**For AmericanGecko's Minor Characters contest, featuring Liz Haggarty, of the Middleton High Cheer Squad**
CRIMSON ALTERNATE: THE OTHER REDHEADED CHEERLEADER
The pretty, bell-shaped girl stirred in her bed, the covers wrapped around her like a soft, warm cocoon, as an unwelcome noise got louder and louder. Only her red hair was visible.
"Liz? Honey? Time to get up! LIZ!" the female voice shouted again.
"Mmmmwhuh?" came the unintelligible reply.
With a groan, Liz Haggarty peeked out from under the warm covers of her bed and looked over at her clock.
The red digital numbers stared back at her, mocking her.
6:15 AM
Grumbling under her breath, Liz tossed the covers aside and slid out of bed, wearing a pair of old grey gym shorts and a too-long purple 'Property of Middleton High Athletic Department' t-shirt. With practiced ease she slipped a purple headband on, keeping the red hair out of her blue eyes.
"Liz?" her mother called again, more calmly, from the other side of the bedroom door.
"I'm up, mom!" Liz shouted back as she stretched, listening to her joints snap and pop.
"I hate mornings," she sighed as she grabbed her clothes and headed into the bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, a showered and dressed Liz bounded down the stairs and into the combination kitchen and dining room, attracted by the wonderful smells of breakfast.
Her mother, an attractive dark-eyed woman with red hair just past her ears styled to sweep just slightly upwards hummed busily as she put some more bacon onto a plate next to a pair of eggs and toast and handed it off to her daughter with practiced ease.
"Thanks mom!" Liz said with a broad smile, pouring herself some orange juice and sitting down at the dinner table. She dropped her book-laden Middleton Mad Dogs backpack next to her chair.
Her father, tall, thin, with blond hair cut almost like a flat-top and blue eyes like hers, was sitting at the opposite end of the table, omnipresent fifties-style horn-rimmed glassed perched on the end of his nose. He held a cup of coffee in one hand, and the morning paper in the other. He peered over the rim of the coffee cup and smiled.
"Sleep well, honey?"
"Mmmhmm," she nodded, reveling in the taste and texture of the food in her mouth. She fought down a smile as she heard Ron's voice in her head, from back in Middle School when he first saw Liz's parents.
Hey Liz! You never told me your Dad looked like Drew Carey!
She supposed that he did, a little bit, if you squinted really hard…then again, she always thought Ron's dad sounded like Elliott Gould…
"Don't forget we have a late meeting at the Middleton Country Club Friday night," her mother said, snapping her out of comparing her father to the famous man.
She knew it was for the 'Dukes and Debs' club, really the 'Dukes and Debutantes,' a swing dancing club her parents had belonged to in college. The renewed interest in swing dancing had turned out to be just another fad, but there were still a sizable number of fans nationwide, with chapters of the club in cities all across the country. Her parents were two such fans, and they had been taking their daughter to the actual dances since she was in diapers.
The meetings were another story. As soon as she'd become old enough to understand them, she tried to avoid them. While she loved the end result, she had little interest in how the dances came to be, and generally preferred to stay at home.
The fact that they were having a meeting meant that another dance, almost certainly at the Middleton Country Club, would be happening soon. That was something to look forward to! Good food, nice music, and some dancing would be a feast for her senses! Liz's elation was tempered with another concern …
"How late?" Liz asked, looking both hopeful and a little anxious.
Mr. Haggarty exchanged a knowing smile with his wife and chuckled.
"Late enough that you can ask one of your friends to spend the night if you like," he answered.
Liz popped up out of her chair and leaned across the table to give her father a kiss on the cheek.
"Thanks, Daddy!" she said with a broad smile. "You too, Mom," she added.
Mrs. Haggarty nodded and came over to hug her daughter. "You're welcome, honey."
"Gotta run!" Liz said, ducking down to snatch up her backpack. She silently thanked her parents for being so understanding. She really didn't know why she hated being alone in the house overnight, but it had been a fear that persisted through childhood. She'd been teased a little by some of her friends, especially by Bonnie Rockwaller, about being a baby, but her generally sunny disposition let her shrug it off good-naturedly.
