by Paula Chase
“Come on back to the love shack,” he teased.
Lizzie’s cheeks burned.
Luckily, her legs did the work, ignoring her freaked-out mind. She stepped onto the running board, kneeled on the folded seat and climbed into the third row of the SUV.
Before she knew it, Jacinta was in, the door was shut and Brian was pulling out of her neighborhood.
“Liz-O, what up girl?” JZ called from the front seat.
“I think we’re all insane,” Lizzie blurted.
Kelly laughed. “We totally are.”
“I don’t mean any harm but I’m hungry,” Jacinta said. “Brian, stop a chick at Five Guys or something.”
“Naw, no stops until we get over the bridge,” Brian lectured. The clique groaned and his fatherly tone went up a notch. “Look, otherwisewe gon’ end up stuck in traffic for days.” He snorted. “Y’all betterbe chill.”
He turned up the radio and the Go-Go blasted from the speakers.
“Okay, please not Go-Go for two full hours,” Kelly yelled over the music.
“Yes, for two hours.” Brian banged on the steering wheel in time to the drum beat.
“Why couldn’t Mina date a guy from Atlanta or something,” Jacintajoked.
“I know you not saying snap music better than Go-Go.” Brian stared her down in the rearview mirror.
“Ay, y’all just stowaways on this trip,” JZ said. “No requests allowed.”
JZ and Brian exchanged pounds and Todd reached his entire body from the third row over the second to get a pound in.
Jacinta pushed Todd toward the backseat.
“Alright, White Chocolate, don’t make me hurt you.”
The Go-Go boomed and the clique continued to talk over it, as Brian handled the Explorer in the already growing traffic.
Lizzie threw out an occasional quip, but fear and excitement kept her mum and made her restless. She raked her hair, folded then unfoldedher arms then finally gnawed at her thumbnail as the disses and jokes flew throughout the truck.
She leaned up behind Kelly, whose head kept peeking down.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, Angel keeps texting me,” Kelly said. She raised her voice. “Angel says what’s up y’all.”
“What’s up, Angel,” everybody yelled.
Kelly laughed. “Okay, technically he’s only talking to Lizzie and Jacinta. I never told him we were riding down with you guys.”
“Uh-oh, Kelly, you not truthing up to your boy?” Jacinta teased.
“How does he think you’re getting there?” Lizzie asked.
Kelly shrugged. Angel hadn’t asked and she hadn’t told.
“I think I may have to find some new friends.You guys are crazy and a bad influence,” Lizzie said.
“They rummin’, Liz?” JZ yelled toward the back.
Lizzie chuckled. “Yeah, they’re rummin’.”
“JZ, that word is not hot,” Jacinta said.
“Now, you rummin’. My word is hot to death,” JZ said. He reached his hand back without turning around, and tugged at Jacinta’sfoot until her shoe slipped off. He dangled it out of the windowpretending he was going to drop it. Jacinta’s arms flailed over the seat as she tried pulling his arm back in. They scrambled for a few seconds before he reluctantly tossed the shoe onto the second row of seats.
“Oh, now you are rummin’,” Jacinta said.
JZ’s laugh was rich and deep. “Told you y’all would start using it.”
Jacinta smacked at the back of his head.
Todd bumped knees with Lizzie, smiling ear to ear.
They both chorused, “They’re rummin’,” then laughed.
He held out a stick of gum. “Fresh breath, pact?” he asked.
Lizzie squinted. “Huh?”
He put his right hand over his heart. “I, Todd, pledge to keep my breath minty fresh the entire spring break in case Lizzie ... ya know, wants to kiss me.”
Lizzie’s laughter was caught up in the beating of the music’s drums. She nodded and reached for the gum, but Todd pulled it back.
“Now you,” Todd said. “Say the oath.”
She giggled as she tried to remember Todd’s exact words. “I, Lizzie ... pledge to ...”
“Keep my breath minty fresh,” Todd guided.
“Keep my breath minty fresh ... the entire break in case Todd wants to kiss me.”
