"Do you think this is hard? Try living in Florida for more than six months. That's hard!" Coach Sue shouted through her megaphone.
Rachel knew what she was doing, trying to scare off the weaklings from tryouts. Luckily for her, Rachel was no such weakling. She was careful to stay within the group, as not to distance her from the other girls trying out before she was even on the team, but she could keep going for hours. Sue had made them run two miles already, following them in a golf cart screaming obsceneties at them. Rachel had thought that it was actually pretty fun, but she wouldn't tell anybody else that.
After the running, she had made sure that all of the girls could be flyers and bases, something not a lot of the girls could do. About half of them had run away crying at the thought of having to be thrown into the air, relying on girls they barely know to catch them. Rachel had trived on it. What's life without a little risk?
Now, they were doing a ridiculous excersize involving bicicles, fire, and a lot of trust. This was when Rachel started getting a little nervous. What if practice was like this all of the time? Sure, a little risk was fun, but she didn't want to die.
She glanced over at Quinn, who stood by the doors, leaning on the bleachers. Apperently, she looked as nervous as she felt, because the girl just gave her a thumbs-up and mouthed 'testing you'.
"STOP!" Coach Sue bellowed, not even bothering to turn on her microphone.
Rachel skid to a stop on her bicicle, just before she would have jumped through another fire ring.
"Holmes, Tanzer, Berry, drop the bikes and get over here!"
Rachel threw herself off the bike and jogged quickly to the coach. She looked around, and found that she was one of the three girls left in tryouts. The rest of them must have decided this was a little too crazy for them.
Sue began to speak, drawing Rachel's attention to her like a beacon. "Alright listen up. You've made the team. Berry, I don't know how you did it, but I'll call it will of God and sum it up to divine intervention. "
She didn't like it, but Rachel simply nodded.
"We have practice every day before and after school. You will wear your uniform to school. If you get so much as a smudge of something on your uniform, you will be off team. Is that clear?"
"Yes Coach." The girls chorused, their excitement barely contained.
"Q!" Coach Sue called, and Quinn came running.
"Yes Coach?"
"Get the girls their uniforms and explain to them everything they need to know." Sue held her stomach. "I'm feeling a full afternoon coming on; I knew that I shouldn't have eaten those cafeteria tacos."
"Yes Coach. Are the uniforms in your office?" Quinn asked sweetly.
"Don't ask stupid questions, Q. I won't have stupid people on my cheer team."
"Then why did she let Brittany on?" One of the other girls-Tanzer- whispered to Holmes, who giggled.
"Tanzer, Holmes, you're off the team. Stay out of my sight." Sue called over her shoulder, obviously angry.
The girls, Tanzer and Holmes, promptly burst into tears, running out of the exterior doors.
Quinn looked at Rachel, amused. "Don't talk badly about Sue's Cheerios, or you won't be one anymore." She started for the door. "Follow me, we have to get you a uniform." She called to Rachel, who sped up.
"Rule number one; Coach Sue is in charge. She is a higher authority to you than the President. If the President said to do one thing and Coach said to do another, do what Coach said without hesitation. She's usually looking out for our best interests. Tryouts were supposed to go on for another couple of hours, but Holmes missed a ramp and would have hit a fire ring if Coach hadn't called it." She turned to Rachel. "Are you getting all of this?"
"Yes." Rachel's eyes were wide. Was Holmes really in that much danger?
Quinn continued. "Rule number two; Cheerios comes before all else. School, friends, boyfriend. Even family, sometimes. Most of the time. However, Sue does have a soft side. If something traumatic happens to you or your family, she'll let you out of a few practices. Rule number three; don't miss practice. Don't even be late. She'll skewer you. Rule number four, and the last rule;" She turned to Rachel for this one, looking her strait in the eye as they stood outside of Sue's empty office. "the Cheerios are now your sisters. Don't do anything to them that you wouldn't have done to you. We are family now, and Coach Sue expects us to act like it. That means that you can't do anything with another girl's boyfriend, you can't make fun of them. That's why the girls were kicked out so fast. Sue really is a mom at heart, and we're her kids. Don't let her down. Don't let us down. You'll sit with us at lunch now; don't worry, nobody will touch you. We can take petty jabs at each other every once in a while, but we always have each other's back. No matter what."
Rachel nodded. She really didn't know what to say. She'd never had a sister before, let alone a whole team of them. She had sat alone at lunch for years no. She processed the new information, and looked back at Quinn, beaming.
"I'm ready!" She sounded like a little kid.
Quinn laughed, and ran inside the office to pull a uniform out from under the desk. "This one should fit you. Remember, wear it every day. Wash it every night. We have practice tomorrow morning, I'll come pick you up. We also have practice tomorrow after school, and it's a Friday so I'll drive you back to my place. Pack some pajamas in that work out bag, your spending the night with me, Britt, and Santana tomorrow."