Cheerleading Can Be Murder (Horror High #1)

by Carissa Ann Lynch

  Andy, Amanda, and I couldn’t reach an agreement on what type of pizza we wanted, so we asked if they could do it one-third cheese, one-third pepperoni, and one-third sausage. The waitress laughed and rolled her eyes, but obliged.

  Amanda wandered off toward a group of arcade games. I suspected that she too was trying to give me and my boyfriend some space. Andy and I discussed some of the game’s highlights and the basketball team’s upcoming opponent, the Brownstown Bears. I was enjoying the conversation, but my mind kept drifting back to Sydney’s absence from the game.

  What sort of family problems would prevent her from showing up? I wondered. I remembered the look on her face when she was fingering that uniform at practice yesterday. She’d been so excited to fill in for Genevieve. Why would she not show up?

  “I just can’t help wondering what happened to Sydney tonight,” I said aloud, scratching my head.

  “Yeah, I was wondering that too. Why did she leave before the game started?” Andy asked, taking a bite of the cheesy pizza.

  “That’s the thing! She never even showed up. She told Ashleigh she was stuck doing something—something to do with a family situation.”

  “Whoa! That’s strange because I got to the gym early to practice my three-point shot, and Sydney was there too. She said she wanted to practice all the cheers for tonight, to make sure they were perfect.”

  My mouth fell open. “What’s going on?” I threw my hands up in frustration. “Was she wearing her uniform?”

  He nodded. This whole story was becoming more and more bizarre.

  I dug my iPhone out of my cheer bag and dialed Sydney’s cell phone number. It went straight to voicemail. Since that didn’t work, I called her mom and dad’s home number. Her mother, Lacey, answered on the first ring.

  “Sydney, is that you?” she blurted into the phone, without even saying hello.

  “No, Mrs. Hargreaves. It’s Dakota Densford. Did you drop Sydney off at the game tonight?” I tried not to sound too alarmed.

  “Yes, I did. She was supposed to get a hold of me when she was ready for me to pick her up, but she still hasn’t called. Have you seen her?”

  “Not yet,” I said, hanging up.

  I turned to look at Andy and Amanda, who had just wandered back to the table and were looking at me strangely. “We have to go back to school. Something’s wrong. I think Sydney is in trouble.”

  Chapter

  Sixty-Five

  Harrow High was two blocks from Pete’s Pizza Palace. I ran.

  Amanda and Andy did their best to keep up with me. Something was very wrong. My spidey senses were kicking in.

  When we got to the school, it was deserted. However, the front doors were still unlocked due to tonight’s game and the nighttime cleaning staff. I ran through the empty hallways, headed for the gym. Andy and Amanda followed right behind me. They didn’t ask any questions because they simply trusted my judgment. That’s why I loved them so much.

  “Search the boys’ locker room,” I commanded Andy. Amanda and I headed into the girls’ locker room. We opened every locker and looked under every bench. No Sydney.

  “Her locker is at the other end of school. Let’s go down there and look. Maybe she got hurt down there by her locker and she’s in some sort of trouble,” I said, thinking out loud.

  “Let’s go,” Amanda said. Andy was waiting outside of the door for us.

  “Did you find anything?”

  “Nothing besides stinky gym socks and used jock straps.” I gave him a look. This wasn’t the time for his sense of humor.

  “Sorry.” He gave me a sheepish look.

  We headed down the west wing hallway toward Sydney’s locker. It was dark and eerily deserted. As we got closer to our destination, I could have sworn that I heard a muffled cry.

  I froze. “Did you hear that sound?” I asked Andy and Amanda.

  “Yeah. But whatever it is, it’s coming from the other hallway.” Amanda pointed down a narrow hall that led in a different direction from Sydney’s locker.

  “Okay. Let’s go that way then.”

  A few steps later, I heard the sound again. Running toward it, I recognized the hallway. Suddenly, I knew where the sound was coming from—Ashleigh’s locker.

