by Anne Eliot
“Earth to Ellen. Do you want a slushy drink, or not?”
“Sure. And can you grab some kind of snack? I have a feeling Coach and Mr. Campbell are going to make us die out here before they release Patrick and Cam into the world again.”
Laura grabs her purse, nods knowingly and hops down, pointing at the news crew. “I bet you’re right. Our wee-boyos are the stars, aren’t they?” Without waiting for an answer, she skips off, smiling proudly.
I turn to reposition our bags so our picnic can take over the now empty row behind us. I also move our blankets around so I will be able to stretch out my legs some.
I decide to dash—meaning limp slowly—to the rest room before Laura returns with the food. With some effort, because I’m really stiff, I pull my legs over the side and let gravity take me off the edge of the bleacher. I land on my feet without even a wobble, but when I turn toward the rest room, I’m blocked in the walkway by Tanner Gold, who’s still in his football gear, Bella-Jane, Jennie, and Paige, who are, of course, all still in their cheerleading outfits.
“I was wondering how we were going to get you out of your seat.” Tanner smiles, but it’s not a nice smile.
“For what?” I ask.
“Coach asked us to finish the conversation we started in the bathroom last week.” Bella-Jane moves closer.
“Why? What does it matter? Now that Cam’s won the playoffs for you guys, everyone can admit that it is a silly superstition and leave us alone.”
“Well, Coach refuses to change the rules. We’re here to tell you that Cam’s breaking up with you.”
“Broken up. Already. He’s so done with you. He doesn’t even want to tell you himself. It’s why he sent us. Isn’t that right, Paige.” Bella-Jane blinks. “So how about you just leave and spare him the awkward conversation.”
“Yeah,” Paige whispers. “Can’t you see it would be better if you just…” She pauses, but her face has gone really red and she won’t meet my gaze.
“Just what? Just didn’t love him? What is wrong with you guys? For Coach’s shakedown crew, you four suck.”
“Ellen, we’re begging you.”
“This is begging?” I raise my eyebrows.
Tanner glares. “If Cam won’t follow the rules, I heard Mr. Campbell tell Coach he’s going to move Cam to a school in British Columbia.”
I shrug. “He’s bluffing. People don’t just move in one week. Not because of an argument over football.”
“I believe Mr. Campbell. He’s got the funding to do it, why not? And if he does, it means Cam won’t finish the year here at Huron High. It also means we don’t get to win the Ontario Provincial Cup.”
“Who says you will win, even with Cam?” I bluff, wondering what part of this story might be true.
Tanner goes on, “We won’t get to play at all because we won’t have a QB. And that means no scholarships down in the states for me or for your best friend, Patrick! We only came out here to warn you that Coach has Cam cornered and we’re trying to beg you to do the right thing. He’s been ordered to dump you or face the consequences. I rallied these three over here fast with the hopes we could talk some sense into you. Dump him first.”
Bella-Jane shrugs. “I came just to watch you cry when he chooses the team over you. He’s not going to move out of this town, away from our school and all of us, just so he can date you! I mean really. You’ve only been together for like two weeks.” She looks me up and down. “There’s no way he can be that into you.”
“Yeah? Well I’m into him.” I blink, heart twisting and pushing away her words that have already snuck in and made me doubt. “If you think I’m going to believe you and leave here without speaking to Cam, you’re insane.”
Heart galloping in my chest, I step around them and farther out into the walkway. I’m surprised to find it crowded with a huge crush of kids from our high school hanging around who look like they just showed up to party. Along with the new crowd, there are other football players in the walkway, too. Coach, the two dudes from Michigan, as well as Cam’s father seem to be making a beeline in our direction as well! Some people are talking really loudly, and Coach is actually shouting something. Then I get that he’s shouting something at Cam who’s leading the way!
“Oh crap.” Tanner runs his hand through his hair and glances at Bella-Jane. “This looks bad. This looks like he didn’t break up with her! He’s coming to get her!”
