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He shook his head, sending hair into his face "No, I hate football All of it" His eyes ames, the pep rallies, the banquets, the uniformsI hate how people treat ood at this one thing And it’s been this way for so long Once everyone figured out I was good, it was like so football blanket overelse Everyone just wanted me to fall into this stereotype, and it just neverfit"

I had never even considered that Ian didn’t like football Suddenly, it all fell into place: the rush out of practices, the gruames, how hard he worked to not talk about football when it was all anyone else wanted to talk about It had been right in front of"Ian, I had no idea That must have been"

"Awful?" he said, his eyebrows dropping

"Awful," I repeated "Why didn’t you tell me?"

He shook his head "I didn’t want to disappoint you Everyone gets so excited about ames and" He exhaled loudly "I want to be like you and Archie and Walter When you’re on the field, it’s like you turn into who you really are You have so much fun I’ve never felt that"

"But you feel that riting And Titletrack," I said

"Exactly," he said "That’s why this trip was so iht that if I could et it accepted into a largefootball"

I pressedyou need to tell Moroaned, but a syou about it At least as often as you bugged uys are!" Rowan suddenly appeared next to the bench, startling us "I had no idea where you went I ended up asking one of the bartenders, and he told me" He stopped, his eyes drawn tohappen?"

"You could say that" Rowan had the guidebook in his hand, and seeing it sparked an idea "Hey, Ian, do you want to do the Cobh hoht help you"

"Good idea," Rowan said "I bet you’ll like this one"

Ian yanked his hair back, securing it with an elastic from his wrist "I don’t know Do I have to talk to a tree? Or kiss so that didn’t work out the e hoped it would Then we’re going to fold our papers into boats and send them out to sea"

"Hmmm," Ian said, but from the way his eyes landed on the book, I kneas interested

"I was looking for you because I wanted to do the hoets dark I even asked for paper back at the pub, but all they had were these" Rowan handeda show by a local violinist

"Good enough for me" I handed theround with our drawings in front of us Mine ca down the hallway, his ar fro itself was terrible, barely a level above stick figure, but getting it all out shifted soain, the pain was still there, but sohI could look at Soe of the water, following Guidebook Lady’s instructions for the Anti-Love Boat, and as I set ine for one one differently If Cubby had cared aboutas the waves carried it out to be dissolved by salt

And when it was gone? Ian and Roere still beside ht it would