Playing For Love

by Dana Burkey

  “Get one of all of us!” Skyler told me, leaning closer.

  “My arms don’t reach that far,” I frowned, holding my phone out and trying to get everyone in the shot.

  “Here, let me try,” Jordan offered, moving to stand next to me.

  He took my phone from me and held it out to see if it could get everyone in it. Sure enough, Corra, Beth, Taylor, Skyler, Hayley, Ross, Torri and her boyfriend Chad, Ross’s friends Trey and Matt, Jordan, and final myself all made it onto the screen. So, Jordan wrapped an arm around me to get closer then snapped a few photos. My smile was ear to ear as I snuggled close to Jordan, using the photo as an excuse to do so. Then, as if that wasn't good enough, as everyone went back to chatting and hanging out before the second half started, Jordan held on to my phone for an extra second. Bringing his arm closer to cut everyone else out of the photo he snapped one of just the two of us.

  “I couldn’t miss my chance to have a photo with Fabulous Fiona,” he grinned as he finally handed me my phone back.

  “I’ll have to post all of these as soon as I get home,” I said to him, not sure what else to say at that exact moment.

  “Good, I need a new profile picture,” he replied before turning and walking over to chat with Trey and Matt. I watched him for an extra second before I could process what he had just said. Was he talking about the group photo, or the one of just us?

  “What did he say to you?” Beth asked, noticing my slightly dazed expression.

  “Just that he's going to make one of the photos his profile picture,” I said in my best attempt at a casual tone. “He didn’t said which one though.”

  “I bet it was the one of just you and him,” Corra smiled. “It looked super cute!”

  Instead of responding I quickly went back on my phone and looked through the photos. The group shot was overwhelming considering how many people were crammed into the photo. It was a massive sea of gold and green with a ton of smiling faces. Then, I scrolled to the photos Jordan took of just him and I. I was shocked at how cute we really did look together. Corra, once again, was right!

  When the second half started all I could think about was my photo with Jordan. It took all of my willpower to not pull it out and look at it all the time. But, I somehow had at least a little self-control and was able to pay attention to the game instead. Part of that had to do with the fact that the game was a super intense back and forth. As soon as Crestview scored, so did we. But then, we would lose the lead to them again and have to scramble to catch up. In the end, however, we got close enough for a field goal and ended the game 45-42!

  “I don’t think I’m going to have a voice tomorrow at all!” I squeaked as we all walked to the parking lot after a long celebration at the end of the game.

  “Good thing we don’t have a game tomorrow,” Skyler replied, her voice also coming out in a rasp.

  “I tried not to yell too loud so I would still have my voice,” Taylor noted with a grin.

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Ross asked. He had one arm around Skyler’s waist but reached his other arm over to wrap around my shoulders.

  “I think I still have my voice,” Corra began loudly. “But I can barely hear anything!”

  “You’re shouting,” Beth said with a laugh.

  “What?” Corra yelled, giving us all an excuse to laugh as we finally spilled into the parking lot.

  “I’ll be there in a minute,” Ross called to us as he turned away from where Jordan had parked. “I’m going to walk Skyler to her car.”

  “Alright,” Jordan said with a sly look on his face. “Finally it’s just me and the ladies!”

  With another round of laughter we made it to Jordan’s van and climbed in. Since Ross was still gone, I took the chance to climb in the front seat. Then, sitting sideways in my seat so I could see everyone I held up the pizza that had been on the seat before I got in the car.

  “Who’s hungry?” I said in a voice that hit a few different pitched that I didn't intend to hit.

  “That was adorable,” Jordan laughed as I handed the box to Beth who reached for it.

  “I sound ridiculous!” I corrected him, trying to keep my face from turning bright red.

  “No,” Jordan assured me. “It’s super cute. And it shows how much you were supporting the team.”

  “I just got really into it,” I shrugged. “I think being in the cheering section made it really exciting.”

  “Well, now you know where you need to watch all the games from,” he replied.