Bella-Jane stands on her tip-toes. “Impossible.”
Tanner starts shouting at me, but I don’t want to hear him anymore. I want to hear Cam’s voice.
“I hope you’re happy, Ellen Foster. You’ve ruined everything. Everything!”
As the crowd moves closer, I can hear what Coach is shouting.
“Camden Campbell. You can’t do this. You simply can’t! Come to your senses, boy!”
Cam is easy to track as he moves through the tight crowd because he’s so tall he towers over almost everyone. Patrick is close behind him. Together they seem to be pushing through the crowd like they are men on a mission. That’s when I get they’re scanning the bleachers I’ve just vacated like the mission is me and Laura!
“Cam, I order you to stop and listen to me!” Mr. Campbell shouts. “Stop or you’re grounded.”
“You can’t ground me twice,” Cam shouts back. “I quit your stupid team. I quit football. You’re all acting like a bunch of dictators. I’m done!”
“Cam! Patrick!” I call out, waving my good arm, narrowly missing Laura who’s darted around the corner full speed, completely unaware of the wave of people coming towards her. She’s balancing two slush drinks in one hand and has a cardboard box overflowing with nachos in the other.
“Laura! Hold up,” I call out, causing her to skid to a halt. Then again to Cam and Patrick I shout, “Guys—we’re—over here!”
Cam, eyes going to Tanner and then to Bella-Jane, pales and makes a beeline for us with Patrick right behind him. “Ellen, don’t listen to them! Whatever they said, it’s not true. I don’t care. You know I only care about you.”
When he reaches my side, in a lower voice he says, “I’ve quit the team. They were seriously trying to make me break up with you. I convinced the news team to follow me here. They’re going to help make everyone in Western Canada see how crazy my dad is and how stupid our archaic school rules really are.”
“Are you sure?” I see that he’s still guarding his hurt shoulder. “Tanner said your dad’s threatening to drag you to British Columbia. Like this week.”
He hugs me tight and whispers against my hair, “My dad always says that. He registers me at this private military academy near my uncle’s place outside Vancouver every time I defy him or piss him off.” Pulling back, he meets my gaze. “But if they make me go—you and I—we’re good. Right? You’d wait for me? We’ll be eighteen eventually…right?”
“Wow. That’s so morbid.” I laugh. “Do I have to answer that stupid question? If you want me to wait, I’ll wait. If you don’t, then I won’t. I’m not the type to hold out if it’s only one sided.” My throat gets all sandpapery. “It’s not, is it?””
He kisses me swiftly on the cheek and says, “Believe me, Ellen this is not at all one sided. Why do you think I’ve dragged these people here as witnesses? I’m hoping public humiliation will make my dad back off.” He motions to the news team, and they move closer. “Here’s the rest of the news story I told you about. Why I had to quit the team! This is my girlfriend, Ellen Foster. And if Huron High School is going to have rules from the dark ages that make me choose between loving this beautiful girl and playing football, I’m going to have to go with her!”
The news camera man shouts out: “Camden, can you say all that again? I just got the camera rolling.”
I shake my head and whisper, “How about you don’t say
that again for the camera? Are you insane?”
Cam’s dad pushes forward, capturing the attention of the news camera and the whole crowd while chuckling this fake, creepy laugh. “I swear I think this girl’s brainwashed my son, but of course he doesn’t mean what he said back there. He’s not going to quit the team and leave his boys hanging just before the biggest game of the year, are you son? Dating can wait because we think he’s too young to date.” Cam’s dad has stepped up behind us. He’s smiling for the camera, but the grip he places on my shoulder is anything but gentle. “This is a private conversation, and it’s time to get my boy home so he can rest. I hope you all don’t mind.”
Suddenly Cam’s dad and Tanner are pulling us apart. Worse, they’re holding Cam between them in a locked grip. “You guys, stop it!” Cam’s struggling unsuccessfully against them as they pull him farther away from me. “Do you see how they are?” he shouts to the news crew. “Bastards! Let me go.”
