Clash of the Cheerleaders

by April Marcom

  The score was close through most of the game. We were tied at halftime. I always loved games like that, because we seemed to cheer harder when it felt like the game depended on it.

  In the end, Blaine made the winning touchdown. The stands behind us went CRAZY! Blaine threw his arms up and the team surrounded him like they always do. This was usually where I raced across the field and Blaine broke free of his teammates to meet me halfway, even when we were broken up. My heart kind hurt. The wound of losing Blaine began to reopen. I was losing Ty and missing out on the special little traditions Blaine and I had built together.

  But I was a cheerleader. I had to keep cheering and jumping around and acting like everything was sunshine and roses.

  A flash of joy shot into me when I realized Blaine was breaking away from his team and running toward me. I didn’t know what to do. All this business with Nicole was messing with my head. So I just stood there, watching him get closer and cheering my heart out.

  Blaine took his helmet off and let it fall on the field behind him. He ran up and wrapped his arms around me and spun me around like he always did. I didn’t hug him back, but I didn’t really fight it either.

  The other football players were already lining up to high five each other on their way off the field.

  “Congratulations, Marksen,” I said when he set me down.

  He laughed. I’d never called him that before. “I couldn’t help but notice your boyfriend’s dropped off the face of the earth.”

  “He’s camping.”

  Nicole stopped cheering and smacking her pompoms together long enough to lean back and say, “Don’t call him that,” to Blaine.

  Blaine lifted an eyebrow and smiled at me. “Trouble with Black?”

  I shrugged. He didn’t need to know just yet. He looked pleased, of course.

  Blaine went to pick up my cheer bag. “Let me walk you to the buses like I always do, Hadley, for old time’s sake.” He put an arm around me.

  I slid out from under his arm and reached for my bag. Technically I was still with Ty, and I am not a cheater. “Maybe next time.”

  “Really?” Blaine slid my bag off his arm and laid it across my chest.

  I shrugged again. Yeah, I know I’d sworn off Blaine, but without Ty to keep me together, I wasn’t sure how well I’d hold up. Maybe Blaine would change. Who knows, really, after everything we’d gone through in the last couple of weeks?

  “Next time it is, then.” He kissed me on the cheek before he went to retrieve his helmet and race toward the other players. I couldn’t help but watch him.

  The other girls started getting their stuff together. Ms. Nordik knelt beside her bag to dig around for the van keys as I chugged down the rest of my water bottle.

  I noticed a motorcycle speeding down the road just past Blanchheart High, and then turning into its parking lot. I thought of Ty and began to retreat into depression.

  We all started moving in the direction of the parking lot. Ms. Nordik broke away for the bathrooms.

  Lavender blew Michael a kiss, then hooked her arm with mine. “Looks like Blaine still hasn’t gotten over you. Think you two will ever get back together?”

  Stephanie turned around from right in front of me with a curious look on her face. She hooked her arm through my other one. “No way. He broke her heart too many times.”

  “Were you not just paying attention, though?” Lavender said. We passed through the opening in the fence and stepped into the parking lot.

  “Yeah, I don’t know, guys,” I said. “I can’t stop missing him, though, that’s for sure.”

  Brittany ran up behind us and put her arm through Stephanie’s. She threw her other fist up in the air. “The Royal Rebellion tomorrow. WAHOO!”

  “Yeah, I can’t wait,” Lavender said.

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Nicole grouched. She was way ahead of the rest of us, leading the pack, as usual. She’d stopped dead behind our van.

  “What’s wrong?” Brittany asked. Nicole didn’t turn around or say anything.

  I saw the back tire of a motorcycle parked on the other side of our van when we were close enough. A few more steps and I saw Ty locking his helmet under his seat. I gasped, wanting to run to him SO badly.

  “Hey, Hadley,” he said, smoothing down his hair. He picked up the slightly squished bouquet of roses from his seat.

  I had to unlock myself from my besties. “Hey, Ty.” My eyes were already welling up.

