Chapter Five: The Disney High Cheer Squad

The weekend went far too quickly for every student at Disney High, but Tiana's long shifts had exhausted her more than usual. She had been saving for college now for the past three years, Harvard Law was the aim, and she'd hoped to get in on scholarship. During the Summer holidays, she took a night shift at Cal's, a small 24 café downtown and she took extra daytime shifts at Duke's. Her wage went through the roof and she was making a lot of money but this also meant she had hardly slept all summer. So, for Tiana, staying awake on a Monday was more of a challenge than for most.

"Oh, Tia!" Charlotte La Bouff rushed into homeroom, "Oh you look as sleepy as a seven dward!" she cooed, plopping into the seat beside her best friend and placing her little purse down on the desk. Tiana wondered where the hell all her school supplies where.

"Do you have any books or anything Charlotte?" Tiana glanced at the small handbag,

"What? Oh! Those old things? They're all just in my locker"

Tiana managed a chuckle as her best friend disregarded her studies. Charlotte and Tiana had been best friends since they were little girls when Tiana's mother would tailor for Charlotte's family. While Lottie grew into a busty blonde with a love for boy bands and cherry lip gloss, Tiana became a hardworking and somewhat uptight young lady but neither lost sight of their friendship or goodness of their hearts. In fact, despite her casual naïve attitude to life, Charlotte was one of the kindest people Tiana had ever met.

"I've signed up for the cheer squad! Gosh, all these extra school activities will look great on my college application!"

Tiana sighed, she had no time to complete cheerleading or any other sport for that matter. Work and homework were enough and practising cooking was taking up a lot of her time too. Prom and yearbook committee were just the icing on her stress-filled cake.

"That sounds great, when are try-outs?" Tiana asked.

Charlotte checked her rose gold watch, "Oh! Now! I better go!" Lottie jumped from her chair as the clock struck 9:00am and the bell signalling first lesson sounded.

"What about math?" Tiana cried in shock "aren't you coming?"

"Who cares? This is cheerleading!" Charlotte laughed, skipping off to the gymnasium.

Aurora stood proudly in the gym in a little pink sports suit. She stretched her left arm over gracefully to her right foot and then alternated. Her boyfriend, Phillip, stood and stretched to his toes while his best Charles Charming was casually sat on the benches. Phillip and Charles were the only guys on the team and were happy to help out with the difficult parts and the lifts but they found try-outs, technicalities and practice all rather boring.

"This year we're going to be amazing" Aurora said in a sing song voice, placing her hands firmly on her hips and grinning. Her golden hair swept down her back in natural, sunshine ringlets helping her look like a real-life Barbie Doll. She was admired by most of the sophomores and juniors as beautiful and ideal, she was one of the best on the cheer squad last year and this year she'd been appointed head cheerleader.

"We're going to be so good! New squad, new lifts, new routines. I'll be the best head cheerleader we've had!"

"Alana wasn't too bad, she was just a little... distracted" Charles pointed out

"Alana was good, but we need to be better!" Aurora took a seat on the benches and waited as girls began crowding around her for their try out.

Back in the changing rooms, Mulan was stood in a tank top and some leggings jolting from one foot to the other. "Oh guys, this isn't for me" she said anxiously, "I mean, me, cheerleading"

Jasmine and Rapunzel (who had joined the girls at lunch time and usually clung tightly to Jasmine) had come along for moral support.

"Mulan, you just have to get out there and do your best" Jasmine encouraged "it's all you can do!"

"I think you'll be great" Rapunzel smiled. Mulan wasn't easily convinced but she thanked them anyway. They had been supportive and for that she was grateful.

"Come on girls, we need to get started!" Aurora called from the gym echoing through to the changing rooms. Jasmine and Rapunzel gave a thumb out before heading out to the benches to watch with other supporters. Mulan moved out to the gym hall with other girls, all of which were far more chirpy and talkative than she was. There were several sophomores and freshmen including the Bimbette triplets, Snow White, a beautiful girl with the sweetest reputation. There were also a few seniors, Charlotte La Bouff who had the highest hair and a wardrobe like Paris Hilton, Ariel's sister Arista was there too along with plenty of others Mulan didn't know.

"Right girls!" Aurora jumped up with a grin "I'm so glad to see so many of you here! So, I'll go through a routine with you and I'll see how you all do" a few girls squealed with excitement and Mulan tried not to groan in her throat.

"Now just remember, no one here is going to laugh or judge you so just have fun. Being a cheerleader is all about confidence!"

Jasmine sighed for Mulan sake, Mulan was anything but confident in herself. Arista went first, she smiled and ruffled her hair and did the routine to near perfection. Even when she slipped a little at the end she got back up and giggled before strutting off. Aurora jotted down some notes onto a pink clipboard, clapped and then praised her; "Nice work, Arista! See everyone, even when you mess up you just have to play it off confidently".

Next came Cinderella. She shuffled a little nervously to stand in front of Aurora who had a friendly smile but also, an unhealthy obsession with finding perfection. Aurora looked over Cindy's oversized grey sweatpants and blue shirt before stepping forward slightly. "Hey Cindy, I had no clue cheer was your thing!"

"I'm trying something new" she shrugged in response. Aurora grinned, it seemed Cinderella was faking her confidence well. She glanced over at Charles Charming and flushed a serious shade of pink, not that he had even glanced back at her. She remembered meeting Charles in freshmen year when he sat beside her in homeroom the first day. He moved a few days later when he befriended Phillip. They spoke again in sophomore year when the year group had their first proper house party hosted by Charlotte La Bouff for her birthday. Cinderella arrived in a pretty pink dress that used to be her mothers and Charles, after just one beer, gave her a tipsy first kiss. She assumed he hadn't remembered seeing as neither of them spoke about it again, in fact, she wondered if he had even remembered who she was.

