Falling Hard

by Megan Sparks

  “Hey, I heard the big news. That’s so cool you’re a cheerleader,” Tyler said as he sat down next to Annie in English. Usually he sat towards the back with his friends. And Kelsey. Not that Annie was complaining about the new seating arrangements.

  “Thanks.” She could feel her face turning red and hoped it wasn’t too noticeable.

  “It’s going to be great having you cheer at my games. Too bad we’re playing away tomorrow. But next weekend, you’ll be there. It’ll be awesome.”

  Awesome. Yup, having an excuse to stare at Tyler would be awesome. If only she could hold a conversation with him, that might be even more awesome. There he was, sitting right next to her and she could barely speak.

  “Yeah.” That was it. All she could say. At least she could blame Ms Schwartz for starting the class and cutting their “conversation” short. And attention span. Try as she might, she didn’t hear much of what Ms Schwartz said. She was too aware of Tyler right next to her. So close. If he wanted, he could reach out and touch her. At one point she “casually” let her hand drop to her side so it was there if he wanted to hold it. Then she brought it back to the desk immediately, blushing even more. Stupid. He wasn’t going to hold her hand. Especially not in the middle of a class. He probably didn’t even like her like that. He probably had a girlfriend.

  Annie gathered her books quickly at the end of class, hoping to disappear indefinitely.

  “Annie, hi.” Kelsey sashayed her way over to Annie’s desk. She gave her a quick hug that made Annie want to cringe and disinfect her clothes. “I’m SOOO glad you made the squad.”

  Annie glanced from Tyler, who was beaming, to Kelsey, who was showing enough teeth to envy a crocodile. What was she playing at? “Um, thank you?”

  Kelsey linked her arm through Annie’s and led her to her next class, and away from Tyler. As they walked down the hallway together, Kelsey gave little waves at the people who turned and looked at them. Any minute Annie expected someone to be sick. She hoped it wouldn’t be her.

  Kelsey kept up her crocodile smile and added her artificially sweetened voice to it. “As you saw with the try-outs, very few have what it takes to be a cheerleader. I mean really, practices three days a week, sometimes two games per weekend. It’s a huge time commitment.”

  “Yes, I remember,” Annie said. The coach had mentioned it during the try-outs. She tried to remove her arm from Kelsey’s grip, but Kelsey wasn’t finished yet.

  “I just want to remind you what an honour it is to be a cheerleader. It also means you’re popular, so don’t do anything that will bring the rest of us down.”

  Like being mean to the new girl? Although maybe that was better than sickly sweet.

  Kelsey finally dropped her arm with a condescending pat and headed to her own seat. “Bye!”

  Thanks for the welcome to the team. Good to know I can trust you. Annie sighed and focused on the American History teacher. She couldn’t afford to daydream in another class.

  * * *

  Kelsey was right about one thing. Cheerleaders were popular. Every other person, pupil, or teacher who passed Annie in the halls congratulated her on making the squad. Even the cleaner after the last class gave her a thumbs up. It wasn’t that Annie wasn’t pleased to make the squad, she just didn’t have to boast about it to everyone at school. A whole day of Kelsey’s fake smiles and everyone congratulating her was too much for Annie. Roller derby practice couldn’t come soon enough.

  Yesterday her skates had been on the counter, waiting for her when she got to the rink. Today they were nowhere in sight and Jesse was leaning against the rack with his arms crossed.

  “You’re here,” he said, sounding surprised.

  Annie gave him a strange look. “Yes, shouldn’t I be?”

  “I don’t know. Derby kind of takes over your life.” Jesse shifted his weight from one side to the other.

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “I just thought that now you’re a cheerleader, you’d stop slumming it with us.”

  If people weren’t congratulating her, they were making snide remarks. Couldn’t they see she was still the same person? “Are you kidding? Being here is the highlight of my day.”

  Jesse relaxed and pulled out her skates. “For real? I figured we’d lost you to the dark side.”

  Annie pulled her laces up tightly and strapped on her pads. “Well, maybe I’m just what the cheerleading squad needs. A bit of light.”