  Chapter

  Sixty-Six

  There was a person inside the locker and regrettably, I knew who it was. I started banging on the locker, trying to open it. The muffled cries grew louder and louder. Whoever was in there could hear us.

  “Oh my god! How are we going to get it open? We’ll get you out of there, Ashleigh, don’t worry!” Amanda screamed. Andy started kicking at the locker furiously, pushing me aside.

  “We could stand here guessing combinations all night long and still never get the right one,” he said, frustrated.

  I suddenly remembered something. For once, Brittani Barlow had done something positive. She’d told me about the binder in her mother’s office, the one with everyone’s locker combinations written down inside of it.

  “Stay here.” I took off running down the hall. “And call Detective Simms while I’m gone!” I added over my shoulder. I reached Principal Barlow’s door within minutes. It was dark, deserted. I started beating and kicking at the door furiously.

  Like most teachers’ doors, it had a narrow pane of glass on the upper section of the door. I knew what I had to do if I wanted to get that binder. I grabbed a student chair from the hall. It had metal tips on its feet. I lifted up the chair and slammed the feet against the pane as hard as I could. A small portion of the glass shattered. I used the tips of the chair to knock away loose glass shards, and then I stuck my arm through the opening, unlocking the door.

  I felt around in the dark until I found a light switch. I turned it on, immediately spotting several large binders on Principal Barlow’s desk. I opened up each one wildly, throwing aside the ones that were not it. Finally, I opened a pale yellow binder and saw the combinations typed in rows. Bingo!

  I knew Ashleigh’s combo would be on the bottom of the list under W’s for her last name: Westerfield. Jackpot!

  I ripped the whole sheet out and raced back down the hall. Amanda and Andy were still standing by the locker. “The police are on their way,” Andy told me. Thank God.

  Amanda was still standing, her mouth pressed against the locker door, trying to give words of encouragement. “Step aside,” I ordered. “And by the way, it’s not Ashleigh in there.”

  “Huh?” Amanda stared at me, baffled.

  I started turning the dial, looking down at the numbers displayed on the paper from Principal Barlow’s office. I was trying to stay calm, but my fingers were shaking uncontrollably. And that’s when I heard a new sound…heavy boots moving down an adjacent hallway. They moved slowly, confidently. Someone was coming for us!

  Chapter

  Sixty-Seven

  “Don’t move!” I heard someone scream from down the hallway.

  “Now, that is Ashleigh.” I turned toward the voice, fuming. I was going to kick her ass for shoving one of my best friends into a locker.

  Ashleigh was standing there in the darkness, holding something in her hand. A glimmer of something silvery caused me to freeze in place. Was she going to shoot me if I opened the locker? Surely, she didn’t have a gun?

  As she took a step forward, moving into the light, I finally saw what was really in her hand. A metal object, but not a gun. It looked like…a crowbar?

  The last thing I wanted was to get hit by a crowbar, but it wasn’t like she was holding a gun, so I turned back to the locker and started quickly turning the dial again.

  “Don’t!” Ashleigh screamed, running toward me like a maniac. I heard the sound of the lock unlatching, and as I threw open the locker door, I saw Ashleigh a few feet away from me. She had the crowbar ready to swing, raised high over her head.

  “Ashleigh, don’t!” I heard Andy and Amanda screaming.

  “Go, run!” Andy nudged me.

  But I didn’t run
. I did something Ashleigh wasn’t expecting. I charged straight at her. This was the person who’d been making my life a living hell, and that all ended tonight. No way was I running from this maniac!

  I reached for the crowbar, grasping for it desperately with both hands. My hands met cold metal, and I jerked hard, trying to wrestle the crowbar from her hand. We fell to the floor, rolling around wildly, both of us refusing to release the weapon. Amanda screamed shrilly, and then Andy was behind Ashleigh, pulling the crowbar away.

  “Ashleigh Westerfield, put your hands in the air!” Detective Simms hollered, racing down the hall to my rescue. I let go of the crowbar, and so did Andy. But Ashleigh ignored the detective’s pleas, and swung the metal at my face.

  That’s when Detective Simms shot her.

