It's finally homecoming and the day we turn in our projects. We also have to present but if we're lucky we'll get to go Monday and not today. If I present today, I have to do it in my cheer uniform in front of everyone.

"Are you excited or nervous?" Logan asked as we sat down in our seats.

"I'm nervous as hell. I don't speak in front of people. I'm good at communicating and small talk, not public speaking."

"It's okay, we're doing this together. I'll be there with you" he said assuringly.

I sighed in relief. Knowing I wasn't going to be the only one up there made me feel a little bit better.

"Okay do I have everyone's presentations?" Mr. Trody asked. No one objected so it was time to start presenting. "Do we have any volunteers?" He asked.

The room was silent. No one wanted to volunteer.

"We will" Logan said from beside me as he stood up.

I almost gave myself whiplash as I turned my head to face him. "Logan, no" I protested.

"Let's get it done with, Cor" he whispered.

He was right but I really didn't want to go first. I reluctantly agreed and walked up to the board.

"Our project was over the two different types of insomnia" Logan started. "Insomnia is a sleep disorder which prevents those that have it from falling asleep and staying asleep"

"T-the two types of insomnia a-are" I took a deep breath and looked over at Logan. "The two types of insomnia are acute, or short-term, and chronic, continuous, insomnia. Acute insomnia is mainly caused by stress, pressure, or a traumatic event. This type of insomnia could last days or weeks."

Logan picked up where I left off. "Chronic insomnia is often caused by another problem, such as medical conditions, medicine, and certain substances." Logan explained

The presentation took off from there.

"As W.C. Fields says 'the best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.'" Logan and I finished at the same time. The class clapped for our presentation and we made our way back to our seats.

"Thank you Logan and Cora. Very good presentation" Mr. Trody said as we sat down. He called on the next group and we watched the other presentations.

The class was over and Logan walked me to my next class.

"How was the presentation?" asked Remi as Carter kissed her head and sat down in his seat.

"It was surprisingly not bad. I think we aced it." I told her as I sat down. "I was shocked I got through it without running out of the classroom." I laughed.

"Damn, I was betting you would screw everything up" he pulls out his wallet and hands Remi five bucks.

I looked at the pair with wide eyes. "You two bet on me?" I asked offended.

"Only because I had full faith in you" Remi said. "I bet you'd be perfectly fine"

"At least someone has faith in me" I rolled my eyes at Carter. Class started and we listed.

***

"It's homecoming, holy shit I'm so nervous" Tommy said.

"Why? It's just like normal" Carter said.

"There's gonna be like three times the normal amount of fans there." Tommy said.

Carter shrugged. "Doesn't seem that bad."

"Yeah coming from the person who eats up the spotlight whenever he gets the chance" Tommy said sarcastically and shrugged off Carter.

Tommy had a point there was going to be a lot more people and their loss last week just adds to the pressure.

"You guys will do fine," I assured them. "Who are we playing again?"

"East Conbridge Eagles. We played them last summer" Nick explained.

That means Jonah will be there if he didn't graduate last year. I really don't care to see him again.

"Good luck guys" I said as they went to the locker rooms to change. I had Carter's number on my cheek and a heart on the other side since Will wasn't there.

Remi and I went to go stretch as we would normally do. It was only about thirty minutes later that the game started.

The game went good the first half. Nothing major happened. It was pretty much tied and either team could win this game.

At half time, the cheerleaders did our homecoming routine. I flew at the middle of the pyramid and I loved it.

We took a break before the game began again. I took this time to drink water and talk to some friends. We didn't have a lot of time so I didn't bother going to find Sky and Harper.

The second half went slower that I cared to admit. The game was extremely close. Several people got hurt, but not terribly. It was just a few sprains. They were back in the game in less than ten minutes. The score was 47-43 with the eagles up by four. We needed one touch down to win. Luckily it was our ball.

The entire stadium went quiet as Logan threw the ball to Carter. Carter wasn't at the end zone because Logan isn't capable of throwing that far, not like Will. Carter was tackled ten yards away from the end zone.

The whistle was blown and the other guy got up. He reached his hand for Carter get up but he didn't take it. Carter never ignores the other players when they're trying to help. He starts waving his hands for a medic.

Carter was hurt. Remi and I looked at each other before sprinting over to him along with Dad and our medic.

Remi held his hand while the medic assessed his leg.

"I think it's broken, but we'll need and X-ray to be sure. I'll call the ambulance and they'll take him to the ER in the next town" he said and stood up.

Dad and the guy from the other team helped him up and moved him to our bench.

"Go to your team son" Dad told the guy after Carter was situated.

He nodded and apologized again before running over to his team.

"Dad, go coach the last two minutes. I got Carter" I told him. He looked at the three of us and nodded.

We won the game by three points and the teams congratulated each other.

