Friday Night Stage Lights

by Rachele Alpine

  There was a little voice in the back of my mind telling me that I shouldn’t forgive him. Was it smart to trust him again after what he’d done? But he looked so hopeful and silly with that mum, it was hard not to give him another chance. Besides, he was my only shot at getting noticed at the Showcase. I needed him to be my partner.

  “Okay,” I reluctantly agreed and hoped I wasn’t making a mistake. “But I want you to carry that thing around today for me. And when people ask why, you have to tell them the truth.”

  “Oh, you better believe that I will,” Logan said. And he put the giant mum around his neck. “Now what do you say we go back into class and show this thing off!”

  “You do know there’s boys from the team in there?” I asked.

  “Hey, I can’t help it if they get jealous,” Logan said and gestured to me to follow him. He strutted into the room, showing off my mum like it was the greatest thing in the world, which it kind of was. And the best part was that I had my partner back and the two of us were going to rock the All-City Showcase.

  Chapter 48

  Not only was Logan at our conditioning class after school, but he showed up with that awful, giant mum around his neck. And instead of avoiding me when I came into the room, he waved his hands wildly around to get my attention.

  “There she is,” he said, his voice so loud that it filled the entire room. The rest of the team stopped what they were doing and stared. My face instantly heated up at the attention that was now on me. “My dance partner is here.”

  Wait, what? Was Logan serious? Was he really calling me out in front of all his teammates? The same teammates that had made him quit being my partner? I waited for Randy to crack a joke or act like the same immature boy who had been giving him a hard time about dancing with me, but it didn’t happen.

  “Um, have aliens invaded the studio? What have you done with the football team?” I asked all of them when they remained silent.

  “It’s okay, Brooklyn,” Logan said. “I talked to everyone, and it’s all good.”

  “Everything is not good,” I said and focused on Randy. I thought about how awful he’d been to me and how unfair it had been to make Logan feel as if he were doing something wrong. “Maybe you’re all cool with us dancing together now, but a few of you seem to have had a lot of fun giving Logan a hard time about helping me out.”

  “It wasn’t right,” Anthony spoke up. “Especially since you’ve done nothing but work with us to become better football players.”

  “And we are becoming better players,” Logan said and turned to me. “Which is what I explained to everyone. We are so thankful for everything you’ve done. If it weren’t for you and ballet, we wouldn’t be playing the way we are. You’ve helped us get to this point, so I told them that if someone has a problem with me helping you, then maybe they need to stay out of the studio.”

  “I think that sounds like a very good idea,” I said, as I looked straight at Randy, who focused his gaze down at the foor instead of on me.

  “Logan told us about how much the two of you rehearsed and about all the extra practice you do beyond that. You’re super dedicated,” Jimmy said. “That’s a lot of work.”

  “It is,” I agreed. “But I love it, so it isn’t like I’m working.”

  “Like football,” Logan said. “Which makes sense. Ballet is a lot like football.”

  “Ballet is like football?” Randy asked, and scowled. But he had the other boys’ interest.

  “Hear me out,” Logan said and held his hand up to stop the boys from agreeing with Randy. “When you’re in a game, you have specific plays that you do in order to move the ball down the field. Strategy is everything in football, and if you can’t execute your plays, your team will lose. Just like you rehearse a dance, we rehearse these plays. We watch film, we do mental reps, and practice them with the team on the field nonstop until they become second nature. That way, when Coach Konarski calls a specific play, we know exactly what to do. It sounds nuts, but it’s just like dancing.”

  “That does sound nuts,” Jimmy agreed with him, but he nodded as if it made sense.

  “When you break it all down, football is really one big dance. You just have to hope you execute it better than the other team,” Logan said.

  “I guess you could look at it that way,” Jimmy agreed slowly, which must have blown his mind because never in any of these boys’ wildest dreams did they probably ever think that we’d be able to look at football and ballet on mutual ground.

  Anthony spoke up, “And your dance for the Showcase is a lot like our team trying to make it to the playoffs. And the championship for you is Texas School of the Arts.”

  “It is,” I said. TSOTA was everything to me.

  “We understand why Logan is dancing with you,” Anthony said. “Why he needs to dance with you. We didn’t mean to mess up your chance to get into the school. Especially after everything you’ve done for us.”

  “Thanks,” I told them and then focused on Randy. “You’re okay with this too?”

  Randy shrugged. “Logan’s right. You work hard.”

  It wasn’t exactly an apology, but from Randy, any sort of acknowledgment was pretty major.

  “It’s one thing to say you’re sorry,” Logan said. “But we thought we’d show you how sorry we are.”

  “You’re going to show me?” I asked. How exactly do you show someone you’re sorry?

  Anthony spoke up. “When Logan talked to us, he asked us to put ourselves in your shoes, so we did. It would be so hard to move to a new place where you don’t know anyone. Ballet is important to you, so while we don’t have those fancy pink shoes you use to stand on your toes, we asked Mary Rose to show us how to do a piqué turn.”

  “You did?” I asked, not believing him for a second. Piqué turns took some work to get right.

  “Yep,” Jimmy said. “We came in yesterday and worked with her. And now we’re ready to show you our stuff.”

