Clash of the Cheerleaders

by April Marcom

  My books and papers scattered all across the hallway. Someone stomped on my fingers, making me cry out. Someone else stepped painfully on my hair. Kids kicked and trampled my work on purpose, most of them laughing as they walked past me.

  That was it. I couldn’t take any more! I gathered my things clumsily and walked through the halls as quickly as I could so I could cut off Ty on his way to P.E. It would make me late to my second hour, but I didn’t care. This was more than I could take, and so much worse than ANYTHING I’d suffered so far.

  I couldn’t fight the tears anymore, and I honestly stopped trying.

  A few turns and I saw him up ahead on his way into the bathroom. “Ty!” I shouted. The few kids hanging out around the gym entrance made themselves scarce.

  He looked so happy when he saw me, making me feel even worse.

  “Ty.”

  He hugged me tight. “What’s the matter, Hadley?”

  “We have to break up,” I said, feeling the chill of my words.

  “What?” He leaned back so he could stare at me in disbelief. “No, Hadley, come on, don’t let Nicole do this to you.”

  “I mean it. I can’t go on like this. I have to fix things with Nicole.”

  “Hadley, this isn’t right.”

  “I know, but we have to break up.”

  “At least give it ‘til the end of the day. We can talk about it after I give you a ride home.”

  “No,” I said forcefully, pulling away from him. “You’re not giving me a ride home. I’ll walk if I have to. We have to be done.”

  He looked crushed. His eyes glistened. His eyebrows bent so low. “Are you sure you won’t change your mind?” he asked darkly.

  I really started crying then. Usually, he would have reached out for me and made it all better, but not this time. Nicole’s horrible, clenching fists squeezed tighter around my life, around my heart, breaking me. But I just couldn’t stand another day like this—everyone hating me, hurting me, even.

  I shook my head. “It was all just a stupid dare.” I hated with all my heart to say it, but, in that isolated moment in time, I had to do it for myself. I had to sever myself from Ty and get my life back.

  The devastation on his face grew, if it was even possible. He turned away and disappeared into the bathroom.

  I felt miserable. Horrible.

  He would always be the one who got away. I already knew this could very well be the biggest mistake of my life.

  27

  I thought about ditching class, just crying in the bathroom until second hour was over, then heading to Nicole’s third hour to tell her what I’d done. I chickened out, though. I’d never cut class in my life. And I didn’t want to give anyone more ammo regarding how scandalous and troublemaking I was.

  Second hour was merciful, at least. We had to take notes straight from the history book to use on our test Wednesday. It was hard to focus, but easier than if I was trying to listen to Ms. Houser teaching.

  The class was pretty small, and no-one seemed to be paying me much attention. I began to think I’d been too hasty, that I shouldn’t have cut ties with Ty.

  Then the bell rang, and it felt like everyone in the hallway would have been happier to see me catch on fire. Amethyst moved sideways when she walked past me, shoving me into a wall. I barely turned the corner before the four trivials sighted me and started chanting, Scandalous Hadley, Scandalous Hadley. They were so—flipping—childish!

  Finally, I saw Nicole and Brittany headed for their third hour science class. It was in the widest, most heavily-trafficked hallway. I had to fight my way through the masses to reach them in time.

  “Hey, Nicole,” I said as I jogged over to her.

  Brittany’s eyes were pink like she’d been crying, and Nicole’s look of horror was accompanied by a thin sheet of wet tears that sprang to her eyes when she saw me. She kept them from falling.

  “What are you doing here?” she spat.

  “I broke up with Ty,” I said, “and I had nothing to do with the Clash of the Cheerleaders article. I don’t even know who wrote it. Can’t we please just fix us?”

  She raised her voice, so everyone would hear her. “Don’t talk to me, you backstabbing, coldhearted cow!”

  My jaw dropped like she’d smashed a bat over my head.

  “Nicole.” Brittany put a hand on Nicole’s back, a fresh tear sliding over her cheek.

