Clash of the Cheerleaders

by April Marcom

  The moment she turned around to write something on the board, something came sailing my way. I raised my book fast enough to slam today’s spitball away from my face. This time I got a clear look at who’d shot it at me: Amethyst.

  She grinned and pointed to the torn paper circle pinned to her shirt. It was a pitiful, reversed imitation of the stickers Brittany made. She’d drawn a slash through the center and written TEAM NICOLE on the top. TEAM HADLEY was on the bottom crossed out.

  I shrugged my shoulders. Yeah, it didn’t feel good to see that. But I wasn’t the type to lash out or anything.

  The kid sitting behind her, Timothy Rich, rolled his eyes and turned to face me so he could point out the TEAM HADLEY sticker on his shirt. I smiled and nodded to him.

  “Excuse me,” Mrs. Lee said. “Is there something the three of you want to come up here and say to the rest of the class?”

  Timothy, Amethyst, and I looked innocently at our teacher. “No, ma’am,” I said.

  “Then I would appreciate it if you would zone back in on what I’m telling you so you’ll know what’s going on.”

  The rest of class was uneventful, and leaving English today was a lot more normal than yesterday. Amethyst and her crew gave me mean looks on their way out the door, but no-one in the hallway seemed to hate me so much. I still drew lots of stares, good and bad. A few people asked me if today’s Underground story was true, and I confirmed it. A bunch of people walked by wearing stickers in support of me, which was pretty awesome. Of course, a bunch wore handmade TEAM NICOLE stickers, too.

  Second hour was just a lot of boring notetaking for Wednesday’s quiz. I went back and forth through most of it with the idea of running to the gym after class, trying to catch Ty and reverse yesterday’s damage. My mom’s advice about not seeming desperate stayed in the back of my mind.

  It ended up not mattering, though. Blaine was waiting for me outside the door when I left class. He threw his arm over my shoulder to walk me to my next hour.

  I shrugged it off, but let him walk next to me.

  So the first half of the day went really well. More and more stickers appeared on people’s shirts. There were still haters and dirty looks. Even so, it was kind of spectacular compared to what yesterday had been, except for how much I still missed Ty.

  33

  Nicole stared at me and her other former four besties like she would kill us when we walked past her table of trivials at lunch. We claimed a slightly larger circular table at the opposite corner of the school cafeteria.

  “I say we go out to lunch once I’ve got my license,” Zaniah said, right before biting into her chicken sandwich.

  “That would be awesome,” Brittany agreed.

  “So I thought you told Underground to write about Bryan today,” I said to her curiously.

  “I did. I gave him the whole lineup, though, so I guess he wanted to start out big. He made the right move, I think.”

  “Hey, babe.” Blaine pulled up a chair next to me. Michael took the seat next to Lavender.

  “This table’s not exclusively reserved for the Smokin’ Six without Princess Nico-liar, is it?” Rodney asked.

  “Nah, you guys should sit down,” Stephanie said, scooting her chair closer to mine.

  He and Mattheston, another major football player, pulled up chairs and sat next to her.

  Three of Blaine’s non-jock friends joined us over the course of our lunch hour, and it went great. Blaine was pretty flirty, and, to be honest, I totally enjoyed it. But I didn’t flirt back, because I could not get Ty off my mind.

  I moaned dramatically when the bell rang. Next hour was the worst, because Nicole and I both had home ec. “I wish I could just switch classes,” I told Brittany when we all started standing up.

  Blaine kissed my cheek before he took off. “Catch you after tumbling.”

  “Wait, Blaine!” I never agreed to that.

  He acted like he couldn’t hear me, which meant I was stuck with an ice cream date. We did need to talk, though, I guess.

  “I get it.” Brittany put her arm around me to steer me toward the south hall. “Science sucked this morning. Nicole and I have always sat together. She kept casting me death stares all through class. I slid her a sticker across the desk and she ripped it to shreds.”

  “No.” I stared at her in amazement. “You seriously gave her a sticker?”

