Page 22 of Falling Into You

But Jacob took a step closer to Rory and said in a low voice, “Come on, Ror. Don’t punish the whole squad. They’re all gonna hate me now.”

“Well, you should have thought of that before starting out with a dumb stunt like this,” she said. “Now go. Run. At least it’s something you’re good at, soccer star.”

Jacob glowered at her, took a step back, and started running, quickly catching up with the rest of the team.

“Well, glad I was late,” Layla said, coming up behind Rory and Coach. She held out a plastic cup of iced coffee toward Rory. “Pumpkin spice cold brew. I thought you might need it.”

“Bless you,” Rory said, taking the cup from her. She glanced across the track toward Jacob and the rest of the squad. Ford and some of the other football players were whooping at Jacob, obviously teasing him for being on cheer. It was going to be a long afternoon.

“Okay, let’s run it one more time, and then we’ll put it to music,” Rory instructed.

A few of her teammates groaned, but subtly enough that she couldn’t tell who it was and admonish them. It really had been a long afternoon. For the past two hours, all the squad had done was teach Jacob cheers, spot him on new stunts, and now work with him to understand that sometimes there were half counts within the eight-count phrases of a dance routine. Jacob, she had to admit, had been a willing and enthusiastic participant in all of this, but she could tell his energy was flagging. As was hers and the rest of the team’s. She was going to need to wrap this up quickly before they all got cranky and turned on her. There was only so much one could accomplish before losing everyone’s focus.

Maybe the four laps to start practice had been a bad idea.

“Okay and five, six, seven, eight!”

She kept counting as the squad moved through the danceportion of the halftime routine. Jacob had the moves down, but he was a split second behind everyone else and his arms needed work. He also kept looking around the whole time he was dancing, and she wasn’t sure whether he was checking the rest of the squad to make sure he wasn’t screwing up or looking around to make sure none of his friends was watching. Maybe a little bit of both.

“Stiffen those arms, Reilly!” she shouted. “You have to hit each and every count.”

Whenever she shouted instructions, Layla and Gwen automatically took up the count.

“And kick! Pivot! Arms! Jump!”

The whole squad ended with knees bent, arms at their sides, ready to launch into the final cheer portion of the routine. It was basically a chant, dance, stunt routine. Nothing hugely complicated. Unless you’d never done a cheer before in your life and couldn’t seem to kick higher than knee level.

Rory clapped her hands and gave a whoop. “Good job, everyone. Let’s cool down and stretch it out. That’ll be all for today.”

With a universal groan of relief, the squad dropped to the track and automatically extended their left legs out straight, leaning over to stretch their hamstrings. While Layla and most of the other girls bent fully over with ease, Carlos reached out for his toes, spine still mostly upright. Jacob, however, could barely reach his shin. Rory knew the guyswere generally less flexible than the girls, but he looked like he was in pain. She walked over and sat next to him.

“Oh, hey there, Captain. You sure you want to sit this close to yoursituation?” he joked.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “But don’t pull a stunt like that again. I need everyone intact.”

“Switch legs, everyone!” Coach shouted, glancing up from her laptop briefly.

They did, Jacob wincing as he moved.

“Can I ask you a question?” Rory said, eyeing his knee as he tried to straighten his right leg. They really were quite nice legs. Soccer boy legs.

“Anything for you, oh captain, my captain.”

Rory rolled her eyes. They’d watchedDead Poets Societyin English class at the end of last year, and people had been quoting it ever since. Some mockingly, some reverently. Rory fell more on the reverent side. She’d loved the cozy, old-school vibes of the movie. And the whole “carpe diem” message had really stuck with her. She was going to be in high school for only two more years, and she wanted to make the most of it. Ergo, she really needed to win regionals.

“Can you really not kick any higher?” she asked Jacob.

He laughed, and it lit up his entire person. “Rory, I’ve been playing soccer pretty much nonstop for the past six years. My hamstrings are tighter than a Botoxed face.”

Rory laughed and Jacob grinned in response. He really did love to make people laugh. It wasn’t a bad quality, shesupposed, but she wished he didn’t always have to go to such extremes to make it happen.

“Let’s get in butterfly position!” Coach called out.

While Rory easily swung her legs around and pulled her feet up almost to her groin, knees flat on the ground, Jacob’s feet were well out in front of him, his knees up like bat wings. Apparently, he also had tight hips.

“We’re going to have to loosen you up, Jacob Reilly,” she told him.

“Said no one, ever,” he shot back.