9781250209153

I shake my head. “Nobody. As far as I can tell, Danielle’s just in love
with basketball.”
Danielle hikes her eyebrows as if to say Ha, see?, but I know her well
enough to pick up on the nervous way she’s messing with her jacket zipper.
She’s probably thinking about seeing Kevin on the field when marching
band performs during halftime.
The stadium is swelling with people by the time we join the admission
line. The drums are booming, the sky lights are bright, and the air smells
like hickory. I remember Tally squeezing my hand last year, promising we
could escape to her car if we got too cold. Candlehawk’s Homecoming
game is tonight, too, and she’s probably loving the thrill of a bigger
stadium, the brighter lights, the news crews planted on the field to film their
student body.
It’s cold on the metal bleachers. The band is stationed behind us,
blasting their trumpets and pounding their drums. The cheerleaders are
down on the sidelines, calmly going about their warm-up stretches in the
midst of the building excitement. If I squint, I can just make out Irene, a
dark ponytail directing the rest of the team. She’s obviously in her element.
Not that I care.
The game starts a few minutes later. Our players sprint onto the field
through a handmade banner of an old lady in a football helmet. The
cheerleaders dive straight into their routines, amping up the crowd until
we’re in a full-blown frenzy, and I hear the echo of Irene lecturing me about
cheerleaders’ emotional intelligence.
A few minutes before halftime, the other team fumbles the ball and one
of our guys runs it back for a touchdown. The crowd is roaring, riding the
wave of the play. The cheerleaders pop up to run a victory routine. Irene is
at the front of their formation, directing the pyramid before she goes to take
her place.
I look away, watching the football players switch out the offensive and
defensive lines. Then everyone gasps.
The cheerleader at the top of the pyramid has fallen off.
There’s a prolonged pause, followed by a rumbling of anxiety from the
crowd, as the cheerleading coach and sports medicine team rush to the