Fault

Chapter 4

"Are you excited to see me play?" Asher asks, moving through the group to talk to me. Everyone is having their own conversations. 

"I am! Shouldn't you guys be warming up with the others?" I ask crossing my arms and looking towards their team.

Asher chuckles as an answer. 

"What team are you guys playing?" I ask, squinting at the other end of the field. 

Asher opens his mouth as if he's going to answer, but Nathan cuts in.

"Pittsburg."

"Are they any good?" I ask, now directing the question at both of them. 

"They're okay." Nathan says, looking towards Asher. "We're better though."

"This is literally our first game, we don't actually know that." Asher says rolling his eyes at Nathan's confidence. 

"Hey, confidence is good to have." I say, lightly punching Asher's shoulder. 

"See, she gets it." Nathan says smiling smugly at me. 

"Sadie." Asher says, not even glancing at me.

"Yeah?" I respond, a little confused. 

"Her name's Sadie." Asher says still looking at Nathan.

"Oh, right. Sadie." Nathan responds, clearly feeling a little awkward. 

Just after Nathan says that, the coaches begin rounding up the players. 

"We better go." Asher says. 

We tell the boys good luck as they run towards the players, and we sit on the bleachers. 

"This should be good." Layla smiles as I sit next to her. 

~

Our team is doing pretty amazing as we're halfway through the game. Nathan is a great quarterback and Asher a great centre. I do have to admit though, I don't know a lot about the actual game of football. I just cheer when everyone else does. 

By the end of the third quarter, UCLA has University of Pittsburg 28-21. 

Layla explains to me how great this is, especially since they're playing at their home. 

Nathan is doing amazing on the field as he apparently leads the team with the best plays. I really need to learn more about this whole football thing, I really though I'd know more with the amount of games I saw of my brothers. But I'd always just cheer when everyone else did. 

As half time approaches, the cheerleaders are all warming up at the sides. 

"We're going to run and see the boys as the half time show is on." Layla says leaning closer to me. 

"Okay!" I say, excited to congratulate Asher on how well he's doing. 

~

"You guys represent UCLA pretty well." Layla says, nudging Nathan.

"We try." He opens his arms as if to give someone a hug, but instead stands there with a smirk. I laugh and he gives me a side glance, his smirk becoming a grin. 

"UCLA Bruins." Asher says with a faroff smile. "We're really playing a real game for them."

"As opposed to a fake one?" Sophia says, smiling at Asher. Everyone seems so happy to be here watching their friends play football. I can't help but smile at the excited group. 

"The fact that I'm at a UCLA football game as a UCLA student is what blows my mind." I say quietly to Layla. She gives me a side hug, and continues to watch Sophia and Asher fake fight. 

"All right boys, fall in for the huddle!" Nathan yells over the groups. The boys give us waves as we head back to the bleachers. The cheerleaders are front and centre, waving they're pompoms in the air as they try their best to get the crowd on their feet. 

I watch as the boys in their blue jerseys walk back onto the field. The rest of them stand on the side, watching intently. The coach, who I only noticed just now, is wearing a grey shirt with UCLA lettering, and a headset over his hat. He's smiling at his players on the field, probably satisfied with how the game's going. There's a young girl beside him holding a case of Powerade. Honestly, handing out drinks to hot boys playing football doesn't seem like such a bad job. 

The UCLA Bruins continue to win, and I keep thinking back to my brother's games. I was always the best at cheering him on, but still never understood exactly how the game worked. I'm sure it's not hard, but I felt I didn't need to. If I learned how everything works, James wouldn't have been able to answer all my questions. He never got annoyed, instead he seemed happy to talk about the thing he loved most. 

~

The crowd goes crazy when the whistle blows and the game ends. UCLA students jump for joy all over the stands. Layla gives me a big hug and we watch the boys tap each others helmets on the field. 

"I don't know about you, but I'm really thinking about trying out for the cheer team even more now." She motions to the cheerleaders who run onto the field to give all the players hugs. A few of them even give the sweaty boys kisses on the cheek. 

"Honestly, if you're serious about teaching me, maybe I will." I say with a smile. I did ballet until senior year, so I'd say I'm pretty flexible. I'm just not sure how well I'd do trying to take cheerleading skills from ballet. 

"'UCLA Cheerleaders' has a good ring." Layla says squealing in excitement. 

"It does, doesn't it." I say, smiling. 

We watch the boys dominate the rest of the game. They end up winning which has everyone in extremely good moods. 

Sophia is already running to the field as Layla and I look at each other laughing.

"Let's go congratulate our boys." Layla says rolling her eyes but still smiling. She grabs my hand and we both run towards Sophia, Nathan and Asher who broke off from the team. 

"Congrats boys!" Layla yells, giving them both hugs. 

I walk closer to Asher and give him a high five. 

"Do you think I would be making your brother proud?" Asher asks, leaning close so I can hear him.

"Oh, for sure." I say, nodding my head a bit too much. We both laugh as I take a step back because of the sudden dizziness my excitement caused.

"Monty's throwing a party, would you guys be down to go?" Nathan asks, getting our attention. 

"Sounds like fun!" Sophia says. We all agree and decide to do our dinner another night. This win calls for a real celebration, as Layla said.