Free Starstruck by Brenda Hiatt

yet!”
    “Love at first sight,” Deb sighed, fluttering her lashes. I managed to refrain from smacking her. “How romantic is that?”
    Though I wanted to say I didn’t believe in love at first sight, the words wouldn’t quite come. If what I was going through didn’t fit that description, what did? “Maybe it’s just lust at first sight,” I finally said.
    To my relief, my friends laughed instead of arguing with me. I’m not sure I’d have won.
    A whistle brought our attention back to the field for the kickoff. Elm Grove had the ball first, which meant Rigel wasn’t on the field. Which meant I mostly watched him warming up on the sidelines instead of the game. Unfortunately (for our school, anyway), it didn’t take long for Elm Grove to score, putting Rigel in the game for the first time. Suddenly, football had my attention in a way it never had before.
    Rigel was amazing. Well, that goes without saying, but I mean in the football sense. I didn’t know much about the game, but from Bri’s comments, he was playing on the level of a college quarterback—a good college quarterback.
    “Did you see that?” she squealed for like the tenth time, just before halftime.
    I had, of course. I’d barely taken my eyes off Rigel since he came out of the locker room before the game. But I couldn’t blame her for squealing. He’d totally faked out the Elm Grove defenders and run the ball in for a touchdown. Again.
    Since the rest of our team played like the pack of losers they were, Rigel was running the ball a lot. He’d also made some amazing throws, really zipping the ball down the field, but even the most catchable ones had been dropped more than half the time. With a decent team to back him up, he’d be almost unstoppable.
    It made me wonder why on earth he was here instead of at some 5A school, where he obviously belonged. All I could figure was that one or both of his parents had landed a really great job in Jewel. Better than they could find in Indianapolis? It seemed unlikely, but I guessed it was possible.
    I was hoping I might get a chance to talk to Rigel at halftime and had been racking my brain for something to say to him besides “great game.” But as soon as the whistle blew, the team headed off for the locker room at a run. If I’d ever paid attention to a football game before, I probably would have known that would happen and could have saved myself all that mental preparation.
    “Look! Just look at that!” Bri exclaimed.
    I dragged my eyes away from Rigel’s retreating back to see her pointing at the scoreboard, which showed us tied with Elm Grove, 21-21.
    “Last year, we were behind by four touchdowns at the half. Man, what I wouldn’t give for a defense that could match Rigel’s offense.”
    Bri continued analyzing the game but I stopped listening to everything except the frequent mention of Rigel’s name. I didn’t understand any of the complexities of football—though I was starting to think it might be worth my while to learn them.
    “So, has he seen you yet?” Deb asked when Bri paused for breath. She wasn’t much more into football than I was, except for the opportunity it gave her to watch cute boys in tight pants.
    “I think so?” In fact I tingled, remembering the brief moment when our eyes had met, but I still felt a defensive need to play down any interest he might show after the way he’d acted this morning. I didn’t want to be humiliated again.
    “Anyway,” Bri continued, almost like we hadn’t spoken, “if Jaworski or Mullins can fix their slippery hands and not drop everything, we could—”
    “Come on,” Deb interrupted her. “Let’s go get something from the snack bar before the game starts again.”
    Indignant, Bri started to protest, but then laughed. “Okay, guys, I’ll stop. It’s not my fault. I get this stuff every night at the dinner table from my dad.”
    We got more Cokes and some popcorn to share during the second half. On the way back from