“No, you have to say ‘ya know’ before the kiss part,” Todd said, dead serious.
“My bad.” Lizzie pretended to get serious. “In case Todd ... ya know, wants to kiss me.”
Todd slipped a stick of gum out of the wrapper, bit off half and held the other half in front of Lizzie’s mouth. She opened wide and he placed the gum on her tongue.
He popped the gum happily. “Fresh pact oath.”
“Fresh pact oath,” Lizzie repeated, munching along, letting Todd’s friendly blue eyes wash away her uncertainty.
Fun Hangover
“Break it off boy, cause ya got me feeling naughty.”
—Rihanna ft. Sean Paul, “Break It Off”
Mina was no longer drunk from the vibe of last night’s reckless abandon. The practice room, a plain square twenty-foot box with mats, was filled with a deafening silence as Coach Embry stabbed the stop button on the CD player.
The girls stared silently, waiting for the expected lecture.
Fear ran from Mina’s chest to her sore legs as Coach Em gave her the crook eye.
She’d failed to hit the double down even one good time. Her head hung low against Coach Em’s rant.
“Obviously, you ladies have forgotten what you’re here for. This practice was a waste of my time.” She fixed every girl with a steely piercing glare, stopping on Mina. “Care to explain why a stunt you’d finally gotten to an acceptable level now looks like ... crap?”
It was the kind of question that required an answer. Yet Mina knew the real answer—she was dog tired and sore from last night—would only further frustrate Coach Em. And, admitting that her legs felt like lead and her head full of marbles was a sure enough death sentence for any further pre-competition partying.
Which may not be such a bad thing, she thought sullenly.
“Your arms are flying all over the place,” Coach Em barked, still focused on Mina. “Kim almost lost an eye that time.”
Kim gave Mina’s lower back a sly, sympathetic pat. It sent Mina over the edge and she gulped over the lump in her throat, silently begging the tears not to follow.
The guys’ clumsy technique and near spills had left her ribs bruised, and her legs were sore from balancing on their lopsided, shaky holds. Keeping her body tight in the double down made her muscles scream. She wasn’t the only one sore or out of sorts, but she dared not point that out.
Coach Em took a huge breath, blew it out toward the ceiling then picked up her bag. She headed to the door and stopped. “Don’t forget curfew is ten tonight.” Her tone was flat. “Not a second later. No excuses.”
She walked out, leaving the squad in stunned silence. Wise, since seconds later she popped her head back in the door. “Don’t make me regret putting this team together, ladies. And Mina, prove me wrong ... because I’m having serious second thoughts about choosingFreshmen for this squad at all.”
With that she walked back out, for good.
The girls were somber as they headed their separate ways. But eight hours and a couple of power naps later, the tired sad sacks from that morning were gone. Freshly made up, sporting their cutest street clothes instead of spirit gear, the cheerleaders sat scattered in the near-empty, raised bleachers at the back of the arena among the other Uppers.
The bad practice was behind them.
The arena had six sections of bleachers, eighteen rows high. Even the first row of bleachers sat four feet off the ground. The DRB Upperswere so far away from the stage, nearly two football fields’ length, they couldn’t have made it more obvious they were not there for the performances.
T
here was a good crowd in attendance. Nothing like it would be for the main event, but the twelve-thousand-seat arena was a quarter full. People who had come to actually watch the Individual and Partner stunts sat in or milled around the floor seats, their gazes focusedon the stage.
At one time, Coach Em had tried recruiting some of the girls to register for Individual or Partner stunts, but the idea of adding yet another practice onto their already full schedule appealed to no one. Tonight, they were just happy spring breakers, except Mina, whose anxiety over the double down built to a crescendo as she watched team after team perform the same stunt near perfectly.
As her squad mates talked over and around her, she fixated on the jumbo screen that gave her a better view of the stage.
Three girls took the blue-carpeted cheer floor. They wore black shorts, orange sleeveless polos and black and orange ribbons in their hair. When the music started they lifted and threw their flyer into various positions, quick-changing to the beat. Mina watched as the flyer went up smooth as oil, did the double twist that had Mina’s stomach in knots, and then shot right back up in the air holding one leg behind her head.
