Falling (Bits and Pieces, Book 1) (19 page)

Patrick’s voice seemed faint. “Liz? Liz? Breathe.”

Breathe. Right. Breathing would be good. I didn’t realize I had stopped, but I did. I took a deep breath and looked at the crew. They were all smiling at me. Beaming really. I couldn’t help but start grinning. Patrick gave me a big hug. We walked over to the posting on the bulletin board. There was
my
name under female soloist. I shut my eyes tightly and opened them. Yeah, my name was still there and I wasn’t dreaming. I couldn’t believe it. It was starting to sink in. I did it. Wow!

12. SOME THINGS CHANGE, SOME DON’T

I didn’t tell my mom and dad about the solo. What was the point? They’d either yell at me for trying out – it wouldn’t matter that I already got the part. Or they’d tell me it was a waste of time and I should focus on my studies. Or that I would
still
embarrass the family because I could mess up on stage. Either way I could hear them yelling at me and I would just have to sit there and literally take it. I wasn’t going to let them ruin it and take something away that made me feel free. Besides, so far, practice was during class. Sometimes, I’d go in during lunch or after school to practice with Mrs. Marshall, but my parents didn’t know about it. I didn’t think of it as lying to them – well, not really. It wasn’t like they straight out asked me about it. Even if they did… I’d probably lie about it to avoid the confrontation.

Since I was clueless to many school spirit activities, I didn’t realize it was homecoming week. That explained why there were random students at school dressed as superheroes. Not everyone did it, but enough that it was weird and stood out. Of course, I was so caught up with the announcement of the solo, that I didn’t really wonder why they were doing it. The crew, with the exception of Bobby, didn’t participate on superhero day, but they did dress up for class spirit days, where each graduating class was assigned a school color to wear. They even convinced me to wear the appropriate colors for juniors on these days. So, on Tuesday I wore blue. Blue was easy enough to find in my closet. Gold, on the other hand, I didn’t have, so Emily insisted I borrow one of her shirts. I didn’t want to, because I was afraid I might mess it up. But, she and Patrick ganged up on me saying I had to wear it because we were going to the pep rally at lunch and I would be the only junior in the section not wearing gold. So, on Wednesday, I wore gold. I suppose giving into peer pressure in this case wasn’t so bad.

Thursday was school spirit day. We were to wear all three school colors or team shirts. I didn’t really have any clothes that had our school logo or anything on it. I had one navy blue shirt that had a little gold and white in it. So, that’s what I wore. The crew couldn’t believe that I didn’t have at least one school team shirt. Emily said she would take care of that for next time. Next time? Were there other days that I was supposed to wear the school colors other than Homecoming week? That’s when she told me that every Friday was school spirit day and with Bobby on the Associated Student Body council, they all wore school shirts and colors on Fridays.

Since Saturday was Halloween, they did Halloween dress-up on Friday. This gave everyone the excuse to wear their costume twice. Which I thought was kind of nice, get twice the use out of it. But, this also meant that school was crazy. By the way that some students acted, you’d think that they ate candy for breakfast. There were the usual gory, scary characters that teenagers, and I guess a lot of people, liked to dress up as. I never understood why people dressed up like that. Maybe it was to creep out people like me – give me nightmares.

Other than the freaky costumes and attempts to scare people with pranks or corpse heads jumping out at you, I liked Halloween. I liked the idea of dressing up as someone else and pretending to be that person. I gave a lot of credit to the students who not only dressed up, but remained in character during class. For example, there was a guy in physics who put together his own costume, based on a movie character, and talked like that character all during class. That took guts.

I didn’t dress up for Halloween. I didn’t have that kind of courage to wear a costume around campus. I wasn’t that secure. I wish I was, but I wasn’t. A few of the crew dressed up – Bobby, Emily, Becca, and Tony. I think Bobby had to since he was on the student council. Emily did it so he wouldn’t be alone. Becca did it because she wanted the attention and Tony did, just so he could be weird. At least I didn’t have to feel awkward because I didn’t dress up and the rest of them did.

Friday was also Homecoming Day. Classes let out an hour early so everyone could go to the Homecoming Parade. A bunch of clubs and teams had floats in it. Well, they weren’t really floats like a traditional parade. It was more like cars and trucks decorated with cardboard and tissue and construction paper. The JROTC and band marched. The cheerleaders and tall flags performed, along with all the other auxiliary teams.

I met the crew, those that weren’t in the parade, by the school marquee sign. Cassie, Jason, Tony, Kraig and I watched the parade together. They cheered and waved when Bobby and Emily went by in the Junior Class float. And again when Patrick and Becca’s French Club float drove by.

It was hot standing outside in the sun. My black hair was like a magnet to the sun’s heat. I swear, you could fry an egg on my head.

By the time the parade was over, I was ready to go home, or indoors at the least. My scorching hair was sucking the energy right out of me and giving me a headache. I wanted to shake the heat out that felt trapped in my thick hair.

I waited with the crew for Emily, Bobby, Patrick and Becca at Jason’s car to say goodbye and tell them what a good job they did. When I got to the goodbye part, Emily stopped me.

“No, you’re coming to the game. You have to!” She insisted.

“I don’t watch football. I never got into it.” I told her.

“It’s not just football. It’s
Homecoming!
You got to go to the game.” Tony said.

“Yeah, it’s tradition.” Cassie pleaded. “It’ll be fun!”

