Bring Her On

by Chelsea M. Cameron

  My body still vibrated like a tuning fork. Too much adrenaline. It wasn’t going to be until later tonight that I had a huge energy crash and would probably sleep for like ten hours straight. I’d done the same thing at New Englands.

  Dom stood over me and watched me eat the bar and then I made him eat one, along with drink some water.

  It seemed like we had to wait hours and hours for us to be directed to go back to the auditorium.

  I wondered where Echo was. How she was feeling. What she was doing. I had the feeling that she was back in the stands, watching all the other teams. That seemed like what she would do.

  The squad kept themselves entertained by making silly videos and posting them online, taking pictures, and playing games. They were still on the high of performing so well. Honestly, the results didn't even matter. They’d done their best and the rest was out of their hands.

  I paced the floor and typed out a text to Echo for lack of anything better to do with my time.

  How did you do?

  Her response was almost instant.

  One tumbling fall, one stunt fall. It’s fine. They’ll be fine.

  I knew it wasn’t fine.

  I'm sorry, that sucks. I didn’t know why I was comforting her, but it seemed like the right thing to do. A few days ago, I probably would have gloated, but that seemed mean to kick her while she was down.

  You’re going to beat us. I’m not happy about it.

  I didn’t expect her to be.

  I'm sorry? And you don’t know that. Judges are human, after all.

  I know you did well, Kiri. You don’t have to comfort me. I don’t deserve it.

  No, she didn’t, but I was doing it anyway.

  Come over later. Like, very later.

  She didn’t answer, and that stressed me out. I could feel her upset through the messages. Maybe this wasn’t the right time, but I couldn’t help the urge to be nice to her.

  The sex had changed things between us, and I’d gotten myself into a pickle. This wasn’t the right time to try and sort everything out. We’d have to wait until we got back, but I hoped she would come over tonight and I could see how she was and hear about everything.

  At long last, we were called back to the floor and all thirty squads somehow each crammed onto the mat. They were going to call out the top ten squads, and then everyone else would be required to leave the floor. Then the top ten would stay on the mat and they’d announce who got what place, one by one, until the top spot. The scores for today would be thrown out, and tomorrow the top ten teams would get a fresh slate to perform with.

  I herded my kids into the back and went out to the front to wait. I wanted to be realistic, but I also wanted to leave room for hope of a miracle. It could happen, right? Something amazing could happen.

  Dom and I waited in the stands with the parents, all holding hands and holding our collective breaths as each team was announced. I watched my kids and my heart broke when the last top ten team was announced and it wasn’t us. The Heartwood Bulldogs didn’t make it either.

  Even though they knew it was a long shot, they were still crushed, and I had to hug and comfort for a while, along with all the coaches of the other losing teams.

  “Listen, you did your absolute best. You couldn’t have done anything else. You did Corsica proud, and now you get to go to Disney.” That made them smile a little, but it would take some time for those broken hearts to heal. Everything feels like the end of the world when you’re a teenager in high school. I knew, I’d been there, and those memories still stung.

  Everyone gathered their things and we went back to the hotel. The top ten teams would be up late tonight, practicing and perfecting for the performance tomorrow. I wanted to go watch, but I didn’t think a whole lot of my squad did. Dom and I were splitting up and he would take one group to the pool and I’d take the ones that wanted to watch to the stadium.

  I made them all eat when we got to the hotel, since they hadn’t eaten for much of the day. I had my first full meal, and I definitely planned on late night room service again.

  “You good?” Dom asked me.

  “I mean, sure, I’m disappointed. I can’t not be. But I didn’t think we’d make it. I’m interested to see the teams tomorrow. Maybe I can get some inspiration for next year.”

  “I texted Cam about everything. She wants the video as soon as you have it.” There were strict rules about video at competitions, but one of our parents had snuck in her phone and taken video. As long as no one posted it online, we wouldn’t get in trouble.

  “Cool.”

  The cheerleaders were crashing from the intensity of the day, so I herded them all upstairs to their rooms. Off came the cheer makeup, the ponytails were taken down, the uniforms tossed back into suitcases.

  It was over.

  There was always a letdown after a competition, and I was feeling it hard. It was an aching feeling, a relative of loneliness. A feeling of what now?

  I checked all the rooms and made sure everyone was headed to bed before going back to my room. Dom was hanging out and watching TV with me and we talked about the performance and the day and reviewed our score sheet. Being around so many other cheerleaders always inspired me, and seeing other routines gave me ideas for things I could do with the squad, so we went over a few things we’d seen.

  “We really need a tumbling coach,” Dom said. “That's honestly where we’re weakest.” It was true. There was no way we could ever hope to move up without some serious work on tumbling, which would take years. Standing fulls were not built in a day.

  “We need to get a more robust feeder program going, too.” When you started kids out at three and four and five teaching them skills, by the time they were in high school they were already on another level than kids who started when they were teenagers. That’s why it took so long to make a program successful.

  “We’ll get there again, K. We will.” Dom sighed and closed his eyes.

  “I’m so damn tired. If I don’t go now, I’m going to fall asleep.” I stood up and grabbed his arm, helping him get to his feet as he yawned.

