FANFICTION & THE FAKER| teen fiction

05

alex has never felt more nervous in her life. she's never actually had to do anything as nerve wracking as this being the loner she was. project presentations, not that big a deal if it was for a grade. nobody ever really paid attention. presentation days meant you can tune out whoever's speaking until the period is over and you're out of there.

but there was at least 30 teenagers here. not including the cheerleaders and the people trying out.

alex rubbed her sweaty palms on her shorts and took a shaky breathe as bea's eyes bore into hers.

"hello?" bea leans her head towards alex's direction in an exaggerated motion.

"i'm coming," alex replies with an attitude under her breathe she already knew lost her points and immediately forced her feet to come closer to the center of the judges table.

bea snickers and waves off to the other contestants to give alex space. she takes her seat behind the table and places her megaphone done with a bang that makes alex jump.

trembling, alex scans the bleachers. thankfully they weren't all staring at her but she locked eyes with at least 10 different people. when she reached peter she suppressed a glare and avoided his eyes.

"um..." alex starts with a shaky breathe.

"we can't hear you!" bea says loudly.

"yo speak up!" someone from the bleachers said.

peter's head swiveled to whoever's voice that was in curiosity.

"damn, she's shaking," carlos snorts.

"why exactly is she doing this again?" ryan asks peter.

"because if she wants to prove she likes me she needs to do something she clearly wouldn't do, plus three of the dynamite gals joined the squad just to get close to me. it's almost a rite of passage" peter explains as if it was obvious. "didn't think she'd actually go through with it."

"right, and if she isn't qualified to become a cheerleader?"

peter pauses and sits up straight with his mouth open. carlos laughs again. "well, i didn't really plan that far. but that's kinda the point, ryan. if you really like someone you would do anything for them. she'd find a way."

"so if she doesn't then that means she's lying?" carlos asks .

"exactly."

"what if she's done gymnastics since she was a kid or something? she could ace this and trick you into thinking she likes you," ryan reasons.

"yeah right," carlos scoffs. "she could barely do the split."

peter rolls his eyes, "okay whatever i didn't think this through i don't know how to prove someone's lying! if she cares about me for real she would go through with all of it. and if she's a phony this is humiliating for her."

ryan scoffs amused, "dude, i'm confused. are you rooting for her or not? you called her cute like a minute ago."

"well that's because you guys kept saying she was ugly!—" ryan shakes his head, "i'm actually hoping she fails because then i'm right but if she doesn't it means it's not over and i can test her some more," peter smirks.

"she passed the first round at least with warmups," carlos nods. "and her speech is crap but daisy the other judge looks like she's going to cry."

peter's eyes widened and he leaned forward, "what?"

"...and ever since then i've fallen in love with cheerleading. i think after that it makes sense that i would be a part of the team," alex says lastly.

daisy leans forward in her judges chair while wiping a tear, "and did your grandma ever learn to walk again?"

alex pretends to wipe a tear under her own eye and shakes her head, "she's been in a wheelchair since that day."

bea struggles to hide her smirk. alex knew she had to have known she was lying. but it didn't seem like she was going to erase the illusion for everyone else. she simply sat in her judges seat, tapping her nails on the table.

"what an inspiring story," bea says as though speaking with a child. "clap everyone."

alex attempts to calm her racing heart. she pulled that story straight out of the depths of her wattpad library. she apologized mentally to the person who wrote the bring it on fanfiction she found one 3 am night.

"now you have to show us what you're made of."

alex gulps. this she couldn't improvise. her 30 minute training has lead up to this moment.

in a couple moments, the gym blasted typical techno music, indicating the tempo alex would need to follow.

with a 1, and a 2, and a 3, she starts the choreography to the best of her memory, while also grinning from ear to ear. about 30 seconds in, her cheek twitched from being stretched so wide and she lost her smile, delaying her routine. she nervously glanced to the bleachers to find only a couple people paying attention but that somehow made her blush even more. her headband felt looser from the movements, her upper lip moist and made her every inhale smell like sweat.

sh*t sh*t i'm loosing the tempo.

she closed her eyes and imagined someone banging on her head rhythmically and used that tempo to catch up.

when she found it, she opened her eyes, her body finally in synch again.

"why is she kinda good?" carlos tapped peter annoyingly on the shoulders.

"see that's what im talking about peter, she's actually not bad which means you don't actually know if she was already good or if she put in the effort to prove she likes you," ryan tsked.

peter chewed on his lower lip while he concentrated on alex, ignoring that slight flutter of a butterflies wings in his stomach when he focused on her for the first time longer than 30 seconds. "like i said, doesn't matter. i bet you she won't last a week of cheerleading practice."

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