The Flyer

CHAPTER 12

Cc: Fun times and sisterhood come after respect.

VALYRA.

Being a cheerleader isn't easy, but being a cheerleader with my reputation can be a bit of a challenge.

Being the captain had always been an honor, and I don't mean to sound arrogant about it or anything, but I found it pretty easy because I had a generally amiable relationship with the girls. Now that I was with strangers who potentially harbored hate, it's turning out to be much harder than I'm used to.

I put my phone into my bag's main pocket and took off my jacket. The horizon was clear today, with seemingly no sign of rain, and the sun was out, brightening the shady gymnasium.

The Jalopy was where I first had the thought of becoming a cheerleader. I saw someone jump off a pyramid, do a somersault, and land on her two feet with a huge smile on her face, and I thought to myself that I wanted to be like her. I wanted to be able to give people something fun and positive to look at and enjoy. I wanted to be someone who makes people smile.

As I grew up, I was given the impression that cheerleaders weren't very smart and were pretty superficial, but I deeply disagreed. To be able to encourage people and make them happy for a long time while risking your life to an extent is not something just anyone can do. 

I was told that if I chose to be a cheerleader, that I would lose true friends and would have to watch over my image more so than the average person. I was told that I would have the urge to be prettier than most girls and that I would eventually be roped into the power-tripping clique of the high school chain.

In all four years of my high school life, not once did I not have a true friend by my side, not once did I become overly conscious of my reputation, and not once did I get tricked into bad influence.

Maybe it's in the way cheerleaders felt so exposed and judged to plenty's liking that they felt they had to maintain a specific image to be respected. Maybe they just felt like they weren't being treated seriously enough. It's in the way they were perceived that they were locked into-- a picture they never just were. 

There might be multiple more maybes mentionable, but is there a point if many of the others don't truly consider them anyway?

A lot of people are too scared to look closer, and I can't blame them for that. Anyone would choose to stay out of trouble anyway. But is trouble what you heard happened or what truly happened? How would you know if something is the truth or a rumor? How would you know what each one has gone through behind her big and bright smile?

Right now, we were supposed to start with our routine and the cheer and songs and stuff.

"Valyra!" Ylleria cried out in some weird excitement, throwing her arms around me in a quick hug and quickly pulling me along. I realized she was the only Wilson High cheerleader at the moment. She must've felt kind of awkward and out of place.

"Hey, Liri," I laughed lightly. "Good morning." I turned to the Calvary girls and greeted them good morning as well and told them that we were gonna wait for Jaymie and Hestia.

I noted their clothing to see if we could do what I wanted to propose.

After a couple of minutes, Hestia and Jaymie ran in the court and headed straight for us, notably out of breath. "We're so sorry." 

As we're accustomed to, we weren't going to say anything more about it and head straight for practice, but one of the Calvary girls, I think named Jessa, spoke up. She was a little shy about it but she brought up what she wanted to nonetheless.

"Excuse me, umm, aren't they supposed to give their reason and get the equivalent penalty?"

Kathilla looked smug, so I chose to ignore her. The other two girls looked rather bored.

I turned to look at her. "Will anything change if they explain themselves? The team would just waste time. We handle things based on the seriousness of situations, so if this were an actual event and they were unreasonably late, then we'd do something about it after the event. A few minutes isn't a big deal, so it's alright."

"Come on, let's sit by the bleachers." I motioned. My girls and I wore skinny bottoms and good fit t-shirts. Kathilla was wearing a tank top and sweat shorts, Jessa (?) wore a loose shirt and biker shorts, Marquesa (?) wore a midriff sports bra and leggings, and Annie wore a tube top with sweats. All of them wore their Calvary Canary jackets in some way.

Kathilla paused a bit. "Just so you know, we're only following you because you were voted as captain by both schools, so don't expect us to listen to you for anything else."

I nodded and proceeded to settle them and explain what's gonna go on. "First of all," I began. "If anyone has any problems related to cheer, to this team, or about anyone in this team, I want to encourage you to air it directly to this team or the specific people. I don't want to see people whispering to each other maliciously when they can just confront the problem and resolve it." 

The Calvary girls were, at least, listening. 

"Secondly, I want you girls to tell me or the team any of your ideas. This is a group effort-- no one's ideas should be left out, and no one should be shouldering the majority of this either. If you feel burdened or if you think someone isn't doing her part well, again, just tell the person directly." 

My girls grinned and smiled at me and put me at ease. Honestly, I'm so, so scared that I'm doing something wrong, and I don't want that.

"Thirdly, I want us to respect each other. Friendship is great, it really is, and Wilson cheer has such a strong view on it that we treat our team like a sisterhood, but don't force it if you don't want it. All I hope is that we respect each other as colleagues and team mates."

They looked bored, but with the way they still sat up straight and stayed silent and still, gazes fixated on a generally singular spot-- I knew they were listening.

I knew that, in some way or another, we can work this whole arrangement out.