Author's Note: Voila! My second fanfic for all to read! God. . . I remember loving those cuddly little hamsters when I was younger (while Cartoon Network was still showing it). I must make this tribute to them a good one, I must! Wish me luck!
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"YEAH SANDY! YOU SHOW 'EM HOW IT'S DONE!!"
"Sandy-ookwee! Sandy-ookwee!"
"Pleeze do your best, Sandy!"
Perched high atop the carefully linked pedestal of cheerleaders was definitely a most precarious position for Sandra T. Hepburn. Though no one ever called her that. To the student body she had always been Sandy, master of all things sporty. Star soccer goalie (nicknamed, 'The Rose-Brick Wall), basketball's top-scoring forward, the softball base-snatcher of choice, you name it and Sandy's modestly printed name would be shoved right at the tip of every tryout list in Hampston High's existence. As of now, being the head cheerleader of the high school's award-winning squad was an honor the auburn-streaked blonde had been shooting for since her awkward freshman year (coincidentally, she was only a sophomore). It was the perfect way to put her gymnastic skills to the ultimate test.
Don't lock up, stay loose Sandy, stay loose. The girls are down there rooting for you!
Blowing out a controlled wisp of air, Sandy bent her knees, arms spread out like the graceful wings of a ballerina. The calm thinness of her pink lips denied any surges of fear in the back of her mind as she balanced on the platform Barrette was providing for her. It was her famous 'Oh yeah, I've got this routine whipped', look. Well. . . that's what Pashmina always told her.
Now leap!
The background music swept into a dreamy, drawn out cord immediately after she sprung from the tower of cheerleaders, soaring over the gym floor. Her layered ponytail whipped through the air in suspended animation and her friends held their breath as she tucked into a backwards somersault. Their bouncing fists climbed to the sky as she flipped a full circle and unwound into a L, landing safely in the waiting hands of male cheerleaders, Howdy and Cappy.
Only a second later, the net weaved from their arms propelled Sandy back into the routine's line of fire. In response, she whirled into a quick front-flip and thrust her legs out from under her crimson red skirt.
"GOOOO SANDY!!" the audience in the bleachers. . . heh. . . cheered, the small sea of limbs breaking into one last crested wave.
A smirk perked at Sandy's mouth and she landed the split dead center. Already adjusted from their previous resemblance of stacked cards, the rest of the girls coursed outwards into two lines, one on Sandy's left, and one on Sandy's right. Each one stuck a unique pose in turn, flashing smiles so dazzling they blinded any male passerby. The music slammed one final note once the last cheerleader
posed. If this had been a real competition, fireworks would have exploded upon the stage. Nope, no fireworks for practice sessions, but the audience burst into deafening whoops anyway.
"WOOHOO!! YEEAAAH!!" Pashmina shrieked from the stands, her voice rising louder then everyone else as she hopped out of her seat and pumped two enthusiastic fists into the air.
Sandy smiled and straightened up, the other cheerleaders following suit. She stuffed a few fingers into her mouth and whistled shrilly, signaling the audience to quiet down and her subordinates to crowd around for the announcement of their next practice.
Sandy wiped a few dollops of sweat from her forehead. "Great job guys! With this routine we'll be sure to kill the competition in a few weeks." She shook her head in confirmation at the heavily panting girls. "Next practice is on Wednesday at 3:30. Try to be there!"
The sporty girl dismissed them with the wave of her hand. After most scuttled to the locker room, she sighed and stretched her sore abdomen, then strolled over to meet her friends in the bleachers.
Bijou giggled and clapped her hands in praise at Sandy's arrival. Pashmina's 'little sister', Penelope waddled up to the cheerleader and cutely thrust out her hand, which was holding a half-empty bottle of mineral water. Sandy gratefully swiped it up and took a few swigs of the flavored liquid. She gulped and wiped her mouth, now playfully eye-balling Pashmina.
"Wow! What a kick butt performance! I wish I could do that. . ." Pashmina gushed, stars sparkling in her eyes.
"Got a little excited back there, didn't we Pashy?" Sandy teased.
The normally mature girl blushed and buried her face in her pink scarf. Penelope wondered what was wrong with her sister and tugged curiously on the cuff of her jeans.
