They Say Love Hides Behind Every Corner. I Must Be Walking In Circles!

Chapter 31

I snapped out of my thoughts when the ref blew his whistle again. I got down on my hands and knees and put all of my energy and emotions into barking my butt off. “ARF, ARF, ARF, ARF, ARF, ARF! BARK, BARK! WOOF, WOOF! BARK, BARK, BARK! ARF, ARF! WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, BARK!”

Everyone in the gym was staring at me, and most were laughing as well. I ignored them all and continued barking. “ARF, ARF, BARK, BARK, BARK! WOOF, WOOF, ARF, ARF, ARF! BARK, BARK, ARF, WOOF!”

The distraction worked again. Emily shot her three-pointer and it went in smoothly, just as the buzzer sounded loudly.

I got up gracefully this time. I was scared that I would start crying when I remembered where I got the Band-Aid for my injury last time.

“Shay, that was perfect!” Coach Briggs exclaimed with a happy smile. She hated Ridgeway with a passion, a feeling she had transferred onto her team. “I knew I could count on you for that.”

I had recited the words alongside her in my mind. It was sad that I knew how everything was going to go. I knew everything except for one part, the one that was perhaps the most important.

My teammates were laughing happily and talking about the look on Ridgeway’s face when they lost, but I was lost in my own little world. I just couldn’t feel happy, although if it was because of everything that happened or the fact that I had already won this exact game before, I didn’t know. But I knew that I would have to at least fake it, if not push myself to enjoy this day. It was Halloween. Last time, I had a blast. Did I really want to spend it sulking the whole time? Besides, my friends would know something was up. I didn’t want to worry them, and I especially didn’t want Jasmine prying into my business. She had a habit of doing that. So I would just have to shove Forrest into the back of my mind.

“Come on, the game is over!” the grouchy ref snarled, giving our team a reprimanding look. “It’s time to shake hands with the other team.”

I grudgingly snapped out of my thoughts and followed my teammates as we shook hands with the Falcons. I could tell that most of their smiles were phony. There were a few genuinely nice players among them, but most of them were pissed off because they lost.

I walked back to the locker room slowly, sort of dreading putting on the bacon costume. The rest of the team was just going home in their uniform, so I was the only one in the locker room.

This time, I took my time putting on the costume, yet I still nearly had a spasm trying to wriggle the stupid costume on. I guess some things never change.

I came out of the locker room and everyone started laughing. “You really weren’t kidding!” Emily managed to choke out between her laughter.

“Nope,” I replied with a small grin, “I’ll see you guys later.”

They all waved goodbye to me and I turned my back. I made my way outside to meet up with my friends and my sister.

“Ah! That was so funny!” Maddie exclaimed, cracking up. “That distraction was awesome! I got it all on tape!”

It was so weird to hear everyone repeating everything, but they couldn’t help it.

As I had expected, Maddie was clad in her pig costume.

“Shay, that was awesome!” Jasmine added, skipping towards us in her Spiderwoman outfit. “I couldn’t believe it. It was hi-larious!”

Ceci walked up from behind Jasmine, mumbling under her breath, dressed in her egg suit. “You are unbelievable,” she groaned. “You started barking?”

I nodded and gave her a small smile. “Uh-huh!”

“And here I was, thinking maybe playing basketball would help you be normal.”