Briefly she stopped and tried to get a head count to see if there would be too many players and she could sit out. Or better yet, next time she should try to get a doctor’s note that read, “Mina Grime is unable to participate in any sports due to the hazard to other students’ health.” The teams began their draft; Mina knew her name wouldn’t be called anytime soon, so she continued attacking her laces. She was wrong.
“Mina!”
It wasn’t hard to miss his golden voice calling her name over the crowd of students, loud and clear, and she froze in her spot on the grass. When she didn’t immediately come forward, he called her name a second time. Mina attacked her laces with a vengeance and finally stuffed her foot into the last shoe. The girls around her parted, and everyone saw her scramble up from the ground and wipe furiously at the grass clinging to the back of her shorts. She took a deep breath, carefully tucked her ponytail over her shoulder, and walked toward the voice that had called her name.
Her face turned bright red again when she walked over to Brody. He smiled widely; she frowned at him and took her place on his team. She could see the glares she was getting from half of the girls and the incredulous looks from all the boys.
What was the most popular boy in school doing, picking the slowest girl to be on his team? Once again, the whispers followed, and she could make out some mean-spirited name-calling. But she didn’t care. She raised her chin proudly and swore to herself she would try hard, and not let Brody down. As long as she didn’t get the ball, she would try to pretend she knew what she was doing.
The infamous flag football draft continued with the rest of the boys being picked, followed by the girls. Mina watched as Tiffany was placed on the red team, followed by Pricilla Rose on the yellow team. One by one the girls were divided. Wide-eyed with disbelief, Mina was flabbergasted that Brody purposely avoided picking Savannah White for his team. As mathematical fate would have it, she ended up on the opposing team as the last girl standing, a spot that was usually reserved for Mina.
It was an awkward moment, but not for long, as Savannah threw Mina her renowned mean-girl glare, which meant stay out of my way. After the kick-off, the yellow team received the ball and made it to the forty-five-yard line before losing a flag. When they lined up for the second down, Savannah placed herself opposite Mina.
She couldn’t help but compare herself to the extremely fit cheerleader and knew that Savannah was out to embarrass her. This only fueled Mina’s fire, and she was going to take her down and not humiliate herself in the process. Well, easy enough—as long as Brody didn’t pass her the ball.
But that wasn’t what the hot, sweet, sensitive guy did. He added fuel to the flame by placing the ball in Mina’s hands.
“Are you crazy?” she hissed.
“Run!” He laughed and slapped her on the back.
Mina stared at the ball in her hands and looked up at Savannah’s face, which turned downright ugly as she ran straight for Mina’s waist and came away with two yellow flags only seconds into the play.
Mina was humiliated, and she had to go retrieve the flags from the place where Savannah snottily threw them to the ground. She reattached them and decided it was going to stop here and now. The bullying, the name-calling. She couldn’t let Nan fight her school battles for her. She was a Grimm, wasn’t she? She’d fought bears, dragons, Reapers, but she couldn’t handle a single mean-spirited girl?
Mina gritted her teeth, dug her heels into the ground, and reached deep within herself to a hidden place that she didn’t know existed. She was only just learning the capabilities that came to all Grimms when they repeatedly dipped into the Fae power.
Her feet began to tingle, as if they had fallen asleep, and her hands grew warm. She could have sworn that she could even hear better. Her breathing picked up as her muscles flexed, and a maniacal grin formed on her face. Is this what it’s like to actively touch the Fae power?
Savannah frowned when she saw the confident look on Mina’s face, and when the third play began, she was still standing there, confused, as Mina flew around her. Like the wind, she turned, twisted, and dodged around Savannah, and took off running toward the end zone and Brody. He was running, and she was keeping pace with him. Someone on the red team reached for him, and she screened him. It felt good to protect the guy she liked.
She wasn’t even winded as yard by yard she stayed dead even with him and interfered again as another player came to steal his flag.
Not happening, she thought, and quickly turned around and ran backward and slowed to get in his way.
“Move it!”
“Make me!” she yelled back, grinning from ear to ear. She could hear the yell of her team as Brody crossed the end zone. No one else was even near them.
Brody ran back and high-fived her. “Nice screening. I didn’t know you were that fast.”
“Neither did I.” She beamed, feeling glorious.
There were others who took notice of Mina’s newfound confidence. The coach even tried to convince her to go out for track. Boys started to pay attention to her, not for her looks, but for her tomboyishness—which made her one of them. Brody didn’t like the attention she was getting, and it was obvious. He kept moving her closer to him until she was playing running back.
It felt great the one time that Savannah had the football, and Mina got to rip both of the flags from her belt in rapid retaliation. Mina was so fast that she was snagging flags left and right. It was a close game. They were tied, and her team had the ball.
Brody counted down, and she ran. She heard Steve yell, “Mina’s open—toss it to Mina!”
Wait? What? OH NO! Not quite prepared, she looked up and freaked as the spiraling pigskin was coming straight toward her head. Without thinking, she reached up and confidently caught the football. Now what? Oh, yeah, run. She took off toward the end zone, both of her yellow flags still attached to her band. Frank was running toward her arm, outstretched to end her run, but no, she wasn’t going to let that happen. She pumped her legs harder and bore down the field, dodging right, then left, staying out of the reach of the other team’s defenders.
She could see it! The goal, and nothing was going to stop her. She didn’t know what was happening, but whatever it was, she liked it. Especially when she carried the football into the end zone and still had all of her flags. Mina did a little victory dance and tried to toss the ball on the ground in celebration, only for it to bounce up and hit her in the face. Yes, she was faster and stronger, but still as uncoordinated ever.
Her hands flew to her face and her swelling nose. She pulled her hand away and saw blood.
Brody was the closest to her. “Ouch! Are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse?”