My mom hugs Amber and Bo. Bo stiffens at the hug like she wasn’t expecting it, but Amber isn’t fazed. The two of them sit on my right, with Jamal to my left and my mom to his. Two separate worlds that need to stay that way.
When the team comes out on the field, I scan them, looking for Cesar. I can’t see faces because of the helmets, but there are only two non-white players. We spot David right away. Number twenty-one. My mom stands up and starts singing.
“Dale, dale, dale! Dale, veintiuno!” She thinks he’s Cesar. Looks like he told her that was his number. Jamal and I follow my mom’s lead and cheer along.
David doesn’t take his helmet off at any point, but he does turn around and wave at us a few times. I can’t even focus on the game, I’m so anxious. Amber and Bo know to let my mom think what she thinks, since they’re in on the lie. Well . . . one of the lies.
“So how do you guys know each other?” Amber asks me and Jamal at halftime.
I hesitate, and Jamal saves us. “We went to Rover together.” It’s not even a lie. I don’t know why I couldn’t have just said that.
Before anyone has a chance to ask more questions, I go get nachos. I know I’m dirty for leaving Jamal alone with my mom and friends he doesn’t know. Oops.
I weave my way through a group of shirtless guys with our school colors painted on their torsos and faces. One of them taps my shoulder. “Hey, Yamilet, right?” I don’t know this guy, and he kind of mangles my name. I’ve seen him hanging around with Cesar and Hunter, though.
“Yeah, hi,” I say.
“Hunter wanted me to invite you to the homecoming after-party tomorrow, in case he missed you after the game.”
“Oh, thanks, but I don’t know. I probably won’t know anyone there,” I say, even though I’m sure Cesar will want to go.
“It’s fine. You can bring a friend if you want.” He shrugs, hands me a folded-up piece of paper, and walks off.
I unfold it to see an address and a smiley face. I stuff it into my pocket, then get my nachos and leave. I’ll have to see if Cesar was invited. I wouldn’t want to go by myself.
After we win the game, Cesar is the first one out of the locker rooms. He’s in David’s uniform, sweating profusely. He probably did jumping jacks for the last ten minutes to pull this off. That boy can really sweat. I wonder if he was hiding in the locker room the whole game. . . . My mom ignores the sweat and gives him a huge hug.
“You did so good, mijo! I’m so proud of you!” A few more sweaty kisses. Gross. Cesar and my mom don’t seem to mind.
Cesar goes back to change, and Mom goes to wait for us in the car while I wait for him to come back. Hunter comes out first, and comes straight for me, picking me up in a hug. The noise that comes out of my mouth when he lifts me off the ground is something between a gremlin screech and a shrieking pig. Not exactly the cute squeal he was probably expecting. He puts me down.
“What was that noise?” Jamal says, and Bo and Amber giggle, which isn’t good for our cover. He’s supposed to be acting jealous or something. Good thing Mom went to the car, otherwise she’d definitely grill me over that hug later.
“I was just surprised.” I hit Jamal’s arm, and then Hunter’s. “You scared me!”
“Just wanted to say hi, and thanks for coming.” He blushes.
I’m about to introduce Jamal to Hunter as my boyfriend so he’s in the loop when David and Cesar walk back out together. David must have been waiting in the locker room for Cesar to give him his uniform back. He’s a real one—going an entire game without taking off that helmet couldn’t have been too fun. I wonder what Cesar bribed him with. . . .
“Gotta go!” Hunter says, then rushes over to David and Cesar. Cesar slaps Hunter’s hand, then jogs over to us like he was tagged in. Weird.