The Last Cheer (Book 1 of the Cheer series)

Twenty Two

There are a few things that humans, fear the most. Death, not in itself, rather how it will happen. Which brings us to our next point. Pain. Fear. Regret, and being alone, and being completely and utterly hopeless.

The one thing, that I am fear the most now is losing hope. This waiting, all this time, when I am staring at the dead weight on the bed. What if he is brain dead? What is he never wakes up? What will I do? More importantly, who will I become?

Without him, I don't know what I would do. Just imagining it gives me feelings that I cannot explain. I don't know if life will be worth living without him.

---------------------------------

It is the final game of the season. Allison has been cheering at the past few games. Coach is loving her. Being deputy captain is great. Just the nerves are a bit bad. Jessica, the cheerleading captain has called many meetings with just her, coach and I.

The whole football team, and most of the other school, Ridgewood are coming to visit my brother today after the game. I'm just so scared.

The reason why we are playing Ridgewood, again, is because both them and our school remain undefeated this season, last time we played them, we tied. So today is really big event of the season. Anyway, the whistle will soon be blown. The boys are in their position.

"Brrt!" The whistle blew, the game has started.

Ridgewood started with the ball. We immediately started to cheer. My parents were in the stands. After the game, they are going to take Alli, Jess and I to get Mac Donalds, and then we will go visit Steven.

The cheering started at a high pace. The competition for us wasn't the football teams, rather it was a cheerleading competition. Sure, the football scores would be counted, but for us cheerleaders, we were head on head with Ridgewood.

The other team started to shout. We started to shout louder. And so on. Eventually, it was a full on scream match. They are good, but hopefully, we are better.

Before we knew it, the whistle had blown for half time.

We joined in on a cheerleading huddle. Suddenly, the boys started to join in with us. The huddle is huge now, especially with the big shoulder pads on the football players.

"Last game of the season! We are at the most important section of the match. Winning or losing depends on this half of the game." the football coach screamed, "So, make Eastwood proud!"

We all put our hands in the centre of the circle and shouted, "Victory! Tigers!"

I smirked as I looked at the other team. They all wore frowns. We got back onto the side lines, and this time, we started with the ball, and the cheers started again.

-----------------------------------------

In the last five minutes.

Ridgewood - 19
Eastwood - 18

We really were in suspense. The crowd was now participating in cheers. So boy, it sounded like someone was being murdered by a pride of lions on steroids.

Suddenly, the whole crowd was on their feet, What on earth? Then, I caught a glimpse of the ball, and realised that we had just scored a goal. I looked at the score board.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2... "Brrrrt!" The last whistle blew.

The game is over! And... its a tie. Again.

The footballers formed a line and they all started to congratulate the other team. I was standing talking to Allison, when I was chucked over someone's shoulder. I rolled my eyes, a chest grin on my face.

"Cam! Put me down!" I shouted and pushed my fists into his back, but his padding stopped him from feeling anything. He finally put me down and he took off helmet. Sweat was dripping off his helmet hair. I stood on tip toes and I messed it up.

"Hey!" he said and he tickled me. I burst out a very unattractive giggle. He grinned.

"See you later Mel." he said and kissed me on the check.

"Gross!" I shouted, but all he did was kiss me again and rub my hair and mess it up. I groaned and fixed it again.

"See you!" I shouted and waved to him. I met Allison and Jessica at my mom's car.

Alli, Jess and I hopped into the car. We arrived at Mac Donald's and went through the drive through. We all ordered oreo mac flurries. A small cup of heaven. We finished them, and Mom drove us to the hospital. She dropped us off at the entrance.

We were meeting the football team outside. Mom and dad had notified the nurses about what was happening, but they didn't seem too keen on the idea. Eventually, they agreed and moved Steven to a closer and bigger room.

As we arrived, the two football teams came into view, it was a mixture of boys from our two schools, and man alive, that was a lot of boys. The school buses had bought them. They were in their team tracksuits. Jess, Alli and I were still in our cheerleading uniforms. I was very proud of mine. On the front, it still says tigers, but on the back, it has my name and deputy captain written in golden letters.

I lead everyone inside to Steven's room, all the other visitors and nurses looking at us strangely.