  The head cheerleader turned and slapped Brittany’s hand, hard and loud. Brittany gasped and held it to her chest.

  “Don’t—you—dare,” Nicole snarled at her. She turned to go into her classroom.

  I grabbed her arm to stop her. “Nicole, wait.”

  She screamed like I was murdering her, jerking away and hitting my arm just as hard as Brittany’s hand. “Get away from me!”

  Mr. Pain came running from inside the classroom. “What in the world is going on out here?”

  Everyone in the hallway had stopped to stare at us. Nicole was acting like I’d just attacked her. She was acting PSYCHOTIC!

  I walked backwards a few steps, still in shock. Nicole turned her nose up and dragged Brittany into the classroom by the hand she’d slapped, followed by Mr. Pain. “Do either of you want to explain what just happened?” he was asking them.

  I ran for the girl’s bathroom down the hall, kids mooooing at me from every direction. Humiliated didn’t even begin to describe how I felt. Everyone would think I’d attacked Nicole physically on top of everything else. Once inside the powder-pink stall, I grabbed my phone to text Ty. I knew he’d be in class, but I was so torn up. He was all I had, and, in a moment of sheer terror, I’d blown it.

  I’m so sorry, Ty. Wish I could take the breakup back. Plz forgive me. I love you.

  I sat and cried. There was no way I could face my next hour. Silver Wing High was such a big high school. They wouldn’t miss just one kid.

  My phone buzzed a minute later. My hands shook desperately as I turned the screen over to face me. It was a text from Ty.

  U broke my trust and my heart. Don’t text me again.

  That was it. Someone might as well have stabbed me through the heart. I’d lost everything: my best friends, cheer, my perfect boyfriend.

  Visions of all he’d endured for me played through my head: the stares and Blaine’s attack, Nicole’s hatred. How could I have been so selfish and stupid?! Because I wasn’t myself at all, and fear was making me half-crazy.

  Third hour inched by. The bathroom only got one other visitor before the bell rang. Then it was lunchtime. I went to my locker, not caring how terrible I must have looked, and threw my books inside it. Then I left.

  Silver Wing High had off-campus lunch, so I took off for home. It was a good six miles away, but I couldn’t handle any more. A car full of Silver Wing guys drove by as I turned onto the sidewalk leaving school, moooooing at me through their windows.

  No-one could live this way. I would have to transfer schools.

  I noticed a little patch of red poppies growing in front of someone’s yard as I walked, and thought of Ty’s sister. I decided to send her a text.

  Just did the stupidest thing n my life & broke up w/Ty. Nicole made school torture & I thought it would fix it. Just made things worse. I love ur brother so, so much. What can I do to get him back?

  It was my only ray of hope in such a dark, miserable situation.

  My mom’s car was in the driveway when I got home. I was grateful for that, except that I was also scared I’d be in big trouble for ditching school.

  “Mommm,” I called to her when I opened the front door.

  Her head spun around from where she was sitting on the couch. “Hadley? What are you doing home so early? Ty texted me and said you could use a ride home from school, but I didn’t think he meant right now.”

  I burst into tears, dropping my stuff all over the floor. Even after I’d been so horrible to him, he was still looking out for me.

  “Aw, honey.” I heard her footsteps coming closer
. “What happened?”

  “Nicole… Nicole…” was all I could get out at first. My mom hugged me super tight. I wrapped my arms around her sides. When I finally caught my breath, I tried to explain everything through sobs and broken language. She simply hugged me and listened.

  I hated it. I hated it so much! It was embarrassing telling my mom, but I had to. It was the only way I’d convince her to let me transfer schools.

  I didn’t even get to that, however, before a knock came at my door. I could make out Brittany through the stained glass.

  “Oh my gosh!” I said. My mom let me go so I could open the door. Brittany looked as wretched as I did.

  “Hadley, I’m so sorry,” she said tearfully. Without hesitation, we threw our arms around each other.

  Her mom was parked out front in their brand-new silver Avalanche. She and my mom waved at one another before she pulled away.

