Rory
lit homework. How was she supposed to analyze the themes of Macbeth when all her brain wanted to do was concoct revenge scenarios? She kept going back and forth between wanting to strangle
Jacob for his behavior at the soccer game and wanting to grill Tucker about his comments at the diner. She picked up her phone
and started a text to him for the twentieth time, but then deleted it yet again.
He should be texting her. Apologizing for being such a jerk about Jacob and cheer and pretty much everything, and in front of his friends, no less.
He should say sorry for not coming after her and apologizing in the moment.
Rory sat back hard in her chair. Her phone pinged with a text from Gwen.
Gwen:
Hey!!! Are you home right now???
Gwen always used too much punctuation in her texts.
Rory:
Yeah. Trying to do the lit homework. Why?
Gwen:
No reason!!! ??????
Rory rolled her eyes but felt suddenly on edge. She pushed back from her desk and walked down the hall to Owen’s room. She
had picked him up from his friend’s house after getting the car from their dad, and he was kicked back on his bed with his
headphones on, watching something on his iPad.
“Hey. What’s up?” he asked, sitting up and hitting pause.
“Should we get ice cream? I feel like we should get ice cream.”
Owen perked up instantly. “Applegate?”
Rory smiled. Applegate Farms was a local place that made the best homemade ice cream.
They also had hayrides and apple picking and a pumpkin patch and bouncy houses for the little kids on the weekends.
It was pretty much everyone’s favorite place, even though some people—Layla, for instance—refused to admit it because they thought it was dorky.
“Get your shoes on,” she told him.
She went back to her room, feeling better from having something fun to distract herself. But as she grabbed her wallet and
keys, she noticed one, then two cars pulling up in front of her house. She recognized Layla’s Subaru and leaned forward to
get a better look. The side doors opened, and a couple of the JV cheerleaders tumbled out, wearing their uniforms.
“What the . . . ?” Rory breathed, fogging up Owen’s bedroom window.
Gwen got out of the second car and walked over to talk to Layla.
“What?” Owen asked from the hall. He’d already pulled on a sweater.
“Come here,” she said.
As Owen walked over, at least ten of the JV girls had gathered on the front lawn, shivering and chatting. Gwen and Layla hung
back by their cars. Then Rory heard the rumble of another engine, and Jacob’s red truck pulled onto the street and into her
driveway. Her heart lurched.
“What are they doing?” Owen asked, leaning next to her to see.
“I have no idea.”
Jacob parked and got out, and when he came around his truck Rory let out a puff of laughter. He was wearing his cheerleading uniform and his face was painted half red, half gold, with a red star on his gold cheek and a gold star on his red cheek.
“We have to go down there!” Owen said excitedly. He clearly sensed mayhem afoot at the sight of Jacob’s face.
But before they could move, Jacob positioned himself in the center of the Grahams’ front yard, with all the JV cheerleaders
lined up behind him. Rory wasn’t sure whether to be amused or terrified. Jacob cupped his hands around his mouth and leaned
back.
“Rory Graham! I have a message for you!”
A snort-laugh escaped Rory’s nose, and she slapped her hand over her face. She unlatched the window and shoved it open. Frigid
air poured inside.
“Oh yeah? I’m dying to hear it!” she shouted back.
Jacob glanced over his shoulder at the girls. One of them, Katie, gave him an encouraging nod.
“Apology cheer, ready?” Jacob shouted.
The girls all shouted, “Oh-kay!”
Layla jogged to the top of the driveway to get a better angle and started filming with her phone. Jacob and the JV squad began
to step side to side, clapping in unison. The porch lights across the street snapped on, and some of the neighbors walked
out to see what was going on.
“Jacob’s here, and he’s ready to cheer!” Jacob shouted solo. “I’m! An! Ass!” He pointed at himself with his thumb on each
word, waggling his hips.
“He’s! An! Ass!” The whole squad pointed at him three times.
Rory burst out laughing. She couldn’t have held it in if she’d tried.
“Jacob’s here, and he’s ready to cheer!” Jacob continued. “Don’t! Hate! Me!” This time he punctuated the words with jazz hands.
“Don’t! Hate! Him!”
“I promise I won’t do it again!” Jacob shouted.
“No! He! Won’t!”
“No! I! Won’t!” Jacob kicked on each word—not very high, but better than usual.
“No! He! Won’t!” The cheer ended with Jacob standing on the bent thighs of two of the girls, his arms up in a high V. The
JV cheerleaders waved their palms overhead, and the people across the street joined in with the applause.
Jacob jumped down to the ground, looking up at Rory with hope in his eyes. At least, she thought she saw hope. It was kind
of hard to tell behind all that face paint.
“Um, Rory?” Owen said, nudging her. “I feel like you should go down and talk to him.”
She looked at her little brother. “What do you even say after a performance like that?”
Owen laughed. “Apology accepted?”
She smiled back at him. “Okay. But we’re still going for ice cream.”
Rory jogged downstairs and outside. She came to Layla first, still standing in the driveway.
“I told you he’s in love with you,” Layla whispered, giving Rory a quick hug.
“Shut up,” Rory said. She could feel herself glowing. Which was so annoying. She was not supposed to be glowing over Jacob
Reilly.
The JV girls had gone back to the cars to get sweaters and chat, so Jacob was alone when Rory reached him.
“Okay, you win,” she said as she approached. “That was impressive.”
He was still out of breath, his broad chest heaving a bit beneath his cheerleading sweater. “I really am sorry. I called my
sister, and she said I had to look at it from your perspective, and when I did, I realized I sounded like a real jerk. I promise
I’ll take it seriously from here on out.”
“Your sister is very wise.”
“She’s all right,” he said with a smile. “So, forgive me?”
There was a warm, tingling sensation around her heart that radiated through her chest. “Sure.”
“Great, because I also kind of have some bad news.”
“What?” Rory asked, wary again.
“I have a D in math. If I don’t get at least a B+ on my test next Wednesday, I’m off the team.”
About a million different thoughts and emotions flittered through Rory at that moment. Panic, disbelief, irritation. Why did the universe seem to have it out for her, anyway?
But then she realized: This was a solvable problem. And she excelled at solvable problems.
“What?” he said, sounding nervous. “What are you thinking?”
She tilted her head as she looked up at him. “Do you want to go get some ice cream?”