Page 114 of Spring Awakening

She shrugs, but she’s glad he’s not sad about it. He frowns further, and she walks away.

“It’s your dad, isn’t it?!”

“I’ve gotta go!” she calls out. “Bye!”

“Mal,” he shouts, and she turns around. Everyone’s looking at her, but so is Zach, so she doesn’t care. “I love you.”

She smiles. “I love you too.”

Cheerleading is about as embarrassing as Mali expected it to be when Cam mentioned it weeks ago. She never needs to see her father in a skirt ever again. But people are cheering, and Frankie cries with laughter when Imani waves her pompoms in her face, F. ADEBAYO on her jersey. Zach videos them the entire time, but his gaze is always on her. That’s all she ever cares about.

The local business came through, and Mali reckons they can get a few partnerships up and running for the community throughout the summer. The Fun Day is more successful than she ever though it would be. She gets the number 9 painted on her left cheek, because Zach always kisses her on the right. Herdad gets the number 12 on both of his cheeks and takes about a million selfies. Mali wonders if he’ll have a midlife crisis when Ezra retires. She gets to watch the moment Zach announces the junior league, and he does an on-camera interview that should (but probably won’t) go viral for all the right reasons. She wonders if he’ll end up on the back of the papers this week.

Mali sits on the bench, smiling at the sun. Summer is truly around the corner. Zach keeps telling her spring is lying. There will be another spring awakening and a month of rain before summer starts fully. She knows that, of course. There’s nothing about a British summer that isn’t half downpour. For right now, she smiles at the sun.

“Hey,” Mali says, when Ezra comes over.

“Nice performance,” he says. “Though I dunno if I’ll forgive you for making Mum dress up.”

Mali laughs. “I saw way too much of my dad. Got many junior sign ups?” When she looks up at Ezra, he’s frowning. Ezra is always frowning, but it’s different today. She wonders if he’s down because Cam isn’t here.

“A couple, I think,” he mutters. Mali smiles, but Ezra stays standing next to her, looking out onto the pitch. “Zach tells me you want me to do aThe Proposal-style thing?”

Traitor.

Mali’s eyes go wide, but Ezra looks about as amused as he’ll allow, so she explains. “It was a silly thought! Besides, it was back when we had no other sponsorships, and I thought the public would go nuts over you being in a relationship.”

He hums, sitting on the bench next to her. “Well, I had to watch the movie, so you owe me a cookie or something for that—”

“Sandra Bullock is the world’s greatest actress, and I’ll do no such thing.”

Ezra grunts. “Anyway, that sounds like hell, but if you want… I can go over sponsorship options with you next week.”

She hides the gasp as well as she can. It’s not that well. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I need a distraction.” Is Ezra trying to talk to her? Are they having girl talk?

“What’s up?”

He shrugs. “Nothing. Just… I dunno how much longer I’ll be on the pitch.”

Mali raises her eyebrows. She’s thought about Ezra retiring. He’s the oldest on the team. Thirty-two, she thinks, but his wiki page is out of date, and he won’t tell anyone when his birthday is. Only Frankie knows, and she’s a vault.Cam probably knows too, but she's not here.

“You know people will want you for things other than rugby, right? Whatever you wanna do after, you’ve got a ton of options.”

“You think?” He looks at her once, and she’s never seen him look unsure. It’s the strangest look; it doesn’t suit him.

“Are you joking? You’re Ezra Adebayo.”

He smiles. A real, not quite large enough for anyone to notice but it counts smile.

“Monday?” he asks.

“Innit.”

He laughs. “You use that wrong, but it’s hilarious.” Ezra goes to leave, but he turns back around. “I’m glad everything worked out with Zach. Just so you know, I was basically his wingman. Y’know, if he’s thinking about who’ll be best man, or godfather.”

Mali rolls her eyes. “Go save your sister from the gaggle of rugby mums.”

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