Free Over the End Line by Alfred C. Martino Page B

against West Orange into an 8-2 drubbing. After winning our first six games handily, we climbed to eighth in the state rankings. Against Verona last week, Kyle set the Essex County record for most hat tricks in a career. Afterward, Pennyweather awarded him the game ball—just another to put on the Saint-Claires' crowded living room mantel.
    But there was still a long way to go. The significant part of the regular season didn't start until the middle of October—that's when we began play against our three rivals. I think the conference schedule-makers did that on purpose, trying to lull us with weaker opponents in the first two-thirds of the season, then leave win-or-die games for the final third. It wasn't a secret that teams in the conference were tired of seeing Millburn at the top of the standings year in and year out.
    My focus returned to the math problems, at least momentarily. I vaguely heard talking around me, but not any particular conversation, and I noticed people moving about, but no one in particular. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the new girl, Annalisa Gianni, walk in.
    She was still a curiosity in school; almost everybody knew her name. Her family had moved to Short Hills from Italy. The story was that whatever her father did for work was just a cover for ties to the Sicilian mob. I'd see her in the hallways and watch her coming and going at the SaintClaires' house. It seemed she'd found her place as Trinity and Stephanie's
protégé.
Unfortunately, they were going to mold her into someone just like them.
    Annalisa brushed the hair off her face and searched for a place to sit. When space opened up at one of the tables in the back, she walked in that direction. I smiled and said, "
Ciao,
Annalisa," but the school intercom crackled, drowning out my voice.

Attention students ... Please mark your calendars ... The annual pep rally is scheduled for Friday, October twenty-fourth ... The varsity soccer team will play its final regular season game at Summit the next day ... The pep rally will begin at eight p.m., in the school parking lot...

    Years ago, when Millburn football was king, the pep rally was held the night before the traditional Thanksgiving Day game against Madison. My dad took me once. I remembered the walk from the St. Rose of Lima Church parking lot, as I sat on his shoulders, his large hands tight on my ankles, holding me securely against the back of his head. So many people surrounded us, talking and laughing. We continued with them along Millburn Avenue, then down the high school driveway past the gymnasium.
    My dad pointed. "Jonny, that's where we're going."
    Excitement welled up inside me. Packed with more people than I'd ever seen in my life, the Millburn High football grandstand was alive with movement, and the white lines on the velvet green field seemed to glow under the massive stadium lights.
    "Hurry, hurry," I said. "I don't wanna miss anything."
    "We'll be there soon enough," my dad assured me.
    The rest of the night was spectacular. The football players stood at the edge of the stage, while cheerleaders performed their dance routines silhouetted against an immense bonfire. The head coach gave a rousing speech, and the team captains addressed the fans, and the cheering seemed to go on all night.
    It was the last time I was at a pep rally, the last time I was entranced by a bonfire, the last time I felt comfortable around so many people. Not long after, the Millburn football program became a shell of what it once was. Victories dropped from double digits to half that, and in some seasons even less. Then one year some idiot tossed a brick of firecrackers into the bonfire. The explosive
rat-a-tat-tat
scared children and pissed off enough parents that the board of education stepped in to cancel the pep rally indefinitely. And so, the Wednesday night before the Thanksgiving Day game against Madison became just a night before a holiday.
    But, a few years ago, Millburn's