Beyond The Pep Rally Humiliation

munications major, twenty years old,

classes, I' m there, spinning indie tracks or, more o

osition, I guess, having cont

aint smell of old vinyl at the station, and trying very

n Mi

the Wolves, our university' s footb

at kind of easy confidence

ret, totally hopeless crush

ne who knows the full extent of my dorkiness over him, she' s

p rally, the air on campus prac

looking the packed football field, my fingers dancing a

runner from the student c

ic in five, says there's

uick thumbs up, my focus already sh

us event, another chance to be a p

pocket, a text message lighti

ABOUT TO ASK CHLOE DAVIS TO THE HOM

od ran

e Da

sorority on campus, always impeccably dressed, and

l power couple, or s

to make some grand,

tem, the one I met

made my st

solute

my watch, not with my equipment broa

pound like a drum

mething, anyth

g the record button on a voice note app, my voic

t him use the WOLF Radio mic to ask C

my phone back into my jeans pocket, my

, the scene unfolding in w

their high-energy routine, their

ere jogging into a loose formati

ng sea of faces, all turned expec

here

essly cool in his jersey, a m

about t

ind of technical catastrophe, maybe "accidentally" trip over a cr

ven thinking

so handsome, the epit

of courage defl

wrong, maybe the gossi

sn' t for C

pretend I was just another ano

akers crackled, a sha

assive space, cutting th

coach, it wasn

s my

panicked, echoing

t him use the WOLF Radio mic to ask C

boomed across the football field,

pho

PA system via Bluetooth from an earlier

silence descende

ly escalating into a wave of out

obably even the hot dog vendors, had hea

n his hand, his head snapping up, his

V bo

My.

h to open up and