  That would go down well; the English girl being a little ray of sunshine. She put on her helmet and joined the rest of the Fresh Meat.

  Their warm-up drill today was a game of leapfrog. The girls crouched low and, one at a time, they used each other’s backs to push off with their hands to jump over the “frogs”. Annie remembered playing leapfrog in the playground when she was younger. Adding skates to the game gave it a whole new meaning. She leaped like she was supposed to over the first few girls, but they were crouched so low, it barely counted. Except the last person. Lauren. When she saw it was Annie’s turn, she raised herself to about a metre off the ground and gave Annie a challenging grin. Annie couldn’t resist. She knew she could do it.

  Annie skated towards her, placed her hands squarely on Lauren’s back and leaped over with her legs dangling on either side. She landed on all eight wheels, did a 180-degree turn, and stopped on her toes.

  “Awesome.” Lauren gave her a high five before they both crouched to the ground for the next frog to leap over them. Looking over at Liz standing a couple of metres away, Annie knew the older girl was impressed.

  “All right, peeps.” Coach Ritter clapped her hands once they’d all had a chance to pretend to be leaping frogs. “I hate this part, but it’s time for you to show me what you got. Like I said yesterday, this is for safety reasons only. If you’ve got the skills, you’re in the league. While you’re waiting your turn, Holly will lead you in some conditioning. Aiko, you’re up first.”

  Holly waved them to the middle of the rink where the refs skated during bouts. By the way Holly avoided being close to her, Annie knew she was still sore about yesterday’s knock down.

  Holly got them to do leg rotations at the hip, crunches, and girly push-ups on their knees while they waited. Annie shifted from paying attention to the girls on the track to not wanting to know what was going on. She caught Lauren weaving through a minefield of cones and knew she’d definitely make the team.

  “Annie, you’re next,” Coach Ritter called. Annie took a deep breath and skated to her and Liz. “First I want you to skate around three times at the fastest speed you feel comfortable, making sure you don’t go out of bounds. After the third lap, stop any way you like. Ready?”

  No, but she was going to do it anyway.

  Annie got down low, bum sticking out.

  Coach blew the whistle and Annie pushed off with her toe to sprint away. She rounded the corners with leg-over-leg crossovers, feeling like she could fly. After the last turn, she dashed to the end as if there were a finish line. With one skate behind, she dragged the wheels to a perfect T-stop. Liz nodded and made some marks on her clipboard.

  Next Annie had to jump over a few lines taped on the rink, side step in both directions, do two kinds of falls, go through the cone minefield as Lauren had, and then skate backwards and stop. Backwards skating still was a bit of a challenge, but at least she was improving. The last thing she had to do was bootie-block one of the other newbies, a girl called Jordan with small black braids and a huge smile. Blocking made Annie the most nervous but also determined to do her best. She managed to keep Jordan from passing her, but only because she was as inexperienced as Annie.

  When everyone had completed the test, Holly led all the Fresh Meat in a game of Simon Says while Liz and Coach Ritter compared notes and declared the verdict. Annie could feel her hands sweating as Simon said to skate on one foot. At least they weren’t going to make them wait several days like the cheerleading squad. She’d know in a few minutes if she had to appeal to
the Skating God or not.

  “All righty,” Coach Ritter said. “Here are your new roller girls, in no particular order. Lauren, Aiko, Annie—”

  Annie let out a scream and didn’t hear the rest of the names. Lauren grabbed her in a huge hug and six other girls soon joined them. Even the girls who didn’t make it were good sports and congratulated them with pats on their backs. Annie did a little happy dance on her skates that the others quickly tried to copy, resulting in a lot of arms flinging about and one girl on the floor, laughing. Annie couldn’t wait to tell her dad, mum, and grandparents about the real good news of the day.

  “Good job everyone.” Coach Ritter and the older roller girls clapped. “If you didn’t make it, come talk to me and I’ll give you some feedback on what you need to work on.” Handing out a sheet of contact details, she added, “If you made it, practices are here Mondays and Thursdays with bouts on the weekends. See you next week.”

  What, Mondays and Thursdays? No. No way, not fair. Annie put her head in her hands. Cheerleading practices were Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. She couldn’t be in two places at once. She’d have to choose. But which one?

