Maddie felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned and saw Lilith Maxwell next to her. Lilith and her sister, Lilac, had the broadest shoulders Maddie had ever seen on girls. They were living anchors for all the formations and air routines the team performed. Right now, Lilith was giving Maddie a smirk better suited on the face of Lucifer. As disturbing as Maddie found it, it was Lilac’s face that caught her attention. It held a look of pity directed at her that made Maddie’s stomach lurch. The sisters pointed toward the stands.
Maddie closed her eyes and groaned. She did not want to face what she knew would be there.
Lilith leaned in close. “Get used to it. She’ll be here for two hours at least.”
Maddie huffed. The “she” in question was her mother, a woman who had promised to take enough pictures of Maddie in her itty-bitty rhinestone-embedded cheerleading uniform to cover the whole of their house. She turned and plastered on a smile.
She spotted her mother at once. Tina Jennings was hard to miss holding a large sign that said in red, “My Daughter Is The Best Cheerleader In The World!” Maddie groaned and lowered her head. Dorete walked over to her.
“Someone’s happy with their daughter.”
“Bite me,” said Maddie.
She threw her mother an obligatory hand wave, then formed a weak smile for her parents and the group with them. Aden’s dad was seated there along with Vaska and his son, Victor. Everyone waved back at her—more enthusiastically than she preferred. Maddie felt a bit mollified when her father followed his wave with a pointed finger at her mother and a mouthed apology.
“Madison,” screamed a group in unison. Seated in the front corner were Lilly, Zara, Allie, and Tommy. The sight made Maddie feel warm in a good way. She waved back, then narrowed her eyes.
“Stop frowning!” demanded Lilith.
“Sorry,” said Maddie. She put the sunshine mask back on and pointed toward Tommy. “Why does he have a laptop bag with him? Is that boy gonna surf while we play and cheer?”
Lilith looked over. “I’m sure he has a reason,” she said evasively.
The crowd on their side of the field took to their feet as the Galvin football team rushed onto the field. After lining up, the players started a warm-up routine to get their blood flowing. Maddie looked for Aden and spotted him when he broke from the warm-up line and jogged over to the sideline. Dorete was waiting for him beside the coach. Maddie raised an eyebrow when Dorete leaned in and pecked Aden on the cheek. Maddie’s eyes slid from the pair to Andre, who stood stoically on the sideline, his face a stone block. For the first time, Maddie felt a hint of regret—she had knocked Andre out after all. Any further thoughts were cut off as “Thunderstruck” started playing through the stadium speakers.
“And now, welcome the home team for tonight’s game, your Edgewater Bighorns,” hollered the game announcer with enthusiasm. The Edgewater team ran onto the field and circled the Galvin players, taunting them.
Though Galvin was technically the visiting team, announcing the Bighorns and not the Sabres was an obvious slight. Maddie could tell that Coach Branford did not appreciate it. Even from a distance, she could see a vein throbbing in his neck.
The Bighorns cheer squad followed their team to the field and started a cheer that was backed up by the school’s band.
There’s no competition like a real competition, and there is none here,
There’s no competition like a real competition, and there is none here,
Attack, attack, attack,
The Bighorns are back,
We took the championship last year, and we ain’t giving it back
Maddie chuckled at the words. There was no humor in the eyes of her teammates though. They emanated focused disdain.
A loud whistle pierced the silence that followed the taunting chant. Coach Branford waved the team off the field, then he looked at Dorete and Coach Samson. Dorete nodded then turned and made a beeline toward Lilly and company in the stands.
“What the hell is going on?” Maddie asked Lilith.
“Our queen bee has something for them. Watch.”
Puzzled, Maddie shrugged and turned her eyes back to Dorete. She was talking to Tommy, who had his laptop out and was typing furiously. Lilly and the girls slipped through the railings to the ground. Dorete started speaking, then turned and headed back toward the field. Lilly and the girls followed with something in their hands, but Maddie could not tell what. Halfway back to the field, Dorete’s two main partners in crime joined the little posse.
