Accidental Rock Star (16 page)

Aria resisted the urge
to look over at Tyler, who was only one of the eighty-seven who
mattered tonight. The marching band had worked hard, and they
deserved her total attention. She got them lined up in the end
zone. They were ready for the halftime performance.

The stands were packed,
the Friday-night crowd full of their usual chants for Li-War and
the football team. The team was up by ten points. The night was
windy but clear. Nothing would stop them. Confidence flooded her
system.

The breeze picked
up.

Li-War whipped against
his restraints. His tongue moved from side to side in addition to
its usual up-down. The tip slicked out, almost reaching her. That
was a concern. “Back. Everybody back.”

Hunter motioned with
his helmet. “You’re still too close to Li-War.”

Frustration poked holes
in her confidence and tension gripped her.
Just get to the field
house already. Get your Gatorade and your pep talk, and let the
band do their thing
. Hunter crossed his arms and stared at the
gap separating the band from Li-War. Li-War licked out again, and
his tongue swiped the side of the tuba. The wind was giving Li-War
far too much stretch tonight.

Hunter pointed.

Like she hadn’t seen
it. Aria’s shoulders tightened and countered Hunter’s pointy finger
by jabbing her index finger at the gray clouds forming above.
“We’re in position. It’s the storm coming in.” She stared him down,
daring him to try and call the game.

Director Garcia yelled,
“Drum line, tighten up Li-War’s anchors.”

Tyler, Dylan and Ethan
put their drums down and moved to secure Li-War’s restraints. The
football team should have to tighten their own straps.

The director moved on.
“Megan. Katy. Stop worrying about your hair. Get the saxophones and
flutes to the front. Hats on.”

Megan waited until he
left before finishing the tie in Katy’s braid. The wind whipped
small strands of Aria’s hair loose. Megan was right. It was an
extra-bobby-pin kind of night.

Aria checked the clock,
letting the time clicking on stoke her anticipation. They still had
a few minutes before she needed to alert Dylan. He’d tap his
drumsticks, giving the three-click signal, and the band would march
on field.

The last of the second
string players and the coaches jogged under the lizard snout and
into the tunnel. All except Hunter. Hunter jogged over to her. Aria
motioned for him to leave with a stiff wave.

“Hey, Band Geek.”

“What, Hunter?”

“What are you doing
tonight?”

Tyler straightened up,
pulling the anchor strap tight against Li-War’s snout. “She’s going
out with me.” The wind carried away the name he called Hunter, but
she was pretty sure it rhymed with
luck-wad
.

Hunter pointed his
helmet at Tyler. “You just worry about controlling my lizard. I’ll
worry about controlling Aria.”

Tyler dropped the rope
and strode toward Hunter.

Hunter jetted between
Li-War’s legs and ran toward the field house.

No. No. No.
Nothing was going to mess up tonight. Aria blocked Tyler’s path and
spread her arms out, backing up as he strode forward. “He’s gone.
You can’t go into the tunnel. And you don’t want to stir things up
with him. Let it go.”

Tyler stopped short of
running into her, his eyes hard, his fists clenched, his gaze
beyond her. “He needs to know you’re with me.”

She risked a glance
back. No sign of Hunter. Smart coward. “Let it go.”

Tyler crossed his arms
over his chest. “He’s not getting it.”

“Come on, Ty,” Ethan
called from Li-War’s back talon. It had raised five feet off the
ground and was threatening to lift the lizard’s hind leg up, like a
dog relieving itself, relieving itself on the band.

Aria pointed. “Go. Help
him. Please.”

Tyler turned around,
digging his phone out of his pocket.

Agh. What was he doing?
No phones at game time. Aria didn’t yell about it. She just moved
on to getting everyone lined up. She’d have thought she’d like him
defending her honor. But really, it was more about guys wanting to
fight than about her. And tonight mattered.

The guys finished
securing Li-War and joined the percussion section. They were in
their spots, ready to march on, but they were fidgety. Ethan
repositioned his drums repeatedly, and he wore a huge grin. Aria
tried to catch his gaze, and he averted his eyes. Dylan smirked and
stared at the game clock. Tyler had his chin in the air, but his
hands tapped out a relentless rhythm on the side of his drum. Aria
didn’t trust them. Boys. Pointy drumsticks. Pissed attitudes. She’d
remain here with her suspicions until the last second.