  “Since your mom drove you over, I assume you didn’t cut school, too,” my mom said to Brittany as we all went inside.

  “I called my mom and told her I had to come over here and see Hadley,” Brittany said, wiping at her eyes. “She knows I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. When I saw those guys yelling at you from that car…” She started shaking her head, looking miserable. “I’m just so, so sorry.”

  “I’m going to call the school and let them know you needed to come home early today,” my mom said. “I’ll see if I need to go check you out on paper or something.” She left us alone.

  “Steph’s coming over after school,” Brittany told me. “She’s had a headache all day, so she was planning to skip practice, anyway. And Zaniah and Lavender said they’ll come over after practice.” She bit her lip as the tiniest tear raced over one cheek, and then she reached out for my hands. “We’re gonna fix this.”

  “How? Everyone at school hates me.”

  “We tell them the truth—that what Nicole put on SmokinSix.com is not true, and I’m assuming you did actually tell Steve Larsen you knew all Nicole’s secrets.”

  I nodded slowly, catching on. I’d promised on my life never to tell anyone her secrets, but after everything she’d done to me…

  “Yes, this is Hadley Cane’s mother,” we heard my mom saying from the other room. “She had to leave school early today. I just wanted to call and see if I need to come sign her out to keep her from getting in trouble.”

  Brittany and I waited quietly, keeping hold of one another’s hands. She was like my lifeline, my only link left in ‘high school land’. I was grateful she was at least here for me now.

  “Yeah, it’s fine with me. I’ll just come check her out then, and she won’t get in any trouble, right? Okay, I’ll be right there. Thank you, bye.”

  My mom appeared, crossing through the living room. She grabbed her purse off the couch and gave me a reassuring smile. “I’m headed up to your school to straighten this out, but you know you can’t do this again, right, Hadley?”

  “I know.” I nodded.

  “Good.” She gave me a quick sideways hug. “I’ll be right back. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  “So,” Brittany said once the door had shut. “We’ve still got at least two hours until Stephanie gets here. We could go for a walk, or paint each other’s nails and watch a chick flick.”

  “I really messed up with Ty, Brittany,” I said, my eyes refilling with fresh tears of agony.

  “Or we could talk about Ty.” Brittany put her arm around me and we walked up to my room together.

  28

  Thirty-something minutes of pouring my heart out to Brittany was exactly what I needed. It only ended when my mom showed up with a pint of my favorite ice cream, peppermint swirl.

  The three of us each got a big bowl, sat down on the couch, and watched some totally fun baking shows on the food network. I finally started to feel like everything might actually be okay, except for what I’d done to Ty.

  I truly loved him. In a moment of complete desperation, I’d ruined everything. If I could just take back the last thing I’d said, that it was just a stupid dare. If he only knew that it was in truth the most wonderful dare I’d ever taken. If only…

  I consoled myself with the fact that at least my girls were rallying around me. I just wished they’d done it sooner. Then again, maybe they would have if I’d ever answered their phone calls or texts. I had so many regrets.

  Cupcake Wars had barely begun when the doorbell rang. I found Stephanie, Lavender, and Zaniah on the other side. “Hadley!” they all exclaimed, making a circlish triangle around me, surrounding me with hugs.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. “I thought two of you still had cheer practice.”

  “Ms. Nordik canceled it when she heard that you, me, and Brittany wouldn’t be there,” Steph said.

  “Me?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Nicole came to practice demanding that you be kicked off the team,” Zaniah announced. “Ms. Nordik wouldn’t agree or disagree. She just reminded Nicole how much time it would take to reteach all the cheers to a new cheerleader, and that we might not even be ready by Friday night. She told Nicole to think about it and they’d talk about it again tomorrow.”

  Well, I wasn’t officially kicked off the cheer squad yet. That was good news.

  “Does Nicole know you guys are here?” I asked.

  “Nope,” Lavender started shaking her head. “But she’s gone completely off the deep end, Hadley.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “You know, me and Hadley have been talking,” Brittany said. “I say we expose Nicole for what she is, and all her secrets, too. Then no-one will be paying Hadley any more attention, and all will be right in the world.”

