A Non-Blonde Cheerleader in Love

by Kieran Scott

  Although I’m pretty sure that one was on purpose.

  Coach shook her head as we jogged back off the court. “Have you all forgotten this is West Wind?” she whispered, leaning forward in her seat. “Get it together!”

  I glanced down the bleachers at our rivals’ side and saw their squad snickering and pointing. Was it wrong that I was hoping that particular portion of our gym ceiling might spontaneously cave in?

  “It’s a little late to be trying to get it together now,” Chandra whispered, taking a sip of water from a bottle she kept on the bleacher between her feet.

  “Seriously,” I replied.

  Our pregame meeting with Coach hadn’t gone exactly as she’d hoped. When she had asked us what our solution for the team was, no one had said a word. Not even Tara or Terrell. I had just stared down at my pleats until she had finally thrown her hands up and left us to stretch. Notch up one more disappointment on our long belt of disappointments.

  Throughout the second quarter, no one felt like cheering. We were supposed to do chants almost continuously, but Coach had to keep whispering Tara’s name to get her to call the cheers. The basketball team wasn’t helping matters much. They looked like a bunch of amateurs out there, turning the ball over, muffing passes and slamming every potential three-pointer right off the backboard. Meanwhile, the West Wind Dolphins might as well have just stepped off the bus from Shaq camp. Every time they got the ball, it was a swish fest. Three-pointer . . . swish. Layup . . . swish. Flying acrobatic dunk, accompanied by foot to the face of the Sand Dune guard . . . jam, bam, ice pack. By the time the half was over, we were down by twenty points.

  “All right, come on, you guys,” Tara said as we stood up to take center court for the halftime cheer. “Let’s show these people what we can do.”

  I looked at Daniel as he jumped down to the floor. He did not look at me. Not that I was surprised. All night he had been freezing me out. In fact, the air between us could have probably been chipped up and used for slushies. And I was supposed to let this person toss me into the air? Somehow I wasn’t feeling it.

  At least Coach had decided to do a fairly simple cheer at halftime. No huge pyramids, no major throws. Just cupies on the last run-through. One stunt to hit. Apparently she knew how to hedge her bets.

  I stood in formation and faced the crowd. It felt like everyone was on the edge of their seats, just waiting for something interesting—anything at all—to happen. Not that I could blame them. After that pep rally, I would have been salivating for more insanity too.

  “SDH!” Tara called. “Ready?”

  “Okay!

  S! D! H!

  S! D! H!

  Who’s the team that’s gonna win?”

  I crouched down in front of my laminated “H” sign.

  “S!”

  Phoebe thrust the S over her head.

  “D!”

  Sage thrust the D over her head.

  “H!”

  My turn. I thrust the H up.

  “Who’s the team we’re cheering for?”

  “S! D! H!” The crowd shouted back at us as we raised our signs again. I smiled. Okay. This was good. Crowd participation. No mess-ups so far. We even sounded pretty loud and energetic.

  Maybe all was not lost.

  “Who’s the team that’s gonna win?”

  “S! D! H!”

  I backed toward Daniel and handed the sign off to Jaimee, who was staying floor bound for this one. Chandra and Autumn took the other signs.

  “Come on, say it loud and proud!”

  “S!”

  Phoebe went up into her cupie . . . then squealed and came right back down. The entire crowd gasped. Joe caught her awkwardly and she shouted in pain, crumpling to the floor as she clutched her ankle. The damage was done. We probably should have stayed on point, but several squad members turned around to look, fearing the worst, and now our timing was all thrown off.

  “D!” Tara and a few of the more conscientious cheerleaders shouted.

  Sage and Terrell didn’t even try their cupie. Coach Holmes’ head hung.

  “Are we doing this?” Daniel said in my ear.

  I just nodded. We had to save the cheer. We had to do something!

  “H!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

  I went up and Daniel caught my feet. Solid. I thrust my hands into a high V and grinned. The few people in the stands who hadn’t already covered their faces with their hands gaped at me. The only cheerleader still cheering. On the floor, the rest of the squad was in shambles.

  And then they started to boo. They actually started to boo. And the longer I was up there, the louder the noise grew.

  “Um. I think I should come down now,” I said through my forced grin.

  “Okay. One, two,” Daniel said.

