Catching Jordan

Catching Jordan - Section 2

About halfway across the field, JJ, Carter, and Henry jog up behind me. Henry throws an arm around my shoulders as he pulls off his helmet, shaking his curly blond hair loose. He wipes a few curls off his forehead and whispers, “So Coach is letting that Ty dude on the team?”

“Yup,” I reply, straightening my jersey.

“That’s bullshit,” JJ replies, cracking his knuckles.

“What’s his story?” Carter asks.

“No idea,” I say, but I’m dying to know. I start wiping the dust from my hands and off my football pants.

Henry looks at me and whispers, “You sure you’re okay?”

“Totally.” I hear my voice wobble.

“That guy’s got nothing on you,” JJ adds, looking over his shoulder at Ty, who’s talking to Coach.

“We both know that’s not true. Did you see his footwork? Ty’s incredible.”

“Yeah…incredible,” Henry says, closing his eyes, pulling me in closer to him as we approach the girls’ locker room.

Yanking the door open, I say, “’Kay, Henry—see you in a few,” leaving him outside. He swings his helmet back and forth like a pendulum, staring at me as I let the door slam.

I walk through the white concrete locker room, which is covered with old red and black checkered carpet. I take a seat on a bench, then yank off my practice jersey and pads and walk into the showers. The cold water feels great, and finally, I cool down. When I’m finished, I pull on a pair of mesh shorts and a T-shirt before walking back into the locker room. Parading around in my plain white underwear in front of cheerleaders isn’t my idea of fun.

I hear the giggling when I’m still ten yards away from the other girls. Shuddering, I head to my locker, open it, and yank my bag out.

“I think JJ will tell me he loves me soon,” Lacey says to Kristen.

“He definitely will,” Kristen says. “I can tell by the way he looks at you.”

I force myself to cough so I won’t laugh. JJ stares at Lacey the way he stares at every single one of the Titans’ cheerleaders. It’s the same way he stares at cheese fries, for that matter.

“Hey, Jordan,” Lacey says, brushing her brown hair. Must she stand around in skimpy black underwear? She’d get more coverage wearing a spool of thread than those things.

“Hi,” I say, focusing on packing my bag and getting the hell out of here. I ignore my wet hair; brushing it will take too much time.

“When’s the last time you shaved your legs?” Lacey asks.

I bite the inside of my cheek. Sometimes Lacey makes me feel so shitty. I mean, what if Ty notices I haven’t shaved in, like, a week?

“So, um, has JJ mentioned me lately?” Lacey says.

You mean, besides to tell me you guys slept together in the back of your mom’s car last night? I’m still trying to figure out how JJ could fit horizontally inside the back of a Ford Taurus, but I’ll take his word that it actually happened.

“Nope,” I say. “Hasn’t said a word.”

Lacey slams her hairbrush into her bag.

I try to cobble together a sympathetic look, but it’s harder than I thought it would be.

I’ve never told anyone this, not even Henry, but one time I overheard Lacey and Kristen talking bad about me in the bathroom…

I remember hearing Lacey whine, “I don’t understand why JJ hangs out with her so much. It’s not like she’s cute—she’s huge!”