  Chapter

  Sixty-Eight

  By the time we got the locker open, Sydney’s face was blue from oxygen deprivation. Now I understood why Ashleigh had said that Sydney was “stuck” and couldn’t attend the game. She was stuffed inside the locker so tightly that we had to wait for paramedics to come wedge her out.

  Sydney had been hit over the head with Ashleigh’s metal crowbar, and her wound required nearly two dozen stitches. The most damage done was to her mental state. She was in complete shock when they pulled her out, with her eyes wide open from being frozen with fear. At first, I thought she was dead.

  After Ashleigh knocked Sydney out with the crowbar, she apparently stripped off her uniform and stuffed her in the locker half-naked. She was wearing only her bra and underwear when we found her. I couldn’t even imagine the terror she must have felt, waking up in that tight, dark locker. I don’t even want to think about it.

  Sydney was in the hospital for several days. When I went to see her she was very appreciative for the role I played in saving her. She actually called me her hero. I was just appreciative of the fact that she actually forgave me for being such a jerk of a friend.

  As it turned out, the reason she had all of those fliers in her locker was because she’d been going around, taking them down that day, just like Amanda and I had been. She said that she wanted to help take the fliers down because she felt guilty for sitting in the car on the night that Genevieve, Tasha, and Mariella egged Amanda’s house. She admitted that Tasha wrote the note to Amanda’s Grandma Mimi and signed my name. “I think we are all even now, don’t you?” I joked, holding my best friend’s hand tightly in mine.

  I also sustained an injury that night, but it was fairly minor. Without even realizing it, or feeling the pain, I’d sliced my arm on the jagged edges of the glass in Principal Barlow’s door. I had to get several stitches and wear it wrapped in gauze for a week, which made cheerleading slightly difficult. But all in all, I felt very fortunate that was the only harm that came to me.

  Ashleigh was arrested right there in the hallway of Harrow High. Lucky for her, Detective Simms had terrific aim, and he aimed for her big toe when he shot her. He stopped her from hitting me with the crowbar, but he avoided a deadly shot.

  When they placed the cuffs around her wrists, Ashleigh was still wearing Genevieve’s cheerleading uniform. Strangely, she yelled, “Go, Dragons!”, as she was hauled out to the patrol car. She was charged with two counts of attempted murder, along with a laundry list of minor charges.

  She confessed to tearing up my uniform and admitted to memorizing my combination that day when we were standing at my locker, and she was giving me that speech about how happy she was even though she didn’t make the squad. Go figure. Looking back at it now, I felt like I should have known. I’d never seen someone act so happy to not make the cheerleading team, and it all made sense to me now.

  Ashleigh also fessed up to stuffing a cat that she murdered herself in Brittani’s gym bag while Brittani was outside playing tennis during Phys Ed. Ashleigh further admitted to slipping Ricin powder into Genevieve’s power drink at lunch, and slicing the tires of Monika and Tally’s vehicles. Apparently, you could buy anything on the Internet, including poison.

  As it turns out, my mom’s psychological profile was sort of right. Ashleigh’s father had been physically abusing her for years, and that’s why she always wore big, baggy clothes to cover up her body at school. Her mother was a severe alcoholic. Ashleigh was very manipulative and she had us all fooled. And she certainly showed no remorse for her wrongdoings, just like my mom said would be the case. When they asked her why she did it, she simply smiled and said, “I did it for the team.” I still get the creeps just thinking about it.

  Regardless of Ashleigh’s background, I wished she would have chosen a different fate. She was actually a decent cheerleader, and with Monika and Tally graduating this year, she would have certainly made the squad next year. I guess she just couldn’t handle being an alternate anymore. She wanted to be on the team so badly she was willing to kill for it. Literally!

  Deep down, I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for her. Maybe I was destined to join the social work field just like my mother, after all. Either that, or I might be a cop. Detective Simms’ bravery that night was inspiring, to say the least.

