Page 52 of It Started with a Sunset
The band and the cheering got louder and louder as the last of the people found their seats and the game got closer to starting. Then they introduced the players and it became impossible to talk. She didn’t know if it was the fact that she’d made the decision to contact Nikolas or if it was how good the Aquamoose team started playing, but she felt a new energy flowing through her.
This close to the end of the basketball season, everyone seemed to cheer louder, the players played harder, the excitement reaching fevered heights. Especially since the game was so close—the scores were almost never more than two points apart, sometimes for LBSU, sometimes for their opponent.
When the clock counted down closer and closer to the two minutes until halftime mark, Avery kept glancing at the group of ambassadors and prospective students, the anticipation nearly killing her. By the way several of the ambassadors kept glancing at the game clock, she knew that they were feeling it, too.
When the clock hit the two-minute mark, all fifty ambassadors stood up, and the one hundred fifty prospective students stood soon after. Then they started filing toward the nearest aisle.
Summer immediately stood, too. “Where are they going?” She glanced over at Avery like she needed someone else to verify the baffling scene before her, so Avery stood. “Is this some kind of mutinous exodus?” She started scooting toward the side to make her way to the steps going down. But Avery stood on that side of Summer, so she surreptitiously slowed her progress. “They can’t just leave; I’m responsible for those kids. So are the ambassadors. They need to be where their parents are expecting them to be.”
Jessa, one of the ambassadors, turned around just then and, in exaggerated motions, mouthed to Summer over the roaring crowd,It’s all good. With both hands, she motioned for her to sit down.You stay there.
It was fortunate that it was Jessa who they picked to tell Summer to stay where she was because she might’ve been the only one who could’ve stopped Summer. She didn’t exactly sit down, though. She stayed standing, watching as they exited the arena in one long line.
“Come on,” Avery said. “Let’s sit. I’m sure everything’s okay or Jessa wouldn’t be going along with it.”
That seemed to calm Summer enough to get her to sit. But the moment the halftime buzzer sounded, Summer stood again and started shuffling to the side, trying to get Avery to shuffle toward the stairs again. “There’s no way they all wanted to get concessions or that they all needed to go to the restrooms. I should go check on them.”
“Summer, I’m sure everything is fine.” There were other people on their row who were standing and not moving toward the stairs quickly, which definitely helped. Avery was doing the minimum shuffling she could do without outright stopping Summer, but it wasn’t enough. The people in the row in front of them had mostly vacated for halftime, so Summer stepped over their seats and onto their row so she could get to the stairs more quickly.
Avery stepped over onto the row below, as well. She hadn’t wanted to join the others down on the court for the halftime show, where all eyes would be on them, and thought she’d gotten the much easier job in helping with Brock’s plan. But she hadn’t anticipated how strong Summer’s will to leave would be.
Once Summer got to the section where all the prospective students and ambassadors had been sitting that was now vacant, Avery did the only thing she could think of to stall her friend until everyone could make it to the court. She pretended to twist her ankle, yelped in pain, and collapsed into a crouch, both hands encircling her ankle, holding on tight. Summer immediately dropped to a crouch beside her. “Are you okay?”
She managed to wince and attempt to move it for long enough to keep Summer’s attention until she saw from the corner of her eye that everyone was making their way onto the court for the halftime show. Then she dropped the act and pointed. “There they are!”
They both stood and watched as the cheer team flipped and bounced and jogged and high-kicked their way onto the center of the court, while all two hundred of the students under Summer’s care walked out onto the court, splitting into two lines as they made their way across the back, front, and sides of the court, each holding two two-foot square cards in their hands. Once they were in place, they all set their cards on the ground and stood at attention.
“They’re helping the cheerleaders with the halftime show?” Summer asked. “That is so great! But why did no one come to me to get it cleared? It makes no sense. Do you think they cleared it with Pavani and she just forgot to tell me?”
Avery just shrugged, not even caring that she couldn’t hide her smile. This was something worth smiling about. “I guess.”
“Why didn’t Jessa tell me?”
Then booming music started, and the cheer team started doing their choreographed dance and acrobatics routine. They did kicks and basket tosses and stood on each other’s shoulders and bodies were flipping and being tossed into the air and caught again to perfect rhythm and fully synchronized as the music blared and the students waited, their hands clasped behind their backs.
As soon as the music stopped, the cheerleaders started doing some LBSU cheers, getting the crowd involved and shouting cheers right along with them. Then, all the students along the perimeter picked up their signs at a signal from one of the cheerleaders.
“When did they have time to practice this?” Summer asked. “I’ve been with them every moment since they stepped on campus earlier today.”
Then the cheerleaders started doing a cheer that they’d never done before. As one, all the cheerleaders called out “S, U, M, M, E, R, Graham,” and with each letter and word, the Aquamoose Tracks students along the backside held up their signs, each with one letter spelling out Summer’s name.
Well, mostly—one of the students holding an M had it upside down and had to turn it around, and the student that should’ve been holding the H was holding a Y. But at the nudging of the person standing next to him, he quickly switched the card with the one on the ground, and it spelled her name. They were actually doing pretty well since none of the prospective students even knew about this until the ambassadors spread the word after they’d been seated at the game.
Avery watched Summer’s face as she took it in, confusion and bafflement covering her features. The cheerleaders continued calling out the next part of their cheer, “Come on down.” The students at the front of the court held up signs spelling outCome on down. All the cheerleaders were looking right at Summer and waving their poms, gesturing for her to come down.
Six cheerleaders went to the front of the court, just below the center aisle, forming two lines of three, making an aisle for Summer to walk through once she’d made it down from the stands and onto the court. But she still seemed too stunned to move, just staring at her name in big letters on the court.
So Avery hooked her arm in Summer’s and started leading her to the center aisle. Then she led her down the steps toward the court. She kept sneaking glances at Summer’s face, which clearly showed that she didn’t have a clue what was going on.
Summer turned to Avery. “Do you know what’s happening?”
Avery shrugged. “I think we should go find out.”
As they got past most of the crowd and stepped onto the court, she knew the moment Summer spotted Deja, Elle, Everett, Pavani, Tess, and Valeria standing in the line with the ambassadors. Summer just pointed at them, mouth open, no words coming out. Avery took her spot with the others as the cheerleaders whisked Summer out to the center of the court.
Avery glanced up at the JumboTron, which was capturing Summer’s confusion for all to see. Deja grabbed her arm. “Isn’t this the most exciting thing ever?”
Avery grinned and nodded.