  Logan gestured toward the group of boys, and everyone lined up at one end of the room. Even Randy begrudgingly joined the group, although he didn’t look too happy about it. Mary Rose, who had stood in the corner watching everything with an amused look on her face, turned on some music. And sure enough, one by one, each of the boys did piqué turns across the room. Well, most of them attempted to do them, while Randy didn’t put much effort into it, but it was the thought that counted.

  “You all did this for me?” I asked, and a whole bunch of emotions welled up inside of me. What they had done was so nice and unexpected.

  “Yep, and it wasn’t easy,” Anthony said.

  “Really?” I asked the group. “Are you saying that what dancers do is hard?”

  “Not hard,” Jimmy said. “Impossibly hard.”

  “We all work hard,” I told the team. “Logan’s taught me a lot about everything that goes into playing football.”

  “How about we agree that we’re all pretty amazing?” Logan suggested, and the group nodded in agreement, but the thing was, he was right. The team might not totally get ballet, and I’ll never love football the way that this town does, but I understood exactly what Logan meant about respecting one another and what we did.

  Chapter 49

  While the homecoming game was pretty much the biggest event of the football season at Leighton, the homecoming bonfire was a close runner-up. Mia had talked it up since the start of the school year, and it sounded amazing. The school brought in food trucks, got a DJ, and had tons of carnival games and smaller fire pits where you could roast hotdogs or marshmallows. Mia had planned to bring Reese’s cups to use instead of chocolate bars. She swore by them, and I wasn’t about to argue about that flavor combination. I’d been looking forward to the bonfire and we had hoped to get our parents to let us have a sleepover even though it was a school night. But after what Mia had done, none of that was going to happen now.

  So instead, I headed to the bonfire with my family, and it wasn’t the same. Sure, the hum of ex
citement was in the air, and there was definitely a fun party atmosphere going on. Teachers took turns sitting in the dunk booth, the drill team taught people a dance, little kids jumped in bounce houses, and Mom gave me money to spend on junk food, but there was something missing. And that something was my best friend.

  I couldn’t find Mia in the crowd, but I did see Logan with that ridiculous mum. It had been a week since he’d shown up outside my classroom with it. The bottoms of the ribbons were dirty and ratty now from being dragged all over the place. I couldn’t believe he still had it.

  “I’ll have you know this is the most wanted mum out there,” he said. “I already had three girls point it out to their dates, telling them that this is exactly what they want for the dance Saturday.”

  “Maybe I’ll show it off myself and make everyone jealous,” I said, because all was good now. He helped place it around my neck, and even though it weighed a ton, I wore it proudly.

  I posed for him. “What do you think? Should I wear this for the Showcase?”

  “Totally. You’d catch the eye of all the talent scouts in that.”

  “Right?” I asked, and the two of us cracked up.

  “There’s Mia,” Logan said, pointing across the fire to where she stood with her microphone out to a girl in our grade. “I bet she’s doing her on-the-street interviews. Should we see what question she’s asking tonight?”

  He headed toward her before I could say anything.

  “Hey, Logan,” I called, and he stopped. “The thing is, Mia and I aren’t really talking to each other right now.”

  Logan stopped and turned around. “Isn’t she your best friend?”

  “She was my best friend,” I told him. “All of that stuff she posted in the video about Tanner was private. I trusted her to keep quiet, but instead, she shared our conversation on her YouTube channel.”

  “Oh man, that’s tough. I didn’t know that was all a secret. I figured Tanner was cool with that video. But is it worth missing out on spending time with her?”

  “What are you talking about? Of course it is. I had no idea she was even recording. She took our private conversation and used it like it was her news to share.”

  “That’s not cool, and I’d be mad too, but the two of you were best friends. It’s kind of like me and the football team. Once I talked to the team about all the ballet stuff, I felt so much better. And look at the two of us. Not only did you forgive me, but you got that amazing mum, too.”

  I rolled my eyes and played with the ribbons on the mum. What he was saying made sense, even if it wasn’t easy. “It’s hard to forget about what Mia did.”

  “You don’t have to forget. But don’t let it ruin things.”

  I stared into the giant bonfire and thought about all the ways I’d missed Mia this last month. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Of course I’m right,” Logan joked. He gave me a little push toward Mia. “Now go talk to her. Get this figured out so we can all hang together tonight.”

  I let the momentum of Logan’s push move me forward. If he forgave the team for making fun of ballet, and I forgave him for getting cold feet about being my partner, then I should be able to make up with Mia, right?

  She was finishing up her questioning of the girl when I walked up to her.

  “Brooklyn!” she said, her voice a mix of surprise and happiness.

  “Hey,” I said. “Can we talk?”

  “Sure, let me turn off this camera,” she said, and I knew she was doing it for me. To make me feel better.

  “No, don’t,” I told her. “I want you to record this apology. I should’ve forgiven you a long time ago. I miss you and want my best friend back.”

  Mia shook her head and held her hand up to me to stop. “Please, you’re not the one who should be apologizing. I’m the awful one. I shared stuff I shouldn’t have just to try and get more views, and that was stupid.”

