Chapter 22- A New Beginning

A month had passed since Casie had been rushed to the hospital. Andrew had invited her to stay with him at his small apartment on the other side of Wilmette. It was a small one bedroom flat, with a small kitchen and living; with one bathroom. He had offered Casie his bed, while he slept on the couch. That happened for a few nights, but Casie started feeling when his neck began to hurt; so she offered to share the bed. He later told her that he complained about his neck just to spend more time with her. Andy and Heather Reese, the cousin from the wedding, had been spending a lot of time together. They had even gone out on several dates. Andy was the happiest they had seen him in a while. Heather seemed to be perfect for him. Being only a vegetarian and not a vegan, they had something in common. Everyone seemed to really enjoy seeing them together. They made quite a cute couple. Cara and Patrick took Micah out to the local park two weeks after Casie got out of the hospital. They were having a splendid time until some guys with cameras were in the bushes, taking pictures of them. The very next day, shots of them playing around were all over the internet and on certain television shows. Patrick just moaned about it and Cara shrugged it off. It was all in the package of celebrity and Cara was popular by association. She seemed to take it better than Patrick did. She realized that they were just doing their jobs, and cut them a little slack. She hadn't quiet experienced the full-frontal attack by paparazzi yet.

Joe and Danielle got back from their honeymoon three weeks later from Italy. They had the best time there, and came back as close and "lovey-dovey" as when they left. The honeymoon had just refreshed them and made them closer to each, body, mind and spirit. Pete and Leila had to "lay low" because people were starting to catch on to their relationship. Pete didn't want Leila to have to deal with what he has too. With Leila's temper being what it is; it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge. There were a couple of times where they were almost caught, but dodged them in the last moment. Of course, they caught pictures of Pete's back running and Leila's brown hair swishing around the corner. The news had a field day and quickly linked the "mystery girl" back when they were in the car crash to the brown haired girl in the picture. They of course still had no name or face of Leila, but Pete was worried that they soon would.

Leila was sitting on the couch flipping through the channels on the TV. Pete was in the kitchen making them some mac'n'cheese –his specialty. When Pete was walking through the doorway, holding to steaming bowls of noodles, Leila's phone rang. It was her mother.

"Hello?" she said to the phone.

"Hey baby, how are you doing in Chicago?" her mother asked her.

"I'm good. Now that Casie is out of the hospital, and everything's getting back to normal… I miss you," Leila said, feeling homesick a little.

After a long talk with her mother, she was on the verge of tears. She didn't realize how much she missed her family. Right before she hung up the phone, her mother said something that intrigued her.

"You know that Alabama football starts this Saturday, right?" she said.

Leila's mouth fell open. She had no idea that football season had arrived on her. She wasn't in the south right now and wasn't informed every time she turned the radio on. It was then that she had the urge to go to a football game. She was indeed her father's daughter in the fact that she loved football. She wasn't like some of the other girls that claim to love football for their boyfriends; she actually knew what was going on in the game. She hung up the phone and looked to Pete, who was eating his noodles, watching her.

"Pete, I have to ask you something…" Leila began.

"You want to go home?" he guessed. Leila looked at him in astonishment.

"Yes, but that's not all. I know this is going to be a stretch for you, but will you come to a football game with me?" she said, looking hopeful at him, with her lips puckered out and big eyes.

Pete gave an awkward face. He didn't really have a thing for football; he never followed at all. But sitting there with Leila giving him that face, he couldn't bring himself to say no. He never took Leila as the kind of girl to like football. He knew she was in the marching band in college, but he just thought she loved to march. He didn't think that she would want to stay the whole game, so he said yes.

Leila squealed and jumped into his arms, causing her bowl of noodles to fall to the floor.

oo

Upon hearing that Leila and Pete were going to see an Alabama football game, Cara was excited and asked to join. Leila and Cara had both went to school there and both been in the band. Patrick was shocked at the girls liking for football, just like Pete. What shocked them even more, Casie wanted to come along. That even shocked Leila. Casie had gone to college at Alabama's rival team, Auburn. But Casie just loved football; she wanted to see a game. Plus, as unusual as it was for a season opener, Alabama was playing LSU; a team that Leila, Cara and Casie couldn't stand.

