Althena Book 2

19. Watch

During school Friday, the girls and I are so excited. We can't stop jumping around. Penn yells at us twice during lunch. Then we get to do a real pep rally. Tadita has all the cheerleaders in the gym for it. We do a bunch of our regular cheers. They do the school song last, and she has us go to the front and do our cheer. That pisses the seniors off, but we don't care. We freak out for a second, but Conner becomes our coach. So, it works. I guess he watched Mike enough that he knew how to do it.

After the pep rally, the varsity players and cheerleaders stick around.

Conner throws me in the air and catches me. "You are so wound up."

"It's a real game."

He kisses my head. "Yep. A real game and you get to cheer for real people."

"I'm gonna cheer for you."

"You better. You going to do a tunnel?"

"I don't know what that is."

"You do what everybody else does."

"Exactly."

Lila grabs my arm. "Let's go get food. It's outside."

"Why?"

"That's where they put it."

We run outside. Everyone follows us. The food looks amazing.

We get some and sit with Amber and Josh.

"You did perfectly, Amber. Everything looks so good."

"I got it under budget too."

I shove chicken in my mouth. "You're amazing."

Conner sits beside me and puts a vege kabob on my plate.

"Thank you. I forgot about them."

Amber looks at Conner. "Can Darkmoon buy some cookies from me?"

"No. We are 10,000 boxes deep. I am not buying another damn cookie. How many have you sold?"

"Not even 1,000. They are hard to sell."

"Can we donate them to food banks?"

"Yes. Still $5 a box."

"I'll donate 2,500 boxes. But that's it. I'm out of donations now too."

She starts crying. "For real?"

"Yea. But don't do that."

I laugh. "Don't cry. He doesn't deal with tears well. Do you have a website set up?"

"Yes."

"Do it through her website so she gets online prizes too."

He takes her phone and works on it while he eats.

A couple of basketball players come up behind us laughing. "You girls are stupid." Conner's aura explodes and they fall over. Then he turns his head towards them and stands up.

I scoot closer to Lila. "He's pissed."

"Sorry man. I didn't know you were sitting there. They're not stupid. I shouldn't have said that. They told each of the meat people they were serving 60 people. But there are only 60 people total here. This is way too much food."

Conner nods. "Get out of my f*****g face before you lose your f*****g heads. f*****g stupid fuckers."

One of them pulls the other away.

Then he sits down and texts someone while he buys s**t on Amber's phone.

Amber rubs her face. "I didn't even think about that."

Josh rubs her back. "It's alright. Better to have too much than not enough anyway."

Conner hands back her phone. "Bought 2,500 donations. And I have Darkmoons food trucks coming. They can sell the leftovers to the people watching the game. $5 a meal until it sells out. We'll use it to buy more donations. It should help you."

Josh looks at us. "You're going to have to say you donated the food to Darkmoon."

Conner nods. "We'll give the school $100 and say we split the money with them. Darkmoon kept half because we did the work to keep the food good and get rid of it."

"That's smart. Nobody will complain about that."

Amber smiles. "I only have 1,500 boxes left to sell."

"You'll get there." Josh kisses her head.

We finish eating, then get everything switched to Darkmoons trucks. Then Drogon shows up and tries to figure out what's going on so he can deal with Penn. Lila gives me a tour to see how everything is set up for games. It's smart. The big gym and ice rink are in the same hallway. Between them are 4 concession stands.

The hockey players' locker room for games is down another hallway, so the crowd makes a tunnel from their locker room to the rink. I get it.

We stand in the middle of the tunnel and do flips until the rest of our team shows up. Then we cheer and get the crowd going. I absolutely love being a cheerleader.

When Amber tells us to go, we run through the tunnel and into our spot beside the rink. It's in front of the crowd but on the same level as the ice. So, our fans see the game over us.

Monte, Granny, and Mary sit in the first row right above us. They're the only ones though. My other boys and everyone else coming to watch me, sit 5 rows higher than them.

"WATCH ME."

Monte cracks up laughing and says something to Granny. She smiles at me.

I grab Lila and Amber. "Throw me in the air. I'll do the sideways rolls, and you catch me."

"Can we do that here?"

"Well, it's not like she can hit the ceiling. Lexi, come here. Thena's going up."

They throw me high, and I twist around a few times. The crowd explodes when they catch me. They cheer and scream. I guess we're the only entertainment. The players haven't got here yet.

I run to Monte. "Did you see?"

"Yes. It was impossible to miss."

Granny nods. "Everyone saw, sweetie. You did very well."

"I'll do it again. Watch."

"Of course."

I do it again, then Amber does it. Lila is about to, but the boys come in.

I smack the glass between us and the rink. Then I wave at Conner. He skates over to me and puts his hand on the glass. I put my hand on his and jump up and down.

Lila pulls me away. "We need to cheer now."

We cheer for 20 minutes while the boys play. Then we take a 15-minute break. I'm not sure what to do but everyone else left. The boys went back to the locker room. I have no idea where the other cheerleaders went.

I bounce over to Monte and point at a water bottle. It's on the seat by his. "Whose is that?"

"Lila's. She put it there, so nobody would sit there."

"That was smart." I move it over a seat and sit by him. "Are we doing good?"

"Yea. You are perfect at the jumps and flips."

"Where did everybody go?"

"Probably to get something to drink. Most people do that during the break."

I cross my legs and nod.

"Where's your water bottle?"

