Saved by the Bell: A New Generation

Chapter Four

It was the end of the school day and Ariana had finished her last class for the day being English class. So far, she had come to meet some nice people in every class though she hadn't met any real friends where she could see herself either having a proper conversation or friendship with someone.

After finishing at her locker, Ariana walked in the direction of the exit of the building so she could start out on her walk home but stopped short when she came across a bulletin board where there was large poster hanging up stating Cheerleading tryout sign ups. For a moment, Ariana pondered over whether she should sign up. Sure, she was going to try out if she was still living in San Francisco but this time was different. She didn't know anyone who was on the squad.

At least in San Francisco, she knew the people who were on the squad. She was friends with them. Here, she knew no one but she knew that she should give it a go and try out. Her mum wanted her to follow in her footsteps and have her be a cheerleader. Necessarily, Ariana wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to be a cheerleader though what she did know was that she did want to please her mum and make her happy.

Finally settling on her decision, Ariana pulled a pen from her bag and scribbled her name down on the sign up sheet.

"So, you're going to try out for the squad?" asked a blonde haired girl, sauntering around the corner with three other girls, all whom were wearing their maroon and white cheerleading outfit.

Startled by the girl who obviously seemed to think she was all that, she placed her pen into her side pocket and turned to leave.

"Uh, yeah I am. Is that a problem?"

Placing a hand on her hip outright, the girl spoke in a snobbish manner. "Oh no, it's no problem to me because I'm already on the squad but you see I get to help pick the new recruits…" she paused, sizing her up as if to give her the once over. "And well, I don't believe that I know or seen you around school before. Are you new?"

"Uh, yes I am what I believe is called the concept 'new student'," Ariana replied, as pleasant as she could sound though she didn't want to.

The girl and her friends laughed to themselves like they were laughing at her. "Very funny," she said. "But you see, you can try out for the squad if you want. That's up to you but don't get your hopes up and think you're actually going to make it onto the squad because we don't know you well enough to know if you're right for the squad or not. We're trying to make a record."

"Like what? You want an all blonde bimbo squad?" Ariana rolled her eyes.

"Please, we can't help it if the majority of our talent has blonde hair. We've got nothing on hair colours; we will pick you if we can see that you've got talent. But our record is that we're hoping to achieve our hopes this year and go to the annual cheerleading classic," the blonde haired girl declared.

"Wait, you've never actually been to the classic?" Ariana sounded shocked. She guessed that when half of the squad had this much feistiness, they'd be able to do anything.

"No, but we have high expectations that this is our year. We're determined to give it our all and strive hard which is why we need to make sure the try outs come out successful. No offence to you or anything. I'm sure you could be great but we need to make sure we pick people who will help us succeed our goal."

"Oh, none taken but if this your way of telling me to not try out for the squad then it hasn't worked because I've written my name on the sign up sheet, I'm going to try out. I get that you're the captain and so you want to look out for your squad," she retorted with a fake smile, sidestepping around the girls.

"Whatever," the girl said, ready to leave. "C'mon girls, let's go. It was nice to meet you," she squinted at the sign up sheet, scanning her name "Adriana."

"It's Ariana," she corrected.

"Adriana, Ariana. Whatever, it's not like it matters—brunette girl. Ta, ta," she spoke insincerely.

The girls left in the opposite direction as Ariana continued to walk the other way.

Okay, so the girl made some valuable points. She was only looking out for her squad and in the process, warning her of these qualities that because she's new, she may not be picked for the squad but Ariana didn't care.

There was no way this girl's opinions were going to put an end to Ariana trying out for the squad. Would they?

Closing the front door after her, Ariana waltzed through the foyer, bypassing the living in direction of the staircase, heading for her bedroom. Right now, she was no longer in the mood to discuss her day at school to any one. Actually she never was in the mood to discuss her school day.

Glimpsing into the living room, her eyes wandered around the room—taking into account of the two figures hunched on the carpeted floor—her grandmother and brother. She had distinctly remembered her parents telling her that their grandmother was to be picking up Jackson from day care and then taking care of him for the remaining afternoon she finished school.

"Hey!" Ariana greeted them both.

Jackson's head piped up from the toy car he was playing with and ran to his sister's side. "Ariana, grandma and I were waiting for you to come home. Here, now you can play cars with me." His eyes were full of glee which made it harder for Ariana. The last thing she wanted to do was disappoint her little brother though she was feeling up to playing with him right now and besides, she had an ample lot of homework she needed to complete before tomorrow.

Bending down to his eye level, she spoke. "Sorry but I can't play with you right now Jackson. I've got homework."

Ariana saw his eyes drop down in sadness and felt like changing her mind to please her brother but she knew she couldn't.

"Sweetie, why don't we play cars while Ariana finishes her homework," their grandmother inserted, hoping to cheer her grandson up.

"OK," he responded naturally, returning to his car in the centre of the room.

"Thanks," Ariana mouthed to her grandmother to which she smiled and mouthed back "that's alright."

Ariana turned on her heel and headed up the stairs to her bedroom. Reaching her room, she closed the door behind and remained enclosed in her room until dinner was ready to be served and eaten.

After dinner, Ariana had stacked the dishwasher and then returned to her bedroom. She had finished her homework earlier—now she had purely decided to hole herself up in her room for her own preferences she chose not to discuss with anyone. She wanted to chill out in her own private sanctuary, which was built to showcase a princess, room—not that she wanted a room she slept in to have the surrounding walls covered in pink paint.

