Clash of the Cheerleaders

by April Marcom

  “Absolutely. With all the attention you’re getting on YouTube, you could end up becoming a major face in the movement against bullying. We’d love to be the first to interview you.”

  “Wow.” That sounded amazing, except that it also sounded too good to be true. “Um, are you for real, though?”

  Connie sighed. “People are always asking me that. I’ll send you an official email from our local news website, okay? You can text your email address to this number. Just please respond to me tonight.”

  “You got it.”

  “Okay, bye.” She hung up without even waiting for me to respond.

  I held my phone out in front of me and started adding Connie to my contacts. “That was weird,” I said absently.

  “You should do it, Hadley.”

  I looked up at Nicole. “What?”

  “The interview. I think you should it. You deserve it after what you’ve put up with from me…I’ve always been a little jealous of you, you know?”

  “Jealous of me? Why?”

  “I don’t know. You just seem to have it so easy. Everyone loves you. It’s like you don’t even try and you’re always the favorite.”

  I gave her a strange look. “Well, thanks, I guess.” I typed my email address in a text to Connie.

  “You’re the only real, authentic friend I’ve ever had, Hadley. Do you think you can forgive me eventually? Will we ever be best friends again?”

  That was a hard question. It wasn’t really in my nature to waste energy on grudges, but no-one had ever given me such a massive reason to, either. “I’ll be able to forgive you some day, Nicole, but… I don’t know if we can be best friends again, not after what you said about my dad.”

  Her lips seemed to flinch outward when she whimpered. She nodded, though. “Can I still call you sometimes? My dad said I either have to do homeschool or he’ll hire a bodyguard to follow me around at school. We already had to change my number because of all the threats I’ve been getting. When he finds out I’m pregnant, I’m pretty sure he’ll say I have to do homeschool and I won’t see anyone for months.”

  “Sure.” I couldn’t say I’d always answer or respond to her texts. I needed time and space for now. But she’d been like my only sister for so long, I couldn’t imagine turning my back on her forever. Sisters do catastrophically horrible things to each other from time to time, but they still love each other somewhere deep down. Of course, things would probably never return to what they’d been before.

  We heard an engine pull into the driveway outside. Then a bunch of feet were racing to my front door. “Hadley!” Brittany shouted, tearing into my house. The other three burst in right behind her.

  “There she is,” Lavender said.

  “What’s Nico-liar doing here?” Brittany crossed her arms and sneered at her.

  “Leaving,” Nicole answered, rising from her chair to disappear outside. I didn’t try to stop her.

  47

  “So, what the heck is Nicole doing over here?” Steph asked me, even though Nicole could definitely still hear her.

  “She just came over to apologize and get some stuff off her chest,” I said. I hit send on my text to Connie before I stood up to get the popcorn. “What are you girls doing here, anyway? The game starts pretty soon.” I ripped the bag open and jammed a handful into my mouth.

  “We’re here to take you with us.” Brittany took the bag from me and set it on the counter.

  “Hey!”

  “Come on; you’ve got to get ready.” Zaniah took my arm and started trying to lead me to the stairs. The other three joined in pressing against me from behind when I didn’t budge.

  “But I’m not going. You said you were okay with it at lunch.” My feet began climbing stairs simply to keep from falling over on my face.

  “Well, we lied.”

  “You’ve got to come,” Lavender said. “We need you there.”

  “Just hold on.” I dug my heels into the floor at the top of the stairs. “What’s going on?”

  “We decided you’re the new cheer captain,” Brittany said. “Nicole’s gonna be out for a while with her busted arm, so you need to be at the game tonight.”

  The idea of becoming cheer captain got a whole lot more real, considering how Nicole was probably about to leave Silver Wing High, but I still didn’t feel like going to the game.

  I leaned my head back and got all dramatic and whiny. “Can’t I just start being captain next weeeeek? I might have a news interview tomorrow, and I juuust wanna stay hoooome.”

  “OMG; quit being such a baby,” Stephanie giggled. “Just put on your cheer uniform so we don’t have to dress you like one.”

  I let out a huge breath. “Is it really that important to you?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Totally.”

  All four nodded their heads.

  “Well—I guess you’ve suffered enough for me this week, I can go to the stupid game.” I disappeared into my room, still feeling selfish and whiny.

  “Did you say you have a news interview?” Lavender asked me through my bedroom door.

  I stripped off my PJs before answering. “Yeah, Channel 3 News wants to interview me about the viral YouTube video from this morning.”

  “What video?” Brit asked.

  “I don’t know. You can check my phone, though. Nicole said she’s gonna text me the link.”

  “Wait, so are you two all buddy-buddy again?”

  “Nope.”

  I heard them stomping down the stairs to get my phone off the kitchen table. After I’d gotten dressed, I redid my ponytail and brushed on a little more mascara. Then I grabbed my cheer bag and went downstairs.

  My girls were standing close together next to the kitchen table, staring at my phone. Steph was holding it out in front of them. She looked up when I crossed the living room into the dining area. “The text just came through, but it isn’t from Nicole.”