She groaned. “I hope they’re not in our division tomorrow.”
“Who?” Sara asked.
Mina pointed to the stage. “She already doubled twice. Flawlessly.”
Sara rubbed Mina’s arm. “You’ll be okay. Stop thinking about it.”
“Easier said than done.” Mina’s eyes followed the stunt team until the music came to an abrupt end and they spirited their way off the stage.
“I know what will take your mind off it,” Sara said. She nudged Mina with her elbow and pointed toward the arena doors. “Cutie at two o’clock.”
Mina frowned. “What cutie?”
Sara sucked her teeth then took her hands and adjusted Mina’s head in the right direction. “Brian’s here.”
Mina squinted through the darkened room until she recognized three tall shapes scanning the cavernous arena. The light from the hallway shone behind them enough for her to see it was definitely Brian, JZ and Todd. She smiled, then squealed when she saw three more figures come from behind the guys.
She stood up and clapped. “Oh my God!”
“Are you cheering for those girls that were just on the stage?” Renee asked. “They were amazing.”
Mina laughed. “No, my girls are here.”
Squeezing her way out of the bleachers, she speed-walked over to the clique.
Her screams of happiness were lost in the noise of the music as yet another partner stunt group launched into their routine. The girls talked over each other, everyone trying to get in a question or answer.
“How’s the truce going?” Kelly sang.
Mina’s answer was a dismissive, “Well, we haven’t killed each other.”
“Puh. I still can’t even believe you trusting that girl,” Jacinta said. And just in case Mina did not catch that Jacinta still hated Jessica she added a skeptical eye roll and pinched-mouth frown for good measure.Both disappeared when Mina bumped shoulders with her playfully.
“Only you would trust someone like her. Only you, Princess,” Jacinta laughed.
“Is your mom here tonight?” Lizzie asked, scouring the arena anxiously.
“It’s pretty crowded in here, huh?” Kelly asked.
Mina shook her head no and nodded to answer both questions.
“I’m starving.Your man refused to stop.” Jacinta stuck her tongue out at Brian.
“Okay. First things first ...” Mina put her hands on her hips. “What are y’all doing here? And how come I was clueless you were coming?”
There was a fresh round of cross-talking.
“It was Cinny’s idea.”
“We wanted to surprise you.”
“Can you believe we snuck down here?”
“Uhh ... no,” Mina laughed, delirious with giddiness. The doubledown, the kiss, even the excitement of Guidos grew cloudy in the face of the girls being there.
Before they ever left the arena entrance she was caught up in every detail of their odyssey as rebel road-trippers. She wasn’t sure if her racing heart was because of her excitement that her friends were there, fear at the thought of them getting caught, thrill that they’d risk major punishment for the Extreme (and her), or jealousy that she’d missed out on the ride down, full of dissing and apparently kissing (Go Liz).
“I’ve been having a good time with the squad,” Mina admitted. “But it’s nothing like kicking it with your girls.”
She squeezed them together for a group hug.
“Don’t go all soft on us, Princess,” Jacinta fussed, shying away from Mina’s embrace before letting herself be smothered by the four-way hug.
Brian tapped Mina on the shoulder.
“Can the driver get in on some of this?”
Mina turned and felt her feet leave the ground as Brian lifted her in his hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on for dear life then kissed him on the lips, savoring how full her heart felt to see him. For the briefest second, she’d been afraid to greet him, scared something inside her had changed and he’d be able to tell.
She was so happy to see him her heart was pounding as if it were trying to beat its way out of her chest.
“Thank you for bringing down my girls,” Mina gushed.
“Man, your girls a trip.” Brian shook his head. He placed Mina back down and mocked a girlish–nag. “Stop here, Brian. No, stop there.”
They all trailed behind JZ and Todd, who had spotted the Blue Devil section.
Brian raised his voice. “Do I look like my name is Jeeves the Chauffeur?”