  “My family just got back, so I thought I’d drive up here to surprise you.” He held out the flowers for me.

  “Aw,” I heard all three of my girls sigh quietly behind me.

  I took the flowers and let him hug me. He was seriously the greatest guy ever. Nicole was the worst!

  “Is something wrong?” he asked.

  A tear slid out over my cheek. “Kind of.”

  “Maybe I can give you a ride home and then you can tell me how to fix it.”

  I frowned and stared at the ground, fighting not to cry.

  Ty put an arm around me. “Hadley, what is it?”

  I shook my head, because it was just too hard to break up with the best boyfriend in the world.

  “Yeah, you go with him and take care of your little problem,” Nicole said spitefully. “I’ll tell Ms. Nordik where you went.”

  I didn’t look up, but I could see Ty turn his head to face her. I’d never wanted to hit anyone so bad in all my life.

  Ty took my bag and led me to his bike. He got out a helmet for each of us and tucked my things under the seat. Then I climbed on behind him and snuggled up as close to him as I could, savoring it because I knew I’d never get to do it again.

  22

  We didn’t get far before Ty veered off the interstate at a rest stop exit. It was totally empty. There weren’t bathrooms or anything, just an open lot with picnic tables covered by little roofs. Two street lamps struggled to light the place, one at each end of the yard. Ty drove his bike onto the sidewalk where it sloped down into the parking lot and pulled over beside the darkest of all the tables, right in the middle of the area.

  I didn’t have to ask why we’d stopped. I’d been sobbing pretty violently against Ty’s back for the last ten minutes.

  Ty set our helmets on the edge of the picnic table and took something small from under the seat of his bike. It was hidden inside a light-colored bandana. “Can I give you my present now?”

  “Your present?” I asked. Wasn’t that the bouquet of chocolates and the necklace he’d had delivered to me in class?

  He nodded and took my hand, seating us both at the table. “Close your eyes,” he instructed in a quiet, tempting voice.

  I did as he said, hardly caring how strange his request seemed. I heard the crinkle of plastic, then felt him tie the rolled-up bandana around my eyes. “What are you doing?” I had to ask. We were in the dark, in the middle of nowhere, and he was blindfolding me. Way bizarre.

  “You trust me, right?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Hold this.”

  I turned my hands palm up in my lap and felt him lay something spindly inside them. My fingers slid over the long thing to the small, bent pieces at the end. “A stick?” The strong smell of a campfire burst into my nostrils.

  “Now open your mouth.”

  I opened it slowly, becoming more anxious by the second.

  “Don’t be so nervous, Hadley. I’m not going to poison you.” I could hear the laughter in Ty’s voice. Then he slid something squishy into my mouth.

  In spite of his words, I chewed it cautiously. “A marshmallow?” I asked, wrinkling my eyebrows behind the blindfold.

  “I wanted to bring the camping trip back to you. I figured if you missed me half as much as I missed you, this would be the perfect present to bring home to you, so you could feel like you were with me.”

  I smiled as I fingered the little leaves at the end of the stick, inhaled whatever was giving off the campfire smell, and chewed the
marshmallow slowly. It reminded me of a camping trip I took with my dad years ago, just me and him, one of the best weekends of my life. My mom hates the outdoors, so my dad decided we’d go without her when I was about eleven. I caught the hoot hoot of an owl over the cars tearing across the interstate. All my senses short of sight were being touched by Ty’s camping trip, as well as my dad’s. Warm feelings of nostalgia and happiness enveloped me lovingly.

  It reminded me of what my mom said about helping Nicole remember what it was like when we were younger, that ‘real true happiness without the pressure of high school reputations’. The wheels in my head shot into furious motion. I grasped at threads, forming an idea of how to keep both Nicole and Ty in my life.

