Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn The Cheerleader

Phase Two

Anne and Tom Harper had finally gotten around to taking Dicky to the doctor to get his ankle checked since its last sprain. As a result of that, Dicky's ankle now had a layer of gauze wrapped around it so tight and so thick he could hardly move it at all, and now he needed a pair of crutches to walk. What a bother, he thought.

"It's really hard to walk like this," Dicky grumbled, climbing out of the car with help from Dawn, Nicky and Ricky. He found flat ground to support his crutched and hobbled forward. "My ankle isn't even really that injured. I could walk on it for a while."

"But it hurt, didn't it?" Dawn said responsibly. "Besides, we've got reason to be happy today. Kayley's getting what's coming to her isn't she?"

"I guess." Dicky sighed. "But I still wish my ankle weren't sprained."

"Don't we all?" Nicky replied.

"Okay, that made no sense, Nicky." Said Ricky.

"Since when does Nicky make sense?" Dawn straightened her jacket and peered into the gymnasium. The basketball team (AKA Dicky's popular friends) were stretching on the side.

"When're the cheerleaders going to do that messed up cheer you gave them?" Ricky asked, following his siblings into the gym and up into the bleachers. "Do you think they figured out that it was a trick?"

"Well, we'll see when they start cheering, won't we?" Dawn sat on the bleachers and leaned forward with her elbows propped on her knees. She narrowed her eyes, watching the cheerleaders stretch, getting ready to hype up the crowd. Kayley stood near the front of the pack. She kicked her leg high up beside her head and slid down into split. Then she stood up, curled one arm behind her head, extended the other, kicked her leg up into an arabesque and started to do the infamous dance move, The Sprinkler.

Dawn saw Zeke pause from his pregame warm up and watch the cheerleaders, who were now all mimicking Kayley's strange dance moves. His expression went from puzzled to amused to horrified as the cheerleaders' dance moves got worse and worse. A grin spread across Dawn's face.

"Check out the cheerleaders," She nudged Nicky, who was sitting beside her. "Looks like they haven't figured out the trick after all." She laughed as Kayley turned to Zeke and blew him a kiss from across the gym. Zeke smiled at her nicely but when she turned away, he shuddered and made a face at his teammates.

The cheerleaders began to hype up the crowd. They did their usual routine for the pregame hype, twirling and kicking, spinning and throwing each other up into the air. The crowd went wild. And then the game began.

The home team rushed onto the court, raising wild cheers from the crowd. The opposing team ran on from the other end, decked out in the opposing team's colors of yellow and red.

Zeke dribbled the basketball across the court, passed it to Justin, who dribbled it and passed it along to Hunter, who took a shot at the basket and missed. Dicky rolled his eyes. They were getting pulverized without him.

"Excuse me, excuse me," Kayley broke formation and muscled her way to the mic stand. "Sorry for interrupting the game, guys, keep on playing!" She flashed a winning smile at the court and crowd. The opposing team's couch rounded on Dicky's basketball couch, screaming about how this was a ploy to distract his boys from the game. Dicky's couch didn't seem so pleased with Kayley either. He stormed across the court to rip the mic away from her. "I would like to dedicate this next cheer to my sweetheart—I mean, my sweetheart's good friend—Zeke Barnsley!" She danced out of the couch's grasp and blew a kiss onto the court. "Happy quarter birthday, sweetie!"

If Zeke was as confused as he looked, he must not have known right from left anymore. He swerved across the court crazily as the cheer began, and as it went on, the boy went haywire. This cheer seemed to have been having major tolls on his concentration. His face flushed as the cheers got more and more embarrassing.

Kayley clapped her hands twice, and the cheerleaders fell into an arrow formation. They began to do the modified Sprinkler dance move, followed by the plant and the nay nay, and then a mild yet totally horrifying twerk dance, all the while chanting,

"Zeke, Zeke, he's our man! He fails math like no one can! Everyone should stand and cheer, cause he watched Barney all last year! Zeke, Zeke, he's the guy! When he's at school, what's down? His fly! And clowns are his number one fear, so happy quarter birthday, dear!"

After which the entire cheerleading squad proceeded to lie on the floor and flail around helplessly in a totally pathetic attempt at the worm.

Up on the bleachers, the Harper quadruplets were practically falling out of their seats with laughter. Ricky had keeled over laughing, Nicky and Dicky were leaning on each other for support and Dawn's stomach hurt from laughing so hard.

Halftime was called, with the score at 16-2 to guest, meaning that the opposing team had 16 and the home team had 2. Not their proudest moment. And of course Team Captain, Zeke Barnsley, blamed Kayley for all of it. She came bouncing over, her silky ponytail swishing from side to side. She wrapped her arm around Zeke's shoulder, only to have it shrugged off and ignored. Rejected.

Dawn nearly felt sorry for the girl, until Kayley spotted them on the bleachers and gave them the stink eye. Dawn grinned and high-fived her brothers. Phase 2, complete.

They were ready for the grand finale.