Althena Book 2

3. Practice

After a late night with Drogon, we wake up late. "You need to turn your offers in today."

"I don't want to play volleyball."

"Why not?"

"I'm not into it. I love cheering."

"Did you get an offer for that?"

"Varsity hockey team."

"Nice. That's really good for your first year."

"I accepted it and turned it in yesterday."

"You sure you don't want to play volleyball?"

"Yes. It hurts my arms and everyone is so serious. It's not as fun as I thought it would be."

"That's fine. Check reject and sign beside it. You still have to take it in. Put it in the drop box by the gym door."

"I will after lunch." I straddle him on the kitchen chair and lay my head against his chest.

I open my eyes, and I'm in bed alone. It's after 2. I throw myself together and take the offer to the school. I find the girls in the gym.

"What are you doing here?"

"We like to watch the tryouts, but they're over. We're sitting here being bored. They did update the sign for us though. We're listed now." Amber points to the screen in the middle of the room. Sure enough, it says Sage on the varsity hockey cheer team list.

"Ours is the only team filled out?"

"They have to see who accepts the offers for different teams. It'll be done later. Should we practice?"

Lauren shakes her head. "Let's make our varsity routine. I've never done it before."

"No." Lila jumps up. "Let's go tell the boys. They're in the rink."

We move from the gym bleachers to the rink seats.

I put my feet on the seat in front of me. "I needed a day to do nothing."

Lauren nods. "We shouldn't do our varsity routine here. The varsity team for basketball could watch us and steal it."

"They don't even know who they are yet."

"We can't trust anybody."

I laugh, and the coach comes up to us. "For the pep rallies, spirit days, and some of the games, you can wear a hockey jersey with one of the players' numbers on it. Well, it's a jersey for you, it's your size and style. It looks good with the skirts. But, the boy whose number you are wearing has to sign a paper saying you can. I need these filled out within the hour if you want them for the pep rally next Friday. I can get their signatures..."

I take off running. "CONNER." I get halfway to him before I notice I'm on the ice. My feet fly out in front of me and I land on my back.

His coach blows his whistle. "Girls, the ice is slippery."

Lila tries to crawl by me. "CONNER."

I grab her ankle. "Why are you yelling at Conner?"

"I don't know. I need a number too."

I try to get up and fall back down. "CONNER, I WILL DIE HERE. THIS IS COLD."

Another boy puts me on my feet. I hold on to him to keep my balance. I finally get it and let go. I nearly fall to my death. I grab him and don't let go anymore. "DAMN IT, CONNER." He's laughing his ass off. Lila is going to beat me by crawling.

The guy picks me up and skates me over to him. "Here."

"Thank you. Sign this, Conner."

"What is it?"

"I can wear your number on a jersey, but you have to approve it."

He signs it and gives it back.

A different boy brings Lila over. "I need mine signed too. I'm not picky."

One of them fills it out for her.

"What's your number, Conner?"

"69."

"I'll wear that too now." I smile and wiggle.

"UGH. I did not think that through." He looks at the ceiling.

His coach cracks and bursts out laughing. Then he rubs his eyes and turns away.

I nod. "Could 5 more of you go fill out a paper for the rest of them? We want to match... forever."

"My girlfriend would kick my ass, or I would."

"I will."

"Yea, it's not a big deal. When's the form due?"

Lila checks the clock. "43 minutes."

"Cutting it a little close."

I cross my arms. "It took us 17 minutes to get here."

The coach walks away laughing. "Go ahead and fill them out. Then we'll get back to practice."

Lila and I get picked up and skated back to the other girls. 5 boys come and fill out the other forms. My plan worked.

"Where do we want to work on our varsity cheer at?"

"It has to be a big open area."

"Like a gym."

I check my phone. "I have a big room in my basement. We can do it there."

Amber stands up. "Let's go check it out. These seats are hard."

"So are bleachers."

"I'll get us a helicopter. It can bring us back to our cars later."

We get to the basement room. "It's so empty."

"We haven't put furniture down here yet."

Lauren does a cartwheel and front flip. "The ceiling is high enough. But we need somewhere to watch these. I have the varsity routines for the last 4 years. We can get inspiration."

We end up in the living room.

"Every cheerleader from all the teams, like 40, will be in the gym. Each varsity team goes to the front of everyone and does their own cheer. Everyone will be doing the fight song cheer. It's 2 minutes. We'll be in front, and we can put our own moves in."

"What does this do?"

"It introduces the varsity teams to the school. They do it the first Friday back."

"1 week from now?"

"Yes."

"The basketball varsity team always goes first. The students will be in the stands. After the varsity cheer team does their routine, the varsity basketball players come down with them and their names are read."

"Just watch one. See, the cheerleaders are doing our fight song cheer. The varsity team is in the front. They're still doing it, but they added in some kicks."

Lila smiles. "They were boring, but you get the idea. Let's do more than that."

I fall over on the couch. "Have you guys ever seen the cheerleaders throw each other in the air?"

Lexi shakes her head. "There are only 7 of us though. We would have to get other people to help us."

Amber cracks up laughing. "The varsity basketball cheer team has 10 seniors. She put them all on the same team."

"I thought there was a max of 8?"

"Supposed to be, but I guess she didn't want to cut them. They have been cheering for years though."

"How did half of them even make it all this time?"

"4 or 5 years ago, nobody wanted to cheer. Tadita had to take who she could get. It's supposed to be 6 to 8 people on a team. There were only 4 people on a team for a while."

Lila nods. "I cheered then. My team only had 3. I wasn't even in high school yet. It was a bad time for cheerleaders."

Amber jumps up and nearly falls down. "The JV hockey cheer team has 6 people and looks promising. It has Bethany and Willow on it. We can get them to help us with tosses."

Lauren stretches. "Next year's other varsity team. Let's ask. Then maybe we can help each other next year. Not like the seniors will help anyone this year."

"Who has the JV basketball cheer spots?"

"Sophomores basically. Freshmen have the MV. They're mixed a little but not much. 8 on each team. I messaged Bethany. Waiting for a reply."

"Ideas people. Watch. This one was actually good." Lauren switches the video.

"We should put flips in ours too."

"We should actually come up with the routine now."

We nod.

Amber's phone wakes me up. I rub my face. Everyone was sleeping. Mike, Drogon, and Cyrus are standing in the middle of the floor watching us.

"THEY'LL HELP. WE NEED TO PLAN."

"I GOT PAPER."

"I'LL START THE MOVIE AGAIN."

We huddle around the coffee table on our knees and figure it out.

Mike pokes his head in an hour later. "FOOD'S IN THE KITCHEN, GIRLS."

We move to the kitchen living room and continue while we eat. Once we get it done, the girls take the helicopter back to school. I pass out on Mike in the living room. That was exhausting.

For 2 days, us and the JV team practice in the backyard. We cannot do tosses in the basement. It's fine until Drogon has a melt down when someone almost gets dropped. Then he makes us do the tosses in the pool.

Mike ends up being the coach after that. He helps us get the tosses even and in time with the beat.

Sunday, right before dinner, we're allowed back in the yard. My boys and Cyrus have us do the entire routine once and record us from every angle. That way, we can watch and edit as needed. We eat together again, then everyone leaves to get ready for the first day of school tomorrow.