Small Town Love

Chapter 8

You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Monday morning came far quicker than Daphne wanted it to come. And with that...it was time to face school and with that everybody that had seen her cry all over Luke at the funeral.

And as much as she wanted to hide it didn't seem like any of them were going to let her do that.

Oliver and she drove to school together, like they always did, her cousin telling her all about the football game that would happen on Friday evening and Daphne made noises to indicate that she was listening, even when she only understood every second word.

She had never watched a single football game. Why should she? But apparently the whole family always went to every game, so Daphne would spend her Friday evening in the stands next to some football field.

(Would it be very terrible of her if she decided to bring her sketchbooks and a few pencils to that match? Probably not, right? At least then she wouldn't die of boredom.)

By the time they arrived at school, Daphne had tried to tell herself that it wouldn't be that bad.

Yeah, right.

At least Luke and Grace were already waiting for them, leaning against the black pick-up truck that belonged to them.

And while Ollie and Grace were once again doing there best to starve each other of all air, Daphne was happy enough to talk to Luke, who still seemed completely nonchalant about her crying all over him.

He didn't mention it once, entertaining her with the newest gossip that was going on, brightly smiling at her and Daphne was more than happy to go along with that.

They made their way into the school, reaching their lockers when their topic of conversation also turned to that football game.

"So are you going to come to our game this Friday?" He asked her excitedly and Daphne chalked that up to his and Ollie's Y-Chromosome. The crazy excitement for running after a ball needed to be some kind of biological thing.

"I will. I'll even promise to cheer for you even when I have no idea how the game works or who even is the other team," Daphne told him, putting most of her books and art supplies in her locker and only keeping the ones she would need for the first few lessons.

"We are the Fairbury Wolverines and we are playing against the Riverside Rebels," Luke explained happily.

"You are the quarterback, aren't you?" Daphne asked him and watched how he seemed to preen under that it was amusing and adorable at the same time.

"I am. It's my third game this season."

"Have you won any?"

"We won them all," he answered her. "Maybe you can be our lucky charm this time."

"If you won all the games this season I doubt you'll need me as your lucky charm," Daphne snorted amused. "You seem to do well enough on your own."

"Who says no to a lucky charm though?" He asked her, grinning and Daphne couldn't help but blush. He seemed to have the ability to make her blush and stutter like some kind of idiotic little girl.

Why did he need to be so damn pretty?

Because maybe he wouldn't be so disconcerting if Daphne didn't want to stare at him all the time. Her fingers ached to draw him, to try and translate his face to a page, the green eyes, the brown hair, the sharp jawline.