  The one she was better at, or the one she liked better?

  Chapter Twelve

  “Hey, Annie, check this out.” Dad took the cast-iron frying pan off the heat. With a little shake first, he flipped the pancake high into the air. It did three flips before he caught it dead centre back on the pan. “This pancake is a better gymnast than you, Beanie.”

  Annie raised her eyebrows and reached out for the pan. “Let me have a go.”

  “No, stop. Intruder. Exterminate!” Dad tried to bar the entry into the kitchen but Annie used her cunning skills to get past the guard.

  “Please, please?” Annie looked at her dad with sad, puppy dog eyes.

  Dad let out a huge sigh. “I suppose. Nice and easy. Just a flick.”

  Annie jiggled the pan like Dad had and flipped the pancake in the air. It flipped once and landed half in the pan. The other half broke off and landed on the gas flame. In an instant, Dad grabbed the half pancake with his bare hands and flung it into the sink.

  “And that’s why, kids, you don’t try this at home.” Dad pretended to be stern but he was amused. So was Annie. Last time she’d tried to flip a pancake in London, all of it had landed on the floor.

  A loud knock came from the front door. Annie opened it to find Lexie standing there with a midriff-baring black and white shirt, high-waisted trousers with braces, and saddle shoes. A white beret perched on top of her unruly hair. “Wow, it smells even better inside.”

  Dad poked his head out of the kitchen to grin at Lexie, then turned to Annie and got down to business. “Miss Turner, shame on you. Go offer the young lady a seat. I still have to finish up with the flapjacks.”

  “Hungry?” Annie asked.

  Lexie peeked into the kitchen and grinned. “I can eat. If there’s enough.”

  Dad made a humph sound. As if that was even a question.

  Annie set the kitchen table for three and gestured to Lexie to sit. She brought out a teapot of hot water, a jug of milk, and the basket with tea bags: black, green, and herbal. She stood back and kept her hands behind her. “And what would you like to compliment your pancakes, miss? Lemon and icing sugar?”

  “Butter and maple syrup, if you have it?” Lexie asked, playing along with the game.

  “Of course.” Annie nodded and turned to Dad. “Order in. Short stack, fat and sweet.” In movies, the American cafés always had code names for the food. She wasn’t sure if what she said made sense but it sounded good to her.

  A few minutes later, Dad set down four plates: three with three pancakes each – one with butter and real maple syrup in little sauce cups, one with lemon slices and dusted with icing sugar, and one with the works. The other plate was piled high with thick bacon.

  “Wow,” Lexie said to Dad as she took a bite. “If you want another daughter, I can offer myself up for adoption.”

  “Of course. I can always use another indentured servant for the kitchens.” Dad put on an evil voice and twiddled his thumbs mischievously. “I figure twenty years should cover your debt.”

  Lexie waved a hand at him. “No problem. Though once you get my decorating bill...”

  Dad narrowed his eyes and growled before the three of them burst out laughing. They clinked their cups of tea and got stuck in. Annie couldn’t help but wonder if this was what it was like to have a sister.

  “So what’s the verdict on cheer-weeding versus derby?” Lexie asked, dipping a piece of bacon into the syrup.

  Yup, just like a sister. Bringing up exactly what Annie didn’t want to think about. “I don’t know. I really wish I could do both.”

  Lexie agreed. “Not unless you split yourself. Or clone.”

  Annie pushed her playfully but couldn’t help imagining what it’d be like to have a clone. One of us could go back to London and the other could stay here with Dad.

  “Well, I think you should go for cheerleading,” said Dad. “Less chances of getting hurt. String beans aren’t as good with bruises.”

  “Yeah,” Annie agreed. To the bruises, not the cheerleading. She still didn’t know about that. The pep rally had been so great, and having the whole school watch her perform at the next one would be nerve-wrenchingly brilliant. But she liked the idea of competing more than cheering along the sidelines. And there was no doubt that the girls on the derby team were much nicer. And real.

