FANFICTION & THE FAKER| teen fiction

03

alex spent her lunch googling how to cheerlead seeing as the flyer she found in the bathroom stall (when she silently screamed about how she hated everything and everyone) was advertising that cheerleading tryouts ended today. which means she had until 3:30 to come up with a routine and absolutely botch it up.

of course this wasn't her first option. she considered if it was possible to transfer schools in a manner of hours but she wasn't too fond of that plan.

the truth was, she didn't have to join the dynamite gals, and that's exactly what she wasn't going to do. she'd try out but if she can't get in that's not her problem. peter is gonna have to think of something else.

alex is startled by the smell and presence of dior perfume and confidence. it's beholder leaned against the lunch seat on alex's right, an amused grin on her perfect face and a perfectly manicured hand wiggled its fingers to the attention of the startled fanfic writer.

bea lopez.

the captain of the cheerleading squad, the dynamite gals fearless leader. a champion.

"uh..." alex started, confused and a little overwhelmed by the scent of her perfume. gosh i kinda want a sample of that.

"i heard you want to join the team." she says with a shrug, alex isn't sure whether it's a statement or a question. but she's more concerned with how she even knows.

"how do you know?"

"peter posted about it," she snorts. bea watches with even more amusement as alex frantically searches through her instagram for peter's account.

peter's story consists of a bathroom selfie and a message telling everyone to pull up to the cheerleading try out after school to see alex try out.

alex shuts her eyes tightly to hold in the steam threatening to come out of her ears.  "this was like 30 seconds go. why are you here exactly?"

"oh a little attitude, love to see it," bea muses, sliding into the seat next to alex now.  "i've literally never seen you before, like ever. why are you even trying out?"

alex finally opens her eyes and attempts to make eye contact with the queen.  "i have a big crush" she confesses blankly, shifting in her seat as she tries to collect herself.

bea squints her eyes. alex shrugs awkwardly not sure how the conversation is supposed to continue and glances around the lunch room. her heart skips a beat at the looks she was getting. not necessarily evil but amusing looks and yet enough to trigger her flight or fight. 

"why is peter so interested in you? i've never seen you before in my life."

"you said that already."

"look, i know and have spoken to everyone in this school. i have a list of the very few latinas who go here. i've even spoken to that creep who keeps putting cheese slices in my locker as tokens of his love. obviously I'm flattered, it's expected, I'm hot," she shrugs nonchalantly, "but ew. "

"uh..."

"if you're trying to get peter ford's attention, all i'm saying is being a cheerleader isn't enough. i'm not even threatened by you now that i've...seen you. so i guess im actually here to tell you to be threatened by me." bea flashes a smirk.

woah, I've only read about those, alex internally scoffs. so now the queen of cheerleading has got her attention. thankfully she wasn't the most popular girl in school. that was reserved for chelsea killinger, the multitalented class president. somehow an academic made it to the top of the food chain.

but that didn't mean bea lopez didn't have followers or influence or power. she somehow attracted cheese enthusiasts.

this was another thing alex wasn't prepared for. groupies, ex-lovers perhaps, people who actually like peter ford. because all she did was lie and get his attention in an instant and now she was in the spotlight. she has competition now. and now that peter has invited people, there will be an audience. she has to do well.

"when i say 'big' crush, i don't actually mean like huge," alex chuckles sheepishly, "i just want to join the team to look at him from afar and...stuff. which means I'm totally fine if you want to pursue him i don't mind. to be honest, bea, he probably doesn't even like me so you have nothing to worry about." alex attempts a heartfelt smile. maybe kindness will work.

bea snorts in condescending and places a hand over her mouth to cover her laughter, "oh my gosh you're actually adorable. of course he doesn't like you. i definitely don't need your permission to 'pursue' him. but thanks anyways. good luck on try-outs O.M.G. can't wait," she says the last part rushed as her interest wore out and she swiftly gets up, walking away with a certain swag to her perky steps.

alex is left dumbfounded. so people like this do exist. awesome. now she actually did have until 3:30 to come up with a routine that would absolutely veto bea's possible veto of alex's possibility of getting into the team.

"i'm gonna have to skip class," alex whispers to herself. turns out she's only ahead in one class and that was the class she already skipped to go see peter and his friend. ugh. maybe just this once it won't hurt. she can make it up. that's what normal people do when they miss a class.

set on her stupid plan, she gets up abruptly from her her table and throws away her leftover lunch. she power walks to find one of the abandoned classrooms since the bathroom definitely wasn't going to work this time, and attempted to "lock" herself in. she wasn't sure how stable stacked desks would be but she'll eventually find out.

a space was cleared in the middle of the room where she pushed all desks towards the walls, giving her enough room to jump and stretch.

alex pulled out her laptop and pulled up a simple routine on youtube then placed her airpods in her ears.

"okay...one and two...and six, okay," she whispers to herself a she briefly mimics the moves.

she rewinds the video and starts over, this time swallowing every ounce of pride and embarrassment and attempted the moves to the best of her ability. once she got the moves down, then she'd fix the pep.

after a couple rounds of practice she allowed herself to smile. this wasn't that bad. she could do this especially if there was cool teen movie montage music...unfortunately with her airpods on while she danced, all that could heard was awkward sneaker squeaks.

that was until she slipped on an abandoned pencil on the floor.

"sh*t," she groans on her back, legs sprawled before her.

the slam must have been heard because soon someone's footsteps walked through the other door of the classroom, the one alex completely forgot existed and forgot to cover.

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