White Horse

two - elissa

two - elissa

 

~ hold me in your everlasting arms ~

 

Elle was not impressed.

Even though all of her cheerleaders were sweating under the cruel heat of the fluorescent gym, she wasn’t ready to let them go home yet. Granted, today was a particularly grueling day - Elle had them working on the basket toss for twenty minutes and then the heel stretch for another twenty (something Daniela would not stop whining about, since she was the flyer), and then they went over their routines at least ten times. And to top it all off, the controller was stuck so they couldn’t open the windows at the top of the gym or turn on the air conditioner - leaving the Oaktown Hills cheer squad stuck in an increasingly hot gym. The whole place was starting to smell like severe body odor.

But Elle had no mercy.

“C’mon, girls!” Elle shouted, again wishing for Coach Lainey’s megaphone. Maybe that would get them to pay attention to her. If she heard one more complaint about the heat, she would scream. “If you each group nails their heel stretch, we can all go home.”

The three groups of girls Elle had set up were all determined to get the stretch perfect. Each group had four girls: three lifters, and then a flyer. Daniela, Brynn, and Elle all had similarly confident looks on their faces, having practiced the basket toss hundreds of times. As the flyers, they were the ones who had to remain composed - if a girl grimaced at the top, then the crowd would look at her instead of the overall performance.

Ten feet in the air wasn’t too high. Elle was used to it.

“Okay, ready?” Elle shouted, heading over to her group where Casey and Jane had already locked hands, ready to push Elle into the sky. “And one, two, three, go!”

Elle hopped on top of Casey and Jane’s hands, Lynn quickly walking up behind her to help force Elle into the air. Within a few seconds (never losing her balance), she was well above the heads of her friends. Quickly looking around to make sure Daniela and Brynn had also executed this (they had), she pulled her ankle up to her head , stretching herself into something like a vertical splits.

As soon as she dropped her leg, the cheerleaders dropped their hand into a basket shape, catching Elle and then depositing her safely on the ground.

Elle turned around and looked at her squad. They were properly exhausted for one day. Coach Lainey would approve - maybe she’d let Elle run more practices. Coach had a meeting with the principal today and had called upon the captain of the squad (which would be Elle) to run the practice and she’d done a pretty fantastic job, if she did say so herself. Satisfied with her efforts, she released them from practice. “Alright, we’re done for today. I’ll see you all Thursday after school!”

Deciding to go to the locker room after the crowd of girls, Elle grabbed her tiny blue backpack and headed towards the water fountain instead. Of course, Daniela was not far behind her, not that she ever really was.

“Our double date starts tonight at five,” Daniela said, leaning against the wall next to the water fountain. She examined her manicure. “You and Jackson are going to be there, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” Elle replied absentmindedly, wiping drops of water off of her lips with the back of her hand. Gross. Somebody had dumped their Cup Noodles ramen down the water fountain and there were little noodles and corn stuck in the drain. “What movie are we seeing again? The new Terminator thing?”

“Actually, we’re going to see The Fault in Our Stars since it just came out and all. The book made me cry heaps, so hopefully they didn’t butcher the movie too much. Eric and I will pick you up at seven.”