The Line (9 page)

He looked momentarily taken back and asked, “Really?”

Lucy nodded sheepishly and explained, “I just really wanted to see you, but with everything that’s coming up, I don’t want to risk getting sick. Is that okay?”

Nevada flashed a quick smile and said, “Sure thing, Luce, we’ll get you home.”

As they pulled up to the Karate residence, Lucy quickly kissed Nevada’s cheek and said, “Thanks for understanding.”

“You still owe me a date, Lucy Karate.”

Although she assumed his tone of voice would make other girls jump back in the car, Lucy was more focused on going inside to check and see if Sam responded. She smiled at the cymbal player and answered, “I know.”

As she carefully closed the car door and Nevada watched her walk inside, he mused out loud, “So, she wants to play hard to get?”

As soon as she saw Nevada drive away, Lucy sprinted upstairs to her computer and looked to see if she had any new e-mails. When she saw there were none, tears of frustration began forming and finding their way down her face.

“…in conclusion, I think it would be best if the upperclassmen check them out this Friday. After considering all our options, basically, I just don’t want them to forget we’re around,” said Jerm, addressing the upperclassmen gathered at the lunch table on Monday.

Lucy breathed a huge sigh of relief. After the dramatics of Friday night and a disappointing Saturday, she wasn’t going to be able to follow through with her infiltration plan anyway. Relief quickly turned into anxiety when Lucy realized she was going to see Sam. This Friday.

* * *

CHAPTER SEVEN: LET THE GAMES BEGIN

The week wound down to Friday and Lucy still hadn’t received a response of any kind from Sam – not an e-mail or instant message, phone call or text message. In her room, the Forrest Hills junior grudgingly prepared for the big showdown between the drumlines. She didn’t know exactly what was appropriate to wear to see one’s opposing drumline that also included a guy you had lied to, but still kind of wanted to date. After penning a series of somewhat depressing journal entries, Lucy realized she was having a harder time than she thought getting over a relationship that had really just started. She also struggled over whether or not to come clean with her own Line, including Nevada, about the whole thing. As her first attempt with the truth hadn’t gone so well, Lucy decided against it. Anyway, tonight she planned to hang back and work on being invisible, keeping as low a profile as possible.

Maybe the South drummers have already forgotten I completely betrayed their Captain…

And Chuck Norris might lose a fight. Face it, it’s not going to happen.

After calling Molly to check her wardrobe selection, Lucy opted for black shorts, a green tank top, her drumline jacket, and a visor. It wasn’t dressed up, but no one would mistake her for a guy by the length of her shorts. The brunette smiled at her reflection – she had a great pair of legs and was proud to use them when the situation called for it.

At Jerm’s scheduled timing, Lucy drove over to the school. With everyone wearing their drumline jackets, the group looked like some sort of weird gang. Finally, the last person pulled up and Jerm gave the okay to head over to the South Washington stadium. Although Nevada had urged her to ride to the rival school in his car, Lucy chose to ride with Molly in Tom’s minivan. Even though they had arrived early, like Forrest Hills, South Washington’s football team was very competitive and usually filled the stands to a capacity crowd.

As they made their way through the packed bleachers, Lucy noted it was a warm evening early in the fall, the perfect night for a football game, or a halftime show. Jerm had decided the Line was going to make their move when the South Washington percussionists warmed up at the end of the second quarter. Until then, everyone waited on the opposing side benches. South’s stands were full, and wearing a rival Forrest Hills jacket in the middle of them wasn’t exactly the smartest move.

As the buzzer sounded to end the first quarter, it was time to go. Lucy looked across the field and saw the South drummers making their way down through the stands to warm up, zeroing in on Sam, who was one of the few people who could actually pull off looking good in a band uniform. South Washington was also fortunate to have decent colors – their uniforms were a smart dark grey with accents in navy blue and white. Nevada grabbed Lucy’s hand as they walked over to the South percussionists. Usually, Lucy wouldn’t mind this display of affection, but she was quick to drop Nevada’s hand as they neared South’s side.

The South drumline warmed up like every other percussion ensemble, in a half circle with quints on one end, snares in the middle, and basses on the other end. The cymbals hung out in back and stretched out their arms. This setup left optimum room for an instructor to stand in the middle and hear the Line altogether or for another drumline to stare down the opposing drummers. Jerm had chosen the latter of the two. As the Forrest Hills percussionists glared, the South drumline stoically kept their composure through the warm up.

The night would have gone on in this drama-free standoff if not for one particular event. At the end of the drum solo, the South snares attempted a stick toss from one side of the section to the other. The action was unsuccessful and somehow the missing drumstick landed directly in front of Lucy’s flip flopped feet. She had a quick, but important decision to make: a) not to do anything b) throw the stick even further away c) try the patented “bend and snap” move from Legally Blonde, or d) return the stick to Sam, who was apparently missing one.

Lucy knew she had to do the right thing. It was as if time stood still. Both lines were waiting for her reaction. Lucy calmly bent over, retrieved the ProMark “Fitz Stick” and walked over to Sam. She handed the piece of wood across to him, but not before catching his eye and mouthing the words, “I’m sorry,” hoping he would recognize her apology.

Sam gave her a curt nod. Relieved he had actually acknowledged her, Lucy turned to walk back to her Line. She was almost back to her original spot when one of the South drummers said in a low voice, “Bitch.”

With Molly standing off to the side and no other young women present, Lucy knew the epithet was meant for her. She understood perfectly what the “bitch” meant, but the rest of her Line didn’t know the reference. In rage, Nevada began turning as red as his hair. The rest of the guys looked like they wanted to kill someone. It was one thing to insult the guys on the line or sloppy playing; it was another thing entirely to verbally abuse one of their girls.

