Page 86 of Everything's Better With You
Who did swear.
And Randy threw his clipboard on the ground.
The cheerleaders kept the crowd engaged and on their feet. The Jackets had a slim three-point lead at halftime as the football team ran off the field and Joe and Marti descended the steps to check in with the team captains before the cheerleaders performed.
“Make sure everyone’s shoes are tied and fix your shirts. Everyone better be tucked in. Brittany, fix your ribbon. Ivan, you and the hype team, make sure you keep those megaphones going and nail those twists at the end.”
“We got you, Coach.”
The team gathered together, Marti and Joe stuck their hands in and they all shouted “Jackets.” Joe and Marti moved out of the way and back up to the bleachers to watch the performance, both of them trying to appear calm, cool, and collected. Joe brought his thumb up to his mouth, and then he shoved his hands in his pockets, looking around to be sure no Paytons were still out.
That’s when he saw the team coming out of the locker room. They trotted over to the sidelines and lined up in the endzone.
Then they started to cheer. “Hey, Jackets?” They stepped and clapped, mostly staying in rhythm.
The cheerleaders had lined up in their formation, but they gawked at the football team.
Finally Terrell yelled, “Yeah?”
“Hey, Jackets.”
“Yeah?”
“Introduce yourself—”
The cheerleaders got with the program and answered back the football team’s “introduce yourself” cheer with “right on” and then the football team did their part…and ended with a bunch of them doing standing back tucks. Like Joe and Terrell had taught them.
See, the team realized how much they could improve with more workouts like Joe’s and so he’d been their guest trainer several more times, and several of the players had indeed come to tumbling clinics.
He clapped for them and pumped his fist, but their surprise wasn’t over. Joe looked to the goalpost closest to the locker rooms and found the coaching staff standing there clapping. Then the football team all took a knee to watch the cheerleaders.
In all of Joe’s years being involved with cheer, he’d never seen a football team support their cheerleaders like this. It was exactly the type of thing he and Leslie had said they wanted to see: the teams working together and supporting each other.
Mission accomplished.
God, he really needed to get some allergy pills or something. This burning in his sinuses had his eyes watering. That had to be it.
The music started and the squad exploded into action. Joe was thrilled to see everything go off without a hitch and the crowd went wild. He and Marti held hands the whole time, praying everything went smoothly so as to not jinx their performance the next day. They were perfect.
As soon as the squad hit their final stunt and finished with a bang, Joe and Marti raced down the steps—well, Joe was as careful as he could stand to be—and they ran out to meet the kids. There were hugs all around and high fives, the team all congratulating each other and squealing with elation.
Until Joe saw Terrell and Genesis.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as he reached them. Genesis was crying and apologizing over and over.
“It’s okay,” Terrell said, but he held his hand against his stomach. When he looked up, his chin was quivering and his eyes were wide open.
“Let me see,” Joe said and Terrell held out his hand.
“Oh my God,” one of the kids said, echoing Joe’s thoughts. There was a tomato where his thumb had been before.
“I’m so sorry, Terrell. I came down wrong and caught his thumb—”
“Let’s go.” Marti led Terrell away from the group and over to the trainer’s table where Terrence immediately went to work. Terrell was quickly going into shock so it wasn’t long before Marti and Terrence made eye contact.
“Leonard ER,” Terrence said. “I’ll be there as soon as the game is over.”
Marti nodded and turned to Joe.
