The Mechanics of Cheer: Kaylee's Story

As the bell rang, I stood up, grabbed my backpack, and got ready to leave Arlington Heights High School for the weekend. But before I could escape (and escape was real important today), Ollie Beth and Sylvie each grabbed one of my arms. "You're going to cheerleading tryouts," Ollie said menacingly. "Whether you like it or not."

"I told y'all, I have to work today," I complained.

"Daddy will understand. Come on."

We started heading to the indoors gym, half because I walked, half because they dragged me. I'll admit it... I was a little curious as to what it'd be like to be a cheerleader. I loved the little dresses in gold and dark blue that they wore, the confidence they exhibited out on the field as they cheered on the astoundingly hot boys. I giggled a little. People tried to peg me as someone who wasn't too feminine (mainly due to my job...), but I could be girly with the best of them.

Ollie glanced approvingly at me. "See, I knew you'd want us to drag you here. Hon, your mouth needs to stop saying no when your body says yes."

"Ollie Beth, that sounds wrong," Sylvie quipped. "We're trying to rule the school, not get expelled from it, remember?"

Ollie put on a fake pout and tossed her curtain of perfectly straight blonde hair, in a way that was mock sultry. "They can't expel a girl for being comfortable with her sexuality." She put in a little bump of her hips for emphasis.

"If they could, they'd have to get rid of the entire cheer squad," I laughed.

Sylvie, who always was the serious one, didn't fall into giggle fits like Ollie and I did, instead choosing to sigh and walk off. We quickly scrambled to our feet and followed her into the locker room to change from our boring polo shirts into our gym clothes.

The gym was already hopping when we entered. I could see my cousin Charlotte, who was Cheer Captain this year, already organizing people into groups. Ollie, Sylvie, and I got in line.

When Charlotte got to us, she smiled at me. "Actually doing something girly, huh, Kaylee?"

I glanced pointedly down at my pink tracksuit that I wore for P.E.

She laughed. "Okay, I see your point. It's not your fault you have to be the son since Uncle Benji didn't have one."

I tried to laugh back. In reality, I was a little annoyed. It wasn't just that my dad didn't have any sons, it was also that I really loved to work in the automobile repair shop he owned. And I had a gift for it. He said so himself. "Well, look on the bright side, at least I can keep your car running, Char."

"True. But for now, let's concentrate on seeing if you can move than boyish body." She stared pointedly at the place my breasts would be if I actually had them, then moved on to the next girl.

"You do automobile repair stuff?" said the girl in front of me, who had turned to face my little group.

"Yeah..." I trailed off. I thought everyone knew. Weird this girl didn't.

She shot me a quirky little smile, made cute by strands of blonde hair falling into her eyes. It looked like it used to be a boy cut, but was growing out. "I'm new," she explained as if she could read my mind. "Avalon MacAdams. Freshman class."

"Kaylee Scott. Sophomore."

"Ollie Beth Maddox," Ollie butted in.

"And Sylvia Johnson. So, Avalon, where are you from?"

Avalon looked a little overwhelmed... like, for some reason, she hadn't been expecting to talk to my friends, but only me. "Um, Byron, California."

"Pretty far from Texas, huh?"

"Yeah," Avalon said, warming up. "It's a lot different. But I move around a lot, so I'm used to that."

"Really?" Sylvie actually looked somewhat interested. "Where else have you been?"

"Gardenia, California. Kamloops, BC, which is up in Canada. And now here."

"Cool." And with that, Sylvie turned back to us. Ollie Beth was still looking at Avalon out of the corner of her eye, probably judging whether or not she'd be a somewhat okay person to know... and whether or not she'd make the squad. As Charlotte's whistle blew, Ollie, Sylvie and I split up- we had all been placed in separate audition groups. Guess we'd know who was good and who sucked soon enough.

"Group One, up first!" yelled one of the old cheerleaders. Sylvia's group stepped up and were led through an elaborate routine. Sylvie, with her ponytailed dark hair and long body, already looked the part of a cheerleader, though even from a distance I was mentally correcting her frown of concentration. Smile, girly! I willed.

