Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 252

Chapter 252

Fair.

I blew out a breath and looked out at the empty bleachers.

“Honestly?” I said. “Today was… weirdly peaceful.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Noah said immediately.

Too late.

“Jackson.”

The voice came from behind us.

We both turned.

Coach was standing near the sideline, arms folded, watching us.

“Yeah?” I called.

“Office. Now.”

My stomach dropped a little.

Noah looked at me.

“Uh oh.”

“Shut up,” I muttered, but my chest had already tightened.

Because getting called into Coach’s office was never casual.

I jogged across the field toward him.

Coach didn’t say anything else. He just turned and headed inside the small fieldhouse building.

That made it worse.

When Coach was mad, he usually yelled first.

The silence felt heavier.

Inside, the office smelled like coffee and old playbooks. Coach shut the door behind us and motioned for me to sit.

I dropped into the chair across from his desk.

“What’s up?”

Coach didn’t answer right away.

Instead he leaned back in his chair, studying me like he was trying to figure something out.

Finally he said, calmly:

“You hear from any recruiters lately?”

My brain stumbled.

“…No?”

He nodded slowly.

“That’s part of the problem.”

+25 Bonus

2/8

Chapter 252

Now my stomach really dropped.

“What problem?”

Coach folded his hands on the desk.

“Jackson, you know colleges look at more than stats.”

“Yeah.”

“They look at character. Discipline. Focus.”

I frowned. “Okay…?”

Coach slid his laptop around so the screen faced me.

And there it was.

The stupid I***

‘m page.

Ridgeville Gossip.

Right at the top was the post.

The one with the fake ultrasound.

“Baby Lombardi.”

My jaw clenched.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Coach’s voice stayed steady.

“A recruiter from State saw this.”

I looked up sharply.

“…What?”

“They reached out this morning,” he said. “Wanted to know what was going on.”

My pulse started hammering.

“What did you tell them?”

“The truth.”

“That it’s fake?”

“Yes.”

I leaned back in the chair, tension draining out of my shoulders for a second.

Then Coach added something.

“But they’re still concerned.”

The relief vanished instantly.

“…Concerned about what?”

Coach sighed.

+25 Bonus

3/8

Chapter 252

“They’re not worried about whether the rumor is true.”

I frowned.

“Then what?”

“They want to know if you’re focused on football,” he said quietly, “or if you’re part of the circus,”

The words landed like a punch to the chest.

“Circus?”

Coach nodded toward the laptop.

“This.”

My jaw tightened so hard it hurt.

“That’s not my fault.”

“I know.”

“Some idiot made a joke and the whole school ran with it,” I snapped. “That’s not me. That’s Ridgeville.”

“I know that too,” Coach repeated.

“But the recruiter doesn’t know Ridgeville.”

The room went quiet.

I looked at the screen again.

The comments.

The stupid jokes.

The fake sonogram taped to Mariah’s locker.

All of it.

“Are they pulling the scholarship?” I asked quietly.

Coach leaned forward slightly.

“No.”

My lungs started working again.

“But they want to know what kind of player you are under pressure,” he continued.

I frowned.

“What does that mean?”

“It means,” Coach said calmly, “they’re watching how you handle this.”

I rubbed my hands over my face.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Coach shook his head.

“Jackson, listen to me.”

+25 Bonus

Chapter 252

I dropped my hands and looked at him.

“You didn’t create this situation,” he said. “But how you respond to it matters.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know.”

“But that doesn’t mean people won’t try to drag you into it.”

I stared at the desk.

Everything I’d worked for…