Tyler jabbed Ethan in
the side and pointed to the clock. They
were
up to
something.

The speakers crackled
on. Aria twisted toward the sound system. The opening strains of a
tune began low and soft. A song they weren’t playing. Her anxiety
ratcheted up in opposite proportions to the pleasing melody.

The audience paused in
their hunt for nachos and turned toward the field.

No. She shot a gaze to
the drum line.

Wary. Defiant.
Guilty.

Damn it.

Crack.

Li-War’s back leg
snapped free of the anchor, lifting toward the band in a
disrespectful showing of his side underbelly. What had they
done?

No.

Snap.

His other hind leg
broke free and his tail lifted in the air, positioning him snout
down, like a dog digging in the yard.

Aria ran to the snout.
She could control this. Half the band could lean on the head, and
the other half could stand on Li-War’s tongue while his straps were
re-anchored. She grabbed the tip of the snout, wrapped both arms
around it as far as they’d go and leaned into the taut canvas.
“Megan. Baylee. Help me hold him. We can do this.” The tongue
whipped up and down in mockery of her declaration. “Everyone. Over
here.” Aria shifted on the grass, a desperate shuffle to catch the
pink tongue on a downward sweep so she could get her feet on
it.

Members of the crowd
yelled as they noticed Li-War’s rebellion. Megan and Baylee stared
at the lizard, mouths agape. No one moved to help her except Tyler,
Dylan and Ethan. They unhooked their equipment and sprinted toward
her, waving their arms, shouting. Their shouts carried by the wind.
“Let go.”

Boom!

The loudest crack of
all sounded as another anchor popped from the ground and the tie
smacked into the canvas. The wind lifted her off her feet.

Weightlessness.

Height.

Lift-off. Li-War broke
free. And he took her with him.

The song, playing from
the speakers, grew louder. The mellow lyrics came out clearly, “I
Believe I Can Fly.”

Aria tightened her
arms. Her heart pounded and the breeze took on bruising force as
Li-War lifted, butt-first, ten feet in the air. She wrapped her
arms and legs around him, clinging, like Li-War was an inner tube
and the Galveston tide was dragging them out to sea.

The ten-yard line
flashed below her. The twenty. They crossed the fifty-yard line.
The whole stadium had a view of her backside and Li-War’s as they
floated across the field. Gravity pulled at her. Anxiety and
disbelief accompanied her. She tightened her arms around the rough
canvas. It wasn’t enough. She slipped an inch. There was no other
choice. She stretched high and snared Li-War’s nostril.

The crowd shouted. The
band shouted. One voice became clear above the rest. Tyler. “Hold
on!”

No shit.

The numbers were
decreasing now as she crossed onto the visitors’ half of the
field.

Forty-yard line.
Thirty-yard line. She was going to score a touchdown and then blow
right off campus.

“I’m almost there,”
Tyler said.

She risked twisting and
looked back.

Tyler was climbing
Li-War’s pink tongue like the prince coming for Rapunzel.

Whoosh.

Her body jolted, and
she slid down the snout.

They’d stopped.

She took a deep breath,
filling her lungs against her pounding heart, and clutched the
snout with sweaty hands. Her feet dangled freely, and she scrambled
for purchase.

Tyler cursed. He spun
around in the pink rope like Magic Mike on the pole.

“Hold on.” Aria chanced
a glance upward. A mass of lizard body was all she could see.
“Why’d we stop?”

“We’re stuck in the
goalposts.” He sounded out of breath, like the tuba player after
Wagner.

The ache in her arms
became more pronounced as she tried to figure a way out of
this.

Tyler blew out a
breath. “Li-War’s caught. So he’s like thirty feet up.”

How far did a fire
truck ladder reach? Oh, God.

“We’re lower since the
snout tilts down.” He sounded enthused and excited.

“Lower by what?
Twenty-nine feet? Nineteen feet?”

“Something like
that.”

The band ran toward
them from the other side of the field, their cell phones out.

Tyler crooked a finger
at her. “Crawl down. We’ll slide down the tongue.”

“No.”

Tyler stretched an arm
up and moved higher. Toward her.