  “Yeah, Mr. Pain didn’t say a word when she tore it up.” We both laughed at the thought of her handing a TEAM HADLEY sticker over to Nicole.

  “Don’t worry, Hadley, it’s just one class and then it’s over.”

  “You mean two classes.” I groaned as we parted ways.

  I kept my head down when I walked into fifth hour and put my hands sort of around my eyes once I was in my seat. All I wanted to do was block the world out for this one class. The chair next to mine scraped across the floor when Nicole sat down and scooted away from me.

  I had to assume Ty made it to class. He didn’t stop by my desk, and I couldn’t look.

  It was brutal knowing he was probably in the same room with me. I kept wishing he’d interrupt class or send a note saying something—anything—to me. Halfway through home ec, I couldn’t stand it anymore. I glanced back at him. He was staring at me already, and looked down when our eyes met.

  I felt a thrill. He was watching me!

  When the bell rang, I turned back to look at him again. He looked sooo unhappy, watching me as he walked past, but didn’t say a word. I felt like crying as I gathered my stuff and headed for the door.

  Nicole got up suddenly and hurried to leave home ec right behind me. She bumped into my back once we were in the hallway. “So-rry,” she said sarcastically, then speed-walked around me toward our next class.

  “Hey, girl.” Sid nodded to me when he walked by. I nodded back.

  I only made it partway down the hall before I felt a hand on my back. I turned around and saw Ty standing there. “Hey,” I said excitedly.

  “This was on your back.” He held out a piece of paper to me.

  My eyes narrowed at the giant words: LIAR, CHEAT, COW, written on the sheet of paper. No doubt Nicole had done it. “Thanks.”

  Ty nodded and turned away.

  “Ty, wait.”

  He stopped and lowered his head, but didn’t turn back to me.

  “I’m really sorry. I still want to be with you.”

  He shook his head. “I just need some time.” He walked away. It wasn’t a clear answer, but it was better than a never.

  I balled up Nicole’s paper and threw it in the trash on my way into sixth hour.

  The intercom dinged, and Principal Horawitz’s voice followed. “Sorry for this interruption teachers, but I have a quick announcement. It has come to my attention that someone has created an underground publication of our school’s paper. Starting tomorrow, anyone found in possession of one of these will be suspended for the rest of the week. And if anyone has information regarding who’s writing this nonsense, please come meet with me after school. Teachers, I’ll be sending out an email with further details shortly. Thank you.”

  Nicole turned around in the desk right in front of mine to glare at me. I wasn’t about to let her intimidate me. So I leaned forward to glare back. I had nothing left to lose.

  Mrs. Smelting’s phone rang, and Nicole turned around.

  “Hello, Mrs. Smelting’s class… Yes, they’re both in here…” She turned to stare at me and Nicole. “…Yes, I’ll send them right up.” She hung up the phone. “Hadley Cane and Nicole Hemming, Principal Horawitz would like to see you in his office.”

  I grabbed my purse and stood up.

  “Come see me on your way out. And you might want to take all your things with you, Hadley, just in case.”

  My hands were shaking when I picked up my book and binder. I’d never been called to the principal’s office.

  Mrs. Smelting scribbled a page number on two neon green post-its and handed us each one. “Today’s a
ssignment will be to complete all the odd numbers on this page and the next one. Be sure and finish it before tomorrow.”

  I took one of the post-its and left the room. I didn’t look back, although I could hear Nicole walking behind me all the way to the office. The whole place smelled like cherries when I got there, due to the scented wax burner on our school secretary’s desk.

  “Oh, Hadley, thank goodness you’re here.” Lavender jogged into the office behind us and grabbed my hand. She looked terrified.

  “Go on back, girls,” Mrs. Ringer, the secretary, said, pointing a pencil toward the open door to the principal’s office.

  Principal Horawitz had a solid wall of windows in the back of his office with the shades drawn closed. Two rows of five chairs were set out in front of his desk. Stephanie, Zaniah, and Brittany sat in three on the front row, and the four trivials sat on the back.

  Nicole walked toward the empty chairs on the end of both rows, and looked back and forth like she wanted to sit in the front.