When they were done, they were led into a different room, and my group- Two- was called. I could see Avalon on the other side of the pack, her legs parallel with her shoulders, her arms tucked in. She either knows something I don't, or she's just plain ridiculous.

"Okay!" Charlotte yelled. "Y'all should be stretched and ready to go. If you're not, get out and try again next year. This is serious. We aren't gonna have any injuries today, okay? This isn't Buffy the Vampire Slayer." She got some giggles with that. "Now, in my eyes, there's five basic things we're lookin' for today. One, can you dance? Two, can you cheer? Three, can you smile? Four, can you get along with the team? And five, can you deal with us bitches for an entire season... which is actually completely unrelated to number four."

"Language, Miss Charlotte," the teacher adviser said lazily.

She shrugged it off and continued. "If you can do all five, welcome to the team. And that's not even a "we'll consider you." There aren't enough people who can do all five to fill spots, so some of you can slide. With that, let's start dancing."

The routine was intense. My body was fairly healthy from running back and forth to get things for Dad, as well as from lifting heavy equipment, but the dancing exhausted me. I pressed on though, partially because I could see Avalon working through it, and partially because I really wanted one of those little dresses.

When we finished, we were all herded into the hallway. "Okay, here's the cut list," Charlotte said. "If you aren't on it, get out and go get some french fries and cry your eyes out. Alphabetically. Clairbourne, Davis, MacAdams, Rivers, Scott, Treverston. If your name wasn't called, bye bye and have a nice year."

When five girls from our group slinked out, my cousin clapped her hands and smiled... somewhat evilly. "Now that you guys have passed round one, I'm ready to hear the individual cheers you've composed."

Um. What.

One poor girl... I think she was Zoe Davis, a freshman... spoke up tentatively. "It didn't say anything about composing a cheer, did it?"

"No, it didn't." Yep, that was Char's evil grin. "But being impulsive and having good reflexes are important qualities for the Arlington Heights Cheer Squad. Good lord, girl, this is Texas. We have to be awesome." And then the Cheer captain flipped her hair and walked back into the gym.

"Do you realize that none of group one came back?" Zoe asked in a stage whisper.

Another freshman... Allyson Clairbourne... gasped, putting one hand to her open mouth. "What do you think happened to them?"

"For crying out loud, this is a high school cheerleading squad, not a horror movie. And I've seen enough of both to know."

It sounded like something I would say, or maybe Ollie, but when I looked, it was Avalon who had made the comment. "Now," she continued, "if you'll excuse me, I have a cheer to write. We don't know when the Head Bitch In Cheer is gonna be back, and some of us actually want to make the team."

I jumped in. "And if certain freshies can't take the heat, maybe they shouldn't come near the fire."

Zoe and Allyson's eyes went downwards, embarrassed. And then there was silence as each of us tried to come up with something individual, something that would stand out. After about five minutes, we started to be called in, one by one. I was second to last, but finally, one of Charlotte's friends asked for "Scott."

My cousin wasn't in this round, but I knew a couple of the judges. "Nervous?" asked Emily Blackman, a senior.

"Well... let's just say I spent five minutes trying to rhyme something to "jackets of yellow" before I gave in and changed it."

They laughed. "Show us what you've got."

Alternating between claps and stomps to the offbeat (I read that simple choreography makes you stand out from the other candidates), I called out, "One, two, three, four! Yellow Jackets gotta score! Five, six, seven, eight! Opposing-team's-name-slash-mascot-here, don't you hate!" For a little added emphasis, I clapped quickly four times and fist-pumped twice.

No sign of how I did showed on the girls' faces. "Okay, good job, Kaylee. Scores are up tomorrow. You can exit out the same door you came in. Call for Treverston, please."

I obliged, and sighed, almost running into Avalon. "Sorry," I apologized.

"Don't be." Her voice was grumpy.

