Love For A Game

Chapter 12

News about Nicole and I being together spread around the school like wildfire. Within two or three days, everyone knew. People stole glances in our direction. However, Nicole and I didn't care. We just kept to ourselves and our friends; we didn't let other people get in on anything.

Nicole continued to practice with the team. She continued to get better and better, and obtaining respect from the other players, as a result. She also received her game jersey from Coach Bennington. He even went as far as to say that she "deserved the jersey".

She sits with us at lunch, as well. This is mainly due to the fact that I said that I won't sit with them unless Nicole does so too. Since they wanted me there, they capitulated.

Today is the fifteenth, the day of Nicole's and mine's presentation of the Dieppe raid. We have a pretty good presentation ready to go, and I think that Mr. Kendrick will be happy with it. Hopefully the rest of the class likes it.

I enter the history classroom, and find Nicole at her desk. I sit in the desk next to her. "You ready?" I ask.

"Definitely," she replies. "Are you?"

"I've never been more ready," I say with a smirk.

"Good," she says. "I've prepared a poster that has some information on it, and some pictures that my dad gave me, too. Wanna see it?"

"Hell yeah, I do."

She picks up a blue Bristol board and spreads it across her desk. My jaw drops open. Pictures, along with cards filled with writing, line the page. It looks really awesome.

"This looks really good, Nic," I say.

She grins. "Of course it does," she jokes. "I'm the one who made it."

Mr. Kendrick bangs his yard stick against the blackboard, silencing everyone. "Alright! Let's get started! We have more presentations to get through. So, who wants to go first?"

No one speaks, or makes any sound. "Anyone? Anyone at all?" Still, nobody speaks.

"Jordan and I will go," Nicole pipes up.

I lean over to her. "Nic, what are you doing?"

"It's best to get it over with, huh?"

"Whatever."

"Good!" Mr. Kendrick exclaims. "Well, get on up here! We don't have all day!"

Nicole and I stand and walk to the front of the room. Nicole puts her poster on the board with a magnet.

"So," I say hesitantly. Everyone is looking at me, with expectant looks on their faces. I'm not sure how to start. My mind has drawn a blank.

"We have decided to talk about the Canadian raid of Dieppe during the Second World War," Nicole says, saving me. "We will also talk about how it was different from the D-Day raid of 1944."

"That sounds interesting," Mr. Kendrick says.

"Okay," I say.

***

The presentation goes extremely well. The class claps when we are finished, and Mr. Kendrick congratulates us. He says that we did a flawless comparison between the two raids, and how they changed the tides of the war.

"Bravo," he says.

Nicole and I return to our seats. Another group does a presentation on the Pearl Harbour attacks on December 7th, 1941. They don't do as well as they could, and they leave out lots of information that would make their presentation a lot better.