Clash of the Cheerleaders

by April Marcom

  I fought to hold back tears, because I really didn’t want to say what I knew I had to say. All I really wanted to do was forget what he did the night before and spend my party on his arm, but I absolutely refused. “No, my birthday was last night, and you’re not welcome at this party. I’d say you could go hang out with your precious football team. You know—the ones that just can’t live without you, but they’ll probably be here innn….” I glanced at my watch without really looking at it. “…just a few minutes. I know you’re the star player, but I’m sure they’ll be able to party just fine without you.”

  Blaine stared at me with his mouth hanging open. There had been so many times I’d wanted to, but I’d never actually spoken to him like that. The confidence it gave me felt great. Of course, I knew the back-up surrounding me was feeding it, and I was glad they would still be there for me later that night.

  I reached out to take the balloons and gift bag from him. “Thanks. I’ll just put these with the others. And lucky you, I got you something, too. Nicole—” I looked over at Nicole, who was positively gloating as she picked up Blaine’s box and handed it to him.

  “Here you go. Thanks for stopping by,” she said before she shut the door.

  My girls stared at me as I sucked in and let out a huge breath.

  “Hadley!” Blaine shouted, pounding his fist against the door. “Open this door—right now!”

  I turned the lock harder than necessary so the loud click would get the message across. It was followed by a long, angry silence.

  “I’ll be back,” he said before his silhouette disappeared.

  Nicole put her arm around me as we made our way out back. “I’m proud of you. You finally stood up to that jerk.”

  “Thanks. I’m proud of me, too.”

  I felt awful, however, when I looked down at the bag I was carrying. Dark blue fabric peaked out from under the sparkly blue and pink tissue paper inside. It was the dress I said I loved so much when Blaine took me to the mall last week, and it was seriously expensive! Well, he owes me that much in pain and suffering, I told myself.

  “Are we ready to rock?” Gage asked when we walked outside.

  “Yep. The guests should be here any minute,” I told him.

  They started playing behind me as I walked to the edge of the deck. Everything looked to be in place. Steam was coming off the food and caterers stood ready nearby. I turned to my friends and half-shouted so they could hear me over the guitars and drums. “You can eat something if you want.”

  “We’ll wait on the guests,” Nicole shouted back.

  I watched Aunt Madeline through the back window going to answer the door. Three football players headed our way. She didn’t even get the door shut before a trickle of more guests came in behind them. More football players, mixed with a couple of girls, followed them out back.

  Michael, one of the football players, went straight for Lavender. He handed me a little, green gift bag, took her hand, and spun her around, totally getting into the music. Michael’s her kind-of boyfriend. You know—on again, off again.

  A couple of kids started bobbing their heads to the beat, while others went straight to dancing like Michael and Lavender. Steph got asked to dance next, then Nicole.

  Sid and Braxton made their way to me and Brittany. They’re both hot seniors, and Nicole’s had her eye on Braxton since he moved to Silver Wing a few weeks ago.

  “Hey, d’you know Blaine’s sitting out front in his car, looking like he’s gonna kill somebody?” Sid asked me.

  “Yeah, I dumped him.”

  “Oh.” Sid nodded slowly, letting his eyes wander over me. “In that case, you want to dance?”

  “Are you crazy?” Braxton asked him. “Marksen will kill you if he catches you dancing with Hadley.”

  It actually sounded like a great way to get my mind off him. “Well, he’s just going to have to get over it.” I put a hand on Sid’s arm and headed for the dancers with him.

  Over the next half hour, I had a blast dancing with Sid. It felt kind of wrong after a while, though—even though it totally wasn’t—so I ended up dancing with Zaniah and Nicole instead.

  The present table was soon covered with boxes, bags, and envelopes. Even the ground was littered with them on both sides. Kids were eating, dancing, or talking all over the place. It was a blast! And a total success.

  Through all the “Happy Birthdays” and hugs and laughs, Blaine remained nagging at the back of my mind, threatening to ruin the most important night of my life.

