A/N: ... CHAPTER 3, EVERYONE!...

*applause*

*

there were freaks and hippies in my high school
football players all tryin' to be cool
and everybody scramblin' to hide their beer
when the cops drove by 'til the coast was clear

-wal-mart parking lot, chris cagle

*

Chapter 3 - J.J.

"Attention teachers and students, there will be a pep rally in the gym today at 2 o'clock. Please check in with your sixth period teachers then head to the gym. Also all football players report to the field house. Good Luck, Jackets!" the magic box on the wall told us.

Parker, Beau, Brian, Dustin, Jim, and I all jumped up at the same time.

"Wooooo! Go Jackets!!! Yeah!!!" We ran out the door yelling.

Down the hallway I could hear people hooting and hollering inside of their classrooms, supporting us.

"Yeahh!!" Trent yelled and jumped over my shoulder. All the football players can jump really high.. Whenever we figured that out we all just started jumping over each other. Like leap frog, but standing up.

"Dude, we're gonna kill Houston Academy tonight!" Jake yelled behind and Phil started beating on my back.

I leaned over trying to get away from them. I grinned into space for no reason at all.

I love football season. Everyone is just so pumped, and every Friday people are running up and down the halls with what looks like, BRING IT!!, wrote on their faces.

"First game of the season! We're going all the way this year!" I yelled.

Two of the basketball coaches ran out of their rooms when they heard me and whooped at us.

I decided to make a stop by Mrs. Harris's room. I stuck my head in her door.

"Are ya'll ready for the game tonight?!?" There was a bunch of seventh graders sitting in the desks.

They all started hollering.

"Okay, okay!" Mrs. Harris sushed them, "Thank you for getting them excited, J.J.." Mrs. Harris said sarcastically.

"Any day!" I grinned at her then joined rest of the of the team.

When we got out to the field house there was all of the cheerleaders, dance line, and color guard girls waiting with paint brushes.

A girl named Ashlee started to dip her paint brush in gold paint. She walked over to me and we talked while she painted me.

The tradition was for the football players to wear their jerseys every Friday when there's a game. Then the cheerleaders spray paint our hair half gold and half black. Then they bring out the war paint. This year they are going to paint our faces instead of our hair.. I think why they made that decision was because the prank I pulled last time.

I replaced all of the hair paint with hair dye. And so no one would know that it was me I replaced my hair paint, too. But mine washed out easily… Our whole football team had black and gold hair for about two weeks.

"Pull up your jersey." she told me.

Another tradition was to paint ASHFORD YELLOW JACKETS on the football players stomachs. So whenever it comes time we just stand in the right order pull our jerseys up and we support our school by spelling out our team name.

After about fifteen minutes she dropped the paint brush and then smiled at me.

"All done! Now let it dry for about a half a minute and then you can head to the locker room in the bottom hallway." She smiled again and started putting away the paint.

… 27 Mississippi, 28 Mississippi, 29 Mississippi , 30 Mississippi…

Whenever I was leaving I noticed that I was the last one out. I sprinted to the bottom I walked in everyone that was once talking, shut-up.

"Uhh.. J.J.?" Jim said."Yeah?" Jim pushed a roll out mirror that the cheerleaders use from the utility closet."Look at yourself."

I stared into the mirror. Brown hair, 66 jersey, Parker standing behind me, and…

"OH MY GOD!!" Jim was nodding his head, "There's a stupid piece of lint on my jersey. I wonder how that got there.." I brushed the stupid speck off.

"Uh.. Maybe you need to look a little closer.." Phil insisted

Brown hair, 66 jersey, Parker standing behind me, no lint on my jersey..

"Wow!" Jim started nodding his head a little. "I have brown eyes! I never noticed."

"J.J.!!! Look at your body!"

I do have a nice body don't I… wait…

"Now that you mention it I do look a little colorful.."