When they reached the edge of the field, Dorete turned to look back at Tommy with eyes blazing. Maddie shifted her focus in time to see Tommy give a thumbs-up.
“Wait for it,” Lilith and Lilac said together, sensing Maddie was about to speak. “Watch,” they said and pointed toward the field.
Maddie set her eyes on the field. Then the lights went out.
Chapter Sixty-Two
The sudden darkness startled everyone, most of all the technicians in charge of the lights. Confusion and curses sounded off in the control center. None of the control booth techs knew what had happened or why they were locked out of the programs that controlled the lights and sound.
When the music started, the techs knew they had been hacked. The instrumental beginning of Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse” flared through the speakers as a spotlight came on and illuminated the field. The light moved around until it centered on Dorete and the two cheerleaders with her. The trio sashayed their hips, swaying and strutting toward the middle of the field. Behind them, Lilly, Allie, and Zara started to sing the song.
Maddie stood with an open mouth, transfixed by the soulful, bluesy words flowing from the mouths of her three friends. She now knew why Tommy had been so dismissive of the girls’ understated description of their singing skills. They did not belong in high school. They belonged on the set of The Voice.
No doubt, the Edgewater players had been told to ignore whatever Galvin did. Ignore the taunts, the smack talk, the insults, and the crowd. But they could not ignore Dorete.
Dorete was blonde fire walking toward them.
As the girls sang, Dorete danced in time to the words.
I knew you were, you were gonna come to me. And here you are . . .
She placed a hand on the shoulder of an Edgewater player, then walked behind him. She traced her hand across his pads, stopped at the back of his neck, and twirled her hands through his hair. The other cheerleaders each picked a player, pressed themselves against them for a moment, then stepped back and trailed their fingers under the dumbfounded boys’ chins as the words moved into a new verse.
But you better choose carefully, ’cause I’m capable of anything,
Of anything and everything,
Make me your Aphrodite,
Make me your one and only, but don’t make me your enemy, your enemy, your enemy . . .
Dorete was now back in front of the players, moving her hands from the top of her head down to her hips. All three girls bent slightly at their waists and slid their hips sideways. Like cats following a light on the floor, the Edgewater players’ eyes followed the sway of Dorete and company’s hips. More than a few unconsciously licked their suddenly dry lips.
Dorete had them. She had the whole damn stadium. She smiled like a living image of the subject of the song, Aphrodite. One half of the stadium lights flickered on as she flung her hands out to point at the Galvin football team.
So you wanna play with magic, boys, you should know what you’re falling for,
Baby, do you dare to do this, ’cause we’re coming atcha like a dark horse,
Are you ready for, ready for, a perfect storm, a perfect storm,
’cause once you’re mine, once you’re mine, there’s no going back
Lilly, Allie, and Zara ended the song with a rousing stretch of the last stanza. Dorete and the girls held out their fingers and wagged them back and forth in the negative, then turned and stalked off the field, the spotlight following them. The mo
ment they reached the sideline, the lights sprang back on and the school band started playing the score from the movie 300. The Galvin crowd rose to its feet. Their clapping and shouting equaled the volume of the band.
On the sideline, Coach Branford smiled with self-satisfaction. “Now, we’re ready to get this game started. OK, boys!” he shouted. “Let’s kick their ass!”
A wailing siren signaled the end of the third quarter. So far, the intracity rivalry had lived up to the local hype. The game was tied at twenty-four apiece with each score well fought for on each side. Aden had lived up to his hype. He had become a beast on either side of the ball. The only thing more punishing than how he hit the line when running the ball was how he hit Edgewater’s running back and quarterback on the defensive side. He had more tackles than anyone else on the defensive side and three quarterback sacks. On the offensive end, he had run for seventy yards and two touchdowns. He was having a breakout game.
