"Don't go. Stay. Please."

I shoot up from the bed, beads of sweat covering my body. I can feel my heart beat in my chest faster than ever before.

I glance at the digital clock on my nightstand which reads 2:55 am. I close my eyes once more. Another memory. The same memory.

The same memory that has been bothering me, replaying in my head over and over again for the past four years. Again and again haunting me in my dreams.

The memory of my mom. The mother I cannot remember much of. The mother I have lost.

I can't go back there. Not after reliving that scene for the hundredth time. The scene of blazing sirens, the smell of bile, bright white lights, busy people, wires and connectors, the richness of red blood.

No. I will not go back there. So instead I head to the kitchen.

After drinking a glass of milk while repeatedly checking the clock, I'm back in bed by 3:30. But I contemplate. Should I sleep once more and go back to memories I can no longer remember but where I suffer.

I need sleep! But I just wish that my mind could show me another memory. Just one other memory. A memory of happiness. Please.

But in the middle of debating to sleep or not... My eyes droop close until I can feel myself falling onto the cloud of slumber and I dream of nothing but whiteness.

"Today's the day." Uriah tosses a fry at me. "Try-outs."

I nod. "Yup."

"Good luck." He tells me and Christina.

Chris snorts. "Luck? We don't need such a thing."

Uriah laughs. "Woah. Somebody's gotta ego fever."

"Says the junkfood eating athelete," pipes Will.

Uri stares at him blankly. "I'm an athelete." He smiles smugly as we roll our eyes.

"Hey!" Marlene greets us as she sits beside Uriah on the bench. We greet her a quick hey but the shirt she wears causes me to take a double-take.

"Marlene?" Christina stares mouth open. "Oh my God. No way!"

Uriah and Will seem to notice how caught up we are and I watch as their eyes slowly widen with realization. We all stare at her shirt.

"What," asks Marlene, cluelessly as she glances at her shirt.

The four of us make eye contact. And our eyes all go back to Marlene's shirt.

"Is that Barney?!"

Marlene's eyes widen with realization. Her cheeks tint pink and her mouth drops. She examines her white shirt with a grinning purple dinosaur in the middle. "Holy sh-"

She rubs her eyes. Blinks. Stares at her shirt. Rubs her eyes again. "Oh my God. This is my sister's! My nine year old sister! What the hell?"

We burst out laughing and my head slams on the table as I clutch my stomach. Uriah pounds on the table. Will double overs.

"Your. Glasses." Christina manages to choke out.

Marlene laughs along with us. "Lost! So that's why I've been thrown odd stares and could hear whispers in the hall like wtf!"

We laugh some more. "How could that fit you?" I ask her. A sixteen year old wearing a shirt of a nine year old?

"I don't know either," she answers. "I thought it was a violet flower!"

Yes. Barney mistaken as a flower.

We slowly come silent again, seemingly returned to Earth from our own universe. But as we all make eye contact again, the laughs we keep trying to keep clamped with smiles suddenly burst out. And we're back on our rocketship again.

Marlene, Will and Uriah accompany us as we head to the field. Christina ties her hair as I tie my shoelaces. Here goes.

"Goodluck guys!" They tell us and walk slowly backwards toward the bleachers. "We'll be right here. Bur we're leaving in a few minutes."

I smile at them warmly and look down at myself in leggings and a plain white t-shirt. "Do I look okay?" I ask Chris.

She takes time to look at me from head to toe and she smiles. "You're fine. As pretty as always."

I snort. "Wow. You should've signed up for the baby-sitting club. You sure know how to kid."

She raises her eyebrows and lets out a small laugh. Her right hand goes in front of her and she raises one finger. "First of all. There's no such thing as a baby-sitting club in this school, but I have heard of such in a book. And second," she raises two fingers. "You signed me up. I didn't sign-up for anything."

I nod, defeated. "Got a point. Let's go!"

We jog towards the sound of the drums. I hear the heavy bass and the quick snare hits. It's what I'm signing up for. I couldn't be more excited. I see a few people, some wearing the pep squad's varsity jackets, some just as plain as Christina and I. About half of the people I see are to try out. I see a few familiar faces, and some completely unkown to me. Some are excited, some look nervous. Most, a mix of all.