  It was a relief when Nicole got on Gage’s microphone. “Could I have everyone turn your attention to us and make some space down here?” she said, pointing to the ground just in front of the deck.

  Lavender was already twisting the spotlights around so they would be shining on us for our dance routines. Everyone moved back as we made our way down the stairs.

  I barely took my place beside Nicole and Brittany in the front line of cheerleaders before The Pussycat Dolls started singing a pumped-up remix of “Don’t Cha”. As I moved to the beat in unison with the other girls, Blaine was forgotten. Dancing as hard as I could while everyone watched gave me a euphoric energy that was more than capable of erasing everything else. For those precious few minutes, hitting every step and twist and turn was all that mattered.

  Even when I looked out at the sea of rapt faces and saw Blaine at the front of the crowd, standing as close to me as he could safely get, it felt amazing. His face wore an unfamiliar and unhappy expression. Seeing him begin to feel what he’d made me suffer so many times gave me a great deal of satisfaction, only adding to the energy.

  When Meghan Trainor’s “Me Too” came on, I couldn’t help but think, He can stand there and want me all night long, but he’ll never have me… never again…

  4

  A perfect circle of six sleeping bags, heads together, were laid on my bedroom floor later that night. Each one had a completely made-over girl sitting on top of it. It was always so much fun to pour out all the cosmetics and makeup we’d brought and do each other up like we were headed for some red carpet event.

  The other four girls on our squad were gone. Nicole considered the six of us—me, her, Brittany, Steph, Zaniah, and Lavender—a step above the others, socially. She made sure to distinguish this in any way possible. The four ‘trivials’, as Nicole liked to call them, were never invited to our Saturday night sleepovers, which we rotated between our houses each week, all of us except for Lavender. Her room’s just too small. Usually the trivials weren’t invited to any of our get-togethers, period. So I was surprised when Nicole said they should come to my party, but she wanted us to perform as a team.

  It’s ridiculous, really. I mean, it’s nice to be on top. The idea that we’re better than everyone else is just so dumb. Half the time I’m not even sure if I’m doing it right. I’d never tell Nicole any of this, of course. She’d probably snap her fingers and my popularity would vanish in a puff of smoke.

  Just between you and me, at the beginning of the school year she had her dad try to bribe the cheer coach into putting her on the varsity squad and cutting the team down to the six girls of her choice. That way she could get everyone to call us ‘The Smokin’ Six’.

  Our freshman year, Nicole was happy to be on the junior varsity cheer squad and get a feel for things, get to know the coach and what would sway her. But this year she was power hungry.

  Unfortunately for her, having ten girls on the team is a school rule the coach couldn’t control. What she could control was who was on the team, and more importantly, who was the captain. So Nicole’s dad cut a fat check to the coach, Ms. Nordik, and Nicole was made cheer captain of the varsity squad. That meant she got to choose who made it on the team and who didn’t. I’ve kept Nicole’s secrets for as long as I can remember, so she trusted me with this one, but no-one else knew.

  Last year’s varsity girls who didn’t make it on the squad were furious, but there was nothing they could do about it. Brittan
y, Steph, and I were easy picks, since the four of us have been cheering and taking tumbling together for years. Zaniah and Lavender were two new girls in our grade that just happened to be better at cheer and prettier than anyone else, which, as Nicole likes to remind them constantly, makes them the two luckiest girls at Silver Wing High.

  In my opinion, Lavender’s the best cheerleader we’ve got. Nicole kind of picks on her, and I can never decide if it’s jealousy or the fact that Lavender’s really poor. Nicole’s pretty meticulous about who she associates with, and I know it was hard for her to let Lavender on the squad. Once we saw her try out, I don’t think there was a question in anyone’s minds that she deserved to be on our team. She’s got more natural talent than the rest of us put together. So, again, Nicole’s motives could go either way.

  She did go ahead and create a website for us—www.smokinsix.com—and had most of the school calling us by that name.

