Starlight

Chapter 3: Blue Wisps

I ruffled and fluffed my wet copper curls and slipped my slender self into my cheering uniform. It was blue and green, matching the school colors and the underwater motif of our mascot Dolphie the dolphin. It was one of the last football games I'd get to cheer at. I was excited though a little sad. Excited to leave behind the drama.

The changing room was filled with Dolphin girls. Anita and Rachel were in the corner of the cement room, the green paint so old it was flaking off. Over and over again the rehearsed their part of the half time show. They mirrored each other: right leg up, right arm up with pom, leg down, leg up hold with hand, pom around ankle, leg down, jump, pike, land left arm rigid with pom on landing. Perfect.

My eyes watching the other girls talking amongst each other or stretching deeply. I instructed a few on their stretches, my heart not really into coaching. I looked at my watch.

Shit. Six pm. I was suppose to be upstairs, ready, over a half an hour.

I grabbed my duffle bag and jogged past Marissa who was eyeing herself in one of the long door frame mirrors. She twirled, her skirt fluttering around her, showing off the blue bodysuit bottom. Seeing me, she nearly jumped in front of me. I stopped, jogging in place, waiting.

"Oh my God, Jamie." She squealed, jumping forward to grab my hands. She jumped around like a little frog and smiled, her cheeks glowing. "He asked me to prom. TO PROM. I mean really, it took him long enough." With this she huffed, her cheeks pouting out with air.

Always a boy. I laughed and shook my head. "He's a boy. He had to fit you between video games and wrestling with the other boys. What do you expect? You'll knock his socks of him anyways with that gorgeous coral dress." She grinned, devilishly.

"Won't just knock his socks off."

My bare feet walked across the cold cement of the girl's changing room. We had been practicing all week for the game and now, as I walked up the stairs to open the metal white door into the hall of Lincoln High, and into the buffed floors. One of my favorite things in the world were the floors right after they had been buffed. I slid my feet along it, feeling the pull of the wax against my feet, loving the coolness of it.

I scooted to my locker and threw it open, reaching in for my white cheering shoes and caught myself in the little compact mirror I hung against it. I wasn't your stereotypical beautiful. Not even close. Marissa, Anita, Rachel. All three of them had this gorgeous alabaster skin, a gift with make up and shadowing, and a tight figure, toned from years of dancing, cheering, and exercise. I had discovered cheering, on of the only things I truly enjoyed anymore, my freshman year, and though I was head cheerleader, it was more about what I knew and the choreography, than my actual skill at cheering. No, I wasn't your plastic pretty, but I had learned how to be plastic.

I had traded in my glasses at cheering practice for contacts, the deep black squared glasses I normally wore tucked deep in my bag. I studied myself, self conscious but curious too.

Maybe the doctors did switch me at birth. Or she found me under some bridge... We looked nothing alike. For one I had copper red hair with auburn highlights that fell in long loose curls. My mother's hair was straight and sandy blonde or ebony black, it depended on the year, but never had it been red, not even as a little girl. Our bone structure was different as well. I had high cheekbones, while she had a dainty little nose. My almond eyes were deep pools of jade green but hers were chocolate brown. My skin was creamy white, pale against the fiery red hair, and burned like a bitch while mom's was olive colored and turned a beautiful tan when she was under the sun. She was short, I was tall. I even had freckles that I covered expertly with concealer.