a ghostly love - wally clark

my last cheer

September, 2003

I groaned as I shut my locker and adjusted my backpack. I was in no mood to go to cheer practice but really, I had no choice. I mean, I could skip, but my mom would definitely find out and she hated me missing practice so I already knew all the trouble I'd get into if I did that. I had no choice. So, despite how much I didn't want to go, I trudged my way to the girl's locker room.

I got out of my school clothes, into my cheer uniform and stuffed my bag into my locker, before shutting it and heading over to a mirror in front of one of the sinks to check how I looked. I attempted to put my hair into a ponytail but I just ended up failing miserably due to how distracted I was. I tried three times but it just wasn't working out. I let out a groan, the other girl's who were getting ready as well looking over at me as I aggressively took my hair tie off and put it on my wrist, once again, trudging out of the locker room annoyed.

I made my way into the gym where a bunch of mats were set up on the floor and a bunch of other people on the cheer squad were already here, stretching and warming up. I made my way over and started stretching, haphazardly. I had no energy to be here today, not that I ever really did, it was just especially bad today.

After ten more minutes, when everyone finally arrived, the cheer coach started talking. "Okay, guys! We're going to start off with some tumbling. Get in three lines and I want the first people in the lines to do some cartwheels and so on." The coach instructed us and so we all went to do as she said.

As I was standing in the front of the line, waiting for my turn, a girl on the team, Chloe, one of my close friends, tapped on my shoulder. I looked over at the girl who stood behind me in line. She was around 5 '4, she had straight medium-length blonde hair, fair skin that always seemed to glow, and dark blue eyes. She was so perfect. I was nowhere near as perfect as she was. I was 5 '7, had wavy or maybe even curly-ish dark brown almost black hair, my skin wasn't as fair as hers, I had some acne, and dark brown dull eyes. I hated everything and anything about the way I looked. Guys at my school though, they seemed to disagree. They were always all over me and I could never understand it. I really couldn't.

"You okay, Lucia?" Chloe asked with a small smile.

I wanted to smile back, I did, but I had no energy to do that. "Yep." I lied as I turned forward, watching as the girls in front of me stepped off the mats, meaning it was my row's turn to go.

"Are you sure?" I heard Chloe say behind me but I just went and did the cartwheels down the mat, having no desire to talk about how I was feeling, especially not right now.

After tumbling and conditioning, we had to practice a bit for the spring pep rally that was tomorrow. I was one of the flyers tomorrow so I was a bit nervous, but honestly, I knew that I'd be fine as I had a lot of experience, thanks to my mom, and well, my teammates had never dropped me before.

When I flew and did a twist in the air, I didn't exactly do it correctly which messed me up a little but still, as expected, my teammates caught me. I apologized as I never usually messed up. The coach yelled my name and motioned for me to go over to her.

"Lucia! What are you doing? You have to pay attention or you could get yourself seriously hurt!" She sternly told me.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry coach, I just have been-" I'm cut off.

"Uh-uh, no excuses. Get your head in the game and go up and do it again." My coach says. I just look at her for a moment, "Go!" She then yelled and I ran to my teammates and went to practice again.

☠︎︎

The next afternoon, it was time for the pep rally. All the teams had to run across the field while the people in the bleachers cheered so, obviously, so did the cheer squad. The football team went before and us and everyone in the bleachers were screaming for them, stomping their feet, and just acting a fool. It was nice though, it meant they were having fun. I wasn't.

"And now, give it up, for the Split River High cheer team!" The principal yelled over the stadium's loudspeakers. We ran out into the field, smiling and waving at the crowd and everyone was going crazy on the bleachers. We got to the center of the field and waved some more before running to the track to sit, watch the other teams go out, and get ready to perform for everyone.

We watched and waited for a little while before it was time for us to go out on the field and perform. Music being played from a CD started playing over the loudspeakers and we started our performance.

Things were going well, they really were. That was until I saw my mom, standing next to my coach, waving at me. Why was she even here? I didn't want her to be here.

After I took notice of my mom, I was distracted. I tried my best to not let it get to me though as I was literally performing in front of everyone and I had to go in the air in a few moments. I keep a fake smile on my face as I step onto my teammates hands. They lift me up and I go flying in the air. Once again, I did the twist incorrectly but instead of being caught, I fell on the floor in a bad position and everything went dark.