The only thing that saves me from falling is that I’ve managed to grab on to the back of Cam’s jersey as they try to pull him farther away from me. I’m right there to hear Cam’s dad speaking to Cam under his breath. “Son, I want you to publicly take back what you said about quitting the team and then we are leaving. Do it, or else.” His voice has gone brittle. Scary.
“No.” Cam whips around to try to put his arm around me but Tanner moves to block him. Suddenly I’m blocked with elbows and arms and Cam’s jersey is yanked out of my grip as they both propel Cam to the other side of the crowd and away from me!
The lack of an anchor to my balance has me falling flat on my chest in front of everyone. Of course, I can’t move because I didn’t even have time to block my fall with my good hand. Every ounce of air just whooshed out of me. Between my CP spiking double because I’m so embarrassed, and the fact that only a trickle of air is getting back into the lungs so far, I’m simply stuck here.
*To stave off a panic attack that would only make things worse, Ellen Foster reads all of the shoe brands gathered around: Nike, Vans, Adidas, Timberland. Toms.*
The crowd gasps as I manage to at least flip to my side. I’m catch Cam’s frantic gaze as he struggles, still unsuccessfully, against his dad’s grip, shouting, “Let me go you bastards! You knocked her down. Don’t you see what you did?”
Laura’s voice reaches me next. “What’s wrong with all of you lookie-loos, help the poor, wee-lassie to her feet you pack of uncivilized ZOMBIES!”
“Go back to Ireland, you freak!” Tanner Gold shouts out.
I struggle into a half sitting position and as the news cameras move in for my big close-up, something wet lands on my face! Wet, and blue—and frozen. Everyone else around us is also showered in the stuff. Especially Mr. Campbell who’s been splashed in the face with a direct hit of gobs of the slushy drink that Laura’s flinging out of the cups in her hand. Sadly, even that doesn’t shake the guy’s grip off of Cam’s arm.
Someone, I don’t know who, helps me to my feet just in time for me to see Laura launch her last bomb—the whole box of nachos—then herself onto Tanner Gold’s back like a wild tiger. Chips and melted cheese are flying everywhere, blue raspberry slushy drink appears to soaking in to everyone in sight, and Laura’s screaming words none of us can understand while scratching at Tanner’s face as well as anyone who might come near to try to pull her off Tanner.
“Don’t any of you care about love? Mr. Campbell—Tanner Gold, you will let Cam go! He’s in love, for pity’s sake. In love and you’re all being completely stupid!” Laura suddenly yanks on Tanner’s hair like she’s a bull rider and Tanner’s head is the saddle horn which must have hurt a ton because that move loosens Tanner’s grip on Cam and sends him reeling through the crowd circle. “You especially should be sympathetic to all of this.”
With Tanner removed from one side of Cam’s arm, Cam’s almost freed himself from his father’s grip. But Tanner is not so lucky on his attempts at dislodging Laura. Because he’s Tanner (which means he still sucks) he’s actually trying to punch her off of him by jamming his fist at her face over his shoulder! This makes me so angry that when he swings close to me, I stick out my good leg and trip him.
And I’m not even sorry, but that’s because I’m screaming as much as Laura. “Didn’t your mom ever teach you not to hit girls? Tanner Gold you’re the worst person I’ve ever known! The worst!”
Tanner falls to his knees which does at least gets Laura off his back, but when he stands back up he shoves Laura hard into a trash can, then looks at me like he wants to kill me and says, “Well you’re the lamest person I’ve ever known. Didn’t your mom teach you that gimpy-girls should stay at home where they belong and if they trip people, there’s going to be retaliation?”
Tanner then shoves me as hard as I’ve ever been shoved into the pavement! Of course, I go down again. This time, so fast that I skid on my face.
Worse than last time, I’m completely laid flat.
My head is roaring from the inside because I hit it pretty hard. I can’t hear any noise but the sound of my own groaning. But I’m not going to lie here and read shoe labels this time, that’s for sure. I’m going in for my own revenge.
