by Shana Norris
My brothers’ Toyota sat at the front of the line, with Hunter in the driver’s seat and Perry next to him. Behind them was a car filled with football players and another filled with cheerleaders.
“Come on!” Perry called, waving to us.
I hung back a bit, expecting my brothers to say something about my tagging along when they got sight of me. But Perry jumped out of the car and opened the back door, smiling.
Elena, Mallory, and I climbed into the backseat of my brothers’ car while Kelsey got into the car with the cheerleaders. I sat in the middle, with Mallory on one side and Elena on the other. Perry turned the stereo up loud, so that the bass vibrated through the car and up my body. Mallory and Elena bounced around, dancing in their seats. Perry drummed on the dashboard. Hunter tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.
I was hanging out with the popular crowd. I started imitating Mallory’s and Elena’s movements, trying to get into the groove of the music. So this was what it was like to be popular. It wasn’t so hard. It was actually pretty fun.
The car skidded to a stop in front of the Ice Cream Factory and we climbed out. Our group took up four booths along the wall of the small shop. We were loud and rude, shouting out orders and making jokes. Some of the guys tossed a football across the booths and no one even asked them to stop. It seemed that the football players and cheerleaders could do whatever they wanted.
And I was right there in the middle of it all, seated next to Elena. Perry had seated himself across from Elena, and he kept leaning over the table to touch her arm or tug on a lock of her blond hair. And whenever Perry would look away to talk to one of his friends, Elena would turn to me and give me that excited look that I’d seen girls exchange whenever the guy they liked paid attention to them. Elena could have given that look to Mallory or Kelsey, but instead she looked at me.
“Hey, Cassie,” Perry said while we were all eating our sundaes. “The band is ready to play the victory march tomorrow, right?”
The guys all roared enthusiastically. I stared at my brother, shocked that he knew the band even played at games. I’d never seen him glance in the band’s direction.
“Yeah,” I said. “We’re ready.”
“And so are the cheerleaders,” Elena said.
“Because we have a secret weapon,” Mallory said, grinning at Elena. “Lacede’s best cheerleader is now Troy’s!”
Elena blushed. “Well, I don’t know about best.”
“Oh, stop being so modest,” Kelsey told her. “You’re amazing and you know it.”
Elena’s cheeks turned even redder. “Thanks. I hope I live up to all this.”
“Hey, Cassie, come help me outside for a minute,” Perry said. I followed him reluctantly.
“What do you want?” I asked once we were outside.
Perry turned to me, his eyes wide and wild. “I need you to give something to Elena for me.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, come on. You were sitting right there across the table from her thirty seconds ago. Couldn’t you have given it to her then?”
“I don’t want to do it in front of everyone,” Perry said. “Please, Cassie, you have to help me. I really like her, but I don’t want to mess things up. Just read this note and tell me if I’m being too forward.”
He held out a hand, a piece of paper pinched between his fingers. I stared at it, my nose wrinkling. The pink paper had flowers on the edges.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered.
“Please,” he said again.
“I’m not your personal messenger!” But I took the note and unfolded it, reading over the words as quickly as I could.
“What do you think?” Perry asked in a low voice. “I think I’m going to be sick,” I said honestly. “What happened to, ‘Do you like me? Check yes or no.’”
“This isn’t third grade,” Perry said. “I have to be suave.” I waved the pink floral-print note at him. “And having your sister deliver your love letters makes you suave?”
Perry turned me around and pushed me toward the doors. “Just go give it to her.”
I walked back inside, clenching the note in my fist. Was this what love did to a person? Made them write stupid love letters and force their sisters into doing their dirty work?
But why was I surprised? I already knew love made people do stupid things—like kissing their best friends and almost ruining a perfectly good friendship.
I sat down in my seat and pressed the note into Elena’s hand. “Here,” I said. “I was told to give this to you.”
Elena gave me a puzzled look, but when she read the note her expression changed completely. Her cheeks turned pink and a smile spread across her face.
