Warmth (Cheer Legacy Trilogy #1)

17.

I'm nervous. Super duper extremely nervous. I'm about as nervous as the first time I ever cheered in front of a crowd. No, it's even worse. I feel like I need to get drunk, high and puke all at once. I'm also extremely mad at Jesse.

Jesse laughs and casually places a hand on my bouncing knee, his other hand on the steering wheel. "Relax, baby. They're gonna love you."

I shoot him a look. My nerves are too shot to be nice. "How do you know that?"

Jesse looks at me full on. "Because I love you."

"Look at the road!" I screech. His cavalier attitude is endearing and pissing me off at the same time. "What's the matter with you!"

He chuckles. "Oh boy. If only I made you that nervous."

We're going to meet his family. He'd been putting it off for as long as he can, because apparently his 'chaos of a family is going to scare me away and he's going to lose me'. Whatever, dude. I'm stuck to him like super glue. The kind where you'd have to sacrifice a few layers of skin to get off. 

"What if they think I'm just some dumb cheerleader?" I panic. I reach out and whack his arm. "You should have warned me!"

A few minutes ago, I'd thought we were going on a date. Jesse manages to make even the most simple dates sweet and memorable, like that time he brought a portable grill and we have a mini barbecue in my garden, just the two of us, and he fed me grapes. I'd made a wreath of flowers for his head and he'd looked so glorious that I felt like he'd gotten it the other way around. He's the god. 

But today after we'd gotten in the car, he told me that he was taking me to meet his family. I almost flung myself out of a moving vehicle. Thank god the sundress I chose to wear is generically okay for whatever function. I whack his arm again for good measure.

"Stop hitting me, I'm trying to drive here," he laughs. He looks way too amused for someone who was supposedly scared his family would scare me away. "And you're the number one in your grade, there's no way they'd think you're dumb."

"Why didn't you tell me?" I groan, folding my arms and glaring out the window. 

"Honestly, I chickened out," he chuckles with embarrassment. "I wasn't going to at first, but my family always has this little potluck gathering on New Year's Day. I didn't want you to miss out on a big family tradition of mine."

I soften, hearing his explanation. I unfold my arms and slide my hand under his, interlacing our fingers. "I love you," I told him. He knows how much I miss having a family. To be honest, he's family now. He's family to me, and home is wherever he is. Maybe I'm too young to think this, but that's how it feels. It would be a physical ache to tear myself away from him. 

"I know," he chuckles. "Thank fuck you do, or I'd go mad."

I laugh at his words. He's the one who has no idea what he does to me. 

He has four sisters, three of which are older than us and have already graduated, and a younger one who's two years younger than me. His elder sisters had been the bane of his existence, always finding ways to humiliate him when he was younger. When their youngest sister was born, they turned their doting attention to her and ignored him, to his relief. 

"It's going to be fine," he squeezes my hand, pauses, then continues: "For you, anyway. It's gonna be hell for me."

All the girls went to Mountain View Academy Institution, a sub-branch of Mountain View Academy, or rather, a sister school. The Institution is more academically-minded while the Academy is more sports-minded, though they're both quite well-rounded. Technically the best schools.