I have been asked in the past to post an excerpt of MBFB and with its recent release as an ebook, I've decided to do just that. I had a hard time picking the part I thought best represented the book without giving too much away, but I hope this'll do the trick.
That night, Jess and Colin met and worked separately on their “homework.” Jess gave Colin an entirely new list of moves to practice over and over, while Colin set up some markers for Jess to practice her kicking aim.
“I don’t know how you do all this,” Colin commented as he twisted Jess’ body into shapes he’d never known existed before.
“Do what?” Jess asked as she lined up some soccer balls.
“All of it,” Colin said. “I mean, I’m exhausted from all of the rehearsals and pretending to be happy and perky with your friends.”
“I don’t have to pretend to be happy for my friends,” Jess said calmly, kicking the first ball and missing the target by a lot.
“You have to keep your leg directed at where you want the ball to go,” Colin pointed out.
“Yeah, yeah. Work on your forms,” Jess said, her voice edging on frustration.
Colin went back to the list of moves Jess gave him. Some of them were stand-alone while other ones melded into new ones. It was the transitions that he had the most problem with. Sometimes he just didn’t know when to move into a new form or really how he should look when he did. Now he understood why there were mirrors all over the dance studio.
Colin was so focused on what he was doing that he was startled when Jess grabbed him around the waist from behind and started guiding his movements. Colin tensed up but Jess didn’t seem to notice.
“See, it’s like this,” Jess said. “Just sway your hips to the right, extend your left arm.” When Colin didn’t move, she repeated, “Extend your left arm.”
Colin cleared his throat nervously and did as Jess instructed. What was wrong with him? Jess was like right behind him, practically breathing in his ear and he just couldn’t handle it. He turned around and took a couple steps back.
“Colin, what’s wrong?” Jess asked innocently.
“N-nothing,” Colin stammered. “Just keep your hands to yourself, okay?”
Jess narrowed her eyes at Colin and then she burst out laughing. “Are you embarrassed or something? I was only trying to help you.”
“Yeah, okay, it’s fine,” Colin said. “Go practice.”
Jess gave him one last smirk and then went back to kicking soccer balls. She didn’t know what had Colin all riled up, but she had a pretty good feeling he wouldn’t tell her anyway. She only half-concentrated on what she was doing because she kept looking back at Colin to see how he was doing. And she had to admit – he didn’t look too bad. He just lacked the knowledge. She had no idea how she would ever get him to memorize all of the dances by Friday.
Colin knew Jess was watching him, but he decided not to let on. He wanted to ignore her but after the way she’d held onto him and moved his hips that way, he was keenly aware of her presence. He hadn’t wanted to admit to her that he’d liked being touched, because it would just make their already awkward predicament even more complicated. Plus it just felt weird.
“Ian told me he was going to ask Cass out,” Jess said after they’d been practicing silently for a long time.
“Um, yeah,” Colin said. “Actually, he already did.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, she told me he did it at the mall today.”
“How do you feel about it?” Jess asked.
“I didn’t really get a chance to say anything to her,” Colin said. “It was kind of a quick mention before she went home with you and I haven’t seen her since.”
“That’s not really an answer to the question,” Jess commented.
“I don’t really like it,” Colin said, trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. “But I didn’t know how to tell her without sounding like…me.”
“Do you…” Jess paused. “Do you want me to talk to her? For you?”
Colin dropped the stance he’d been trying to perfect and turned to look at her. She had also stopped kicking to watch him. “You would do that?” Colin asked.
“If you want me to,” Jess said. “I mean, she is my best friend, and you know Ian better than me. I could give her a little warning, I guess.”
“You really have no qualms about meddling in her business?” Colin asked uncertainly.
“I’m already lying to her, remember?” Jess turned back to the soccer balls.
“Hey, pass me one of those,” Colin said, nodding at the other balls on the ground. Jess leaned over to pick one up, but Colin said, “No, not like that. Never touch a soccer ball with your hands.”
“Sorry,” Jess muttered. She haphazardly kicked the soccer ball in Colin’s general direction but it went wide by about two feet.
Colin lifted an eyebrow at her. “Did you even think about that before you did it?”
Jess shrugged. “What’s there to think about?”
Colin shook his head. “I know you think jocks are stupid and stuff, but there are a lot more cognitive skills involved in sports than you probably think.”
“Okay, the fact that you used the word ‘cognitive’ has my attention,” Jess said. “So educate me.”
“You can’t just kick something and expect it to read your mind,” Colin said. “I mean, it would have even helped if you were looking at me while you did it, but you weren’t.”
“Yes I–”
“You weren’t,” Colin said. “You can’t lie to me; I know what I look like when I lie.”
“Okay, okay,” Jess said. “So, I have to look at you. Fair enough.”
“And there’s a lot of angling involved. Ever play pool?” Jess shook her head and Colin added, “That’s okay. My point is that every time you kick the ball, you literally have to make sure you leg follows through in the exact direction that you wanted the ball to go. If not, you’re doing it wrong.”
“Okay…” Jess said slowly.
She went over to the next ball, lined it up exactly where she wanted it and then kicked it in Colin’s direction. She had so much follow through that she actually kicked her leg right out and fell backward on her butt. Colin laughed out loud at her, and she lifted her head to glare at him.
“I’m sorry,” Colin said, laughter still in his voice. “But look! You got the ball right to me.”
“I did?” Jess asked, sitting up.
“Yup.” Colin grinned.
“Woohoo.” Jess smiled back at him.
