Crossing the Barrier (26 page)

“You’re sure you’re okay to come back to school with us?” the assistant director asked.

“Yes,” she answered, now sitting.

The last thing she wanted was to end up in the hospital…again.

“Sandra, stay with her and help her out, will you? Naomi, will you help Sandra? All of you, to the buses, now,” ordered the assistant director, getting to his feet.

Sandra and Naomi helped Lily to her feet and assisted her to the bus. Once inside, Lily sat and put her head against the window. Sandra sat next to her, making sure their legs were touching.

“Will you be okay?” she asked.

“I’m scared,” Lily admitted, tears spilling from her eyes. “It’s like trying to stop a wave with my bare hands. And with Beatrice and all, it seems like all I do is fight. But now I’m just too tired. I feel like I’m drowning.

“Sandra, what am I going to do? I can’t continue like this. The only times I’m okay are few and far between now, and pretty much only when Malakai’s around. I just don’t have the energy anymore. How am I going to be able to finish school? How am I going to be able to go to college? I won’t have the grades, never mind the shields.”

“Lily, is it possible that you’re going at it all wrong?”

“What do you mean?” Lily’s eyes closed of their own accord.

“What about embracing it instead of fighting?”

“What do you mean?” She had such a hard time concentrating.

“Think about it. When we’re at the game, you can manage the crowd. Why? You don’t fight it, do you?”

“No,” Lily mumbled.

“What if you just stop fighting it at school and start embracing it like you do during the game? Wouldn’t that work?”

“I don’t know.”

“Listen, sleep now, and we’ll talk more about it when you wake up.”

“Don’t let go of me.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

Chapter Fifty-Three

MALAKAI

Malakai received the
social media feed at three o’clock that afternoon. The band was making it to the finals. A few moments later, Lily texted him the news.

“Want to come with me?” Malakai asked David, showing him his phone.

After practice, Malakai had gone home to do some homework. Around two, David had called to see if Malakai would help him with his math again. Malakai had been at David’s when the first post hit his phone followed by Lily’s text.

“Sure. Think Tristan would want to come?”

“I bet he would. He seemed really interested on Thursday.”

“I wonder if it has to do with a certain Russian flutist?” David said with a grin.

“Maybe,” Malakai said, taking his phone and texting the quarterback.

“I’ll text Lucas and Luis. Maybe they’ll come too,” David suggested.

At six that night, wearing their yellow football shirts, Malakai, David, Tristan, Luis, and Lucas entered the stadium.

“The parents are looking at us funny,” Tristan said.

Malakai was so nervous for Lily he hadn’t even noticed.

“Well, it’s not every day you see football players attend band events,” David said. “Well, I mean that many of us. Usually, I’m the only one with Lucas here since our sisters are in the band. And to tell you the truth, you and Malakai aren’t the most unknown players either.”

“You know, we should be at least twenty here,” Tristan said, grabbing his phone and beginning to type furiously. “The two hundred of them are at all of our games. Why shouldn’t we be at their stuff?”

Malakai smiled. He hoped Tristan would be picked as captain the following year; he would be a great one.

“There,” he said, putting his phone away. “Now the entire team knows we’re here and hopefully, some will show up before they play.”

“At least, they have time to get here,” Lucas said.

Malakai took the stands in a section occupied by people wearing yellow shirts. He had been sitting for a few moments when a man he recognized but was never introduced to joined them.

“Charlie,” David said, standing and shaking the man’s hand.

“David,” Charlie greeted with a wide, friendly smile. He then looked at Malakai.

“Have you met Malakai?” David asked.

“Not officially,” Charlie said, offering Malakai his hand. “I’m Charlie, Lily’s uncle.”

“Lily says a lot of good things about you, sir,” Malakai said, standing up and shaking Charlie’s hand.

“Well, she does say a lot of good things about you, too,” Charlie said with a warm smile. “So, I hear you’re dating my niece,” he continued, taking the seat next to Malakai.

“Yes, sir,” Malakai answered, resuming his seat.

Malakai looked at the field, his leg bouncing, wondering if Lily was as nervous as he was.

“Do I make you that nervous?” Charlie asked, pointing at Malakai’s leg.

“No, sir,” Malakai said quickly, stopping his leg. “I’m just nervous for Lily. You know, usually, she’s the one in the stands watching me. I wonder if she’s as nervous as I am right now.”

“Do you get nervous when you’re on the field?”

“For about two seconds.”

“Maybe it’s the same for her.”

Somehow, Malakai doubted it. In football, he had to follow a certain plan, but overall he also had to see where the game would go. In a competition like hers, everything was planned in advance to the nth degree. She had to play a precise set of notes in a dictated order during the execution of a rigid choreography. How could she not be nervous?

At the thought of it, his leg resumed its bouncing.

“My niece and you, it’s serious?” Charlie asked after a few moments of silence.

Malakai stopped bouncing his leg again and turned to Charlie.

“Yes, sir, very.”

Charlie nodded once, then glanced toward the field. “Met her mother yet?”

“No, sir, not formally.”

“She’s…interesting.”

“I heard, sir.”

“Oh, stop that ‘sir’ crap and call me Charlie, will you?”

“I’ll try, sir, but I was raised by a military man, and some habits are hard to break.”

“You don’t say,” Charlie said with a chuckle. “I’ve asked Lily to move in with me,” he continued, becoming serious again.

“She told me, sir.”

“Did she tell you why she’s not doing it?”