Cinderella followed through the routine without a single mistake. Every now and then her smile faltered and she kicked herself mentally to keep up with it. It seemed Aurora had either not noticed though or saw potential because she praised her, made some notes and then called for the next girl.

More girls went, the triplets, snow white and more did great. Some freshmen called 'Tinker Bell' and 'Vidia' were great and Aurora commented on their 'great attitude'. Mulan was last and awkwardly she shuffled over to try out.

"Hey" Aurora smiled a little patronisingly, "you're going to be great!" Mulan could tell from Aurora's tone that she looked just as uncomfortable as she felt, nevertheless, she followed through the routine and while all the steps were correct, she didn't smile once, her moves were quite flimsy and sometimes rushed trying to get it over and done with. Aurora nodded, smiling, but didn't jot anything down. As Mulan was dismissed her friends returned to her side, worried but attempting to encourage her.

In the changing rooms, most girls had changed now back into their skirts and jeans and were hanging around waiting for some sort of closure. While Mulan stood in her bra and leggings, Aurora waltzed in, clipboard in hand and Phillip and Charles trailed behind her. Jasmine quickly blocked Mulan's bare chest from view as Mulan hastened to pull her t-shirt back over herself.

"So, I'll put up on the notice board the final cut by 3:00 today. There are only six spots available so it'll be tricky but there's always next year for most of you!" Aurora skipped off and all the girls cleared out, chirping enthusiastically but Mulan just fell into the bench with a heavy sigh.

"Don't worry, there's always the audition on Wednesday" Jasmine smiled, but Mulan groaned. An audition? Right, like she could pull that off.

Belle turned around the corner and worked her way down the dimly lit corridor to science. There was something so damp and horrid about this area of school where old Bunsen burners lurked and the lights flickered. It was safe to say it was far from her favourite subject. As she turned the empty corridor and headed for her class she spotted the tall auburn boy who had helped her out last week. Her initial reaction was to approach and greet him before she remembered how unpleasant he had been; not that he'd spotted her anyway. He was facing away and leaning obnoxiously against the wall. Belle was about to continue and stork past him until she also noticed Gaston and she lurked around the corner, awaiting him to clear off.

"Adam" Belle heard Gaston snarl, "why are you lurking around school like a creep?"

Silence.

"What? Oh-ho. Not so loud now, are you?"

Silence.

"I see, you only pipe up when there's a damsel in distress. Is that it?"

Gaston scoffed and Adam was still silent, "Helping out Belle" he spat her name.

Silence.

"Why the long face? Oh... I get it! You thought she was pretty"

Silence.

"As if she'd ever look at you twice" Gaston snorted.

More silence.

"An ugly longer like you-"

Belle grimaced at Gaston's harsh words but felt no need to intervene, especially since it seemed she has caused the argument in the first place. Plus, she had witnessed first-hand that Adam could handle himself. She listened intently to what else was going to be said but it was completely silent still. She tilted her head and glanced over and saw Gaston struggling. Adam's large hand was around his neck and Gaston kicked out, wincing as he did. She was about to scream out in protest but Adam let go and Gaston spluttered loudly.

"You're fucking crazy!" he cried, "Alright! Alright! So, you have the upper hand at school! But wait till next time, you know where you're not so powerful! Wait till my father hears about all this!" he stormed off, sounding uncannily like Draco Malfoy. Belle hesitated before she tiptoed past Adam who didn't even lift his head to look at her. She felt a surge of guilt as she walked on, she should of stopped it, suppose she had... would Adam have hurt him? She rushed ahead, unable to stop the wondering on what Gaston meant about 'where you're not so powerful'...

Esmeralda stood by the school play signup sheet staring at Phoebus' name. She smirked a little, imagining him reciting Shakespeare on stage and her pen hovered in hesitance.

"Esmeralda don't be silly, it's one audition" Pocahontas said.

"I feel like such a ork" Esmeralda said and she scribbled her name down. Pocahontas looked at the paper too, her name was already on it as she had signed it before Esmeralda but the difference was Pocahontas had been in extracurricular since freshmen year.

"You'll totally get a part" Esmeralda pouted "I suck at acting"

"You don't suck at anything you're just... a little lazy" Pocahontas half laughed.

On the other side of the notice board stood Mulan, Jasmine was stood behind her to support. It was just after the school bell had run and the student body was headed in the opposite direction of the corridor towards the exit but Mulan was rigid, practically glued to the floor.

Six places. She thought, don't get your hopes up.

A pink sign was pinned up and Aurora's curly handwriting read, "Cheerleader Squad Results" along with the noted names of the six chosen girls.

Arista Triton

Snow White

Tinker Bell

Laura Bette

Cinderella Ash

Charlotte La Bouff.

Mulan read the list twice and then moved aside, a heavy heart.

"Don't be upset, Mulan!" Jasmine tried, reading over the list as soon as her petite friend had moved aside, "you can try next year!"

"I'm actually happy... I don't think I'd feel that comfortable in that tiny skirt" Mulan shrugged tryingly.

Jasmine smiled sympathetically, "exactly! Come on, let's see what Ariel's doing. We'll go down to that Italian place"

Mulan smiled. Jasmine seriously was a good friend and she tried hard, but a part of her knew that this was just the beginning for a spiral of failures to come.