Chapter 6.
When the bell finally rang following my last class of the day, I took off at a jog towards Kelsey's locker. She had promised to meet me there after school and keep me company until 5:00, since my dad didn't trust me taking the bus home.
Kelsey was standing at her locker, back to me, so I decided to sneak up on her to see if I could startle her.
"Got you," I cried, tickling her sides. Kelsey shrieked as spun to face me, almost karate chopping me in the face. "What are you, a ninja?" I asked with a laugh.
Kelsey stuck out her tongue at me. "That wasn't nice. You're lucky I didn't punch you in the face."
I shook my head. Kelsey was so dramatic about everything.
"So guess what?" she said. "Coach Green agreed to give you a tryout. I thought it would be a good way for you to spend your afternoon while we wait for your dad to get done with football practice. If you're sure you can't ask him."
"What if he says no?" I said. "Then I would have to go behind his back to do cheer. No, I'll just do it, and if he's mad when he finds out, I'll just say I assumed he said yes. That way I'm covered, right?"
Kelsey shrugged. "He's your dad. You would know better than I would." She shoved the rest of her books and folders into her locker messily, slamming the locker door hurriedly before grabbing my arm. "Come on, let's go!"
Casually, she pulled me down the hallways towards the girls locker room. Not paying attention to me and where I was, she pulled me directly into someone's back.
Thanks, Kelsey. I guess we both should have been paying a little more attention.
A tall, muscular guy turned around to look at the two of his, his lips curving upward into an amused smile.
As soon as I hit him and Kelsey had realized what she had just done, she let go of me and turned to face the guy.
"Oh my gosh, Evan, I didn't even notice you were there!" Kelsey laughed. Looking towards me, she sighed. "Please forgive Lilly. It's not her fault I was pulling on her and not paying attention to where I was dragging her."
Evan laughed, turning to face me. "Oh, hey, you're Coach Simon's daughter, right?" He paused, looking over at the friend he'd been talking to and smirking. I thought I saw his friend wink at him and gesture at me, but it happened so quickly I wasn't sure.
What the heck?
I took a second to examine him. His face didn't look familiar, but judging by his muscular arms and broad shoulders, I guessed he was a football player. "Uhm, yeah. That's me."
Evan smiled at me, then noticed his friend staring at him, waiting for him to introduce us, almost as if he'd forgotten we weren't alone. "Oh, this is my friend Austin."
Austin nodded in acknowledgement of me before looking at Kelsey and smirking. Kelsey looked away, her cheeks coloring.
I held back a laugh. Obviously, someone had a crush.
"It's nice to meet you, Lilly," Austin greeted. His voice was deeper than I'd imagined it would be based on his looks. It suited him, though. He looked at Kelsey. "Hey Kels."
Kelsey looked up at him for a second, trying not to embarrass herself. "Hey Austin. How's football going?"
"Good," Austin said with a smile. "But we've only been practicing for two weeks." He looked over at Evan and sighed, his lips curving into a frown. "Speaking of, we have to get to practice before Lilly's dad kills us for being late."
Evan chuckled and flashed me a bright smile. "Yeah, don't want to make Coach upset. I'll see you around Lilly."
"Bye," they both said, waving at us as they headed towards the boys locker room.
As soon as they were out of hearing range, I turned to Kelsey, a huge grin spreading across my face. "Someone has a crush on Austin," I teased, wiggling my eyebrows evilly. I giggled and made a heart with my hands. "Kelsey and Austin--sounds good together."
Kelsey blushed wildly. She glared at me somewhat playfully. "Hey! I do not have a crush on him. It's just -- a --uhm -- a-"
"-a crush?" I supplied, grinning. She knew it was the truth. She just didn't want to admit that she had a crush on a cute guy. I mean it was nothing to be ashamed of. I couldn't blame her...that boy was easy on the eyes. I might have liked him myself, if I didn't already have eyes for another guy. "Are you ashamed to like a boy like him?"
"No. It's not that I'm ashamed. It's just--" Kelsey sighed and began walking towards the locker room. "He's way out of my league. You know?"
I raised my eyebrows at her. "No, I don't know. He's cute, you're cute, he's a football player, you're a cheerleader...I'm not really seeing the problem here." Kelsey looked like she belonged on the cover of a magazine. She had the looks every girl wanted to have. Any guy would have to be crazy to turn her down. "What, are he and Evan juniors? You're afraid to like an older guy?"
Kelsey laughed, turning to me. "How did you know they were juniors? You hadn't met them before."
I shoved her playfully. "No underclassman is as cute as Austin. He's way too muscular. A junior was a lucky guess."
Kelsey rolled her eyes. "Let's just go talk to Coach Green."
"As you wish, Kels," I said with a smirk.
_____
When I tried out, Coach Green was really impressed with my tumbling skills. I guess my years of gymnastics had come in handy after all. I made the team!
Green told me to show up at practice from here on out, and if I worked with Kelsey outside of practice, that I would be ready for this week's game. She would let me cheer at the varsity game this week, but if I didn't do well, she would move me down to JV. If I did well, I would get to stay on varsity.
I made my way down the hill towards the football field to see how much longer Dad's practice was going to be. I already had my story for him planned out: I had stayed after school to talk to my English teacher about some questions I had on an assignment, and I had missed the bus. Then I would casually mention how much I hate the bus anyway, and I would start riding home with Dad after practice let out, and he wouldn't suspect a thing. It was foolproof--well, almost anyways.
Kelsey got picked up by her dad right after practice, so I waved goodbye to her and resigned myself for enduring the long wait for Dad's football practice to end.
