Second Down
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 37
The rest of the holiday weekend was uncomfortable, with no one talking to anyone else and Josh strutting around when Mom wasn’t looking, acting like he was untouchable.
Which he kind of was. When Mom was around, he went back to putting on the sad boy act, eating up the sympathy from her. Dad picked up some extra shifts, I think to try and avoid it all. I didn’t blame him, but it left me outnumbered, with Mom glaring at me, pissed every time she saw me.
She refused to let me go out with Melanie on Friday, sticking with the bullshit grounding, and tried to keep me from going to the varsity game on Saturday. Thankfully, Dad was home for that and interceded, which started another shouting match, but Dad put his foot down.
Unfortunately, the game did not live up to the effort it took to get here. Like I remembered, Midland crushed us, winning 24-7. The team took it hard. They had somehow talked themselves into thinking they were going to win. Considering what they did to us during the regular season, it was a little far-fetched, but I guess it never hurt to have a positive attitude.
It officially ended our football for the year, but it didn’t end sports. Wednesday was Li’s first game, and I was excited to go and watch it. I wanted them to have good support for their first game, but it was like pulling teeth to get anyone to go with me. Eduardo had to do a thing with his mom and none of the guys on the team seemed interested. I finally managed to convince Melanie to come with me, but it had been a fight since she really hadn’t wanted to come along, but agreed as long as I promised to take her out for dinner afterward.
I was a little annoyed with her, since she knew how important it was to me to support my friend, but it was also midweek after a holiday and she’d made a few comments about stuff going on at home, so I forgave her.
The gym was only half full on our side of the court, which was better than I’d feared it would be, but not as full as I’d wanted. To be fair, I don’t think the games were ever well attended. We’d never made it past district in the history of our team, and that had been the boys’ team. I don’t think the girls’ team ever even qualified for district playoffs, so it just wasn’t a big sport for our school.
Melanie spotted Tammy and the other varsity cheerleaders setting up near the baseline as soon as we walked in and said, “Let’s go say hi.”
“Sure,” I said.
We still had maybe five or so minutes until the game started. We made our way down the sidelines to where the varsity cheerleaders were set up. At first, Melanie just kind of stood a few feet back, waiting for them to see her.
When they did, I don’t think it was everything Melanie had hoped for. Tammy looked over, saw her, and then started to turn away, like she hadn’t even recognized Melanie. She only stopped when she saw me and something flashed across her face. I can only guess that Kenneth had talked to her and seeing me reminded her she was supposed to be nice or whatever to Melanie.
Tammy put a big smile on her face and pulled Melanie in for a hug.
“Hey, girl,” Tammy said. “What are you doing here?”
“His friend is playing and he begged me to come,” Melanie said, pointing her thumb at me.
I gave a small wave and Tammy gave me the same kind of fake smile she gave Melanie before pulling her into the group with the rest of the cheerleaders, who started talking excitedly about something.
I kind of waited on the outskirts, since I didn’t really know any of the varsity girls very well and would have been really out of place in their huddle. It was a little awkward since, as soon as they started talking, Melanie all but forgot I existed, ignoring me completely, but whatever.
While they talked, I looked over to where the teams were warming up and spotted Li in her number twenty-two jersey. She caught my eye and gave a small wave before returning to the passing drills. The cheerleading huddle finally broke up when the refs started getting the teams set up for the jump-off.
Melanie gave them a wave, and we headed for a spot on the bleachers a few rows up from them.
“Did you see that?” Melanie said excitedly as the announcer began going through the starting lineups.
“I did. I guess your worry about Brandy getting to Tammy was all for nothing,” I said, very specifically not mentioning I’d talked to Kenneth.
“Did you hear what they said about Casey and Jessica?”
“No.”
I assumed Casey was Casey Jackson, the safety on the freshman football team, since he’d been seen, off and on again, with Jessica, one of the JV cheerleaders. Why the varsity squad would be talking about them, I didn’t know, but I also stayed out of most of their drama.