“We’re playing Rio Vista.” Kraig said it like it should mean something to me. I stared at him blankly. “Our rivals? The Mustangs.” I still didn’t get it. “Well, it should be a great game. You really should come!”

I looked at them, wanting me to agree to go. My eyes rested on Patrick. His arm was around Becca. She grinned contentedly. He smiled crookedly at me and shrugged. “Up to you. You know what my vote would be.”

Yeah, I knew what he’d want me to do. He’d tell me to go to the game with them. I sighed. Okay, more like whined. The heat was really getting to me. “But it’s so hot. I’m already melting here.”

“That’s too bad. Come on. Let’s go.” Becca snipped and grabbed Patrick’s hand.

Cassie’s face scrunched up. “Wait.” She put her hand out for Bobby’s keys. He handed it to her and she opened up the trunk. She grabbed a cap which had our school’s tiger mascot and a giant E on it. “There. Problem solved.” And handed it to me.

“Thanks.” I pulled my hair through the back of it. “Okay. You guys win. Which way is the football field?”

Emily looked at me in disbelief. “Seriously? You don’t know where the field is?”

I stared at her wide-eyed and tilted my head. “Yeah.”

* * *

We walked down to the football field, paid for our tickets and entered. The field was a lot bigger than I imagined. The track circumscribed the football field. Maybe that’s why it seemed bigger. The stands on the home side were filling up quickly. The visitor side had a decent amount of spectators, they probably wanted to be sure their team got some support knowing how loud our side would get.

I scanned the wooden bleachers hoping to find seats near the top, but it was full. I saw lots of students, parents, teachers and alumni showing their “Tiger Pride” by wearing the school colors. There were banners tied to the stands saying things like: “Tigers Roar Over Mustangs!” or “Once a tiger, always a tiger. Welcome back Alumni!”

Jason found a place for us to sit near the center, about halfway up the bleachers. We couldn’t all sit in one row, so we’d be split between two rows. It would actually be easier to talk to everyone this way, than in one long row of nine people.

Becca held Patrick’s hand and went down the row first. She nestled herself in his arms. I sat down on his other side, with Tony on my left. Kraig finished off our row. Bobby, Emily, Cassie and Jason filed into the row behind me. I was glad that the rest of the crew were immediately behind me, because I didn’t like having my back to strangers.

I sat with the crew around me watching the game. I had a really hard time following the ball. I never was able to keep track of it – my eyes always seemed to follow the fake outs. I felt stupid. The band played songs, or parts of, that would get the crowd excited. The cheerleaders never seemed to stop cheering. They went from one to another, sometimes seeming to relate to the game, sometimes to get the crowd to join them.

The noise, the heat, the pounding in my head – it was like I could hear my pulse echo – were getting to me. I took several deep breaths to try to calm my head, before it turned into nausea. It wasn’t working. I started feeling lightheaded.

I leaned forward with my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands. I felt everyone around me jump to their feet and their loud cheering were like daggers in my head. I had to get a grip. I wasn’t going to let how I felt ruin my time at the football game with the crew.

I pushed myself up to stand and see what was going on in the game. I saw one of the players on our team running to the end zone. It looked like he had the ball. He got tackled just before the end zone. Everyone around me was cheering with their hands in the air. Why? Didn’t he get stopped? Why would they cheer that?

Our team hiked the ball. Once again, I seemed to be the only one who followed the fake play, because the next thing I knew the ball was in the end zone and everyone was celebrating. The cheerleaders ran down to that end of the field. The crew were high-fiving each other. Patrick hugged Becca then turned to high five me.

I hated high fives. I was always afraid I’d miss and look like a complete moron because of it. It didn’t feel natural to me. Probably because I never was the athletic type. And I never cheered with a bunch of people. And avoided physical contact with strangers. Any one of those reasons.

“What a play! I can’t believe Dylan caught that pass!” He waited for me to slap his hand in the air.

I did it, but it was
so
not natural or comfortable for me. I meekly smiled, “Yeah.”

He was amused. I think he could tell I didn’t follow the play. “You did know we just scored, right?” He teased.

“Yeah, that much I got.” I smirked.

Patrick laughed. “Just checking.” He slapped his stomach. “Man, I’m hungry. Anyone want anything?” He turned to his girlfriend. “Becca?”

“Ooh. Yeah.” She grinned sweetly. “Get me some popcorn and a Diet Coke. Make sure it’s cold.” She kissed his cheek.

“Okay.” He turned and looked at me. “What about you?”

“No, thanks. I’m not hungry.”

Patrick asked the others if they wanted anything. Jason went with him to the concession stand, to help him. When they came back, they handed out the chips, hot dogs and drinks to the crew.

Patrick presented Becca her popcorn and soda with a flourish, “Your order, Becks.”

She wrapped her arm around him and pulled him close. Becca kissed him, “Yummy!”

He laughed and nudged my side. “Here. Thought you might be thirsty.” And handed me a bottle of water.

“Thanks.” That was nice of him. The bottle felt cold in my hand. I quickly opened it and drank half the bottle. It felt so good. I really needed it. “Hey, what do I owe you?”

“Don’t worry about it. You can buy next time.” That was kind of him.

Wait. Next time? What did that mean? Did they go to lots of football games? Basketball, I didn’t mind. I liked basketball.

By halftime, the score was 14 to 10. We were winning. The band, tall flags, letterettes, twirl flags and dance teams performed on the field during halftime. It was actually kind of cool. When they were done, there was still time before the third quarter started. The crew started talking about the homecoming dance tomorrow night and their plans.