Lili stretched outside of the gym. It was Tuesday, the day of the cheer-leading tryouts. At least I'm surrounded by a lot of familiar faces, she though as she looked around.
There was Chelle, who was practicing her jumps, causing her pigtails to bounce around wildly. Her tank top had fish printed on it; while it was strange to anyone seeing her for the first time, it was a known fact about her love of fish and the ocean. The only other two who were practicing on their own were Mei and Lien, two Asian girls, one from Taiwan and the other from Vietnam.
Then there was Bella, Katyusha, and Elizaveta. They were helping out people who were a bit new to this whole thing, like her and a few others. They were the captains last year and no doubt would be this year. Granted, Katyusha's chest was rather... large- understatement of the century- but she could cheer just as good as anyone else, better even. Despite her, eh-hem, chest, she was quite nimble, skinny and tall. Next to her, Bella was a little shorter at about average height. She was skinny despite her eating a chocolate bar every five minutes. Overall, she was a nice, sisterly-type girl. She was known to pull small pranks, but nothing terrible.
The people that they were teaching were Natalya, dressed in a blue miniskirt with white tights underneath and a dark blue tank top, Cloe, a student from Wy who was wearing shorts,a pink hoodie and a side ponytail, and Monica, a girl from Monaco who was wearing a white blouse and dark red tights, a black bow where her side-braid began. As far as Lili could tell, they were doing fairly well.
Eventually the two coaches walked out of the gym. Ms. Amunet and Ms. Helena looked over the girls, taking a look at who was all there. Amunet was wearing a white T-shirt and khaki shorts. Her brown hair seemed to go into a type of cone shape with hair falling out at the end, only fully held together by 2 or 3 gold bracelets in her hair. Her skin was pale compared to that of Helena, who's skin was nice shade of tan brown. Her straight black hair stopped before reaching her neck. It wasn't exactly needed, but a small gold band went around her forehead, shining against her black hair. Her outfit was like that of Amunet's but with no collar, instead a gold necklace lay there, and her shorts were longer than Amunet's by an inch or two.
"Okay girls, we'll be calling you in by grade, starting with the seniors and working our way to the freshmen. You'll do a dance, a chant, a cheer, and show us three jumps, a pike, a hurkey, and a toe-touch. Am I going to fast for anyone?" Helena asked. Silence was the only answer that came off as a 'no' to those present. She nodded.
Amunet looked at the list of names on a clipboard and called out Katyusha's name. After she had raised her hand and said "coming," she jogged over, every step punctuated by the sound of her breasts. "This way please," Amunet said with a smile, seeming much more relaxed than Helena. She opened the door to the gym and the three stepped inside.
That's when the initial nervousness began to set in. Some decided to sit down and save their energy, while others decided to continue practicing, now that they knew what to practice. Lili sat on the grass in front of the gym and drank from a water bottle with water droplets running down the side. Natalya decided to take this opportunity to talk to her. She sat down next to the smaller girl and said a friendly 'hi' before taking a long drink from her own water bottle.
"Hi. I didn't expect to see you here. I didn't think you liked cheer-leading," Lili said.
Natalya shrugged. "I noticed I had a lot of extra time on my hands and my sister suggested it to me." In truth, Katyusha had been overjoyed when her sister had told her she wanted to join cheer-leading in order to try and make some new friends, which technically wasn't a total lie. Katyusha seemed ready to burst into happy tears when Natalya had asked for her help.
"Neat." Lili looked at Natalya's hair. "Nice bow. It's cute."
"Thanks," Natalya answered, a slight blush creeping onto her cheeks. "Your ribbon's cute too."
Lili laughed and smiled. "Thank you." She began to untie her ribbon. "How about I tie my ribbon in your hair and you tie your bow on my head so we can see what it looks like on each other?"