"What's wrong?" I asked, truly curious. "Did you not do well?"

"I didn't get a chance to. They yelled at me. Apparently, I ruined the audition. There was supposed to be total chaos and worry. That stage wasn't about cheer skills... it was about keeping calm under stress. And I blew it. I'm gone."

"Ouch. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I'll probably be moving again soon anyway. I just tried out because I thought it might be fun. I don't always get to do a lot of girly things."

I smiled. "Same. Just because I fix cars part-time, everyone pegs me as this butch girl. Which is kinda funny, because even my jack is pink and purple. I'm about as girly as they come, I just like to fix stuff."

"Me too... except for the girly part." She tugged on her short hair to emphasize. "I even totally fixed up an old car that didn't run anymore. I named her Ole Denim. Wanna see?"

"Completely!" I exclaimed. "I'm fixing up a junker myself. Haven't got a name yet."

We passed Ollie Beth coming in as we left, and I motioned a thumbs-up to her for luck. She smiled tentatively back at me.

Out in the parking lot, Avalon led me to see her car. It was an unexpected beauty, with a fairly-new coat of shiny blue paint, though you could immediately see that the model was old. "It's awesome," I said.

"Wanna ride in her? She's sleeker than she looks. A few twists and turns I put in here and there."

Well, I needed a ride home anyway. I normally caught the bus, but I had missed it. I would have mooched a ride from Ollie, but she'd be a while, and there was this offer... "That'd be great! But... um, would you mind taking me home? I need a ride."

"No issue, just tell me how to get there."

I hopped into the passenger's seat, and Avalon into the driver's side. The car started silently, not betraying it's age at all. "Beautiful," I whispered.

She smirked, prideful. "You could say I have a magic touch."

"I get that. People tell me the same thing."

Her sideways glance was hard to interpret. It was half amused and half... knowing. Like she had already figured me out. It was rather disorienting. To distract myself from that, I asked "Does the radio work?"

"Yeah. Wanna turn it on? I don't know the stations yet."

"No problem."

But as I touched the dial, sparks flew, like the thing was blowing up. "What'd I do? What'd I do?" I asked frantically.

Avalon pursed her lips. "No clue. We can check it out when we get to your house... if that's alright."

I nodded assent.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. When we finally got to my house, right next to the Scott Repair Garage, where I worked, I hopped out and started running to the business. "I'll go get my tools and be right back," I called over my shoulder. Avalon nodded, but looked a little distracted.

I slipped into the shop, and immediately, Dad was on me. "Hey, where were you? You're late."

"Ollie Beth and Sylvie forced me to come try out for the cheerleading squad. I tried to escape, but even if I did, I already missed the bus home. Luckily for me, a new friend drove me home. As payment, I accidentally broke her radio. I'm going to try to fix it, then I'll be in and working."

"If I don't fire you first," he threatened playfully.

I smiled back. "And you can get your son to come and work for you. Oh, that's right... I'm your only child."

He stuck his tongue out at me, childish. I grinned, grabbed my lilac tool box, and headed back to Avalon's car.

The new girl was already working, her calloused fingers gently probing the box of a radio. "I've got tools," I said awkwardly... she looked like she was in the zone, and I didn't want to mess it up.

She took my hand quickly and placed it on the radio. "You feel that?" she asked.

"What, that humming-y thing? Like, a vibration. Does that means it's working?"

"Yes!" Avalon exclaimed. When I looked at her funny, she frowned sheepishly and said, "I mean no. But with a little help from you..."

"I thought you fixed things too."

"Well, I'm best with smaller things. And I'm not professionally trained. Taught myself. Don't want to fry my own radio because of a lack of education. Besides, you broke it."

True. I "heh-hehed," and then grabbed my tool box.

Avalon snatched it out of my hand. "No, don't use those."

"Don't use... but how else would I fix it?"

She stared at me for a long moment. I stared back. Eventually, she blinked and sighed. "Yeah, I suck at this."

