The chapters keep on coming. Once more, with Ron-ness.

Disclaimer: Cheerleaders and boys belong to Disney. Sports girls by author.

Chapter 3
"Pool Queue" or "Water Wee To-Do"

After the debacle on the basketball court the cheerleaders took a meeting the next morning to discuss how to handle the swim relay. It was to be a 4 by 100 meter race, each girl swimming the 50 meter length of the Middleton High pool out and back again before the next teammate would start. They just had to set the lineup. Of course, Kim would swim the crucial anchor leg where the final decision would come.

"No way am I going in that chemical soup this week," Bonnie declared. "I just had my highlights touched up on Saturday and my hair colorist totally forbids it."

"Why didn't you put it off, Bonnie?" Liz said. "You knew last week we'd be swimming today."

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to get an appointment with this woman? She's, like, an artist!"

"I'm a really bad swimmer," said Crystal. "I almost flunked gym last year because of it."

Tara raised a hand. "I have a slight earache this morning, so maybe I should sit this out."

"Kevin been blowing in your ear, T?" Marcella mocked.

"That's why she'll follow him anywhere," Hope snickered.

And just like that they were down to five. "Do we have time to run some trials, see which of you four is slowest?" Kim said to Jess, Liz, Hope and Marcella.

The girls looked dubious. The first bell of the school day loomed.

"Leave me out," said Jess. "I'm sure these three are all faster than me. Plus, I'd rather not wear that unflattering racing suit unless I have to. Not to mention the cap." She shuddered at the thought of hiding her golden blonde hair, her crowning glory, from admirers.

When the final period of the school day ended everyone headed to the pool for Round Two.

Kim had procured four new Mad Dog competition swimsuits for her side. Not the usual barely-there bikinis the shapely teens wore for frolicking with hotties at the lake; these were one-piece suits, built strictly for speed. Black with stripes of purple and gold down the sides and on the shoulder and back straps, they covered the girls from neck to knees in front. The back was slightly better: mostly bare between swan-like necks and rounded bottoms for comfort and freedom of motion of the arms.

Jess was happy she did not have to wear one. The way the lycra fabric compressed and minimized her squadmates' frontal endowments, the lissome blonde wanted no part of it. Bikinis were her style; the skimpier the better.

The cheer squad arrived at the pool just ahead of the other group. Three sports girls wore gold one-piece suits, while the 196-centimeter-tall Megan sported a tankini with modest bottom in the same hue, since her torso was too long for the one-piece. The swimmers jumped into the pool and limbered up. Then Kim and Megan met for a final consultation.

"What are you doing in that swimsuit, Kim?" the lanky volleyball star said. "You can't compete today; you were on swim team."

"What? I thought that provision was only for you guys?"

"No, it applies to you too."

"Are you sure? Ms. Moran? A ruling, please and thank you."

The government teacher the sides had selected as their faculty advisor and final authority in disputes stepped forward with a copy of the terms open in her tablet.

"Miss Hadley is indeed correct, Miss Possible. The rule against competing in a sport a girl has participated in interscholastically applies to both sides."

The teen hero blew out a breath. "All right, we'll switch. Jess, you're up."

"Who, me?"

"No, the other Jess," Kim said, rolling her emerald eyes. "Yes, you. Let's get you suited up."

The two teens went back into the locker room. Kim began to strip off her competition suit. "I'll just rinse this out for you."

"If it's all the same to you, Kim, I'd rather wear my own suit." She held up a small object that seemed to be a lipstick tube. "My emergency bikini. I never go anywhere without it."

Perhaps you've heard of tiny bikinis being likened to postage stamps on string? Yeah, those are too modest for Jess. Having often visited her ancestral home in Sweden, at a Baltic Sea beach resort where clothing was so optional it was almost unheard of, for the lithe blonde less was more and nothing could be better than absolutely nothing. She uncapped the tube and took out what looked like some strands of black dental floss with a few minuscule snippets of cloth attached. "Ta-da! Isn't it da bomb? It's the one I wore at Mad Dog Picnic last summer, when I was pulling male eyeballs away from Bonnie like she was in a choir robe."

"Why exactly do you need to carry an emergency bikini?"

"Because tragically, nude sunbathing is frowned on in most communities on this side of the Atlantic."

The cheer captain bit her tongue. "No, I mean how often do you need a swimsuit unexpectedly?"

"Well, I've never actually needed it before today—but as Fats Waller used to say, 'One never knows, do one?' "

Kim shook her head. "No. Just no. You can't swim in that … garment. You'd swim out of it before you went half the length of the pool. You'll wear the competition suit."

"Ugh. This is going to do nothing for my figure."

"It'll help your figure move through the water quickly, which is kinda what's important in a swimming race. Now put it on."

Groaning, Jess took the suit from Kim and started to wiggle into it as the redhead quickly got into her cheer uniform.

"And the swim cap too," Kim insisted.