"I don't have it yet. We haven't gotten the prizes for selling cookies yet."

Granny leans forward. "You're selling cookies?"

"Drogon bought them all. It was a 3-day cheer camp at a college if I sold 5,000 boxes. I want to do it. He bought them."

Monte shakes his head. "You need a water bottle."

"I'm not thirsty. And I know how drinking fountains work."

"No." He stands up and throws Lila's water bottle at Drogon.

He comes down. "What?"

"She doesn't have a water bottle."

"I haven't got the prizes yet. I'm not thirsty."

Drogon kisses my head. "I'll get one for you, baby. You need to keep it with you, for when you get thirsty."

"I know where to find the drinking fountains."

"Why did you buy all the cookies?" Granny gives him a dirty look.

"She wanted to go on a trip."

Cyrus comes down. "What happened?"

"She doesn't have a water bottle."

Cyrus grabs something behind my head. Then he looks up in the stands. "TOO CLOSE." He hands me the water bottle back. I put it on the seat beside me again.

Drogon points. "CLAYTON, I WILL BANG YOUR HEAD OFF THAT CHAIR."

"I'll get it." Cyrus takes off and leaves the rink.

Clayton comes down laughing. "I was trying to throw it at you, but I slipped."

"Be more careful. That would have hurt."

Amber comes over to us. "We were checking out the basketball game. Did you stay here?"

"Yea. Granny needs cookies. Do you still have them for sale?"

"Yes. I do." She gets out her phone at record speed. "Scan that, and it'll take you to my website."

Clayton shakes his head. "I thought we did that already?"

Lila sits beside me. "Amber hasn't sold enough to go on the trip yet."

Cyrus hands me a green water bottle.

"Thank you." I take a drink. He even put ice in it for me. "We had a water emergency."

She nods. "The school bottles are boring."

I shrug my shoulders. "It holds water and ice."

"I want ice."

Drogon shakes his head. "I'm going to watch the match now."

"We can get matching bottles tomorrow."

I look at her so fast. "Yea. We can do that after dinner."

"Perfect idea."

Cyrus side eyes us, so we don't look at him.

"Clayton, do you want any cookies? I didn't get to order any either."

Clayton looks at his mom. "Get the peanut butter kind." Lila and I crack up laughing. He shakes his head. "These are home cookies. It's different."

I think about it and cross my arms. "I didn't get any for my house either."

Lila nods. "Same. My parents always buy some."

Amber nearly falls on her. "Are they here?"

"Yea. I'll take you to them." Lila leads her away.

Cyrus takes her spot. "So, you're going shopping tomorrow?"

"Yes. We like to shop."

"Anything else?"

I scoot closer to Monte and give him a dirty look.

Monte glances at me. "You better not be getting tired. You still have over an hour left."

Lila pulls me up. "We cheer now. Amber's selling cookies to the entire crowd, I think."

We cheer while the boys play for another 20 minutes. Then we get another 20-minute break.

I sit between Monte and Cyrus and wiggle. Cyrus hands me a chicken from earlier.

"Thank you. I am hungry again."

"Figured."

Clayton walks by and drops a container of vege kabobs in my lap. There are 3 or 4 of them. Then Lila shows up again. We sit on the floor and eat our chicken and veges. Somebody gets us juice at some point.

Josh, Akmae, and Matt show up halfway through the last period of the match. They sit in the first row and watch us too.

Amber grabs me and Lila. "Let's throw each other again."

I rub my belly. "I ate way too much chicken for that."

"Same. We'll throw you."

We toss her up a couple of times and the boys aren't paying attention at all. They're talking to Clayton and Cyrus. Monte's not even here.

Amber runs over to Josh and kicks him on his shin. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WATCH."

"I AM WATCHING."

I cross my arms and give them a dirty look.

Cyrus smirks. "I'm watching and I brought you food. Don't kick me."

I nod and turn around to watch the game. There's only 2 minutes left and we're up by 2. They did good.

We cheer for the rest of the match, then I move Monte's chickens and sit by him again. "Why do you have 4 chickens?"

"Conner told me they were holding them for him. But they wanted to get out before the rush to leave. So, I ran out and got them."

I yawn. "Now I'm just wondering what Conner wants 4 chickens for."

Drogon comes down. "Woman." I hold my arms out, and he picks me up. I snuggle against him. "I was going to say we're leaving. But I guess you're coming too."

Lila grabs her water bottle. "I have to go home. I'll come by tomorrow."

"See you then."

Drogon rubs my back. "Are you hungry?" I shake my head.

"She ate some chicken 20 minutes ago."

Mike smiles at me. "Someone is tired. Monte, why do you have 4 chickens?"

"Conner."

"What the f**k is he going to do with 4 chickens?"

"Not my problem."

The boys crack up laughing.

Then Josh stands up. "I think she left me here."

Monte nods. "That's what you get for not watching."

Cyrus laughs and rubs his eyes. "She was probably just hungry. Bring food next time."

"There's not going to be a next time if she doesn't knock off her attitude."

Cyrus shakes his head. "They get that way when they're hungry."

Drogon bounces me. "They get this way when they're tired."

"I'm not tired."

"Ok, babygirl." He kisses my head and I close my eyes.

Clayton cracks up laughing. "That was fast."

"Come on Clayton. We need to get home."

"We have your helicopter ready, ma'am."

"Thank you."

Mike says, "Your helicopter is ready too, Monte. We'll babysit his chickens until he gets here."