Wind-Chill
Making the squad at Columbia really hadn't been that difficult. I'd been cheering and tumbling almost all my life and hey, it's not like New York's slice of the Ivy league is renowned for its cheerleaders. It's considered a D1 school…but they don't even require tumbling. Psh. All joking aside though, I loved my team and I loved cheering for the school. I loved the exhilaration of a game. I loved dancing along to music and jumping up and down when the football team did something right. I loved painting my face before match ups. I loved the smell of hairspray that filled up the entire female locker room. And every single Saturday, I got chills when I heard the national anthem being belted from the middle of the field.
Today the goose bumps broke out and I shivered for more than just one reason. First of all, it was week 9 of the NCAA's football season, which meant it was October, which in NYC meant it was freezing outside. No matter how still we were supposed to stand during the Star Spangled Banner, we were all shaking uncontrollably from the wind chill. But the wind was nothing compared to the slap in the heart I felt when I caught a glimpse of who was taking the microphone at center field. His voice hit the speakers and without even realizing it my mouth dropped open a little out of surprise. The crowd cheered, the flag began to rise and I nearly stopped breathing.
It was obvious his voice had been classically trained because he wasn't singing pop style and it was beautiful. I felt like I could have fallen into that sound and the strength of it would have caught me. There was something genuine about his voice, something pure. It made me trust that he wasn't into music just for the money or the spotlight, but because he felt the same way everyday people did when they listened to their favorite songs. Music meant something to him and I could feel it just in his voice.
"And the rocket's red glaaare! The bombs bursting in air! Gave proof through the niiight that our flag was still there!" His belting voice ripped through the air. The growl that clawed up from the depths of his throat out of pure passion for the song on his lips caused the back of my neck to prickle a little.
"O'er the laaand of the freeee!" At this point, the emotion he was evoking from my nerve endings was so intense that I was having trouble breathing. "And the hooome of the braaave."
I'm pretty sure no one on the squad screamed louder than I did after he had finished. I watched him, completely floored as he inhaled deeply, waved to the crowd and smiled as he thanked them for their standing ovation. Working the crowd for just a few more seconds, Ryan walked off the field trying in earnest to fight a grin from tearing open his lopsided smile. My eyes lingered for just a few moments longer, until he'd left the sidelines for good before turning back to the crowd. We had a game to win, this was the last place I was going to let a theatre geek distract me.
*A/N: You can actually find a video of him singing the national anthem over at youtube. I highly suggest it, he did a beautiful job. Thanks for reading and please review! I promise the chapters do get longer as we go. Cheers and happy reading!
-Rachel