That Football Player

chapter 16

Today is the day, today we play our homecoming game. Dexter is coming to my game, I can't let him down.

"Captains!" a ref calls. Zack and I run out onto the field.

"You're Dylan?" one of the other captains asks.

"Yes I am." I say.

"Let's see what you're made of." He says.

"Don't worry you will." I say with a simile.

"Damn she's hot." The other one says. I wink at the two boys then Zack laughs.

We won the coin toss and we chose to receive. The other team kicks the ball and our player catches it with ease. I go out onto the field. The center snaps the ball. I look for Rich it be open -he is our best receiver- but he isn't open. I know I need to find someone else and fast. Just then Luke, a freshman, becomes open. I pray this kid can catch this. I throw the ball, I flies through the air and lands into Luke's arms. He holds the ball under his arm and runs, he is fast but Rich is faster. Then Luke makes the touch down.

For the second half of the game I decided to let Zack play quarterback. The center snaps the ball and Zack catches it. Then Zack throws a beautiful pass -when are his passes not beautiful?- and a receiver makes the touch down.

The score is tied 28 to 28 there is only a minute left.

"Dylan," Zack says, "go out on the field."

"You want me to go out?" I ask. He nods.

"You can do it." he says. I nod and walk out on the field.

"You can do it." I chant over and over. I can't lose this game.

"Hike!" I yell. The center snaps the ball. I catch it and look for a receiver. Then I see that Rich is open but he is three-quarters down the field. I know I can make the pass. I throw the ball and hold my breath. Rich catches it and I let out my breath. He runs as if he was lightning. He doges everyone who attempts to tackle him. Then he runs into the touchdown.

"And the Ravens win the game!" the announcer says. I run to the sidelines. I get high-fives and other things.

I hug Dexter, Tony, Gavin, and Dean.

"So are we having a movie night?" I ask.

"You bet." Dean says.

"Chance!" I call for Chance but he keeps walking. I run to him. "Chance, want to come over? We are watching a movie."

"I can't." He says and walks away.

Zack and I ride home together.

"And then he just walks off." I say to Zack. I told him about Chance.

"I don't know what his problem is." Zack says.

After twenty minutes of arguing -mostly me and dean- we finally decide to watch an action movie. The movie was kind of boring but they guys seemed to be really into it. I ended up falling asleep on the couch in between Zack and Dexter.

I fell someone pick me up but I don't care enough to tell them to put me down. They lay me down on my bed and pull the covers over me.

"Good night Dylan." Zack says. I hear his mattress make noise as he lays down on it. I don't fall back asleep until I hear Zack's soft snores.

~****~

I drive to Jessica's house with my dress in the back set of my truck. I knock on the front door of the house. Jessica opens the door with a towel wrapped around her head.

"Come on in, we need to get started." she says.

First she washes my hair in the sink then wraps it in a soft towel. Then Tara paints my nails while Jessica blow dries my hair. After Jessica finishes drying my hair she starts on her hair. Tara and Makenzie already had their hair and makeup done when I got here because I was like forty minutes late. Then Jessica starts to do something to my hair, I don't know what because they won't let me look in the mirror. Finally Makenzie does my makeup. We slip into our dresses and shoes.

"Okay Dylan you can look in the mirror." Jessica says.

I turn around and gasp at the girl I see. My hair is curly my nails are black, I have black strappy heals, my eye shadow starts out white then goes to gray, then black. But my dress is my favorite thing on my body. Is it a strapless dress that goes just above my knee and it is the most beautiful shade of purple.

"Let's get our homecoming on!" Tara says.