𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 // 𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

2

"I'm not gonna sit around and let you pout the rest of the summer." Chrissy said as we sat on the back of her car, in the parking lot of our favorite diner.
She sipped her milkshake while I stayed silent. She looked at me and the aggressively sat her drink down on her trunk.

"Listen y/n. It's almost been a month since the funeral. We start back school in a week." I watched as she got up off her car to make more of a point.
"I'm not taking no for an answer, I understand you're shy or whatever but this year we are breaking you out of your shell." She said as she now paced in front of me.

"Chris I just don't like to socialize. I would love to make more friends but I don't really care for anyone here." I said trying to explain my point.
"I don't wanna hear it y/n.." she said placing her hands on her hips.

I watched as her face lit up, I could tell she had come up with an idea.
"This year, you're gonna cheer with me." She said as if this plan of hers was diabolical. I laughed at her only to be met with a stern gaze.
she was serious.

"You are insane." I said as I took a sip from my milkshake.
She starts walking to her car and opens the door.
"Tryouts are tomorrow..." she bends down and gets in the car, I followed her and sat down in the passenger seat.

She then leans over to whisper something in my ear.
"..and I'm the captain." she smirks and turns over the engine.

{ THE NEXT DAY }

"5,6,7,8.." I hear from the gym as I'm putting on the uniform that Chrissy had given me. I slowly pull the skirt up over my thighs. This uniform makes me itch. No wonder the cheerleaders are always bitchy. I pull the top down and take a look at myself in the mirror.
I don't look like a cheerleader.
My hair is down and the makeup that I had on was from the night before. I had dark circles under my eyes from where my mascara had migrated in my sleep.

I observed my appearance in the full length mirror they had in the bathroom.
I didn't like it but I wanted to do this for Chrissy and hopefully for myself.
I wanted to fit in and hopefully make friends this year.

I put my hair into a ponytail, not necessarily a "cheerleaders" ponytail but just one to get my hair off my neck and to keep it out of my face.
I wiped my under eyes with a wet napkin to hopefully remove most of the mascara. It worked well enough that I felt better about going into the gym.

I had cheered before but it had been a long time since I was actually in a uniform. I remember the last time.

I was on the field in California. My eyes darted through the crowd looking for my dad and older brother. This was the last game of the year.
I see familiar faces but not the ones I was looking for.
I hear the high pitch sound of a whistle and the game has started.

My cheer team starts our first chant.
"blue and black, come on cougars let's attack!"
we chant as we do our routine. I'm trying to stay focused but I was promised they would be at the game.

I keep looking around while we continue our cheers. Right before halftime I see him. It's billy. Dad has him against the wall on the side of the buildings where the bathrooms are. He makes eye contact with me and I watch as my dad throws a punch at his stomach. My heart drops.

I drop my pompoms and run off the field. My head was spinning. Dad has hit him before but only at the house, he's never done it in public. Thankfully no one was paying attention to the cheerleaders but more to the fact that our team was 10 yards away from scoring a touchdown.