  “It was pretty awful. You hurt me. I trusted you to keep that to yourself,” I said, and it was good to get that off of my chest. To say the words I’d been thinking for so long.

  Mia nodded. “I know. I didn’t have any right to do that. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

  “Promise?” I asked.

  “Cross my heart,” Mia said.

  “Then I think we should agree to move on.”

  “I like that plan.”

  “Well, on one condition . . .”

  “Anything,” Mia agreed.

  “That you help me build some giant s’mores tonight.”

  “I can do better than that.” Mia picked up the backpack she always carried with her camera equipment in it. She opened the front pocket and pulled out a bag full of Reese’s cups. “I’ll introduce you to the best s’more you’ve ever had in your life.”

  And that was the perfect way to close a deal.

  “Best friends again?” I asked.

  “Always,” she said, and as the two of us sealed our friendship with a hug, Logan came over.

  “Those Reese’s cups are to share, right?” he asked.

  “Yep! Now let’s go test them out,” Mia said, and the three of us set off toward one of the fire pits to pick the perfect spot to make our s’mores. And it felt so good to have my dance partner and my best friend with me again.

  Chapter 50

  We had Friday off because homecoming was basically a national holiday here. No, really, it’s the truth. There was a big parade in the morning with the marching band, and the girls on the homecoming court rode through the streets in convertible cars and threw candy at the kids who cheered them on. Each team, all the way down to the Mighty Mites, rode on floats, and when the middle school boys came by, Mia and I cheered extra loud for them. They waved, and Logan pelted us with handfuls of candy.

  Mom couldn’t wait for the game and was dead set on leaving an hour early to get a good seat.

  “You’d both better get down here fast, because I’m walking out this door in one minute,” she yelled from the bottom of the steps.

  I finished braiding my hair, grabbed a hooded sweatshirt, and ran out of my room. Most people only joked about leaving, but Mom was the type of person who actually would. There’d been a number of times when I’d missed rides to school and had to walk the seven blocks from our old house, because Mom doesn’t like to be held up. So when she told us we had a minute left, she meant it.

  Stephen and I narrowly avoided colliding in the hallway as we ran out of our rooms.

  “Your mom doesn’t cut us any breaks, does she?” he asked.

  “Never,” I said. “Once she told me we were eating, and I was five minutes late, and by the time I got to the table, she’d eaten all the French fries because she said I was too slow.”

  “That’s so not cool,” Stephen said.

  “That’s called making sure to be on time,” Mom said, coming up behind us. “You snooze, you lose. Now let’s get going.”

  We hurried out of the house, and it was a good thing Mom kept us moving, because even though we were an hour early, the stands were packed. It was hard to find a seat together, but luckily we were able to get a spot about halfway up next to Jayden and his parents. He’d just gotten his giant cast off and now had on a walking boot which made it easier for him to get around.

  “Does this mean our weekly movie and game nights are ending, because I’m pretty sure this next week is when I finally beat you at Monopoly,” I told him.

  “Yeah, right, as if you could ever beat the master.”

  “Never say never,” I said.

  “Don’t worry, I’m still sidelined for a few more weeks. Which means a few more weeks to remain the undefeated Monopoly champion.”

  “Hey, I’m simply going easy on you,” I said and then gestured toward the stadium. “Speaking of undefeated, I’m pretty sure the entire state of Texas is here to cheer on Leighton.”

  I didn’t think it was possible for the crowd to be any bigger than it had been at any other game, but tonight proved me
wrong. It was so loud that I was pretty sure my ears would be ringing for days, and there was no way my earbuds would block out the noise tonight with my music. But the truth was that I didn’t want to put my music on. Tonight I thought I’d pay attention to the game and give it a shot.

  I was able to understand a bit of what was going on because of my time with Logan, and the energy from the crowd was contagious. I waved the flag in my hand as high as everyone around me and yelled so loud that my voice didn’t stand a chance in sticking around past the first quarter.

  Quarter! I smiled, proud of myself for remembering the word. Before Logan, I’d had no idea how long a game was or how many points a team could score.

  “So if they kick this field punt, then we get two more points, right?” I asked Mom.

  She smiled. “It’s a field goal. And yep, we’ll be in the lead.”

  Okay, maybe I wasn’t a pro, but close to it. Close enough that when Jayden’s brother Malik’s kick sent the ball sailing through the goalposts, I jumped up with everyone and pumped my fist in the air.

  “We’re awesome!” I yelled.

  Mia came up next to me right at that moment and caught me in a full-out Leighton love fest.

  “This isn’t so bad, is it?” Mia asked and smirked at me.

  “You’re right. It’s kind of fun when you get into it.”

  Mia pulled out her phone and pretended to record me. “Can you say that again, please? I’m pretty sure a miracle has occurred.”

  I gave her a playful push and shook my head. “Come on now, let’s not get too crazy. I’d still rather be dancing.”

  Her face changed for a split second, and the happy look in her eyes disappeared. “Of course you would. How could I forget?”

  I couldn’t tell if she was upset or joking, but I didn’t have time to figure it out because the quarter ended and people around us began to stand to get food during halftime.