Coach's Daughter

13.

Chapter 13.

I slipped my foot into my sneaker, quickly tying it before turning to face Kelsey. I was pretty excited for practice. Cheer was proving to be a lot of fun, and I was in a really good mood now that I had come clean with my dad and had no more secrets. Kelsey, Austin, Evan, and I had plans to go out for dinner after practice.

"Do you have an extra ponytail?" I asked Kelsey, running my hand through my hair, preparing it for a ponytail.

Kelsey laughed and shook her head. "Rookie mistake. Always bring a hair tie to practice. She smirked at me and reached into her cheer bag, pulling out a whole ring of them. "Here, take one."

I pulled one of the hair ties off, quickly putting my hair up. "Thank you."

She nodded and turned back to her gym locker, shoving her bag back into it and locking it once again. "Come on, we have to go run our laps."

Once out on the track, Kelsey and I picked up a slow jog to get started. As some of the other girls passed by, I heard them gossiping over some rich family from another school that had just moved to the area. Why did they even care?

Kelsey nudged my side lightly, her gaze focused on her cousin, who was running twice as far for his drills as anyone else. "Did you by any chance mention Saturday to your dad?" she asked.

I laughed lightly. "Kind of. I made him promise not to bench anybody, but looks like Luke isn't his golden boy anymore either."

"And you told him everything?" she asked. "How did he take it?"

"It was fine. He was fine," I said slowly. "Actually, he was really kind of sweet on Saturday. He arranged for a tumbling lesson to help me out with cheer, then we went out for lunch just the two of us. For once, he wasn't distracted or worried about football. We just talked. It was nice."

"So he's okay with you and Evan?" she asked, her voice shifting as she looked over at Luke again. I refused to look over at him again, especially since Madison was over there watching him too. After what had happened Friday night, I was afraid of what would happen if Madison caught me looking at Luke. She'd probably find a way to get me kicked off the team.

"I guess so," I said thoughtfully. "I mean, I told him the truth. I'm not sure I'm ready to call Evan my boyfriend or anything, but Dad was definitely okay with us hanging out together and going on dates with you and Austin."

Kelsey was still watching Luke, and scoffed disgustedly as he finished the last of his drills and Madison promptly grabbed his arm and cozied up to him. "It's so gross the way she just hangs all over him like that," she said. "I swear its like she's trying to mark her territory or something."

I smirked. "What's the big deal anyways?" I asked, glancing over in their direction just in time to see my dad and Coach Greene walking up to them.

Kelsey raised her eyebrows at me, giving me an 'are you serious?' look. "Look at them. How can he even date her? It's like he's blind to how mean she is to everyone."

I bit my tongue, wanting to make a snide comment about how Luke wasn't much nicer. After he had been so rude to me at the party, I was pretty sure he and Madison deserved together. I hoped they stayed together a long, long time and made each other thoroughly miserable.

"It's a cliche," a slim, pretty girl that I didn't recognize said, jogging up to the other side of me. "Everybody expects them to date each other."

Kelsey rolled her eyes and muttered bitterly, "Yeah, everyone except me."

"I'm Cassie," the girl said, flashing me a friendly smile. "I don't think we've met yet. I was out of town last week with my family, but I'm co-captain with Madison."