The Whisper Seekers

Normal

Harper obsesses over Liam all the way to gym class, while we change and during the short walk from the locker room to the gym. I'm relieved when I'm picked for the opposite team for kickball. I see her complaining to Lily while in line waiting to kick and I can't help but feel sorry for her. Her entire life now revolves around a boy who doesn't like her back.

The day moves slowly and every class Liam and I have together, we spend it listening to students, but we come up with nothing. He flies out of last period to avoid Harper and I find her and Lily waiting for me in the common area.

Most students gather in small clusters around the common area after school, and today, Lily is being especially loud, chasing our friend Rachel through the maze of lingering teens. They weave between the girls' volleyball team, backpacks bouncing against them, laughter echoing through the tiled hall.

Rachel spots me and, without slowing down, swings her heavy book bag into my side with a dramatic grin. I stumble slightly, then laugh as Lily bumps into me from behind. They're a chaotic blur of inside jokes and high-pitched shrieks, just two rowdy seniors making their presence known.

Lily hurls an empty plastic soda bottle across the room toward our group of friends. It arcs through the air and hits Harper lightly in the arm mid-conversation with Nick Morrison. The bottle clatters to the ground, and Harper's head snaps toward us with fire in her eyes, ready to bite back at whoever dared interrupt her. But then she sees us and the fire dims to a playful glare. She picks up the bottle, aims for Lily, and misses completely, accidentally hitting a confused sophomore behind us. Rachel throws out a quick apology while Harper strolls over, unfazed.

We all spill out the front doors together, loud and unbothered, drawing stares as we hoot and holler our way into the parking lot. The other students left behind seem relieved to see the chaos moving outside.

And just for a moment, with the sun hitting our backs and their laughter surrounding me, high school feels like it did before Liam came.

Normal.

We have a soccer game to cheer at this afternoon and all the cheerleaders always drive together to the stadium across town. Once we are at the field, I force Harper to change the subject of Liam and she immediately brings up homecoming. I would rather talk about anything else while watching the soccer boys pass a ball back and forth. Unfortunately, another subject fails to come up, so we plan another trip to the mall to pick out our shoes and jewelry. Lily agrees to book us a hair appointment for the morning of the dance and Harper takes over the boutonniere ordering, convinced she's going with Liam.  I try to mention Nick as a date option, but for some reason, Harper is now hell-bent on going with Liam.

Lily stays quiet during the date conversation, but neither Harper nor I is concerned—she's never short on admirers. She shows up with a different guy to every dance and still leaves heads turning.

It's unbearably hot today, the kind of heat that clings to your skin and seeps through the thick material of our dark uniforms. The girls are openly complaining about sweat pooling beneath ponytails and necklines.

We halfheartedly call out a few cheers and run through the motions of some stunts, but no one's really into it. Afternoon soccer games don't pull much of a crowd, and with the stands nearly empty, there's no pressure to impress.

Every few minutes, one or two girls jog over to the wide shade cast by the row of trees beside the bleachers, catching a quick breath of cooler air. None of us is watching the game. At this point, we'd rather cannonball into a cold pool than chant another empty cheer.

When the game finally ends, we walk onto the grassy field and pass out water bottles to the players. Normally, the guys come sprinting toward the miniskirts holding the water bottles, but today, all the guys are huddled around planning something.