The Last Cheer (Book 1 of the Cheer series)

Six

I step into my new cheerleading uniform skirt, and pull the shirt over my head. I turn to look into the mirror and squeal a little at the sight. It is dark blue with white and yellow accents, with the word 'Tigers' written across the front of it in yellow with a small blue outline. White, yellow and blue are our school colours, and having the uniform on gives me a sense of school pride. I pulled my hair into a pony tail, along with the issues white, yellow and blue cheerleading bow. Finally, I pull on white nike trainers and head out the locker rooms.

We are going to practice on the field this afternoon. I find the other cheerleaders gathered on the field and I jog over to them.

"Alright Cheerleaders gather round!" Coach Rvans shouts, everyone obeys and stands in a circle around the coach, "Congratulations to our new comers Melissa and Marley. Well done. I will have you ladies know that we treat new comers more strictly, and we make sure that you are in line. We all work hard here towards the same goal." Coach Evans states, "Anyway, moving on. We are playing against Ridgewood high school on Friday, that means we need to be cheer ready by then. Everyone clear?" She asks, and a low yes was muttered and Coach Evans claps her hands. "Energy people energy! Alright Jessica. Take it from here." She orders.

A really pretty blonde walks into the middle of the circle. I quill has recognize her as the cheerleading captain. I'm pretty sure she dated my brother at one point.

"Alright. Let's practise our first routine." Jessica orders and shows the routine. It is pretty complicated. Everyone follows her lead easily, while I struggle to get all the moves. However, after we did it about five times, I seemed to pick it up easily.

"Alright. That is really getting there. Let's move on to Pandora's Pyramid. One of our flyers quit, so we need a new flyer. Remember, this is built on a trust relationship. Who is willing to group up?" Jessica asks and looks around for volunteers. When no one does so, she scans the crowd, and her eyes seem to hover over me. My heart drops. Oh no.

"Melissa. You seem to be quite light and small. You have the right build to be a flyer. Are you willing to try it?" I nod and swallow. I can do this. I can do this. "You will be at the top. You are quite short and light, so it will be easier for you to stand on top of the other girls."

She leads me over to a group of three cheerleaders, who were laughing and talking. "Girls, this is Melissa. She will be your flyer. She is new to this so take it slow. You girls are very experienced and will do very well, so be careful." She orders and they nod.

They form the base of the pyramid and hold out their hands for my feet. "Ready?" A girls asks me, and I nod.

They hoist me up slowly, and move to stand on their shoulders. I feel really embarrassed. "I'm so sorry if I hurt you or if I'm too heavy." I mutter, biting my lip. They chuckle.

"Sweetheart, you are not nearly as heavy as our last flyer. In fact, you are almost as light as a feather." A girl smiles at me, "Trust us. You will be just fine."

I nod, even though I don't really trust these fellow cheerleaders.  My heart is beating loudly inside my chest. It's alright Melissa. Calm down. Breathe. I tell myself.

"What now?" I ask, my voice shaking a little. 

"Now, you put one hand on your hip, and the other in the air." The cheerleader, I know now is Gabi, orders. I do as I was told.

"Yeah, and now?" I ask.

"Pull your left leg up to your shoulder so that it is straight." I follow her instructions, my leg burning as I pull it straight. I can't make it all the way to my shoulder as I do so and Gabi laughs. "You will get it eventually. Don't worry. We were all in that position."

"It feels like I'm playing twister!" I complain as my leg starts to feel like a hellfire, as I keep in position.

"That's it That's it!" Jessica screaming, running over to our pyramid. Currently there are three other pyramids being made.

"Now what?" I grimace as the muscle pulls harder.

"Flip down." Gabi orders.

"In this position? Are you mad woman?" A few cheerleaders chuckle.

"No silly. Put your leg back down and flip onto the ground."

I put my aching leg back on someone's shoulder and I brace myself for the flip. I think that this is actually super dangerous. I shrug and do the flip. Surprisingly, I land on my feet, but I wobble a fit and the cheerleaders behind me had to steady me so that I didn't fall.

"Thanks." I mutter awkwardly.

"Alright!" Jessica orders and the cheerleaders gather round. "I think we need to do some trust exercises. Especially you Melissa!" She points out.

"What? Hey that's not fair!" I complain.

"It is. You are new and you need to trust us. The pyramid would have been a lot better if you trusted us. So we are doing this." She orders. Many groan.

"Alright. I need Melissa to be blindfolded. Debbie, go scatter the pom-poms around the field. Not too far away though." A blindfold is put around my head so that I can't see anything.

"The object of this exercise is to guide Melissa around the football field so that she can pick up all the scattered pom-poms around the girls and bring them back to the box, while blindfolded!" I have a bad feeling about this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ow!" I shout as I bump into something hard in my way.

"Sorry!" Someone guiding me shouts. I have already picked up three. Only five left to go. It's extremely difficult to pick out a single voice. Everyone is screaming at me and eventually, one person took charge and that is how I could finally manage to pick up three.

"Alright Melissa, walk left, yes carry on. Alright, now stop and walk towards my voice. Yes carry on, carry on, Okay, stop! Feel around you!" Someone orders. I bend down to feel for the pom-pom. I pick it up.

"Alright. Only four more to go!" Shouts the voice again. I groan. This is honestly so silly, and my leg still aches from the pyramid.