A Non-Blonde Cheerleader in Love

by Kieran Scott

  “You did it!” I said. “You’re a cheerleader!”

  “Yeah I am!” Daniel shouted. He placed me on the floor and we grinned goofily at each other. “This is gonna be so cool.”

  “I know!” Already I was imagining long bus rides cuddled together in the backseat, paint fights during banner-making sessions, coming down from a basket toss and falling into Daniel’s arms. Much more attractive than falling into Chandra’s, I must say. I mean, I liked the girl, but come on. “So very, very cool.”

  “One plate of chili cheese fries for the bravest guys on the planet,” I announced. The moment I dropped the heaping plateful of greasy food onto the table, Daniel and Steven dove right into the mound-o’-carbs as if it were their last meal. Jaimee leaned back into her vinyl seat like she was in mortal peril should she get any chili on her person.

  “Take it easy,” she said, scrunching her nose.

  “Don’t worry. Guys have stomachs of steel,” Steven said, sucking on his Coke.

  After our meeting with Coach Holmes, the entire squad had adjourned to Dolly’s—a semi-outdoor beachfront diner that was SDH’s primary hangout—and had basically taken over the place. Squad members lounged all over, taking up various booths and tables. In the corner Terrell and Joe shouted and laughed over the ancient pinball machine while Karianna, Lindsey and Sage and her minions, Veronica and Chastity, hovered nearby, cheering the boys on. Colorful Christmas lights were strung all around the place and a fiber-optic tree blinked red, then green, then red again above the cash register. Dolly herself stood behind the counter, Santa hat set at a jaunty angle on her head, watching one of the many Rudolph specials on her tiny TV.

  Daniel slid over on the cracked plastic seat so that I could join them. A cool breeze blew through the open wall and I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself. Whenever the sun went down, it felt slightly more like Christmastime around here. Of course, the crashing surf in the background was a constant reminder that my imaginary Toto and I weren’t in Jersey anymore.

  “Hey, you cold?” Daniel asked, slipping out of his varsity jacket. I smiled gratefully as he draped it over my shoulders.

  “Thanks,” I said, beaming.

  I loved wearing his jacket. Sometimes I was just such a girl.

  As I pulled it closer to me, I noticed that while the little winged sneaker was still in place on the sleeve—representing Daniel’s spot on the track team—he’d had the wrestling patch removed. Technically, this was Daniel’s football jacket—it had a football and his number on the back—but multisports athletes usually had these patches representing their various talents added to the sleeves.

  I, for example, was hoping that come spring, my cheerleading jacket would have a tennis racket sewn onto the sleeve. If I made the team.

  “Hey. Maybe you should get a megaphone and put it here,” I teased, touching the spot where the wrestler had been. There were still tiny holes in the leather from where the thread had been yanked out.

  Daniel laughed. “Yeah. Maybe,” he said sarcastically.

  I blinked. Okay, maybe I had been semi-joking, but I felt a rush of hot irritation at his tone. Did he have to dismiss the idea so completely? And so snarkily?

  “What?” I said. “You are a cheerleader.”

  Daniel reddened slightly and took a long sip from his straw. I glanced at Jaimee. Why did Daniel suddenly look ill?

  “Yeah, but it might not be the wisest thing to, you know, advertise it,” Steven put in.

  “That’s all I’m saying,” Daniel added.

  “Way to have squad pride,” I said grumpily, grabbing a fry.

  “No! It’s not like that,” Daniel said. “It’s like if you . . . I don’t know . . . what if you tried out for the wrestling team? Would you walk around advertising that you were a girl wrestler?”

  “Yeah! I would!” Jaimee and I said in unison.

  “I would be proud of myself for breaking down barriers,” I said resolutely.

  “Okay, well, I am proud of myself,” Daniel said, munching on a fry. “I just . . . don’t feel the need to shove my pride in everyone’s faces.”

  My brow creased in consternation. I was definitely missing something here. I mean, I knew he was going to have a hard time with some of the guys thanks to his cheerleader status, but why participate in a sport if you were then going to try to hide the fact that you were on the team? I mean, he couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t a cheerleader any more than I could pretend I wasn’t a brunette.

  “I don’t under—”

  “Yo! Healy! Get your butt over here!” Terrell shouted from the corner. “I just beat your high score!”

  “You did not, you loser!” Daniel shouted back. “Excuse me. I gotta go over there,” he told us.

  As I slid out of the booth to let him out, I could tell he was relieved to be out of the conversation. Personally, I would have rather gotten to the bottom of that one. But I supposed it could wait for another time.

  “Sit down, Annisa. Relax,” Steven said, draping both arms along the back of his seat. “It’s supposed to be a party.”

