Althena Book 2

2. Cheer

I practice the cheers in the living room all evening. The boys give me pointers. They're surprised I got good at the flips so fast. Those aren't in the cheers though. Not sure why I need them.

I wake up the next day and practice until Drogon shows up. He has me drive to school for volleyball and show him where the gym is. I'm getting it. But it's a huge building. He leaves sometime in the middle.

We practice setting the ball the entire volleyball practice. It's boring but not hard.

Lila's in the hallway when we get done. She runs over to me. "Thena, this is Amber. She does cheer too."

"It's nice to meet you, Amber."

"You too. What are you hoping to cheer for?"

"Anything, I guess."

"Let's go check out the boys. I want to see who's playing basketball."

The 3 of us sit in the stands of the other gym. This one is bigger with more seats and it actually has real seats. It's not bleachers.

"Matt's on the team. This must be varsity."

Lila looks at her. "Are you 2 dating yet?"

"No. He cannot take a hint. But whatever, I'll date someone else."

"Hey girls." A sexy man twirling a ball stands in front of us.

Amber giggles. "Hey Josh. How was your break?"

"Nice. I got a new car. How was yours?"

"Boring. What kind of car did you get?"

I nudge Lila. "So, where do the cheerleaders stand in here?"

"On the court down there. By the wall. It's kind of squished."

Amber pulls on me while she giggles at Josh. "We're going to go see who made the varsity hockey team. I'll see you later."

He winks at me. "Have fun."

I smile. That was awkward.

We get in the hallway and Amber has a fit. "Boys are so stupid. They can't take a hint about anything. I'm going to be single all year."

We sit in the ice rink seats and I wave at Conner. He winks and puts on a helmet.

Lila smiles. "I think they have something going on."

"Nuh huh." Amber leans on me. "I thought you're with Drogon?"

"Hey ladies." A sexy boy stands in front of us. This seems to be a thing here. "Come to check out the team?"

"Yea, we're deciding who we want to cheer for."

Lila perks up. "It's easier to cheer here. We won't be as smushed."

The man smirks. "You think you'll get varsity?"

"Yes. Who else are they gonna pick?"

"You're not even seniors."

Amber rolls her eyes. "We'll get it. Your senior cheerleaders are fat. I doubt if any of them can even jump."

He cracks up laughing. "They're not that bad."

Lila gets all serious. "If we are smashed in the gym, imagine how bad it'll be for them."

Amber laughs so hard. "They can have basketball. It'll be hilarious watching them try to fit."

Another boy comes up beside him, laughing. "You girls are brutal."

"It's true though."

"I didn't say it wasn't true. I said you're brutal."

"GIRLS. Leave the hockey players alone and go practice or something."

"Yes, coach." Amber pulls me up. "Let's go to the little gym. It should be empty."

We get into the hallway, and they go in opposite directions. "WHICH WAY IS IT?"

"Sorry. I forgot where we were going." Lila turns around and comes with us.

Amber nods at me. "Never ask Lila for directions."

She smiles. "Except when it comes to cheer."

"Are you in the yoga club?"

"Do not join the yoga club."

Lila shakes her head. "Never."

"They start at 6:30. It's over at 7:15. Then you're expected to shower in the locker room and get completely ready for school all over again. It's not worth it."

Lila nods. "You will be bringing your make-up and hair tools to school every morning."

"Do yoga in the morning at your house. Then at least you can shower in private and get ready without people trying to steal your stuff. Let's show her how to do the jump part. Lila is going to be trying out. I'll pretend to be the judge so you can see how it works."

"Ok."

Amber and I sit on the bleachers and Lila stands in front of us. "Welcome, Lila. Where going to judge you on a few jumps today. Show us the right hurdle please... Perfect. Now, front flip, front flip, toe touch."

She lands it perfectly. "Damn you're good at that."

She runs back to the starting spot giggling. "I know."

Amber rolls her eyes. "Back flip. Cartwheel. Cheer kick."

"We didn't do that one." She does the backflip and cartwheel. "Cheer kick, you start with your arms up and in a V. You bring your right arm behind your head and kick your leg straight up at the same time." She does it and damn near knees herself in the head.

"How did you get so flexible?"

"Practice. Now you try."

They send me through every jump and show me some new ones.

"Backflip. No hands." I shake my head. "Try."

I do it with one hand, and it's fine, so I try with no hands. It's easy. I think I was made to do this. I wonder if my mom was a cheerleader.

Amber stands up. "That's the tumbling part of tryouts. You'll be fine. The other part is the jumps, choreography, and dance. It's the cheer routine part. They put everyone on the floor together and have them do the routines. Let's do the fight song. Have you learned it yet?"

"I practiced it a few times."

"They always check the fight song. But remember, cheering is about having fun. So always be smiling, flirty, and sexy."

We go through it a couple of times. Then try a few other routines. I learn so much from them. The way they giggle and shake their asses has to be seen before it's replicated. Always smiling and winking. Sticking their tongues out. This really is a lot of fun.

Conner's team comes in and sits at the far end of the gym. I think they have a team meeting here after their practice. They ignore us, so we ignore them and keep going.

Then 3 girls come in and watch us. It's weird.

One yells, "Are you practicing?"