  “Just think,” Lexie tried to swing her hair over her shoulder, except it was too wild, so she gave Annie a large cheerleader’s smile instead. “If you’re a cheerleader, you’ll be like one of the most popular girls in like the whole universe!”

  Annie swung her own hair, which did swish quite nicely, and held her thumbs and fingers out in a W. “Whatever.”

  “All righty. Girl talk is always a sign to bail.” Dad pushed himself away from the table and stacked the plates on the kitchen counter. “Gotta get some more supplies. I have a challenge for you. See if you can come up with a new recipe– cookie, cake, anything you like – that we can sell at Rosie Lee’s.”

  Annie and Lexie looked at each other. A challenge involving baking? Bring it on.

  They put the dishes in the dishwasher and tidied up in the kitchen. That was one of Dad’s few rules and Annie kind of agreed with him: make as big a mess as you need while baking, but never start with a dirty kitchen.

  “What do you fancy?” Annie asked as she sipped her Earl Grey tea.

  Lexie’s eye widened. “How about cupcakes?”

  “Ooh, yeah. What kind?”

  “Chocolate is always good.”

  She was right, of course, but Annie wanted to try something different. Something that the people of Liberty Heights had never tasted. She swirled the last bit of the tea in her cup.

  That’s it!

  “What about Earl Grey cupcakes?”

  Lexie responded by sniffing one of the tea bags. “Orange?”

  “Close,” Annie said pulling her hair into a ponytail. “It’s called bergamot. I think it’s Mediterranean.”

  “Cool, let’s try it. Mind if I plug in some tunes? I brought my MP3 and dock.” Lexie didn’t wait for an answer. In just a few seconds, Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” was pumping throughout Rosie Lee’s.

  “Nice!” Annie gave her a thumbs-up before taking the eggs out of the fridge.

  “I’m so glad you dig classic rock. Most kids at school just listen to the mainstream stuff: pop, rap, and hip hop. No imagination.”

  Annie remembered the annoying pop songs they had to dance to during the cheerleading try-out. If she joined the squad, there’d be no getting away. “Yeah, I’ve noticed.”

  Lexie seemed to understand what she was saying. Or not saying. “Cheerleading?”

  “They really like their Top 40.” Annie started measuring the ingredients. On her seventh birthday Dad had shown her how to make her own cupcakes and she’d never
forgotten. The only thing that would be different was to reduce the amount of milk a little to compensate for the extracted tea. She might not be a whizz in the kitchen like Dad, but she knew her way around.

  “I still don’t get why you want to be a cheerleader. I mean, is it just to be popular like Kelsey?” Lexie asked as she lined the muffin tin with coloured paper cases.

  “Kelsey is a you-know-what. I don’t want to be anything like her. It’s just that...” Annie stopped. She shouldn’t have said so much. “I don’t want to give up on gymnastics.”

  Lexie squinted at her. “Really? Gymnastics? That’s the only reason?”

  “Well,” Annie brushed away a stray stand of hair that had come undone from her ponytail. “There is another reason, but it’s embarrassing.”

  “You’re dying to show off those insanely long legs in that sickeningly cute uniform?”

  The uniform was cute, but no. She took a deep breath. Nicola, Georgie, and Mel back at home knew about him, but that was different because they didn’t actually know him. She might as well tell Lexie too. She was her best friend now. “I really fancy Tyler, you know from the football – I mean, soccer – team. I just thought if I was a cheerleader...”

  “He’d get to know you better?” Lexie finished for her.

  “Pretty stupid, huh?”

  Lexie didn’t say anything for a bit, and it wasn’t just because of the electric mixer. “Look, I don’t know him well, him being a junior and all, but I’ve heard he’s kind of a player. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “He seems really nice.” Annie remembered the talks they’d had: Chelsea Football Club and her accent. He cheered so loudly during her try-out, he had to at least like her as a friend. And then she remembered him flirting with the pretty cheerleaders during the pep rally. “But it doesn’t matter. He’s way out of my league.”

  But oh, how great it’d be if they did end up going out. Before taking a penalty shot, he’d look over to the sidelines, catch her eye and signal, “This one’s for you, babe,” before scoring the goal that would win the game. Then she’d run into his arms—