  Dom got out the door and I watched to make sure he made it back to his room, which was next to mine.

  Then I was alone and I was so bone weary that I couldn’t even think. Somehow, I mustered the strength to order room service and put the robe back on.

  The knock came at the door and I got up to let the room service person in, but found Echo.

  “Hey,” she said, her voice limp. Her mouth was turned down and her eyes were red.

  “Come in,” I said, stepping aside and looking up and down the hallway to make sure that no one was watching her come into my room.

  I shut the door and she stumbled over to the bed and fell facedown on it.

  “You gonna be okay over there?” I asked, not sure what to do. Echo flipped onto her back and sniffed.

  “I'm fine.”

  I’d never seen her cry before, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. This was new territory.

  As I tried to figure out what to say to her, there was another knock. Room service.

  I let the guy in and gave him a tip. He seemed tired and did not give a fuck that Echo was in my room. I mean, really, he had no idea what the situation was.

  “Do you want something to eat?” I asked, pushing the tray over to the bed.

  Echo sat up and wiped her eyes with her hands.

  “What did you get?”

  “Fries and a grilled cheese sandwich and cake and chips and guac.” She raised her eyebrows as I listed everything off.

  “I was hungry,” I said, and handed her a cloth napkin.

  “Do you have any ketchup?” she said, reaching for a few fries. I handed her the bottle and she banged on the bottom to get it out on one side of the plate.

  The grilled cheese sandwich was cut in two diagonally and I picked up one half.

  “Do you want half my grilled cheese?” I held it out to her and for the first time si
nce she came in, she smiled a little.

  “Yeah, thanks.” She took it from me and dunked that in the ketchup, much to my horror.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Eating my grilled cheese. You should try it.” She chomped down on the sandwich and I grimaced. No way. Ketchup did not belong with grilled cheese.

  Echo and I ate, and she grabbed the remote and put the TV on. She flipped through until she found an old show that I had seen a million times before. It was one of my comfort shows that I watched when I needed something that made me feel good. Guess it was one of Echo’s comfort shows too.

  We ate and watched and I kept stealing glances at her to see how she was doing. She’d stopped crying, but she didn't seem to want to talk, so I let her be silent. It didn’t matter as much if she got caught here now. I guess I’d stopped caring so much. Besides, we weren’t doing anything bad right now. Just sitting and eating and doing nothing.

  “What was your score?” she asked. Dom and I had gotten our sheets back, along with comments from the judges. I was going to use them to build next year’s routines.

  I told her. She shook her head and smiled.

  “You bitch, you beat us.”

  “We did?” I hadn’t even been thinking about it. Somehow, in the midst of everything, I’d forgotten about my own vendetta. Guess I wasn’t very good at vendettas.

  “Yeah, you did.”

  Laughing, I jumped up on the bed.

  “Fuck yeah, in your face, Echo! Now who’s gloating?” I jumped up and down and laughed while she watched me, her eyes narrowed, but she started laughing when I did a ridiculous dance that involved a lot of hip action.

  “What are you even doing right now?” she asked.

  “My victory dance. I knew it, we won, you lost, we won.” I posed dramatically.

  “You’re fucking ridiculous.”

  “Yeah, a ridiculous winnerrrrrrr,” I sang, still dancing on the bed.

  “You’re going to be completely insufferable forever, aren’t you?” she asked.

  “Yup. Never going to let you forget it.”

  I flopped back down on the bed because I was out of breath from the jumping. I crouched on my knees and approached Echo and got right in her face.

  “We wonnnnnnn,” I said, and she cracked another smile.

  “You’re such a pain in the ass.”

  “A little ass pain never hurt anyone.” I stared deep into her eyes and tried not to blink. Hers were so pretty.

  Echo was the first to close her eyes, but it was to kiss me, and I kissed her back. The food was forgotten as we lay back on the bed together, kissing and touching each other. This time, we were unhurried. I wondered what it would be like to have uninterrupted time with her, to touch and explore. All of our moments had been with a specter hanging over us. A time limit. What would it be like with all those barriers gone?

  She broke the kiss.

  “What are you thinking about? I can tell you’re thinking about something.” My fingers drifted through her hair. She’d worn it down and it was perfect.

  “I was just thinking about what it could be like, without worrying about being caught. That’s all we’ve ever been, these little hookups.” Would we even have anything if the thrill of doing something bad was no longer a factor?

  “Do you want more?”

  “It depends on if it’s what you want.”

  Echo snorted. “I asked you first.”

  “I mean . . . yes? I think we could try it. See how things go. I just worry about getting my heart broken, as silly as that sounds.”

  She stroked the side of my face.

  “That’s not silly at all. I’m scared of the same thing. But we won’t know if we don’t try, right? No risk, no reward.” She was right. I was always telling my cheerleaders that they needed to go for it, and here I was, not taking my own advice.

  “So you want to? To give it a try? Put everything behind us and be my girl?” I made a face at the last part. “Sorry, that sounded better in my head. You will learn this, I am not as smooth as I would like to be.”

  I wasn’t smooth at all, but I didn’t need her to know that just yet.

