Lesson by Her [Book 1]

Chapter 3

Football games were big news at West High. With the entire school adorned in red and white paraphernalia, some extreme students even painted their faces in support. Local residents and alumni joined the students upon the bleachers to cheer on the high school team. Even though it was a Wednesday night game, the level of support was just as fervent as at a Saturday fixture.

Cars parked on grassy verges at the school, or even along the sidewalk, as people packed themselves in, eager to get a decent seat for the game. The players always felt the pressure to perform, as they had the hopes of an entire community on their shoulders. But the cheerleaders also felt pressure of their own. Whenever the team lost, the blame fell to the cheerleaders as if the fault rested on their shoulders alone. They would say if there had been better cheers then the game would have turned around.

Dusty knew this was ridiculous, but still, she had to bow to the desire of the masses, and ensure that the West High cheerleading team was in top form.

"I hear you almost got detention tonight," Farah noted as the girls put on their outfits in the locker room.

"Nope, tomorrow." Dusty smiled sweetly as she wrapped red ribbon around her tight ponytail that was already giving her a headache.

"Only because Justin bailed you out," Katy
Hughes added.

"Whatever, I got out of it." Dusty shrugged.

"But if you hadn't, you could have cost the team the game." Farah threatened, approaching Dusty but keeping her tone lowered.

"If I'd gotten detention, you'd have had your chance to captain the team," Dusty mused.

"So no wonder you're pissed." Farah exhaled and stomped away from the bench where Dusty was prepping herself.

"Can't you demote her or something?" Cora groaned from close by, applying her bright red lipstick that matched her red uniform.

"I would, but she takes it all too seriously, which is kind of what we need," Dusty admitted. "Can I borrow that?" She glimpsed the red lipstick. She had forgotten to raid her mother's closely guarded makeup stash because she'd been in a hurry.

"Sure." Cora tossed the lipstick over, and Dusty caught it in midair. "If only catching a baton was so easy." Cora sighed. As much as she loved being a cheerleader, none of the routines came easily to her. She lacked natural rhythm, which put her at an instant disadvantage to the other girls.

It was also the reason Dusty had been unable to name her as her vice-captain despite desperately wanting to. The team would have re- volted and called her out on the blatant favoritism.

Being captain had taught Dusty a lot. About diplomacy in particular and how difficult it could be to keep everyone happy. She had a whole lot more respect for the president since doing it. She found keeping twelve high school girls in line challenging; she had no idea how he managed to govern the entire country. It baffled her and was one of the many thoughts that helped keep her awake at night.

"Ten minutes," someone shouted into the locker room, sending the team into a frenzied mist of perfume and hair spray, everyone desperately made the final tweaks to their appearance before they had to go out and be on display to pretty much the entire population of West.

"Right, line up," Dusty ordered her team, quickly giving them a once-over to make sure everyone was properly dressed. The rules around attire were strict and they had to follow them completely.

First, there was the uniform, a short pleated skirt and vest top, both in red and white and adorned with the school's emblem. Beneath the skirt were red shorts to prevent giving anyone in the crowd an eyeful when they did high kicks and lifts.