  We cradled out and all I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry. But instead, the second I was down, I jumped out of Daniel’s arms and ran to check on Phoebe with the rest of the squad.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, crouching on the floor as boos and jeers continued to rain down on us.

  “Yeah. I think I may have just sprained it,” Phoebe said, wincing.

  “I can’t believe they’re booing us,” Sage said. “We’re national champions. Hello?”

  “I think that’s why they’re booing us,” Chandra said. “They expect a little more from us than this.”

  We took it all in, the squad gathered in a clump on the floor. Our signs tossed aside. Poms everywhere. Chandra was right. We were a huge disappointment. After leaving Daniel’s house that afternoon, I felt like I had hit my lowest low. Now I knew there was always somewhere lower.

  “Hey, Sand Dune!”

  We all looked up to see the West Wind High captain sauntering by us with her squad in tow. Their green-and-white uniforms had glittering letters across the front and the captain had worn green glitter eye shadow to match. The overall look was very Wicked Witch of the West.

  “Nice routine,” the girl said. “Really hot. Did you practice the part where you all fall on your faces or does that just come naturally to you?”

  “Back off, Jenna,” Tara said.

  “Oooh. Or what? You’ll sic your men on me?” Jenna said, raising both hands. “Somehow I’m not that concerned,” she added, looking the guys over with one eyebrow raised, like they were just so lame. Then she turned on her heel and walked out into the lobby, taking her band of flying monkeys with her.

  Like I said. Always somewhere lower.

  Friday night, my mother and I walked out of our house with our winter jackets on. A cold snap had finally hit Sand Dune and we had been forced to unpack the coats and gloves. Yes, gloves. Never thought those things would see the light of day again. Anyway, it was too cold and too dark for me to walk to school to catch the fan bus to K.C.’s latest match, so Mom had offered to drive me. My hand had just reached for the door handle on her car when a pair of headlights swung into the driveway.

  Honda Civic headlights. Daniel Healy’s headlights.

  And I was the proverbial deer caught in them.

  “Hon?” my mom said, her breath making steam in the cold air.

  “Uh . . . maybe I have a ride?” I said uncertainly.

  “Want me to wait inside?” she asked, clutching her coat closer to her.

  Daniel was staring at me through the windshield. I couldn’t read his expression.

  “Uh . . . I guess?” I said.

  My mother smiled at me encouragingly. “I’m right in there if you need me,” she said. Then she jogged back inside to enjoy the heat. Which had been turned on for the first time today. The second she was gone, Daniel got out of the car. He left it running. For what? So he could make a quick getaway after he finally, officially broke up with me?

  “Hey,” he said, pushing his hands into the pockets of his varsity jacket. He had topped it with a blue scarf, no gloves. Boys. Always trying to be so tough.

  “Hey,” I said.

  “You going to the t
hing?” he asked.

  “Yeah. You?”

  “Yeah.”

  Well. This was a stunningly fascinating conversation.

  Daniel took a few steps toward me. “Annisa, I can’t take this anymore,” he said. “I should never have joined this stupid squad.”

  “Don’t say that,” I said.

  “No. It’s true,” he told me, locking his clear blue eyes on mine. “We never fought before this. A couple of weeks ago I couldn’t even imagine being mad at you and now—”

  “Now you’re mad at me all the time,” I finished.

  Daniel smirked. “Well, not all the time.”

  My shoulder muscles uncoiled. “Daniel, I’m so sorry about the pep rally. I mean, I was all caught up in Sage’s plan and I didn’t realize exactly how bad it was going to be until, you know, I saw it.”

  “Yeah. It sucked pretty hard,” he said. “But I kind of understand the pack mentality thing. Terrell is really good at talking me into stuff. And I don’t know why,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

  I snorted a laugh. “Maybe because he’s the devil?”

  “Could be,” Daniel said.

  We stood there for a moment, shivering in silence. This was the most we had said to each other in days. All I wanted to do was hug him. I felt like some invisible force was pushing me toward him, but I held my ground. I still didn’t know if he wanted to hug me. I felt so awkward just standing there.

  “So . . . what do we do now?” I said finally.

  He looked at me out of the corner of his eye, then stepped even closer. My breath caught and I realized that a big part of me had thought he would never be this close to me again.

