me.
"Thanks.
I didn't think I'd be nervous, but it turned out I was pretty freaked
out by the time I made it onto the field."
Jackson
shrugged. "It didn't show. Don't tell the other girls, but I
thought you were the best one out there. I didn't know that you were
interested in being a cheerleader. Have you tried out before?"
I
shook my head. "This is the first time. Honestly I'm not even
sure if I can handle the time commitment if I join."
I
got another smile, and this one made my heart beat even faster
somehow. "Well, I'm pretty sure that you'll make the team, so
all I can say is that I hope you decide to join. Miss Winters just
announced that she wants to start doing some coed stunts, so she's
looking for some guys to join the team. Maybe we'll be on the team
together."
Did
it make me a fraud if I joined the team solely because I was hoping
to spend some time with Jackson? Probably, but I didn't care. If Miss
Winters gave me a chance to be a cheerleader then I was going to say
yes and I was going to put up with whatever crap the rest of the
girls put me through.
I
wanted Jackson like I'd never wanted anything or anyone else before.
Chapter 6
As
I ran out onto the springy green grass of our school's football field
I had a split second to wish one last time that my first football
game had been an away game. Dream-assisted learning or not, I was
still pretty sure that I was going to screw up in some kind of
spectacular fashion. At an away game there would have been fewer
witnesses, but in the grand scheme of things it probably wouldn't
have made much of a difference. The other cheerleaders were going to
make sure the entire school knew exactly how badly I did regardless
of how many witnesses actually saw my mistakes. At least Miss Winters
had put me on the back row for all of the routines.
I'd
only been able to attend two official practices before the night of
the next game, but Cindi seemed confident that everything would be
okay. Dad had shelled out a painfully large amount of money to get my
uniforms both ordered and overnighted to our house, which had almost
been enough to make me reconsider my decision to join the team, but
he'd waved away my concerns and promised to be in the stands for at
least my first game.
Most
of the other girls were doing handsprings or flips, but I wasn't
about to do anything that complicated. I just ran, waved my pom-poms
and then let out a quiet sigh of relief when it was time to line up
with the other girls so that the football team could run between us.
Miss
Winters hadn't gone any further than just assigning everyone to one
side or the other for the good luck tunnel, but we might as well have
had assigned spots. We basically lined up according to status inside
of the squad. The leaders were all closest to the entrance, with the
rest of us filling in the spots according to seniority in the squad,
which meant that I was at the absolute end.
I'd
known that going in, but I hadn't expected for Cindi to come over and
stand by me. She glanced over at me just before the starting
quarterback ran past us, and I realized that seeing her smile had
turned my smile from the plastic expression that I'd had drilled into
me over the last couple of days to something genuine and radiant.
I'd
expected for things to get better with Cindi after I joined the team,
but I hadn't expected them to get this much better. I finally felt
like we were headed toward being as close as I'd always wished we
were. Cindi had helped me a lot over the last
few days. She'd covered everything from doing my hair up with a
blue velvet ribbon for the game, to showing me half a dozen other
things that she'd said would make my first game less traumatic.
Watching
over the shoulder of other cheerleaders as they'd dreamed had
apparently taught me the cheers, but it hadn't been any help when it
came to all of the other aspects of being a cheerleader. I would have
been utterly lost without Cindi's help, especially since
"Thanks.
I didn't think I'd be nervous, but it turned out I was pretty freaked
out by the time I made it onto the field."
Jackson
shrugged. "It didn't show. Don't tell the other girls, but I
thought you were the best one out there. I didn't know that you were
interested in being a cheerleader. Have you tried out before?"
I
shook my head. "This is the first time. Honestly I'm not even
sure if I can handle the time commitment if I join."
I
got another smile, and this one made my heart beat even faster
somehow. "Well, I'm pretty sure that you'll make the team, so
all I can say is that I hope you decide to join. Miss Winters just
announced that she wants to start doing some coed stunts, so she's
looking for some guys to join the team. Maybe we'll be on the team
together."
Did
it make me a fraud if I joined the team solely because I was hoping
to spend some time with Jackson? Probably, but I didn't care. If Miss
Winters gave me a chance to be a cheerleader then I was going to say
yes and I was going to put up with whatever crap the rest of the
girls put me through.
I
wanted Jackson like I'd never wanted anything or anyone else before.
Chapter 6
As
I ran out onto the springy green grass of our school's football field
I had a split second to wish one last time that my first football
game had been an away game. Dream-assisted learning or not, I was
still pretty sure that I was going to screw up in some kind of
spectacular fashion. At an away game there would have been fewer
witnesses, but in the grand scheme of things it probably wouldn't
have made much of a difference. The other cheerleaders were going to
make sure the entire school knew exactly how badly I did regardless
of how many witnesses actually saw my mistakes. At least Miss Winters
had put me on the back row for all of the routines.
I'd
only been able to attend two official practices before the night of
the next game, but Cindi seemed confident that everything would be
okay. Dad had shelled out a painfully large amount of money to get my
uniforms both ordered and overnighted to our house, which had almost
been enough to make me reconsider my decision to join the team, but
he'd waved away my concerns and promised to be in the stands for at
least my first game.
Most
of the other girls were doing handsprings or flips, but I wasn't
about to do anything that complicated. I just ran, waved my pom-poms
and then let out a quiet sigh of relief when it was time to line up
with the other girls so that the football team could run between us.
Miss
Winters hadn't gone any further than just assigning everyone to one
side or the other for the good luck tunnel, but we might as well have
had assigned spots. We basically lined up according to status inside
of the squad. The leaders were all closest to the entrance, with the
rest of us filling in the spots according to seniority in the squad,
which meant that I was at the absolute end.
I'd
known that going in, but I hadn't expected for Cindi to come over and
stand by me. She glanced over at me just before the starting
quarterback ran past us, and I realized that seeing her smile had
turned my smile from the plastic expression that I'd had drilled into
me over the last couple of days to something genuine and radiant.
I'd
expected for things to get better with Cindi after I joined the team,
but I hadn't expected them to get this much better. I finally felt
like we were headed toward being as close as I'd always wished we
were. Cindi had helped me a lot over the last
few days. She'd covered everything from doing my hair up with a
blue velvet ribbon for the game, to showing me half a dozen other
things that she'd said would make my first game less traumatic.
Watching
over the shoulder of other cheerleaders as they'd dreamed had
apparently taught me the cheers, but it hadn't been any help when it
came to all of the other aspects of being a cheerleader. I would have
been utterly lost without Cindi's help, especially since
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