  “Are we going to the game next week?” Taylor asked, sitting on the edge of her seat so she was suddenly very close to both Jordan and I.

  “It’s an away game,” Jordan explained. “We’ll have to see what the plan is I guess.”

  “I vote we go on a road trip,” Taylor said before I had a chance to open my mouth and say anything. “It would be a perfect kickoff to Homecoming weekend.”

  “That’s true,” Jordan agreed.

  “So who are you going to the dance with this year?” I asked Jordan, proud of how casual my question sounded.

  “Marianna Sweet,” he replied. “We decided we would go together if we were both single when school started.”

  “But isn’t she dating Adam now?” I asked, glad I had overheard Skyler talking before soccer practice earlier in the week.

  “Yeah, but Adam's taking Victoria,” Jordan said, as if this would clear it all up.

  “Who’s Victoria?” Taylor asked. I was glad she was the one to ask it, since I was too afraid to speak up and say it myself.

  “She's best friends with Marianna,” Jordan explained. “So it works out since Victoria's single but still gets to go to the dance and hang out with the whole group of us and everything.”

  “So you’re kind of going in a big group?” I wasn't sure why Taylor was suddenly asking so many questions, but I was getting all the info on Jordan too, so I tried not to overthink it.

  “Pretty much,” he nodded. “I think someone mentioned that your sister is going with Kyle, who’s supposed to ride in our limo too.”

  “Oh cool,” Taylor smiled, then sat back in her seat to snag some pizza from the box Beth and Corra were holding.

  “I’m guessing you have a date,” Jordan said to me once Taylor was gone from the space between us.

  “Not a date,” I said with the shake of my head. “But us girls are going as a group.”

  “That'll be fun,” Jordan nodded.

  He opened his mouth to say more, but before he could get anything out there was a knock on my window. I turned in time to see an “angry” face from Ross as he opened the back door and climbed into the van.

  “You stole my seat,” Ross pointed out, his angry expression mixed with a smile.

  “Looks like it’s my set now,” I laughed, turning to face forward as Jordan started the van. “Oooh! I love this song!”

  Jordan flashed me a grin, then turned up the radio. The rest of the short ride home was spent singing as loud as possible to the song that was playing, and then the song that followed as well. It felt like we got to my house way too soon, but at least it'd been a great evening.

  “Thanks for driving Jord,” Ross said as we all climbed out of the van, including Jordan.

  “Absolutely,” he smiled as we all made it out of the car. “We should do this again.”

  “I agree,” Taylor nodded as we all walked into the house and took all the snacks and leftover pizza into the kitchen.

  “Well, I better get the van home before my mom worries too much,” Jordan finally said with a sigh.

  “See ya,” Ross gave a half-wave as he hopped up on of the kitchen stools and grabbed a slice of pizza from the box on the counter.

  “Bye Jordan,” I said as Beth, Corra, and Taylor made similar comments.

  Jordan turned to leave then seemed to think better of it and turned back to me. “Don’t forget to put that picture up,” he reminded me.

  “I’ll do it right now,” I pr
omised, pulling my phone from my pocket.

  And I did. I posted the photos while we all snacked for a bit before heading to my room to start our Pretty Little Liars marathon. My phone was almost dead by the time I was done posting things so I had it charging, but when I peeked last a little while ago, the photos had a good number of likes and comments already. Nothing from Jordan yet, but he might have already gone to bed or something. I mean, it was late by the time we got home from the game, and it was pretty exhausting jumping around and cheering for so long. I’m not too worried, though. Well, that's all for now. We just started season two and the first few episodes are my favorite for sure!

  SEPTEMBER 20TH-SATURDAY

  My alarms went off at 10am this morning and it felt like I only got a few minutes of sleep! We all put off getting up and more or less just laid there, so I used the time to check my phone. I only checked it once before I went to bed and was sad that Jordan didn't like the photo still. This morning, though, the first thing I saw when I went on Facebook was that Jordan not only liked the photo and commented on how fun last night was, he made the one of just him and me his profile picture!!!!!!!!

