A Change Of Directions (Camren)

Chapter 7: Stick to the plan

Turned out that Frankie and his friends had been hanging out in the auditorium instead of the canteen, wanting to rehearse some songs. They apologized for not telling me, but I waved them off, I had been the one too lazy to look into the auditorium when I had already guessed them to be there.

And lunch with Shawn turned out to have a good side effect, he told me in chemistry class that the football players had started to talk to each other instead of awkwardly fulfilling the status by silently sitting next to each other.

Of course, it made me wonder why they had never talked before and Shawn shruggingly explained, "Everybody expects us to sit together at the same table. They expect us all to be bros or something. But we actually never talk to each other, there is no topic to talk about except for football and it's getting boring by the time. So we cut it."

"And you all never even tried to find something else you had in common? Not even discussing girls, video games and all that shit?"

"Erm...I never bothered to find out. I mean, Jack's always moaning my ears off about his relationship with Lauren and how she never lets him get further than first base. It's enough when he does that, I don't need more guys running to me, complaining about their girls."

"That asshole..."

After that, I had completely forgotten about the social issues of the football team and had lurched into a daydream where I used different methods of torture to harass Jack.

School was quickly over and I was one of the few students still wandering around the hallways. I didn't know why I hesitated to go the field where I was supposed to assist Coach Cheryl in drilling her cheerleaders, but my feet were walking in a slower pace than usual.

Finally, when I stepped out on the field, Coach Cheryl had already made the cheerleaders run laps.

"I almost thought you wouldn't come." She said when I was within hearing range, her narrowed eyes not straying away from the jogging cheerleaders.

"Worried?" I smirkingly asked and that made her look at me; an unreadable, hard expression was on her face. Everyone else would have already run away crying but I understood her enough to not feel bothered.

Yeah, I considered myself this cool. Not feeling bothered under Coach Cheryl's hard stare was the ultimate proof of badassness.

"I just saw myself in you. Always challenging higher authorities because there was no authority higher than myself." Coach Cheryl simply said. It almost sounded like a praise and it was betraying her frowning expression. She turned her head to watch the cheerleaders again, "I need a new choreography, Mila. Something Cheryl-tastic, so out of this world that it has its own rating."

Most of the time, I really liked challenges, but I had no freaking idea of cheerleader choreographies, I only knew some lame pom-pom waving moves that I had seen from those horrible chick flicks which my dates had always made me see. And it wasn't like I had ever paid attention to their dancing, I had been more busy staring at their well shaped bodies in those hot uniforms.

I didn't want to come up with a reply that started with, 'I'm sorry to disappoint you', so I chose to say nothing instead, hoping that Coach Cheryl would think I was contemplating on something. Trying to search for answers, I absently gazed at the jogging cheerleaders.

Most of them were already exhausted and slowing down. Only a few kept running in their fast set pace and one seemed to particularly enjoy using her long legs, she even started wildly jumping around and doing cartwheels, all the while still faster than the rest. I squinted my eyes to see better and as I had already suspected, it was Normani who was happily running in front of a panting Lauren, followed closely by a chuckling Dinah.