Girl Meets Plus One || BOOK 2

We Meet Rahs and Aahs

DAY ONE

She somersaulted over to us, landing right smack dab in front of our faces. I'm surprised I kept my jaw from dropping as Riley lightly clapped in her red and yellow spirited outfit.

"Great job, Samantha," Riley smiled giddily.

"Thanks!" the curly-haired cheerleader replied.

"You're the best," the cheerleader and wanna-be cheerleader high-fived before Samantha bounced off to her friends, and Riley turned to Maya and me, her smile dropping and an unimpressed look washing over her face, "She's the worst one here," she said in a sour tone.

"She's the worst?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Samantha's the one I gotta beat to make the team. I'm better than her, right?" she asked us, fishing for compliments.

"Explain to me what's the matter with you," Maya said glaring at the perky brunette.

"I'm for your entertainment pleasure."

"How many years you're gonna do this to me?" Maya said before wrapping her arm around my shoulder, "And now you've roped Cowgirl into this too?" I wore a look of fake innocence.

"I believe that anything is possible," I replied simply.

"What am I doing to you?" Riley scrunched her nose.

"Every year I have to tell you that you're good. You know what? You're not good. You're not as good as Samantha. You're not as good as Heather. You're not as good as any girl with any name, or doesn't have a name, or doesn't exist, or is a rock," Maya took her arm off my shoulder, looking straight at the hopeful girl, "Every year, you try out. Every year, Coach Kelly tells you not to come back because she hates you."

"Coach Kelly does not hate me," and as if on cue...

"Matthews! I hate you. Why would you come here? Why are you wearing that? Why would you come here?" the 'lovely' cheerleading coach by the name of Kelly passed by Riley.

"This is the year I'm going to make the team."

"It's really not. You've been trying to make this team since third-grade pee wees, and they don't let me reject anybody in third-grade pee wees. It hurts their self-esteem."

"Then why did you get to reject me?"

"Because that's the year we passed the Riley rule."

"I have my own rule," Riley gasped with oblivious excitement.

"How much rejection can you take?"

"Hey, LeBron James was cut from his high school basketball team," I finally chimed in.

"LeBron went straight to the NBA from high school," I pointed out, as Maya raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged, "Hey it's the one sport I follow."

"I knew it was something," Riley sighed, "Coach Kelly, I'm gonna win you over."

"Stay out of sports," Coach Kelly cautioned, before going over to her team.

"Oh, you," Riley flicked her wrist in a caring manner. I walked over to the bulletin board, as Maya read off what would transpire over the next three days to Riley I glanced at a pink-tinted sheet of paper.

"Romeo and Juliet: The Musical," I read the words to myself. Little lined boxes were underneath the title of the paper.

"What Idina?" Riley asked turning to me. I pointed.

"Seems like someone's throwing a little musical," I said, grabbing the pen attached to the board, and writing down to simple words: Idina Jennings, before turning back to the girls, "And I'm going to try out."