Free Fall [PETER PARKER]

FOURTEEN: CHEER YOUR HEART OUT

chapter fourteen

It's like there's something radiating off of Ana, like a radioactive glow of some sort, an aura. Whatever it is, it's attracting people's attention to Ana and she feels like she's standing on a stage in front of thousands of people completely naked. She's checked her outfit and glanced at herself in her phone multiple times to see if there was something wrong with the way she looked, but her skirt isn't tucked into her underwear and she doesn't have clown makeup all over her face. So why did it feel like all heads turned to look at her when she walked into school?

The first possibility that popped into her head was that her secret had been exposed. Someone found a video of her in Sokovia and leaked it for the whole world to see. She almost considered turning around and leaving, but she pushed that possibility out of her mind and kept walking, realizing that people were quick to brush her off. Nobody was whispering so that had to be a good sign that they weren't talking about her. It was just strange because she had always felt invisible. The only attention she'd gotten was when she had newly arrived, but after that, no one had even blinked her way.

Ana continued to walk through the school like any other day. But this time, she's stopped by Mack, someone who only began to acknowledge her when she joined the team.

"Hey, Ana!" Mack calls out to her. Ana stops in her tracks and turns to the girl as she waves her over. Mack is with some of her other friends that aren't on the squad, but luckily, Grae is there with them. Ana likes Grae, she's not as intimidating as Mack, and she feels like they could be better friends.

"Hey." Ana greets back, walking over to them hesitantly. She assumes that what Mack wants to tell her has something to do with cheer, strictly business, but she's mistaken.

Tilting her head as she looked Ana up and down, Mack said, "I think she's small."

Ana'a eyes widened in disbelief at what she had just heard, raising her brows at Mack before saying, "Excuse me?"

"She means clothing size." Grae quickly explained. "You know, for your uniform?" Ana formed an 'o' with her mouth.

"You're gonna need it for the game, right?" Mack quirked an eyebrow at her with a smirk.

"Yeah, of course." Ana nodded. She had no clue how things were supposed to go, at the moment she was just going with the flow on things and letting Mack tell her what to do.

"Walk with us to class." It wasn't a question, it was demand. It seemed like this was a habit of Mack's that Ana was supposed to get used to. "So Ana, are you nervous?"

"For the game?" Ana asked, to which Mack rolled her eyes as if to say, 'duh!' Of course that's what she meant. "Well, not really, I guess. I'm really only afraid of embarrassing myself by messing up the cheers but I've been practicing a lot."

"That's good!" Grae grinned at her. "I mean, the part about you practicing a lot. As long as you practice, there's nothing to be afraid of."

Nodding, Ana smiled back at the girl. She was right. Ana just had to keep rehearsing as much as she could to make sure she knew them. It's better than going out there unprepared.