Clash of the Cheerleaders

by April Marcom

  This is Brit. Don’t look @ The Smokin 6 Website. I repeat: don’t look @ the SS Website!

  I rolled my eyes. Of course I had to look at it now. But maybe I shouldn’t, I thought. Whatever it was would probably only make me feel worse. If I didn’t look, though, I’d wonder all day and drive myself crazy.

  “Good morning, Hadley.” Ty’s mom walked behind me into the kitchen. She was wearing a heavy pink robe and silver slippers, pulling curlers out of her hair.

  “Good morning, Mrs. Black.”

  “Are you the first one awake?”

  “Ty’s up. We’re gonna go for a walk when he’s done getting ready.”

  “That’s nice. Can I make you any breakfast before you go?”

  “No thanks. He said we’d eat breakfast at the park by your house.”

  “Oh? Well, I bet I could come up with something for you two to take along.” Mrs. Black went to the fridge and started transferring food by twos onto the table—yogurt, oranges, trail mix bars, individually wrapped Otis Spunkmeyer blueberry muffins. “Is there anything you’re allergic to, Hadley?” she asked.

  “Nope.” I could hear her rattling around through silverware but couldn’t see her at the moment.

  Next, she set a Ziploc bag with two spoons inside, along with two water bottles, beside the breakfast foods. “Well, that should do it.”

  “Thanks,” I said as Ty entered the room carrying an empty backpack. “That’s really nice of you.”

  “Good morning, Ty.” Mrs. Black beamed at her son. “Hadley said you’re walking to the park for breakfast, so I set this out for you. Take whatever you like.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” He gave her a quick hug, then loaded up his backpack and threw it over his shoulder.

  He looked at me and nodded toward the little entryway beside the dining area. I took his hand and we walked out the front door into the brightly sunlit outside world. The air was cool, but with no breeze, making it just right.

  I glanced at my phone when it rang, and quickly rejected the call. It was the number Lavender and her mom shared. She probably didn’t have their cellphone at the sleepover last night, so Nicole missed blocking me from that phone.

  “Who was that?” Ty asked.

  “Lavender.”

  “So—you’re not talking to her either?”

  I shook my head and gave no explanation. He didn’t push the issue.

  We rounded the corner fairly quickly. I could already see the cement path leading to an open lot nearly behind someone’s house. More cement pathways led to dinged-up gray playground equipment. It had a really beautiful gazebo in the back corner, though, with fresh black roofing and a wide ramp leading into it. A wooden picnic table and benches rested underneath, with tall, creaky trees overhead.

  “Looks like we have the place to ourselves,” Ty said with a grin. I managed to return his smile.

  It made me jump when we turned onto the path and a car’s tires screeched suddenly. A bright red Camaro had just turned the same corner we came around off Ty’s street. It sped way too fast toward us—the driver’s eyes locked on me.

  “Aw, man,” I muttered. It was Steve Larsen, one of the writers for Silver Wing High’s weekly newspaper.

  “Looks like the paparazzi caught up with you,” Ty said.

  “I guess it could be worse.” I turned my back on Steve. “At least it’s not Amy Roads.” Steve was definitely an attention-seeker who lived for big story breaks, but Amy was the school paper’s gossip columnist, an expert at adhering to Principal Horawitz’s rules of keeping it ‘nice’ and still taking stabs at people.

  Steve’s tires screeched again when he slammed on the brakes in front of the park. He was so far away from the curb, I wouldn’t have been surprised if a cop passing by stopped to give him a ticket. “Hadley—” he shouted, jumping out of the car and running around it toward me. “Hey, Hadley. I work on the school paper. Can I just talk to you for a minute?”

  I turned around, frowning when I saw that he was recording me on his cell. “I know who you are.”

  “Is it true you were cut from the Silver Wing High cheer squad and now you’re pursuing a life of crime with Ty Black?”

  “Excuse me?” My eyes flashed open wide in horror.

  “Turn that camera off now,” Ty said darkly.