On the day of the flight, the day before the big game, they couldn't get the girls to calm down. Even little Micah was excited about getting to see a football game. Being raised by his mother for four years, he had liked football from watching it with his other boy relatives. They arrived in Birmingham around nine that evening and drove to Tuscaloosa. It was already crazy with fans. The boys had never seen such a scene. The girls couldn't help but laugh at the boys' reaction. They told them that this was a typical tradition. They weren't quite impressed with the whooping of "Roll Tide" every ten seconds, but Cara and Leila felt at home.

They reached Cara's place. Cara and Patrick went straight to bed and Leila and Pete took an air-mattress down stairs and Casie and Andrew had the upstairs guest bedroom. Micah flopped on the couch was out in an instant.

Pete scooted next to Leila, wrapping an arm around her waist. Leila smirked.

"We have to keep PG, Micah's asleep on the couch," she whispered.

Pete laughed into Leila's hair, holding her closer. Soon the whole house was asleep, waiting the next day.

oo

The sun beamed down through the living room window, falling upon Leila and Pete, who were fast asleep on the air mattress. Micah seemed to pop up as soon as the light hit his eyes. Jumping up off the couch, he ran to Pete. However, try as he might, Micah couldn't shake him awake. Micah thought about it for a minute, and then jumped out top of Pete and Leila.

"Get up! Get up! We have a game to go to!" Micah said, bouncing up and down on the two asleep.

Leila opened her eyes when she felt an extra weight land on her. She soon realized that it was Micah and had to bite her tongue from a four letter word was about to escape. Pete was awake in an instant, and he grabbed Micah around the waist, pulling him down on the mattress. Leila rolled over to make more room, and to try and go back to sleep. Pete began tickling Micah on his stomach, causing Micah to let out a stream of giggles and start flaying his legs around, kicking Leila in the back. She pretended that his kick was strong enough to roll her off the mattress. She got on all fours and threw Micah a look. Micah laughed enough harder and Leila came towards him, holding his arms and legs down so Pete could tickle him more efficiently. After about ten minutes of playing with Micah, they released him and he went tearing off to Patrick and Cara's room; with orders from Pete to wake them up just like he did them.

Leila was still sleepy, so she laid back down for a few minutes. Pete looked over at her, shaking his head.

"You shouldn't have down that," he said.

"Pete, don't even think abo-" and before she could finish her sentience, Pete was flung himself at her, tickling with no remorse. Leila began laughing so hard she couldn't breath; she tried to hold him off, but she was too busy laughing.

"Stop! Stop! Okay! I'll get up!" she screeched, admitting defeat. Pete shot up from the mattress to get out of harms way. Leila laid there, trying to catch her breathe.

"I'll get you back soon, Wentz," she growled, rolling off the mattress and standing up.

He laughed at her, and went to the kitchen.

Soon everyone was up and about, albeit, very slowly. Cara and Leila were decked from head to toe in Alabama gear. They even had "Crimson Tide" temporary tattoos on their cheeks. Leila had on a crimson shirt that had the number "37" on it, with kaki shorts trimmed in crimson with a pair of big red sunglasses. Even her shoes matched. She had a knock-off pair of Converse's that was a cream color, also trimmed in crimson with the script "A" on the sides. Her hair was up in pigtails with a red ribbon on one and a white tied around the other. Cara donned a black knit flowing knee length dress with red footless tights and her old faithful black Converses'. She had a pair of huge black rimmed sunglasses and big red-beaded necklace. Her hair was in a classic rockstar ponytail; a hump in the front, pulled up in the back. Casie wasn't quiet as dressed up as the other girls. All she had was an Alabama shirt that she borrowed from Leila and a pair of old jeans. Casie kept trying to dose off on the couch, and when Micah saw it, he would jump on the couch making Casie jump. Right before everyone was about to walk out of the door, Cara turned to Micah. She picked him up and placed him on his hip.

"Now, I want to teach you something, okay?" she said, Micah nodded his head smiling. "I want to you say this as many times as you want too. When we get a touchdown, first down or anything good, you say this. I'll tell you when to say it if you get confused. Now listen carefully. 'Roll Tide'. You got that? Say it for me," she said. Leila was smiling at him from behind Cara.

Micah looked from Cara to Leila, seeing their smiling faces, he giggled, "Roll Tide!" he yelled. Cara and Leila burst out laughing, giving him high-fives. Casie let out a little laugh, smiling at the little boy. The boys were just smiling at them. None of them were that big into football. After the excitement of Micah chanting the Alabama war cry, they pled into the car, and set off for campus.

