Page 32 of Quarterback Crush
“Hey guys, photos please.” A teacher and a kid with a proper camera pushed us together, and Darwin and Adam and several other cheerleaders huddled around us. I was obligated to smile and hold my fingers up in a V sign like everyone else. The school photographer snapped away.
“What happened?” I seethed through clenched teeth while trying to maintain a smile.
“I dunno. She lost control in the pyramid.”
“Why the heck are you doing a pyramid in the rain?”
Savannah huffed out a haughty snort, yet was somehow smiling in the process “It was hardly raining. And besides theotherflyers didn’t fall.”
That was it. I disentangled from the arms surrounding me. “Thanks,” I said firmly, signaling to the photographer that I was out of there. I frantically scoped the area, couldn’t see Maya anywhere, but dashed over to Rose.
“Hey, Rose.” Rose’s eyes popped in surprise. “Where’s Maya? Is she okay?”
“Her mom took her to the ER.”
“Was she okay?”
“Her ankle swelled pretty quickly. I really hope it’s not broken.”
“Thanks.” There was essentially nothing I could do until we got back to school. I texted her as soon as we were on the bus, but there was no reply so I had to assume she was having an x-ray or with the doctor.
Fuming, and with the glory of victory marred, I asked around the team to see if anyone had seen the fall. With the intensity of the game and the reduced visibility, no one knew anything about it. I hoped it meant it had been a minor accident and Maya would be okay.
“Hey, you’re really worried about her,” Adam said.
“Yeah. Of course,” I answered more gruffly than intended.
“But I mean you guys have only been on, you know, one date,” he said.
I was quiet, pondering his reply. Yeah, one date. And supposedly she was my fake girlfriend, yet, I was mad with worry.
“Hey, man, we’re in the finals!" Adam reminded me with a thump to my shoulder. “We’re in the freaking finals, man!”
My chest tightened with a heaviness that had nothing to do with the game. And though I joined in with the singing on the ride back, my heart wasn’t in it. The victory seemed insignificant with Maya injured. I needed to see her.
Our arrival back at school was met with plenty of hoopla, Mom and Dad already there with all the other families. “History in the making,” and “Owl’s best team ever,” and “One for the record books” and a host of other wild statements were tossed around, everyone already calling us champions.
But I couldn’t enjoy it. Not knowing where or how Maya was.
“So proud,” Dad said, shaking Coach Gregor’s hand, then Assistant Coach Clarkson’s hand, then the Principal’s. I felt the vibration of my phone in my pocket but I knew better than to check it right at that moment. I suffered through the hobnobbing, waiting for the opportune time to escape. Weirdly, it was Savannah who saved me.
Calling me over, she gestured that we were needed for another photo. I quickly excused myself from the adults.
“It’s for the yearbook,” Reece said, when I protested I’d had photos earlier. She adjusted the lens on her camera. I stood next to Sav, hands clasped in front of me. “Actually, the backdrop is wrong. Let’s go over there.”
I followed Reece to what I thought would be a few feet away from the crowd, but she led me over to the gate and the Snow Ridge High entry sign.
“Okay, here,” she said, posing us beneath it. She stepped back and clicked away, before switching up and taking a few with her phone, all the time Savannah directing me in that bossy way that brought back awful memories. “Closer, Ollie. Look alive. Put your arm here, Ollie. Don’t look so stiff. Remember, we’re champions!”
“Did you hear how Maya is?” I asked, cringing as her arm snaked around my waist.
“Not yet,” she said, her wide smile dazzling to the point of annoyance.
“Why’d you do a pyramid in the rain? Aren’t you captain? Shouldn’t it be safety first?”
“I can’t help it if Maya’s inadequate. It’s not my fault she lost her balance,” Savannah said, tutting as she reached for my chin as if wiping away a crumb. Which was weird because I’d drunk a carton of chocolate milk and eaten a few protein balls, which I’d swallowed whole.
I turned to Reece. “We done here?”
