Page 37 of Falling Into You

Something was seriously wrong with her.

“I’m sorry, there’sanotherroutine?” he asked.

The squad laughed, Rory included. “Um... yeah,” she said. “Stop messing around.”

“I’m not.... I thought... I figured we’d do the same routine for both.”

The laughter got a little louder, and Jacob looked away, red blotches blooming on his already sweaty face. Rory suddenly wished everyone would shut it.

“That’s a hard no,” Layla said, sauntering over. “The halftime cheer is just a cheer. The regionals routine is a two-and-a-half-minuteroutine.”

“But it’s not just a cheer,” Jacob said weakly. “There’s music. There’s dancing!”

“Yeah, but not like in the regionals routine,” Rory said, a little more gently. “Two and a half minutes is a lot.”

“So why am I just hearing about it now? Why haven’t we already started learning it?” Jacob shoved his water bottle into his Woodmont Soccer bag, his mood clearly falling again.

“I didn’t want to confuse you when you were just starting out,” Rory explained.

“Okay, so how far behind am I?”

Carlos stretched his arms overhead and said, “Pretty behind.”

“Not helping!” Rory sang. “Look, Jacob. It’s gonna be fine. Honestly, a lot of the moves are the same—there’s just a longer dance portion and an additional stunt section. You’vegot the fundamentals down. You’ll learn the routine in no time.”

His back was to her as she said this. He was busy yanking a hooded sweatshirt out of his bag and pulling it on over his head. When he finally turned to face her, he was glowering. “This is crap. I’m gonna go watch the game.”

“The... soccer game?” Gwen squeaked.

“Yeah, the soccer game,” he said, turning to storm off.

“Oh, you’re definitely going to go watch the soccer game,” Layla called out, making him stop in his tracks. “We’re cheering at it, remember?”

Rory watched his shoulders slump, and all she wanted to do was hug him. It was amazing how quickly she’d gone from seeing Jacob as her mortal enemy to seeing him as something... else. Her teammate? Her friend? Whatever he was to her, it was clear he was overwhelmed, and she wanted to make it better.

But right now, they had to cheer on his former team—something she knew was only going to make everything worse.

Jacob

If someone had asked Jacob to write down the details of his worst-possible nightmare, he would have described what he was currently experiencing. There he was, wearing his red-and-gold cheerleading uniform—full pants and a short-sleeved sweater—and toting his megaphone, while all his friends—his team—took the field for one of the most important games of the year. Even the parents in the bleachers looked confused. He could see some of them whispering to one another and pointing at him. Cody sat in the front row, thoroughly enjoying the whole show. Every time Rory called a cheer, Jacob was at least ten seconds behind.

As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, he had a test in math next week that he needed to ace, and Mrs. Dutton had given him a practice exam today at lunch. He’d scored a seventy. Not the worst he’d ever done, but it wouldn’t help get his grade up. He had to study. As much as possible. Honestly,studying math would have been preferable to what he was doing right now.

“Go! Hey, here we go! Woodmont! Go!” the squad cheered.

On the field there was a long whistle followed by angry shouting. Jacob turned to look at the same moment he was supposed to toss Rory into the air. Crap. Had Tucker just gotten a yellow card? What had he done? He had to know he couldn’t be taking stupid penalties right now.

“Jacob! What the hell? Pay attention,” Rory said through gritted teeth.

“I’m sorry!” he shot back. “But aren’t we supposed to be paying attention to the game?”

“Of course we are. But my partner can’t not be there when I expect him to be,” she said, holding her pom-poms on her hips. “That’s how injuries happen.”

Carlos shot him a side-eye that he did not appreciate, and a few other squad members grumbled in his direction. On the sidelines, a bunch of the sophomores who never saw varsity playing time openly laughed at him. Jacob’s face was on fire. As if this entire situation wasn’t embarrassing enough, now she was dressing him down in front of everyone?

“It’s a little difficult to take you seriously with your sassy little pom-pom pose,” Jacob joked loudly, earning laughs from the soccer players on the bench nearby. He’d much rather have them laughing with him than at him.

Rory rolled her eyes. “Real mature.”