Keeping in Line (23 page)

“And?”

“And what?”

“Aren’t you going to at least say you’re sorry? That’s the least you can do for your girlfriend!”

Drew pushed a rock on the ground with his foot and said, “Not exactly.”

“Why the hell not?”

“I, um, well, that’s part of the reason I didn’t show up last night. I know this is going to sound bad, but I think we should date other people.”

Christina crossed her arms, and stated in a dark tone, “So, let me get this straight. You don’t bother showing up for Homecoming, you have no excuse for it, you don’t even bother to apologize and now you want to break up with me?”

“I—”

“Because let’s get one thing straight,
I
am dumping
you
!”

Drew shrugged and said, “If that’s what you want.”

Christina, despite the tough exterior she was trying to convince Drew of, was slowly cracking. She continued, “It is! Your ass is dumped!”

Christina stood up, walked inside, slammed the door behind her, and desperately wished she felt more like she had come out on top of things.

* * *

CHAPTER TWENTY: Crossing the Line

Settled in their favorite booth at the local coffee shop, Espresso Royale, Megan and Meredith looked over at Bronwyn, worried expressions on both of their faces. Megan was the first to venture a question, “So, emergency meeting, huh? Did something happen to Lucy?”

Bronwyn was attempting to keep a straight face, but couldn’t keep up the charade. A large grin broke across her features and she said, “Not exactly.”

Meredith asked, “Then what happened? You were only gone one night!”

“Drew came up to see me!”

Megan and Meredith sat back in the booth, clearly not expecting that answer from their friend. Bronwyn continued, “It was just, well, magical…”

Megan asked, “But what about Christina? Where exactly does she fit into this whole situation?”

“Umm, that’s the part I need help with. Drew didn’t exactly, um, inform her that he was going to, um, not going to go with Homecoming with her. He just kind of showed up on my doorstep. I mean, Lucy’s doorstep.”

“He what?!” Megan asked.

Bronwyn stirred massive quantities of sugar into her latte and said lamely, “It sounds just as bad as I think it does, doesn’t it?”

Meredith said, “It certainly does. Do you feel like going on the offensive?”

“How do you mean?”

Meredith continued, “You could call her and explain you really had nothing to do with it.”

“Do you think she would listen? Imagine if Ben had not shown up last night and was suddenly dating someone else, how would you feel if that person called you?”

Megan whistled slowly, “You are so dead.”

Although she was terrified of what Christina would do when she found out, Bronwyn was flattered when Drew picked her up the next morning. Strapping herself in, she asked cautiously, “Did you talk to her?”

“Yup.”

“Did you mention me?”

“No.”

“How did she take it?”

“Not good.”

“Should I be worried?”

“Maybe.”

Bronwyn thought for a moment. It was probably better that Drew hadn’t mentioned the specifics of why he had ditched his Homecoming date, but it was getting unbearable waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Maybe I should’ve called her, then at least it would’ve been out there already.

It’s too late now, it’s like Henry said, you’ve made your decision and now you just have to go with it, besides, what’s the worst she can do?

Christina’s sapphire eyes were glued on the band room door. She looked away for a moment and her eyes widened in surprise as she looked back to see a very happy Drew walking in, hand in hand with a radiant Bronwyn Flueger.

By Tuesday’s practice, it was obvious to everyone in the Forrest Hills marching band that Bronwyn and Drew were a couple. The infamous “bet” which had stressed Bronwyn out so much, seemed like an eternity ago, and no one else seemed to remember the details anyway. And somehow, the drum major who had looked perfect with the beautiful Guard Captain, looked equally cute with the redheaded sophomore percussionist.

As Bronwyn walked down to the practice field, Geoff caught up with her. She looked down at her snare for a long moment and admitted, “I wanted to tell you…”

Geoff smiled companionably and said, “I won’t hold it against you, but, as your friend, I have to ask, wasn’t there some sort of bet taken against you earlier?”

“About that…”

“Yes?”

“Well, similar to the Hollaback scheme, I may or may not have had something to do with that whole situation.”

“People don’t give you enough credit, do they?”

“You have no idea.”

“And here I thought you were just another pretty face.”

Bronwyn blushed and replied, “After a season surrounded by guys, you would think I might have picked up a thing or two.”

Drew joined the pair and asked, “What are you two talking about?”

“Nothing,” came the automatic reply from both.

However nice it was to be someone’s girlfriend, it was terrifying to be someone’s worst enemy. As Bronwyn had predicted, Christina had not taken well to Drew’s instant action to ‘see other people.’ Unfortunately, after showing up alone to Homecoming and the subsequent and obvious relationship between Drew and Bronwyn, the rumors surrounding the Guard Captain had not been kind.

“I heard she’s been paying him this whole time…”

“I heard Bronwyn and Drew have been secretly dating since August…”

“I heard that Drew completely stood her up…”

With all of her concentration on learning the Indoor show, Bronwyn didn’t have any extra energy to worry about waiting for the other shoe to drop. She could only hope Christina didn’t find out the truth of where Drew had been on Homecoming evening until some time much later, and that maybe, just maybe, the Guard Captain would move on and find someone else to make her happy.

Unfortunately, luck was not on Bronwyn’s side. Dana, who had heard from Tony about whose company Bronwyn had been in on Saturday night, told her Captain the bad news at practice. She finished by asking, “So, what are you going to do about it?”

Christina, momentarily distraught, fought back tears of rage and humiliation. Then, as a brilliant plan occurred to her, she asked the sophomore conversationally, “You don’t really like Tony, do you?”