  As soon as I saw it I screamed out loud, then dropped my phone on my face since I was still lying down. That was pretty bad since it hit my nose, but thankfully just made it sting for a few hours. The moment when it hit my nose though, I for sure yelled pretty loud. Beth sat up with a startled scream of her own immediately despite being more or less asleep up until then.

  “Are you okay?” Corra asked, her eyes wide at me while I held on to my nose, my eyes watering from the blow.

  “I think so,” I managed to say, sitting up and noticing with a relieved sigh that my nose wasn't bleeding or suddenly crooked or anything. “I dropped my phone my face.”

  “Why did you scream before you even dropped it?” Taylor asked, rubbing her eyes with a yawn.

  “Oh nothing major,” I said as calm as possible. “Jordan just made the picture of him and I his new profile picture!”

  This got all three of my friends screaming. The reaction made me super excited too, since it proved that my yell and phone drop was not over exaggerated. It was clearly a big deal that he chose that photo, especially considering that the group photos also looked really great.

  Once we all calmed down enough to move on with our day we headed downstairs to get some breakfast before we started to get ready for dress shopping. While I waited for Taylor to be done getting ready, I took a moment to change my profile picture to the same photo Jordan chose. It got some likes and comments even before we left my house, including one from Jordan that simple said “Copy cat!” with a winky face emoji! All in all it put me in such a great mood. And, I felt like the time spent thinking about Jordan gave me a few ideas on what kind of dress he might like. I know it sounds weird, but I started thinking about all I knew about Jordan and how I could use that info to pick a dress that would catch his eye without being too over the top and obvious!

  “Where to first?” I asked Taylor when we finally got to the mall just after noon. Taylor’s sister Lizzie gave us a ride on her way to work so we were finally ready to shop!

  “Follow me!” Taylor announced with a grin. It was easy to tell she was super excited to be leading the charge.

  We followed her through the mall, past all the stores I'd usually check out. It was kind of weird to not stop at the normal places, including the shop where I got my dress for homecoming last year. But, we followed her without worrying too much. We ended up at a store that was fairly new to the mall. They had a lot of dresses that were super fancy and shoes that were about a million inches tall! I was overwhelmed right away, but Taylor broke it down for us.

  “The ones in the back are all clearance and they have some really good stuff,” she began with a sweeping arm gesture. “A lot of the dresses are for bridesmaids or beauty pageants, so they are pretty fancy. But, there are also some classic styles and ones that are a little more basic while still being really gorgeous!”

  “Man, you really did your research,” Corra commented, reaching over to run her hand across a dress with lace and silk from top to bottom.

  “I did a few pageants back in New York so I knew what to look for,” Taylor shrugged. “Let’s go pick out some and start trying them on!”

  I was a little shocked to hear that Taylor had once competed in beauty pageants, but in a way it made sense. She took a lot of time on her appearance, and it paid off. She was beautiful by anyone's standards and knew a lot about fashion. And, as we began pulling dress options, I was suddenly very happy that I was going to have her alongside me to help pick out the best look for the dance.

  “Are you only getting one color?” Taylor asked me after I'd picked up the fourth blue dress to try on.

  “Well,” I began slowly, suddenly feeling a little silly. “Blue is Jordan’s favorite color. I know a lot of girls wear gold and green for homecoming since it’s out school colors, so I thought I could wear blue and really make him notice me.”

  “That’s adorable!” Beth grinned. “And super smart!”

  Corra nodded in agreement, glancing at the dresses her and Beth had picked so far. Aside from one red dress in Corra’s hands, they both had dresses with at least some gold and green in them. It had been an unofficial tradition for the homecoming dance for years, and it was clear that the stores in town stocked up on dresses in those colors each year. It had actually been a little hard for me to find the four blue dresses I was holding, but I had been determined so I hit the racks and refused to come up empty.