  But anyway, back to the sleepover. So far it had been a lot of fun. We did the makeovers. We opened my presents and ate cake. We watched a scary movie…

  And then the dare came that began it all. “What’s it going to be, Hadley? Truth… or dare?” Nicole asked me mysteriously when it was my turn.

  Brittany was putting a fishbone braid in my hair, so I could only turn partially to look at her. Truth is never any fun, so I said, “Dare.”

  Nicole smiled with her eyes as they seemed to fill with evil laughter. I almost wanted to take it back. “At last, I get to use the dare I’ve been dying to give you all night. You’re finally totally single, so you’ve got to ask out… Ty Black.”

  My head whipped to the side, tearing my hair from Brittany’s hands. “What?!” Ty Black? The guy was scary. Blazing hot, but scary. He’d just come out of homeschool to join the real world this year and there were already too many dangerous stories about him going around school to know which ones were true—he spent six months in prison for stealing a car… he was kicked out of his last school for attacking a teacher—but everyone seemed to be able to agree on one thing: He was a rebel and an outcast.

  “Aw, you ruined it,” Brittany whined.

  “You’ve got to ask him out on a date for next Friday night, and then you have to go through with it,” Nicole told me.

  “I’m not asking him out. You’ve got to dare me to do something I can do right now.”

  Nicole pulled her iPhone out of her purse and started moving her finger over the screen at a thousand miles an hour. “So you’ll call him. It’ll only take like two seconds to find his number.”

  “Found it.” Steph held her phone out to Nicole.

  “But it’s after midnight,” I said, looking at my watch.

  “Oh, shoot.” I was grateful to see Nicole put her phone back in her purse, looking extremely disappointed. “Well that blows that out, I guess… Or you could just ask him Monday.” The wicked spark ignited in her eyes once more.

  “No, way. He’ll probably take me to a muddy swamp or an old abandoned coal mine or something. Somewhere he can bury me and no-one will ever find my body.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. He doesn’t even have a car, so his mommy’ll probably be driving you around, anyway… unless you’re chicken.” Nicole smirked as she watched me.

  That was when it really began to sink in that I was going to have to ask out creepy Ty Black or be labeled a wimp for the next week or more, even if Nicole was cheating at the game.

  “What about Blaine?” I asked, thinking how bad it would hurt him. I definitely wanted him to suffer for all he had done, but not like that. If I ever saw him with another girl, it would kill me.

  “What about him?” Nicole asked with a look of disgust.

  “Yeah,” Steph piped in. “You said it was for good this time.”

  “It is. It just feels wrong to ask out someone else.”

  Brittany put her arm around me and patted my back as her blonde ponytail brushed against my arm, always the sweetest and most understanding of us all. “It might make you feel better, Hadley.”

  “Plus, it’s only one date,” Nicole said from my other side. “Blaine’ll never know… So, are you going to be the first one to wimp out tonight?”

  “Absolutely not.” No matter what it cost, I was taking that dare.

  “Then it’s your turn to pick somebody.”

  “Hmmm…” I looked around the circle, trying to decide who would look best in my swimsuit. Nicole was the obvious choice. Sometimes I think that girl was bred for perfection. Her straight, shiny strands of black hair and bright blue eyes, perfectly chiseled body and unblemished skin. But she was the only girl I couldn’t choose, and second best would be hard to pick. So I did ‘eeny meeny miny mo’ in my head and ended up choosing Steph. “All right, Steph, truth or dare.”

  “Dare, duh.”

  “I dare you to put on one of my swimsuits—Keep your underwear on please!—and take a walk around the block in it.”

  Steph gave me a semi-desperate look. The other girls started laughing. Lavender and Nicole whistled, while Brittany made cat calls.

  “Don’t worry,” I assured her. “We’ll go with you—in what we’ve got on, of course.”

  “What, are you trying to get me arrested?” Steph asked.

  “You can’t get arrested for being outside in a bathing suit.”

  “I’ll get you for this, you know.” She shook her head and glared teasingly.

  Everyone pulled on robes and shoes excitedly as I searched for an old swimsuit to give Steph. Just as I was handing her a black one with a huge red rose on the side, I heard a voice downstairs.