Her arms ached. Her
shoulders screamed. Her thighs trembled. The tongue, angled down
because of Tyler’s weight, pulled at her, straining her grip. “Stop
moving.”

“Hang tight.” Tyler
reached her, slid his arm around her waist, and fumbled at her
jacket.

Really? Now’s the time
to cop a feel?

He pulled out her
conductor’s baton. He turned it in his fist, pointy end down. He
hadn’t been going in for a cuddle. He was focused on the lizard.
She shook off the fleeting sense of regret.

Tyler stabbed the
conductor’s baton into the canvas tongue. Holding on with one hand,
he grabbed her waist with the other. The weight of his body
propelled her right off the snout and they slid down fast, the
baton slicing the tongue in two as they tore toward the ground.

Thump.

She jolted against
Tyler as he let go the last few feet. He stumbled back and she
fell. Her body smashed into his like an illegal post-touchdown hit
and they hit the turf.

The crowd clapped
louder than they’d ever clapped for the band.

She breathed in and
out, counting, trying to bring her breath into a manageable rhythm,
trying to quell the adrenalin as she lay on top of Tyler in the end
zone while the whole town watched. She’d been warned that lying
down on the field with a guy did not equal commitment. But Tyler’s
actions felt pretty solid to her. She dropped her head to his
shoulder.

“Aria.” Megan shoved
forward. “Are you all right?”

The band merged around
them, forcing her attention outward.

Dylan and Ethan bumped
fists. Baylee shoved Ethan’s shoulder. “You moron.”

“Hey. What’d I do?”
Ethan tried to look innocent.

Tyler grinned widely
and smiled at her. He pulled them both to their feet. “You going
out with me tomorrow night?”

Aria arched her
eyebrows. “You going to top this?”

Tyler nodded, absolute
confidence in his green eyes. “You know it.”

Aria grinned.
“Okay.”

Tyler put his arm
around her waist, and they followed the band back across the field,
walking the 100 yards together as Li-War watched. The clock ticked
down to zero and re-set for fifteen minutes and the third quarter.
They gathered their instruments.

Director Garcia
gestured to the stadium. “Head back up to the stands.”

The game announcer came
over the loud speaker. “Officials have deemed that the game may
commence. Any kick bouncing off the inflated lizard, as long as
it’s above the crossbar and within the goalposts, will count as
legal extra points or field goals. Now welcome your Mighty Lizards
back to the field.” The crowd roared.

The band filed into
their rows. Aria ignored her usual spot in the front and sat
between Tyler and Dylan. Her legs and insides shook as the final
adrenalin left her system. She wanted a fizzy drink and was glad
phones were forbidden. She’d find out what her parents had to say
when they came over. She was sure they’d be here any second.

Director Garcia came up
the aisle, made two kids move over, and squatted in front of her.
His dark brown gaze met hers. She felt the color drain from her
face. She knew how Li-War got loose and wasn’t saying how. She was
an accomplice. She’d touched the lizard. Touched him big-time.

Tyler grabbed her elbow
and squeezed. Stay strong.

The director’s
attention turned to Tyler.

Tyler said nothing.

Director Garcia shifted
toward Ethan and Dylan. Dylan sat straighter. Ethan squirmed and
opened and closed his mouth, but he said nothing. Everyone around
them was quiet, straining to hear.

Director Garcia looked
out at the field, at the football team setting up for kickoff, and
then over at the stands where the crowd screamed like the Lizards
were going for a game-determining touchdown. He straightened,
brushed off his hands. “Okay, then.” He went back to his seat.

Relief knocked out the
tension holding her body up and she slumped against Tyler’s side.
The chatter around her rose. Tyler put his arm around her
shoulders. “You still going out with me tomorrow night?”

Aria kicked his foot
with her black sneakers. “You know it.”

Aria and Tyler entered
the outdoor pavilion with the enthusiastic concert crowd, Dylan and
Ethan behind them. Aria stretched up to whisper in Tyler’s ear.
“You know we don’t have to bring them on every date.”

Tyler turned around so
he was walking backward. “Guys. You’re outta—”

She muffled his words
with her hand over his mouth, laughing and shaking her head. He
turned back around with his wicked grin, his eyes hidden behind
sunglasses.