  “No, it was probably her. She said she had to change her number.”

  “Come on.” Brittany grabbed me at the wrist. “We’ll watch it in the car. My mom’s waiting and the game’s about to start!”

  The car ride to the game was interesting. Channel 12 News called me about an interview tonight. I told them I’d be cheering at the game and they said they could meet me there. They just had to call my mom to make sure they got some sort of permission, since I’m still a minor. So that was cool!

  I also went ahead and forwarded Connie’s email to my mom so she could set that up, too, with the request that she ask if my four besties could also be part of it. They were almost as tied to this as me, after all.

  I was glad my girls had dragged me to the game once I got there and we started unrolling the tear-away banner for the football players to run through. The rush of being on the field and hearing the telecaster announce the Silver Wing Hiiiigh Aaangels and the crowd erupting was as amazing as ever. I so, SO love being a cheerleader!

  We scored the first touchdown, then the second. Our players made it look easy. The first quarter flew by.

  The other team scored a touchdown in the second quarter. We followed up with a touchdown of our own. The crowd was going crazy. The stands looked even more packed than usual, with people squished together on every row.

  The night was a little cold, but clear and otherwise perfect for such an exciting game.

  Helen Ploom from Channel 12 showed up three football minutes before the end of the second quarter. She was followed by a guy carrying a massive video camera over one shoulder. Ms. Ploom shook my hand, introduced herself, and told me to just act natural, like she wasn’t there.

  So we went on cheering and kicking and exploding with cheerleader excitement. The cameraman kept his camera and its bright spotlight pointed at me through the last bit of the second quarter. I guessed he was catching background/filler video for when some manly voice described what my news clip would be about when it aired.

  “All right, girls,” Ms. Nordik said when the buz
zer went off for halftime. “If you need a bathroom break or you’re hungry, now’s the time to take care of it. I’m going to take an aspirin.” She grabbed her bag and left the field.

  Ms. Ploom walked around Steph to me. “Ready, Hadley?” She looked totally gorgeous and camera-ready.

  I hoped I was pulling it off like her. “Yep.” The camera was still pointed at me, probably recording the conversation we were having right then.

  Brittany and the others moved away from me, but stayed to watch. The trivials took off.

  “Okay. We’re not live, so we don’t need a big introduction. I’m just going to ask you a few questions and we’ll be done here. Sound good?”

  I nodded.

  Ms. Ploom took in a breath, then perked her head up straight and put on her best camera-smile. “Hadley, what has this week been like for you?”

  I felt the shift in her attitude from a normal, semi-friendly woman to a serious, TV-presence news anchor.

  “Terrible, to be honest.”

  “Tell us, what was the hardest thing you experienced?”

  Ty. It would always be Ty, but I didn’t want to bring him up. I was grateful when Blaine shouted, “Yeaaaah!” and threw his arms around me from behind.

  “CUT.” Ms. Ploom practically screamed, making a time-out signal with her hands. She spun around on Blaine like she was ready to attack. “Can’t you see that we’re trying to conduct an interview, young man?”

  Blaine held his hands up. “Okay, sorry sorry.”

  Yeah, she looked scary.

  “I’ll catch you after the game, Hads.” He ran down the field to follow the other football players to the locker room.

  “Wait, that wasn’t Ty, was it?” Ms. Ploom asked.

  “No.” Would he be part of the interview, after all? Would his name always come up when people asked me about Clash of the Cheerleaders? Because that would kinda ruin it for me.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer blasted over the speakers. “Before our school marching band takes the field for their halftime performance, we have a special song written exclusively for one of our most talked about students. The songwriter’s not much of a singer, so he’s having his sister perform most of it for us tonight.”

  Everyone in the stands was watching whomever had the field.

  Ms. Ploom put a hand on my back to redirect my attention to the camera. “We’ll have to edit out the background noise later,” she said.

  The guy holding the camera lifted it back onto his shoulder and kicked on the blinding light.

  “Hadley, why don’t you tell us how the Clash of the Cheerleaders began?”

  Guitar music started playing through the stadium’s speakers, forcing me to speak up pretty loud. “Well, my best friend wanted me to break up with my boyfriend, but I didn’t, so she started spreading some pretty ugly lies about me.”

  * * *

  I knew this girl, Hadley Cane.

  Took her to the most unexpected of places,

  * * *

  I froze when I heard my name being sung.

  48

  Ms. Ploom and I turned around and saw Poppy sitting centerfield on a stool, playing a guitar and singing into the mic attached to the stand in front of her.

  * * *

  Phony pirates hanging from the ceilings.

  It’s where she taught me life’s meaning.

  We danced all night in the rain.

  She must have thought me insane.

  Then I took her in my arms and kissed her hard.

  I knew right then that girl had stolen my heart.

  I loved her like we would last forever.

  She became every day’s endeavor.

  Then this crazy cheer captain went and turned it all around—

  * * *

  “Sam, make sure you’re getting this,” Ms. Ploom said over her shoulder.

  My heart fluttered wildly, because Ty had written the song, and it could go either way: good or bad.