  “Nah, ah,” Stephanie said, putting a hand on the two front seats.

  “Uh, whatever.” Nicole rolled her eyes and slid into the seat on the back row. Lavender and I sat in the front two and stared nervously at our principal.

  He was leaning over his desk with his scrawny arms folded, watching us. The way his dark brown toupee was peeling away from his skin at the edges was distracting.

  “Now that you’re all here—” He held up a copy of yesterday and today’s Underground articles. “—who is behind this?”

  “It’s obviously Hadley,” Nicole said immediately.

  “What?!” I turned around to stare at her.

  “She told me she was going to do it. She got really mad at me Saturday night and told me she was going to quit the cheer team and start a whole protest against me.”

  “Are you crazy?!” Brittany turned around and said.

  “Yeah, she totally did,” Tabitha added. The smirk on her skinny, little know-it-all face was maddening.

  “What are you even doing here?” Stephanie asked Tabitha.

  “Yeah,” Zaniah agreed. “You four weren’t there. Nicole wouldn’t even give you the time of day before last night. She calls you all trivials when you’re not around.”

  “That’s so not true,” Nicole said.

  “True? You’re one to talk. You put it on our website that you cut Hadley from the team and now you’re saying she quit?!”

  Everyone started arguing—louder and louder. It became complete chaos.

  I decided the only smart thing to do was turn around to face the principal and stay out of it. Lavender seemed to have the same idea. She leaned toward me when Stephanie turned all the way around to point her finger right in Ginger’s face.

  “You rotten, two-faced brat,” Stephanie spat.

  Principal Horawitz stood up and shouted, “QUIET!” Everyone got silent right away and stared at him. “We can either do this together or you can wait outside my office while I talk to you one at a time, which will take ten times longer. Is that what you want?”

  “No, sir,” half of us said. Everyone shook their head.

  “Good. Then let’s keep this civil. Hadley, do you know anything about this?”

  I sat up so straight my back popped in two places. “No, sir. Whoever printed the article texted me last night from a blocked number and I told him I didn’t want anything to do with it. That’s all I know.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Nicole spat. “Yesterday the writer said he and Hadley had a whole thing set up to share horrible secrets about me. You should expel her, Principal Horawitz.”

  “No way!” Stephanie said. “If that was true, why would he say today that she didn’t want anything to do with it?”

  “Cause he’s a liar, just like her.”

  “She’s a liar? Seriously?” Brittany asked. “You’re the liar.”

  “Don’t talk to her like that,” Angeline argued, leaning over in her seat toward Nicole. And the chaos began once more.

  “That’s enough,” Principal Horawitz snapped before things could get out of hand. “Everybody out, except for…” His eyes swept over us, trying to decide who to interrogate first. “Zaniah.”

  The four of us sitting up front gave her reassuring smiles and nods as we stood to leave.

  Principal Horawitz went to lean his head out the door. “Mrs. Ringer, these girls are going to sit there and not make a single sound until it’s their turn to come into my office.”

  “You got it, Mr. Horawitz,” Mrs. Ringer said. Her out-of-date, enormous curly hair swung back and forth when she turned back to her desk to finish what she was doing.

  34

  The other cheerleaders and I sat divided in the row of seats against the office wall. Three empty chairs separated Stephanie and Tabitha, indicating where our two groups split.

  The wait was torture. It was sooo boring. Lavender laid her head on Brittany’s shoulder, and Brittany laid her head over Lavender’s. I leaned my elbows against my knees, clasping my hands together to say a little prayer. This could very well end up being the biggest trouble I’d ever gotten into in all my life.

  Fifteen minutes or so passed before Zaniah emerged looking a little shaken, but okay. She smiled at us on her way out the door.

  “Tabitha, you’re up next,” Principal Horawitz said. She disappeared into his office.

  I took out my cell to text Zaniah and see if I could find out anything.

  “No way,” Mrs. Ringer said immediately. “You better put that phone up right now, Hadley.”

  I sighed and tucked it back into my purse.

  Stephanie, Angeline, and Ginger were called back before the bell rang. Each one left the office without saying a word.