  Steve lowered his phone. I wasn’t stupid, though. I knew he was still recording our voices.

  “I’m not a criminal and neither is Ty,” I said. “Who told you that?”

  Steve looked puzzled. “Haven’t you seen The Smokin’ Six website? Your tab talks about how you started cutting classes and your grades are dropping and now you’re stealing stuff with Ty and selling it to make enough money to run away to Mexico together.”

  “Are you crazy? None of that’s true!”

  A tiny, blue smart car came flying around the corner next. It was zooming up behind Steve's car so quickly, I was sure it was going to slam into the back of his Camaro. It must have stopped just a millimeter away from the parked vehicle.

  My eyes got even bigger when Diego Harding got out of the smaller car with his tricked-out school newspaper camera. Steve must have called him, and now he was here snapping pictures of me and Ty as he ran toward us.

  Ty swung his backpack off his back and held it in front of my face. “Would you guys cut that out?” he said. “We're not at school, so you can't be terrorizing Hadley like this for the paper.”

  “We're not terrorizing Hadley,” Steve said.

  “Yes, you are. Now no more pictures.” He put his arm around me and led me away from them.

  I stopped and looked back, staring Steve right in the eyes. “If you only knew all the secrets about Nicole that I know, this story wouldn't be about me.” Then I turned and walked away.

  “Wait, what secrets?!” Steve called, but he didn't follow us.

  I was so outraged; my hands were shaking by the time we sat down in the little gazebo.

  Diego was already getting back into his car. Steve was walking slowly to his, looking back at us over and over, hoping I would change my mind.

  “You okay?” Ty asked me.

  “I can't believe Nicole. She could have just kicked me off the team. She didn't have to take it this far.” I held up my phone. “Brittany texted me this morning and told me not to looking at The Smokin' Six website.” I went ahead and opened a new webpage.

  Ty put his hand on my wrist that held the phone. “Maybe she's right. It can't make things better.”

  I didn't even hesitate before I began typing in smokinsix.com. My tab was still at the top of the page, second to Nicole's. But now there was a short and unsettling headline following the dash to the right of my name: So Scandalous.

  My blood went fiery hot when I clicked on the tab and began to read the text that had replaced my previous description.

  * * *

  Hadley Hannah Cane - So Scandalous

  As most of you know, Hadley's been spending a lot of time with the infamous Ty Black, no matter how much we've begged her to stop. It turns out she was dared to ask him out, and like an idiot, she did. Since then, day by day, she's changed. First she was skipping a class here and there, then blowing off schoolwork entirely, bombing tests and talking back to teachers. Now she’s sneaking out in the middle of the night, robbing unoccupied houses with Ty and doing who knows what else. Hadley says they’re even selling everything they can get their hands on so they can save up enough money to run away to Mexico together.

  Needless to say, she’s been cut from the Silver Wing High cheer team. We’ll be choosing a new member of The Smokin’ Six over the next week, as well. We’re posting this to warn everyone in Silver Wing—Hadley Cane is not the girl you think she is.

  * * *

  I couldn’t take my eyes off the phone. I wanted to cry, but felt too used up. This wasn’t fair. And tomorrow at school would be torture.

  The screen eventually went black. I finally set my phone down. “I’m gonna have to transfer to Si
lver Wing High School West,” I said, looking at Ty, who’d been watching me intently.

  “What?” He almost laughed, but stopped himself. “Hadley, this’ll blow over eventually. By next week the whole school will have something else to talk about, and Nicole’s ludicrous article will be old news.”

  “No,” I shook my head. “Nothing’s ever going to be the same.”

  Ty put his arm around me and dug around in his backpack for a spoon and a peach yogurt. “Eating something will make you feel better.”

  It was true that I was starving. I gave him a weak, but grateful smile. “Do you have a different kind? I’m not really into peach.”

  He reached back in and held out another one with a pink lid. “Strawberry?”

  “That’s my favorite.” I pulled off the top and ate a spoonful, leaning my head against his shoulder. I didn’t feel great, but I did feel better, as much because of Ty as the yogurt, of course.