I glance at Amber. "What do they think we're doing?"

She cracks up laughing. "Seniors."

Lila smiles at them. "Yes, we're helping Thena. She's new."

The girls weren't wrong. One of them has an ass that's huge. Another has to be at least 2 and half times my size. I won't be calling anyone names though.

"We'll show you how it's done. You can watch us." One of the girls flips her hair.

They space out and do the cheer. I almost laugh when they jump. It's supposed to be a hurdle jump. One of them only got her feet 6 inches off the ground. It looks like an uncoordinated first attempt at something. None of them smile, and they yell every single word violently.

I wait until they're done. "Thank you. I definitely see some areas I need to work on now."

They leave acting smug with their noses in the air.

Lila loses it. "That was a perfect example of what not to do."

"Did you see June try to jump?"

We laugh so hard.

Coach Tadita comes in smiling at us. "Glad to see you are practicing."

"We showed her the fight song."

"Let me turn on the music. I want to see this." She goes into a door off to the side and music comes on. "Start."

I think I do pretty well. I even put a hip swing and smile with my tongue out at the end.

"That was excellent, girls. Keep practicing."

We practice different routines until Conner makes us leave.

The next day, 4 more girls show up after my volleyball practice. We practice every routine and jump they can think of.

It goes the same way for 2 more days.

Then I get my offer for volleyball. I take it to Drogon.

"You can play in the junior varsity team or the minor varsity team. You'll have to pick one then take it back on Friday."

"What about cheering?"

"Tryouts are tomorrow. You'll get the offer for that tomorrow. That goes back by Friday too. Wait and see what that offer is, then we can pick."

I am a nervous wreck on Thursday. There's probably 100 girls in the gym. We stretch then sit in the bleachers. I sit with the 6 girls I've been practicing with.

Coach Tadita takes the floor. "Welcome to cheer tryouts, girls. Thank you for coming. This season, we can take a maximum of 40 girls. So, everyone do your best. We're going to start with jumps first. When you hear your name, take the floor. First up is Jennifer Alock."

My whole body relaxes. They go alphabetical by last name.

She does a couple of jumps then says she can't do the rest of them.

Lauren leans into me. "Jumps are worth 1 point each if you land them. But a lot of people can't do them. So, it's massive bonus points for those of us who can."

"That's me." Amber runs out.

"Think about it this way." Kristen scoots closer. "The total points you can receive is 40. 20 for jumps and tumbles. 20 for routine and dance. Most girls can't do more than 5 jumps. The most they'll get is 25. If you get 20 for jumps, all you have to get is 6 for routine, and you're guaranteed a spot."

I nod. "They lean to much on the routine side."

"Exactly. And people can get an easy 13 points on that."

We clap for Amber. She landed every jump.

Lila smiles. "The try-out is only worth 20 points to some people. They won't try the jumps, or they'll fail at them. But don't laugh at anybody. The coach will take points off for that."

"Good tip."

She nods. "It's June's turn. Nobody watch."

We clap politely when everyone else does. Then Lauren goes and lands every jump. These girls have some real talent.

It's my turn way too soon. I feel like everyone is watching me. I glance at the girls and Amber jumps up and down shaking her ass. Lila is pushing her face into a smile.

I try not to laugh and smile at the coach.

"Pencil jump."

5 minutes later, I have all of them done, and I'm so happy. I run back to the girls in tears. "I did it."

"You did good." Jenna pats my shoulder as she walks by. "My turn."

Lexi stretches. "We're killing everyone. Who are we going to cheer for?"

Lila puts her feet up. "We want ice hockey. That way we can watch the fatty's try to squeeze into the gym."

Lexi spits out whatever she was drinking and starts coughing. The rest of us do our best not to laugh.

Amber shakes her head. "That was the wrong time to say that."

"Girls."

Amber rubs her face. "Sorry, coach. Lila farted."

She rubs her belly. "Sorry, my new medicine makes me gassy. The doctor is switching it tomorrow."

"Girls, it's a normal body function. It's not funny."

We pull it together somehow. I can't look at any of them for a few minutes.

Jenna runs back after she lands her jumps. "What happened?"

"We'll tell you later. We can't do that again now."

We get through everyone and Coach stands up. "That concludes the jump portion. I would like everyone to fill out one of these papers. These are the teams you would like to cheer for. Please list your top 3 choices. 1. 2. and 3."

My group puts 1 as varsity ice hockey and 2 as JV hockey. "I don't want to cheer for basketball at all. I don't want to be squished."

Amber checks my paper. "Put a 3 by the MV basketball team. You can always refuse it if that's all they offer you."

Lauren nods. "And it won't mess up the paperwork too much because it's not varsity. Every time someone quits, they have to move someone from a lower league to fill the space. It can end up a mess."

"Sit your papers on the table here and everyone on the floor."

4 routines later, we're done. If nothing else happens, I had a lot of fun doing this. The girls were fun and I learned a lot. I sit with them and drink some water. We watch people leave.

The coach comes over to us after 10 minutes. "You 7 are being offered the varsity cheer team for ice hockey." We jump up screaming. Lila tries to hug me and falls over. "Are you going to take it?"

"YES." We scream at her in unison.

"Come sign the offers."