Chris takes my hend and leads me to a where a few girls stand and she tries to help me join in on conversation. But all I could hear was the beat of the drums.

After meeting the head dancer, Lauren, and giving us a few encouraging words and the story about her audition, we were called to center.

Lauren auditioned whem she was a freshman. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to try-out since she didn't know anybody who wanted to try-out. But then one of her close friends encouraged her to join, and so she did because he did too. Turns out, this friend is the now team captain.

A boy, perhaps a senior, stands on the third level bleacher, wearing the varsity jacket. I still don't know who he is because his back is toward us. His hands gesture toward the girl and boy by the drums and everything goes silent except for a few hushed whispers. The boy with the number four on the back of his blue jacket finally turns around. And now the front of his jacket shows his surname. Eaton.

"Okay," He claps his hands together as his deep masculine voice echoes around us. I notice how the dark blue jacket gives a slight contrast to his eyes, showing the difference of the ocean and the sea. "Welcome everybody. I'm the team captain, you can call me Four more preferably than Tobias. Today is the try-outs for those who signed up. Don't worry, try-outs for the pep squad aren't that hard. Let me give you all a brief intro about this team. Compared to the other varsity teams, we are about only a third of them as the supply of team members are running out. Well, we started out much more than this but the other teams seem get our recruits after they train with us, leaving on their senior year. Many transfer to track, volleyball, swimming, etc." His eyes roam around the crowd and they somehow stop searching when he sees me. He smiles a small smile then continues. "I trust that each of you are willing to take sacrifices for this team, and if you do not have the passion or determination to cheer for this school, especially if you just went in so that you'd be excused frome P.E. class, you might as well get out now."

He paces on the wooden plank. "By the end of the week, the list of those who will be part of the line-up will be lisyed. If you are part of this list, you will be excused from classes whenever a game will occur on a school day. Especially because the basketball team is the source of our resources, the school putting their attention much more on the competing teams. Yes, we do not compete."

He nods and faces us, jumps down tthe second level. "Training will be held everyday from 4:00-5:30 pm have three unexcused absences and you'll be kicked out of the team. We start with two laps of jogging, core exercises then the drummers and dancers will be split to do their own things. We take training very seriously here. Here in the pep squad..."

"Pep is a must!" The teammate chant together.

"Questions?" Tobias asks with a smile.

A girl raises her hand and Tobias nods ro her. "Where's the coach?"

"Ah." He answers as he looks from Lauren beside me to the others in jackets as well. "Well, he isn't here. He, or she, has a 9-5 job so she just catches up whenever she can. But it's very rare that she comes, most of the time she comes when it's the game season. So you don't need to ask, our coach is gay. But reffer to her as a lady, 'kay?" He smiles to us all. "We lift each other up here on this team and we can reach the top, with a coach or without a coach."

The team members start to clap so we do too. "Let's go DHS," Lauren shouts.

"Fight!" The rest replies.

And right here, staring at them, I know that I want to be part of this. And I'm going to work hard for it.

"Jog!" The team captain shouts and start to head to the field. And we all follow.

After the two laps of an endless, breath-taking jog and two sets of the core exercies, drummers and dancers split up. I say bye to Christina and give her a thumbs up.

We stand kn the bleachers as I assesthe others. There are ten original members, seven try-outs. On the right are the snare drummers, on the left, the bass. I stand behind a girl I have one class with, also signing up.

Tobi-. Four stands ipon us. "So, let's introduce ourselves. Since you already know me, let's start with you." He points to his left.

The boy takes off his jacket, perhaps the same age as Tob- Four. He grins and he suddenly has a resemblance to Uriah but with olive skin instead of chcolate dark. "Hi, I'm Ezra, snare drummer since last year. Senior."

We nod and the girl beside him goes next. After getting to know the snare drummers Ezra, Laela, Ren, Ned, Faith and Nash, it's time for our introduction. Two people stand in front of me, one behind.