  “Hadley?”

  “My mom’s home!” I ran for the stairs. I still got excited like a little kid every time my mom came home.

  “Guess the game’s over,” Zaniah said disappointedly.

  “Happy Birthday, honey,” my mom said when she saw me coming.

  I stopped before I ran into her when I saw the three boxes of pizza in her arms. “You’re home early, and you brought pizza.”

  “Yeah. I knew the girls would be over tonight, and I knew you’d still be awake. So I thought you might be hungry.”

  “Pizza!” Brittany’s voice came from the stairs. “You’re the best, Mrs. Cane.”

  “Yeah, she is,” Zaniah added.

  “Thanks, Mom,” I said, hugging her as she handed the pizza to Brittany to carry into the kitchen.

  “You’re welcome. Now tell me all about the party.”

  I tried to tell her about the kids and the songs and our performance, but I mostly let Nicole do the talking, because all I could think about was how I would have to ask out Ty Black on Monday.

  5

  Sunday night was a sleepless one. I didn’t know how I was going to ask out Ty. I’d never asked anyone out before!

  Nicole’s mom pulled her white van into our driveway Monday morning, just like she did every school day. I was the last in our group of six being picked up, just like every school day. I took the only empty seat left in the back, just like every school day. But this was not like every other school day, because today I was positively scared out of my mind.

  Maybe they’ll forget about Ty and my dare. I doubted it, but a girl could hope.

  The car ride was quiet. Zaniah and Lavender snoozed on each other’s shoulder in the back beside me. Brittany and Steph texted each other and giggled in the middle. And Nicole sat on her throne in the front seat, beside her mother.

  The second we set foot out of the van at school, we got into cheerleader mode. Our walk had to be confident. Our faces had to convey that we owned the place. Every move we made had to be perfect, because everyone turned to stare as we entered the hallway.

  Silver Wing High was a typical boring white-walled school inside. The lockers lining the walls had gone from silver to gray years ago. Neon-colored posters for various clubs and activities hung above the water fountains and on teacher’s doors. The only ones that really stood out were for next Friday’s pep rally. Little s
ilver pompoms taped to their corners sparkled through the halls.

  “All right, Hadley, there’s still fifteen minutes ‘til the first bell, so why don’t you go ahead and find Ty?” Nicole asked me. “I wanna hear everything at lunch, okay?”

  I let out a painful groan. “Okay.”

  Nicole and the other four turned right at the next intersection, leaving me to walk all alone. Sooo depressing.

  “Stupid dare,” I mumbled under my breath. Nicole had just better hope I didn’t get the chance to dare her back any time soon.

  “Hey, Hadley,” a few people called out.

  “That was a great party Saturday night.”

  “Happy late birthday—wish I could have been there.”

  I waved to each of them as I walked by.

  Unfortunately for me, Ty’s locker was conveniently located near mine. He was the first thing I saw when I rounded the corner. Today he looked even more gorgeous, and somehow more deadly, than usual. I’m not sure what it was about him, but he always seemed to radiate undeniable ‘bad boy’.

  My eyes roamed over his heavy boots, black jeans, and form-fitting white shirt, as I tried to decide what I was going to say. Just as they reached his straight, dark hair, my thoughts were broken when he slammed his locker door shut and looked up at me.

  I hadn’t meant to stand there, frozen and staring, but I couldn’t help it. Emotionless, he nodded my way. All I could do was smile weakly. Then he turned and walked away, disappearing from sight before I could force myself to make a move. Regret and relief spilled out all over me.

  There was a note taped to my locker just past his. I recognized Blaine’s handwriting right away. So I ripped it off, balling it up and dropping it on the ground without bothering to read it. After switching out a couple of books, I headed to class, wondering what I would tell Nicole at lunch.

  Four mind-numbing periods later, I headed toward the cafeteria and its ever-present scent of bleach and cooking oil. The girls were already sitting at our usual circular table when I got there.