The Death of Colleen Rivers

Chapter 11: Colleen

I've always hated pep rallies. I've also always hated Leila Lockwood/boyfriend stealer. I'm also not a huge fan of liver and onions, but that's beside the point. Anyways, Leila was going on a date with my boyfriend and she was going to pay for it.

Baylor and I headed home so he could get ready for his game. He ate the leftover spaghetti his mom had heated up for him earlier — she finally got to come home from the hospital — then went upstairs to get dressed. I stayed downstairs and plopped down on the couch.

Ten minutes later, I could hear loud thuds coming down the stairs and figured it was Baylor.

"Ready, babe?" Baylor asked me.

I slowly got up from the couch and followed him out the door, back to the car.

We arrived at the football field around 5-ish, just in time for the team's warm up.

I have no clue why football, a sport who doesn't run very much, has to have a two hour warm up every game. No one questions the coach and his wishes though.

Two hours slowly passed and the game was just starting. Both sides of the bleachers were packed so full, some people had to stand along the fence line. The cheerleaders were dancing and doing cheers, attempting to make the crowd get louder than what they already were. The crowd wasn't paying attention to them, but as soon as the home team emerged from the locker room, the crowd erupted with cheers. I cheered as loud as I could, although only Baylor could hear me.

He turned to wave at me, so I smiled and waved back at him. Behind me I could hear girls yelling at each other and turned around to see what was happening.

"He was waving at me!" one yelled.

"No, he was waving at me!" another screamed back.

After that, it just turned into a cat fight. I rolled my eyes and turned around to face the field. These girls were ridiculous.

The teams took their side of the field and began to line up, readying for the kickoff.

I didn't really understand football, although I had watched Baylor play for over 8 years. All I knew was you ran into the end zones and boom you got 6 points. If you kick it through the goalposts, you get another point. I knew basketball and lacrosse though. Those are so much easier to watch and understand.

At halftime, we drew ahead of the other team by 21 points. By the end of the game, we were ahead by 46 points. The crowd was cheering the entire game, but when the final buzzer sounded, they burst into even louder whistles and screams.

After the field cleared off and the bleachers began to empty, I moved to my normal spot to wait on Baylor.

Baylor finally came out of the locker room. He was changed out of his uniform and into his football t-shirt and blue jeans. His hair was dripping with sweat still, which was disgusting but I can't blame him. He played a rough game.

"Hey, Ghostie," he said, pecking me on the cheek.

I began to turn red...thank goodness no one could see that. But the invisibility didn't save me when Baylor looked at me. He saw my face turn red and winked at me.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

I smiled. "I've been ready since I got here."