Just Another Stupid Cinderella Story

Chapter 16

As we were running, I thought about Jacob. All in all, he was pretty cute. Definitely ‘cheerleader-girlfriend’ worthy, I knew I didn’t stand a chance, I doubted he knew my name. Then again, not too many people at this school knew my name.

It was all pretty much going as planned. Timothy was the only one left on his team, and he was making quick work of the rest of ours. I circled behind Timothy, because I wasn’t as swift or as agile as Jacob, plus, it would be less likely for him to notice me.

Suddenly, Timothy looked up, saw Jacob and turned to run away from him, the thing was, he was running directly toward me. I saw Jacob take off after him, but it was too late, Timothy saw me.

I knew I had that deer-in-the-headlights look on my face. Nothing similar to this had ever happened to me; I had no idea what to do.

At the last minute I closed my eyes and reached out my hand. I felt the flag between my fingers, and I pulled, hard.

Unfortunately though, I heard two other ripping noises accompany the one that I caused. I was out, I knew it. I opened my eyes, and hung my head in defeat.

“Hey, you won!” Jacob said. He must’ve been talking to Timothy. “Elle, you won!”

What! My head snapped up to attention. Timothy was standing in front of my, two flags in his hands, what I didn’t understand was: why was his back toward me?

Apparently at the last second he saw Jacob as the bigger threat, and turned to face his attacker, ripped off both of his flags, while I, in my last-ditch effort, ripped Timothy’s final life-line off his belt. I was the winner!

I still couldn’t believe it, so I looked down, and sure enough, there were still two flags left on my belt. I was the champion.

My team cheered me on, while the red team looked at the ground in sheer embarrassment.

I felt arms around my legs, and before I knew it, I was in the air. Then I was sitting on Jacob’s shoulders, my team crowded around me, waiving their war trophies in the air like flags.

Okay, so maybe that didn’t happen, but I wanted it to. I did get a pat on the back from Mr. Bradford, and even a humble ‘good job’ from Timothy. In all honesty, it was Jacob’s that was the most shocking. He hung back, when I looked at him he offered a small smile, then his face retreated back to its former somber expression.

I wondered what was wrong, but it didn’t stay on my mind for long because my gaze shifted to the door of the gym where I saw Charlie Prinz leaning on the door, his eyes fixed on me. It was slightly unnerving, but then again, after what I did to him at lunch, it was kind of understandable.

Once he caught me looking at him, he offered up a small wave, then turned and left the gym. I looked around, but no one else seemed to see him, it was like he hadn’t even been there.

I couldn’t help but feel bad, I mean, I totally stood him up at lunch. Plus, I’m pretty sure that Jacob was counting on that win in flag football, and I had taken it from him. I just couldn’t do right by guys today, could I?

 I decided not to think about it. Once the revelry calmed down, I decided to go over to Jacob to see if there was anything I could do to cheer him up.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey,” he said back. It seemed he wasn’t in a very talkative mood, but after a few seconds he said: “Congratulations.”

“Thanks,” I said, “I couldn’t have done it without you. I seriously thought I had been the one that Timothy pulled the flags off of.”

“No, and I should’ve known that he would’ve pulled that trick.”