  “Yeah. I know,” I said. “So are you psyched for your first practice?” I asked with a mischievous smile.

  “Beyond,” Steven replied. “I can’t wait to start throwing you ladies around.”

  “Me neither,” I replied, sliding back into my seat. “It’s gonna be so cool having that extra power on the team.”

  “You know it,” Steven said, flexing his arms.

  I laughed and was just about to snag another fry when Tara Timothy dropped down next to me.

  “So. This sucks,” she said.

  So much for the relaxing thing.

  “What?” Jaimee asked.

  Tara glared at Steven, who was still flexing.

  “And that’s my cue,” Steven said, dropping his arms and grabbing one last fry as he jumped up.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked Tara. “We have a great new squad, everyone’s having fun. Get on board the happy train already.”

  “Yeah. You see a great new squad. I see disaster waiting to happen.”

  “You know, you are way too negative to be a cheerleader,” I said.

  Phoebe slid into the seat across from Tara and blew out a sigh. “No, she’s right,” she said. “Check this out.” She lifted her chin toward the corner and Tara and I turned around to look.

  Joe and Lindsey were standing by the wall near the pinball machine and Lindsey was clearly flirting—touching Joe’s arm, looking up at him with wide eyes, flipping her long blonde hair. His expression was, as usual, impassive, but she just kept right on working it, testing out her best material. Then Karianna came over, hips swaying, and handed Joe a strawberry shake. She slipped right in between him and Lindsey, totally commandeering his attention. And by that I mean he actually looked at her. Lindsey leaned back against the wall in a huff and shot a look of death at Karianna’s back. Meanwhile, over by the pinball machine, Veronica and Kimberly were gazing at Terrell like he was the second coming of Taye Diggs.

  “I think it’s safe to say that cheerleading is not going to be anyone’s top priority this season,” Tara said, facing forward again.

  “It’ll be mine,” Jaimee protested earnestly.

  Just then, K. C. Lawrence and a couple of his friends from the wrestling team walked through the door, all slick and freshly showered after practice.

  “Omigod! K. C. Lawrence,” Jaimee said, reddening. “Let me out,” she said to Phoebe.

  Phoebe simply stared at her. “Hello, one-eighty.”

  “Come on! Come on! Let me out!” Jaimee pleaded.

  Ever so slowly—and just to torture Jaimee—Phoebe pushed herself out of the booth and stepped aside so that Jaimee could scramble over to K.C.’s table. Two seconds after she arrived there, Sage, Lindsey and Chastity were there as well, crowding in with the guys, giggling at their jokes. Phoebe sat back down with a huff.

  “Yeah. Her mind’s on cheerleading,” Tara said.


  “It’s like they’re all groupies or something,” I put in.

  Over in the corner Terrell cheered some stupendous achievement of pinball primacy and a few of the girls squealed in delight. Somehow I had never before realized exactly how boy-crazy some of my squad mates were. And if the eighteen girls on the squad starting going after the four guys on the squad, things were not going to be pretty. And none of them better even think about going after my man, ’cause then I’d have to get medieval on these blondes.

  Sorry. Jealousy-induced brain spasm.

  Anyway, there could be a lot of rifts in the making around here. Maybe Tara was right. Maybe we had just welcomed the perfect poison onto the squad.

  But then I heard Daniel laugh, and when I turned around and saw his heart-stopping smile, I knew everything was going to be fine. How could a person that perfect be poison? We would figure this thing out. It was just going to take some time, some adjustment.

  This coed squad thing was going to be great.

  “And now . . . coming to the center mat . . . wrestling at one hundred fifty pounds . . . give it up, Sand Dune fans, for your very own K! C! Lawrence!!!”

  I jumped to my feet with the rest of the SDH crowd to shout for K.C., waving one of the blue-and-yellow mini-poms the spirit club had handed out before the meet. As K.C. made his way to the center mat to meet his opponent, he looked almost Cro-Magnon. The tightness of his blue jumpsuit made his arms look huge and his head and mouth guards distorted his features. At the other end of the bleachers the Clearwater High School fans booed his arrival. Then we booed them. Down below, K.C. didn’t seem to notice any of it. He shook hands with the stout, crew-cut-sporting opponent and smiled through the plastic in his mouth.

  “Do you miss it?” I asked Daniel as we sat.

  He lifted his shoulders. “A little. But it was a lot of pressure, being out there one-on-one against someone else,” he said. “I think I’m more of a team player.”

  “Me too,” Mindy said. She scrunched the strands of her mini-pom between her palms to fluff it up. “That’s why cheerleading tryouts always freaked me out. Being out there alone?” She gave a little shudder.