  Tomorrow night we were supposed to be sleeping over at Nicole’s. If I could convince her to have the party at my house, I could cheese up my whole bedroom with ladybug stuff, because when we were kids, ladybugs were our favorite. We had our own ladybug club with this girl, Layna, who moved away a few years ago. We would go out all over the neighborhood, hunting for ladybugs to capture, make a wish on them, then set them free. We even dressed up like glittery, little ladybugs together for Halloween two years in a row. I was pretty sure I still had the costume somewhere. Throwing a ladybug party for her would have to stir something inside her.

  “Thank you, Ty,” I said. “This was the perfect gift.”

  The bandana slid off my head. Ty smoothed my hair back toward my ponytail. “Feel better?”

  “Mm-hm.”

  “Now what were you so upset about?”

  I stared into the shadows of his gorgeous face, not sure how to answer. “It’s nothing. Your not poison cured me.”

  We both laughed, and he put an arm around me. “Are you sure? You seemed really, really upset.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure.” I wiped under my eyes, hoping my tears hadn’t painted my face black. “This is ridiculous. You shouldn’t see me like this until we hit at least six months togeth—” I stopped and stared at him, wanting to take it back. Asking for six months was practically a marriage proposal. “Not that I’m putting any pressure on you, like—not that we have to stay together—not that we won’t! It’s just—ugh, I did not mean to say it like that.”

  Ty chuckled, letting his hair fall over his face. He pushed it back and leaned over to kiss me. “Six months isn’t nearly long enough to be with you, Hadley.”

  My eyebrows went up in the happiest way. “Aw, Ty. Six months isn’t long enough to be with you, either.”

  He took my hand and stood. “Are you hungry? We could get dinner on our way back.”

  “Yeah, I’m starved.” It felt nearly like taking flight when I stood up with him. “We usually hit Cici’s pizza with Ms. Nordik when we get back in town.”

  “Is that where you want to go? Cause there’s this hole in the wall place we stopped at on our way to the campsite that serves the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.”

  “Okay.” I wasn’t much for fried chicken, but I’d have gone anywhere Ty asked.

  He held me close and kissed me once more before he handed me my helmet.

  I climbed on the bike behind him, feeling so, SO much better than when I’d climbed off it. I’d probably be up all night trying to ladybugify my room, but it would be worth it if I didn’t have to break up with Ty.

  Of course, there was always the possibility it wouldn’t work, that it would change nothing. But I couldn’t believe bringing back something so prevalent and joyful from our childhood would do no good at all. Nicole started that club. She designed and created our costumes herself.

  It had to work.

  Hopefully…

  23

  Saturday was awesome! Mostly because Nicole called me that morning to say she was sick and couldn’t make it to The Royal Rebellion. I kind of figured she meant the trip was off—no-one was allowed to have fun if she couldn’t have any—but she didn’t come right out and say it. So I got my mom to take us in her black, seven-seater Escalade. She was glad for an excuse to take it out for a drive since we hardly ever used it.

  Lavender and I rode the prince and princess rides most of the day. My mom rode all the more extreme king and queen rides with Stephanie, Brittany, and Zaniah.

  It was a blast having my mom there. Nothing against Nicole’s mom, but she never actually did any of the fun stuff with us because Nicole wouldn’t let her. My mom, on the other hand, was one of my very best friends.

  I was especially grateful for the extra time spent with her since she was flying out on a business trip later that day.

  On top of that, Ty was planning to come over and hang out when I got home, so I also had that to look forward to. There wasn’t really enough time before the sleepover to go out anywhere.

  Nicole hadn’t actually confirmed the sleepover would be at my house, but she was sick and the other girls were all counting on it. I stayed up half the night making decorations and hanging them up. I’d also made scavenger hunt cards, where we split into teams of two and hit every room in my house. We would have to snap a pic of something black and red in each one. I knew I had a major advantage since I lived there. If Nicole felt better later, I was hoping she might insist on being on my team and we could relive some of the fun of our childhood together.

