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Something in me stopped anyway.

Not my body exactly. My body stayed folded over my leg.

But the world went strange around the edges.

Sound flattened. The chatter near me thinned into something far away.

For one second I had the odd sensation that I was standing in two places at once.

Track beneath my shoes. Something darker beneath it.

Then—

“Piper?”

I blinked.

Coach Ben was looking at me. So was the girl beside me.

“What?”

“You good?”

“Yeah.”

I straightened. My heart had sped up. That made no sense. I glanced toward the football field.

Players and coaches were scattered across it, dark shapes moving through the early light. Nothing unusual. Nothing I cared about.

Football people doing football things.

“Headache,” I said.

Coach Ben’s eyes flicked past me toward the football field. Then back. He studied me for a second. “Drink your water.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

“Smartass,” he muttered.

I caught movement across the field.

Chief.

He’d stopped whatever drill he was doing.

Watching me. There it was. The look.

I frowned at him. “Knock it off,” I mouthed.

He was much too far away to hear me.

It didn’t matter.

He knew what I’d said.

Something in his shoulders eased.

Then somebody barked at him and he turned back to practice.