Coach's Daughter

14.

"You might be good at basketball, You might be good at track

"But when it comes to football, you might as well step back!" I yelled.

"Good, but make sure you put your hand out and step back at that last part," Cassie said, demonstrating what she meant.

I mimicked the motion, then tried the cheer again.

"Hey, aren't you coming with us?" a voice said, breaking my concentration.

I turned around and came face to face with Evan, who had already changed and showered.

"Didn't Kelsey tell you? I need to learn three new cheers by Friday or I'm off the team. So Cassie offered to stay late and work with me. I can't make it tonight."

Evan shrugged. "Well, she told me you were staying late. But I waited around an extra 20 minutes because I figured you would be done by now. If we leave now, we can still meet them."

I sighed, trying to mask my irritation. "I'm sorry Evan, I can't tonight. This is really important to me, and I need to focus on learning these cheers. We can go out some other time."

Evan ran his fingers through his hair, looking upset. "So you're just going to stand me up? Seriously?"

I shrugged. "I'm not trying to stand you up. I explained what happened. I could lose my spot on varsity if I don't get this right. If your spot on the football team was in jeopardy, you would stay late too."

"Unbelievable," Evan muttered. "What a great start to a relationship."

I wanted to tell him off and say that we weren't actually in a relationship yet. We were just casually hanging out getting to know each other better. Instead, I pointedly went back to practicing, deliberately ignoring him.

"You better just step back," I yelled, moving backwards the way Cassie had demonstrated.

"Much better," Cassie called. She began to break down the next part of the cheer, counting out the beats, and I did my best to follow along.

Evan watched for a minute, then shook his head and stormed off, muttering to himself. I was a little surprised that he was so upset. What was the big deal? We had just planned to go for pizza. He hadn't exactly been planning an extravagant date. I would never understand the male mind. It was a dark, confusing place, and I was starting to think life would be so much easier without guys around.

__

The next day, Evan was waiting for me when I got to my locker.

"Good morning, babe," he said, pulling me in for a kiss. Seriously? After he was such a jerk yesterday, he thinks he can just come in and be touchy feely like nothing happened?

I didn't pull away, but I didn't really return the kiss either. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"Does this mean you're not mad at me?" I asked. I refused to be the one to apologize for yesterday. He had massively overreacted, and I hadn't done anything wrong.

Evan shrugged. "I thought about it, and I guess we're okay. Wanna make it up tonight?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm staying late after practice all week. I need to make sure I keep my spot on varsity."

"So when are you going to leave time for me?"

"For you?"

"Yeah. For me. For us. How are we gonna have a relationship if you never have time to spend with me."

I sighed. "Okay, you just need to calm down. It's only for a week. I only have until Friday to get up to speed on all of the cheers. I'll have more time when this is all over."

Evan sighed. "Fine, I guess. I'll just have to spend more time with you during school."

"That's the spirit. And we can always have lunch together."

"Need a hand?" Evan asked, grabbing my books from me.

I flashed him a grateful smile. "Thanks." Evan grabbed my hand and walked me to my first period class, then kissed me goodbye before I headed into class.

"I'll see you later babe," he said. I shook my head. I literally couldn't keep up with him. How could he be so sweet one moment and so needy the next? He definitely wasn't quite who I thought he was.

By Thursday, and I had completely lost my patience with Evan. He had grudgingly accepted that I was staying late after cheer practices, but he compensated for that by being my literal shadow during the school day. It was incredibly annoying. He made it almost impossible for me to talk to or spend time with anyone else. When I had envisioned having a boyfriend, this definitely wasn't what I'd had in mind.

Worse, he had stayed after and watched every practice, insisting on giving me a ride home. We never actually talked either. All he wanted to do was kiss me or touch me. There was no actual relationship. The more time we spent together, the more sure I was that we had nothing in common.

I decided that, my father's blessing or no, I wanted absolutely no part of a relationship with Evan. I was grateful that he had given me a ride home from the party, and he was definitely devoted to spending time with me, but he wasn't the guy for me. I would much, much rather focus on making friends and solidifying my spot on the cheer squad. Guys could wait.

Needless to say, Evan didn't exactly take it well. There was some swearing, a lot of sputtering, and his face turned bright red with anger or embarrassment, I wasn't sure which. Actually, if my dad hadn't been the football coach, I might have worried that Evan was going to trash my reputation and spread rumors that I was a prude or something. But since my dad would bench him if he pulled any stunts like that, I was reasonably sure I was safe.

Now that I didn't need to worry about Evan, I could just focus on what was really important: wiping the smirk of Madison's face when I executed perfect cheers at the game on Friday. 

-- 

For anyone who is interested in the spin off of Madison's story, I made the teaser in her book. It won't be published until the end of this story though. It's called 'Yours Truly' for anyone interested. Thank you!

VOTE

COMMENT

FAN

Bye guys<333