Survive

Chapter Four

Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

August 8, 2022.

Madison Stone's Point Of View.

I leave the lab, which was my last class of the day, stressed. I realized that I liked the lab classes because I had never had a class with teacher Scarlet.

David is right, she is needlessly ignorant. There was a time in her class when I just asked her to me get some water and she just wouldn't let me, saying "Don't you have any water at home?" causing all the students present to look at me.

I was so furious with her ignorance that I decided to answer her the same way, saying "Yes, I do. If you want to release me so I can go there for a drink, that is fine." After that, the students looked at me in shock and she gave me a death stare, saying that if I opened my mouth one more time unnecessarily in her class, she would send me to the board and even had the audacity to say that I was rude, being that I only gave her back the treatment she gave me.

I head towards the Geography room, which is Ashley's last class, so we can meet there and go to the court together.

I walk a little and enter the hallway where Ashley is. I see Andrey coming out of a room with two other boys and decide to walk straight past because I do not think he saw me, but I see that I thought wrong when I hear him call my name, causing me to stop walking and turn around to talk to him.

"Have you gone there to sign up, Madison?" He asks and I deny it.

"No, no... I am going to find Ashley first, who is probably getting out of Geography class, and then I will go over there with her."

"Oh, I get it. So get to it, my cheerleader," he speaks in a bold way and his friends look at me with a small smile, which puts me off a bit.

"Yeah, I am going there now. Umm.. are you still going to stay in school? Or are you leaving?"

"I will train with the team for the game."

"Ah, got it... so I'm going after Ashley now. Good practice to you and your friends."

"Thanks, to you too," he says and I smile at him, walking away from him and his friends soon after and continuing on my way, already being able to see Ashley coming towards me.

I walk a little further and then stop to wait for her to reach me. I try not to lose sight of her, because there are many students leaving the classrooms.

"Shall we go?" Ashley asks as she stops beside me and I agree, so we start walking again, only in the opposite direction, making our way to the court.

"If I can get in, I will start rehearsing today, right?" I ask and she makes a noise of confirmation.

"Yes and you will get it."

"I hope so, because I really enjoy being a cheerleader." I speak and she looks at me like she is analyzing me.

"You really look like someone who likes to dance and cheer people up," she says smiling.

"Do you not like?"

"I kind of like it, but it is something that if I had to leave, I wouldn't miss."

"Oh, got it." I speak as we walk into the hallway where the entrance door to the court is. "Uhm.. Andrey told me he is going to train with the team for the back-to-school game. When is that game going to be?"

"This Friday."

"Gee, so we will only have a few hours in four days to rehearse?" I ask as if I am already on the team.

"Yes, we will rehearse for two hours every day. But relax, it seems like a short time, but it is enough for us to pick up the choreography and rock it on game day."

"If you are saying..."

"You used to rehearse for how many days at your old school?"

"For about eight, but that is because we only had one hour of rehearsal a day, so we needed more days."

"Got it." She says and we stop in front of the door. I go to open it, but Ashley holds my arm.

"What is it?" I ask confused.

"Before we go in there, I'm going to tell you a few things." She talks seriously and I get a little worried. "The girls on the cheerleading squad are not that friendly and are kind of fake. Besides, some of them are part of that gossip group I told you about."

"Is that why you haven't cited any girls on the team as someone you consider a friend?"

"Yes. They pretend to be your friends, they invite you to parties, they also pretend that they are on your side and that they support you so that they know your secrets and when they get the first opportunity they can spread them around, so think well before you say anything to them... and I am not telling you to turn your face to them, because if you do that, it will be worse for you, because what there are more of in this world are fake people, so just know how to deal with them and you will be fine."

"Um.. okay, thanks for the warning... but how will I know if I can trust you if you are also part of the team?"

"First, you don't have to trust me and second, if I wanted to do something bad to you, I would not say anything to you," she speaks calmly and I see that what she says makes sense. "Now let's go inside." She speaks and goes to open the door, but I stop her. "What is it? Any questions?"

"Is Emily like that too?"

"She is nice, but she hangs out with the most fake ones... and there is that saying "tell me who you hang out with and I will tell you who you are", so if I were you, I wouldn't trust her too much. And by the way, Emily told you that Andrey's cheerleader left the school, but she didn't say that she left because the girls were excluding her just because they found out that she liked Andrey, who Emily's best friend also likes and got angry upon learning about it, making the rest of the team ignore the girl's existence."

"Did you also ignore the girl's existence?" I ask and look at the girl with shoulder-length brown hair and honey-colored eyes.

"No, on the contrary, I took the girl's side and advised her to go to another school before this isolation she was suffering from ended up causing problems for her, because you know that from the moment something like that happens to you, no matter if you like the place or not, you end up not wanting to stay there anymore," and I nod my head in agreement, still processing the information I just received. "Now can we go in?"

"Oh, yes.. we can."