  “Yeah, except Nicole will probably have us all kicked off the team,” Lavender said.

  “She can’t cut half the team,” Stephanie argued. “That’d be crazy!”

  “Maybe,” Zaniah said. “But we have to do something.”

  Everyone nodded, because we knew it was true. Nicole was COMPLETELY out of control.

  “Hey, honey.” My mom joined us in the entryway. “Since all your friends are here, I think I’ll get some work done in the office. Will you be okay?”

  “Yeah. Thanks, Mom.”

  “Help yourselves to anything you want, girls,” she told everyone before she disappeared through the kitchen to her quiet, little office.

  “Knock, knock,” a voice came from the partially open door. Poppy stuck her head inside.

  I gasped and ran to throw my arms around her. I was every bit as happy to see her as I was to see my besties. I looked out the door, hoping maybe Ty had brought her over, but I saw his mom in their brown and white station wagon instead.

  She leaned her head out the window and called, “Hey, Poppy said you might like it if she came over for a little while. Just want to make sure it’s okay.”

  I nodded and waved. “Thank you, Mrs. Black. I’m sure we can bring her home later.”

  “All right. Call if you need anything.” She gave a wave and then pulled away from the curb in her oversized car. Lucy waved frantically at me from the back seat, making me smile.

  “Poppy, I’m so glad you’re here,” I said. “Girls, this is Ty’s little sister. She’s the coolest, seriously. She’s the one who ladybuggified my room last weekend.”

  “Wow, that was you?” Brittany asked.

  “Those curtains were unbelievable,” Stephanie agreed.

  “Thanks, but are you sure you don’t mind me being here? This seems like a cheerleader meeting.”

  “No, please don’t go,” I said. “I really want to talk to you about Ty, and I’d want you here, anyway, even if you weren’t Ty’s sister.”

  “Okay, so—I tried texting him what you told me. He said he didn’t want to talk about it, but I can talk to him again tonight. I don’t know if it’ll do any good, but I thought I’d come over and talk to you either way.”

  “I’m so glad you did,” I said, hugging her agai
n.

  “We should go upstairs,” Stephanie said. “We’ve got work to do.” Zaniah giggled as we turned toward the stairs.

  I grabbed Poppy’s hand to make sure she didn’t get left behind. She felt like my lifeline to Ty. Being with her made me feel closer to him. I needed her.

  Zaniah pulled her copper, shoulder-length hair back in a ponytail as she took the seat at my desk. Stephanie sat on my bed. Lavender sat behind her and started running her hands through her hair. Steph’s hair’s so long and silky, everyone always loves to style it.

  I pushed the beautiful drapes aside and climbed into my window onto the pillows. I patted the emptiness beside me for Poppy, then pointed at the drapes. “Don’t let me forget to take these down for you before you leave,” I told her. She nodded.

  I glanced at my phone when a text came in from Blaine.

  Can we talk?

  Brittany shut my door and turned to us with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. “This meeting of ‘Operation Dethroning Nicole’ is now in session.”

  Everyone stared at her for a second. Zaniah sniggered, then we all started laughing. “Dethroning Nicole?” Zaniah asked.

  “Yeah. She thinks she’s like—queen of the whole school or something. It’s so messed up.”

  “Guys!” Stephanie sat up straight. “We should try to make Hadley the new cheer captain.”

  “What?!” I burst, because that had honestly never occurred to me.

  “Come on, Hadley, you know you’d be such a better captain than Nicole. You deserve it after how much she’s been torturing you lately.”

  “Totally,” Zaniah added.

  “If anyone should be cheer captain, it’s Lavender,” I said.

  “Me?” she said, just as shocked as I’d been.

  “Yes, you. We all know you’re the best cheerleader on the squad, probably in the state.”

  “Thanks, but—I don’t want that kind of pressure.”

  “So we’ll work that out later,” Brittany said. “For now, the dethroning. How exactly are we going to do it?”