Sitting in the stands, Aden’s dad, Adrian Kent, tried to control the pride glowing inside. He clapped and shouted in the appropriate places but kept a measure of reserve. The parent sitting two spaces from him held nothing back. As each team’s cheerleaders took to the field to showcase yet another cheer, Tina Jennings stepped up on her chair to belt out what seemed like an unending cheer for her daughter.
“Go, Maddie, go!” she yelled as Maddie began a series of backflips in front of her dancing cheermates. Derek cringed and reached for his wife’s arm. Unlike the past six times he had done so, this time he firmly pulled her down to her seat.
“Tina, please. Enough.”
She pulled her arm back and glared at her husband when he did not let go. “What?” she demanded.
Derek looked at her imploringly. “Honey, this is a football game, not a cheerleading competition. It was sweet and funny at the start of the game, now—”
“Oh, so all these parents,” she said, swinging her finger in a circle to encompass all the parents sitting around them, “and you can scream and yell as their sons hit each other, but I can’t scream for my little girl? In case you forgot, we don’t have a child playing football. She’s a cheerleader. You should be up here with me.”
“And have my daughter shoot me in my sleep for embarrassing her the entire game? I don’t think so. In fact, you should probably sleep in the guest room. I don’t want to be collateral damage.”
Tina snorted. “We’re her parents. It’s our job to embarrass her.”
Derek looked over at Adrian. “Help me out here, man.”
Adrian Kent held up a finger and wagged it in the negative. “No, no, no. I’ve learned my lesson about dispensing parental advice to your wife.”
Getting no help from Mr. Kent, Derek looked to Vaska.
“I have learned in my years that life is longer when you don’t argue with wife.”
“Cowards.”
“Perhaps. But tell me, Derek, before your daughter comes for you in your sleep, who do you have to lie next to first?” asked Mr. Kent.
Derek glanced at Tina, who had risen back atop her seat and directed an eagle-piercing glare at him. “Point taken,” he said.
The squad ended their cheer with a few more body-twisting somersaults, then headed to the sideline. Maddie made it clear she had noticed her mother’s exuberance with a glare that could melt the sun. Mr. Kent leaned over to Derek’s ear.
“Putting the old lady in a separate room may not be enough. I got an extra bedroom at the house.”
As the minutes in the fourth quarter ticked away, the game began to get more physical. The front lines of each team became a slugfest as each side fought for dominance. It became clear that either the teams had figured each other out or fatigue was becoming a factor. The long runs each of the running backs enjoyed early in the game evaporated. The game became a special team’s battle as each one was forced to punt series after series. Frustrations erupted as pushing and shoving continued long after the referees whistled a play dead. Penalties for both teams were racking up.
Currently, Edgewater was the victim of that trend. After reaching the Galvin twenty-yard line, a personal foul had pushed them back ten yards. They were looking at third and fifteen to get the first down.
The Edgewater quarterback hiked the ball, rolled out to his left, and looked downfield. Seeing no receivers open, he spun around and headed in the opposite direction. As he left the protection of his line behind, he advanced toward the scrimmage line with a sea of open green field in front of him. He had a clear path to the first down. He stopped looking downfield, pulled the ball close to his body, and decided to run for the first down.
He was five yards away when Aden came out of nowhere and blasted into him. Aden’s shoulder hit him like a bull, sending him cascading through the air and five feet past the sideline into his sitting teammates.
The vicious tackle sent the crowd to their feet. Cheers of approval clashed with screams of outrage. The opposing viewpoint manifested immediately on the field. Aden’s teammates jumped in the air, screaming and chest bumping each other. The Edgewater team came to their quarterback’s defense by grabbing, pulling, and pushing the Galvin players. A scuffle began between the players with Aden caught in the middle.
“Uh-oh,” said Derek. He looked over at Mr. Kent.
“It was a legal hit. And I told Aden he would pay if he lost his temper.”
“Madelynne,” Tina whispered under her breath.
