Chapter Five
Clean pair of sneaks, with A-Ds on her belt
"Like this?" Ethan asked Freddie as he pulled down on his cheeks, exposing the inside lining of the skin beneath his eyes as he rolled them up into his eyelids.
"Yeah," Freddie grimaced at the freakish sight. "It was fucked up. I mean, who the fuck makes faces like that when they're getting fucked."
"Maybe it's a ginger thing?" Ethan laughed as he browsed through the movie choices, cueing up the perfect one for his roommate.
In the distance the microwave let out a faint ding. Freddie opened the door and removed the bag of popcorn. As he walked back to his seat, shaking the bag with each step, he let out a resigned sigh at the inactivity on his phone. Not that he didn't want to hang out with Ethan but it would have been nice to have some options.
"What's this?" Freddie asked, settling in to his gamer chair and opening a bottle of soda.
"The Scissoring."
"Ugh," Freddie grumbled. He wasn't a fan of the cult classic.
"Halloween is in a couple weeks, Bro," Ethan reminded him. "Just trying to get into the spirit."
Freddie shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth as he watched the opening credits. The camera panned through a graveyard as the actors' names scrolled across the screen. He was mid-chew when a familiar name caught his attention.
JADE WEST
"Jade West," Ethan read aloud exchanging looks with Freddie. The boys were both thinking the same thing – what a strange coincidence.
As the movie progressed and the raven haired character, Tawny Walkerblack, said her first line, Freddie and Ethan leaned closer to the screen.
"No way," Ethan glanced Freddie's way again. "That can't be her can it?"
"I doubt it." But Freddie was studying the character on the screen. The resemblance was there but the movie was made well over a decade ago. It was hard to envision what the little girl might look like now.
"I gotta know," Ethan took out his phone and began searching the internet.
"Want me to pause it?" Freddie asked, looking for any excuse to stop watching it.
"You don't have to."
"I don't want you to miss anything." Freddie's thumb tapped the mouse pad. He selected one of the Galaxy Wars movies and began playing it. Much better he thought to himself.
It was several minutes later that Ethan uttered, "Holy Shit! That is her. Check this out." He shoved his phone in front of Freddie. "Hit play."
Benson tapped the screen as a video called Jade West says TUCK OFF. The description was a ComicCon date a few years prior featuring the director and a two cast members from The Scissoring. Ethan and Freddie both leaned forward watching the video and the trying to make out the garbled audio. There were three people seated on the panel, none of which Freddie recognized, except for possibly the dark haired girl in the center.
The video was long and the shot of the girl wasn't that great.
"I don't think that's her," Freddie told his roommate.
Ethan scrolled down through the comments to the one that read, 'Is Jade West really dating Tommy Oliver?'
Ethan looked at Freddie. "You think they dated?"
"I dunno," Freddie shrugged. "Weird shit happens in Hollywood." Although Freddie had a hard time believing his icon, Tommy Oliver, would ever do something as scandalous as dating an underage actress. But, it would explain the riff between Jade and Beck the other night…Why was he even letting himself think about this?
About three minutes into the video, still scrolling through the magnitude of comments, the audio changed to loud cheering.
"Wonder what happened?" Ethan said as he scrolled back up to the video and went back a few seconds.
There it was on the screen in black and white, a close up shot of someone walking out onto the stage. It was without a doubt, the Jade West, they knew from Caltech.
"That's her!" Ethan yelled pointing to the screen. "Holy shit that's really her!"
From the black leather boots to the ripped teal colored tights beneath her kilted mini skirt, there was no doubt in Freddie's mind that he was going to school with a movie star. And not just that – but she actually knew who he was.
Although, she did think he was an asshole…
But even so….Was it wrong that he was thinking how to use this to his advantage? Maybe get a job on a movie set somewhere? Or behind the scenes? He'd do anything. Camera work. Special Effects. Hell, he'd even be the coffee bitch if that's what they wanted.
But yes, there she was, doing a back flip off the stage. The screen freezing as her skirt flew up, revealing her black boy shorts with TUCK OFF in bright white lettering.
Another video cued - WE CHEER 4 JADE WEST–
"Skip that," Ethan instructed Freddie as an ad began to play. Less than a minute, Freddie was shocked to see the bitchy captain of Caltech's cheerleading squad sitting beside none other than the Puckett twins in what looked like some kind of gymnastic school. There were mats, bars and a balance beam in the background.
Turning up the audio, he listened to their conversation.
"Please tell us!" the twins begged. "Please!"
"I'll die if you don't tell us," one of them said.
"Well," Jade's lips twisted into a devious smirk. "I suppose I could tell you but I need a promise from you in return."
"Anything!" they chorused.
"I want you to promise me that you will both cheer at Caltech next year."
"Caltech?" Sam grimaced. "That's a Division III school."
"We wanted to go to Kentucky," Mel told Jade.
"I want to you to cheer with me at Caltech," the raven haired girl stated. "If you commit right now," she held out pieces of paper to both of them. "I'll answer your question."