"Pashy-ookyoo?"
"Heheh. . . riiiiight. . ." Pashmina laughed nervously. She smiled at the little girl, her cheeks still a shade of rosy tomato. Bijou laughed into her wrist, always entertained by her friend's usual antics.
"I don't see how though. My landing was God awful an-"
"-Oh hush, Sandy. You were wonderful! Back in France, I never saw anyone as graceful in performance as you," Bijou interrupted. She twirled a snow-white pigtail around her finger and beamed.
Sandy sighed in disappointment with herself but managed to return a half-smile to the pretty french exchange student. She was just so. . . so easy to smile at. Ever since Bijou had arrived, boys had flocked to her like robins to a peanut butter pine-cone. She was so sweet and innocent with her petite stature and crystal colored ponytails. Not to mention that adorable accent and foreign lolita appeal. However, despite her popularity, Bijou never returned the affection to any of the boys who pined after her. Sandy only wished she could pluck one of those blue satin ribbons from Bijou's hair, entwine it with her own red ribbon, and somehow have that magnetic personality melt on to her.
Sandy was cut off from her thoughts at the sight of a cleanly dressed Howdy sashaying past her, right up to Pashmina.
"Aye think that the bee-u-ti-ful Pashmina right here thought my performance was quite attractive. Ain't that righ, Pashmina?" Howdy set one foot on the bleachers and grinned hopefully (more like sleazily. . .) up at the blonde.
Pashmina crinkled her nose. "Yeah, yeah, Howdy. . . you just keep telling yourself that. . ." She trailed off when he plopped down next to her and scooted so close she could smell the leftover cafeteria steak on his breath. The blonde frowned in annoyance and switched to the other side of Bijou.
"Awww, com' on! Didn't ya at least think ma army net was a good tactic for throwing Sandy here?" he whined, pointing almost accusingly at the cross-armed Sandra.
Silence.
"Haha! Ya get it? ARMy net?"
Cricket. Cricket.
A cruel vacuum sucked the humor right out of his features.
". . . anyone?"
Dead as a graveyard. A stifled giggle erupted from Hana in the throng of cheerleaders.
Howdy felt like a barbell just plummeted through his skull.
"Awww. . ." he said dejectedly. Sandy could have sworn the world's smallest violin was stringing a weeping requiem in the background. Howdy slumped in his seat, failing to notice the girls as they gradually inched away from him.
Sandy blinked. Too late to ask for the last two minutes of her life back. "Anyways. . ." She suddenly snapped her fingers, surprising her friends from space-cadet land. "-what we really need is a mascot!"
"You mean someone to wear that moldy. . . nasty. . . cobwebby (for lack of better words), hamster head?" Pashmina muttered, shuddering with disgust at the stuffy old piece of plastic. By now Penelope had become bored because she had no idea what the older girls were talking about. Young and still up for nap time, she had settled her nose into the fabric of Pashmina's pleated overskirt, uttering a squeaky snore every once in a while.
"But Sandy, areen't you competent enough on your own?" Bijou was already so impressed with the brunette, she couldn't even begin to fathom why the team needed some weirdo running around in a corny animal suit.
Sandy tilted her pointer finger in a jabbing manner. "You may think that Bijou, but a mascot is an important asset to any team. They keep the crowd pumped for the cheerleader's routine. Their the comic relief to any serious game." She paused, but couldn't help but snort. "Plus, they don't give a crap if you make fun of them. Their supposed to act like idiots who missed the halloween deadline."
Bijou smacked her hands together. "Speeking of Halloween, what iz zee theme this year? I hear so many people talking about eet."
Pashmina bent over and rubbed the slumbering Penelope's hair affectionately. "It's supposed to be a masquerade. You know, where everyone hides their identity with a mask and stuff? I bet the dance committee ripped it off of Phantom of the Opera."
"They really aren't known for their creativity." Sandy added insult to injury. The committee was full of wealthy, snot-nosed preps who weaseled their way into every position that mattered. Socially, anyway. But she would NEVER say that out loud in real life, or said snot-nosed preps on the cheerleading team would eat her alive, picking their teeth with platinum toothpicks. Sandy did have a good reputation to maintain.
"Do you need a date to attend?" Bijou asked.