  Two hours later I was so happy that I allowed Taylor to lead us in our dress buying excursions, as I exited the fitting room in the perfect dress. The halter top bodice was a royal blue with a neckline that wasn’t too low cut for me to feel uncomfortable, but still was a little lower than I would ever think to wear on any other occasion. The waist featured a beaded band that allowed the dress to flow perfectly into a long draped skirt that faded to a navy blue by the time the hemline hit the floor. I already knew with a pair of not-too-high heels, it would look like I was floating. Which was perfect, considering that was how I felt when I saw my reflection in the three-way mirror outside of the dressing room.

  “That's perfect!” Beth beamed at me, making me instantly feel like I was wedding dress shopping or something. It all felt too emotional to just be a homecoming dress I'd just found.

  “Thanks,” I blushed, twisting my body from side to side to see how the dress swayed and moved around me.

  “No, serious,” Beth continued. “You need to buy this dress. Jordan's going to die when he sees you!”

  “And if he doesn't I bet a few other guys will gladly fall in love with you!” Corra added. She had already chosen a cute knee length gold dress that had beautiful bead work all along the hem and around the sloping back. It was putting the pressure on all of us to find our dresses, so I was glad to find a winner.

  “The colors really make your eyes pop,” Taylor finally added.

  “Do you really think he'll like it?” I asked, finally allowing myself to smile at the dress I was already falling in love with.

  “Yes,” Corra said quickly. “Absolutely yes!”

  So that was it! With my leftover birthday money, all my saved babysitting money, and a little bit extra my mom agreed to put in towards a dress for the dance, I bought the dress and had it wrapped up to take home. It was a little more than I planned on spending, totaling just over a hundred dollars, but I knew it was the perfect dress to not only get Jordan’s attention, but also to make a statement about me being more than just Ross’s little sister.

  The only bummer about the day was that Beth and Taylor didn't find the dresses they wanted. Taylor bought one, but said she was thinking about checking one more place before she decided for sure. In the end, she might return the green and white flowy one she picked up for almost double what I'd paid for mine. I’m hopefully going to help Beth shop again tomorrow, only somewhere that is more in
her price range. Sadly Taylor and Corra are both busy so it looks like it will just be the two of us heading back out there for more fashion finds!

  SEPTEMBER 22ND-MONDAY

  First of all, Saturday afternoon I played soccer in the backyard with Ross and it made me feel like a rock star! He’s not that great at kicking the ball and keeping it with him while he's moving around, so I was able to beat him out just about every time I went for the ball. It maybe wasn't the best practice for me, but it was still fun. In fact, towards the end Ross gave up trying to get the ball and basically started trying to pick me up or tickle me so I'd be distracted and he could try to shoot the ball at the part of the fence we'd decided was the goal. It only worked sometimes, since I started getting faster and could avoid his plans, but it still made it a lot of fun! Crazy to think I could have this much fun playing soccer in the backyard with my brother. I never would've thought it possible a few weeks ago!

  Well, the rest of Saturday I got all of my homework done so I could have Sunday free. And it was a good thing since Beth and I spend about three hours at the mall looking for dresses. We avoided the place Taylor took us to, and instead went to the same shops we went to last year. It meant that everything was a little more casual, but also a lot more reasonably priced. After searching high and low Beth found a beautiful black dress that had some sparkle to it, but was a lot simpler than what she'd tried on the day before. It looks great with her red hair, and she said she's going to get some green costume jewelry to make it really stand out more! Beth has been blessed with a lot more curved than me, so I think she's going to look like a younger version of Kate Winslet from her role in Titanic. I’m already so jealous of how great she's going to look!

  By the time I got home from our shopping trip I was tired and wanted to just chill and watch TV or something, but I actually decided to run on the treadmill! It feel like so long ago that I made the plan to run more often, and I have been really failing ever since. So, last night I did 5 miles! It was kind of on accident since I brought my lap down with me and set it up on some boxes so I could watch a movie while I was running. And, before I knew it, I'd already run a little over 4 miles, so I made it to 5 before I decided to stop. My legs are a little sore today, but not too bad so I felt good all day at school and even at the game earlier tonight.