"J.J.! HALF OF YOUR BODY IS GOLD AND HALF IS BLACK!!!" the whole football team burst into laughter.

I looked and only their faces were painted.. Stupid Ashlee..

"Settle down!" Coach yelled. "So J.J. is gold and black.. Why is J.J. gold and black?"

"Well, you see." I started

"Don't answer that. Pep rally in five. Get in position."

We all ran to the doorway that led into the gym. It had a black mat over the front of the door so no one could see us before we busted down the door.

I could hear the band playing, and I could smell the drinks and chips that they sell at every pep rally.

Everything got quiet and I knew that the lights had just been dimmed. They turned the fog machine on, and there was a blue spot light on where we're suppose to come in at. I knew this because it is a tradition.

I heard them start playing the son Unbelievable by EMF. Twenty seconds till game time..

The things, you say,
Your purple prose just gives you things, you say,
You're unbelievable.

Two of the guys threw me up on their shoulders.

We busted through the door. The stands were shaking from everyone screaming. They were so loud it made my ears ring.

I threw my hand up, laughing. I could hear girls all around me scream even louder.

The cheerleaders were doing some kind of cool cheer. I'm not exactly sure what they were saying though.

I looked around at everyone. The guys threw me up in the air, catching me off guard. I yelped in surprise. Four other guys caught me, then put me on my feet.

I looked around again. I could see a guy sitting in the bleachers. I'd never seen him before, he must be new. He was yelling something, I couldn't understand.

I smiled at that. He was new and already supporting our school. That made me proud to be a Ashford Yellow Jacket.

He had dark, curly hair and looked emo… He looked like someone I would talk to just to annoy the hell out of them. He's gonna be my new best friend!

"Give me an A!" The cheerleaders yelled. Parker slid out into the middle of the gym and pulled up his jersey revealing an A.

"S!" they yelled. I ran out and pulled up my jersey.

They spelled out ASHFORD YELLOW JACKETS, as each one of the football players ran out with their letter. We still had about forty other football players sitting on the bleachers…. We're a big school…

The pep rally went on with the football players getting to throw pies at the cheerleaders.. That was fun.. A dance competition and some stupid game that the teachers made up..

We had balloons tied to our ankles and they made us run around trying to pop each other's balloon by stepping on it… Five seconds into the game I stepped on my own balloon..

Coach ended it by giving us a pep talk.. He came over the intercom.

"Houston Academy won't know what hit them whenever we walk onto that field. We're going to smother them the first half and spend the next rubbing it in their faces." A phone rang.. Coach's phone.. "Um.. Hold on." He tried to muffle the speaker, but everyone could still hear him. "Hello… Oh, no…. What're you talking about?…. NO! We're gonna kick their asses…." I could hear and see everyone's mouth pop open. "Uhh… Let me call you back.. Okay, bye." Coach whispered. "Go Jackets! Woo!" he put down the mike.

Everyone burst into laughter.

Everyone knew Coach at cussed football practice. Hell, we all did. But, to cuss over the intercom talking to the whole school.. Well that's just phenomenal.

"Dude, we can't let Coach live that one down." Parker said from my right.

"Yeah, I know!" I told him, slapping him on the back.

The band started playing again. The whole football team got into a huddle in the middle of the gym and started swaying back and forth, another tradition. Someone jumped on top of us all. Two of our football players on crutches put one crutch into the huddle and jumped up and down.

Somehow I ended up in the middle of the huddle. I'm glad that I'm not Closter phobic, because it gets a little cramped whenever you have seventy huge guys huddled together.

Everyone whooped and hollered even louder. Someone started chanting.

"Jack-ets! Jack-ets! Jack-ets!" That's all I heard other than the band playing when we ran out of the gym waving.

We all ran back to the field house, and made fun of Coach.

So yeah... That's a normal Ashford High School pep rally... Without the whole spelling out Ashford Yellow Jackets.. But that'd be AWESOME!

And our Coach actually said that at a recent pep rally :D

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