Page 104 of Unhinged Kallie

“Unbelievable.”

I picked out the buttery pieces and wondered if I could sneak out at halftime. Alex had changed so much this last year. I wasn’t sure when my loud-mouthed, punk friend disappeared. She transformed over the summer, and I did not doubt that if I let her, she would try to dress me up like Barbie. Complete with makeup, nails, and hair before she dragged me from one social event to another.

In a strange turn of events, Alex and Talon had grown so close that I rarely saw her anymore. They had diaries full of nothing but social events and volunteer activities. I was horrified watching them squeal as Talon showed off her new sparkly book tabs. What the heck was so exciting about sparkly tape? They were both so over the top that they made Mary Fucking Poppins seem like a lazy bitch. That shit took effort.

The mascot ran around doing cartwheels and then jumped into the middle of the next cheer, and he could move. The cheerleaders had divided to support each side playing.

“Oh my god, aren’t you excited,” Alex asked as she finally sat down beside me, out of breath.

“Not really, it’s just a football game.”

Alex nudged my shoulder with hers as she laughed. “You haven’t changed a bit,” she said, smiling, but it felt like an insult.

The question died in my throat as Alex jumped to her feet like her ass had been electrocuted. I was one of the few who knew what that looked like.

“Let’s go, wolf pack, let’s go,” was chanted around me, my ass vibrating with the stomping feet and clapping hands that drowned out the last of my intelligent thoughts.

Alex grabbed my arm and dragged me to my feet. I glared at her, and if I didn’t like her, I would’ve cut her fingers off.

“Come on, Kallie, cheer with us,” she said, smiling. “Don’t you cheer for Carter when you watch his games?”

She had a point, I did, but that was different. I didn’t care about baseball. I was only there because of Carter. I watched Troy run down the field, and even though he would never know if I was cheering, I couldn’t find a reason to disagree with Alex.

Cupping my mouth, I whistled loudly when his side got the ball and ran down the field for a touchdown. The guys treated this game like a regular season game as they danced in and celebrated.

They set the scrimmage line, and I was impressed with myself for knowing what that meant. Troy’s team was in the offensive position, and I picked him out of the crowd.

“What is Troy’s position called again?”

“He’s a running back,” Alex said, smiling.

“What does that mean?”

“Basically, they want him to reset the down. He will get the ball and run until he’s tackled.”

“So he’s not throwing it?”

Alex laughed. “Noooo, that’s only the quarterback.”

“This game confuses me,” I said, turning back.

There was a pause, and then the guys collided, sounding like a herd of elephants if they were stomping on cars. I spotted Troy, and just like Alex said, he had the ball and was darting between guys and avoided having his leg grabbed before everyone piled on top of him.

They all got up, and I found myself getting into the excitement.

“Will they do it again?”

“Looks like that’s the play,” Alex said, and I wasn’t sure what that meant, but didn’t bother to ask.

“Go, Troy!” I screamed as they reset, and as Alex predicted, he took off with the ball. He went farther this time before getting slammed into from the side and taken down with a hit you could shockingly hear in the stands. Troy disappeared under the sea of bodies as he became a human pancake.

The pile moved, and I was chanting with Alex when I realized someone was still lying on the field. I couldn’t tell who was on the ground with so many people gathered. They were obviously injured, but I knew when I saw the ball tucked under his left arm.

The coaching staff ran onto the field, and all the guys but one backed up and knelt as the coach reached Troy. No one made a sound. It was as if we’d all sucked in a collective gasp and held it to see what happened. The soft breeze carried the noise of the coach snapping his fingers in front of Troy’s helmet, and my heart pounded harder.

“Get the stretcher,” the coach yelled, even as two men ran across the field with a stretcher and medical bags slung over their arms.

Everything slowed down. Talon burst away from the group of cheerleaders and ran to her brother.