Sugar and Spice / l.h ✔️

4

~Maeve's POV~

Priscilla and I stood in the gym, holding try outs for the cheerleading team. I personally wasn't picky and would let anyone join the team as long as it seemed like they were actually trying when trying out, but Priscilla wanted only people with experience on the team. I thought that newcomers who were willing to try could be taught and she thought we should only let those with experience join so we wouldn't have to teach anyone. That was where we disagreed.

"Come on, Ave." Priscilla complained, slouching in her chair as she threw her head back in exasperation. I looked down at her with my hands on my hips and huffed, raising a brow. "What?" I asked with a little attitude. She rolled her grey eyes and drawled, "You know just as well as me that you and I don't have the time to be teaching all the new people everything when they're beginners in cheer. I don't wanna do that shit."

I sent her a look. "You and I won't be the only ones doing it. There are other people on the team besides you and I, you know." I retorted, leaning my weight onto my right foot. She still didn't look convinced.

"Yeah, but you and I are captain and co-captain for a reason. Doesn't it kind of fall on us?" She asked, raising a brow. I silently agreed with her, making me sigh deeply and throw my head back, lost on what to do. We could either accept the ones who wanted to join but weren't quite good at it yet and then also accept girls who had already been on the team last year and had experience, or we could accept only the ones with experience. Both had pros, and both also had cons.

"So?" Priscilla pressed, glancing down at the watch around her thin wrist. "Which are we doing? Amateurs or experienced girls?" She asked, looking back up at me with a little frown on her face. However, I still wasn't sure, so I ended up just shrugging hopelessly, sending her a pleading look to help me out here.

She whined. "Ave, I gotta go home. Please can we just agree on the girls who know what they're doing at least, or do you wanna spend every night here alone to teach them until like nine PM?" She asked, raising a brow at me impatiently. I cringed at the idea. "Fine." I sighed rather deeply. "I guess we'll go for the ones who are experienced." I grumbled. It killed me to shut down the younger girls who wanted to join and get in on the fun, because I didn't think it was fair. Nobody became an expert at something without practicing and learning.

However, Priscilla was right. The new girls would probably need a lot of time and guidance and I couldn't do that. I still had things to do outside of school and practice in itself was going to take up a lot of time, not to mention actually teaching them would take up even more time.

Right as she was about to get excited, I changed my mind and shook my head. "Wait!" I exclaimed, holding out a hand to stop her before she could get ahead of herself in her excitement. The smile on her face fell and she glared at me. "No! No waiting!" She exclaimed back, frustrated. Ignoring her, I crossed my arms over my chest. "I think the new girls should be able to join, Pri. They shouldn't be excluded from joining the team just because they don't know how to do it yet." I said.

Like I knew she would, she slouched into her chair and threw her head over the back of it, groaning in exasperation. "We were so close." She whined, desperate to be able to go home already.

I rolled my eyes and she sighed deeply, standing up from her chair. "Fine, Ave." She huffed, giving in. "We'll let the new girls join, but I'm not going to spend all my time just to help them learn because this wasn't my idea, or my choice. I'll help a little, but don't expect a lot." She said, making me grin widely. "Oh, thank you, Pri!" I exclaimed happily, throwing my arms around her in a hug.

She laughed into my shoulder and hugged me back, a smile on her lips when she pulled away. "I know, I know. I'm amazing, aren't I?" She bragged playfully, grey eyes glinting with mirth. I laughed and nodded my head in agreement, spending a few more minutes talking with her about what exactly we'd have to do to teach the newcomers on the team before she insisted that she needed to go home now. It was pretty late and her mom didn't like her out for cheer this late, so she tried to get home as soon as possible so as not to worry her mother.

I waved her goodbye as she left and she blew me a kiss from the gym doors, letting them swing shut behind her as she left. That left just me in the gym, so I began to gather up all of my stuff as well, since it was about time for Jase and I to head home together as well. When I had my backpack on and everything inside, I left the gym and instead poked my head out the back doors, peering towards the football field where I knew him and all of the other players were at on the field.

For a while I just stood there with the door open and waited patiently, hoping that I wouldn't have to go over there to get him so we could go home. However I eventually realized after ten or so minutes of me just standing there, listening to them hooting and hollering at one another from all the way on the field, that Jase would definitely would not be coming anytime soon. It didn't sound like they were even doing anything besides screwing around and being idiots, making me sigh deeply.

That meant that I would have to go over there and get him.

Once I had put on my metaphorical big girl pants and prepared myself, I began to walk towards the field, letting the doors swing shut behind me. They slammed loudly and nearly made me flinch. I felt my stomach churning with discomfort, not wanting to have to see Nicolai and yet knowing that it was inevitable.

Quietly, I opened the little gate that surrounded the field and peeked around the edge of the bleachers I had entered by, glad that none of them were able to see me yet. I could easily see them, though, because the big field lights were on on both sides of the two bleachers, lighting everything up. It didn't surprise me to see that they weren't doing anything football related. All they were doing was wrestling one another.

There was a big group of the football players dressed in their uniforms, huddled around two boys who were wrestling in the center of the circle. Not paying those two much attention, I searched the group for my brother, trying to spot his brown hair and stupid face. When I did, it was because I realized that my brother was one of the two who was wrestling, and he was actually wrestling Nicolai himself while everyone else cheered and hollered noisily. I cringed at the idea of going over there, having to break them up because it didn't look like they'd be doing it themselves anytime soon.

Right as I was about to go over there, I saw one of the people in the group around Nicolai and Jase turn around, a bored look on his face. And to my surprise, it was Luke. Yes, Luke, as in the boy who I'd thought was shut off and quiet. I didn't know he'd joined the football team.

Surprised, I backed into the shadows of the bleachers and watched him closely, not wanting him to catch me here. I bit my lip and hunched over a little, peering through the cracks as he grabbed his bag from the sidelines off the grass. While I watched him, I felt something tickling on my arm, making me look away from him with a frown. Thinking it was a fallen strand of my hair just brushing my arm, because that happened to me a lot, I simply went to push it away.

But when I looked, I saw there was a big black spider crawling its way up my arm.

I jerked and squealed quietly, flinging my arm so wildly that I just about slammed my hand on the underside of the bleachers. The spider was flung to the ground and somehow landed easily on its legs, where it then began to run like the wind, trying to skitter away from me. Still scared out of my mind, my body reacted immediately and I stomped on it before I could think, killing it under my shoe.

Guilt hit me after it was dead and I realized what I'd done, making me frown sadly as I looked at its corpse on the bottom of my converse. "I'm so sorry." I whispered, cringing to myself as I gently flicked it off my shoe and into the dirt behind the bleachers.

Feeling bad for having just murdered this spider, I dug a tiny hole in the dirt and used my nails to pick it up carefully and put it in the hole, burying it back up again. "At least your death was quick. May you rest in peace." I whispered to the dirt, patting it down before I stood up and walked back over to peer through the cracks again.

I tried to find Luke again on the field, but I saw him nowhere. I assumed he'd left already, while I was murdering and then burying the spider in the dirt.