Once they arrived at a parking lot that Leila told Cara to park at, they only saw one spot left and luckily beat the other car to it. Leila was the first one out of the car. She opened the door and the sound of brass and woodwinds met their ears. It so happened that the parking lot they were in, was right next to the band practice field, Butler Field, and they were warming up. Leila's eyes sparkled as she looked around at the scene that she used to be apart of. Cara felt the same way. In a bittersweet way, it made the two girls sad that they weren't apart of it anymore. Pete saw the glaze over Leila's eyes, and took her hand. Leila looked at him and smiled. She realized that he was getting very good at knowing when she needed someone.

Hand in hand, they led the way to the quad (a square block of grass that contains Denny Chimes and were all the pre-game festivities are held). Cara and Patrick, with Micah, were behind Pete and Casie and Andrew were bringing up the rear. As they walked along, Leila pointed out buildings and other land marks to Pete. Patrick, having gone on his first date with Cara here, was a little familiar with the area. They crossed the street and walked over to the quad. There were several hundred tents set up with all kinds of people under them. Some even had plasma TV's set up, watching other football games. Under each tent seemed to be a cooler of beer; some coolers even sang the Alabama fight song. All of these made Leila smile. She felt so at home with all these people. In the middle of the quad was the biggest tent of them all. It was where a lot of Alabama memorabilia.

Cara took hold of Micah and shot off towards it. Leila did the same for Pete. Pete let Leila guide him under the big tent. Patrick was right behind them, trying to catch up with Micah and Cara. When he saw them, Cara already had a hand full of red and white stuff. Patrick offered to pay, but Cara refused. She said it was her gift to Micah. Leila told Pete to pick out the shirt he wanted, because "You have to look like you belong to me," Leila told him, laughing. Pete finally picked out a black shirt with "Crimson Tide" in big block letters running down the left front side. When they left the tent, Micah put on his new clothes. Cara had bought him a little boy crimson jersey with the number "12" on it, with a white hat that said "Roll Tide"; also, she had gotten him a little red and white football and two shakers. Cara looked down at the little boy covered from head to toe in Alabama gear. She couldn't help but feel her heart swelling the sight of him. Micah was having fun with his new football.

There was a loud noise from behind them, and they turned around. An elephant was walking towards them in an Alabama football jersey. Cara let out a small screech, and grabbed Micah's hand. She led him to the elephant and Leila followed. When they were right next to him, Cara tapped the elephant on his shoulder and he turned around.

"Micah, this is Big Al, our mascot. Do you want you picture with him?" Cara asked.

Big Al looked at Micah, and waved at him. Micah was starring at wonder at him. He looked to Cara and nodded. He ran to Big Al and gave him a hug. Leila made sure to snap that picture. Micah turned around and posed with Big Al, holding up his football, smiling at Cara. Cara took the picture with the camera Leila just handed her. Big Al fluffed Micah's hair and waved goodbye. Micah fevrently waved at him until he couldn't see him anymore.

Micah ran to his father, telling him all about Big Al. Patrick just smiled and laughed at his son. He was glad that he was having a great time. Micah began tossing his football up and catching when Leila walked up to him and knelt down.

"You want to play some football?" she asked him, and smiled up at her, nodding his head really fast. She looked to the boys, who didn't seem too enthused. But the girls all came forward. Leila smirked at Pete and turned back to Micah.

"Okay, you're on my team and Cara and Casie are on the other, cool?" she said, and Micah just giggled.

The boys watched as the girls and Micah began to play a little tag football. It was very entertaining. When Leila jumped up to catch a throw Micah had just released, she fell into Casie, knocking her over with Leila falling on top of her. They decided that they had enough, and just decided to toss the ball around. Leila turned to Patrick, after having to jump for a pass from Micah.

"Your boy has an arm on him, Patrick! I'm impressed," Leila said, laughing at Patrick's perplexed face.

They soon noticed that band members, all of whom had on their red and white uniforms –carrying their hats (as Leila pointed out that they were called "shakos"), were starting to form in little groups all around them, warming up. Leila took off to a big rock standing near the steps of a huge library. There, circled to the front of the big rock, were the clarinets. Cara and Leila had both played that instrument, so they went to watch them.