“Well, Jessica told Sarah and Tammy that...” Melanie said, launching into the latest drama.
I was listening and making the right noises at the right time, but other than knowing Casey, I really had no connection to the story and didn’t love this kind of gossip as much as Melanie did.
I knew she loved talking about it, though, and who was I to ruin her fun?
The teams were announced and they set up for tip-off. Li wasn’t in the starting lineup, but I already knew she wasn’t going to be. When I’d talked to her at lunch, she’d seemed okay with being a bench player for now. It was practically unheard of for a freshman to make the varsity team, so I think she was just reveling in that victory for now.
“Can you believe it?”
“Nope. I would have thought Casey was smarter than that.”
“I know, right?”
The game started fast, both teams running their offenses at full speed. Amarillo’s point guard was quick, but our defense stayed tight. We traded baskets back and forth, neither team able to build more than a four-point lead.
“I’m going to go talk to Katie for a second,” Melanie said partway through the first quarter.
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, I’ll be right back.”
I kept watching the game. Wheaton was actually doing okay and had it tied up at 18 when the second quarter started, and the coach finally sent Li to check in at the scorer’s table.
“Let’s go, Li!” I shouted, standing as she jogged onto the court.
Melanie, who had just returned, pulled at my arm. “Sit down.”
“What? I’m supporting my friend.”
Li took her position in the post as Amarillo brought up the ball. A guard drove in trying to get a layup, and Li put a hand up, not that it was necessary. She towered over the girl and made the shot all but impossible. After forcing a missed shot, she jumped up and grabbed the rebound. Instead of turning and dribbling it back downcourt, though, she rocketed the ball down to our point guard who’d just gotten to the top of the key on the other end of the court, hitting her in stride for a fast break.
It was an impressive pass, longer than a bunch of the ones I’d thrown this season.
I jumped to my feet again. “Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!”
“Blake!” Melanie hissed, yanking me back down. “People are staring.”
They could stare all they wanted. Li was playing varsity basketball as a freshman, and she was killing it. Even as I thought that, she took a pass and made a clean layup, putting her first points on the board.
“No one’s staring,” I said. “Other people are cheering for their friends.”
She made a face but didn’t say anything else. Over the next few minutes, Li showed why she’d made varsity. She really did well controlling the paint-on defense and thwarting shots without fouling, although she did have one overly aggressive block called. On offense, she set a few solid screens and grabbed two offensive rebounds. When Amarillo tried doubling her in the post, she kicked it out to our shooting guard for an open three.
She was doing great, so I didn’t understand why the coach pulled her after about three minutes, putting Taylor Stine back in. Even more perplexing was keeping Li on the bench the rest of the quarter.
The halftime buzzer sounded with Wheaton up 34-31.
“Do you mind if I go talk to Li for a second, I want to tell her how good they were?”
“Varsity’s about to perform. Don’t you want to stay and watch it?”
“I’ll be fast, I promise.”
“Fine,” she said, almost pouting.
I gave her a peck on the cheek and hurried down the bleachers to Wheaton’s side.
Li was seated at the far end of the bench, a towel draped around her shoulders as she sipped water. She looked up as I approached, her face lighting up with a big smile.
“Li! You’re killing it out there,” I said, stopping just shy of the sideline. “That pass was so good.”
Her smile widened, and she ducked her head a little. “Thanks. I...”
“Sims!” Coach Weyland yelled. “This isn’t social hour. Back to your seat.”
The fact that a coach I didn’t play for knew my name probably wasn’t a good thing. She’d decided I was a pest, and she was sticking with that.
Li gave me a quick, apologetic shrug before the coach turned her attention back to the clipboard in her hand. I raised my hands in surrender and backed away, shooting Li a thumbs-up before heading back up the bleachers.
Varsity had just started their routine as I got back to my seat, and Melanie jumped into explaining things they added late during the last practice, a section where they’d taken out a tumbling pass because one of the girls doing it couldn’t land it reliably, and how much better it had gotten.
