Charmed

Unprepared Part 1

Sunday morning cheer practice always kicked ass and not in a good way. Half the girls showed up hungover and the other half strutted the walk of shame across the football field. Now that cheer camp was over Lydia hoped that the girls could whip themselves into shape before the first game of their senior year in a couple of weeks, and then absolutely kill it for the homecoming game.

    Lydia usually showed up an hour before all of the other girls, running two laps around the outdoor track and setting up for the day's practice. As a sophomore Lydia joined the varsity cheer team and as a junior she became cheer captain. The Alabama heat bore through Lydia's skin like a laser as she finished up her last lap.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see the football team strolling in for their Sunday practice too. Lydia parked herself on the bleachers and scrolled through the playlist for today's routines and synced up the wireless speaker. She tried to look as focused as possible, but that never stopped Coach Dodson from coming up to her.

"Good morning, Miss Bishop." Coach Dodson barked, stretching his arms over his head to no doubt flex his shoulders and biceps. Lydia inwardly rolled her eyes.

"Good mornin' Coach." She replied, setting her phone aside to focus on the conversation like the good southern girl she was raised to be. The gaggle of boys ran laps behind them, a couple looking in their direction, and immediately looked away as Coach Dodson caught their eyes.

"How are you this fine Sunday?" Coach Dodson asked, "your mama ain't mad about you missin' church?" Lydia wanted to laugh at the question.

"I went last night," was all she said. Coach nodded and turned back to the football team, widening his stances and flexing his back towards Lydia. This time she actually did roll her eyes and continued with her playlists.

Less than 30 minutes later the first of her girls began showing up. One by one they dropped their bags on the bleachers next to Lydia and started on their two laps as well. Lydia could see the green in some of their faces, exactly as she predicted, from the night before. She decided to get the extra water bottles from the back of her car just in case.

As she headed towards the parking lot she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"Hey Lyd," the voice said and instantly Lydia's stomach dropped right into her butt. She put on her southern belle smile and turned towards Mr. Tucker Davis himself.

"Good mornin' Tucker," Lydia said. She could feel the tightness of her smile, but she didn't want her true feelings to show. She had not seen Tucker since the first week of summer and she had secretly dreaded this encounter. "How has your summer been?"

Tucker winced slightly at this, "uh, it's been really rough." He sounded truthful enough, but no matter how hurt he is it was nothing compared to Lydia's hurt.

"Well," she began but thought better of her words, "I'm sorry to hear that, but I really need to get the water for my girls."    

"I can help you carry that," Tucker took a step to follow her to her car, giving him more room to talk and Lydia didn't want to hear what he had to say, but she did not stop him as they walked silently to her car, grabbing the half empty bag of waters that Lydia totally could had carried herself, and walked back to the football field.   

"Davis!" Coach Dodson called out to Tucker as they got back to the track that hugged the edge of the football field. "Get your ass back here!" Tucker gave Lydia a half smile, surrendered the half bag of water, and jogged over to where Coach Dodson stood with all of the other players.   

Lydia made her way to the bleachers where most of her girls had already finished their laps and waited for Lydia to start their group stretches. Even from 20 feet away she could feel their concerned stares.