"Sure, why not pile insult on top of injury."

When they returned to the pool, Jess still pushing locks of her hair under the swim cap, her friends had trouble suppressing giggles.

Crystal was first to say it. "Look everyone, it's a freshman squad sequel: Return of The Flat-Chested Blonde."

"Hey Sundstrum, I didn't know you had a brother," Traci taunted. She elbowed her boyfriend Tiny, the six-foot-five, 245-pound Mad Dog offensive lineman, in the ribs. He slapped a knee and guffawed.

Jess blushed hotly. Everyone in earshot laughed. Long and loud, with youthful abandon.

"All right, all right, all of you get your yucks out of your system," Jess grumbled miserably, "and then let's get this race over with so I can take off this fugly thing and start to feel sexy again."

Steve put a hand on his girlfriend's exposed lower back and caressed it (and some lower parts). "You still feel pretty sexy to me, babe," he said gallantly.

"Mmmm, we'll most def be putting those magic fingers of yours to good use after we outswim those girls, shortstop," she purred lasciviously, pressing some of her finer parts against him. (Teen girl mood swings: find a way to harness them and the world could run on green energy forever.)

"I've got a whole other hand's worth, too," her beau said slyly.

"And I've got a whole pad's worth of detention slips in my hand," Mr. Barkin barked. "Want to take a couple, Sundstrum, Farley?"

"No thanks, Mr. Barkin," they said, moving apart.

Tara tittered with amusement.

The Room 12 turnkey wheeled on the curvaceous cutie. "This funny to you, Monroe? Don't think I'm unaware that you and Guberman have been the most flagrant PD-ers of A all over campus since School Day One. I will catch you two at it one day."

"Calumny, Mr. B.," the lovely blonde fibbed shamelessly.

"Nothing but scurrilous rumors," the young man in question added.

"We vehemently gainsay them."

"Tara is the very epitome of propriety," the chess captain continued, smiling at his ladylove. "I deplore these aspersions cast upon her sterling character, and attest to her moral rectitude categorically."

"And my friend Kevin here has never to my knowledge comported himself in any way other than as an exemplar of due decorum," the cheerleader finished, admiration for her swain shining in her azure eyes.

"Man, KP," Ron Stoppable muttered to his girlfriend, "where do those two get all these school words?"

"Gee Ron, I don't know. Could it be … school?"

"Uh huh," the tough-but-fair disciplinarian said to Tara and Kevin. "Just remember, you two: Lady Justice may be blind, but Steve Barkin is not. No rulebreaker eludes me forever." He pointed at his own two eyes and then at the young couple and stalked away.

Jess jumped in the water and swam back and forth a while to loosen up. Then she climbed out and took the starting block.

To her left stood the first swimmer for the opposition, a tall soccer player named Amanda Pewlative. Jess gave a nod of acknowledgement to her fellow senior.

"Cheerleader," the brunette snarled contemptuously.

At the call of "Swimmers, take your marks!" Jess and Amanda crouched down and gripped the edges of their platforms.

Buzzzzt. Into the water they dove.

Jess got off to a slow start, and lagged well behind for the first twenty-five meters.

"She's already blowing it for us!" Bonnie fumed.

"She needs to find her rhythm," Kim said.

Jess fell further behind.

"She needed more time to prepare," Tara fretted.

Amanda made a good turn and swam for the wall.

"C'mon, Amanda!" "You go, girl!" "You got this, 'Manni'!" the sports girls and their fans screamed.

Jess turned badly. She was twenty meters behind.

"C'mon Jess, you can do this!" "Faster, Jess!" yelled the cheer squad and their admirers.

The lead lengthened.

Then Jess settled into her rhythm. She swam faster. Amanda began to weaken. She slowed. Jess poured it on.

With thirty meters to go, Amanda led by twelve meters. With twenty left, It was down to nine. With five meters to go, the margin was under two. An exhausted Amanda touched the wall less than a second ahead of the surging cheerleader. The second swimmers dove into the water.

Liz also started slowly, but by the turn she had forged a slim lead. Both girls swam for all they were worth. The crowd was really getting into it. Liz finished her leg with a five-meter lead. Hope took over and quickly extended it to ten, After she turned it was fifteen. She touched the wall giving Marcella a lead of nearly twenty meters. The cheer squad could almost taste the victory and the 1–1 tie in the overall competition.

Then Megan took the water for the sports girls. With her large feet kicking and long arms windmilling and hands like paddles scooping bucketfuls of pool water, she accelerated rapidly. Her rangy form seemed to fly through the water without resistance. Soon she was just a few meters behind Marcella.

"Damn, she's fast," Liz said, confidence waning.

"No duh," concurred Hope.

"It's like she hardly even needs to swim," Tara said.

"She just dives in and she's nearly at the wall," added Jess, awe in her voice.

"We are so history," said Bonnie.

