Accidentally Yours

CHAPTER EIGHT

I quickly jump away from the pool before any of the water has the chance to hit me. Once I am a few feet away from the pool my eyes are drawn to the blue water. A girl with ginger hair is floating in the middle of the large pool. Her arms frantically wade through the chemically treated water as she tries her best to keep her body afloat. Truthfully, she looks like a wet raccoon right now. However, I am not going to tell her that because this is most likely my final time seeing her face.

“Emma, wait—”

“You’re cut, Sarah.”

“But my foot! It– it slipped and I—”

“I don’t care,” Emma venomously spits. “You should’ve tried harder.”

“Please, Emma! I love cheerleading and I love this team—” the Sarah girl is practically hysterical at this point.

“Hmm, then maybe you should have tried harder to remain on it.” Emma turns to face the rest of us who seem to have unconsciously huddled together. “Next up is jumping jacks!” My eyes widen at this demand. I guess that the running was not enough, she just had to have us doing jumping jacks as well! It is like she wants us to quit. I try my best to tune out the crying girl in the pool as Emma motions the remaining ten girls over to the cleared grass plot. She waits until we are standing a few feet away from her to say, “I want one hundred jumping jacks—No breaks, no throwing up, no water!” She pauses to look at her watch. “Your time begins now!”

We all begin to jump up and down as Emma hurls derogatory insults at us. I am terrified to hear what her neighbors must think of this right now. Solely from what I picked up today, it seems as if Emma does this to the cheerleaders every cheer season. Whenever they try out new girls and they make the team, she does this to them. Emma has verbally said that she does this to separate the weak girls from the strong ones. However, I feel like she does this as a way to break us down. If she breaks down our spirit and mentality then she can rebuild us into whatever she wants us to be. Presumably, a better team.

“That’s it!” I hear a slap. “Keep going!” another slap. “Slow down on the junk food, Elsie—It’s catching up to you!” and another slap. “That’s right!” another slap. “Good job, Amelia!” I almost stop jumping when I feel a heavy slap land on my ass. Considering that I hear the blonde’s voice coming from behind me, I assume that she is the one who slapped my ass. She continues down the line of girls, slapping their asses and yelling at them. “Come on, don’t slow down on me now! You have ten more! Move! Move! Move!” The blonde slowly counts to ten before allowing us to stop. Unsurprisingly, the moment that we stop is when one of the girls at the end of the line throws up in the bushes. I am just relieved that this is not me.

Emma rolls her eyes, “You’re cut, Jenna!” The Jenna girl does not even attempt to fight with the blonde. She results in holding her thumb up behind her back, her face still buried in the bush. Emma turns to face the rest of us with a grin. “Congratulations! The remainder of you are the 2017 Clearwater High varsity cheerleading team.”

Though I feel exhausted and dehydrated, I also feel relieved. Relieved that I didn’t fall in the pool. Relieved that I didn't throw up. Relieved that I made it through. I feel myself being pulled into a group hug by the rest of the remaining girls. We are also breathing hard, practically heaving for air to our lungs. I would never say this out loud, but I feel completely bonded with these girls. Like I could trust any of them with my first born. I guess that is what happens when you experience a traumatic event with someone.

Thursday, August 13th

3:56pm

“3:56, just in time.” I hear an older woman comment as I enter the locker room. She must be our coach. Coach Kelly, I think her name was. Emma is standing beside the woman with a pink clipboard in hand. She glances in my direction before checking something off of the clipboard. I make my way over to the rest of the girls and immediately start to change for practice seeing as I am the only one who is not ready yet. “Who else are we waiting for?” our coach asks.

“Uhm, Maggie Donovan and Thalia Fisher.” Emma reads off of her clipboard.

Coach Kelly furrows her eyebrows at this answer, “Haven't they been on the team for two years now?” Emma nods in response. “Cut them, they can return their uniforms on Monday.” Thank God that I got here when I did and not a second later. I could have ended up being cut from the team as well. I seriously need to learn how to manage my time better. “Girls, listen up!” Coach Kelly yells which causes us all to shut up instantaneously. “I'm Coach Kelly, you can refer to me as Coach or Coach Kelly—I answer to either.” She speaks loudly. “As many of you know, co-captain Quinn was unfit for not only her position, but this team—Therefore, she was cut.” the older woman continues. The longer that I stare at the woman, the more that I realize that she does not appear to be remorseful in any way, shape, or form given the unfortunate circumstances. “Both Emma and I are looking for someone who is more skilled to replace her.” I unconsciously glance over to Emma who is already staring at me. “Emma here has given me a list of girls to keep an eye out for.” Upon realizing that I am now looking at her, Emma throws a wink my way. I smile at the blonde’s polite gesture. “With that being said, good luck.” Coach Kelly says monotonously. “The chosen girl will find out if she has been made co-captain or not within the coming days.”

Following Coach Kelly's speech, the older woman leads all of us out of the locker room. We are forced to exit through the heavy metal doors near the back wall of the gymnasium. This door leads to a small pavement of tar in front of our school’s football field. As soon as we reach the foam mat covered area we are given twelve minutes to stretch and warm up. I am in the middle of doing some basic stretches when Avery lays her back flat on the foam mat. She grabs ahold of one of her long, toned legs and pulls the body part as close to her body as she can. She tries to bring her knee as close to her chest as possible while simultaneously keeping her leg completely straight.

“Okay, is it just me who's, like, totally terrified of her?” Avery asks.

I furrow my eyebrows at her question and stand all the way up from my lunging position, “Who? Coach Kelly?” I ask, dropping into a right leg split. I flex the foot that is in front of me as I lean forward to press my chest against said leg. My arms reach forward and grab ahold of my shoe, my back and hamstrings feeling the stretch.

“Duh! Who else?!”

I sit up so that I am now resting in my splits. “I don't know.” I laugh. I bring my back leg forward so that it rests beside my other leg. The two legs now parallel each other. “It seems like she knows what she wants and how she plans to get it.” I shrug.

“Hmm, maybe,” she admits. “but it doesn't help that she literally looks like she's related to the wicked witch of the west.” the girl laughs at her own joke.

My jaw drops with disbelief. I lean forward and reach one of my arms out to lightly hit Avery’s leg. Oh my god, I cannot believe that she just said that!

I gasp, “Oh my god, Avery!” This gasp soon turns into a giggle.

“What?! It’s true!” she defends with a giggle of her own. The two of us continue to laugh at the joke until someone calls out my name.

My body turns in the direction that the voice came from. My eyes instantly land on Emma and Coach Kelly, both of who are standing on the metal bleachers. They are standing somewhere near the middle, not too high but also not too low. Emma uses one of her hands to motion for me to join them up there. Oh no, I hope that they did not hear that.

“Pray for me.” I quietly joke.