I didn’t know much about cheerleading except for what I’d learned listening to Brady and now Melanie, but I had to give it to them, they were very good. Tammy did this series of back handsprings ending in some kind of flip that was impressive.
Definitely not something I could do.
“Did you see that?”
“Yeah. It was really good.”
“No kidding. I’ve been trying that with my gymnastics coach, but I’m still having trouble nailing the back tuck on the dead floor.”
“Dead floor?”
“It’s like just regular floor. The rest of the gym the floor is on these springs, so it’s a little easier to land tricks, but on the dead floor, you give up so much energy when you land, so it’s harder.”
“Ohh.”
Amarillo must have gotten a talking-to at halftime because they came out on fire in the third quarter. The starters were all back in and Li was on the bench. For a few minutes, we kept within four points of them, and then Amarillo started to pull away. By the five-minute mark, our three-point lead had become trailing by eleven points.
Our biggest problem this quarter was turnovers. Bad passes, bad ball handling, and two steals gave them so many opportunities to run the score up on us.
Thankfully, Coach Weyland put Li back in and, from where I was sitting, it looked like she was having an immediate impact. On the first possession, she fought through a box-out to grab an offensive rebound and put it back up and in.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” I jumped up, pumping my fist.
“If you’re going to keep screaming, I’m going to go sit with the girls.”
“Why does it bother you so much,” I said, getting a little annoyed. “I’m not the only one cheering.”
“Whatever, I’ll be back,” she said, and pushed past me.
Although she’d been kind of bored during most of the third quarter, she’d been in a good mood the rest of the night. Or at least until halftime. Maybe she didn’t care much for basketball and once the cheer stuff was done at halftime, she didn’t care.
It still didn’t explain why she was so annoyed every time I cheered.
I wasn’t going to chase after her, though. She knew where I was. If she wanted to come back and sit with me, she could.
Li was still playing great, picking off a lazy cross-court pass and hitting our point guard in stride with an outlet pass for an easy layup.
Which is why I was completely perplexed when Coach Weyland subbed her, sending Taylor back in.
“What are you doing?” I shouted, which must have been just loud enough to be heard at the bench because the coach actually turned around and looked up at me.
I looked right back at her. She was screwing up the chance to win. Li was absolutely playing better than Taylor. The coach frowned and went back to the game.
I thought maybe I should back off a little bit, since coaches could be as vindictive as any other teacher, and I didn’t want her taking it out on Li.
The rest of the game was painful to watch. Taylor kept trying to force shots up over double teams instead of kicking it out. She was getting the rebound and putting it up again, but that was costing the team time, and she didn’t get every ball back. Amarillo saw what she was doing and put more players in the paint to stop her, which meant she had guards on the outside who could have taken open shots if she was more of a team player.
Seeing how she was playing, I kept thinking Coach Weyland might put Li back in, but she didn’t.
The final buzzer sounded with Amarillo up by eight. By my count, Li had put up eight points, had four rebounds, a block, and a steal in just five minutes. Taylor played thirty-two minutes to get fourteen points and ten rebounds.
A double-double on the sheet, but one that was mostly made up of her getting her own rebound from missed layups and putting it back in. I think the team as a whole played better when Li was in.
Melanie was still chatting with the cheerleaders.
“Hey, I thought we might go meet Li at the locker rooms and celebrate,” I said when there was a break in the conversation.
“Why?”
“‘Cause she’s my friend and the reason we came to the game.”
“Can’t we just go get dinner ourselves? I’m starving.”
“No. I mean, we can go eat, but I want to celebrate her first game with her. What if we took her out to eat so you could get some food and we could still celebrate?”
“I thought it would just be the two of us,” she said, putting her hand on my chest, I guess thinking switching tactics from petulant to seductive would convince me.
I had no idea why she didn’t want me to hang out with Li. She hadn’t been really jealous before this, and when I’d asked her to come, I’d specifically mentioned it was to cheer on my friend.
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