Both swimmers turned well. Megan continued to gain, then forged ahead. But the effort of displacing such large quantities of water began to tell on the spindly-armed girl. She tired visibly, but soldiered on like a true champion on nothing but sheer competitiveness and a will that could not be denied.

The stronger cheerleader clawed her way back into it centimeter by centimeter. Now barely a fingernail's length separated the two.

"I think she's got it!" Hope said to Liz excitedly.

"We're back in this!" Liz enthused.

The raven-haired Latina was about to touch the wall victorious when one last reach by Meg's long right arm just pipped her at the end.

The sports girls and their fans erupted in pure joy. The swimmers and even many clothed fans jumped into the pool to celebrate the dramatic come-from-behind (twice!) victory.

The cheer squad side fell silent as a tomb. They slunk off to their locker room despondently.

"May as well start packing, ladies. We'll be out of here tomorrow, thanks to K … and Jess."

Tara sputtered angrily. "This isn't Jess's fault, Bonnie! She did the best she could with no time to prepare. And it's not Kim's fault either!"

"Yeah, Bonnie!" Crystal erupted. "Maybe if you'd put your precious highlights on the line for the squad we'd have won!"

"Don't you put this on me, none of it was my idea. Not the contest, certainly not the bet, and not this lame 'friendship' with the girl jocks!"

"Well, you started it all by shutting off their hot water last week!" Hope said.

"And now they'll be showering in our room whenever they want. You going to tell Jill about this, Tara? 'Hey Mom, remember how hard you worked last summer to make the best cheer squad room redo ever for us? Yeah, sorry, but we pissed it all away.' Nice. Can I watch that scene?"

Tara's whole body quivered with barely suppressed fury. She clenched her fists and seemed ready to slug the girl she'd once considered her best friend.

In the midst of the tension Liz spoke a single word. "Guys?"

All eyes turned to the redhead sitting on the round settee trying to comfort Jess, who was shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.

"Bonnie's right," the blonde said, huge wet tears streaming down freckled cheeks. "I let the squad down. I'm a loser. I don't deserve to be a Mad Dog cheerleader."

The five save Bonnie quickly gathered around. Kim sat on Jess's other side and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Aw, honey, it's not your fault" the teen hero said tenderly. "If we'd given you time to find your stroke before the race you would have blown Amanda out of that pool. Marcella would have finished before Meg even started."

"If anything it's my fault," said Marcella bitterly. "I could've swam harder at first, but with that big lead Hope left me I thought I could coast home. I dogged it."

"No, it's on me," Crystal said. "I negotiated the rules, I should have realized Kim would be caught out by them."

"I'm the one who was on swim team. I should have checked before suiting up," Kim said.

"But I lost!" Jess wailed. "I didn't bring it."

"Damn straight," said Bonnie.

Kim shot the brunette a look that would make a villain soil himself.

"Oh Jess," Tara said, kneeling in front of her fellow blonde and wiping away her friend's tears. "You're wrong there. You so brought it, girl. You brought it all on. The way you fought back after you fell so far behind … it was amazing."

"Inspiring," Hope said.

"A true Mad Dog moment," Liz said.

"With no mouth foam," Kim said, causing small smiles all around.

"You really think so?" Jess asked, relief apparent in her sapphire eyes.

"A Mad Dog moment for the ages, Jess. I'm so proud of you," Kim said, hugging her. "I'd like to think I could take a little credit for the fighting spirit you showed out there."

"Oh yeah," Jess said. "More than a little."

"We're all proud of you, Jess," echoed the others. Except the one who had slipped out unnoticed.

"Your dad would be proud of you," Tara said. She cast her gaze heavenward. "Is proud of you."

"Now," Kim said, "why don't you get out of this fugly suit, clean yourself up, and go see that hottie who's waiting out there for you."

Jess beamed her cheerleader smile (indoor version). "Good plan, Kim, I'll do that."

Crystal spoke up. "Uh, Kim? Maybe you want to insert 'put on some clothes' into that to-do list."

"You are talking to Jess, after all," said Liz wryly.

Warm laughter filled the room already warm from friendship.

"But don't rock the boy's world too heavy," Kim warned. "We've got a trail run to win tomorrow and we need our fastest women in the mix."

"Don't worry, I draw strength from my Steve time."

"And the hotness competition continues too," Tara reminded them.

"Seriously guys," Hope said. "Those sports girls think they've beaten us. Well, in Vietnamese culture we have legends about dragons that bring us rain for our crops. They don't realize they've just awakened a sleeping dragon, and now all they're gonna get is lightning and claws."

Kim put out a hand. Six more hands joined hers. "Lightning and claws on three! One, two, ..."

"Lightning and Claws!"

more to come …

Wow, a bit of an angst-y moment from campy. Unusual. Even I wasn't expecting that when I sat down to write.

So now the squad's backs are really against the wall. They've got to win all three remaining events or lose face, not to mention their posh hideaway. Can they do it? Find out in the next episode when it's published.