The Wrong Path - By Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris Page 0,42
Annabelle,” she complained. “You must have hooked Trevor somehow, right?”
She was horrified. Sick. Angry. Indignant. But somehow, she could only stare at her friends, stunned. Did they really think that about her? Did they really think Trevor had only gone out with her because they were sleeping together?
“Annabelle!”
She looked down at the sidelines, shocked to see Claire standing on the edge of the stadium, at least two feet above the ground. She held onto the rail for support, keeping herself steady. Her eyes were dark with anger, but her face was smiling. “Help me lead a cheer for your man!” she insisted, waving her over.
Annabelle quickly hurried to the railing, gratefulness to her friend overwhelming her. No matter how difficult being Claire’s friend could be sometimes, she was really always there to protect the people she cared about. She didn’t know how Claire knew what was going on, but somehow, Claire just knew. And Claire was there to rescue her.
“We’re going to do ‘Number Nine Scarlett,’” Claire told her, grinning. “Ready?”
Annabelle nodded, forcing Claudia’s snide comments away. No matter what the other girls thought about her and Trevor’s relationship, Trevor had asked her out because he liked her—and that was it. He was her boyfriend, and he was a star. He had pushed himself to succeed, and he had. And she was going to support him. She was going to help lead a cheer in his honor.
Claire half-turned, still standing on the edge of the stadium and holding onto the railing with one hand, and nodded at the cheerleaders on the sidelines. Annabelle watched as they instantly jumped into formation, a long line of black and gold down the field.
Claire held up a megaphone. “All right!” she shouted up at the crowd, drawing their attention to her. “Let’s show that number nine Scarlett some love! This here is his girlfriend Annabelle, and she doesn’t think you love him enough!”
Annabelle gasped, turning to her. The crowd immediately started booing, yelling at her. She flushed, stricken.
“So let’s show Annabelle here how wrong she is!” Claire ordered, her voice raising to almost a scream.
The crowd cheered wildly. Annabelle couldn’t help but laugh, clapping right along with them.
“What’s that, Annabelle?” Claire asked loudly, through her megaphone. “You still can’t hear them?” She turned back to the crowd. “Annabelle still thinks you guys don’t care. Do you love number nine Scarlett or not?”
The applause grew louder, almost shaking the stands.
Annabelle burst into laughter, turning to Claire and shaking her head as she caught on to what her friend was doing. Claire’s eyes danced, turning back to the crowd again. “Annabelle still thinks there’s not enough love here! Now let’s show number nine Scarlett some love!”
The crowd burst into such thunderous screams that Annabelle thought they might start stampeding. Claire threw her arm up in the air, holding her megaphone, and shouted, “Number nine!”
“Scarlett!” the crowd shouted back.
“Number nine!”
“Scarlett!”
“Number nine!”
“Scarlett!”
“Number nine!”
“Scarlett!”
Claire jumped down from the stands just as the cheerleaders began their routine. Annabelle went to stand with her friends, cheering and applauding with them just in time to see Trevor send the ball flying down the field.
The audience’s screams were deafening. Annabelle screamed as Parker caught it, running down the field and right into Lincoln’s end zone.
Annabelle grinned so widely her face felt like it would split when Claire looked up at her from the sidelines and winked.
They scored two more touchdowns before half-time, bringing the score to eighteen to zero. Annabelle’s throat was raw and dry from screaming so much, and as the players jogged off the field and the cheerleaders took center stage, she turned to her friends beside her.
“Do you guys want to get something to drink?” she asked hopefully.
“I could use a soda,” Erin agreed, to Annabelle’s relief. She stepped around Claudia and joined Annabelle in the aisle.
“Grab me one, will you?” Claudia asked sweetly.
“And me!” Mary added, leaning past Grey.
Annabelle stifled a sudden urge to be annoyed, nodding at her friends. She flashed a smile at Erin and they set off for the food stand, discussing their large lead over Lincoln.
“Annabelle!”
She turned at her name, startled. She smiled as Debbie and Susan, a couple of girls from her math class, approached with a group of friends. The girls had started up a conversation with Annabelle for the first time over a week ago, and now they sat together every day in class. “Hey!” she greeted, pleased. “Enjoying the game?”
Debbie nodded enthusiastically. “We’re totally going to win this. It’s going to