"No way! There'd be no point in it. After all, the whole premise of a masquerade is to make your face a mystery to the boys your dancing with." Pashmina stood up and flexed the stiff muscles in her legs. She gently nudged Penelope with her foot and the dark brunette sniffled and awoke unwillingly. Penelope attempted to wiggle out of the butt-trap she had squeezed herself into.
Sandy rolled her eyes. "But it's always so easy to tell who everyone is, even with a mask. Why can't they just make it a boring, old, regular dance if that's the case?" She hiked her thumb over her shoulder at Howdy. "Like Mr. Lame-o Hick over there. Him an' the King of Nerds could tell that Pashmina was the pink pop-star the moment she walked in. They spent the whole time fighting over who got to fetch her a zillion glasses of punch. It was annoying as hell."
Bijou didn't seem at all fazed at the cold-hard facts being shoved right in her face. Sometimes Sandy started to believe France was a breeding ground for cutesy little man-chasers. Either that, or the noir-painted girl was too stubborn to believe that her true love wasn't waiting down the hallway and around the corner. Hey, even if her Romeo lived in the janitor's closet, Sandy was positive Bijou would snatch him up for all he was. On the other hand, what Bijou's type was proved to be a total blanko for the athletic cheerleader.
"King of Nerds?" Bijou repeated innocently.
"Dexter."
"Oh," The circular button of Bijou's lips froze in place, her mind delving through who knew what kind of thoughts. Pashmina had dug Penelope out of her pitfall, carefully lowering her tiny feet onto the gym floor. A squeak of drowsy air whistled out of Penelope's nose and she squinted. Pashmina realized that Penelope, whom she had the responsibility of baby-sitting once again, would probably collapse into a nesting yellow puddle if she didn't bring her home right away.
"Umm, I think I'd better go guys, or Penelope's gonna be using your pom-pom as a pillow. Call me!" Pashmina dangled her hands like a phone next to her ear and grabbed Penelope's hand. She steered the little girl by the sleeve of her poncho out the rattling gym doors, cutting past Cappy and their gym teacher, Boss, along the way. By now the gym had become nearly deserted. All of the male and female cheerleaders had caught their rides home, the room losing the charm of constantly chiming cell phones.
Bijou slid off the bleachers and sighed the most desperate and yearning sigh Sandy had ever heard. "I know it sounds lieek I am searching for someone that doeseen't even exist, but I have a feeling that sometheeng very special will happen on Halloween." She giggled, but it lacked any real humor. "I sound really patheteec, don't I. . ."
Sympathy for Bijou wormed it's way into Sandy's own heart, almost like she herself was the one on a quest for Mr. Right. She slapped a reassuring hand on Bijou's shoulder, startling the french girl.
"Don't you dare say that! Some day, the guy who's just right for you will march straight up and give you a big, cheesy, smooch smack on the lips, and then you'll know he's the one you've been waiting for. Intuition, my friend, intuition!" Sandy was completely joking about the kissing part, but what the heck? If the words were encouraging, then Bijou could take them so seriously that she would walk with a neon sign flashing 'Free love-dove: Boys Only'. . . if she wanted too. . .
Sandy snickered under her breath.
Bijou grinned like she was itching to spew out a fit of giggles. She did a sort of partial sneeze, stopped, then burst into a period of mad laughter.
"Ah-hahahaha z-zat's so stupeed!" She snorted in a very unladylike manner, several tears brimming in the corner of her eyes. "L-Lieek that would ever
happeen!" Sandy only watched the smaller girl with total bewilderment as if she had grown a chicken's head and started spouting 'The sky is falling! The sky is falling!'
"Aaaaah!" Her tremors died down and she drew away the salty tears with a few swipes of her hands. "You are so very funny Sandy!" She happily brushed a few nonexistent dust particles from her jean skirt and locked her palms together behind her back. She cheerfully danced in a curve around Sandy on the pads of her feet.
"Well, are we headeeng out or not? My mother asked me to prepare deener tonight." She heartily tossed a sky blue cell phone out of her pocket and held it up.
Sandy gathered up her water bottle and gym bag. "I've gotta go change first, but I'll meet you outside, 'kay?" She headed to the locker room.