Patrick noticed a woman on the opposite side of the clarinet warm-up circle. Her face was painted half white and half red. She had on a red Alabama shirt and kaki shorts. Every so often she would cup her fists and arch back, letting out a very distinct yell. He noticed that right as Leila heard the scream; her head whipped around and began laughing. Cara also joined in on the laughter. Everyone, including Casie, looked at the two. When Cara finally caught her breath, because Leila couldn't, she tried to explain; but right as she opened her mouth, the lady let out another scream, causing them to go in another fit of giggles. Finally Cara looked at everyone and explained the story of "Ramp Lady".

"It's this woman who is at every home game (some away ones), that's had too much to drink. Everyone in the band can recognize her scream. They christened her "Ramp Lady", because she'll stand on any ramp that's near the band, and just scream," Cara said, as "Ramp Lady" let out another yell. Leila could hardly handle it. She had to lean on Pete for support.

After fifteen minutes of Leila and Cara, along with the rest of the crowd around the group, chanting along with the cheers that were played, the clarinets filed out of the crowd and headed for the steps of the library. Leila headed the way to the front of the crowd. Except for Patrick, who helped Micah sit on top of the big rock that stood two feet over the tallest man. Leila and the rest lined up at the caution tape held up by traffic cones. All four hundred members of the Million Dollar Band lined up on the steps, squeezing together in the tight space. The boys were amazed at the amount of people there in the band. A few minutes later, a girl that looked younger than any of them- dressed in an all white uniform, trimmed in crimson, started walking up the ladder that stood in front of the band. The crowd was already stirring in anticipation. Leila took hold of Pete's forearm, shaking him. The smile on her face melted his heart. Cara held up her shaker in the air, causing the red and white strings to fly about like crazy. As if on cue, every member of the mass crowd, held up their shakers, and began screaming out. Cara looked back at Micah; Patrick was lost in the crowd. Her heart warmed at the sight of him; he was screaming, just like everyone else, and was about to lose his shakers from slinging them around so hard. The drum major, the one dressed in white, held her hands up and pointed a finger at the center of the band.

A bone-chilling drum roll shot through the air as she brought her hands down. The crowd went wild. Leila let go of Pete's arm and began yelling "Roll Tide" and threw up her shakers, showing her pride. The drum major held the drum roll out, driving the crowd crazy. She then reached down and brought her whistle to her lips. And with four short, semi-slow tweets, the band began to play the Alabama fight song. With only four notes played, the crowd began screaming as loud as they could. Pete thought his ears were bleeding with all the screams around him. Andrew had the same look about him as Pete did. As the song progressed, everyone began singing out. It was like Pete was at one of their concerts and people were singing along with Patrick. Cara and Leila were belting out the lyrics.

"Yea, Alabama! Drown 'em Tide! Every 'Bama man's behind you; Hit your stride! Go teach the Bulldogs to behave, Send the Yellow Jackets to a watery grave! And if a man starts to weaken, That's a shame! For 'Bama's pluck and grit Have writ her name in crimson flame! Fight on, fight on, fight on, men! Remember the Rose Bowl we'll win then! Go, roll to victory, Hit your stride,
You're Dixie's football pride, Crimson Tide!"

Pete hated to admit it, but it game him chill bumps. The songs continued. The band would play a cheer, and then the cheerleaders would have their turn. The band was not made up of just the musical parts; it also had around twenty twirlers, which were called, "Crimsonettes", and around fourty or so colorguard members. They were very impressing. The sound from the band was piercing them. Pete now knew how the fans must feel standing so close to the stage. Soon the pep rally was over, and the band dispersed into the crowd again, fighting their way to the road across the quad. Leila turned to Pete and the rest.

"They are going to line up over there, and march to the stadium. Do you want to go ahead and go to the stadium and get our seats?" Leila asked. Patrick walked up just then, with Micah right beside him.

Cara knelt down in front of him, smiling.

"How did you like your first 'Elephant Stomp'?" Cara asked him.

"I loved it! It was the best!" Micah squeaked.

"We can go ahead and go get our seats," Andrew spoke up, answering Leila's question. They all agreed and made their way to the stadium, with Cara and Leila leading the way. Weaving in and out of people, dodging the tents that were every where seemed to be more of a challenge than they thought. Every now and then, someone would bump into them; but there was always a friendly "I'm sorry" said, or just a plain "Roll Tide".