"Oh God," I mumbled to myself, noticing that they were running laps. It was two hours into practice and they were all running. It looked terrible.
I walked over to my dad, who was frantically going over plays on his clipboard. He was so engrossed in his work I was almost afraid to interrupt him.
Good idea or not, I decided to interrupt. "Hey Dad, are you almost done here? I really hate taking the bus, so I was hoping to ride home with you."
Dad looked up from his clipboard and gave me a tired smile. "Oh, hey Lilly," he said distractedly.
I stared at him in disbelief. No interrogation? No asking what I had been doing for the last two hours? Who was this distracted guy, and what had he done with my father? As if I wasn't already shocked enough, he added, "I'm still going to be a while. Would you mind if I had Luke or Zach give you a ride?"
Luke? Zach? Weren't they on the football team? Shouldn't they be running laps with the rest of the team? And since when did my dad trust me alone with boys? Apparently, his favorite football players were exempt from the rules.
"Yeah, that's fine," I said, "but shouldn't they be running with the rest of the players?"
I noticed two new familiar faces running. Austin and Evan. I shot them a sympathetic look as they shuffled by, looking like they wanted to die.
Dad shook his head. "Carters and Brady weren't late to practice. The guys running were all late to practice."
I looked out at the 30 or so guys running laps on the field, and a small laugh threatened to leave my lips. This looked like the whole team. Were Luke and Zach the only ones that weren't late?
"Oh. Why would they still be here then?" I wondered out loud.
Dad let out a small laugh as he lowered his clipboard. "They went to go shower a few minutes ago." He paused, looking down at the two bags laying on the ground in front of him. "Not to mention, their stuff is still here, so I doubt they would have gone too far."
I nodded in response and waited for him to say something else. When he didn't say anything, I went to sit down on the bench and wait for Luke or Zach to come back.
The warm air around me was comforting after being inside the cool locker room. It was relaxing sitting outside. The only real noise was the guys' shoes hitting the track as they completed lap after lap.
I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.
I waved to Austin and Evan as the ran by again. Evan looked up, saw my wave, and shot me an exhausted smile.
"Don't you dare let me catch you checking out my daughter again, Evan, unless you want to add another 5 laps to your run!" Dad shouted.
I winced. "Dad, come on, he was just being friendly. I met him in the hallway earlier after class. My friend Kelsey introduced us. He wasn't hitting on me, promise."
Dad looked over at me, trying to see if I was telling the truth. "Well, it doesn't hurt to give him a warning anyways. You're off-limits, and they need to know that."
I rolled my eyes. Why did my dad have to be such a control freak?
"Ah," Dad said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and turning me towards the locker room by the field. "Here they come."
A smile found its way onto my lips again, even though I was a little upset by my dad. Luke and Zach were both incredibly good looking, and they were on my dad's good side. I liked that about them. If I had any chance of dating this year, it would be one of these boys. Or a non-football player, I guess, but these two were the hottest guys in school. I wanted to date one.
"Carters. Brady."
Both Luke and Zach looked at each other for a second, exchanging a confused look before jogging over to us.
Dad sighed and looked over at me. "Would one of you be able to drop Lilly off on your way home? She stayed after, and I'm going to be here late whipping your teammates into shape." He watched his players struggle around the track with a look of clear dissatisfaction.
Wow. No wonder Austin and Evan made such a big deal about being late to practice. My dad's a slave driver.
"Yeah, sure, I can take her home for you coach," Luke volunteered. He looked at me and smiled cockily, an amused glint in his eyes.
I laughed awkwardly. Oh dear God, I couldn't handle the way he always seemed to find me amusing. Did I look funny?
Luke looked directly at me, his brown eyes boring into mine for a moment. With a chuckle, he added, "Just as long as you don't threaten to bench me again."
Dad forced a laugh, and Luke looked at him worriedly. "Oh Carters, tread carefully with how friendly you get with my daughter. Cross the line, and there is always the possibility that you'll be benched."
Both Luke and Zach exchanged another 'Oh shit' type of look.
Luke just kind of laughed it off, letting out a long breath. "Right..."
"Well, thank you, and good work today," Dad told him, clearly dismissing us. He gave each boy a nod of approval before his eyes landed on mine. I might have been imagining it, but I swore a saw worry flash in his eyes for a split second. "I'll see you at home kiddo."
Did he not even trust one of his star players to drive me home? Was he that worried about me?
"Bye Dad," I mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.
Dad didn't say anything else to me; he just removed his arm, turned and starting calling new instructions to the poor players who were still running.
Luke shook his head at his struggling teammates. "Well kid, you ready?" he asked, walking past me and leaning down to pick up his bag off the ground.
Kid.
I bit the inside of my lip. "Uhm, yeah. I'm ready whenever you are."
My stomach felt a little queasy. I didn't like the fact that he had called me kid. I knew I wasn't an adult, but I wanted to think I wasn't a kid either. It didn't help that he was basically high school royalty. I liked him. Didn't he at least find me at all attractive? Not a kid?
Luke's lips curved into a grin as he swung his bag over his shoulder. "Come on." I shook my head. That charming smile was going to be my undoing. How could I stay mad at this jerk when he smiled at me like that?
Luke waved a small goodbye to my dad and Zach, leaving me trailing behind awkwardly.
I didn't really know Luke that well. He was just a super popular guy who was good at football, dated a supermodel gorgeous girl, and was loved by my dad. That's basically all I knew about him. Riding alone home alone in a car with him was going to be weird--especially if he insisted on calling me kid. I had to nip that idea in the bud.
This was going to be a long car ride. Good thing my house was only 20 minutes away.