Fire and Rain

Ten

I found out what cheerleading practice meant a few hours later, when I was preparing to head home and Lara suddenly dragged me into the gym. When I asked her where we were going, she simply replied, “to practice, duh!”

The next thing I knew, I was dressed in cycling shorts, a skirt, and a really tight shirt, then handed these things they called “pompoms,” and expected to lead a group of people.

“Um, what do I—?” I whispered to Lara, who was apparently my “right hand,” as we stood in front of similarly clothed women, and guys in tights.

“We made a new routine,” Lara whispered back, “we should teach it to them for the grand finals.”

As I’d figured out, there was this thing called a Cheerleading dance competition that our school was part of. And I, being the captain of our team, was expected to lead. Except, I didn’t know anything about it. A new routine, they kept saying. Was it like a hip hop dance thing, or more like an interpretative dance?

I looked to Lara helplessly. “Maybe you can…”

“Start with the warm-ups?” She filled in, thankfully. “Sure!” She gave me an “okay" sign discretely, then made the team form a circle. “Alright, everyone, let’s start with leg warm‐ups! We want to see everyone trying their best, okay? The finals is just a few weeks away!”

I sincerely prayed that I would be out of this world by then. Lest I made of myself.

“Okay, you know the drill!” Lara continued, moving to the center and placing her feet apart. And so began our warm-ups. I tried to copy what she was doing, and let me tell you, with my flexibility, it was almost impossible. I don’t know how the Dana of this world was, but I sure as hell cannot bend that way. In fact, the flexibility was the least of my worries since I had to keep adjusting my really short skirt. All I could think about was how I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing this outfit in my reality.

By the time we were doing splits—and my leg muscles were profusely complaining to the impossible position I want to place them in—I knew that this wasn’t for me. So, just like how I had seen other students manage to get out of Therian classes, I faked an injury.

“Ow!” I exclaimed, touching my stomach. Lara immediately came to my aid, looking worried.

“Oh no, Dana, are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I just,” I cringed and groaned as I touched my stomach again.

Lara gasped. “Is it,” she whispered, “your time of the month?”

I weakly nodded, thinking how I should have an award for my flawless acting. “Yeah,” I said, “but I don’t want to put all the burden on you—”

“Oh no, no! Don’t worry about me!” Lara said, helping me towards the exit.

“Are you sure?” I reluctantly asked.

“Yes,” she firmly answered. “You go get some rest, and I’ll teach them what I can for now. Okay?”

Lara, I realized, was kinder than I had ever given her credit for. I wondered if the Lara I knew since freshman year in my real world was the same.

“Thank you, Lara,” I smiled. “Good luck.” And with that, I hurried my way out of the gym as fast as I could. Did I feel a tinge of guilt lying to her? Maybe. But it was better than letting anyone know that I knew literally nothing about cheerleading. I could only hope that Dana 2.0 in my world wasn’t letting me down in my Therian classes, or else my grades would drop.

I went straight to the lockers to retrieve my bag, then went to the driveway in search of my ride home. Thena was usually just one call away, but since she wasn’t here, I sat on one of the porches in front of the school in wait. Maria was at her judo class and Fin said he had practice. I figured Martin would be fetching me late, since he probably knew about my cheerleading practice. So, I sat in that skimpy, uncomfortable uniform, wondering how long a practice session was supposed to take. Not five minutes had passed when I got bored and decided to walk around. I was pacing around the main building, thinking about how Carden was almost completely different in this world, when I noticed people in the quadrangle. A bunch of boys in sleeveless shirts and shorts, running around with a ball. Fin, I noticed, was part of that group, including Daniel, the Stupid Pack and their leader.

They were bouncing and passing around an orange ball, then shooting it into a hoop. Is this the baskets ball or basket ball they were talking about?

We didn’t have this back in our reality.

I stood by the side of the building and watched as Fin bounced the ball on the floor then passed it towards Gareth, who threw it towards the hoop too strongly that it bounced off the board.

“Winds!” Mr. Leslie—a buff, full Therian in our world who taught a major Therian class—shouted as he stomped towards Gareth, who was all sweaty and panting. “What in the world are you doing, son? Did you suddenly forget how to shoot?”

Gareth wiped the sweat from his brow. “Sorry, sir.”

