“Thank you, sir. I guess I’d better go and prepare.” I grabbed my bag and stood up.
“Don’t you want to know who you’ll be shadowing?”
“Doesn’t matter.” My shoulders lifted in a small shrug.
“Actually, it might…”
My eyes locked on his, the knot in my stomach tightening.
And then he said three little words that tipped my world on its axis.
“It’s Avery Chase.”
“Miley, is that you, sweetheart?”
“It’s me, Mom.” I smiled to myself. We didn’t get a lot of visitors, but she asked the same question every single day.
After kicking off my sneakers, I went to find her in the kitchen. “Hey.”
“Hey, sweetheart. Good ‘last first day?’”
“It was okay.” Thankfully, she couldn’t see my grimace as I went to the refrigerator and pulled out a juice box. I stabbed the straw into the top and joined her over by the counter. “What are you making?”
“Reese’s brownies.”
“Hmm, my favorite.”
“I thought we could have a movie night. Celebrate your first day of senior year.”
“Sounds great, Mom. But I have a ton of reading to do. Later?”
“Sure, baby. Did you see Mr. Jones? Does he have a big senior year story for you?”
“He wants me to shadow Avery Chase.”
“The quarterback?”
“That’s the one.” I couldn’t keep the frustration out of my voice.
“But you already did the article on the team.”
“And Coach Ford thinks it’s only fair I do something reflecting them in a better light.”
“Well, that doesn’t seem very fair.”
“In case you didn’t know, life isn’t fair, Mom.” The second I said the words, I felt like crap. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong.”
“It’s okay, baby.” She came around and hugged me. “I never want you to feel like you can’t use me as a sounding board, okay? Whatever it is.”
“Thank you.”
It had been a rough couple of years. My dad walked out on us suddenly after twenty years of marriage to my mom. He’d said they had ‘moved in different directions’ but we both knew he’d found happiness with a woman only a few years older than me.
Mom had really struggled at first, falling into a bout of depression and anxiety. But she was doing better, and I was so damn proud of her for bouncing back.
“You’ll ace it, sweetheart.” She squeezed my hand. “I have no doubt. How was your first day besides that?”
I couldn’t hide my frown this time.
“Ugh, that bad?”
“I’m head of the school newspaper, Mom. I wrote an exposé uncovering the preferential treatment of football players in our school. I tried out for the cheer squad just to get the inside scoop and—”
“Okay, okay, I get it. You broke a lot of people’s trust, but surely, many are on your side?”
“Oh, I’m not sure about that.” At our daily briefing half my team hadn’t even been able to look me in the eye.
I was the girl who dared to go up against the Rixon Raiders, and now I had to pay the price.
“Well, you’re a strong, independent woman.” She nudged my shoulder. “There’s nothing you can’t handle.”
“Yeah,” I murmured, really wanting to move on from this conversation.
It was bad enough I had to do it all again tomorrow, but shadowing Avery for the article?
He was never going to agree to that.
Mom was right though. I wasn’t one to back down from a challenge and I still needed my last submission piece for my application to Northwestern. I’d been mulling over ideas for the last couple of weeks, but this would have to do. I was too close to give up now, and I had too much riding on this semester as head editor at The Rixon Riot.
“That had better not be a frown, Miley Louise Fuller.” Mom smiled, offering me a spoonful of brownie mixture. It was times like these, I realized how far she’d come.
After Dad left, she’d spent most of her days in bed, barely eating or drinking. It had been hard, watching the woman who had given me life fall to pieces like that. It was enough to sever my relationship with my father… but it had also made me more determined than ever to chase my dreams and carve out a future for myself.
Northwestern was the goal. I didn’t have a plan b or c. It was one of the best writing programs in the country and I wanted it with every fiber of my being. They only gave a handful of full academic scholarships every year and I needed one to be able to afford the tuition. Mom didn’t have the money and my part-time job at Rixon’s library wasn’t enough.
“I’ve got this, Mom,” I said with conviction. Because there was no alternative. She was right. I was Miley Louise Fuller, and when I set my sights on something—willingly or not—I went after it with everything I had. So regardless of whether Avery wanted to work with me on this or not, he had no choice.
Because I wouldn’t give him one.
Chapter Three
Avery
It was only the second day of the semester and all the telltale signs of the impending football season were everywhere. The huge Rixon Raiders banner hanging from the ceiling, the Viking mascot watching over me and my classmates like an all-seeing god. It was the same mascot my dad and Coach Ford had played to. Prayed to.
They’d ruled the halls of this very school over twenty years ago. Coach Ford had gone all the way, having a successful college career at UPenn and then drafting to the Philadelphia Eagles. But not my dad; he’d dropped out of college in senior year to take care of Xander when my grams got sick. Then Mom found out she was pregnant with me, and he’d given up his shot at going pro—and he’d had a good shot too—for family. He said he didn’t regret it, but I figured that was what he was supposed to say. Going pro was a dream, one not many guys got to live out.
