In the football locker room, laughter erupted every few seconds, louder than necessary.
Voices bounced off the tiled walls.
Music blasted from somebody’s speaker near the sinks.
Liam barely paid attention while pulling a black shirt over his head.
Practice had run longer than expected, and exhaustion still clung to his muscles, but it wasn’t the drills stuck in his head.
It was her—the tiny cheerleader.
“You got humbled today, man.”
Liam glanced sideways at Marco, who was sitting on the bench, grinning as he’d just witnessed a national event.
“Humbled?” Liam scoffed.
“Relax.”
“Oh, he’s in denial,” another teammate named Carter called out immediately.
“Somebody check on our quarterback. He just got publicly violated by a cheerleader!” Marco hooted.
The room burst into laughter.
Liam rolled his eyes and opened his locker.
He reached for his duffel bag.
“You losers are dramatic.”
“Dramatic?” Marco barked out a laugh.
“Bro, she cooked you in front of everybody.”
“She really did,” Kyler added while shaking his head.
Marco chuckled.
“I almost felt bad for you.”
“You definitely didn’t.” Liam wore his shorts.
“No, I definitely didn’t.”
Another round of laughter followed.
Normally, Liam would throw something back at them.
That was how things worked here.
Trash talk.
Ego.
Competition.
Nobody stayed serious for long.
But today, irritation sat too close to the surface.
It was not because of the teasing.
It was because, somehow, they were right.
Liam Douglas wasn’t used to girls reacting to him like that.
Most girls smiled first.
They flirted first.
They tried so hard to keep his attention once they had it.
But that cheer girl had looked at him like he was a problem she already regretted dealing with.
And for some reason, it kept replaying in his head.
“Yo! Liam!” Carter’s voice boomed.
“Look at this.”
Liam looked up just as Carter showed the phone’s screen in his direction.
The screen displayed one of the school blogs.
RavenHurst Streets.
Liam let out a low groan.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Oh, it gets worse.” Carter wheezed.
“You’re viral. Again.” He pressed the side button of his phone to increase the volume.
The video started playing before Liam could refuse.
It was shaky footage from the tryout field earlier.
Someone had recorded the exact moment Isla snapped back at him.
The camera zoomed in slightly as her voice cut through the noise around them.
“Maybe football players wouldn’t get distracted so easily if they had actually personalities.”
The locker room exploded.
Several players started shouting over each other while Liam stared at the screen.
Some of them reached for their phones and went to the blog page.
Then Liam’s voice answered from the video.
“You talk a lot for someone who just got here.”
“And you act like being good at football makes you important.”
“Careful, confidence usually works better then the person actually matters.”
“That’s funny coming from a guy whose entire personality revolves around throwing a ball.”
“Damn!” Marco laughed.
“That line was cold,” Carter added.
The comments under the clip moved too fast to read fully, but Liam caught enough of them.
Finally, someone embarrassed Liam Douglas.
Who is the new girl???
She ate him alive.
Not him looking speechless for once.
Marry me, mysterious cheer girl.
Liam stared harder at the screen.
The video had already gathered thousands of views.
And more posts crowded the page underneath it.
He took the phone from Carter to read more.
RavenHurst’s Star Quarterback Finally Gets Rejected?
New Cheer Girl VS.
Liam Douglas.
Campus King Meets His Match.
“Oh, this is bad, your reputation is suffering.” Marco laughed hard.
“My reputation?” Liam scoffed.
He minimized the page and tossed the phone back toward Carter.
“Please.”
But the noise in the locker room only grew.
Most of the players had something to say.
“Hey, Captain! Your rivals are gonna love her for this.”
“She’s already campus famous.”
“Nah, Liam’s never recovering.”
“Somebody protect his ego.”
Liam shut his locker harder than necessary.
“Y’all done?” he muttered.
“Aw, he’s upset.” Marco cooed.
“I’m not upset.”
Marco pointed at him.
“You look upset.”
“I look tired because Coach nearly killed us today.”
“Sure,” Marco said slowly, obviously unconvinced.
Liam ignored him.
Usually, this kind of attention didn’t bother him.
Hell, most of the time he leaned into it.
The campus blogs constantly posted about him.
Hookups.
Parties.
Football drama.
None of it mattered enough to care.
This should’ve been the same.
Some random interaction.
Some random girl.
Except it wasn’t feeling random anymore.
And that annoyed him more than the actual video.
Liam grabbed his hoodie and slung his duffel bag over his shoulder.
“Where are you going?” Marco asked.
“Away from you idiots.”
The locker room erupted again as he headed for the exit.
“Don’t cry too hard, Douglas!”
“Tell your new girlfriend we said hi!”
Liam lifted a middle finger behind him without turning around.
The hallway outside the locker room felt quiet.
Liam exhaled slowly as he walked through the athletic building, but the noise from earlier still echoed in his head.
Her voice.
That sharp expression she wore when she looked at him.
Most people at RavenHurst cared too much about status.
About popularity.
About being attached to the right people.
The cheer girl hadn’t looked impressed at all.
If anything, she looked irritated that he even existed.
It should’ve bruised his ego more than it did.
Instead, it made him curious.
Which was worse?
Liam stepped outside into the evening air and pulled out his phone from the duffel bag before he could stop himself.
The blog loaded instantly.
Liam shoved a hand through his damp hair and leaned against the wall outside the athletic center.
Apparently, the video was spreading faster now.
More comments.
More reposts.
More edited clips with dramatic captions and music.
Liam found himself replaying the video again.
And again.
The camera quality wasn’t great, but he could still see the details clearly enough.
The annoyed lift of her brows.
The way she crossed her arms defensively, as if she already expected nonsense from him.
Even the tiny pause before she answered him back, as if she had almost decided not to engage before changing her mind.
Liam frowned slightly.
Why was he even analyzing this?
But he replayed the clip one more time.
“You should work on your aim, or maybe your ego blocked your vision?”
There was no nervousness in her voice.
No hesitation.
No attempt to flirt, either, under that attitude.
That part stood out the most.
He could usually tell when somebody wanted attention.
And for one brief moment, standing on that field, he had the strange feeling she saw through him too quickly.
A group of girls passed nearby, glancing toward him.
One whispered something to the other before both started giggling.
Normally, Liam would flash a smile automatically.
Tonight, he barely noticed them.
His thumb hovered over the screen as the video restarted.
His phone buzzed with incoming messages.
His roommates were dropping messages in their group.
Justin: WTF is going on?!
Marco: A new cheer girl roasted Liam Douglas.
Kyler: Bro, she’s trending harder than you now.
Anthony: I hope she shows up at the block party.
Trevor: Is the cheer girl single?
Liam snorted as his gaze dropped back to the paused video.
He frowned deeply.
He exited the comments section and clicked on the original uploader’s profile instead.
More clips from tryouts filled the page.
He noticed a new post that just dropped like two minutes ago.
New Cheer Girl.
Transfer Student.
Dance Department.
“Interesting.” He mumbled.
Liam slipped his phone back into his duffle bag and pushed himself off the wall.
He headed towards the parking lot.