“I can’t answer that, sir. If she had told me, and I’m not saying she did, I wouldn’t break her confidence,” Malakai said without hesitating.

Charlie took a long hard look at Malakai, a new respect showing in his eyes. “I see. How old are you?”

“Seventeen, sir.”

“You’re wise for your age.”

“I try to do what’s best, sir.”

“He’s the captain, Charlie,” David said, joining the conversation. “He sets a good example if you ask me. Lily’s safe with him. And he knows…” David pointed at his head, then his heart.

“Oh, I see,” Charlie said.

“Know what?” Malakai asked.

“What she is,” Charlie answered quietly so only Malakai could hear.

“Yes, I know.”

“It doesn’t scare you?”

“No, sir…well, at first it did but not anymore. I have nothing to hide from her.”

Charlie chuckled, then turned to the field again. The first band was waiting by the sideline, and the crowd had grown quiet.

The first performance was great and so was the second, but from what Malakai remembered, their school band was better. Right after the second performance, when they opened up the access to the stands again, four other players joined them.

“Wow! That’s cool,” Jeffrey, one of the new arrivals, said. “I didn’t know this was happening.”

“Heard if anybody else’s coming?” Tristan asked.

“I think at least two others,” Jeffrey answered. “But I’m not sure.”

“Well, I hope they come,” Tristan said. “The band’s always there for us. The least we can do is show up for them.”

“Who’s that kid?” Charlie asked Malakai, surprised. “It’s the first time I’ve heard a young jock speak that way about the band.”

“Tristan? The quarterback, sir.”

“Oh, I didn’t recognize him.”

“I think he likes one of the girls in the band,” Malakai said with a grin.

“That would explain a lot. But it’s nice of him regardless. I mean, in my days, the band, even if they were good and competed at a higher level than we ever did, didn’t get support from us.”

By the time the band took the field, Malakai was happy to see twelve players were in attendance. And they cheered and screamed the loudest.

“We are Warriors!” David yelled.

“Warriors! Warriors! Warriors!” the others cheered, joined by most of the parents.

“You think they heard us?” Tristan asked.

“There’s no doubt in my mind they did,” Charlie said with an amused chuckle.

The band’s presentation was breathtaking, and Malakai had eyes only for Lily, especially when she performed her solo. He was so proud of what she could do, so proud she did something so complicated and nailed it.

When they finished, he was up on his feet, cheering at the top of his lungs.

Two presentations later, someone came to tell them the band was now sitting in the stands below and, with the football players who had come, Malakai went down to see Lily. He found her right away as their sitting order was similar to the one used during the games.

“Malakai,” she said, throwing her arms around him. “I knew you were here. I just knew it,” she said, laughing. “I could feel you all the way in the stands. I don’t know how, but I did.”

“You were so great. Did you hear us?”

“Yes, we did. We saw the players who were with you. The guys are so happy about that, you have no idea. How many came?”

“Twelve,” he answered with a chuckle.

He then gave her a quick kiss on her pink lips. Her face was still flushed with excitement, and she was smiling so widely her eyes were shining like little stars. But she looked so, so tired. Malakai wished he could take her away and let her sleep in his arms for an entire week.

“You’re staying with us, right?” Lily asked.

“Can I?”

“I’m sure the director wouldn’t mind. It’s not like when we’re playing. We’re just sitting here watching. Besides, some parents came and joined us earlier.”

Malakai took a seat next to Lily and took her hand in his. David came to sit next to Sandra, and the other players took seats where they found people they knew.

“I met Charlie.”

“You did?”

“He seems like a really great guy.”

“He is,” Lily said with a smile. “Was he coming down?”

“You know, I didn’t even ask,” Malakai said, scratching the back of his head. “I hope he didn’t think I was rude.”

“Of course I didn’t,” Charlie said from behind them. “Hello, kiddo!”

“Hi,” Lily said, standing up and hugging her uncle. “So, you didn’t give Malakai a hard time, did you?”

“Oh, Malakai, no kissing, no fondling, no sex with my niece until she’s forty, okay? And if you hurt her, you’ll have to answer to me,” Charlie said with a wide grin.

Some of the people around them chuckled and heat flooded Malakai’s face at the mention of having sex with Lily. In moments like this, he wished he were darker so he wouldn’t blush so furiously.

“Charlie, stop,” Lily said, slapping her uncle on his arm.

She was as red as he was if that were at all possible.

“Well, you did remind me,” Charlie said with a shrug. “Now, it’s done.”

The next band took the field, effectively preventing any more conversation.

After all the bands had performed, they anxiously waited for the results. Malakai’s leg began to bounce again. He really thought his school had been the best.

After twenty minutes, the drum majors finally took the field, and the results were announced in alphabetic order of school name. The first three schools to be advancing to the state competition began with a
C
, and holding his breath, Malakai waited for the last school to be called.

But it wasn’t theirs.

Sadly, Malakai looked at Lily. She gave him a small smile, and he took her in his arms.

“I’m so sorry. I really believed you were better than those bands.”

“It’s okay,” she said, her head against his shoulder. “It’s okay, really. At least, we got this far.”

“But I’d hoped you’d win.”

Lily looked up at him and smiled. “You feel more disappointed than me.”

“It’s because I know how much work you put into this. Heck, if we were practicing half as much as you, we would make a killing on the field.”

Lily laughed.

Malakai looked around at the band members. They were sad but not as much as he would have believed. They were all taking it very much in stride.