Part 1 (2/2)
”Dude!” Luke rasps.
”You deserved that,” Hannah laughs, shoving Luke's shoulder.
”Joanie would have hit you harder,” Wally says, hiking his eyebrows high above the rims of his gla.s.ses.
Luke pulls up his t-s.h.i.+rt in a fit of mania so that the red Tiger Spirit! imprint catches around his armpits and his white unders.h.i.+rt is on full display to everyone across the gym. He makes to take the s.h.i.+rt all the way off, but Hannah elbows him and points down at Mr. Manceau, whose small, beady eyes are glaring daggers at Luke from beneath the basketball hoop.
”Alright, alright,” Luke says, pulling his s.h.i.+rt down and holding his palms up in surrender.
The cheerleaders take to the floor to lead everyone in organized cheers while the band plays the fight song again. Clay holds the microphone in his left hand and grins out at the display like it's entirely for him. The band reaches the end of the fight song, allows for a minute-long intermission, and then plays the fight song all over again.
The pep rally ends when the costumed school mascot-a yellow tiger sporting a red St. Mary's s.h.i.+rt, and whom the administration officially refers to as ”Mr. Tiger” but whom the entire student body calls ”Hot Little Mary”-bursts onto the center of the gym floor and dances to the fourth repeat of the fight song. The gym goes crazy with cheers and shouts to the costumed tiger, and the noise level peaks so high that Hannah's ears ache.
Then the music abruptly stops, and the cheerleaders and football players and students look around for the source of the disruption. Mrs. Shackleford stands on the court sidelines, slicing her hands back and forth over the air in an Enough kind of gesture, and then she walks to the center of the gym and takes the microphone from Clay.
”What are y'all on today?” she says. ”Save some of this energy for the game tonight! Let's all bid farewell to Mr. Tiger, and then we'll start dismissal with the freshmen.”
”Bye, Hot Little Mary!” ”We love you, Hot Little Mary!” ”Get it, Hot Little Mary!” the students around the gym shout, and Mrs. Shackleford frowns at the bleachers, her mouth pulled tight in disapproval.
”Were you planning on giving the whole school a strip tease?” Joanie asks Luke when she joins them in the hallway. Around them, other students drum on each other's booksacks and push each other down the hall, and the whole vicinity has that air about it like something is going to happen.
”It was only for you,” Luke says. ”But considering you were on the other side of the gym, what was I supposed to do?”
”You should have let him take it all the way off, Han,” Joanie says. ”You deprived us all of another great Luke-Manceau showdown.”
”There'll be more,” Hannah says.
”A whole semester's worth of them,” Wally says.
”Can we talk about how the band played the same song like twelve times?” Joanie says. ”Do they not know anything else? I felt like I was riding in the car with Hannah, being forced to hear the same song on repeat for twenty minutes.”
”Oh, I'm sorry,” Hannah says, ”would you like me to choose something else from my library of three-thousand songs that you accidentally deleted when you were wasted?”
Joanie rolls her eyes. Luke takes her hand and says, ”Aw, do you not know how to respond when we publicly shame you?”
”I am above conflict,” Joanie says.
Wally snorts, and Hannah shoots him a sideways smirk. Luke looks down at Joanie with exaggerated pity, almost like she's not in her right mind.
”I hate all of you,” Joanie says. ”Come on, Luke, let's go before I change my mind about wanting to hang out with you. Han, will you take my bag home?”
”Take it yourself, lazy.”
”Come on, it's like two books. Can't you at least put it in the car?”
”Fine.”
”Tell Mom I'll be home to change before the game.”
”I'm going to tell her you're fornicating in the park and she'd better buy you a new chast.i.ty belt.”
”Shut up. You are disgusting. Bye, y'all,” Joanie says, and then she grabs Luke's hand and pulls him toward the senior parking lot.
Hannah swings Joanie's bag over her arm and looks to Wally, who leans against the white cinder block wall. He smiles knowingly at her. ”Does she really only have two books in there?” he asks.
”Of course not,” Hannah says, rolling her eyes. ”Feels like she's been lugging a dumbbell around.”
”Want me to carry it?”
”I got it.”
”Don't tell me you two were waiting around for me,” someone calls. They turn to see Clay striding toward them, his football jersey stretched taut over his chest. ”What'd y'all think of the pep rally?”
”It was awesome,” Hannah says. ”You were as das.h.i.+ng as ever.”
”Don't make me blush, Han,” Clay says, clapping a hand to her shoulder. ”Where's everyone else?”
”Joanie and Luke just left,” Wally says. ”Can you hang for a bit, or do you have a team meeting?”
”Nah, I can hang. Where's Baker?”
”Haven't seen her yet,” Hannah answers.
”Let's go out to the parking lot,” Clay says, brus.h.i.+ng past them. ”It was crazy in there. I need some air.”
Hannah and Wally lean against the back of Clay's truck while Clay talks up his excitement for the game. He bounces up and down on his toes and pounds his fists against each other, his statements getting increasingly repet.i.tive. Hannah blinks against the late afternoon sun. The parking lot has mostly cleared out and only a few stragglers linger around the remaining cars. The air tastes crisp and clean, like it always does in January, and Hannah breathes it into her lungs while she rubs her hands over her bare knees to warm them.
”But how lucky am I that I get to play one last game for St. Mary's?” Clay says. ”This whole Diocesan Cup thing is awesome.”
”I find the whole thing weird,” Hannah says. ”Making schools vie against each other for something that doesn't even mean anything?”
”Doesn't mean anything?” Clay says, his expression incredulous. ”Are you kidding? Dude, like Baker said, it's a chance to show we're the best. Fifty years of compet.i.tion with Mount Sinai and we can finally prove we're better. We'll have bragging rights for the next 50 years! Besides, think about that prize money. If we could pour that into the football program-”
”Everyone talks about Mount Sinai like they're the enemy,” Hannah interrupts, ”but we're part of the same diocese. The same Catholic diocese. Don't you find that a little hypocritical?”
”Mount Sinai people suck,” Clay says. ”Half the kids Wally and I went to middle school with ended up going there, and they were all douchebags.”
”That's true,” Wally says, lifting his shoulders.
”Anyway, I just have this feeling about tonight,” Clay says. ”I can't explain it, but I know we're going to win. You know?”
”Yeah,” Hannah and Wally say together, Hannah giving up on arguing with Clay.
<script>