  * * *

  I thought the love of my life,

  had gone and cut me like a knife.

  Cause she was someone new.

  She’d turned like her captain, too.

  She cared too much what everyone thinks.

  Finally put herself on Underground’s link.

  Thought I’d lost her to the madness.

  My whole life was sadness

  that goes on and on and on…

  * * *

  The tempo slowed and someone took my hand from behind. I turned around and watched Ty go down on one knee in front of me. He held the wireless mic up and sang to Poppy’s guitar music.

  * * *

  But maybe I’ve been the fool

  Maybe I should a listened to you.

  * * *

  It was harder to hear him when the crowd erupted in applause.

  * * *

  Would have saved me so much pain.

  Remember when we danced in the rain

  * * *

  Ty’s fingers folded between mine. I smiled so big it hurt, but it felt sooooo good listening to him sing off key.

  * * *

  And, baby, now I know,

  you still got a heart of gold.

  So now here I am,

  broken hearted and feeling less than a man.

  Can’t believe I let you suffer so much

  I’m sorry, baby, let me make it up, to you.

  If you’ll still take me back,

  we both know this time it’ll la—a—ast

  And go on and on and on…

  * * *

  Ty stood up, still holding my hand, and stopped singing. “What do you say, Hadley? Would you be my girlfriend again?”

  Poppy played one final chord and the music stopped.

  I leaned close enough to talk into the mic. “Duh.” The crowd laughed and clapped and went wild.

  Ty dropped the microphone so he could put both arms behind my back and lift me from the ground as he kissed me. I squeezed him super close, forgetting the crowds and the camera. He set me down gently before he ended our kiss.

  “I’m so sorry for everything, Ty,” I said, eyes brimming with happy tears.

  “Me, too. But it’s all behind us, and life’s perfect again.”

  I nodded, sliding my fingers through his silky, dark hair.

  “And now a performance by Silver Wing High’s marching band,” the announcer said. Kids carrying instruments walked past us in rows onto the field.

  “Is this Ty?” Ms. Ploom asked me.

  “Yep.”

  “Maybe we could interview you, too, Ty. Is your mom here? We’ll need her permission before we can air footage if you’re a minor.”

  “I’m not doing any interviews.”

  “Well, can we at least air you singing to Hadley? Our TV audience would eat that up.”

  Ty shook his head. “I’m pretty sure half the people here are already posting videos of that online. I’d rather it not end up on TV, too.” Ty ran his hand over my back. “Nothing on this earth could have got me to sing in public, except that I was doing it for Hadley.”

  “Aww.” I leaned against him.

  “I second that,” Poppy said from behind me.

  I turned around and was struck immediately by her ghost-white face. “I am never doing that again,” she said. “And do you know how hard it was to compose music and write that song with Ty in one day? We didn’t even have time to give it a chorus, or even come up with a title.”

  “Thanks, Poppy.” I gave her a super-tight hug.

  “You’re welcome, but you and Ty both owe me any favor I want in the future.”

  Ty slid his arm around me. “You got it.”

  “I need to visit the ladies’ room,” Ms. Ploom said, handing me her mic. “Sam, don’t miss anything important.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  Ms. Ploom stormed away a bit unsteadily in her blue stilettos.

  “Wait.” Realization hit me like cinderblocks. I spun around on my girl
s.

  They were sitting in the grass against the field’s fencing, watching the whole thing unfold and whispering to each other.

  “You knew,” I said. “That’s why you forced me to come to the game tonight. You knew this was gonna happen.”

  Zaniah covered her mouth and laughed hysterically.

  “Guilty,” Lavender beamed.

  “Poppy tipped us off.” Brittany was clearly trying to keep a straight face.

  “You’re weeeelcome.” Stephanie winked.

  “Thanks, girls.” I laughed, because they were all being so goofy. “Is it cool if I take off after the interview, though? Maybe Ty and I can hang out, and I’m still pretty burned out from this week.”

  “I’d love that if I didn’t have to give Poppy a ride home,” Ty said.

  “I’ll get her home,” Lavender said, “if you don’t mind staying for the rest of the game, Poppy.”

  Poppy shook her head. “I don’t mind.”

  “You guys don’t live that far from me,” Lavender told Ty.

  “Yeah, Poppy can hang out on the field with us,” Brittany said. “It’ll ease the pain of you abandoning us, Hadley.” She put both hands over her heart and gave me a sad face.

  I rested my chin against Ty’s chest and stared up at him adoringly. “You didn’t have to do all this, you know. I would have done anything to get back with you.”

  “Yes, I did. You’re not some average girl, and you deserve more than some average gesture.” Ty kissed my forehead. “I love you, Hadley.”

  My smile went back to giant-sized. “I love you, too, Ty, so so much. And I loved your song.”

  His body began swaying gently from side to side to the not-so-gentle music the band was playing. I pressed my cheek against him, held him tighter, and shut my eyes. He rested his head against the top of mine. Not caring about all the spectators was easy with Ty.

  “All we need now is rain and this would be perfect,” I said.