“Be right back,” she whispered to me, giggling.
When Elena and Perry returned a few minutes later, Elena grabbed my hand and said, “We have to go to the bathroom now.”
I had a spoonful of ice cream in my hand when she grabbed it and so it splattered onto the table. I looked back sadly at my melting sundae as Elena dragged me toward the women’s room.
When we were inside, Elena checked the stalls to make sure we were alone, then she turned to me, her eyes wide.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Oh, Cassie, I can’t believe it,” she said quickly in one breath. She grabbed my hands, squeezing tight. “He likes me. Perry actually likes me!”
I pulled my hands out of her death grip and grimaced. “Well, yeah,” I said. “That’s obvious.”
“I couldn’t believe it until I heard it for myself.” Elena leaned back against a sink, hugging her arms to her chest. “He said he’s never met anyone as beautiful as I am and he can’t stop thinking about me. He’s just so … amazing. I can’t believe he would choose me.”
Amazing? My brother? Not a word I would ever use to describe him.
“Why wouldn’t he choose you?” I asked. “You are beautiful, and everyone at Troy loves you already.”
Elena blushed, shaking her head. “Thank you for everything, Cassie. You’ve been a great friend. I worried I’d be all alone here at Troy, but you’ve helped me fit in so well. I can’t thank you enough.”
I hadn’t done anything to help Elena gain status at Troy, but if she felt thankful toward me, I wasn’t about to stomp on it.
“So,” I said, watching her as she practically danced around the bathroom, “does this mean you and Lucas have broken up?”
Elena blinked at me, her smile faltering a bit. “What?”
“You know, Lucas? The guy who’s been your boyfriend for the last three years.”
“Oh.” Elena waved a hand, as if this wasn’t important. “We haven’t broken up yet, but we will.”
My eyebrows shot upward. “You haven’t broken up with Lucas? But I thought you were so crazy over Perry?”
“I am,” Elena said. “I’m going to break up with Lucas before I go out with Perry. I promise. Don’t worry, Cassie, I’ll treat your brother right.”
It wasn’t my brother I was worried about.
“YOU LOOK RIDICULOUS,” I SAID.
Greg turned to look at me, rubbing at the blue face paint on his cheeks.
“I feel ridiculous,” he said. “But everyone is wearing face paint to show their support and as class president, I can’t be the only nonpainted face in the crowd.”
I looked around at the sea of blue-and-white faces in the bleachers. “You know, at Troy we just yell and wear Troy High T-shirts.”
Greg grinned. “At Lacede, we like to go all-out.”
“The game is about to start,” I said. “Do you think I should sit here or the visitors’ side?”
I noticed the looks I got from a few Spartans and their supporters. Maybe it would be safer to try to blend in with the Southern Mills supporters on the other side of the field.
“Sit here,” Greg said. “No one will mess with you, if you can deal with the glares.”
“Okay,” I said. We found seats halfway up the bleachers, near a grou
p of girls who gave me dark scowls.
“We’ve got the spirit! We can succeed! We’ve got the moves! Go, go Lacede!” The Lacede cheerleaders leaped into the air, waving their pom-poms and shrieking at the top of their lungs as they urged the crowd on.
The teams emerged from the locker rooms to loud cheers. Lucas and the Southern Mills team captain met on the fifty-yard line and shook hands before heading to their respective sides of the field.
I wasn’t a huge fan of football, but the game stayed tense enough to keep my interest. The crowd around me roared whenever the Spartans scored or booed whenever the Southern Mills Wildcats did.
At halftime, the teams were tied 14–14.
All around me, people stood up to head down to the refreshment stands.
“Want to share a hot dog?” Greg asked.
“Okay,” I agreed. “But no onions on my half.”
“Don’t blame me if the onions spill over to your side.”
We joined the long line for the hot dogs. After several minutes, the line hadn’t moved much.
“I’m starving,” Greg said. “This line is moving too slow. Got anything to eat?”
