HOW DID IT END? paige bueckers

07

—- REAL LIFE

🎵— anything, adrianne lenker

First cheer practice of the season, and boy was I nervous. It wasn't like I didn't know anyone, because I had grown to know and like all of the girls. It was the overwhelming fear of not doing everything right getting to me. I was so afraid of messing up and not giving 100% that it was making me dread practice. I hate when I do stuff like this, stress over something so much I start to not enjoy it. Avery does her best to calm me down before we leave, she really is a big help. Her optimism and confidence somehow makes her give the best advice.

"Leighton, I promise it's going to be okay! You're like, amazing. You cheered at LSU for goodness sake! Even if you do mess up, so what? One day I forgot to go home and learn the fight song choreography, and the next day I looked like a total fool. Turns out a bunch of other girls didn't either and we all laughed about it! Everyone gets nervous, everyone messes up, but one mess up doesn't affect your performance as a cheerleader overall, I promise." Avery said, wearing the white "UConn cheer" tank top and navy shorts we were assigned to wear. She looked phenomenal in the red bow and red lipstick.

"Thank you Avery, you're the best." I replied, a soft smile creeping up on my face. I wouldn't call her my best friend yet, but she is the closest friend I've had in a while. I refuse to get too close to someone after what happened last time. It's better for my sake.

Avery and I walked to the stadium, blasting loud music in our shared AirPods, as an attempt to distract me from my rapid heartbeat, my shaky hands, jittery teeth, and the pit of fear in my stomach. Avery's rambling was helping a little, only because the things she says are so out-of-pocket, it distracts me. She's a little odd, but I love her. When we get there, most of the cheerleaders are just sitting around, waiting for the others to arrive. Some are stretching, most are talking about whatever important thing is going on in their life. I give a small smile to all the girls as I set my stuff down on the bleachers. I talked with some guy named Connor who went on and on about how his boyfriend was a piece of shit. Nice.

When Coach Lane finally arrived, my nerves started to calm down. I could tell when everyone in the room started to relax in ease, I had nothing to worry about. Charmaine Lane was one hell of a woman. She wore jeans and a white blazer, with white thin strap heels, to practice. Her dark skin and hair vibrating against the light color. Who wears that to practice, and most of all, who looks that good. Her smile was inviting and perfect, her eyes warm with love and support. She walks over to me and gives me the most comforting hug ever, holding my shoulders as she says, "We're glad to have you, we'll take it easy today, I bet you're nervous. We'll work on some material, stunting, tumbling, just to see what you can do. Don't let your nerves get in the way babe. You got this!"

If only she knew.

I wiped my hands off and thanked her for her kindness and claimed I was ready to work. I joined the rest of the team as they sat in a circle legs straddled. Most were laughing and talking about stuff entirely different, only few actually stretching. I multitasked, sitting in the splits position as I told Avery and London about a party incident that happened at LSU. We quickly stopped talking when Coach Lane started clapping her hands.

"Alright, two line. Let's learn some new sideline cheers, catch Miss Leighton up,"

We lined up in two separate lines, me in the back in-between Avery and London. We went over several offense and defense cheers, they were mostly all short and sweet, easy for me to remember. I was feeling good about this. All until it was time for stunting. Stunting was my least favorite part about cheer, only liking it whenever the outcome is good. There is something so stressful about it, knowing you have a girls life in your hands and if you mess up, it's all your fault. Coach Lane set me in a group as the main-base with Connor as the backspot, Olivia as the side base, and London as the flyer. Avery told me this was last year's strongest stunt group before their main base graduated, so I try to settle the nerves. Coach Lane told us to warm up some preps, so we got positioned. Bases sat in a squat, backspot ready to lift, flyer holding our shoulders. Connor counted us off and we lifted London up and back down to our shoulder level as easy as ever. She has the perfect amount of tightness that she felt as light as a feather.