"Staring contests?"

"No, telling new fairies that they're... um... new fairies."

There were several beats of silence. "Um, excuse me?" I choked out.

She leaned back in the driver's seat. "Here's the deal. Me and my friends Safeyah, Roxy, and Lysis are on a mission to find fairies who are newly awakening. If you count Saf and me, who were found before we joined the team- well, that's kind of a duh- we've found five. Anyway, we find these girls, we tell them who they are, and we offer them the chance to do something about their powers. Like travel to find other new fairies, or go to school somewhere."

"Lysis and Safeyah split up from Roxy and I about a week ago. We felt a fairy around Forth Worth, so Rox and I enrolled in different high schools, and I just found you. Fairy number six, Kaylee Scott, power of repairs. Now, will you fix my radio, because your powers awakened enough to break it."

Let me explain something to you, the reader. I'm fairly well known and well liked at Arlington Heights High School. In fact, I'm popular, like everyone tries to be, but not a lot of people are. People think that makes me a snob, and I try to prove them wrong. But some occasions just call for bitch-isms. "You're crazy," I said flatly. "I'm not a fairy freak."

Avalon looked a little hurt. "It's really cool, actually. Jeez, and I thought you were nice."

"I normally am," I said, my voice raising a bit in volume and hysteria as I spoke, "but not when some new student tells me she's a spy doing secret magical espionage only to discover I've actually got wings and powers and stuff! No way! I'm not a fairy, I'm just Kaylee!"

"Are we playing the Harry Potter game? Because here's my cue to ask if you've ever done something unexplained."

I glared. But she didn't let up. "Well, have you?"

I pursed my lips... then nodded. "I... I know what's wrong with things before I look at them. I can fix things by touching them sometimes. I can see problems before they even happen. I saved my mother's life with that once. But she was so freaked out, we don't talk about that anymore."

"You... your family... you aren't very open to the idea of fairies, are you?"

I looked down. "It's not that. It's my powers. It's scary to have abilities you can't explain."

She took my hand and squeezed it. "Well... now we can explain them to you."

"I need to tell my dad," I said. My mom would freak, but my dad needed to know.

We slowly walked up to the shop. He was smoking, not with a customer, so we explained the whole situation to him. When I finished with, "I'm a fairy, Dad," he smiled.

"I thought so. I guessed," he said.

My mouth dropped. "You did?"

"What else could it be?" He snuffed out his cigarette and hugged me. "Now... we just need to figure out what to do about it."

"There's a school for fairies in California. Also one in another dimension, but you might want her close. Or..."

"Or what?" I wondered.

"You could travel with my friends and me. It'd be exciting and fun. Besides, we need someone nice who actually speaks English as a first language. Saf is so friendly, but occasionally needs some English help. And Lysis, Roxy, me... well, we all can be jerks at times."

I looked at my dad. "I don't want to leave, Daddy," I whispered.

He hugged me again. "Honey... I think it's your destiny. You need to do this. You're growing up."

"What about Mom?"

"I'll explain." He looked at Avalon. "Take care of her, okay? She's gonna have to come back and be the best fairy mechanic there is."

She saluted. "Gotcha, sir."

And as my dad smiled, Avalon put her arm around me. "Welcome to the team, Kaylee. I have a feeling we're going to be great friends."

Author's Note: Kaylee is by rogue-scholar07.

Yes, this chapter was a bit boring. Since both characters are going to be seen a lot more, it was character develoupment, mostly. You'll get to see a lot more plot later, swearsies. In fact, our next chapter (featuring Rider Bradley by Silverwolforever) is action-packed and awesome. Though possibly, quite short.

Also, anyone who follows my work obsessively knows I have a tradition of doing a bonus chapter every 50 reviews I get, so yeah that might be before we get to Rider. I'm considering two things: a crossover with my story Legacy of Light (where AU!Story discovers her powers), or, in a Mary-Sue defying stunt, a self insertation parody. Tell me what you think in your reviews!