Natalya blinked. "Uh, sure." She untied the bow from her hair. It took every ounce of control she had to not blush to the point her face was as red as a rose when Lili was tying her purple ribbon in her hair. Lili pulled away and looked at her work carefully. The two barely heard Amulet return and call for Bella as Katyusha left the gym.
"Now you tie your bow in my hair," Lili said. She bent her head down to give Natalya a better view. Natalya seemed calm, but her hands shook just a bit and her heart was beating as if she had just ran five miles. Swallowing her nervousness she set to work on tying the bow in Lili's hair. As she tied it she couldn't help but think about how soft it was. Like soft, golden feathers, she thought. Part of her wished she had a comb just so she could brush her hair and run it through her fingers. She pushed the thought away as quickly as she could. Granted, it wasn't a bad thought, but it certainly wasn't helping her control the pink tint creeping onto her cheeks.
"There." She watched as the smaller girl lightly touched the bow in her hair. "You look nice," she said casually.
Lili smiled. "Thanks."
The two looked around and noticed Chelle walking out of the gym. Wow. We were talking long enough for near everyone else to tryout? Lili wondered. Amunet called for Lili. "Oh! Coming!" she called. She tried to undo the bow and give it back to Natalya, but the taller girl grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
"You don't have time right now. I'll probably be called next anyway, so we'll just trade back once we're both done. It won't make a difference anyhow," she said.
Lili blushed slightly at the contact. "O-okay." She nodded and jogged towards the gym door. In a few minutes, Natalya did the same. The two coaches addressed all the girls in the gym once the last person was done.
"Okay. There will be more tryouts tomorrow and the day after. All those on the squad will have their names posted on the bulletin board on Friday. Saturday is our first practice where we will establish the captains, fit you for uniforms and establish some ground rules. Understood?" Helena asked. The girls nodded.
Amunet nodded and smiled. "Okay girls, have a nice day. I hope some of you show up tomorrow to help the others."
The girls slowly exited and went to their cars. Some lived close by and were walking home while others had car-pooled and were going home together.
"Did you finish your science homework yet?" Monica asked.
"I did!" Chelle said. "It was easy to me."
"That's because it was on aquatic ecosystems, Chelle, and nearly every girl here will testify that you probably live there," Bella teased. Chelle turned around and stuck her tongue at her.
"Hey Chelle, if you have the homework, can I borrow it?" Cloe asked. "My brother's stupid koala ate mine."
"Bet you can't get Mr. Thrash to buy that one," Elizaveta joked. "He still won't believe Katyusha lost her pencil when it accidentally fell down her shirt."
Katyusha laughed. "I remember that. I didn't get that pencil back till I got home. Hehe."
Cloe, Chelle, Monica, Katyusha, Bella and Elizaveta were all car-pooling home in Katyusha's van. Natalya had told her sister that she needed to get home and finish some home work to avoid having to join in on the car-pool, so she was walking home, same as Lili. Mei and Lien were driving home together.
The car-pool was the last to leave. Just before they could even start the car, though, Elizaveta noticed she had left her back-pack in the gym. "I'll be right back!" she said. She rushed back inside, only slowing at the door. She peeked in and saw her backpack right inside the door, just where she left it. Secondly, she saw Amunet and Helena making out on the table. She pulled out her camera silently and snapped one photo before rushing back to the car.
Amunet had been enjoying the kiss, up until Helena broke the kiss and looked at the door to the gym suspiciously. "Did you just hear a click?"
Amunet simply muttered a simple "it was nothing, I'm sure," before leaning in yet again to kiss the other woman. Helena shrugged before meeting her in the middle and starting the kiss again.
"What took you?" Chelle asked.
"Oh, nothing~" Elizaveta said.
Someone would have questioned further had not the car started and silenced them long enough for someone to want to change to subject to what they planned to do once they got home.
Lili and Natalya walked down the street and exchanged ribbons and bows again. "If you ever need one of my bows I can lend you one. I've got several."
"Well, then I'd have to get you a ribbon. Just to make it fair. I have a few more like this one, but this is the only purple one. It's my favorite because my brother bought it for me."