I shook my head. “I had a mint left, but I ate it during the first quarter.”
But Greg didn’t seem to hear what I said. He was focused on something in the direction of the locker rooms. I turned to see what he was looking at.
Elena and Lucas stood outside the gray building. From the way their arms moved as they spoke, it didn’t look as though she were wishing him good luck.
She wouldn’t dare. Not here. Not now.
Would she?
“Um, Greg,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant, “how have Lucas and Elena been doing lately?”
“Not so great, from the looks of it,” Greg said, his eyes still on them. “Come on, let’s see what’s going on.”
We left the hot-dog line and hurried across the grass toward the locker rooms. When we’d drawn closer, I could hear Elena speaking.
“You never pay attention to me anymore! It’s always football or video games or your stupid friends.”
“I spent all of Saturday with you last weekend!” Lucas shouted. His face had turned red and the veins in his neck bulged behind his shoulder padding. “I followed you around the mall for four hours while you looked at fifty different pairs of shoes and didn’t buy a single thing! What more do you want?”
Elena crossed her arms over her chest. “Nothing, Lucas. That’s just it. I don’t want anything else from you ever again.”
“Hey,” Greg said, stepping between them. “Everything okay?”
“Yes,” Lucas said at the same time Elena said “No.”
Lucas stared at her. “So that’s it? You want to throw away three years of us?”
“We haven’t been together three years, we’ve spent at least half of that time broken up!” Elena exclaimed. “We were never meant to be together, I see that now. That’s why we’ve never been able to make this work more than a few months at a time.”
“Whoa,” Greg said, holding his hands up. “I think maybe you guys need to take some time to calm down and think this over. Wait until tomorrow, when you can talk about this rationally.”
“I’ve already thought this over,” Elena said. “And breaking up for good is the right solution. Lucas, once you get over being angry at me, you’ll see that this is right for both of us.”
She had to do this now, when Lucas had to put his focus on the game?
“Elena,” I said, “I think Greg is right. Don’t make any decisions now that you’ll regret tomorrow. Wait until you both can sit down in private and talk. Lucas has other things on his mind right now—”
“I’m not making any decisions I’ll regret. I’ve made up my mind, and it’s final.”
At that moment, Perry appeared around the side of the building and said, “Hey, Elena, ready to go?” He shot her a grin, oblivious to the tension in the air.
My pulse pounded in my ears. I could barely hear anything over the sound.
Lucas’s and Greg’s bodies tensed as they both gazed back at Perry.
“What do you want with Elena?” Lucas asked in a deep voice.
“None of your business, Spartan,” Perry snapped.
Lucas took a step forward. The muscles in his arms were rigid and his fists were clenched at his sides. “Anything involving my girlfriend is my business.”
“I’m not your girlfriend anymore, Lucas!” Elena exclaimed.
Lucas grabbed Elena’s arm. “Elena, listen—”
Perry stepped forward. “Let her go.”
“And what are you going to do about it, pretty boy?” Lucas asked.
If I were Perry, I would have thought twice about standing up to Lucas. Lucas had several inches and pounds on my brother.
Suddenly the Spartan locker-room door swung open and Coach Whittingham stuck his head out. “Mennon! What are you doing out here? The second half is about to start, and we’re waiting on you so we can talk strategy.”
Lucas looked at him, blinking, as if he’d forgotten where he was. He looked down at his uniform, then back at the coach and nodded as he stomped into the locker room. He shot a dark glare back at Elena and Perry.
“You coming with us, Cassie?” Elena asked, sounding just as perky and happy as usual, as if the last five minutes hadn’t happened.
Behind us, people were returning to their seats, waiting for the game to resume. In the distance, I could hear the rumble of hundreds of voices talking all at once. But in our little corner, everything was silent, as if waiting for me to make a decision. Who to go with—my old friend or new one?
Greg turned away from us and said in a cold voice, “I have to get back.”
He ambled away without saying anything else.
