Page 8 of Saving the Halfback

We paid for our food, and I followed him and Nolan over to the table in the center of the room. This had to be the football table, since the guys sitting around it were huge. My eyes caught on Chase for a brief moment, Hadley sitting perched on his lap.Even though I felt his stare, I refused to look at him. If he wanted me to not exist, then I could pretend the same about him.

Nolan seemed like a social butterfly, slapping hands as he walked and smiling at everyone. “Nolan!” Hadley called out from her spot. Dang. She was ballsy. “Come sit here!”

“Oh, Lach saved me a spot, sorry!” He slid next to me, almost squishing me as he pushed me along the bench into Lachlan.

“What classes do you have next?” I asked Nolan.

“Gym and history,” he said as he pulled out a protein drink from his backpack. “You?”

“Same.” I grinned.

Lachlan raised an eyebrow. “You elected to take gym?”

“Yeah. I always wanted to take it, but everyone said it was reserved for athletes. Principal Leggie said I could take it if I wanted.” I shrugged.

“A lot of people take it, thinking it’s an easy A, but the elective one is physically demanding.”

“What do you have next?” I asked.

“Gym.” He grinned, the idiot. I rolled my eyes and smiled. I liked this. It was as if Lachlan and I had easily fallen back into being friends. As if three years of not communicating hadn’t passed between us. “Then I have AP Chem.”

“AP?” Nolan asked. “I used to be in AP classes at my old school but had to drop out. What classes are you taking?”

“This semester, only AP Chem, but next semester is going to suck. I’ll have calculus, English,andeconomics, all AP.” When Nolan wrinkled his nose, Lachlan explained, “They messed up my schedule and gave me my free period and both electives in the first semester.”

“That’s shitty. I thought about doing advanced placement, but that, on top of football and extra training last year, I just had no time to focus on the work, and my GPA was falling. I figuredit was better to maintain my GPA in the mainstream classes than have a low one in AP.”

So, Nolan was smart. Lachlan was smart. I shrank a little in my seat. I mean, I wasn’t failing, but I sure wasn’t advanced-placement level.

I never knew Lachlan was in advanced placement, but I knew he was always ahead of us in elementary school, often doing our homework for us when we forgot it. He only got caught once before he changed his strategy, and they never caught him again. But Nolan…Nolan seemed just as passionate about it as Lachlan was.

When Nolan had walked through the hall, laughing and joking and slapping hands as he played the new quarterback part, he’d been tense. He exuded confidence well, but his eyes had looked exhausted, and this was after only knowing him for part of the day. But now, as he and Lachlan discussed university-level math, his eyes were relaxed, calm. He wasn’t forcing the confidence; hewasconfident.

I stared at Lachlan’s breadsticks. When we were kids, Lachlan would get busy talking, a bomb could go off near him, and he would continue his discussion. So, I wondered…

I grabbed a breadstick and pulled it slowly toward me until I was nibbling on it. Somehow, the topic of math turned to astronomy, and as Lachlan grew more verbose, he moved so he was straddling the bench, one leg alongside mine and the other behind me. It didn’t bother me, though. This was Lachlan. The more time I spent with him, it was like things started coming back and the more familiar I was with him. When we were kids, we used to have campouts in the living room and practically sleep on top of one another.

And, well…breadsticks. I got bold and dipped the next one in the marinara sauce and nearly moaned at how delicious it was.From now on, I was going to have to fight against people in the hall to be first in line, so I could get some before they sold out.

The bell rang and Lachlan looked down. “Ba-Bailey.” He shook his head. “I should’ve known my breadsticks weren’t safe around you.”

“Sorry, I’ll pay you back!” My cheeks heated as I realized there were only two left.

Lachlan winked at me. “Don’t worry about it.” He took one and offered the other to me, which…well…I wasn’t going to say no.

The elective gymclass was coed for seniors. The juniors’ gym class was mandatory, so boys and girls were split up. Still, aside from me, there were only four other girls who chose this class. The rest were guys.

“Hello, seniors!” Coach stood in the crowd. We were already in our gym clothes and out on the school football field, which doubled as the track. “If you took this class looking for easy credit, you are in the wrong class. We will be going over physical fitness, body mechanics, body metabolism, as well as an introduction to different sports. This class is a great choice if you are interested in an athletic or fitness-related career.”

I shifted on my feet where I stood between Lachlan and Nolan. Chase stood on the other side of the crowd, his arms crossed as he focused on the coach.

“Also, if anyone is interested, the senior football team is looking for more players. We do have a game coming next week; however, it is not too late to join. If you or someone you know is interested in joining, just come to me and we will get you set up.”

As the words flowed out of the coach’s mouth, they became a worm in my head. While I wasn’t as passionate about footballas Lachlan, it was still something I had fun doing. And all this change was about being myself again, right?

“I could do that,” I found myself whispering.

“What?” Lachlan raised an eyebrow.

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