Where There's Light | ✔

19. School Spirit (1)

Friday came quickly. All week the school had been bombarded with homecoming festivities and pep rallies. Today the cheerleaders marched through the halls of each building, shouting out cheers and announcing the start of yet another pep rally.

There was a football game tonight, followed by a carnival on school grounds. It would be the only homecoming events Nolan and I would be able to attend.

With my new work schedule and Nolan's aversion to humans, we hadn't been able to execute our plan as we wanted. Tonight that all changed. We were going on our first official fake date.

The ultimate goal was for both of us to step out of our comfort zones and make friends with the students that didn't follow school drama or hated us. My personal goal was to show my mom that I was living the care free life she wanted me to.

Mom would be home early from her new office job to watch Taylor while I was out making the memories she asked for. My only hang up was what to tell her about Nolan. Did I introduce him as a friend or a boyfriend?

Whatever. I'd figure that out when the time came. For now, all that was important was raising our approval rating.

That seemed like an easy task compared to getting Nolan to ruin his all black aesthetic with a red Grizzlies shirt I bought from the student store. We met up in his parent's minivan to go over the plan for the night. So far the only thing we discussed was his distaste for school spirit.

"I let you paint this shit on my face," he grumbled. "Isn't that enough?"

I was actually surprised when he let me paint "Go Grizzlies" on his cheek. I definitely though that would be more difficult than getting him in a freaking shirt.

"Nolan, if you put the shirt on I'll—" I glanced around the minivan we sat in, trying to think of something. "Oh! I'll do your French homework."

"Aren't you failing French?"

I scoffed, falling back against the seat. "I have a C. Mrs. Dunn would give you a Z if she could."

He was stubborn as ever, reminding me of Taylor when she'd pout if she didn't get what she wanted. "This shirt gets you one step closer to Europe."

He snatched the shirt from me, dropping in his lap. Then he pulled the black shirt he wore over his head. The respectful thing would've been to turn around, give him some privacy. But I couldn't.

I practically lived at the beach that summer. I've seen a lot of my male classmates shirtless. Unless they played a sport their bodies weren't all the impressive. Nolan didn't play any sports, none that I knew of anyway. But what was underneath his shirt was definitely impressive.

He didn't spend his summer lazily playing video games and scarfing down pizza. Who knew the loner had a gym membership?

Aside from his apparent six there was the necklace I always wondered about. At the end of the leather rope was a ring. It looked too small to fit his finger. It looked like something a girl would wear.

My hypnotic trance was broken when the red fabric of the Grizzlies shirt covered his muscles and abs from my view.

"Are you happy?"

My face burned as I plummeted back down to earth. My eyes shifted to his face, meeting his bored gaze. That's when I noticed the paint on his cheek.

I leaned over, wiping it with my thumb. "It's smudged."

"Then it's smudged." He pushed my hand away, then hopped out of the car.

He was extra annoying that day. It wasn't his usual bad attitude which he had for no particular reason. Something was off. I climbed out of the car after him, jogging to catch up. We followed the rest of the football game attendees to bleachers. Easily blending into to the sea of red and black Grizzly jerseys.