Page 31 of Campus Heat

Ethan just froze.

“Don’t tell me you forgot about the party,” Jenna told me. “We need to get ready.”

I hesitated because I was actually having a lot of fun with Ethan, and I didn’t want to cut it short. Plus, he had already learned so much. He was about to finish his project. And I wanted to help him get to that point, but then he started collecting all his stuff, and he looked so unaffected.

Something about the way he was acting made my chest clench up. It seemed so unfair to drop him in the middle of it all, especially since there would be plenty of other parties to attend.

“Before you go…” he said softly. “Would you mind officially tutoring me?”

I was floored, but he wasn’t joking or flirting. He was as serious as I had ever seen him.

“Like… on a regular basis,” he added. “I don’t want to lose this. You’re… great. Really great.”

My heart nearly exploded. He was being so understanding, and there was so much momentum, but it was those words and the way he said them that made me crumble.

“I’d love to,” I said, giving him a warm smile.

His eyes lifted to mine, and there was something unguarded in them.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.” I slipped my bag over my shoulder. “We’ll do it twice a week.”

“At a minimum,” he said, giving me one of his dazzling smiles.

I winked at him. “You don’t fix fundamentals overnight.”

13

Ethan

I walked up to our home field and took a deep breath. There was something different about that day. I had faith in my team and Harris’s insane ideas. I had no idea why I felt that way or what had changed, but it felt good to be optimistic for once. And then I noticed it. There was noise. Not a lot, but enough to make a difference.

I scanned the bleachers and surprisingly saw a few more people than last time. There weren’t many of them, but enough to leave an impression. Instead of scattered singles sitting three rows apart, there were clusters. A few of them even held up some handmade signs. And someone brought a drum. It wasn’t loud or impressive, but it wasn’t quiet either.

It meant something. We were a team that was used to having our mistakes echoed through empty aluminum but now we had something more. It was encouraging. Inspirational. So much more than we were expecting. And it showed. The warmups felt different. They were less frantic and a lot more intentional.

Helmets clicked together with familiarity instead of confusion, and the guys were actually talking. They weren’t arguing or blaming each other. Just having idle chit-chat. We weren’t good yet, but we were starting to belong to each other, which is something that hadn’t happened yet. It felt good, and I wanted it to stay that way.

I wasn’t even halfway through my throwing progression when I saw Penny cutting across the sideline with her latest potential intern trailing behind her. That girl was wicked enough to send a chill down the toughest of spines. She had the kind of smile that looked friendly from a distance but was incredibly dangerous up close. So yeah, she had definitely chosen the right career path.

I was about to go hide in a corner, but then I saw her heading straight for Malik. That was something I definitely needed to see because I didn’t think she would love him as much as the rest of us do.

“Can we get a quick word about the team’s progression since the opener?” she asked enthusiastically.

Malik didn’t even slow down. “Nope.”

I laughed out loud. He brushed her off more effectively than a dinosaur would with a fly. And the look of utter astonishment that took over her usually bright face was proof of that.

“Just one question about how the locker room is responding to the coaching adjustments….”

Malik pulled his helmet down and ran toward the secondary drills. “Not today!”

She didn’t chase him down like I was expecting her to. Instead, she pivoted and locked onto me. I thought of every possible way to get out of the situation. I wished I could turn invisible. I even considered pretending I needed to have my wrists re-wrapped, but it was too late for any of that to work.

“Ethan!” she called, waving eagerly. “Can I have thirty seconds of your time?”

She was practically jogging over to me, microphone at the ready.