang Tuesday after choir. “Maddie?”

  “Yeah?” I straightened the bottom of my shirt as I stood and looked at him. The blue eyes behind his glasses made me smile involuntarily.

  “I was wondering if you’d be interested in learning more about music.” He readjusted his glasses like he was nervous.

  I stared at him in confusion for a moment. Was he offering because I was that bad and thought I needed the extra help?

  “I just thought it’d give us a chance to spend more time together,” he said when I didn’t respond.

  I quickly relaxed. More time with him sounded perfect. “Yeah, sure. What did you have in mind?”

  He shrugged, but neither of us moved. “I thought maybe we could go in one of the practice rooms, and I could teach you a couple of things.”

  “Right now?”

  “You aren’t busy, are you?” he asked with a teasing smile.

  “No, I’m not.” I smiled back.

  He began walking toward the nearest practice room. “Bring your folder along, and we’ll take a look at some of the practice music.”

  I followed him and closed the door behind us. We settled beside each other on the bench in front of the piano. The room was cramped, to say the least, but it gave me an excuse to settle close to him. His knee warmed my own.

  He flipped one of my music booklets open and situated it in front of us. “Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that every note on the line or between the lines has a name, a letter. They go A through G and then repeat. The easiest way to remember the notes between the lines is by the word FACE.” He spelled out the word and pointed to where each note belonged. “Then the lines are EGBDF. Remember it as ‘Every Good Boy Does Fine.’” He played a few notes on the piano to show me which sounds went with each note.

  I raised my brows. “It’s that easy?”

  He laughed. “Not quite. There are also sharps and flats, and then each note is written out to tell you how long to hold it for. There’s also different keys and time signatures.”

  “Aw man, this sounds hard. What’s that for again?” I pointed to the symbol I recognized as a treble clef. Logan had explained it when he gave me my bracelet, but I couldn’t remember what it meant.

  “That’s a treble clef. I wouldn’t worry about that right now. It tells you what notes correspond to which line. So the notes I just explained only apply when you see that symbol—”

  The door to our practice room popped opened, startling us both.

  “Sorry,” Alaina said, poking her head in. “I was looking for you guys. Jordan and I are going downtown for ice cream, and we were wondering if you wanted to tag along.”

  Logan and I exchanged a glance. As if we could communicate telepathically, we both knew exactly what each other was thinking.

  I turned back to Alaina. “That sounds like fun. Count us in.”

  Minutes later, we were on our way downtown. Logan and Jordan walked a couple of paces ahead of Alaina and me. They discussed a musical I’d never heard of that was coming to the performing arts center.

  “So.” Alaina dragged out the word and wiggled her eyebrows at me. “What were you and Logan doing in the practice room
?”

  I ducked my head to hide my embarrassment. “Nothing. He was just teaching me about music.”

  “Right,” she teased like she didn’t believe me.

  I pushed at her playfully.

  “Didn’t you learn how to play the recorder in fourth grade?” she asked.

  “I forgot, okay?”

  She pushed me back in the same manner, causing me to stumble and laugh.

  “Cat fight!” Jordan joked.

  I quickened my pace to walk beside Logan. Alaina only laughed harder when I shot her the evil eye in jest.

  When we arrived at the ice cream shop, I ordered a chocolate chip cookie dough in a waffle cone, my favorite. I waited a few moments for Logan to place his order. Apparently I was standing too close, because when he turned with his cone in hand, he rammed right into me. His ice cream grazed the end of my nose.

  “Hey,” I exaggerated, scooping some of my own ice cream from my cone with my finger and wiping it across his nose. I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “That’s not fair,” he said with a smile. “Mine was an accident.” He lifted a small amount of ice cream off his own cone, and I swiftly ducked out of the way.

  “You’ll have to catch me first.” I darted out of the ice cream shop into the warm September sun and found a seat at one of the outdoor picnic tables. Logan exited the building behind me. I giggled uncontrollably as he tried to lick the ice cream off his nose. His tongue couldn’t reach.

  “Here,” I offered, handing him the napkin that had been wrapped around my cone.

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said, holding up his own.

  “No more food fights,” I warned, but I still hadn’t stopped laughing.

  My laughter instantly died when he looked at me. A warm sensation filled my chest, urging me to lean into him, to press my lips to his. He stared at me with a bright look in his eyes that told me he wanted the same thing. A second later, Alaina and Jordan plopped down at our table, pulling us both out of our trance.

  “I was afraid one of you would drop your cone and we’d have to buy you another one,” Jordan laughed.