The Captain's Dirty Little Secret

Chapter 31: Chapter 31 - Ravens Vs. Eagles Game

The Eagles game was bigger than a school event.

By six-thirty, the stadium was packed. Students crowded the bleachers until the aisles disappeared. Parents lined the fence with coffee cups and folding chairs. Alumni wore old Briarwick jackets and yelled at teenagers like this was an NFL playoff game.

Fairmont had taken over the visitors’ side.

Green and gold everywhere.

Briarwick answered in black and red.

Signs. Drums. Air horns. Parents with painted faces. Little kids yelled ”Eagles” like they understood the difference between a first down and a parking ticket.

Roxie hated it immediately.

Across the field, the Eagles cheerleaders lined up in sharp green bows, smiling like they had already won.

Kendall made a sound under her breath. ”That green and gold makes them look like Christmas trees.”

Roxie adjusted her grip on her poms. ”Focus on ours.”

”It’s real ugly,” one of the juniors said.

Karen leaned between them. ”Can we say that during the chant?”

Angela shook her head. ”Coach Miller will kill us.”

Coach Miller clapped twice near the track. ”Lines. Now.”

The squad moved fast.

That was how Roxie knew everyone felt it. Even the younger girls had stopped giggling. Lacey kept bouncing on her toes. Two juniors whispered counts under their breath. Karen rolled her shoulders. Angela checked the back row with that sweet face she used before destroying someone’s confidence.

Roxie stood at the front and looked across the field.

Fairmont’s section started first.

”Ea-gles! Ea-gles!”

Briarwick answered louder.

”Ra-vens! Ra-vens!”

The sound hit back and forth across the turf.

This was rivalry week. This was the game people talked about in hallways, grocery lines, parent group chats, and barbershops. Briarwick could lose to another team and call it a bad night.

Losing to Fairmont would become a town-wide offense.

The football team came out from the tunnel.

The home side erupted.

The boys ran through booster-funded smoke, which was too much, but also very Briarwick.

Zac came out near the back with his helmet on, number seven under the lights, with half the stadium expecting him to save them.

Roxie lifted her poms and smiled with the rest of the squad.

Beside her, Karen said, ”They look serious.”

Roxie kept her eyes forward. ”It’s Fairmont. They won last year. We won the year before that.”

Angela leaned closer. ”So they’re fighting for best team?”

”Basically,” Roxie said. ”Whoever wins tonight gets bragging rights until next season.”

Karen looked toward the field. ”Zac’s name will be immortalized if they win this one.”

Angela made a face. ”Can’t imagine the pressure.”

Roxie lifted her chin. ”Let’s do our job.”

They moved into position.

The captains of both teams walked to midfield.

Zac went with Coach Hayes behind him. From Fairmont’s side, Johnson crossed the turf with his helmet under one arm.

Fairmont’s captain.

The guy was huge. Not normal-football-huge either. Gym-brother-who-ate-another-gym-brother huge.

Zac said something.

Johnson answered.

The ref stepped between them fast enough to make the student section scream.

Coach Miller blew his whistle. ”Ready positions.”

The Eagles kicked off.

Briarwick returned it near the thirty, and the stadium turned mean immediately. Fairmont fans booed every yard. Briarwick fans screamed over them.

Roxie lifted her poms.

”Who owns the sky?”

The squad answered hard.

”Ravens!”

Across the field, the Eagles cheerleaders snapped back immediately.

”Fly high!”

”Eagles!”

The two crowds answered each other until Coach Miller yelled for everyone to focus.

The first drive went badly.

Fairmont’s defense came fast. Zac barely got the ball away before green jerseys crashed into the line. Two plays later, Briarwick punted.

The Eagles side loved it.

Fairmont’s offense jogged onto the field, and the visitors’ section exploded.

The new quarterback stepped behind center.

The transfer everyone had spent a week talking about.

Angela leaned closer.

”That’s him?”

Roxie nodded.

Karen watched the field. ”He doesn’t look nervous.”

He didn’t.

The snap came clean, and Briarwick’s defense broke through fast enough to make the home side rise, but he slid away before anyone could touch him, planted his feet, and sent the ball down the sideline.

The whole stadium followed it at once.

The receiver caught it near the white paint, and the Eagles side erupted so loudly the green bows across the field bounced with it.

Fairmont’s cheerleaders jumped straight into formation.

”Fly high!”

Their crowd screamed back. ”Eagles!”

Roxie raised her poms before the noise could settle. ”Who owns the sky?”

The squad hit back.

”Ravens!”

The two sides shouted over each other until the ref blew the next whistle.

Fairmont got close enough to scare everyone, but Briarwick held them before the end zone. The Eagles still kicked a field goal, and their side celebrated like three points had personally ruined Briarwick’s night.

Eagles 3. Ravens 0.

Roxie hated them.

The next Briarwick drive looked better. Mason lowered his shoulder and picked up tough yards, Dylan caught a short pass and got shoved out near midfield, and Kyle hit someone after the whistle before lifting both hands like he had done absolutely nothing wrong.

Nobody believed him.

Not even the ref.

The student section loved him for it anyway.

A Fairmont player said something to Kyle while the ref reset the ball.

Kyle turned around too fast.

Johnson stepped in from the Eagles side, helmet tilted down, smiling like he had been waiting for Kyle to do something stupid.

Zac grabbed the back of Kyle’s jersey before Kyle could take another step.

The home side screamed anyway.

Across the field, the Eagles cheerleaders smiled harder.

Karen leaned closer without looking away. ”That was hot.”

”You’re disturbing,” Angela said.

Roxie lifted her poms. ”Both of you, chant.”

