Chapter 18 - Flashing Back - Part VI

"That evening, Mr. Queen, Tara's dad, took out out to eat with my fam. As it turned out, he didn't have the best taste in restaurants.

"Peepers? Are you really that serious?" Kim said, uncomfortable with the outfits the waitresses were wearing. They ranged from the ages of 19 to 25 wearing tight croptops with a bit of cleavage revealed and pink hot pants.

"Mrs. Queen, I have to agree with my daughter on this, but why did you take us here?" James asked.

"Our own Tara was the one who suggested this place." Mrs. Queen answered. "She said that she got the idea from Bonnie."

"Yeahhhhhh...Bonnie suggested it..." Kim groaned, rolling her eyes.

Ann was also unsure with the choice of attire of work for the Peepers waitresses, "I don't like what these waitresses are wearing, James."

"Sorry, folks." James admitted, "Mr. Queen has been working hard at the lab with me for five years, so I have to repay him the favor."

"We've eaten at Bueno Nacho one too many times." Mr Queen said, "Tara had gotten sick the last time we went there."

"And we can't eat at the Cow N' Chow!" Mrs. Queen chimed in, "Ronnie seem to be a picky eater.

"I have hamburger-itis! I can't eat anything that's been made into a 100% beef patty and two buns!" Ron exclaimed.

"So Tara brought up this place!" Mrs. Queen continued, "Their hot wings are tasty!"

"I wanna work here when I grow up!" Tara said while eating a carrot stick.

"Really? Is that your plan?" Kim questioned her motives.

"Totally, Kim! Bonnie told me that it would be my dream job!" Tara said.

Kim continued to narrate, "But something told me that behind Tara's smile was a very troubled girl. We then ordered our food. I got the grilled cheese sandwich and Ron got whatever Mexican food they had."

"The nachos were cold and crumbly...and they had no salsa!" Ron complained, "Is this how Peepers even makes its Tex-Mex?"

"Anyways, Ron...Tara grew fussy that the whole thing with Bonnie was my fault and she stormed to the bathroom. And Ron was struggling with a crossword puzzle intended for four-year olds."

"They were a tool of the devil! I tells ya!" Ron whined.

"I asked one of the waitresses about trying to advance herself and she blew me off. She told me that Lonnie Rockwaller was the captain of the Middleton High cheer squad when she was there and eventually dropped out. The apple just doesn't fall from the Rockwaller thorn tree."

"I don't understand what's gotten into your daughter." James wondered about Tara's behavior, "Last time my Kimmie-cub saw her in the fifth grade, she was as sweet as an angel."

Mr Queen took out a stack of papers and plopped them on the Peepers table, "Here's all of her papers from 5th and 6th grades."

The top of the book, which were her 5th grade papers, had an A+ and a smiley face.

"And then...she joined the cheer squad with Bonnie as the captain."

He then flipped the papers, as if it were a flipbook, and the smiley face and A+ transformed into a mean face and a D-.

"If she fails even one test this year, the whole squad would be disqualified from competition for the entire school year." Mr. Queen complained.

"Did you bring this up with Mrs. Rockwaller?" James asked.

"I did, but she thought that I was lying and that it would be of no concern to her." Mr. Queen replied. "The MUSD requires at least a 2.0 grade average from its student athletes to stay on the team. The squad has a combined 1.7 GPA."

"Then why didn't you get a tutor?" Ann suggested.

"The last time we did so for our Tara, he was thrown in the garbage can by a bully." Mr. Queen said.

"Aw man!" Ron whined with his half of a crayon, "I can never get this maze!"

"When I join the squad," Kim chimed, "I'm going to make straight A's!"

"That's right!" James beamed, "My Kimmie-cub's smart as an owl!"

Mrs. Queen said about that, "Good luck getting that past Bonnie. She doesn't even allow C's on report cards."

"That was when I asked my dad if I could use the restroom. He said yes. It wasn't going to the bathroom per se. Tara had been my best friend since the first grade. Bonnie's since the second. We hadn't seen each other much since the fifth grade when she was bused to MJHS for her sixth. She was torn apart between two sides.

Kim entered into the women's restroom and heard sobbing in the background.

"Hello?" she inquired.

She looked around and saw Tara there in a corner, sobbing and crying. The two were the only occupants in the restroom.

"Tara? What's wrong?

