Page 10 of Falling Into You

Jacob thrust both arms in the air. “That’s five for me, baby!”

“This guy can’t miss tonight!” Cody crowed.

Cody wasn’t wrong. So far Jacob had hit a planter full of orange and yellow mums, the basketball backboard, the blow-up ghost, one of the giant metal pumpkins, and now the bird feeder. Everyone else had one or two points. Jacob was obliterating all of them.

His mom went all out for Halloween, so there were plenty of targets in the front yard. Hay bales, a cornstalk, a couple of scarecrows, the air-filled ghost, the metal yard stakes in the shapes of pumpkins and witches, and on and on. With seven kids, his mother’s life was generally chaotic, but she was hyperorganized when it came to holidays. The Halloween decorations went up like clockwork on September 20 each year without fail, and everyone chipped in to help.

“Holy crap, she will not stop texting me,” Tucker said, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“Rory?” Jacob asked, glancing over as he crunched into another Cool Ranch Dorito.

“Yeah, she’s tweaking about these cheer tryouts. Like, trying to get me to make people come. It’s cracked. Any senior who wants to be in a sport is in a sport, and any senior who’s not is not for a reason.”

“Like Kirk Conway?” Cody suggested.

They all cracked up. Kirk Conway was the captain of the chess team, who had been lobbying to make it a varsity sport for the past two years.

“Exactly. Imagine Kirk Conway trying to throw Rory around,” Tucker said.

Everyone winced. It did not paint a pretty picture.

“Why don’tyoudo it?” Kai suggested to Tucker, flicking his dark hair out of his eyes. “Help your girl out.” He easily caught the soccer ball Chad threw up to him and pointed at the backyard. “Into the trampoline.” He chucked the ball. It hit the net and unceremoniously dropped to the ground.

“Chad! Backyard!” Jacob shouted.

“I got it!” Willow appeared from under the eaves. She must have been doing her homework on the patio. She strolled over to the ball, used her toe to pop it up into her hand, and then tossed it effortlessly up to Jacob.

“Thanks, Will!”

She shook her head at them like they weresoimmature and disappeared again.

“Dude, your sister’s getting hot,” Kai said. Jacob’s stomach twisted. He didn’t want anyone talking about Willow that way, but Kai’s attention was especially worrisome. Every girl he’d ever known had been in love with Kai at some point or another. With his dark hair, dark eyes, olive skin, and lanky-but-athletic frame, he had the innocuous good looks of a boy bander that apparently attracted all the ladies. At least that was what Jacob’s older sister Laura—now a sophomoreat UMass—had told him a couple of years ago. It must have been true, because Kai had gone through more situationships than anyone else he knew.

“If you so much as look at her, I will end you,” Jacob replied, and Kai raised his hands in surrender.

“Me? On the cheer squad?” Tucker said, bringing them back to the topic at hand. “Yeah, right. Can’t you just see it?” He lifted his arms. “Gimme anL!” he said in a high voice.

Cody, Kai, and Jacob all shouted, “L!”

“Gimme aU!”

“U!”

“Gimme a... wait.” He tilted his head and looked quizzically at the sky. “What comes afterU?”

The guys collapsed in groans and laughter, but Jacob was mostly faking it. It was such a cheap shot. Why did anyone think cheerleaders were stupid? Rory had better grades than everyone on his roof right now. Including him.

Tucker and Cody each took their turns with the ball. Tucker hit the scarecrow with the weird red-and-orange hat, and then Cody missed the dead patch of grass in the front yard that never grew, no matter how much seed they put there.

“Good thing you’re the goalie and not a striker,” Tucker mocked him.

Cody flicked Tucker’s ear.

“Ow!” They started to wrestle until Jacob whistled as loud as he could.

“That’s it! I’m going to put this through the basketball hoop!” he shouted.

The announcement had the desired effect. Tucker and Cody stopped wrestling and therefore didnotroll off the roof.