A Certain Romance || Ashton Irwin

Introductions

"So girls," Elizabeth rounded all of the cheerleaders in a perfect circle where we were going to sit and get to know each other even if that meant super gluing our asses down to the floor so we'd talk. 5:30 am was not a time anyone should be getting to know a group of people, 5:30 am was not even a time to be talking at all. "Danita Hernandez decided that she didn't want to be on the team, so it's just us girls." For the early hour, Elizabeth looked as perfect as ever. Her blonde hair softly curled at the ends and her minimal makeup made her appear awake and not zombie-like.

I sat between Lydia and Samantha. Samantha and I already knew each other, she was Michael's girlfriend from the 8th grade up until spring break of sophomore year. Neither of them were ever open about the reason why they broke up, they just convinced everyone that it wasn't working anymore and they were slowly growing apart. I felt like that happened all too often.

Lydia had a cool vibe to her and we were kinda drawn together, I'd always seen her around school, never had a class with her, so it was pretty obvious why we hadn't spoken until today.

"It's time we become acquainted with each other. Give your name then name something you like," Elizabeth scanned the circle until she landed on Izzy. "Starting with Izzy and then the person to her left and so on..."

"Well, I'm Izzy," Izzy tucked her legs underneath her. "I like to play guitar."

"I'm Bobbi and I like to walk around barefoot wherever I go." Because that was so fucking sanitary.

"I'm Lisa and I just like to sleep, honestly." She swayed from side to side, her blonde hair moving with her. Lisa seemed like a potential canditate to befriend, anyone who loved sleep would love me.

"Hi guys, I'm Samantha, or you can call me Sammy...Sam..." Samantha looked down at her skirt, messing with the hem. "I like to speak French around people who don't understand." Samantha being fluent in French always spoke the language to Michael even if he didn't have a clue what she was saying to him. He still liked it and it was still enough to make him blush even she said something like, "I need to wash my hair."

"I'm Sage, I like to stay home, I guess." I shrugged, turning to Lydia who would hopefully take the attention off me as quick as possible. I was sick of becoming acquainted people. First Ashton, now this group of girls. Who was next?

"Hello, I go by Lydia," She waved. "I like anime."

"I'm Nikoletta and I like boys." Nikoletta had a reputation for hooking up with the entire varsity football team her freshman year...more power to her for allowing those idiots in.

"I'm Veronica, I like to sing." Veronica was the co-captain of the team who could always be heard laughing from at least 3 miles away. She laughed at anything and was considerably outgoing, always able to strike up a conversation with anyone.

"I'm Elizabeth and I like to spend my time volunteering at the local animal shelter."

"I'm Kathy, I like the color orange." All right, Kathy.

"Jordanna, I like hot dogs."

"I'm Paola and I like my legs." Her legs were stretched out in front of her. They looked really shiny and soft, I could admit.

"Simone, I like paper clips." Simone tugged at her raven hair that framed her face.

Samantha, Lisa Izzy, Paola, Veronica, Elizabeth, and Lydia were all already on the team prior to tryouts. They wanted more than 7 people to work with and that was fulfilled. The newbies, including myself, didn't seem to fit the part of what the other girls were. Perfect. We were rough and needed a lot of help to be just like them.

"Fantastic!" Elizabeth chirped, clapping her hands together. "As you girls know, we have practice every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday after school. Football Friday's always require you to wear your cheer uniform to school. My parents reserve a bus for us to ride to games, so you don't have to stress about finding a ride. I have all your phone numbers so I will send out a mass text if anything comes up that's important for you girls to know."

"Ladies!" The football team hollered, entering the room we were in.

The rest of us began scattering around to grab our belongings, not wanting to interact with the football team. Most of the cheerleaders ran from the football team any chance they got. Elizabeth excluded. I guess practice had just ended by the looks of sweat and grass stains on their jerseys and a few of them breathing heavily.

"Hey Elizabeth!" Calum walked over, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

"Get away from me," Elizabeth shoved Calum off. "You smell like ass and I don't even want to see you."

"Oh, come on, Beth." Calum grabbed her hips. "It was an accident."

"Sleeping with my sister on my bed while I was in the shower, does not happen as an accident." Elizabeth argued. "You said you loved me, Cal."

"Boys!" Their coach yelled. "Hit the damn showers, you all look and smell ridiculous."

"For the newbies..." Elizabeth turned to us as the boys left, tears forming in her eyes. "Stay away from Calum Hood. Now that you're cheerleaders, he'll try anything to get with you and then toss you aside." She then walked off with Veronica following behind her.

"Stay away from everyone on the team, for that matter." Lydia warned calmly. She wasn't coming off as territorial or rude, she seemed concerned for the newbies. "They don't care about you as a person. You don't have feelings, you don't have thoughts to them. You're just a thing to them."

"I have a ton of respect for women." Luke popped up, adding his reassurance to the cheer team that he was a gentleman and here to use us.

"I can vouch for that." I nodded.

"Thank you for reminding us, Luke." Lydia laughed lightly, patting Luke's shoulder as she walked past him to start her to journey to the locker room.