  “I think you’re pretty smooth sometimes, Kiri. You’ve got a lot going on,” she said.

  I didn’t know about that, but the compliment made me blush.

  “You should probably get back to your room. Loser.” I added the last part and she smacked me on the ass.

  “Is that supposed to be a punishment? Because it’s definitely not.” I rolled onto my stomach. “Do it again.”

  Echo groaned and stood up.

  “I’m not going to spank you because that’s the only way you’ll learn. It’s for you own good.” I looked up at her and pouted.

  “Meanie.”

  She leaned down and gave me a hot kiss before standing back up.

  “The meanest.”

  Fourteen

  The next day at breakfast, I let the team know that they beat the Heartwood Bulldogs and they were ecstatic. Ironically, the Heartwood cheerleaders walked in only a few moments later to line up at the omelet station and waffle bar. Echo pretended to ignore me, but it was really obvious. I stared at her over the rim of my latte.

  “I don’t know if I can handle the sexual tension in this room right now,” Dom said, looking at me.

  “Don’t be gross,” I said. “There are children present.”

  “Then stop looking at her like that.”

  I couldn’t.

  Echo also got in line for an omelet and I glanced at Dom. “I’m trying. There’s . . . a lot going on. We have a lot to chat about when we’re alone.”

  Dom raised his eyebrows.

  “I can’t wait to hear about it.”

  I couldn’t wait to tell Katie and Penny that they didn’t need to bother setting me up with the girl in their book club. I had found my own girl and we were going to give it a shot. Everything would probably blow up in my face but, for right now, there was hope and promise and butterflies in my stomach.

  After breakfast we split the squad up and I took those who wanted to watch the Finals with me. Their eyes got big when they saw the performances of the top ten teams and, I had to admit, so did mine. I made notes on stunts and transitions and tumbling and music, and even bows.

  One team had a base who got hit right in the face with the back of a flyer’s head and her nose exploded with blood. The coaches rushed onto the mat and stopped the routine, and my stomach dropped for the coaches of that team. They were allowed time to clean up, reset, and do their routine again at the end and they nailed it. If I were judging, they would have been my winning team.

  During the awards, all the teams came on the mat and the scores were announced in order from last place to first. Since all the squads had gotten their scores already, they could pretty much tell where they had placed once the announcer started listing the places and scores, but it was an unwritten rule that the winning squad couldn’t celebrate until they had actually been announced as the winners.

  As I suspected, the team that had the mishap with the base was the winner, and they totally deserved it. Everyone hoisted the injured team member up in the air and gave her the trophy. I wiped tears from my eyes and hoped no one was judging me. I always cried when teams won, even if they weren’t mine. Seeing the absolute joy on the cheerleader’s faces got to me.

  I took the kids back to the hotel for lunch and decided I needed some time for myself. I checked with the chaperones and went up to my room and filled the bathtub and dropped in a bath bomb I’d brought with me specifically for this purpose. I hadn’t known if I was going to be able to use it, but I was seizing my moment.

  Before I got into the tub, I ordered some more room service. I had racked up quite a bill, but I didn’t care.

  The room service arrived: chocolate mousse and strawberries and ginger ale because I didn’t think it would be responsible to drink on this trip. But I’d had them put the ginger ale in a fancy glass
, so it was almost like champagne.

  I slid into the tub and rested my head on a rolled-up towel and just . . . let myself soak. I’d been going, going, going for weeks now, and it was nice to pause. If only I had my kitties on the side of the tub to yell at me to get out of the bad water, this would be perfect.

  I ended up falling asleep in the tub, lulled by the warm water and soothing scents of the bath bomb. I woke up when the water started to chill, so I drained some and then filled the tub again and didn’t get out until I was entirely pruny.

  Not sure what else to do with myself, I got dressed in some casual clothes and texted Dom to see how everyone was doing. He said the kids were still in the pool and he was going to herd them to dinner soon.

  I told him that I’d meet him downstairs and answered a few of my text messages. I had all kinds of things to get back to in Corsica on Monday that I was trying not to think about. So much work that I was putting off. It had been hard for me not to open up my emails and start answering them. I’d put on an out-of-office message, but that didn’t stop people from messaging me and asking for projects with ridiculous deadlines that I would never agree to anyway.

  Dinner was fun and rowdy and I kind of wanted to get the kids back home to Corsica, because there was a lot of trouble they could get into in Orlando and I didn’t want to be the one in charge of dealing with it.

  I wasn’t naïve, I knew that at least one of my kids had probably smuggled alcohol down here in their suitcase. I also knew that there were hookups happening as well, no matter how vigilant the chaperones were. I mean, I’d literally done it myself.

  Tomorrow they headed to Disney and I’d made the decision that I wanted to hang around the hotel and maybe even get in the pool since it wouldn’t be filled with teenagers. Maybe I’d sit in the sun and read a book or something.

  What are you doing tomorrow? Echo asked me, just as I was pondering what to do the next day. As if she’d read my mind.

  My kids are going to Disney and I’m staying here. What about you?

  Interesting. I am also squadless. What a predicament.

  Indeed.