  He barely got started on the peach yogurt before my phone rang. I glanced at the screen, seeing that it was Lavender again, and sighed.

  “There’s some beautiful hiking trails just outside of town,” Ty said. “We’ve already got a backpack full of food. I say we ride my bike over there and walk around when we’re done with these.” He tilted his yogurt toward me slightly.

  That sounded wonderful, actually. “Sure.” I leaned against him again and ate another yummy spoonful. “What would I ever do without you, Ty?”

  26

  The hike Ty and I went on ended up being the perfect way to get my mind off Nicole and her ruthless lies.

  Ty took such special care during our trip, holding branches out of the way for me and letting me choose which way we went at every turn. He stopped us at the bottom of a low ditch, where we were hidden from the rest of the world. There, he enclosed me in his arms and held me close as he told me for the second time that he loved me. He was like some fairytale prince.

  As wonderful as the day was, it did nothing to change Monday morning. Hopeless, depression still set in when I opened my eyes and remembered how everything was so totally messed up. My stomach still churned nervously as I took a shower and got ready for school.

  Then all I could do was sit downstairs and wait. Ty promised to pick me up and take me to school, because we both knew Nicole’s mom probably wouldn’t show.

  Secretly, I clung to tiny shards of hope that she might show up and we could talk out everything. She’d had half a weekend to internalize what happened and to realize she was wrong.

  It wasn’t that I was ready to forgive and forget, but she was my only shot at reversing the damage she’d done. I hadn’t taken any of the calls or texts from our other four girls, because they were all still on the Smokin’ Six website unchanged. That meant they hadn’t taken any sort of stand on my behalf. I couldn’t help but be seriously ticked off at them, too.

  I regretted that now. It would have been so much easier to get going if I knew they would at least have my back at school. It was too late now, though. They would already be in Nicole’s van, carrying the cell phones my number had been blocked from with them.

  All except for Lavender’s. My heart thumped faster as I got on my phone and pulled up her number.

  Lavender, u there?

  I texted.

  My spirits lifted slightly when I heard Ty’s bike pull up outside. Nothing could extinguish my excitement at the idea of having him hold me close.

  I glanced at my phone when it buzzed.

  Sorry, it’s her mom

  The words flashed across my screen.

  “Shoot,” I muttered on my way out the door. I locked it and shut it behind me.

  Ty was already halfway across my yard, flashing me a brilliant smile when I turned around. “Good morning,” he said, holding a helmet out to me. He leaned in to kiss me, then took my hand to walk me to his bike.

  “Let’s hope so,” I said.

  Our ride to school was too short. It didn’t matter that I was freezing all the way there. I truly didn’t want to reach our destination.

  Kids were already stopping to stare when we rode past the front of Silver Wing High and into the parking lot. It wasn’t like before, though. Their whispers were all hateful and wicked. Kids were grabbing each other left and right to point us out.

  I wondered how Ty would handle all this spiteful attention. He’d put up with everything surprisingly well so far.

  Ty locked our helmets under his seat and put a protective arm around me. I slid my arm around his waist and kept my eyes down. Someone inside the school opened the front door for us. I looked up to thank that hot senior, Sid, but he cupped a hand around his mouth and yelled into the hallway: “Hey, yo—It’s the scandalous cheerleader. Everybody hide your valuables!”

  Ty pressed a hand against the door so Sid would let go. He glared at him until we’d passed him by.

  My eyes teared up when a couple of kids ran to get out of our way, like we were contaminated and contagious.

  “Typical,” a girl named Tonya Mills said, shaking her head when we passed her locker. “Throwing your whole life away for some bad boy.”

  I took a deep breath and fought against the tears.

  Ty leaned closer so he could whisper in my ear. “Just ignore them. We both know they’re wrong.”

  We made the backpack/school books trade at our lockers. Ty turned his back to his locker and opened his arms to me. I leaned against him, his arms surrounding me, protecting me from all the hate and judgement surrounding us. I was happy to shut my eyes while he held me silently.