In the distance, they heard the sounds of drums, and soon a consistent chant of "Roll Tide", and knew that the band was on their way to the stadium. Leila hurried her steps, which made keeping up with her more difficult. After ten minutes of weaving, they were at the front gates of Bryant-Denny Stadium. It was a building that towered over everything around it. It was swarming with life. The feeling around it was very pulsative. Everyone around was flocking to it. The band had reached it before they had, and were already split up and waiting for pre-game. Leila got in line to wait for someone to check their tickets. Several minutes later, they were through and were trying to find their seats.

Micah was trying to look at everything, trying to soak it all in. His eyes fell upon the great cement twisted ramp that led to higher seats. He turned to Patrick.

"Daddy! Can we walk up that?" he said pointing at the ramp. Patrick looked over at it, and then to Leila.

"Where are our seats, Leila?"

Leila looked the tickets, and studied the signs around them. Finding what she was looking for, she turned to Patrick.

"One level up and to the right. We won't need to walk up the ramp," Leila said.

Micah's face fell. Leila looked at the boy, looking so sad. Then she smiled at him.

"Well, we can always go up two levels and just take the stadium stairs back down to our level," she suggested. Micah's face lit up and took off towards the ramp. The rest rushed to keep up with him. Micah looked over the side of the ramp the whole way up; watching people below, finding their way inside. When they hit two levels, the walked to another area that led out into the stadium. They had to shield their eyes from the sun.

When Pete's eyes finally adjusted, he took in his surrounds. He had never really been in a college football stadium before. This was gigantic. Bigger than anything Fall Out Boy ever played in. There were thousands of seats everywhere and where there were no seats, there were benches. Patrick was amazed at how massive it was. Throwing a question out to his group, not really knowing who would know the answer.

"How many people does this stadium hold?"

"92,138 plus strong," Cara and Leila said at the same time. They looked at each other laughing.

Patrick's mouth fell open, and he looked at Pete. That was larger than they had ever played for. Pete looked to the girls.

"Are you never nervous about playing in front of all those people?" he questioned.

Leila shrugged her shoulders, "Not really. Although, when you look like three hundred and ninety nine people, it's easy to feel comfortable. But my family did see me several times on TV, when they scanned over the band in the stands!" she said excitedly. She then got this smug look on her face. She tossed her hair back and looked to Patrick and Pete.

"I guess this makes me just like you, except my family is a 92,138 Crimson Tide," she said, throwing her nose in the air. She held that pose for a second before being over come in laughter. She hugged Pete's waist, giggling.

"There are our seats," Casie said, pointing straight ahead. She took hold of Andrew's hand and led the way.

Soon, they were settled in their seats and there were awaiting pre-game. Two small sections of the band were at each end of the field, playing for the fans. The few thousands of people that were already setting began screaming. At the end of the field was an opening, with an awning of crimson with big bold white letters that read "BAMA"; fifteen or so of the football players came out to a loud welcome. Over the speakers, they boomed "Sweet home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. It got the crowd in a frenzied. Everyone sang along. About that time, from the other end, came the same amount of football players of the opposite team. They were greeted with the small section of their fans cheers. Shortly after that, the rest of each teams came out and they began stretching. After that, they started running small plays on each side of the field. The Alabama football team met up in a huge group, and split, running back under the "BAMA" awning. The other football team left the field as well and Pete noticed that the band was forming groups on each side of the field. The cheerleaders went on the field and spread out. And one male cheerleader, with a microphone stood in the middle (on a big circular Alabama logo) with Big Al. Micah pointed at Big Al and yelled out "I met him!"

After a few cheers to get the crowd going, and a rousing "Alabama across the board", where they cut the stadium in half and one sides screams out "ALA" and the other says "BAMA". The cheerleaders finished there set, and ran off the field.

The band began marching out on the field to a drum cadence. Then a booming voice sounded out.

"All right Bama fans! Get on your feet for the four hundred fine men and women of the Million Dollar Band!" the voice said and the crowd went crazy. Leila got goosebumps from all the sound that filled her ears. She really missed being apart of that. The boys even had chills from the scene before them. The band started off with another "Yea Alabama", and marched up and down the field playing several cheers.

"All right Bama! Let's welcome the Tigers' to Tuscaloosa with a Big Booming Bama spell out!"

"Gemme' a 'B'!" and a fourth of the band scrambled into the shape of a "B".

"Gemme' an 'A'!" and another fourth spelled out an "A".

"Gemme' a 'M"!" And there was a "M".

"Gemme' another 'A'!" and the last bit of band formed the last "A".

"What does that spell?!"

And the crowd screamed, "Bama!"

"A little louder!"

"Bama!"