  So anyway, a few hours into our Nicole-free day, my besties, my mom, and I sat down to breadsticks and salads in The Pasta Palace at the heart of the theme park. We decided to keep it light to minimize the sick factor on the rides. The whole place smelled like garlic and spaghetti, and had a funky eighties radio station playing from a way old boombox behind the checkout counter. The only table available was kind of small, with only four chairs. My mom found two empty chairs to put at the ends, and it ended up being fun squishing close together.

  “Aw man,” I said when I took my phone out of my purse.

  “What is it, honey?” my mom asked from across the table.

  “Nicole.” Two missed calls and four group texts she’d sent to me and the other four. “You guys better check your phones too,” I told the others. Everyone started taking them out.

  “Starting to feel better,” Stephanie read the first text out loud. “Still planning to pick everyone up for the sleepover tonight.”

  “Curious why Hadley wanted the sleepover at her house?” Brittany read the next one.

  “Hello? Anyone there?” Lavender read the third text, sent an hour and a half after the other two.

  Zaniah read the final text slowly. “You guys aren’t at The Royal Rebellion without me, are you?” The text had about five exclamation points after the question mark.

  The others looked at each other gravely while I opened a text from Ty.

  Poppy wants 2 come 2, decorating’s her super power, ok 2 bring her?

  I’d told Ty about my party plans while texting with him late into last night.

  Absolutely!

  I texted back. I really liked Poppy, and I knew I could use all the help I could get.

  “No-one told Nicole you were coming here without her?” my mom asked.

  “We’re so dead,” Brittany said.

  “I’m the most dead,” I added, snapping back into the Nicole situation. “It was my idea.”

  I got straight to sending Nicole a private text.

  Sleepover @ my house is a surprise. U’ll love it tho!!

  “Hey, mind if I steal your parmesan?” this cute guy dressed oddly in khakis and a neon orange t-shirt asked from behind me. The only person he was really paying any attention to was Lavender.

  “Nope,” Steph said.

  “Anyone mind?” Lavender asked, looking around the table. Everyone shook their head, so she held it out to him.

  “Thanks.” He gave her a dashing smile before he crossed the little eatery to a table against the back wall, where a little boy sat waiting. I wasn’t surprised to see they already had a half-full bottle of parmesan cheese in between them. He was obviously crushing hard on Lavender.

  She turned her
head away from him and gave a look of total disgust to those of us who could see her face.

  My mom leaned forward, looking worried. “You all know I like Nicole, but, why is she so—so—”

  “Mean?”

  “Bossy?”

  “Coldblooded?”

  “A bit—”

  “Hadley!” my mom fussed.

  “What?” I asked. “I was gonna call her a bitter tyrant.”

  “Well—I was thinking more along the lines of, um, a little too in control. Don’t any of you think she might be crossing the line, making you feel like you can’t even go out and have fun without her?”

  “Mmm,” I mumbled, glancing at the other girls.

  “Uh, totally,” Brittany finally answered. “But there’s nothing we can do about it, Mrs. Cane. She could cut us off the team if we made her mad enough.”

  My mom laughed. “You don’t seriously think she’ll go through a string of firing and hiring on new cheerleaders just because you don’t do exactly what she wants, do you? I mean, has she ever really cut anyone from the team?”

  “No-one’s ever broken her rules,” Lavender said.

  “What does Ms. Nordik think about this? She is the one in charge of you, after all.”

  Steph shrugged. “She put Nicole in charge over the summer. Whatever Nicole says goes.”

  My phone buzzed as my mom shook her head and dipped her breadstick in marinara sauce.

  But r u @ The Royal Rebellion?

  Nicole had group texted.

  Everyone looked at their phones again. Lavender sucked in a breath. Stephanie groaned.

  A thought shot through me suddenly. “Wait; I’ve got an idea!”

  Yes, taking pics 4 website,

  I texted back.

  Remember? U told people @ Patty’s party we’d have pics up of our weekend at The Royal Rebellion.

  Lavender let out the enormous breath she was holding. “Hadley, you’re a genius.”