Slammed #4 (The Slammed Romance Series - Book #4) by Claire Adams Read Free Book Online Page B

scored, and then the
other team managed to even the points; then, just like the first half,
everything was neck-and-neck, with the teams moving from one end of the field
to the other, not quite able to make a break through each other’s lines long
enough to get another touchdown. It was a nerve-wracking game, and the cheers
and shouts around me never abated for even a moment; if I wasn’t focused on
taking notes on the game, watching to try and work out the different
strategies, I might have been swept up in it myself.
    The second half finally ended and the two teams ran
from the field to go back to the locker rooms to rest and get ready for the
back end of the game. The half-time show would be longer for this game than
usual, and I was looking forward to watching the marching bands perform. The
cheers cut back slightly, but didn’t die as the show got started. The two
marching bands came out onto the field and started up, getting ready to do
their competing routines. Even as I got excited, even as the two bands geared
up and began playing, my mind was on Zack. I pictured him in my head in the
locker room, drinking water or Gatorade, listening to Bullden catechizing the team—telling them what they’d done wrong in the first half and
getting them hyped for the second half of the game. With a tie on the
scoreboard, there’d be pressure for both teams to try and get the first score
right out of the gate.
    I watched and didn’t watch as each marching band
took the field in turn. Our marching band went first, and I absentmindedly sang
along with the crowd as they went through their four songs, recognizable
classics that I thought had probably been played at every major football game
from the first year the songs came out. I took pictures of the formations,
grabbing as many as I could. I would have to ask Jess later on just what had
been played, because I wasn’t sure I would be able to remember it. But I had
the pictures, and I didn’t think the half-time show would be a major focus of
the article and the features anyway. When the other team’s marching band took
the field, I managed to pay a little more attention, catching a more modern
song—OK Go’s Here it Goes Again among the more classic
selections. I got one or two pictures of their routine, but it wasn’t important
enough to do more than that.
    “So what do you think about the first half?” I asked
someone near me.
    I started collecting quotes, recording people as
best as I could in spite of the shrieking, screaming, cheering noise that
surrounded me. I grabbed a quote from Jess and the guy she was talking to just
as a matter of course—it probably wouldn’t make it to the final article, but it
gave me something to do while I was waiting for the game to start up again.
    From the start of the second half of the game, it
was clear that both teams were looking to create a lead and break the tie. The
two teams took the field with just as much energy as they had at the beginning
of the game, rushing out and looking absolutely determined. The other team—the
Wild Cats—managed to break through our defense and get a touch down all in one
play a few minutes into the third quarter. I was on my feet, snapping pictures
and taking notes in my mind and in my notebook throughout the fraught quarter.
Our team tried to even the score but couldn’t seem to quite break through the
other side’s defense. I thought to myself that the other team’s coach, Gulder , had clearly stressed defense in his team’s
half-time briefing. I caught a few quick glances at the sidelines, watching the
rest of the team, watching the coaching staff pacing, working hard to try and
find a way to get that all-important score. The other team expanded their lead
with another touchdown, and there was a collective groan through our side of
the stadium while the other side shrieked.
    I kept hoping that we would pull the lead that the
Wild Cats had on us closed; but as the third quarter ticked