"So is purple your favorite color?"
"Yeah. How'd you know?"
"Just a guess," Natalya said evasively.
"Well here's my house," Lili said, stopping at the sidewalk that led to the front door. She turned to Natalya. "I liked talking with you. Maybe you should come over some time."
Natalya nodded. "I'd like that."
Lili walked to the door, turned around at the last step and waved goodbye. Natalya waved back before continuing to walk down the street.
She had talked with Lili more at the tryouts than she had all last week. If there was any doubt in her mind, it was gone now. If there was any way she could get closer to Lili, it was through cheer-leading. Plus it is kinda fun, she thought. Now just to hope we both made it...
Wednesday and Thursday were just tense for the school. Some worried about getting into certain clubs and new classes while others panicked over if they were getting into football, band, softball, basketball, and cheer-leading. Finally Friday rolled around. The students waited patiently by the bulletin board near the end of seventh period and nearly crushed the teachers after they put up who would be on the team. Before they could crowd the bulletin board, however, Helena stepped up and said she would announce the names listed.
As names were called, some students whooped and danced (Alfred F. Jones when they announced he was quarterback of the football team), while others walked away dejected (Arthur Kirkland when the cooking class added a personal note saying that 'We are sorry, but while your academics are impeccable, you cannot cook! You would only be considered a good cook if the point was to burn everything and/or poison people!'). The last team called was the cheer-leading squad. Natalya had her fingers crossed, like many of the remaining girls there.
"The seniors in the cheer-leading squad are Katyusha, Elizaveta, Bella, and Anna Samantha Courtney. The juniors are Lien, Mei, and Sarah Lee. The sophomores are Cloe, Monica, and Ally. And finally the freshmen on the squad are Cammy, Chelle, Natalya, and Lili."
Some girls walked away with their heads down. The ones in "ASC's clique" as they were called congratulated Anna and the few others in her clique that made it. The rest of the girls high-fived each other or gave hugs; Katyusha hugged Elizaveta and Bella, Mei hugged Lien, Cloe hugged Monica and Lili hugged Natalya. Natalya couldn't help but blush deeper than ever.
"I'm so glad you made it!" Lili said when she finally let go.
"Yeah, I'm glad you made it too," Natalya said, looking away.
Oh, is she shy? Maybe I shouldn't have hugged her... I hope she didn't mind too much, Lili thought. Before she could begin to apologize, though, the bell rang, and everyone in the halls scattered like ants after someone kicked their ant hill. Well, it is Friday. I'll see her tomorrow at practice I guess.
She walked to the swings as always. All week it had been a purple gladiolus, but today it was different. Today, a white calla lily lay on the swing. The card said that the meaning was 'I want to be with you.' It was underlined twice with purple ink. A little heart was drawn on the margin with the same purple ink.
:( I am so sorry for the late update. Saturday I was busy with marching contest, and I stayed up late working on this, but I didn't finish it. I worked on it a bit before I left for church. But when I got home my sisters got me working on my science project which is due Tuesday. I is so sorry, please forgive me! T.T We have another contest this week. I'll try to have the next chapter up Friday, but with 9 weeks test, I make no promises. Again, I IS SO SORRY THAT I IS LATE. **sniffle**
To explain ASC's clique, well, this story needed some girlsto be the (pardon my language) bitchy chicks on the squad. Plus, after looking at the girls on high school cheer-leading squad, I felt I needed a few more girls. I chose ASC's name based on the three most annoyingly crazy girls at my school. 'Sarah Lee' was a name I heard at church and the other two were just random.
As far as Amunet and Helena go, I needed two characters to be the captains and suddenly these two came to mind. And in case you didn't notice, Amunet is Ancient Greece and Helena is Ancient Egypt. Sorry for throwing them in with no warning, but they were kind of a last minute addition I couldn't help but add.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. (Even though it was late.)