The twins exchanged glances, then they both reached out for the contracts in Jade's hand.
"Isn't it hard to get into Caltech?" one of them asked.
"Let's shut this off for a minute," Jade said smugly, head growing larger as she approached the camera.
At that point the video cut out to a blank screen, with a few visual effects of stick cheerleaders and a little music that Freddie recognized as Caltech's fight song. Words dropped down from the top of the screen, labeling each of the stick figures with a name. Sam. Jade. Mel.
The figures transformed into a live feed again, only now the twins were wearing Caltech tees shirts with matching bows on their heads.
"Tech on three," Jade called, reaching out her hand. The twins each put a hand on hers as the black haired girl counted, "One, Two, Three…"
The trio screamed "Tech" as they lifted their hands in the air, followed by synchronized back flips.
"How do you go from being a cult film star to a cheerleader?" Ethan asked Freddie.
Freddie didn't know the answer to that but he certainly had a few questions of his own for Jade.
Please watch your step cause I'm feeling myself
Camera in hand, Freddie stood by the track watching the team run their laps. He wasn't surprised that everyone ignored him. Well, everyone except the red head who smiled and waved at him as though nothing had happened. Even the coach had kept his distance, strategically moving the opposite direction each time Freddie attempted to approach him. Most would have considered this a burned bridge and moved on by now. But Freddie knew that there was much more at stake that a grade on his project. By some miracle he had to find a way to talk to Jade. He'd eat a giant slice of humble pie and get down on his knees and beg if that's what she wanted – and let's face it – Jade was the kind of person who would want to see him humiliated – but he was willing to do just about anything to get back on her good side, uh, if she had one.
He waited through the entire practice noticing that there wasn't much horseplay today. The team seemed tired but focused. Freddie filmed as much as he could from afar, waiting for the right moment to approach Jade.
The sun had fully risen by the time Coach Shay called it. The tired cheerleaders limped back toward the pile of their belongings. Walking in small groups, they drank from water bottles and wiped the workout sweat from their faces. Freddie made his move, waiting by the gate where they would all exit.
As Jade walked by him, flanked on either side by the twins, Freddie joined them.
"Excuse me Jade, can I talk to you for a second?" he asked nicely.
Jade kept walking.
The closest twin gave him a dirty look.
"I wanted to apologize," Freddie increased his volume slightly.
"Fuck off," Jade snorted as she slid the hair tie holding her pony tail down its length freeing her black hair.
"I know you think I'm an asshole," Freddie continued ignoring the comment.
"You are an asshole," Jade confirmed. The twins nodded their agreement.
"I'd like to do your team video," he said as moved in front of Jade, making her stop for a second. "No charge."
Jade snorted out a laugh, sidestepped and continued walking with Freddie on her heels.
"You know I'm more qualified than anyone else on this campus. I can make this team look as good as …," he paused glancing over at the twins. "Kentucky's team."
Jade kept walking but he'd gotten the attention of one of the twins.
"Not without some major CGI," she sighed rolling her eyes.
"I have some serious editing skills," Freddie told her. "In fact," he glanced at Jade who was already several paces ahead of them. "If you tell me when your next practice is, I'll film some of your stuff and prove it."
The twins looked at each other.
Freddie bit his lip, waiting for their reply.
"Today at three. In the gym."
"I'll be there." Freddie agreed happily.
The rest of the morning dragged on for Freddie despite the distraction of his classes. He found it hard to pay attention to the lectures and instead of taking notes he began envisioning the shots he wanted to film. He did a minimal amount of cheerleading research watching the Puckett twins' other videos on their YouTube page. While it was mostly tutorials on how to do various cheerleading and tumbling skills, they also had several years of videos of entire routines. Freddie watched a few of the more recent ones to get an idea of how to shoot this type of video.
What he found was that there wasn't much to it at all. The videos were all taken at a distance, so you could see the entire performance area. There were no close ups or angled shots involved - which made watching it very boring. Freddie decided that he would take a few artistic liberties to set his video apart from the rest.
At lunch he returned to his dorm, scarfing down a granola bar and an awful-tasting protein shake for lunch – he was determined to maintain the body that it took him two years of working out to develop – while making sure all his equipment was charged, organized and ready for action. He only had one chance – and Freddie was going to make it count.
He arrived at the gym fifteen minutes early. There were a handful of guys inside playing some half court ball. Freddie remembered how the mats had been set up the night the team had tumbling and checked the lighting and the sound. The gym's caged fluorescent lights were better than he expected and the test video he took of the guys came out fine. They gave him a few curious looks but none of them said anything. Checking sound next, he found that the gym echoed horribly as would whatever music they were using. He took out his phone and noted that he needed a copy of music so he could add the audio independently.
By 3pm he was prepped and ready to go but there was a small problem…
No one from the team had arrived for practice yet.
He waited.
And waited.
And waited.
By 3:30, when the guys cleared out and the women's volleyball team began setting up their net Freddie realized that Jade had lied to him about practice. She never intended to give him a second chance.
Bitch.