The game turned mean after that.

Every tackle ended with pushing, every whistle came with somebody talking, and every flag made one side furious while the other side acted like the refs had finally developed eyesight. Fairmont played like they had come to Briarwick for revenge, and Briarwick played like losing at home would be a public humiliation.

The cheerleaders matched it.

Their chants got louder. Their arms hit sharper. Their shoes struck the track harder. Even the younger girls stopped smiling like this was cute and started yelling like Fairmont had insulted their families.

”Ravens rise!”

”Ravens fight!”

”Ravens rise!”

”Ravens fight!”

The student section picked it up and turned it into thunder.

Across the field, the Eagles cheerleaders answered immediately.

”Fly high!”

”Eagles!”

Briarwick booed them.

Fairmont booed back.

Coach Miller shouted, ”Clean arms! You are not throwing punches with pom-poms!”

Karen laughed so hard she almost missed the next count.

Roxie shot her a look.

Karen snapped back into place, still smiling.

Near the start of the second quarter, Briarwick finally broke through.

Mason pushed through the middle first, taking two Eagles with him before he went down. The crowd stood even though the play had only moved a few yards, because a few yards against Fairmont felt personal.

Dylan picked up the next first down near the sideline.

The Eagles defender shoved him late.

Dylan stumbled into the white paint, then popped back up and pointed toward the Briarwick section.

The home side lost its mind.

Coach Hayes was already yelling at the ref.

Fairmont’s coach yelled something back.

Coach Hayes pointed at him across the field.

The assistant beside him grabbed his sleeve before he could step any farther.

Karen’s eyes lit up. ”Coach fight.”

”Is that hot too?” Angela asked in disgust.

”Could be.”

”Karen.”

”For someone their age.”

Roxie ignored them and lifted her poms higher. Her throat was starting to burn, but she pushed through it because everyone was watching the field, the score, the sidelines, and them.

Especially Fairmont.

The home side stood before the next snap even happened.

Zac took it, looked left, then fired toward Dylan near the goal line.

Dylan caught the ball with a defender already dragging him down. For one ugly second, it looked like he would fall short.

Then he twisted, stretched the ball forward, and landed across the line.

The ref raised both arms.

Touchdown.

The stadium exploded.

Karen nearly hit Roxie with a pom. ”Finally!”

Roxie was already leading the touchdown chant.

Ravens 7. Eagles 3.

Across the field, Fairmont’s section got very quiet.

For about three minutes.

Then the new quarterback answered.

He hit the sideline route first.

Then he found a receiver in the middle of the field, quick enough that Briarwick’s defense barely had time to turn.

The Eagles side started stomping.

Johnson clapped near the line and shouted something at Kyle.

Kyle shouted back.

The ref turned his head.

Kyle immediately smiled like a boy who had never caused a problem in his life.

Roxie rolled her eyes because Kyle apparently had one facial expression for innocence, and nobody believed it.

On the next play, Briarwick almost got Eagle’s quarterback.

A defender broke through clean, and the home side rose with one giant sound, but their quarterback slipped away by a step and threw while running.

The pass should not have worked.

It worked.

Fairmont caught it near the corner.

The Eagles side went insane.

Karen groaned. ”I hate him already.”

Angela looked stressed. ”He’s actually good.”

Roxie kept her smile on. ”Unfortunately.”

Fairmont reached the red zone, and the whole stadium shifted. The noise got sharper. Parents stood near the fence. Phones lifted. Fairmont’s cheerleaders were already bouncing, ready to explode the second anything happened.

Their quarterback rolled right.

Briarwick chased him.

He threw before anyone could grab him.

The receiver caught it near the corner and stepped into the end zone.

Touchdown.

The Eagles side erupted.

Eagles 10. Ravens 7.

Their cheerleaders turned toward Briarwick with bright smiles.

”Fly high!”

”Eagles!”

The words came out sweet and nasty at the same time.

Roxie smiled back because she refused to look bothered by girls in green bows who thought yelling louder counted as a personality.

She raised her poms.

”Ravens rise!”

The squad answered.

”Ravens fight!”

Briarwick picked it up again, but the tension had changed.

Fairmont had the lead.

The new quarterback was not a rumor anymore.

And Zac still had not looked over once.

The game got uglier after that.

Late in the quarter, Fairmont sent pressure, and three green jerseys broke through before Zac could even set his feet. He still got the throw away, but one defender drove into him after the ball was gone.

Late.

The ball hit the turf.

Zac hit the ground.

The home side gasped.

Kyle saw it first and shoved the defender with both hands. The defender shoved back, Johnson got involved, Mason ran in, and suddenly half the field seemed more interested in fighting than football.

The refs sprinted between them.

Flags flew.

Coach Hayes was already yelling.

Fairmont’s coach yelled back.

The crowd loved every second of it.

A man near the fence shouted, ”That was dirty!” while holding nachos like evidence.

The Fairmont section booed the flag.

Briarwick booed Fairmont.

The Eagles cheerleaders kept smiling like they were above it, which made Roxie want to throw a pom across the field.

Coach Miller’s voice cut behind her. ”Roxie.”

She straightened immediately.

Right.

She lifted her poms and turned slightly toward the younger girls, who were staring at the field with wide eyes.

Lacey turned her head. ”He’s down.”

”He’ll stand up,” she said.

Lacey looked at her.

”He always does.”

A second later, Zac pushed himself to his feet before the trainer reached him.

The stadium roared.

Roxie lifted her poms. ”Chant!”

The squad answered immediately.

The half ended a few minutes later with Briarwick still trailing and Fairmont’s side acting like they could already taste the bragging rights.

Eagles 10. Ravens 7.