The first teammate removed his cap.
Then another.
And another.
Lily’s eyes had widened with each reveal.
By the time Coach Daniels entered and bowed dramatically, she had begun laughing so hard she was crying.
In the video, Aaron never asked for applause.
He never gave a speech.
He simply stood beside Lily, smiling as person after person showed her that she was surrounded.
I turned toward him.
“You arranged all of this?”
His cheeks reddened.
“I started asking people a couple of weeks ago.”
“A couple of weeks?”
He nodded.
“I knew Lily’s hair was going to fall out, and I didn’t want her to feel like everyone was looking at her because she was different.”
He gestured toward his teammates.
“They all agreed. They said I had to go first, though.”
One of the boys laughed.
“We needed proof he was serious.”
Aaron smiled.
“So I went first.”
