Read Online That's What's Up! by Paula Chase - Free Book Online

table, where it was already standing room only, squeezing one slim shoulderbetween Jamie and Sara.
    The five of them standing, front to back, looked as if they were playing a strange game of musical chairs, waiting in line ready to hop in the tall chairs the instant one of the three sitters got up. And the absurdity of it—standing so close at the teeny table with only one hand free to pick at her lunch—made Mina feel better.
    There was plenty of space at the eight-seater tables inside the cafeteria. But she was here. After all Jessica’s warnings that she’d never make it to the café as long as they both walked DRB High’s halls, Mina could have been pinned between twenty people, standingon one leg—it would be swazy. But she was here.
    â€œHey, Mina, if you don’t get that double-down cleaner, I think Coach Em is going to have an aneurysm,” Kim said. She popped a low-fat chip into her mouth, grinning as she chewed.
    The rest of the table laughed, no doubt at the image of Mina’s flailing arms as she was tossed high enough to twist twice before landing safely in the hands of her bases. Mina’s sloppy double-downs had been the reason for many of their suicide cycles of late.
    Coach Embry was a taskmaster. Perfection, and nothing less, was her motto. Her tough tactics had made the team tight, quickly. They’d all been on the receiving end of her sharp tongue. Instead of feeling angry at Mina for not shaping up the stunt, they sympathized.
    â€œWhat are you reaching for up there?” Jamie asked, nudging Mina playfully in the back of her knee.
    â€œAnything,” Mina quipped. Her heart did a tiny skip at the thought of the double twist. She hated them. “I’m trying, for real. But my arms ...”
    â€œAre going to knock somebody out, one day,” Erica said, her brunette ponytail bobbing in confirmation.
    Mina made sad eyes across the table at Kim and patted Sara’s shoulder, joking with her bases. “Then I apologize in advance. But I swear I’ll send flowers if you end up in the hospital.”
    Another round of laughter went up. With Nationals only days away the squad’s nervous energy was at its peak. They were laughing now, but likely at practice, later, there would be tears and snapping one another’s heads off for every missed step, stunt bobble and motionmistake.
    Several Blue Devil basketball players, including Brian, and a few members of the lacrosse team joined the squad, forming a second circle of tight-knit standers.
    â€œSo what’s the scoop, lady Blue Devils?” a curly-haired lacrosse player asked, managing to squeeze his way to the table. “You guys kicking booty at the Extreme or what?”
    Mina joined the girls in a hearty “yeah,” giggling as Brian stepped up close beside her. As the table talk went up a level, veering away from cheerleading and on to who would be hosting the expected beach party, Mina and Brian fell into their own zone.
    Every day she expected to feel some sort of familiar comfort with Brian. But when they were together, her feet felt light and airy and her stomach did flip-flops, the good kind, not the kind she’d felt when Jessica called her in the hall.
    She wished that feeling would never end.
    Brian leaned in closer to her ear, each word tickling, sending her arms into goose bumps.
    â€œThis thing is going to be crazy,” he said. “How y’all gonna find time to cheer in between all these parties I keep hearing about?”
    Mina nodded. If the talk was to be believed, there were about four parties going down Friday night alone.
    â€œCoach Em has us on curfew Friday night,” she said, then shrugged. “She’s letting us go to the Individuals. But trust, she will be herding us back to the hotel like cattle the second they’re over.”
    Brian chuckled, low and deep.
    The vibrations from his voice gave Mina’s goose bumps, goose