  “Totally,” Daniel agreed.

  “Shh!” Bethany scolded from Mindy’s far side. “I’m trying to concentrate!”

  Behind us, Jaimee, Chandra and Autumn laughed, and as the ref blew the whistle to start the match, I could barely contain my glee. This was so great, being here with my friends and my boyfriend, sucking in all the kinetic, competitive energy in the air. Even if that air was a tad moist and sour with the stench of twenty years’ worth of stale sweat. The Clearwater High gym could have used a little more ventilation, that’s all I’m sayin’.

  But no matter. It wasn’t like it was keeping anyone away. The stands on our side were awash in light blue and yellow while the Clearwater stands were a sea of dark blue and white. Everyone on either side sat forward, eager to see K.C., the famous Junior Olympian, in action. It was one of those perfect movie moments. Those moments I resolved to take a mental snapshot of and remember forever.

  Down below, K.C. and crew-cut boy crouched and faced each other, circling the center of the mat as they assessed the competition. They circled. And circled. And circled. But no one seemed eager to make the first move. I could feel the people around me growing more and more restless.

  “Why doesn’t K.C. do something?” I whispered to Daniel. Wrestling was not a sport I knew much about.

  “He likes to let the other guy take the plunge,” Daniel whispered back. “That’s just his style. But it looks like this kid knows that.”

  “Come on! Grab him already!” Bethany shouted.

  A bunch of people laughed and at that moment, K.C. lunged forward. A few people gasped as he upended crew-cut boy and sent him sprawling on the ground. I wasn’t sure if Bethany’s shout had momentarily distracted K.C.’s opponent, but whatever the case, K.C. had made the first move and had gotten the upper hand. Within two seconds he had crew-cut boy tangled into a pretzel.

  There was an audible crack of joints and the crowd responded with a group wince.

  “Yeah. That I don’t miss,” Daniel said, grinding his teeth.

  “I don’t think I could have handled watching you do this,” I said.

  Daniel nodded. “Cheerleading was definitely the better option.”

  I smiled. It was nice to hear him say that. Especially after that whole megaphone-on-the-jacket thing. I slipped my hand into Daniel’s as, down below, the ref slammed the mat with his palm.

  “Pin! Sand Dune! Win! Sand Dune!”

  The crowd went nuts. All the Sand Dune High fans in attendance jumped to their feet. I was a little slower on the uptake. I grabbed Daniel’s arm and hoisted myself up.

  “What just happened?” I asked, trying to see over the heads of the people in front of me. A few fists were raised in the air, but I couldn’t tell who they belonged to.

  “K.C. just won,” Daniel told me as he applauded.

  My brow knit. “Just like that?”

  “He’s that good,” Daniel responded.

  “Oh.”

  Everyone sat down again and I felt a little deflated. That hadn’t been all that exciting. Where was the drama? The struggle?

  “They didn’t even grunt once,” Bethany said morosely, echoing my thoughts.

  K.C. slapped hands with a few guys on the bench and suddenly I got an idea. An idea that perked me up considerably.

  “Hey. You ready to put your money where your mouth is?” I asked Daniel, nudging his leg.

  “What do you mean?” he said.

  “I mean, you’re a cheerleader now. It’s time to start acting like one.”

  “But . . . the match is over,” Daniel replied, gesturing at the empty mat. “They’re on a break.”

  “Yeah, but K.C. deserves our appreciation, don’t you think?” Mindy asked, getting the drift.

  “Little K.C. chant?” I suggested, glancing at Autumn, Chandra and Jaimee behind us.

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Aw, yeah,” Chandra said.

  “What’re you doing?” Daniel asked, blanching.

  “You’re doing it too,” I told him.

  Together, Mindy, Chandra, Jaimee, Autumn and I started to chant, “K.C.!” Two claps. “K.C!” Two claps. “K.C.!” Two claps. “K.C.!” Two claps.

  Chandra stood up and dragged me to my feet from behind. She turned around and gestured to the crowd as she chanted, urging them to their feet. I pulled on Daniel’s jacket until he was forced to get up off his butt too. Bethany, of course, sank lower in her seat and hid her face with her hand.

  “K.C.!”

  Bam, bam.

  “K.C.!”

  Bam, bam.

  Soon we had managed to bring most of the Sand Dune crowd into it. At first Daniel was a reluctant participant, but he started to grin when some other guys joined in and he gradually grew louder and louder.

  “K.C.!” we shouted, laughing. “K.C.!”

  Higher up in the stands, Tara, Phoebe, Whitney, Felice and Erin joined in. Then the other girls on the squad, peppered throughout the stands, got their neighbors into it as well.