The use of Maddie’s real name sent alarm through Derek. He whipped his eyes back toward the field. Officials were having little success breaking up the escalating scrum between the players. Coaches from both teams had now joined in trying to calm things down. But most of the cheerleading squad and equipment managers had moved back from the swirl of angry teenagers pushing each other.
Except for Maddie. She walked closer, with eyes narrowed and intent.
Aden was being pulled away by a coach trying to get him away from the Edgewater players, when one of the players managed to grab his jersey. He yanked Aden back toward him, and his free hand grabbed Aden’s face mask. Aden pushed out his hands but was thrown to the ground in front of the Edgewater bench. As he hit the dirt, two Edgewater players took the helmets they were carrying and swung them down toward Aden.
“Madison, no!” screamed Tina. She bolted from her seat and headed down the stadium stairs with Derek and Mr. Kent seconds behind her.
Minutes prior to the scuffle . . .
Maddie cringed as Aden’s impact into the quarterback sent the rival player flying. She marveled at the hit. It was something you expected to see in an NFL game, not a high school football game. The din of pushing and shoving that broke out immediately between the teams did not surprise her. Legal or not, no Edgewater player was going to be happy with that tackle.
As the scuffle intensified, Coach Samson started yelling for the cheerleaders to step back. Maddie ignored her, drifting closer to the flashpoint. She saw that Aden was not fighting or confronting anyone. He was trying to get away from the middle of the Galvin and Edgewater players. Then she saw something else.
Aden got dragged backward by his jersey, then jerked violently around by someone grabbing his face mask. He went to the ground, and two Edgewater players swung their helmets down on him. Without a thought, Maddie catapulted toward the pile. She did not register her mother yelling her name or that the whole of the Galvin team was following behind her.
She heard the crack of the helmets slamming against Aden. One struck the top of his helmet, and the other hit him in the stomach. The two players pulled their arms back, ready to launch another swing down on Aden. Maddie was five feet from them and launched into the air, foot out in a flying kick.
The kick snapped the Edgewater player in his head sideways, throwing him away from Aden. Maddie landed and pivoted around to the second player. Knowing that their pads would protect him from any punch or kick to the midsection, she did not hold back. She executed a snap kick, catching the player just under his chin st
rap. His head snapped upward. Maddie completed her assault with a roundhouse kick to his chest. It knocked him into a mass of his fellow players.
The benches emptied out as both teams rushed to fight or defend their teammates from the opposing team. In the middle was an enraged Maddie, whirling her feet into kicks back and forth like a scythe and flipping Edgewater players over her shoulders as they rushed her or Aden.
After striking several players, enough space had cleared for the Galvin team to form a protective circle around Aden, who was still on the ground. Maddie stood shoulder to shoulder with Aden’s teammates in a circle around him, her breath coming in rapid gasps, hands clenched into fists. The wild look in her eyes left no doubt that the Edgewater players had better stay back.
Tina never made it to the ground. She stood against the bottom railing, crying. Every parent was staring at her, but Tina did not see them. She stared across the field at her daughter. When she felt the gentle touch of her husband’s hand on her shoulders, she turned and buried her face in his chest, murmuring “No, no, no.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
No one was happy. Not the Edgewater quarterback Aden had knocked senseless. Not Aden, who had been gang attacked over a legal tackle. Not any of the parents of the players involved in the fight and ejected out of the game as a result. Worse, when it became clear that neither team could continue the game with the remaining players, the referees called it, ending it in a tie.
The players were stewing in the locker rooms as Coach Branford and his Edgewater counterpart argued with the referees and county high school sports officials. The cheerleaders milled or lounged in their own locker room reading social media. Maddie sat in an office in the visitors’ locker room with a pack of ice on her lip. Coach Samson had given it to her five minutes ago, then had sat down across from her. She had yet to speak, which was perfectly fine with Maddie.
The Madison Jennings Series Box Set Page 36