"One more time!"

"BAMA!" and the band started playing another tune. Half way through the song the band began marching and the "BAMA" formed into the same thing, but facing the other way. The next song caused the band to move again, but this time they formed a big "UA". The last movement that happened, they formed a tunnel of sorts. The festivities seemed to have been paused. They crowd seem to settle down a little. That was until they started playing a video on the three jumbotrons. The video consisted of old Alabama football clips. When a certain rousing clip was shone, the mass of people would make a sound of being hit hard, for example, an Alabama full back nailing an opposing team player to the ground. The video ended in a live feed of the front doors to the locker room. A minute later, the head couch, followed by the seniors of the football team and then the rest, came on the camera. If possible, the crowd got louder. They couldn't even hear themselves think. Once the couch reached the field, the band played yet another of many fight songs. When the team had fully reached the side of the field, the band ran off the field and made their way to their seats, which were near theirs.

And the football game commenced. The boys had never seen this side of the girls. They were yelling at "bad calls" by the referees, and screaming at good ones and first downs, along with touch downs. Leila had to help Pete know what was happening in the game. She explained what the penalties were and what qualified as one. Half way through the second quarter, the boys were starting get into the game. It made the girls smile that they were trying, and actually having fun. Soon it was half time, and Alabama was in the lead by a touchdown and a field goal. The feeling the air was hopeful. Both bands from each school were on the sidelines, waiting their turn to march. The opposing teams' band performed first in half-time. They played a country show, which didn't really impress the girls, but the marching wasn't half bad. Then it was the Million Dollar Band's turn.

"Okay, get ready for a pop rock show! The first song up is by Green Day with 'American Idiot'!"

The song choice was better than Leila had ever marched for when she was there. And the marching was amazing. The band had done nothing but go up hill sense her departure.

"The next song selection is from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, entitled 'Dani California'!"

Leila was really jealous that they hadn't performed such songs. They had all country shows all the time. It got a little old every year.

"The final song they have for you tonight is from a multi-platinum band from the north! Please sing along if you know it! Here's Fall Out Boy's 'Thnks Fr Th Mmrs'!"

Leila's mouth fell open. She looked to Pete, who was looking at Patrick. The song started and the group turned their attention back to the field. The marching was very fast and technical. Several thousands of people were singing along, including the girls. When the song ended, the band played a small fight song and marched off the field.

"Now why didn't we play stuff like that?" Leila said to a silent group. They all burst out laughing. And the second half of the game began. First downs, touchdowns, field goals… Alabama was dominating. Leila had never seen such a great Alabama Football game in her life. Soon it was fourteen seconds left in the game, and Bama was up by seventeen.

"Why don't we go ahead and leave, get a head start to the car?" Pete said, noticing a lot of people leaving.

"No!" Leila and Cara said at the same time. The boys looked at them.

"Just wait for it," Leila said, waiting for something to happen. And then three tweets rang out over the people. And it happened.

The crowd was going crazy; throwing things and yelling, hooping and hollering. And over the screams came a chant.

"Hey Tigers! Hey Tigers! We just beat the hell outta you! Rammer Jammer, Yellow Hammer, give em' HELL Alabama!"

Leila and Cara screamed it at the top of their lungs, even Casie joined in for a round of "Rammer Jammer". The boys laughed at the girl's behavior. And the game was over. The quarterback, Tyler Barker, took a knee and the game was over. The football team rushed the field. They gathered in the middle with the other team for prayer.

Once the prayer was over, they Alabama jumped up and down, screaming in celebration. Everyone seemed to be trying to get out of the stadium all at once. Leila sat down for and waited for a while for the crowd to thin. They all circled around each other, now that there was more room to spread out. They were just talking and discussing the game. Cara turned to Micah as they were about to leave the stadium.

"So, did you have fun at your first Alabama Football game?" she asked, patting him on the back.

"It was so cool, Cara," he yawned, the game had taken him a lot out of him. He couldn't stop yawning. They started to leave, and little Micah could hardly walk, he was so tired. Cara turned around, and picked him up, and almost instantly, he fell asleep in her arms.

And that's how they walked back to their car. Casie and Andrew holing hands, whispering little things together, Leila had her head on Pete's shoulder and Patrick walked along side Cara, who was carrying a sleeping Micah.

Once they were in the car, Leila turned to the boys.

"So, did you guys have fun?"

"The best," they all said at once.

-note from the author-

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!