  “Well, for starters, I was thinking this,” he said.

  And then he reached out and pulled me into his arms. I pressed my face against the cold leather of his jacket and squeezed my eyes closed. Sweet relief! I felt like I was really breathing for the first time all week.

  “What do you think?” he asked lightly.

  “This is good!” I replied, my voice cracking.

  Daniel leaned back and smiled. “So you don’t hate me anymore?”

  “I never hated you,” I replied. “Do you still hate me?”

  “I never hated you either,” he said.

  Big sigh.

  “I thought you were never going to talk to me again,” I said. “I came to your house . . .” I trailed off. We both knew I’d come to his house. We both knew that I knew that he’d seen me. How had things gotten so complicated?

  “I’m sorry about the freeze-out,” Daniel said. “I just needed some time to chill. If I’d talked to you that day . . .”

  Now it was his turn to let the sentence hang. I swallowed hard, realizing how he would have finished it. If I’d talked to you that day . . . we would have broken up.

  This really hurt. No one ever told you how much having a boyfriend could really hurt. Two days ago, Daniel had seriously thought about breaking up with me. I could hardly believe it.

  “Anyway, there’s still something you have to explain,” Daniel said.

  He let me go and took a couple steps back. My stomach dropped. The chili I had eaten for dinner gurgled. Mental note: Chili is never a good idea in the midst of relationship uncertainty.

  “What?” I asked, shivering from both the cold and the abject fear.

  “I guess I still don’t understand why you were so mad at me,” he said.

  Oh, yeah. That. How to explain? I tilted my head back to look at him and gave it my best shot.

  “I think I just felt like . . . like you were choosing the guys over me,” I said. “Like it was more important to you to . . . I don’t know, make Terrell laugh than to think about me. My feelings.”

  Daniel blew out a sigh. “I guess I said some mean things at the slumber party, huh?”

  “Yeah. Kind of. But it wasn’t just that. I told you how important that night was to all of us and it was like you just ignored it,” I said.

  “I didn’t ignore it,” Daniel said. “I just didn’t get it.”

  “Well, maybe that’s the problem. It doesn’t matter if you get it. You just have to . . . I don’t know . . .”

  “Respect it? Listen better?” Daniel offered.

  I smirked. “Maybe. Have you been going to therapy or something?”

  “Nah. Just talked to Steven about it,” Daniel said with a smile. “Did you know his parents are psychologists?”

  “That’s right!” I said. “I forgot he’s good at this stuff.”

  “Well, all right. I’ll try to be better, but then the same goes for you,” Daniel said. “You have to listen better to me.”

  “When have I not listened?” I asked, baffled.

  Daniel laughed. “Oh, I don’t know, every time I’ve told you that something was a joke? You take everything so seriously, Annisa, and sometimes I really am just kidding.”

  My heart turned and I looked at the ground, embarrassed. I guess if I expected Daniel to eat a little crow, I would have to do some chewing myself. After all, I knew I wasn’t totally in the right. I guess it was just sort of difficult to hear it.

  “You think you could do that? Not take stuff so seriously?” he said, ducking his head to try to catch my eye. There was a big lump in my throat, but I knew I had to answer him.

  “I guess so,” I said, rolling my eyes comically.

  Daniel grinned and my heart completely unclenched for the first time in days.

  “Good,” he said. Then he took a deep breath and blew it out. “Whew. This couple thing is hard,” he joked.

  “Tell me about it,” I said with a smile.

  “So we’re cool?” he asked.

  The smile widened as relief flooded through me. We were not breaking up. We were making up! Right here, right now. “Yeah. We’re cool.”

  “Good. So . . . you wanna go to school before they all leave without us?” he said, turning one shoulder toward the car.

  “Wait! Don’t you want to do the whole best-part-of-fighting thing?” I said, jumping forward. I was giddy. I couldn’t help it.

  Daniel looked adorably confused. “What’s that? Oh, man. Is that something you’ve told me that I didn’t listen to?”

  “Ha-ha,” I said, shoving his shoulder. “No, no, no. It’s kissing and making up.”

  “Oh! Right! That!” Daniel looked happier than I’d seen him in a long time. “Now that I can handle.”

  And then I kissed him, and he kissed me back, and we stayed there for I don’t know how long, just keeping each other warm.