Page 66 of Campus Heat

“Be my sneaky date,” he clarified. “Sit with me, cheer, and pretend I’m not trying to touch you every five seconds. Sneak away and kiss me like you just did. I don’t know… But I do know that I want to be with you.”

My heart skipped a beat. “That sounds a little unrealistic.”

“I don’t care, but I swear I’ll try to keep our little secret.”

I took a deep breath and ran my fingers over my jaw, pretending to be thinking about his proposal even though I already knew the answer. He held his breath, and I could clearly see the fear in his eyes.

“Okay,” I eventually said. “I’ll be your sneaky date.”

Something eased in his expression. It was subtle, but it was definitely real. He brushed his knuckles along my jaw before stepping back into the limelight. With one final glance in my direction, he rejoined his teammates, and this time his shoulders were looser than they had ever been before.

25

Ethan

The doors opened, and the sound slammed into me. The bass was vibrating through the floor. Blue-and-gold lights cut through the haze created by the overworked fog machines, and the bleachers were packed. There were students, alumni, and even locals who had somehow heard that the Highlanders were worth showing up for.

“When did we start pulling in numbers like this?” Malik asked as he stepped in next to me.

I didn’t answer because I honestly didn’t know what to say. There were banners hanging. A band was wedged into the corner, and they were blasting the fight song as if it were a championship run. Students were standing on the bleachers instead of sitting. It was chaotic, electric even, and for just a moment it felt like a good enough reason to believe.

Harris stood in front of us near the court. His hands were clasped behind his back while his eyes scanned the crowd. He wasn’t giving anything away, and it was making all of us nervous.

“Take it in,” Harris said calmly. “Even if it’s short-lived.”

A few of the guys laughed, but I didn’t because even if it was short-lived, it still counted. Noise meant something. Support, even if it was tied to a spectacle, still left an impression. Suddenly the music cut out, and the spotlight moved to the center of the court. Dick Pine stepped out, wearing the perfect suit and the perfect smile to go along with it. He had the kind of charisma that would play very well at a donor dinner.

He straightened his tie for a moment before his voice echoed through the speakers. “Let’s hear it for your Havenport Highlanders!”

The crowd roared. It rolled through my chest in a way that made my pulse flutter. So for a moment, just a fraction of a second, I let myself imagine what this would feel like if we were constantly winning. If it wasn’t just a novelty.

Malik leaned in. “They’re here for the show.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said in a hushed whisper. “It’s getting our name out there, and that’s exactly what we need.”

Every program started somewhere, and this might be exactly what we needed to get our foot in the game. Mr. Pine said a few polite words and handed the floor over to the cheer squad. The place instantly shifted to something sharper. Elizabeth moved to the front of the formation. She was confident and precise, her energy controlled in a way that made it impossible to draw your eyes away from her. She was deliberate, and every single one of her movements counted.

Mid-routine, I caught her eye. She didn’t look for too long, but it was just long enough for a small, knowing smile to curve at the corner of her mouth. I felt it like a supportive hand on my back, very grounding.

After the girls finished, Mr. Pine announced the start of the games, and things quickly got out of hand after that. For me, the rest of the rally just blurred into a series of contests and performances. The alumni were bricking half-court shots while the freshmen fell over each other in relay races. Mr. Pine laughed loudly into the mic as if he’d orchestrated the entire team himself.

Everyone was enjoying themselves at the loud, over-the-top, borderline absurd event that was designed to promote my team. And I could feel it reverberate through my soul. Whoever arranged this definitely knew how to get our blood pumping. I just hoped it would last long enough for us to win a game because if it didn’t, all this would’ve been for nothing.

And this deserved more than that because it was definitely the best night I’d had since I arrived at Havenport. It would’ve been a shame to watch it go to waste, especially because at that exact moment there were no scoreboards, and we didn’t have to do any replays. It was all about the noise and lights. And for me, I looked forward to Elizabeth slipping in next to me when the lights dimmed for another introduction.

“You look overwhelmed,” she teased softly as she took her seat next to me.

“I was expecting folding chairs and lukewarm applause,” I said honestly.

She gave me an astonished smile. “You underestimate how badly people want something to rally about.”

My brows furrowed. “You think that’s what this is?”

Jenna ran past and threw a handful of glitter in our general direction. She had a massive smile on her face that wanted to prove that Elizabeth was right, but could it really be true? Had we misunderstood our fans all this time?

“People are tired of mediocrity,” she said with a shrug. “They want something to believe in. They want something to hope for. You’re supposed to be that thing, but they can’t put their faith in you if you can’t believe in yourselves.”

The word lingered in my mind. Hope… Was it really as simple as that? Could that really be why we’d been struggling since we started? Because we didn’t have hope in this team or in each other?