“Jeeves is a butler’s name,” Kelly informed him.
Mina laughed as Brian shoved Kelly’s shoulder, making her trip over a cord.
Kelly made sad eyes. “Mina, promise that your next boyfriend will take orders better.”
Mina held onto Brian’s hand. “Okay. But I think I’m going to keep this one for a while.”
Brian squinted down at her. “Oh, it’s like that?”
“What?” Mina feigned ignorance. “I said I was going to keep you for a while.”
She squeezed Brian’s hand then blew him a kiss. He ducked from it, sending her and Kelly into a fit of giggles.
The clique wasn’t there long before Mina suggested they head back to Brian’s condo. She wanted to be totally in the middle of the girls’ road trip adventure and invited Sara along.
This would be the greatest road trip story ever, even if they did get caught. It was the kind of gutsy stuff that legends were made of. The type of stories people in school would be talking about for years. “Remember when Jacinta, Kelly and Lizzie snuck down to the Extreme and ...”
The buzz and whispering about it had already begun and had spread especially quick since the tale was accompanied by, “Don’t tell anyone. They don’t want it getting back to Mina’s parents.”
Clearly, “don’t tell anyone” was the international code for, “tell everybody!”
Assured Brian would have her and Sara back in time to catch a ride to the hotel with Kim, Mina and the group made a loud exit out of the arena. Once they were settled in the Explorer, Sara immediatelyconfirmed what Mina had been thinking.
“Man, everybody’s talking about you guys.”
“Why?” Kelly asked over JZ’s loud grumbling about Mina taking shotgun.
“Just surprised that you guys snuck down here,” Sara said. “You’re frosh. Plus, everybody thinks you’re shy, Kelly.”
Kelly shrugged. “I’m used to that.” She wrinkled her nose. “Why does shy have to mean totally unadventurous and boring?”
“I don’t know. But you’re sure not. Y’all are little rebel chicks,” Mina said, every bit as proud as a momma bird watching her chicks on their debut solo flight. She turned in the seat to catch a glimpse of Sara’s nodding head. “Did you see Mari-Beth’s face?” Mina giggledwildly and imitated Mari-Beth’s snitty pitch. “Wow, Kelly even yo
u’re on the sneak tip.You have more balls than I thought.”
“Kelly’s that woman,” Jacinta crowed. “She try play all quiet but she’s a down chick.”
“Hey what about me?” Lizzie frowned. “I’m the truly quiet one. Aren’t I down?”
“I was hoping the quiet thing was just an act,” Todd quipped.
Jacinta snorted. “Well you gonna be all burnt because it’s not. Liz is a straight-up good girl. Not like Mina and Kelly.”
There was a whoop of disagreement from Kelly and Mina. They talked over one another denying they were anything short of angels.
“That’s my girl. Bad to the bone,” Brian hollered.
Mina rolled her eyes and bit back a grin. “Don’t get it twisted, I’m still ninety percent good girl.”
“Shoot, as long as there’s that ten percent chance,” Brian said, and put his fist toward the back for a pound from JZ.
JZ gleefully knocked fists with him.
“Leave it to me to get stuck with the pure good girl,” Todd teased, shirking away from Lizzie’s shove.
“All I know is, everybody was talking about it before we left tonight,” Sara said. “You guys are going to gain some serious cred for this.You’re like on some junior, senior level sneak tip.” She chuckled. “Freshman on the breakaway road trip ... that’s one for the DRB High books.”
“I’m not claiming any titles until we get away with it,” Lizzie said, anxiety edging into her voice.
Todd gave her knee a reassuring knock with his own, making her smile.
“Even if you don’t, you guys still get cool points for coming all this way solo,” Sara said.
The truck was silent for a moment, except for the music playing at mid-level, as the girls seemed to consider their newfound status. None of them cared about running in the Upper circle like Mina. Lizzie’s focus was always her grades and her acting. Jacinta simply didn’t care about being “in.”And Kelly had transferred to Del Rio Bay High to get away from the pecking order lifestyle of elite McStew Academy.