Little Do We Know(10)

“It’s the first game of the regular season,” Luke said. “You’ve never even seen me play, not in a real game, at least.”

“But I don’t know a thing about lacrosse.” I could tell by the looks on their faces that it wasn’t a very good excuse.

“That’s okay,” Addison said. “I’ll talk you through it.”

I’d never been to a school sporting event. I always assumed I’d graduate from Foothill High School without ever seeing one. But what could I say? It was Luke.

He wrapped his hand around my waist. “You can wear one of my jerseys.”

I giggled. I couldn’t help it. “Your jersey?” Luke was broad-shouldered and at least five inches taller than me. I’d swim in one of his jerseys. Plus, wearing my boyfriend’s jersey sounded so…mainstream. So…girlfriend-y.

“Does it say Calletti in big letters across the back and everything?” I asked.

“Well, it doesn’t say Jones.”

I started to make another joke, but I could tell this whole jersey thing was important to him, so I changed course. “Can I make a few alterations?”

“Sure,” he said. “I’ve got dozens of jerseys. Do what you want with it.”

“Uh-oh,” I heard Jake say. “Elliot’s heading this way.”

I looked up. Mr. Elliot was over by the cash registers with his eyes locked on me.

“That’s my cue.” I wrapped up my sandwich and adjusted the boa to be sure my shoulders had the appropriate amount of coverage.

I gave Luke a kiss. “See ya,” I said as I headed for the double doors that led to the theater.





“Testing. Testing, one, two, three.” Alyssa pulled her hair into a ponytail while she waited for Jack to connect the next microphone. When he was done, he gave her a nod and she stepped in front of it. “Testing. Testing, one, two, three. This one’s not working,” she yelled up toward the balcony, tapping her fingernail on the mic.

I could see Aaron up in the sound booth, behind the glass, bent over the mixing board, sliding levers up and down. His voice came over the sound system, Godlike and omnipresent. “Try again.”

“Testing. Testing,” she said. “Nope. Nothing.”

Alyssa slapped my arm with the back of her hand. “Hey, I have something to show you after rehearsal.” She tipped her head toward the sound booth again.

“Aaron?” I spat his name out like it was toxic on my tongue. I wasn’t in the mood to hear it, but I knew I didn’t have a choice. Ever since he came to Covenant, Alyssa had been on a personal mission to find everything she could on him. The last time she’d spent the night at my house, she made me watch all these videos she’d found of him performing at his old church.

“I found high school stuff.” She grinned. “Get this. He was in a band.”

I lowered my mic stand and twisted the knob, tightening it in place.

“And guess who else I found?”

“Who?” I tried to sound like I cared.

“His girlfriend, Beth. Well, I think it’s Beth. She kinda looked like that picture he showed us on his phone a couple weeks ago.”

“You do realize you sound like a stalker right now?”

“Me?” She looked at me wide-eyed. “No. I’m just a girl who happens to be intensely curious and infinitely resourceful.”

“Who is also kind of stalker-y,” I joked.

She ignored me. “You’ll never guess what he played.”

Guitar seemed like the obvious answer, so it was probably wrong. I tried to picture a young, high school Aaron on a stage. I couldn’t really see him as a front man, but it wasn’t like he was bassist material either. Before I could say anything, Alyssa answered her own question.

“Dude, my boy was a drummer.” She raised an eyebrow. “I mean, that acoustic guitar thing he does now is adorable and all, but a drummer? That’s just hot.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to refer to our choir director as hot.”

Logan looked over at us and raised an eyebrow. “You know what else is hot?”

Alyssa put her hands on her hips. “What?”

“Your mic.”

Alyssa blushed and took two giant steps back while the rest of us tried to stifle our laughs.

Aaron’s voice filled the room again. “Well, everything seems to be working. I’ll be right down.”

The three of us totally lost it.

A minute later, Aaron reappeared at the back of the sanctuary carrying the video camera in one hand and a tripod in the other. When he reached the front of the room, he set everything up, ignoring our laughter and Alyssa’s bright red cheeks.

Over the last few weeks he’d been running around campus with that camera in his hands, jumping onto tables during lunch to get shots of people eating together, buzzing around the library getting footage of everyone studying, and popping in on classes to show our teachers in action. At first, I thought it was pretty cool how hard he was working to capture the spirit of our school. Now, I couldn’t help but wonder how much my dad had spent on that brand-new video camera.

“Okay. I’m almost done with the two promo videos, but I don’t have enough SonRise footage, so I’m going to keep this rolling.” He pressed a button on the recorder and stood in front of us in his usual spot. “Pretend the camera’s not there. Let’s start with ‘Brighter.’”