Kiss List (Book I of the List Series)

Chapter 19 - Pre-Game Touch-Up

State. The day finally arrived. We had beat Rosedale to earn a spot in the tournament. Then we kept on winning. Gradually, day after day, we worked our way through the brackets until today. The championship. This was no ordinary championship game, however. For the first time in years a Lakeville team was facing off against a team from Churchill for a state title. The entire town had rallied behind us and the pressure could not have been more intense. Dad was even taking time off work to come to the game. We were 1-1 with Churchill in the regular season. Now anything could happen.

The weeks leading up to the championship game had been filled with blissful happiness. Dylan and I seemed to have reached a new level of trust and communication in our relationship. Even though the boys had been knocked out of the state tournament early, Dylan had rallied behind me and shown up to every one of my games to support me. And then there was Missy. She hadn't said a word or so much as acknowledged that I existed since she got back to school. I avoided her as much as possible but was stunned that she didn't reach out to me or threaten me or anything. She and Graham continued on like they had before as if nothing had happened. Maybe she was willing to forgive and forget? I doubted it, but I still savored the moment of peace I seemed to have miraculously achieved. I didn't even see Doug, thus preventing me from having to commit a homicide on school grounds.

My girls also started acting nice to me again. Payton came over and muttered an apology and then we were all eating together at lunch when we could and hanging out after school like usual. No one mentioned the kiss list or Missy and I was happy for that.

Even Sam started being friendly. One day at lunch he actually ditched his boy posse to eat at my table. The looks on the girls' faces bordered on outrage but he was very polite to them and they did not openly go after him for starting the cafeteria fight. It might have been an uneasy truce but I was willing to take anything I could get.

And so now, with matters of the heart settled, it was time for me to do what I did best: soccer.

Dad woke up early in the morning to make me a special breakfast. I nibbled at some of the eggs and toast he prepared but for the most part I stuck to my cereal. Coach Dumfy had warned us not to change up our routine too much. Thankfully, I didn't have to go to school. The coach had excused us for the entire day so we could prepare. Good thing too; there was no way I could have focused. All the other students technically had to go to school but no one was actually going. They were all having their parents call them in sick or just skipping. This was like a Chloe Walker party. If you missed it, you would be left out of conversations for months. No one was willing to undergo that kind of social suicide.

As much as I tried to focus, I couldn't help but be awed by the spectacle when we arrived at stadium where the game was being held. Girls' soccer does not always get a lot of attention but from my vantage point on the bus it looked like half the state had shown up. Television cameras were visible over the heads of throngs of people. When they saw our bus, thousands of fans dressed in the Lakeville Pirates' red and black colors exploded in cheers. The rest of the girls and I bounced up and down excitedly in our seats. Alyssa was sitting beside me and I hugged her tightly and hoped that she would get an opportunity to play. Championship games didn't come along very often.

"Look!" Alyssa cried. "There's Dylan!"

I followed where she was pointing and let out a startled and excited whoop of joy. Dylan and a bunch of other boys from the soccer team were shirtless and had painted their bodies bright red. In the middle of their chests they had painted black letters. It was impossible to see what it spelled when they were all milling around but I saw the letters G, P, I, E, S, and O and an exclamation point so I guessed it was probably "Go Pirates!" or something along those lines. I had seen boys do that for football games but never a girls' soccer game. I was overwhelmed by their support. Dylan had a P on his chest and was waving excitedly at the bus. I waved back even though there was no way he would be able to pick me out through the windows.