"Don't look at me, Tin Teeth! I'm a complete failure!" Tara cried, looking at Kim with tears streaming down her eyes.

"What?" Kim asked confused.

"You heard me right...failure!" Tara bawled, "I'll be spending the rest of my days...in a Peepers outfit...serving HOT WING WITH EXTRA BLUEEE CHEEEESSEEEE!" Tara gave a loud wail and cried some more.

"No, you're not!" Kim said to her, trying to dry up the dam of tears.

"Kim, do you know what it's like being the midle child of a five-kid family?" Tara asked, still with tears down her cheeks.

"Believe me..." Kim replied, seeing the relation, "...being stuck with two other monsters in the house is very difficult."

Tara facepalmed in frustration.

"You're not getting the gist of my point! I am stuck in the middle between a crying two-year old toddler, a six-year old brother who uses crayons on the walls, my fifteen-year old sister who screams every time her favorite boy band come on, and an eighteen-year old who hogs the phone for three hours at a time!" Tara said, referring to Cara, Billy, Lara and Sarah, the other children of the Queen family, respectively.

"Scratch that..." Kim groaned.

Tara sighed, "I joined the cheer squad in 6th grade, figuring that it would give me attention that my parents never gave in the Queen household."

"So that explains the bullying you did..." Kim replied, making the connection of what happened earlier.

Tara nodded her head solemnly, "Yes. Although the cheer squad elevated my poplularity...my grades suffered and I became a buly, along with the rest of the squad."

"Does Bonnie even known this?" Kim gasped, amazed at the unawareness of their squad captain.

Tara whispered, "No...I'm too afraid to tell her!"

"You're telling me that you're afraid to tell her that the squad is in danger of flunking out of competitions?" Kim asked, still amazed.

"Yes..." Tara admitted, "...any violation of her policies would result in the victim getting a swirly. No one is immune to Bonnie's wrath when provoked, not even her squadmates."

"What you did at lunch today..." the blonde cheerleader continued in a low voice, "...you were considered lucky. Not many can stand up to her for the first time and avoid getting toilet water in their hair."

"In other words..." Kim concluded, "...her way or the highway."

"Correct." Tara said, holding Kim by the shoulder, "She always wants things to go her way. That's what happened to the former 18th cheerleader on our squad."

"Tara, I know you from the past that you are a kind-hearted person who wouldn't even hurt a fly! It's Bonnie's nonsense about cheerleaders that got you like this in the first place! There is still good inside of your heart!" Kim smiled at Tara, seeing that there is light inside of the darkeness the blonde was trapped in, "As my mom tells me, it's not about the outside that counts, but the inside. Tara, you have a good soul inside of you, it's been caged by a self-obsessed brunette."

"You would have to be careful around her. Her dad once threatened my sister if she ever questioned Bonnie or Lonnie's tactics." Tara warned her.

Kim replied with a proud smirk, "I am not afraid of Miss Rockwaller or any of her scare tactics, Tara! Study hard and put your mind to it! If you do, you'll accomplish great things!"

"And so, we rekindled our friendship. However, we also promised not to tell this to anyone...especially anyone affiliated with Bonnie. The conversation also gave me a great idea, so I asked my dad if me and Ron can go to the library."

Kim approached the librarian at the front desk and asked, "Excuse me, ma'am, but do you have any books about cheerleading?"

The sweet old librarian replied in a raspy voice, "It should be in the 700s, where the humanities are."

Kim replied, "Thanks!"

She went to the 790s shelves to find any books about cheerleading, scanning her green eyes on the labels of the books.

"793...794...795...ahh...sports: 796!"

Her eyes then darted around the spines of the books to find a book about cheerleading...any book about cheerleading...that would destroy Bonnie's view of cheerleaders. She finally spotted one titled: 'How To Be An Effective Cheer Squad'.

With great interest, she yanked the book from the shelf and opened it.

"Hmmm...good book cover...authored by a former cheerleader...this might be worth a look!.

Kim flipped through the pages, especially ones that caught her eye. They opened very wide.

"Whoa! Amazing!"

She was sucked into a whole new world.

And then came the infamous page that attracted the most attention to Kim. The answers to running a good and effective cheer squad was right there on that page.

"My gosh! This is it! This is what I've been looking for! Bonnie should not be captain of the junior high squad in the first place!" she exclaimed loudly before a patron hushed her, reminding her that she was, indeed, in a library.