The next day started the same as the one before, Jamie left the house pretty early to pick Madison up and they were walking the halls of high school right on time only to be met by Chuck shortly after. Chuck was the first person who saw it, the bulletin board; both basketball and cheerleading tryouts were today.
"Ayo Jamie, you trying out for basketball?" Said Chuck as he browsed through all the signup sheets.
"Hell yeah! I wouldn't miss it Scolnik. What about you?" Jamie replied whilst writing his name onto the basketball sheet.
"Yeah man! What about you Maddie... Cheerleading?" Chuck said as he lifted his glasses up to wink at his friend, he was not expecting her reply.
"Yeah I was thinking about it actually!" she said as she wrote her name in her own pretty purple pen.
"Really? Cheerleading? You would be into walking around in the tight skirts with the pom poms?" even Jamie looked shocked, he would have never expected Madison of all people to try out for cheerleading, but yet again... if his mom did it then Madison could.
Madison was starting to get offended at the way the boys were reacting to it, why couldn't she be a cheerleader? Why couldn't she be one of the popular kids? She could do whatever she wanted to and she would.
"Yes really! I'm athletic? I can dance, you two better not be saying I'm not pretty enough to be a cheerleader..." you could see that she was really getting frustrated now, not even Jamie was looking like he agreed with it. Chuck then threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in to him.
"You're gorgeous, and you're going to be a great cheerleader... and it looks like they're at the same time so we'll be able to watch you try out" Chuck said winking at her. Madison was gorgeous, she always had been, it would be awesome to see her come out of her shell and become one of the cheerleaders for the Ravens. Madison smiled to herself, Chuck always knew how to make her feel better... even if he didn't know it, maybe he would realise it if she did become a cheerleader... maybe.
The bell rang for class and they had all put their names down for the tryouts, only a few hours to wait now. As they walked into class they all took their seats, Jamie had completely forgotten about Georgia, he hadn't thought about her for at least an hour or two. He took a seat behind her and got all of his books out from his bag. Chuck sat in the seat next to Carly who greeted him with a cute smile and Madison took the seat nearest the front, she was surprised when Adam... the boy from yesterday walked past her, gently stroking the side of her cheek playfully as he sat in the seat next to her. Without saying a word she shuffled in her seat and coughed nervously, she had never really been in a situation like that before.
"Ok class how are you today! It's great to see you all here, let's get to work. I know it's a long shot but has anybody written the essay already?" Mr Jagielski didn't waste any time, from the minute he walked into the class he was already on topic. His eyes scanned the room for signs that anybody had in fact done the essay, he knew that on the second day into high school nobody wanted to be labelled a 'nerd' most of the kids he could see that most of them kept their eyes to their desks, all of them except one, Madison's eyes switched from left to right then back down to her notebook.
"Alrighty then well it's not due until the end of the week so you're all safe. I suppose it sounds really stupid that I'm saying this five minutes into the class but I have nothing else prepared for you to do for the rest of today, class is dismissed."
Everybody picked up all of their bags and began shuffling out of the room, what were they supposed to do for the next hour? As she walked behind Chuck and Jamie, Madison jumped onto Chuck's back, ever since they were kids they always played piggy back, it seemed that even now they were teenagers and in high school nothing had changed.
"So what do you guys wanna do?" Chuck groaned from underneath the clasp of Madison. Jamie, who was walking next to the two 'lovebirds' as he called them only had one idea of where they could possibly go.
"River court?" he said as if they could even turn it down.
"Sounds good to me, who's driving?" Madison said, she was still happily bouncing away on Chuck's back. She could drive... she got her permit a few months ago but she hadn't told either of the boys yet she secretly loved them driving her around, she loved the fact that she had her two best friends to look after her. Her boys meant everything to her.
"I can if you want, but that's only going to work if you decide to get off of me!" Laughed Chuck, as much as he made it out that she was too heavy to carry, he really didn't mind too much and plus, she was hot... most guys that saw them together usually gave him a jealous look. He giggled to himself, as if that would ever happen, him and Madison... as if.
They walked into the car lot and straight over to where Chuck's truck was parked. They climbed into the seats and before they knew it they were at the river court. He always kept a basketball in the truck so he and Jamie got a bit of practise in before try outs.
"Chuck you need to work on your jump shot, you keep missing! And Jamie you're quick but you need to be smart about it, go in the directions that nobody will expect you to... think of your dad, and your grandpa Dan, think of how they would play it."
Madison was sitting on the 'bleachers' shouting out encouragement, she knew the boys would take it seriously but laugh about it in the same time, they knew that they would take her advice on board, she wouldn't give them the advice if they didn't need it.
"Shouldn't you be working on your cartwheels or something cheerleader?" called Jamie as he dribbled the ball towards the hoop, shortly after he made the shot.
"Fortunately I don't need as much practise as you do!"
Two hours later...