The ambulance pulled up and got Carter on a stretcher. Dad went with them but Remi and I had to stay behind.

I congratulated the boys on their win but we were all concerned about Carter.

"Let's go girls, I'll take y'all to the hospital" Harper said as she carried a crying Sky.

"Thank you Harp" I said and we walked to her car.

"Wait, are you Barnes' family?" A voice asked. I turned around. It was the guy who tackled him.

"Yes we are" Harper said.

"I'm so sorry. I'm prepared to pay for the medical bills, if needed." He said.

"Thank you, but it's not necessary. You didn't mean to, you were just playing the game" I said.

They both knew football was a dangerous game.

"I'm sorry" he said again before he walked away. We piled into Harper's car and she drove us to the hospital.

***

"Carter, I'm not gonna leave you just because it's homecoming and my senior year" I argued.

"Go without me Coco. I know you wanted to go."

"You're in the hospital, for gods sake."

"I'm getting out later today." He rolled his eyes at me.

Carter and I were arguing over homecoming tonight. He was right. I wanted to go, but I wasn't going to leave my crippled brother to go to a stupid dance.

"Coco, Dad, Harper, and Sky will all be here to take care of me. Sky already told me, we would be watching Disney movies all night. I don't need you. Please go have some fun and stop worrying about me."

I glared at him. I definitely was not leaving him.

"I love you Cora and I want you to have fun tonight. Do this for me and get Remi away from me and have some fun. You both need to stop worrying so much. I'm fine"

I looked him over and sighed. "Okay fine. I'll go and I'll take Remi, but not because I want to. I want to stay here but you clearly want me to leave" I pouted. "I have to update Will" I walked out of the room and dialed Will's number.

"Hello?" A girls voice answered on the other end of the phone. I think it was Ellie. Something about that girl made me hate her.

"Hello? This isn't Will" I pointed out the obvious.

"Cora, hi, it's Ellie! We met a couple weeks ago." She said happily into the speaker.

"Where's Will?" I asked monotone.

"In the shower, he should be out in a second." She answered.

"Christian?" I asked.

"With Leah and Landon" she answered.

"So you're the only one in his room?" I asked.

"Yep" she said. She way to peppy about this whole situation.

It's not like I didn't trust Will. I trusted him almost too much. Ellie just make me nervous when she's around him.

"It's important that I talk to Will." I said.

"And here he is" she said to me. "It's the girlfriend" she said to Will.

"Hey snowflake, any news about Carter?" He said as he was worried.

"That can wait. Do you know how it makes me feel when Ellie answers the phone and tells me you're in the shower and no one else is there?"

He sighed. "Woah Cora, it's not like that and you know it. I love you and I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."

"I know that, Will. It just doesn't help that you're in the shower while a girl is in your room."

"Cora, the door was locked, she's my friend. We were about to head to CC to meet with everyone and I needed a quick shower after practice."

"Carter's fine. He's going home later. He gets his cast Monday. Love you, bye" I said and hung up the phone.

I grabbed my keys to go grab Remi to go get some stuff for the homecoming dance later.

We went to the strip mall dress stop. Thankfully they had a lot of dresses perfect for this occasion.

We shopped for a little while and tried on several dresses both of us found the perfect one.

I got a wine red A-line, V neck, chiffon dress. It went to around my mid thigh It was very simple and I liked it.

Remi picked out an ivory and lace A-line, spaghetti strap dress, with a lace up back. Her's also went down to her mid.

We went to my house and did hair and makeup. Logan was picking us up in about an hour. Carter should be here by then.

I just curled my hair and Remi left hers in her natural waves. I kept my makeup natural and added lips gloss. Remi went a little bit bolder with a red lip.

It took almost an hour to finish all that and we got into our dresses. Logan came to pick us up.

"You look beautiful, Cora" he said to me. "As do you, Remi" he smiled at us.

"Keep them safe, man. If either of them come back with as much as a scratch. I will beat the hell out of you with my crutches" Carter threatened Logan.

"Of course man. I got them I promise." Logan promised.

After Harper got pictures, we left. The dance was held in the gym and surprisingly it's didn't smell like sweat.

The dance was not the most exhilarating thing on the planet. It was worse than last years'. Logan and I danced for a couple songs and he did the same with Remi. Remi and I had some fun screaming to Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood.

Remi caught Isaac making out with some girl and got pissed off. She got Nick to drive the two of them home, since he was heading home.

"Okay, I know that wasn't as great as I hoped, but I did hear about a party being thrown at Ryan's house." Logan said.

"No, I need get back to Carter. I don't want to leave him for too long"

"Carter is fine. Come on, I can't go to the party alone" he nudged me with his elbow.

My phone buzzed. I looked down to see Will texting me. 'Can we talk?'

I sighed. I didn't want to deal with this right now. "I could use a drink" I said and we drove to the party.