As she headed through the living room, she laughed out loud at what was on the television, providing background noise.
The Jetsons. It wasn't the show that made her laugh, but a realization she'd made back in grade school on seeing the show, and Jane Jetson.
Wow, that's totally Mom's hair!
It still made her smile or laugh whenever she saw the show, and she sometimes teased her mother over it.
Liz headed out the front door towards school, tossing her backpack over one shoulder. If she hurried, she could catch up to Marcella, assuming the Latino girl hadn't finagled a ride from her older brother. The Romeros were only three blocks away, and Marcella was almost always notoriously late in getting up.
Now she just needed to decide who to invite. It should be one of her cheer-mates, as they were among her closest friends, and she'd known most of them all her young life.
Believe it or not, there was a carefully established pecking order, and bucking it could be trouble. If it had been a slumber party, she could have invited everyone, but since she was only allowed to ask one girl …
Kim was clearly at the top of that pecking order, with Bonnie close on her heels. Both were driven to succeed and extremely competitive, especially with each other. The middle segment was comprised of herself, Marcella, Hope, and Crystal. They were all fairly average, neither too ambitious nor too shy. The lowermost segment, which wasn't meant to imply that they were lesser cheerleaders or friends, was made up of Jessica and Tara. The two were probably the least ambitious or outgoing overall, although Tara did provide a stabilizing and softening influence for Bonnie sometimes.
She could ask Kim, but the more popular redhead could be called away at any time for one of her world-saving missions. While Liz wouldn't begrudge her friend over it, the end result could still be her, alone in the house. Also, inviting Kim would definitely be seen by Bonnie as an affront, unless she asked the well-tanned cheerleader first.
Asking Bonnie brought other issues to the table. Bonnie needed to be the center of attention most of the time. It wasn't so bad in a group, where each of them could take turns talking with her and making her feel important, but Liz wasn't sure she was up to the challenge of stroking Bonnie's ego all by herself. How Tara had managed for so many years was beyond Liz's understanding.
No, any of the others would be a better, and safer, choice. Kim wouldn't take offense to not being asked, and since Bonnie saw all the others aside from Kim as completely beneath her in the Food Chain, she wouldn't interpret it as a slight, either.
So that left five candidates to pick from.
Well, no sense worrying about it now. Things had a way of working themselves out. She'd just see who was free and who had plans, and go from there. A quick glance at her cell phone told her that she had dawdled too long mulling this over, and she had likely missed Marcella, whether she had gotten a ride or not.
She broke into a sprint, reveling in the feeling of the wind in her face and hair as she raced down the sidewalk. Running outside like this always brought back memories of Track, the sport she'd been in before switching to the Cheerleading Squad last year as a Sophomore.
It had been fun, but cheerleading had more opportunities to meet boys. Well, that hadn't been the only reason, she corrected herself. More of her friends were cheerleaders than members of the Track team, even back then. She supposed that Track was the reason for her … well-proportioned downstairs. It wasn't fat, but the extensive exercise of running combined with the years of swing dancing had given her 'runner's thighs.'
She might not have Bonnie's allegedly-perfectly proportioned behind, Kim's world-saving fame, or Hope's killer walk, but she still had a way of attracting looks in the halls. Maybe they weren't all complimentary. She knew some people did consider her fat. But she tried not to let it get to her.
At a whim, Liz stuck her arms out like the wings of an airplane and ran even faster, laughing like a little girl as she raced down the sidewalk.
The sun was shining, the weather was nice, what more could a girl ask for on this beautiful morning?
Liz Haggarty ran forward, ready for whatever the day held for her.
END
**Special thanks to anyone who has read, reviewed, or written a Kim Possible fanfiction. Your actions have given me the incentive to write. Thanks to Slipgate for proofreading and a few tweaks, and for the addition of 'Crimson Alternate' to the title, and thanks of course to AmericanGecko for the contest that inspired this. Lastly, thanks to you the readers, I hope I was able to entertain you**