Taste the Rainbow (Editing/Rewriting, slow progress)

XX.

chapter twenty: first victory

***

"Did it work?" I ask my mother when she enters the house and lay down the book I had been reading.

"He's thinking about it," she says with a serious face. My expression goes from hopeful to sad in just a few seconds before it changes into confusion when my mother starts to grin. "I'm kidding! We made him decide it right away."

Mom and the other moms of the Scorpions team and some more had gone to principal Clearwater a few hours ago to make him let Daphne back into the team. The last few days we had collected the parents who were okay with Daphne being trans and made a plan about how the Parents were going to confront the principal.

My mother had the idea to just storm into his office this Thursday and confront him with his actions and that's how the parents did it.

Fourty-five adults had gone to the school this afternoon and had confronted him. Mom hadn't allowed me to come with them, even though the whole thing had been my idea.

"What did he decide?" Hotaru, who sits next to me wants to know and can't keep myself from sounding excited. I hadn't told any of my friends about this, except Hotaru, because I wanted it to be a surprise for Carly and Daphne.

"At first he wasn't happy about our concern," my mom begins and sits down on the couch next to me, "but then he decided that after so many of us were okay with Daphne being trans he would let her inthe team again."

Hotaru and I jump up cheering and dancing around in the living room.

"There's one more thing," my mother stops our cheering, "she is not allowed to be the captain, even though we wanted him to give her that opportunity as well."

"That was kind of obvious," Hotaru sighs, "Clearwater is the worst and we couldn't expect him to do something other then that." She was right. Clearwater had just a few days ago wanted to cancel the end of the year ceremonies but the school council hadn't agreed and for that he fortunately hadn't canceled it. And even if he had, the students would have found a way to stop him from taking something like this from us. If we'd had to do the party in the backyard of someones house.

"You're right," I agree, "but at least we got Daphne to be in the team again."

"Yeah," Hotaru grins, "But Carly will ask what they are going to do about the competition." Again, she is completely right. We actually got in contact with the organizer of the competition and he said that the Scorpions can come back any time, because he only heard good things about them and had been quite sad when Clearwater had told him about them not taking part. The only thing that still was not worked out was, that they still were missing one good flight because of Nica not being in the team anymore.

"You're right," I nod, "They are still missing a flight, which means they can't actually win... Nor actually take place in a fair way." 

"They are missing a flight?," my mother asks, which I didn't expect.

"Yeah," I answer.

"Don't they always train with more so they have some if someone is ill?" She seems to know a lot about the cheerleading stuff. I know that she had been a cheerleader when she'd been in school herself.

"They do, but the other good flight got kicked out and the others aren't actually that good," I explain and she nods understandingly. I don't know what is going no in her mind but I can see that she has an idea, after her face changes from thoughtful to somehow hopeful. 

"I have to call someone," she says, "It will take some while. So why don't you two go to the park or inform Carly about this." I slowly nod when she leaves the living room to go into the bedroom and call whoever she is going to. 

"Well, what are we going to do now?," Hotaru asks and looks at me with a questioning face.

"Tell Carly about all of this," I answer, "She is the first one we should let know about our achievement."

"Okay," she says, "I have to do something else now, as you know, so maybe we can meet this afternoon in the park."

"Good idea," I agree and smile, "I'll tell you when we'll meet."

"Thanks," she grins and turns around. We go to the door and while she puts on her shoes I open the door for her so she can leave.

"I hope you have fun at your date with Marcus," I grin and wink at her. She rolls her eyes on me and leaves. When she is just a few steps out the door she waves a little goodbye and then hurries down the street. 

I go back inside, grab the book I had been reading and place myself on the couch again. The words I read seem to fly by my eyes without forming into any sentence and I have to read the first passage twice to actually realize what is standing there. The reason for me not being able to pay attention to what I'm reading is that I'm thinking way too much again. 

Over and over again I ask myself what mom is doing and who she called. It has to be someone who has to do something with the cheerleading because we had talked about it and I know my mom good enough to know that she isn't just thinking about something else while we are talking about something this serious. So who is she calling? Could she be talking to a parent of some girl who is a flight in another team? There is nothing that comes to my mind that I can actually imagine to happen. 

I spend about one hour with reading and thinking about who my mother is talking to. Then I get my phone and call Carly. She tells me that she already is in the park when I ask her if she can come there in a few hours because she doesn't have anything else to do and wanted to focus on writing a bit more. 

At first she is really curious about what we are going to tell her but after I say a few times that it's a surprise she stops asking about it and we talk about the upcoming party, which is tomorrow. Hotaru and I have been talking about that too before my mother had gotten back. Carly tells me about who she knows will come and who won't. 

Charles is going to be there too and Carly openly tells me that she is kind of scared because of this, even though she had said that she doesn't feel the same anymore. I reassure her that she will be able to tell him what she thinks of him and that he will understand it.

After some time I say goodbye and hang up because we will see us in half an hour anyways. I quickly write Hotaru when we will meet before I go upstairs to get ready a bit more. Hopefully Carly can be happy about the little surprise that Daphne will be back in the team. 

Gif is just Hotaru having fun

***

Well, well, well. Two thirds are done which means our story is coming closer to the end. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and are ready for the next one as much as I am.

Who do you think Audens mother is calling?

See you tomorrow on the other side of the rainbow

xoxo

Leo♥