𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 // 𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

3

It's 7:30. Of course I'm one of the first people at school since the break. The hallways practically felt like a ghost town. I figured more students would be here. I take a minute to examine my schedule.

SCHEDULE
8:00-8:55am (SCIENCE | Mr. Brown | room 211)
9:00-9:55 am (MATH | Ms. Harper | room 225)
10:00- 10:55 am (ART | Ms. Dawn | room 143)
11:00- 11:55 am (HISTORY| Mr. Crawford | room 213)
12:00-12:55 pm (LUNCH)
1:00-1:55pm (ENGLISH | Ms. O'Donnell| room 231)
2:00-2:55pm (SPORTS PRACTICE/ GYM)

not bad. The only teacher I've heard anything about is Ms.O'Donnell.. nothing too bad, just that she was strict on essays and written answers on tests.
I sigh and head towards my locker. I wind the little knob to match the combination I was given.

50-11-54.

I spin the knob and open the locker.
It's empty other than a few binders I put it in here a few days prior and a print from the newspaper the day that Billy died.
I don't know why I put it in my locker I just did. It brought me some peace, it made me feel like he was still at school with me.

I took out the binder I needed for science, my pencil pouch and a book just in case I got bored and headed towards class. I open the door and I meet eyes with Ms. Brown.

"Hey y/n. It's nice to see you back." She says, giving a light smile.
"Thank you." I said finding my seat which just so happened to be in the back corner of the classroom. I placed my books down and slid into my desk.
"If you want to, you can go ahead and head to the gym, there's a pep rally this morning." She says smiling.

I pick up my things and go and put them back in my locker. I didn't know there was a pep rally. Shit, I'm probably supposed to cheer at the pep rally.
I grab my cheer bag and run to the gym. I see Chrissy already dressed in her uniform.

"Y/n! Where have you been?" She says looking at me startled.
"I'm sorry I forgot for a minute." I said as she runs after me into the bathroom.
I grab my uniform and quickly slip it on. She quickly starts to wrap my hair into a high ponytail.
"Y/n I really want you to do good this year." She said as she continued to mess with my hair.
"I really want to Chrissy." I said reassuring her, as I started to put on my foundation and concealer. She makes eye contact with me in the mirror.
"Do you want me to do your makeup?" She says.
"Just tell me I'm doing a bad job next time." I tell her as I hand her the brush.
She laughs and starts to pat on my powder.

I could hear the band practicing in the auditorium. She quickly finished up my makeup and then handed me the mascara so I could do it.
"Okay y/n, I'm heading to the gym. Come out there as soon as you can." She quickly skipped out of the locker room and I could hear her yell at the other cheerleaders to get in line.

I finished doing my mascara, ran over to my cheer locker and stuffed my makeup and my gym bag in. I wasn't ready for this but I needed to do it. For myself.
I took a deep breath and went into the auditorium.

The marching band had just started their first routine, I ran in and took my place next to Chrissy. Thankfully, she actually taught me the routines for the pep rally. And I had plenty of time to memorize them anyways because I would watch her run them through while I was reading my books in her bedroom.

I could see max enter in and make her way through the crowd to her friends, she made eye contact with me and for a second, looked bewildered that I would be with Chrissy on the cheer team. She shook her head and put her stuff down.

We finished our first routine, right as one of the other cheerleaders nearly took my head off with a back handspring. Everyone started cheering.

"And let's hear it for your tigers!" The announcer yells as they bring out a big paper sign. The basketball team starts running through the paper, of course starting with Chrissy's boyfriend, Jason, the captain of the team. I look over to see her shaking her pompom in the air at him. The marching band starts playing again. Jason takes the microphone and begins to shout to the crowd.

"good morning Hawkins high!" His voice echoes throughout the building. Everyone could have probably heard him without the microphone.
Cheers erupted from the crowd behind me.

"First off I'd like to thank each and every one of you." He takes a dramatic pause. "Without your support we wouldn't be here. Give yourselves a big hand!" Once again, the gym erupted with loud cheers.
I watched as Lucas waved at max in the crowd.

"And of course, I have to give a special shout-out to the best and the prettiest fans of all time, the tiger cheer squad!!" we all started shaking our pompoms.
"Chrissy..Chrissy, I love you babe." He says as he touches his chest where his heart is. I watched her blow a little kiss his way.

He takes a moment and pauses.

"You know.. I think I can speak for all of us when I say it's been a tough year for Hawkins. So much loss." I could already feel the glares I was getting behind me. "In dark days like this, we need something to believe in. So last night, when we were down ten points at half to Christian academy, I looked at my team.." he pointed back at the other players.
"..and I said, think of jack. Think of Melissa. Think of Heather. Think of Billy." I watched as Lucas looked at max and I could feel the eyes from the rest of the school on both of us.

"Think about our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper. What did they die for? For us to lose to some crap school?"
I heard several nos from the crowd.
He continued his speech but it was too much for me to listen to and I just zoned out, thinking about Billy again.

"Now let's win this game, for them!!" Jason said finishing his speech.
stomps and cheers filled the auditorium.
The cheerleaders stood up and started cheering the boys out of the gym. All the cheerleaders pushed into the locker room and the pep rally was over.