weitermachen {german} >> to carry on, hurry on, push on, keep on, keep up, continue______________
01.
It just had to happen on the weekend of the game day.
Helena, my twin sister, sits next to me as we await the verdict in front of the principal's office. It was almost the end of the school day, and it would mean cheer practice for both of us, if I got out of here alive. It was supposed to be my first day as captain, as Heather Michaelson appointed me the week before. I, the junior who will solely lead the team to victory in the upcoming nationals, am awaiting the verdict of a crime I didn't commit.
The door of the principal's office opened with a terrible creak, shocking Helena to lose the grip of her hand holding the new iPhone. My hands were no better—shockingly shaky—gripping the handles of my backpack on my lap.
"Haley Winchester?" Principal McFarley questioned, looking at the both of us. "Where's your mother?"
"Helena is my guardian by proxy," I told him matter-of-factly. Helena looked up at him and nodded.
"Helena is your friend—"
"She's my older sister," I corrected, "and yes, genetics have blessed us to be different."
"Excuse me?"
"It's an excuse we make when we try to explain to people that we're sisters," Helena piped in, closing the app on her phone. "I have blonde hair, she has brown hair, we both have blue eyes of different shades, but we did a DNA test and turns out we're 100 percent—"
"Don't finish that sentence, I know the rap," he placed his left hand on his temple.
"—related," she finished the sentence, glancing at me, "So can you give us the verdict so Captain Hales can move on and start the order of her business for States?"
"I'm afraid we need to discuss things with your mother."
"She's busy," I crossed my arms, "she has meetings all over town."
"Yes, but protocol directs—"
"The office tried reaching her by phone but she was really busy so she texted me to tell you that my twin sister is my guardian by proxy," I showed him my cracked phone of the text from her.
"Well," he resigned, "but we need to discuss orders of your suspension from the cheerleading squad."
"I'm sorry," Helena held my shoulder, as she spoke, "did you just say...you're suspending our cheer captain?"
-----
Things aren't looking out to be great for us. Mom got called to the office with our younger sister Chloe in town, looking cross. I guess our family has been a mess since Dad decided to push Mom with the divorce papers, but I didn't realize it set off a chain of events leading after it. We moved from our house at Rosewood Close, one of the nicest neighbourhoods in town when Dad packed up his things and left for New York. Mom got a job promotion in her firm, which lead her to being more irritatingly picky, setting off at the littlest things while she was stressed from work.
After the talk with Principal McFarley, our Toyota was radiating with tension the thickest knife wouldn't be able to cut. Mom was fuming as she drove to our new neighbourhood, Helena was quietly upset that the cheer season didn't kick off the way it was supposed to, and I was downright kicked in the guts that I had no chance to prove to the team I was actually a better leader than Mireille Ackley.
I watched my younger sister sleep on her booster chair from a full day in kindergarten. Only a six-year old would feel safe at the time like this. I wish she didn't know the full extent on how the world could be a cruel and selfish thing.
As she parked the car in the driveway, Helena had opened her door in the backseat, and carried Chloe out into the house in a hurry to escape our mother's incurring wrath. I slid under my seat, as I undid my seatbelt, my heart beating a thousand miles per minute.
"I thought you were more than that, Haley," my mother says softly with wisps of dark brown hair with a little grey falling over her face. "Suspension?"
"It's just for cheerleading, Mama," I say as softly, "at least, I didn't get suspended for school."
"What kind of Ivy is going to accept you with that kind of record?" she turned to look at me, her eyes glazing. "Not to mention, you are a bad influence on your baby sister. Yes, you and your sister being bad influences on that game night! I never should have let you go to American Public School—"
"Mama, we live in America," I reminded her gently.
"I didn't raise monsters!" she shouted, the Asian spark in her growing louder. "I raised good daughters. I raised them to believe the good and bad, I trust them to not do anything stupid. Getting suspension is not a good thing."
I became really quiet. I know I had really messed up.
She sighed, her hands gripping the steering wheel tightly.
"I don't know how should I believe you anymore, Haley. I thought you are doing well," she sputtered, "at least, I thought you were with all the changes happening in this family. Turns out you were worse than Lena and Chloe."
"Sorry, Mama," I whispered, my seatbelt already off.
"I can't believe I raised troublemakers," she seethed, shaking her head. "Go to your room!"
I scrambled out of the car, pushing my shoes off at the front door, ignoring the sleepy Chloe on the couch, to race upstairs to my room that I shared with Lena. My sister was on her desk with her phone in her hand, sitting on a swivel chair, turning to me as I closed the door with a bang.
"How did it go? Did you get more punishment?" she asked, her eyes widening with worry.
"It was expected," I shrugged.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hi! I've returned to Wattpad. Don't expect much from me, I'm a university student who writes in her spare time. crazy huh? I wrote this story when I was 16. And I'm going to write more, finish this up. Can't leave my readers hanging.
Love, Kenisha.

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The Scraps
Teen Fiction"So tell me, how does one get suspended from cheerleading?" Haley Winchester got stripped off her title as the Captain of the Cheerleaders, before she even became one. On top of that, she has to deal with the wreck of her family, the loss of her see...