She'd much prefer purple or even black, but the walls were already painted pink when they moved in and she couldn't be bothered to repaint them again so she had decided to leave it the way it was. Instead, she'd dress up the room, showing her personal style another way. Ariana had been drawing for as long as she could distinguish paper and pencils. Naturally, she never really displayed her drawings to anyone of her friends and family.

To her, they were a piece of the mood she was feeling at a specific given time. Instead of writing word for word in a journal, Ariana drew her emotions and feelings through distinct and vivid images. And for inspiration and for a homier feel, she had decided to display a few of her principle artwork along the walls of her room.

She was hoping to have received some sort of contact from Logan—either being a text message or phone call—calling to asking how her first day at school went, but dinner had come and gone. It was now after 8 and Logan never called then. He always complained how he needed his rest so his energy was preserved for his specific sporting or training events the following day. Ariana never understood how a simple phone call or text message would affect his energy but nonetheless, she respected his decision.

But now, here she was wondering and hoping that he'd forget his stupid rule and just send a simple text message to her phone. Was it too much for her to want to know that her boyfriend was thinking of her? How hard was a test message? It didn't even require an early stretch beforehand.

She half-hoped he'd send her something considering he never sent a "good luck, thinking of you" text to her like she had received from the rest of her friends.

Musically in tune to the music playing on her computer, she soon forgot about her boyfriend as she sat on her bed, knees tucked up and drew in her art portfolio as she began to lose herself into her music and artwork and not taking notice when her door opened to have her dad walk in.

Briefly looking up from her drawing for a moment, she found her dad standing over her desk where her computer lay open as it blasted her somewhat dark and upbeat edgy music she loved to listen to so much.

Ariana stood up from her bed and over to her computer and stopped the music—the music suddenly becoming a distant stillness throughout the room.

"I can finally hear myself think again," her father said.

Ariana rolled her eyes. She never did get her parents antics—even when they insisted they were never going to be old and embarrassing. Though Ariana knew different, they insisted otherwise yet they never understood the type of music she listened to.

"Uh-huh and you call yourself hip."

"Hey! I'm hip, I just don't understand how you can listen to music at this pitch of loudness," he stated.

Ariana merely rolled her eyes again. "Sure, whatever you say."

Ariana returned to her bed and closed her art book so it was away from prying eyes. Her parents were always eager to try and get a glimpse of the drawings their secretive daughter drew. Their only connection that enabled them to see her art work were the reclusive ones she had pinned up on the wall—ones that weren't nearly as procreative or prerogative as they were in the folio she kept close to her heart.

"How was school?" Zack asked.

Ariana shrugged. "School was school."

"School was school," he mocked.

Ariana looked at him with a scowl for mocking her. "What? School was school. There's nothing else to say."

"Well, perhaps a little more of an explanation would do than 'school was school'. You sound like me and how I would have said it."

"As they say—like father, like daughter," Ariana replied gracefully, putting a smile on her father's face. It always pleased him to know his childhood like antics had somehow reappeared into his daughter's personality and catch phrases. Then again, she was like her father in more ways than one than she was like her mum. The only thing that made Ariana alike her mother was the fact that she resembled her mother so much—especially as the age of sixteen that Ariana was now. Other than taking after Kelly in looks, Ariana was more like her father than she liked to be.

OK. I attended an assembly where I received my schedule and then went to class, had lunch and finished off my final classes before the bell rang to signal the end of school and finally before I left school, I signed up to try out for the cheerleading squad. Is that a good enough description of my school day or do you want more specifics—right down to what I ate for lunch?" Ariana asked with a slight laugh.

"OK. I get it," he stated. "So, you signed up for the squad huh?"

Ariana nodded. "Yes."

"Yesterday you were unsure."

Ariana shrugged aimlessly. "Yeah, I know but I walked past the bulletin board and well, I don't know…I did it because I know how much mum was looking forward to me being a cheerleader when I told her months ago. I guess I don't want to disappoint her. Yet, I'm also unsure since I kind of had a run in with some of the cheerleaders already on the squad. They're kind of intimidating, I'm not sure I really want to do it."

"Well, there's a shock. I didn't think Ariana Morris was intimidated by anyone."

"But this time it's different. I mean, at least when we were in San Francisco, I knew the people who were on the squad. I was friends with the cheerleaders. Here, I know no one and this girl showed scary like features towards me like she doesn't think I have a chance because I'm new."

"And since when have you ever listened to others around you? You've never been one to give into peer pressure. You've always gone and done your own thing. Choosing to try out to be a cheerleader is up to you but I know how happy your mum was when you told her you wanted to be a cheerleader," he said, walking to the door to leave. "Listen, I know that you're less than impressed that we moved but things will get better. Who knows, maybe becoming a cheerleader is exactly what you need to lose the new student vibe and find a circle of friends you'll fit into to."

As Zack left, his words of confidence started to sink into Ariana's head. She had never been too scared to feel intimidated by anyone she had come across. If anything, other people were to be the ones who felt intimidated by Ariana. She hated to disappoint her mum, but would she be brave enough to actually try out for the squad.

Or if she chose not to, she'd only be giving in to the rest of the cheerleader's orders—something she had never done before which would be a first for her. Though, from the pit of her stomach, Ariana knew that the decision she made would alter and make an impact to her world.