Jake and Ella

The Beginning

To any outsider this would seem like the usual bad boy skater and smart cheerleader girl love story. Where the male is rude, the female hates him, they get into a forced situation that they hate and suddenly fall in love or it turns out he's always been in love with her.

But that wasn't how it was with Jake. He was in love with me at some point, as I was with him. He was my best friend when we were in primary school, all in spite of our father's rivalry and to our mother's amusement.

My first crush.

My first kiss.

My first love.

Then suddenly something changed.

He left me high and dry with no warning or explanation, not back then and not now.

He understood why I had to train for cheerleading as much as I had, as he was the same when it came to gymnastics or at least he had been.

We had known everything about each other and had looked forward to continue to annoy our fathers with our friendship.

We'd planned our high school out, how the first day would go, but that first day never went to plan.

He, Jake Melrose, was the first boy to break my heart.

"Ella Kane!" I look away from fellow cheerleader, Jenni Saunders, as the brunette stops talking about her newest hook up prior to cheer camp, her blue eyes probably following the same direction as my dark green eyes, landing on our coach, Coach Waters, who continues to look along the tables before calling out one more name, "Natalia Greene!"

Jenni flashes me a big grin, showing her perfect teeth, and winks at me as Natalia stands up from the table next to us. The room, which had fallen silent at my name, burst back into loud chatter as everyone tried to get in their good luck to either myself, Natalia and for the most part both of us.

By the time Natalia and I pull away from last years squad Coach Waters had disappeared from the lunch hall, last years seniors nodding at us as we went to leave. If graduating hadn't been the 'Ding ding! You're done with school!' then the annual cheer camp would've done the job just as well. Not only would we be losing nine members from our junior varsity squad this year but also seven members of our varsity squad.

"Good luck." Natalia whispers as we walk out of the wooden building into the camp grounds.

I smile over at the blonde girl walking beside me, pushing some of my own blonde hair out of my face as a breeze fluttered through the trees that surrounded us, "And to you."

This was an important moment, not only for me but for Natalie too, the time where last year's senior captain Eliza James would announce to us who she would pass the responsibility down to, whoever Eliza didn't pick would automatically become temporary co-captain unless the captain deemed her unfit, I doubted Natalia or I would question the co-captain rule.

Coach Waters addressing both of us in the lunch hall whilst at cheer camp was supposed to be us finding out who the possible captain and co-captain were, usually there was about four or five from our varsity squad would be assumed to be in the running. But it wasn't a surprise at all, we were two girls, heirs of past cheerleader captains, who had followed in their mother's footsteps and fought our way through JV to varsity in tenth grade, the youngest in the senior squad.

Natalia and I had known from the get go, when we were put in the same squad when we were little, that the battle would come down to us and if I had to lose to anyone I was glad it was her.

I took a look at my surroundings as we made our way to Coach Waters' cabin, tomorrow we'd be back in the real world and preparing for another year at school. The campfire and its seats say in the middle of the grounds, surround by all the cabins, including the shower block and lunch hall.

Four years of being a cheerleader, four years of cheer camp. It was sad to realise that there was only one more to go before we were done with this. It seemed almost sad that we worked for so many years, having next to no social life, all for this moment first.

To be the captain or not.

Then it moved straight onto trying to get into a university team.

Coach's cabin door was open and without further hesitation we walked in to find out our destiny for the year.

*Just a snippet of what's to come - not currently writing at the moment as in the last few weeks of my uni semester!