The Cheerleader •Daryl Dixon AU•

Thirty-Seven

Olivia, Lori and the rest of the squad had been practicing all out for the big game. Daryl had even suffered sitting in on one of their cheers but seeing as Rick and T were at football practice at the same time and they all had plans to go to The Point again after he had no choice. He just put his headphones in and tried to not look obvious everytime he caught a glimpse of Olivia's skirt riding up.

"Lori" Olivia began, her and Lori were freshening up at their lockers. The hallway was quiet, all the students had left for the day and it was rather peaceful considering an hour or so before it was full of chaos. "I've been thinking, and I've been thinking this for a long time" Olivia paused, Lori was topping up her mascara but she knew she was listening. "I wanna give up cheerleading" Olivia gritted her teeth as she awaited Lori's response which wasn't long, Lori snapped her mascara tube shut and slammed her locker shut "What?" she harshly whispered, Olivia gave her friend a weary smile praying she would realise it wasn't anything to do with cheerleading itself it was just Olivia had grown out of it. "You said you just didn't want to be head cheerleader anymore?" Lori shook her head, she really looked shocked and saddened Olivia didn't want it anymore. "I know, but its just not me anymore, I don't enjoy it. Think of all the girls who were good at cheer but we turned them away at try-outs just because we could?" Olivia reminded Lori who grinned at the memory "Yea, that was great" she nodded as she reminisced "and think how much they would of appreciated the chance?" Olivia spoke in a motherly fashion as she tried to make Lori see her point. Lori eyed Olivia to the door and they walked towards the exit "We have a few months before we have finish school, cant you hold out?" Lori almost whined, and Olivia saw her point but she just couldn't do it anymore, it wasn't making her happy and quite frankly it hadn't made her happy for a very long time. "This would make you head cheerleader.." Olivia spoke in a slightly patronising tone to try and get her on board and Olivia could tell it was working judging by Lori's smirk. "But with Andrea not on the team and now you we will be two members down" Lori reminded her but Olivia had a solution "Hold try-outs, Karen's cousin was good at filling in for Karen when she was drunk that time" she suggested, Lori still wasn't convinced but Olivia promised to help her hold try-outs in order to find a replacement for the short term. Failing that Olivia had her arm twisted by Lori to stay on the squad should they not find anyone good enough.

As the girls walked closer to the parking lot Olivia typed away on her smartphone "Ive posted on the school page about try-outs and we have ten likes so far" She smiled cheery "If we do try-outs before we practice for the game we should be good for time" she added "I'll message Karen or Jessie to help us out" Olivia said, she wasn't sure if Lori was taking all this information in but she carried on speaking regardless.

"What about Andrea?" Lori suggested but Olivia shook her head "The girl hasn't been to a single cheer in weeks, I take it she doesn't want to be on the team anymore" Olivia scoffed but Lori nudged her to look up from her phone as Andrea was heading right there way "here we go" Olivia mumbled rolling her eyes "hey mama" Lori greeted making Andrea half smile, Olivia narrowed her eyes slightly trying to work out if Lori was being sarcastic or not. "How is it going?" Andrea wearily smiled "well this one doesn't want to be on the cheer squad anymore and with you not being on it that just leaves me!" Lori quickly filled her in with a speedy ramble. "Do you want to sit in on try-outs tomorrow?" Olivia suggested and Andrea welcomed the invite, she looked as if it was the first invite she had had in a long time.

Even though the girls had known eachother for many years for the first time in those years an awkward silence fell over them. Between the three of them they shuffled their feet on the ground, twirled their hair around their finger or looked at the ground as they each tried to think of something to say. "Anyone fancy the mall?" Lori suggested flashing the girls a smile , after Andrea agreed Olivia followed suit and they all got into Lori's car.

The trio sat in a burger bar and conversed over milkshakes. "Shane told me her tries to call you?" Olivia asked, the elephant in the room was with them at the burger bar and even though it was as if it was back to normal as they strolled the mall and laughed and joked right now the elephant was very very obvious. Lori stopped sipping her shake to watch for Andrea's response, "I don't want to talk to him" She spoke bitterly, Lori and Olivia both pulled a face to one another, Andrea sounded as if she was doing Olivia a favour by not talking to Shane but seeing as they saw the state of Shane about contacting her they for once felt bad for him "He needs to be involved girl" Lori warned her sympathetically "I know he is a tool at times but if he is trying you have to let him" Olivia added on. Andrea added as they girls advised her "I'm done with him, it doesn't bother me if you two give it a go for the baby" Olivia reassured her by stroking her arm from across the table. Andrea looked relived "Don't ignore him for my sake" she added.

It felt like a wave had been lifted from them all, the atmosphere changed almost instantly and the girls were back to giggling and chatting loudly like they used to. Olivia really wasn't bothered Shane was fathering a baby with Andrea, yea it hurt to know they both went there with eachother but Olivia wasn't exactly in the right place with Shane at the time and she had feelings for Daryl by then, that's what she told herself anyway. She didn't want to know the dates of conception, it was better to not know.

"Anyway, I should probably shoot, with the game tomorrow and now try outs we have a busy ass day" Olivia spoke hugging her friends goodbye as she left to get home to Daryl.