The boys were walking into the gym talking about the English class that they had just come from; they had been given a book report on the second day in, now they had two pieces of homework to do. Chuck had never even heard of Julius Caesar... Jamie on the other hand had a little bit of experience when it came to the book. There must have been about forty guys trying out for the team, it kind of made Jamie's heart sink a little when he saw them all gathered together, he wasn't the best at basketball but he made a prediction, he would beat his dad's score record, he would carry on the family tradition even if he wasn't the best player. He nodded his head towards Madison who was stood with a bunch of girls trying out for the cheerleading squad, his heart dropped a little more when he noticed that Georgia King was one of the girls she was talking to, the other girl was there too, the one from Communications, he was pretty sure her name was Carly. He was too busy staring that he didn't even notice the coach shouting.
"...SCOTT, you're skins. Alright men I wanna see your best, I wanna see your strengths, weaknesses, I wanna see if you can hit a ball through the hoop I wanna see it all. If I see something I don't like I'm not going to hold back, I want a CLEAN game. The ravens have seen one too many rivalries between their own players and I AM NOT going to have anything like that on my court, when you're on my court and you're wearing the teams uniform there will be no grudges. So shirt up, strip down and get on the court."
The boys all did as they were told, Jamie; who was on the skins team pulled his shirt over his head, it was now that he was thankful he worked out, being in front of all the cheerleaders shirtless was nerve wracking. They were fifteen minutes into the game and he was already struggling, he knew that although they were doing their own thing they were watching the game, after all... it was what cheerleaders did best. Every turn that he took, someone on the other team did the same thing, it was obvious what moves he was going to take next, and that's when he thought about what Madison said earlier. Jamie quickly looked around the room at the other guys, he studied them for only a second to see what they were doing, suddenly the ball was in his hands, he used his speed to go left, then he spun on his heels as the other team member followed him and sped right towards the net, it was time to show what he was best at. He threw the ball into the air with one hand, looking straight at Coach Dean as he did it, the ball went through the hoop and the rest of the team hooted.
And that was the shot that got him on the team.
"So you and Chuck Scolnik... are you a couple or what?" Said Carly from behind her pom poms, she had seen the way they act together and for some reason she had taken a liking to Chuck.
"Me and Chuck? What no! We've been friends since we were little, there's nothing between us." Laughed Madison as she tried to get the first few steps of the routine into her head. A smile spread across Carly's face.
"Oh good, because he's hot." The rest of the hopefuls laughed. No matter how these tryouts worked out, Carly was clearly going to be popular, everybody agreed with what she said, laughed at her jokes, followed her movements precisely.
"Really? I guess he's not unattractive." Madison lied through her teeth, Chuck was hot and she knew it. But if Carly wanted him then there was no way she was going to get him, even if she was on the cheerleading squad.
"...So what about Jamie, what's his deal?" Georgia asked quietly from behind the two of them, she made sure she was quiet about it, she didn't want him hearing anything.
"Scott? He's my best friend. Has been for years. He's a real good guy, why? You interested?" Madison said as she turned around and winked at Georgia, she had only known her for about twenty minutes but already they were getting along.
"No, definitely not interested. He just said something in class yesterday."
"Oh, OH... speaking of class yesterday, what do either of you know about Adam King?" Madison asked, she was getting used to these dance routines now. Georgia's response to the question was quick and blunt, it surprised Madison to hear it.
"He's an ass."
Carly and some of the other girls laughed, Georgia smirked and Madison looked confused to say the least.
"... Don't look so shocked, I'm not a bitch. He's my brother, and believe me he is an ass. He thinks with his penis. I suppose that's not his fault though, he can't think with the one brain cell he has." Georgia responded. Madison really didn't know what to say... she didn't think Adam was that bad, although he had freaked her out a bit when he stroked her face.
"Oh. He act's really strange around me it's kind of creepy... sorry." She apologised to Georgia, although what Georgia said about him was worse than what she said.
"You don't have to apologise to me, but trust me... you seem like a nice girl and he's not a nice guy. Just keep your distance from him."
Madison smiled to herself but didn't say a word, the impression that Georgia gave was that she hated everyone, from what she had seen, she seemed like a really cool person.
"Ew, can we stop talking about your sleazy brother. You said that Jamie said something weird to you in class... what did he Say Gee? Was it X Rated?" laughed Carly, now that she had mentioned it, Madison was kind of interested in what Jamie had said to her too. Hopefully it wasn't X rated, they were best friends and always had been but as far as she was concerned, Jamie and Chuck kept that kind of talk for when they were together as boys, bro sleepovers and stuff like that. It would gross her out if they talked about sex in front of her.
"It doesn't matter. Anyway do you all want to run through these steps together? I think we've all pretty much got things down." Georgia was clearly trying to change the subject.
"Sounds good Gee Gee. Alright girls, let's try it from the top with the music." shouted Carly as she pressed the play button on the stereo and stepped into line, with a big 100 watt smile on her face she shouted out to the rest of the girls.
"5, 6, 7, 8!"