Or…or…something.
Head spinning, I struggle to my knees. Cam, still being held fast by his father, looks from me to his dad like he’s going insane. His dad appears to be tightening the grip that’s locked on to Cam’s arm which makes me unbelievably sad because all I want right now is for Cam to help me up. I don’t blame Cam’s dad. I wouldn’t want my kid caught in the middle of this fight.
*Wonders…am I caught in the middle of a fight?*
As I try to stand on my own, my head spins even more. I note that everyone—especially Cam and his father—seem to be shouting, but I can only see their mouths moving. As much as I try, I can’t register one word.
I also think my head is more scraped than I thought, because blood is coming from somewhere near my hairline and dripping all over my face and shirt.
Someone tries to give me a hand, but I refuse the help and stand on my own two feet. From far away, my voice says, “Don’t touch me! No one touches me. I only want Cam! Cam!”
We lock gazes and he’s shouting as well. Though I can only read his lips, I distinctly saw him mouth the words, “Don’t anyone touch her! Ellen! Ellen! Stay still. Don’t move. I’m coming.”
I locate Patrick and from the look on his face I can see he wants to help me, but he can’t because he’s stuck carrying Laura—and she is crying! Crying, from what I can tell, because she’s so mad. Patrick’s holding her in this really tight grip like he’s a human straight jacket. We all get that this is probably so the girl won’t tiger-jump into the middle of the fray again. Which is good because everyone needs to stop.
Cam finally breaks free of his dad and I see him running full speed toward me, but then I get that he’s not coming to me. He is he running to tackle Tanner Gold! I want to call out, Wait. Stop. Wait, but no words come out of my mouth. I can’t let him or Tanner continue this fight over me. From the way the Coach is frowning, they’re in enough trouble as it is because the crowd is cheering and screaming like they are loving this!
*Ellen Foster runs between the two fighting boys, holds up her hand, and shouts: STOP. And the world comes to its senses.*
I guess because I’m so desperate, and because my head is still spinning and oozing blood, I forget who I am. What I’m thinking becomes what I’m actually doing.
Suddenly I’m trying to run—me, actually run—between them. But it doesn’t work—not how I imagined it should have worked anyhow. I do get a ton of momentum, and I end up between them, and I do call out the word, stop.
Only neither one of them saw me coming, because by the time I get between them, I am already falling.
Falling too fast.
Cam hits me full force
while Tanner crushes his dead weight of solid muscle into my back.
The last thing I remember is how their giant shoulder pads crackled like empty water bottles when they both fell on top of me and closed off all of my air, how all of the light from the sky went away so quickly as the three of us slammed into the metal bleachers.
Later, I found out I had blacked out on impact, so I’m not sure if the memory of the light going away was them crushing me or just the part where I fainted.
Laura told me the fainting was a very good thing.
Because the crowd had grown so completely quiet as we all went down, everyone, including the TV cameras, picked up the sickening sound of the bones in my good leg—and one bone in my bad leg—breaking and snapping as we all slid to a stop.
cam
“Well, son, you and Tanner have hit the international news market as front page news in the US, UK, Germany and now, surprisingly, also in France.” He slides his tablet with the UK news story under my nose. “Looks like all of Europe loves a good story about Canadian boys gone bad.”
I don’t answer him while I read the latest headline. STAR CANADIAN QUARTERBACK BREAKS HANDICAPPED GIRL’S LEGS AFTER INCITING AN AFTER GAME RIOT.
My eyes scan the article wishing, hoping and praying for a new photo of Ellen. I only want to see her face. See if she’s okay.
But of course she’s not okay. How could she be?
The article is horrible. There’s not one bit about the truth behind the confusion of that day. Not one bit about how much Ellen and I are in love. Not one word about how my dad’s the jerk who started all of this by forbidding us to date! Not one bit about how he and the coach and their stupid rules. Nor does it mention once that Ellen getting hurt was a terrible, horrible accident that none of us would ever have wished to have happen.