As much as she wanted to spend all available time with her new boyfriend, Bronwyn’s budding romance with Drew was put on a temporary hiatus. At this moment, practicing and devoting all available energy to the Indoor show was more important. She had to be content to see him before school as the Line was practicing after school every day for the next two weeks and the majority of weekends as well.

At the Thursday practice before the first Indoor competition, as was now tradition, the rest of the band was invited to watch their percussionists’ show. Bronwyn was so proud of the Line and intent on her performance that she didn’t notice Christina and Dana watching with way more interest than two Guard girls should have regarding the drummers’ drill.

After Friday’s game, Drew drove Bronwyn home. She asked tentatively, “I thought Christina handled things very well this week, didn’t you?”

Drew laughed, but said, “With the exception of the frosty stares and silent treatment I’ve been getting from her, I’d actually agree with you.”

“Well, this may sound immature, but I really expected some sort of retribution and so far, so good. I have to give her props for acting like an adult.”

Drew nodded and pulled into the driveway. He asked, “So, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“You really don’t have to come up—”

“I want to support my girlfriend tomorrow,” he interrupted.

Bronwyn still got a secret thrill when Drew called her his girlfriend. She replied, “Okay, I’ll look for you after Prelims.”

Drew grinned and leaned in for a good night kiss that took all thoughts of percussion and ex-girlfriends far away.

The following morning, Bronwyn tried to control her excitement for the Indoor competition – her first as a member of the Battery. There had been a large debate over what their uniforms would be this year. In the end, they had decided on Mars, and creatively filled in the large spectrum of the color red.

Bronwyn had personally opted for red patent leather pants that were a) totally awesome and b) she could only get away with wearing on the court. Her shirt was a black tank top with flames at the bottom. J.D. had splurged for the group and bought everyone on the snare line flame wristbands. The rest of the snares were literally in head to toe red and flames. Adam had found flame emblazoned Chuck Taylors online and ordered a pair for everyone (including Henry). With the addition of some dramatic make up and temporary hair color, they were an intense group.

The Line did not have as many individual competitors as the previous year, with only J.D. entering himself into the snare solo category. Bronwyn eagerly watched her Captain and the other competitors. She was planning on entering a solo she was working on next year and took mental notes about what worked and what did not. After the mandatory support of their Captain, the Forrest Hills drummers worked out their nerves and spent the afternoon working through parts of the show. Bronwyn was legitimately surprised everything had come together so smoothly. After such a disastrous season on the field, it had been a happy turn to have an Indoor show that clicked. After some tuning, and a tight warm up, the Line was pumped to go in and kick some serious ass.

“And now, Forrest Hills High School is prepared to present their show, The Planets, for competition. Drummers, are you ready?”

J.D. cracked off the familiar Mars refrain, and saluted with his sticks.

“You may begin.”

The show started, moving seamlessly through selections from Holst’s famous work. During the Pit feature, she looked into the audience and made eye contact with Drew, who, she was happy to see had made it up for the Prelims. He smiled at her and flashed a quick thumbs up.

Bronwyn concentrated on her part, and during a crossover move in the drill, dared another look up in the stands. She was shocked to see Christina practically sitting in Drew’s lap, trying, it seemed, to plant a big kiss somewhere in the vicinity of her boyfriend’s mouth. Bronwyn knew she had nothing to get jealous about; Drew was obviously struggling to get out of the embrace. However, like a car crash, she couldn’t look away from the scene that was unfolding.

The day might have played out differently if that moment of particular drill didn’t have the snares so close to the back court line. Without meaning to, Bronwyn stepped clearly out of bounds. It was so quick and she stepped back as soon as she realized what she had done. It was at that moment that she locked eyes with a judge.

What have I done…?
Bronwyn’s heart shuddered in her chest.

The rest of the show went smoothly – the best performance to date. As they came off the court, Bronwyn could see the looks of anticipation and excitement as the drummers walked off the court, obviously expecting high scores and a definite pass to the Finals later that evening. Bronwyn wanted to cry. There was no doubt in her mind she had stepped out of bounds. There was no doubt the judge had seen her do it. Were their scores high enough to still make it into the evening competition? As she dared one more glance at the stands, she saw a very smug grin on the face of Christina. Had the Guard member planned for this to happen?

J.D. clapped an arm around Bronwyn and hugged her close to his larger frame, “Great job out there, B! I can’t wait for tonight! We’re going to kick ass.”

Bronwyn cringed and couldn’t hold back her emotions any longer. Her bottom lip quivered, and she felt tears leaking out and not even pausing to take off her drum, she ran into a deserted women’s bathroom. She didn’t want to hear the results of the Prelims, knowing that she was the one solely responsible that her Line wouldn’t be moving on to Finals. Even worse, the reason was one she could have controlled! She didn’t drop a note or miss a step; she lost her concentration and walked right out of bounds. Bronwyn cried…for her seniors and her Line. Hearing someone behind her, she looked up and saw, of all people, Tony.

“Are you done yet?”

Bronwyn desperately wiped at her face and murmured, “Yes. Wh-what are you doing here?”

“I saw.”

Bronwyn wasn’t shocked. The drill had Tony far enough back from her that he could’ve seen her misstep, “Did you tell J.D.?”

“No. I knew it was coming.”

Bronwyn’s eyes widened she asked very slowly, “What do you mean, ‘you knew?’”

“Dana asked me after practice on Tuesday about all the rules of Indoor. I thought she was just being a good girlfriend.” He continued bitterly, “She saw how close the snares got to the edge of the court on Thursday.”