Finding Hearts

Chapter 1

KATE

"Remind me again why we're here", Olivia calls from behind me, as we're trying to make our way through the stands. The smell of beer and hot dogs fills up the place and I have to squint my nose.

"Because, Liv, we're bringing ourselves out there", I let out cheerfully, hiding any doubts. Doubts, I do have. Tones of them. Like why the heck I went to a football game when we all know I have never attended one before. Or why I get goosebumps and have to flinch anytime I hear a guy wolf-whistle at my bestie and me. Or how I know damn well I broke up two weeks ago, and Liam would hate to know that I am here. He hated football. Not as much as he hated hockey though. But he hated football.

"I'm dating your brother", she replies.

I turn around and almost bore holes in her ocean-blue eyes. "Thanks for the reminder, babe."

Liv shrugs and I turn around, taking her hand in mine so that we don't get lost. We finally arrive at what must be our aisle, I think, and the corridor started getting even smaller, us having to fight our way between the seats in the row before and the people already sitting.

"Excuse me, coming through", I say, all while keeping a polite smile on. "Coming through."

I see Liv's hand holding mine even tighter, and I curse at myself for a moment. I know damn well Liv hates crowded spaces. And people staring. It really only got worse for her as she started dating Aaron. When your high school is obsessed with the basketball team and your boyfriend happens to be the captain of it, the magnifying glass around you grows exponentially.

I know Aaron knows and is trying his best, he really seems to love her, more than he ever loved anybody probably, but he can't help for the people watching.

We arrive at what must be our seats, only we see they are already occupied by two guys ready to watch the game. Hot Dogs in their hands, and two opened beers to match. They are wearing the high school's colors, blue and yellow, and seem pretty pissed as we position ourselves in their field of view.

"Uhm, hello", one of them begins. He then checks me out once, and a smirk grows on his lips. "Well well, aren't you the Blake girl?"

"I believe you're sitting on our seats", I answer, completely dismissing that first part of the sentence. The polite smile doesn't slip from my lips, no matter how hard it might be. Kill them with kindness, they say.

"No no no", the other one answers, even doing the whole gesture at us. "These are our seats." He pulls two tickets from his back pocket. "See? Row 23, Seats 14 and 15."

I take out our tickets from my back pocket to prove him wrong, only to notice he is indeed right. We are row 15, seats 23 and 24. Section C.

"Which section is this?", I ask, biting on my bottom lip. How could I have been so stupid?

"Section A", one of the guys answers. Right now, I don't really care which one. He sneaks a peek at my tickets and lets out a mocking laugh, "Section C is all the way there", he says, pointing across the room. He then points at the football team starting to gather on the field. And the cheerleaders starting to perform their chores. I spot Mae on top of the pyramid, and can't help but feel proud she did it. My co-cheer captain really struggled with that particular move for a while now. Given the fact we're two captains, we agreed for her to take care of the football division, while I do the basketball one. We're all together a squad, but it's easier to rehearse for the chores separately in two groups. Especially given how many sport events Colton Private High School attends. If we were to have one division only covering both football and basketball, we'd never be able to make it to all.