  I wanted to hide behind Mrs. Ringer’s desk when hordes of kids made their way past the glass office walls, gaping and pointing us out to each other. I leaned all the way over to lay my head against my knees, grateful my hair was in a ponytail so the ends weren’t brushing the dirty floor. Brittany scratched my back softly.

  “Lavender,” Principal Horawitz said, making her give a tiny yelp. I sat up so I could squeeze her hand when she walked past me.

  The tardy bell rang as his office door shut.

  “Mrs. Ringer, I need to use the bathroom,” Nicole said, standing up.

  “You can wait until after Mr. Horawitz speaks to you.”

  She sat back down and folded her arms over her chest, shooting hate stares at Brittany and me like tiny, invisible arrows.

  Lavender’s eyes were pink when she walked out of the office. She was the first cheerleader to leave looking really upset. It came as no surprise, since she was always first to fall apart when it came to emotional stuff.

  “Kerry,” Principal Horawitz said. She disappeared inside his office.

  That only left Brittany, Nicole, and me. I seriously hoped he wouldn’t call me last. It wouldn’t be fair if I had to sit there scared half to death longer than anyone else when I didn’t even do anything wrong!

  It was obvious the trivials were getting in and out a lot faster than my girls. Kerry couldn’t have been in the principal’s office five minutes before he called Brittany back. Brittany was in there the longest by far.

  I guessed Principal Horawitz was asking her about the stickers and chewing her out to make sure she never brought them back to school. He’d had cameras put in most of the hallways over the summer, so there was no point in lying her way out of that one.

  After what felt like forever, the door finally opened and—I couldn’t believe it!—Principal Horawitz and Brittany walked out of the office laughing.

  “Seriously? You broke your finger slapping the buzzer?” she asked him.

  “I sure did. I’ll have to show you the video sometime.” Principal Horawitz still smiled, but tried looking more serious when he turned to Nicole and me. “You go on back to class, Brittany, but swing by after school today and we’ll talk some more.”

  “Aw, I’ve got tum
bling after school.” She really looked disappointed.

  “That’s all right. Come in tomorrow morning and I’ll see if I can’t get Cheyanne Wilson up here to talk to you, too.”

  “Thanks, Principal Horawitz.” Brittany practically bounced out of the front office into the hallway. Gah! I wanted to text her for answers so badly!

  “You’re next, Nicole,” said Principal Horawitz.

  I groaned inside my head, because I was last. This sucks, I thought, putting my head in my hands.

  The bell rang a minute later. Mr. Pain came into the office half-dragging this short, creepy guy, Carsen Patrick, by one shoulder of his shirt. “Sit,” he commanded. Carsen took a seat by the office doors, and Mr. Pain went to Mrs. Ringer’s desk. “I need to have a talk with Mr. Horawitz about Carsen.”

  “Sorry, Barry. Mr. Horawitz is in with a student right now,” Mrs. Ringer said. “It could be awhile.”

  “Well, give him this.” Mr. Pain set a cell phone on her desk. “Carsen was flashing half-naked women to the class when I stepped out for a second. I’ll be writing this up and I’d appreciate it if Mr. Horawitz would talk to him.”

  “I’ll let him know.”

  Mr. Pain noticed me when he turned toward the door. “Are you not coming to class?” he asked, because I was in his next hour.

  I glanced at Mrs. Ringer.

  “She’ll be running a little late,” she pointed her pencil at me and answered.

  “I’ll just mark her present then.”

  Carsen wiggled his hairy eyebrows at me and made a kissy face once Mr. Pain was gone.

  “Ew.” I turned my body away from him so I couldn’t possibly catch him in my line of vision.

  We sat there in silence until the phone rang, totally startling me. “Hello, Silver Wing High School,” Mrs. Ringer said into the phone.

  “Hey, Scandalous,” Carsen said, keeping his voice low. “What are you in for?”

  “I’m not scandalous.”

  “Sorry, Hadley, what are you in for?”

  “I’m not telling you.” It was absolutely none of his creepy, little business.