  I flinched when the warning bell rang.

  Ty rested a hand against my cheek. “I’ll catch you after third hour, okay?”

  I nodded, hating that all our other classes were so spread apart. There was no way we’d see each other before then.

  He walked me to my first class and only kissed my cheek, since Mrs. Lee was standing in the doorway. “I love you, Hadley,” he said softly.

  “I love you, Ty.” We only had time to share a smile before he had to take off for his first class.

  He barely made it out of sight before someone called out, “Hadley!” coming from the other direction. Blaine was jogging toward me down the hall.

  “Blaine Marksen, you may not run through the hallway shouting like that,” Mrs. Lee snapped.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Lee.” He held out a pink slip of paper to me. It was only about half the size of a regular sheet of copy paper. “You need to see this, Hadley. Someone’s been passing them out all over the school.”

  SILVER WING HIGH WEEKLY, UNDERGROUND was printed across the top. The article underneath was entitled Clash of the Cheerleaders.

  “Come on now, Hadley,” Mrs. Lee said. “And you better hurry to your class, too, Blaine. The late bell will be ringing any second now.”

  My eyes stayed glued on the pink piece of paper as I walked numbly into English and took my seat in the back of the room.

  By now, you’ve probably all read the ‘So Scandalous’ story on the Smokin’ Six website about Hadley Cane’s darkest secrets. But what about Nicole Hemming’s? Best friends since grade school, and the most well-known cheerleaders at Silver Wing High School, they must have infinite dirt on one another. With Ty Black now in the equation, tearing them apart, we might finally find out the truth about our school’s two head cheerleaders.

  Two head cheerleaders? Yeah, Nicole was not going to like that.

  When one of our school’s reporters came across Hadley and Ty this weekend, she gave this statement, “If you only knew all the secrets about Nicole that I know, this story wouldn't be about me."

  What are these secrets, you might ask? I’ve challenged Hadley to reveal one each day this week. It’s a chance to redeem herself, to prove that perhaps she isn’t the cheerleader we should all be watching.

  So keep an eye out for the next installment of ‘Clash of the Cheerleaders’ tomorrow morning, when I’ll reveal the first of four of Nicole’s deepest—darkest—secret
s…

  * * *

  There was no author’s name printed anywhere on the slip of paper to claim the terrible piece I held in my hand. It was either Steve or Diego, I knew that for sure.

  I wanted to run from the classroom and hunt them both down so I could chew them out. Any chance of me and Nicole ever working things out had probably just been ruined. But I was also scared to say a word to either one of them, in case they twisted and warped another statement to be used against me.

  English class dragged by. It was miserable. Halfway through, somebody hit me on the side of my face with a spit ball. I didn’t know who it was, only that I was mortified. The looks people were giving me were terrible. It was hard not to cry throughout most of class.

  Mrs. Lee was oblivious, which was good. Having a teacher fight my battle for me would have only made things worse.

  Then, when the bell rang, three girls known for their dark nature and wild parties made their way to my desk. I couldn’t decide if that was good or bad—like, were they going to invite me to join their crowd or jump me right there in the back of Mrs. Lee’s classroom? I tried to ignore them when I stood up.

  Amethyst, their leader, put a hand on my books, slamming them back onto my desk. “I can’t believe what you’re doing to Nicole,” she said.

  “I’m not doing anything to Nicole,” I responded. “The whole Underground thing is a lie.”

  “So you didn’t make the statement about Nicole having some pretty heavy secrets?”

  I reached for my books. “I didn’t make a deal with anybody, and I’m not telling anyone her secrets.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  Nancy, her main sidekick, said, “I don’t either.”

  “You better watch your back,” Amethyst said, then turned and trudged out the door. I let out a long, shaky breath before I headed for the door, too.

  I barely stepped foot into the hallway before somebody walked into me from behind, pushing me into Heath, who shoved me away from him hard enough I fell on my side. “Get away from me!” he snapped.