Nevada said loudly, “That’s my girlfriend you’re calling a bitch, punk.”

This was news for everyone, including one very surprised Lucy. Most of the Forrest Hills guys had known Lucy and Nevada had been flirting a little more than usual, but they weren’t aware it actually had progressed to a label just yet. Lucy was happy with Nevada, but as they actually had only been on one official (and interrupted) date, she thought it was a little pre-emptive to be throwing out the big “G” word. Sam’s blue eyes locked on Lucy’s green ones. She shook her head briefly and shrugged at the same time, trying to send the message,
I am sort of seeing him, but still interested in you too and I’m still really sorry for what happened on Friday.

At this point, things could go either way. The competition between the Lines was a powder keg that had been looking for a catalyst to set it off. Lucy had a vision of an all out brawl, which would be difficult considering the South line were wearing their carriers, uniforms, and drums. Fortunately, cooler minds prevailed. This scenario was all Jerm really wanted anyway – something to charge his Line for the upcoming competitions. Sam, while in uniform, didn’t feel like getting almost forty people in a fight. He’d have detention for the rest of his life, not to mention, significantly reduce the chances that his Line would get to go to the indoor competitions in November.

Jerm raised up his hand like he was ending a cadence, and announced, “Come on, guys. We may have a ‘bitch’ on our line, but at least she can play.”

He turned to leave. The rest of the Line followed.

Lucy rolled her eyes, but smiled at the backwards compliment. As she walked away, she stole one more glance of Sam, wishing things had worked out differently with the handsome South Washington drumline captain.

Riled up from their unspent testosterone, the upperclassmen watched the South show from the stands, ruthlessly picking apart every part of their performance. With halftime over, they made their way to the parking lot. All anyone could talk about was the “bitch” comment. Lucy knew it was only going to get worse when they told the underclassmen on Monday.

Back at Forrest Hills, Lucy felt she had to get away from the Line. While she was impressed and flattered by everyone’s loyalty, she had a sinking suspicion they probably would have called her the same thing if the situation was reversed. Not pausing to see if Nevada was looking or waiting for her, Lucy jumped in her car and started driving. Before long, she found she had driven herself to where she and Sam had shared their first (and only) date. Parking her car, she moodily walked over to the swings.

“I thought I might find you here.”

Lucy recognized the voice and promptly fell out of the swing. She was totally embarrassed when Sam extended a strong hand to pick her up and was glad it was dark out so he couldn’t see how red her face was.

Sam took a seat in an adjacent swing, and admitted, “I wanted you to know it wasn’t me tonight.”

“I know. I knew it wasn’t your voice, but your guys were sticking up for you. They’re acting like any good Line should for their captain.”

They swung in silence. After a few moments, Sam’s husky voice interrupted Lucy’s panicked thoughts, “You know what?”

“What’s that?”

“You’re a pretty gutsy girl.”

Lucy smiled at the awkward compliment and asked, “How do you figure?”

“Well, meeting my whole Line like that and then telling them who you really were. Then, coming tonight…you didn’t have to, but you did.”

“I know you have no reason to believe me, but I had planned on telling you the truth as soon as I saw you last week.”

“But you didn’t plan on everyone being there?”

Lucy got up and started pacing, and answered, “No! I felt terrible every time I saw you or talked to you. I knew you thought I was someone else, but here’s the thing: I am really proud of my spot on the Line. I worked hard for it and have to work harder than everyone else to overcome the whole ‘girl’ stigma.”

“You should be proud of yourself. You’re on a really good Line and you can’t just be given a spot on Forrest’s Battery.”

“Thanks. Anyway, again, I want you to know I’m not the person who usually lies to people, but when I saw that you were probably never going to talk to me that day at the theater, I got a little desperate.”

Sam laughed out loud.

“What are you laughing at?” Lucy asked, offended.

“I’m just laughing because girls have done some strange things to get my attention, but lying about being on drumline may be among the strangest.”

Lucy smiled and commented, “I can just picture you at band camp. You must make those little Auxiliary girls giggle like crazy.”

“I respectfully plead the fifth.”

“Look, I know what my boys go through. Don’t get me wrong, they love it, but usually it’s not anything they want to pursue.”

Sam stopped swinging and looked at Lucy. He asked, “My boys? Lucy, my dear, is there something else you are not telling me?”

“My boys as in ‘my friends’? I know you’ve had girls on your drumline, so can’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, but you don’t know the first thing about what’s it’s like to be a drumline girl. I look at all these girls trying to get my section’s attention and think; you don’t really know these guys like I do. You weren’t there on a freezing Saturday in November when we got 2nd place. You weren’t there every day in class to see them. You weren’t there to hold their hand when a girlfriend broke their heart. You weren’t there on the bus to give them a back massage. You don’t know the music or the inside jokes or the first thing about these guys.”

“I guess you feel pretty strongly about that.”

“You’re damn straight I do. These guys are like my brothers – sure, we have a very messed up relationship, but I would do just about anything for them.”

“Does that include your ‘boyfriend’ from earlier tonight?”

“Oh, um…that’s Nevada.”

Sam raised his eyebrows and commented, “That seems to be a little bit more than brotherly love.”

Lucy twisted her hands and said, “Well, about the same time I started seeing you, Nevada and I started a little something.”

“Another thing you were planning on telling me?”

“Yes, actually.” Deciding this might be the last conversation she might ever have with the handsome senior, she said, “Look, I haven’t dated a lot before. I’m new to all of this. Besides, you and I were never exclusive, just like Nevada and I aren’t.”

“I think that might come as somewhat of a shock to him.”

Lucy sighed, Sam was right, but she didn’t like talking about Nevada with Sam, so she asked, “Why did you really come here tonight?”