Bijou nodded and skip-stepped towards Boss and Cappy, who seemed to be chatting up a storm. Bijou guessed it was probably something manly like camping, with all the sweat and grease involved. Cooking over a steaming fire, being picked to the bone by mosquitos, stabbing rabbits with wooden knives. . . camping was manly, right?
"Boss, thank you very much for letteeng zee cheer squad use zee gym!" She sang as she bounded lightly next to them towards the exit. Boss split his conversation with Cappy, hypnotized by the irresistibly cute student as she waved at them before disappearing out the door.
"Eeerr. . ." He tugged profusely at the collar of his stained shirt. "Y-Your welcome. . ." He managed to reply, but Bijou was already gone.
"Yo! Capernett S!" Cappy jumped at the sound of his full name and whirled around to find Sandy arriving from the locker room dressed in a floral printed tank-top and athletic shorts.
She winked at him. "You did a pretty darn good job out there today."
The shy freshman flushed deeply at her comment and fiddled with the brim of his green baseball cap. "Th-Thanks Sandy. . ." He shuffled near Boss, their cheeks sporting identical scarlet hues.
Sandy pushed against the door's metal lever. "See you 'round guys. Keep up the excellent work!" she called back to them, vanishing through the blinding sunlight. The rusty bang of metal slammed resoundingly behind her.
"That Cappy's one strong little bugger. . . he'll be the perfect trump card at the competition. . ." Sandy muttered to herself as she came upon Bijou, who was absentmindedly swinging her legs while sitting on the stone lining of the entrance pathway.
Just as Sandy caught up with the french girl, Bijou's ride slid to the front of the parking lot with a sleekly calm hum. Bijou tossed a goodbye smile at Sandy and went over and plopped into the quietly whirring porsche. It wheeled out of the school premises, leaving behind only a swirling cloud of exhaust in its wake.
Sandy smiled sadly at the rustling autumn trees and ran a sweaty hand through her highlighted ponytail. She waited there for a moment, then swung her bag over her shoulder and started on home.
"Boys, huh?"
There's only one boy I would like to see again.
Sandy's gaze was glued to the sidewalk. Sure, the sun was shining, the flowers were mingling beautifully with the breeze, people who passed by granted her 'the friendly stranger' look. Everything was fine and dandy for Sandy, even the poor little pebble she was having the pleasure of kicking through the hedges. Yep, the beginning of that stupid phrase even rhymed, Sandy mused.
"Where'd you go?" She said rhetorically to a chirping squirrel. It skittered in front of her up the trunk a wilting crab-apple tree. She had seen several of those dyeing plants on her way back home, and Sandy mulled over how so many had already lost their leaves. It was depressing really, all the metaphoric sadness hanging over her like a plague. Sandy was a generally optimistic person, but thoughts and dreams of a certain someone had been dunking her underwater lately.
Twirling, whirling, 'round we go
Twirling high and twirling low.
See the colors skip and flow,
Twirling 'round we go.
Twirling, whirling, 'round we go
Twirling high and twirling low.
See the ribbons as they blow. . .
"Twirling 'round we go. . ." Sandy whispered.
My brother. . .Stan, come back.
Come back home, where you belong.
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How'd it go? And yes, I decided to omit Sandy's valley girl accent from the english version because I felt it wasn't really necessary to her character. But I did include Bijou's french accent and Howdy's southern accent (so be satisfied!)
To clear up any confusion, since that hamsters are human in this story (and in a modern setting), I gave the ones who didn't have regular names a full name based on their hamster name (but the characters in the story will almost always call each other by their 'nicknames'). Here's the guide so far:
Cappy- Capernett Sanderson
Sandy- Sandra T. Hepburn
Stan- Stanley T. Hepburn
Howdy- Harold Bailey
Boss- Bruce Bullock (the last name will probably never be mentioned)
Dexter- Dexter Compton (same here)
Bijou- Bijou Rousseau
Pashmina- Pashmina Valentine (called 'Pashy' for short by Penelope)
Penelope- Penelope Owens
More character names will be revealed in due time! The Twirling song is from episode 27 of the anime. Instead of ONLY saying ookwee and ookyoo, I changed Penelope's speaking problem to saying them at the end of sentences (like naruto and 'dattebayo'). Suggestions and criticism appreciated!