"I'm Dan. A junior."

"My name's Lynn. Sophomore."

My turm. "I'm Tris. Sophomore." I smile a nervous but sincere smile to them all. Tobias smiles at me. I mean, Four. Why do I always forget?

And now the boy behind me introduces himself. "I'm Clarence. Sophomore."

What! I turn around to face him, wide-eyed. The boy who stands before me... Isn't a boy anymore. He looks almost like a senior. Clarence, the timid, akward, silent boy.. Is no longer timid and akward. Still silent, though, since I didn't notice him until now. He doesn't wear any glasses anymore. But his green eyes are now wooden brown.

He smiles at me and I'm greeted by dimples. I smile back. I really disn't expect him here. I didn't expect myself here, either.

I face back to the group and listen to the introductions once more as I discover Tobias has been a bass drummer since ninth grade. He's also learned to play snare in the last two years and now, of course. Who else could be the team cap?

Four clears his throat. "So we'll teach you three game beats today and and the end of the week, those who master them are in. Faith, you teach snare."

Faith nods "Come," she calls. And I suddenly remember. She's part of the Looney Tunes.

After thirty minutes, we already learned the two beats. One for defense, one for offense. We were given drumsticks but we were required to buy our own once we were official members.

I sat in between Ezra and Clarence on the bleachers as we practiced on the wood. Clarence was a pro. He was the first to master the beats. Ezra still has difficulty but he's good. Lynn's hits are the loudest, stronger than even the boy's. It's like she's taking out her anger kn the poor and beaten ply wood. Me, well I can't really tell. But I hope I'm fine.

The drummers teach us the last beat and by 5:15 we're playing the three beats without difficulty.

"Nice," Ezra raises his hand and I high-five it.

"Thanks."

Ned speaks. "Last fifteen minutes. Let's join in with the bass."

We head to the rest and we sit bass drummer facing snare drummer.

Four sits at the end. He hits his drumsticks together.

"Five, six, five, six, seven, eight."

The rythm is enchanting, it matches the beat of my heart as it skips and dances. The sensation is overpowering that I can't help but smile at the creation we are all contributing to.

With five minutes to spare, Four calls everybody.

I meet up with a prespiring Christina.

"Hey!" I greet her.

"Hey! How was it?" She asks me.

"Do you have to ask?" I answer.

She hugs me with a smile.

Lauren and Faith stand in front of the crowd. "Let's give a hand to everybody. Everyone seems to be fit for the team, fast learners and not so noisy unlike the past batch."

A round of applause passes and a beat is played through the snare. The beat for a three-point shoot, I reckon.

"So we'll see you all tomorrow and by Friday, the list will be pinned. That's all. Let's go DHS!"

"Fight!" We all respond.

I smile at Christina. "So, I'm glad you weren't mad I signed you up."

"I already told you I'm not. Why would I be?" She smiles at me.

We get our bags and drink water before heading to the comfort room. But before we leave the bleachers, Four unexpectedly approaches me.

"Tris," he smiles shyly.

I return his expression. "Hi."

"I, uh," he starts. Suddenly, he can't look me in the eyes. "I'm glad you joined. You looked kind of hesatative when I saw you sign up."

"Ah." I laugh a little bit. "Yeah. I really wasn't sure."

He nods. "But you made a great desicion."

I nod too. "Yeah. Guess I did."

He fumbles with the zipper of his jacket. "Well, I'll see you at training tomorrow?"

"Yeah, of course." I answer and shake my hair ouy of its ponytail. "Thanks, Tobias. I mean Four."

I really forget! He just looks more of a Tobias than a Four, especially when he smiles that causes his eyes to twinkle.

Four laughs. "See you around, Tris."

I nod then go back to Christina's side.

"Oooh. What was that," she nudges my shoulder.

I raise my eyebrows. "Shut up, Chris. It was nothing, obviously."

"Obviously," she mocks me. "Deffensive much?" She smirks.

I shake my head and sprint to the comfort room to change. I run away from her questions, her suspicion and away from the boy with a number as a name.

Away from the danger zone.