Falling In Love With The Past

Chapter Five: False Pretenses

"Cami hurry up! Tryouts start in 30 minutes." Kase was yelling from down the stairs. I looked at myself in the mirror and fixed my ponytail. I smiled at my reflection. I picked my bag off my bed on the way out of my room and ran down the stairs. Kase was waiting expectantly at the bottom of the stairs, texting, probably with 'the girls.'

She looked at me up and down, "For someone who doesn't want to tryout for cheer you sure did invest a lot of time in looking the part."

"What can I say? The first impression is the most important." I said while grabbing the keys of one of the hooks from beside the door. 

Kase opened the front door and we walked out, "Oh right. The girls haven't met you because you have been hiding and avoiding anyone your age for the past two months, " she said with an accusing tone. 

"That is so not true." I said getting in the car. 

"Your hookups don't count." I looked over at  her mischeviously, "Touché." I started the car and drove towards the school.

"You know how I am when it comes to girls and boys that attend such posh schools."

"Florida was the same and you did well there."

"I had people I could hang out with, not friends." I looked over at her before the light turned green.

"You are the one to blame for that. You don't like making friends."

"It's not that I don't like it. Most of them turn out to be fake and at the slightest opportunity will take you down. You and Nate are enough for me."

"We are your siblings. Don't you get tired of hanging out with just us?"

I mocked being offended, "Is this your way of subtly telling me I need to get friends because you and Nate are tired of me."

Her eyes widened, "No. I just uh.... well I don't know. Back in Florida, the three of us were inseparable and everywhere where one of us went the other two followed. But, Nate has been so invested with his new teammates and football.  As for me, I have been hanging out with the girls and just becoming more comfortable with everyone. Everyone is kind of doing their own thing and well I don't want you to feel left out because the three of us haven't hung out since about three weeks ago." 

I pulled into the parking lot in front of the football field. I turned off the car and turned in the car seat, "Is this why you wanted me to tryout with you. So, I can make friends with your new friends." She lowered her eyes, guiltily, "Maybe. I just want this time to be different for you. I want you to make friends not just have people you can party and have sex with."

"Kase, just because I don't have real friends doesn't mean I don't have fun or aren't happy. I choose to be a popular loner but don't worry this time will be different. I plan to get very close to the people around here. I'm just having a slow start. No worries." I smiled cheerily, thinking about my plans. Kase looked at me hopefully. 

"Do you promise?" Kase held her pinky out.

"Pinky promise." I released her pinky and she looked down at her apple watch.

"Come on. It's time to meet them they are so excited about you." 

I couldn't help but feel sorry for Kase. All she wanted was the best for me, if only she knew. As we walked onto the field I saw a group of shirtless boys drenched in sweat and I looked over at Kase with a glare. "Hehe did I forget to mention the football players had conditioning right now?" I looked over the group of boys again, they were all attractive and as I was scanning their faces I found Nate's. He waved at us and the boys stopped talking and looked over at us. They catcalled us and Nate punched one of them in the shoulder who was saying something we couldn't hear from the distance. Then I found another familiar face.