“Let’s get out of here,” Perry said. “I can’t stand to be around so many Spartans much longer.”
Elena held a hand out to me, smiling. I let her take my hand and lead me toward the gate behind Perry.
“CASSIE,” MOM CALLED FROM BEHIND MY CLOSED door. “Cassie, wake up. You have a visitor.”
I rolled over, grumbling into my pillow. It was too early. I had stayed up half the night wondering if I had done the right thing by keeping my mouth shut about Elena and Perry. I felt like no matter what choice I made, I would have hurt someone I cared about.
I heard the door open. “Cassie, get up. It’s almost noon and you have a guest.”
Moaning, I lifted my head from my pillow and opened one eye to look at Mom. “Who is it?” I asked.
The door opened wider and I saw Elena standing in the hall, looking unbelievably gorgeous at this time of day. I sat up, trying to shift my Tweety Bird pajamas into position and reaching up to smooth down my rat’s nest of hair.
“I think she’s awake now, Elena,” Mom said. She shot an amused smile my way, raising her eyebrows, and then disappeared down the hall.
Elena bounced into my room and sat on the edge of my bed. “Morning, sleepyhead!”
I winced at the sound of her voice. “Not so loud. I just woke up.”
“You’re sleeping the whole day away,” Elena told me, laughing. “It’s time to wake up. Perry isn’t here. He and Hunter are doing some pregame tradition thing.” She got up and walked over to my dresser, picking up necklaces and CDs at random to inspect them.
“Waffles,” I said. Hunter and Perry always met the other guys from the football team for breakfast on game day, a longstanding Trojan tradition.
“Yeah,” Elena said. “I was up and decided to come by and see you. And tell you about what an amazing night Perry and I had after we left the football game.”
Perry had dropped Hunter and me off at home around ten, and then he and Elena took the car back out to drive around for a while.
“It was so incredible, Cassie,” Elena said, leaning against my dresser to sigh at her reflection in the mirror. Dozens of pictures of Greg and me that I had taped along the sides of the mirror framed her f
ace. “We went to the park and it was all lit up by the streetlights. We were alone and Perry pushed me on the swings for a while. Then we lay in the grass and looked at the stars. It was so romantic. And the way he kisses! I haven’t kissed anyone like that ever. Lucas was always such a sloppy kisser, but Perry is amazing.”
I shifted in my seat. “I don’t really want to hear all the gory details.”
“I know breaking up with Lucas was the right thing to do,” Elena told me. “I knew it before, but I’m completely sure now. Perry is the guy I’m meant to be with. It was fate for me to be transferred to Troy.”
“Elena,” I said, “did you happen to think that maybe you shouldn’t have broken up with Lucas last night?”
Elena looked at me as if I were the crazy one. “It wouldn’t have been fair to keep dating Lucas when I’m in love with Perry.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” I agreed. “But you could have chosen a different time to dump Lucas. He really needed to focus on the game and not on you.”
To her credit, Elena did look sorry as she twisted one of my beaded bracelets in her hands. “I thought it would be better this way, if he could use the game to work out his anger.”
I sighed. “I don’t think your plan worked.”
“Lucas kept calling my cell last night,” Elena said. “And he’s already started this morning. He’s left about twenty messages, begging me to go back to him.”
“Maybe he really loves you,” I said.
“Then he should have taken the time to show it before now,” Elena said. She pulled her cell out of her pocket and punched a few buttons. “Here, listen to this.”
She pressed the phone to my ear and I heard Lucas’s voice. He sounded weird, his voice higher than usual, with a desperate pitch to it. “Elena, please,” he said. “What does that Trojan jerk have that I don’t? We’ve been together for years. You know I love you. I’ll do anything to get you back. I’ll be a better boyfriend, I promise—”
I felt uncomfortable listening to Lucas pour his heart out to Elena’s voice mail, and I pushed the phone away. “Are you sure breaking up with Lucas is what you really want?” I asked. “He doesn’t seem so bad, as far as jocks go.”