  Ashleigh was dealt a bad hand in life with her parents. However, every time I looked at my best friend, Amanda, I couldn’t help but think about her familial background too. Amanda, unlike Ashleigh, had defied the odds, and would never be a bad egg, like her parents. I felt awful for suspecting her, and I planned on never telling her that fact.

  Ashleigh did teach me one thing when it came to my favorite sport—it’s just cheerleading! It’s not life or death, and not worth losing friends over. It certainly wasn’t worth risking our lives for. I decided to never take my friends or family for granted ever again, because as I learned recently with Sydney, they could be taken away from me in the blink of an eye over any little crazy reason.

  Chapter

  Sixty-Nine

  Two Weeks Later…

  It was ten minutes ’til game time, and Harrow’s varsity cheerleading squad was having a powwow. Two weeks had passed since Sydney’s near-death experience, and even though we were all still a little shaken, we couldn’t help feeling pumped up for game night. After all, this is what we’d been waiting for!

  We were waiting for Brittani and Coach Davis to show up. Coach Davis was busy chatting it up with Coach Purnell. A few days ago, she showed up at practice with a big rock on her finger, and we all know who the lucky guy must be—Coach Purnell, of course!

  I was smiling at the two coaches dreamily when Andy walked past me with a basketball tucked under his arm. “They started out as high school sweethearts, you know…” he said in passing, a big cheesy grin on his face.

  “That’ll be us one day.” He winked at me adorably. There was a chorus of oohs and aahs, and some of the other players made obnoxiously embarrassing kissing noises. Honestly, the teasing didn’t bother me a bit. I was falling in love with Andy, simple as that.

  As though reading my mind, Sydney leaned in close, whispering, “He’s definitely the one for you.” Even though Sydney was only an alternate, Coach Davis had asked her to come to this meeting today. Admiringly, she had recovered completely from the incident, at least physically. Genevieve was in attendance tonight too. She’d recuperated from her poisoning just fine, and was as bitchy as ever. Unsurprisingly, she and Ronnie had mended ways, and were officially dating again. I’d finally accepted the fact—they were a match made in heaven.

  “Okay, girls…” Coach Davis said, pulling herself away from her fiancé and walking over to where we were sitting. “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I got a call from Principal Barlow last night. Apparently, she read something in Brittani’s diary that she didn’t like. It had something to do with dropping someone in a lift on purpose…” she said, looking at me slyly. Coach Davis must have known all along when she saw Teresa fall! I realized. I couldn’t believe it! But then again, Coach Davis was very bright, so I sort of did.

  “Anyway. Principal Barlow has decided to remove Brittani
from the team due to these actions.” We all gasped. I couldn’t help smiling. It was somewhat ironic, really. Brittani bragged that, because of her mother, she would definitely be a cheerleader. As it turns out, being the principal’s daughter worked against her in the long run. It reminded me of a saying I heard once—karma’s a bitch.

  “And the good news?” Tally asked skeptically.

  “Meet your newest squad member.” Coach Davis pointed to where Sydney was sitting, Indian style, on the floor in front of the bench. Sydney’s face was glowing. Everyone congratulated her, and I gave her a big hug. She deserved this, especially after everything she’d been through.

  “Oh my gosh…look who’s coming into the gym!” someone from up in the bleachers yelled, catching everyone’s attention. The stands were filled with whispers, and everyone was looking toward the doorway. My eyes darted to where they were pointing. It was Amanda’s Grandma Mimi!

  I had to admit, I was shocked to see her myself. I’d lived next door to the lady for as long as I remember, and I’d only seen her a handful of times. After nearly ten years of hiding in her house, Mimi Loxx had come to Harrow High to see her granddaughter cheer. She was walking slowly, with her head down, a heavy shawl draped around her despite the hot weather. Each of her fingers was covered in shiny jewels, and she was wearing a flashy, sequin-covered beret on her head. Despite her age, she still looked like a Vegas showgirl in her own right.

  I was worried for a moment that Amanda might be embarrassed by her, but I was wrong. Amanda jumped to her feet. “That’s my grandma!” she shouted proudly, running over to her grandmother’s side.