Mr. Leslie blew on his whistle and the ball was getting passed around again. This time, Baron threw it towards Daniel. Gareth, in an attempt to get the ball, used one hand to lightly shove Daniel's shoulder.

“Hey! Foul!” Daniel complained as he steadied himself. Mr. Leslie blew the whistle more furiously this time.

“Winds!” he called out again. “What in God’s name?”

“Sorry, sir,” was all Gareth said as he hung his head in shame.

“Take a break, Winds. You’re clearly out of it today,” Mr. Leslie said.

Jonathan, Louie and Baron flocked towards Gareth as he walked towards one of the benches. “You okay, man?” Jonathan asked him. “You’re not usually like this.”

Gareth angrily took a towel and wiped at his head, his eyes flickering towards my direction. I quickly took a step back to hide myself.

“Yeah,” I heard him say. “Sorry.”

When the whistle was sounded once again, I sneaked a peek and saw Gareth sitting on the bench with his back towards me. From the playing field, his teammates occasionally glanced at him with worry.

He’s acting weird, they said. Different. Even I could sense that there was something not right with how Gareth 2.0 was being. At the back of my mind, an itching hunch formed.

The next day, I was driven to school by Martin again.

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” I asked him, referring to how he could have used his break to rest, rather than send and fetch his little sister to and from school every day. He simply smiled at me and teasingly answered, “What else is better than spending time with you?”

I got out of the car with a sigh and Fin approached me.

“Hey, D,” he greeted, although, his eyes were fixed behind me. When I followed his gaze, I found Martin with a wide smile, waving at him.

“Yo,” my brother said. Fin nodded at him and smiled back. I could swear that his cheeks turned a bit pink. My god. “Enjoy your trip!” Martin said, driving away.

“Where’s Maria?” I asked Fin as we headed to school. Buses started to line up in the driveway to pick students up, and the view of it gave me a sense of déjà vu. Fin nodded to the entrance, where Maria stood talking with Mrs. Dunston.

“She’s trying to get our class to stop by Central Park,” Fin whispered as we approached them.

“For the third time, Maria, we can’t just take a detour,” I heard Mrs. Dunston exasperatedly say.

“But it’s technically not a detour!” Maria argued, waving a map at Mrs. Dunston to show her. “See? The park is just nearby! Literally walking distance.”

“If you wanted to put that in the itinerary, then you should’ve petitioned for it while we were planning the trip, Maria. The faculty can’t have high school kids wandering around. We don’t have enough arms to drag you all back to the bus.”

Based on Mrs. Dunston’s tone, there was surely no convincing her. I prepared to pull Maria out of it—to save them both the stress—when something about the map caught my eye. “Hey, can I borrow this?” I asked, even though I had already grabbed the map from her hands. Maria was startled but let it be, and continued to plead to Mrs. Dunston.

I had zoned their conversation out as I stared down at the piece of paper with drawings that looked vaguely familiar. Two places were encircled. The first was The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the second was the park Maria mentioned. But those weren’t exactly what I was looking at, for the layout of the streets looked almost exactly like that of Anchorville.

“Fin,” I gasped as I pointed at it, “is there anywhere here called Anchorville museum?”

Fin narrowed his eyes to get a better look. “I don’t think so,” he said, “it’s just the Met museum. Why? Did you hear from anyone that they’re going to build another museum in New York?”

“No, it’s just— Never mind.” I frowned down at the map.

“Alright, students! Everyone, please start lining up!” Mrs. Dunston exclaimed, walking away from a disappointed Maria.

“Didn’t go well, huh?” Fin asked, patting her shoulder in pity. “We can go to Central Park next weekend, if you’d like. It’s just an hour away.”

“Two, if you consider the weekend traffic,” Maria sighed. “Anyway, what’s up with you and your boyfriend, Dana? Lara said you left practice early yesterday, and Fin says Gareth was out of it during practice.”

“He couldn’t score even a freethrow,” Fin added. “And he’s our best player.”

“Did you two fight or something?”

“Uh, no,” I answered. “I just… I got my period, so…”

“Already?” Maria panicked. “That means I’m gonna get mine in a few days, ugh!”

Fin looked at me with worry. “Are you sure you two are okay?”

I smiled and nodded. “Yup,” I said. “Let’s go to the bus before Mrs. Dunston goes ballistic on us.”

Maria and I sat together, and as usual, Fin sat behind us. Then I noticed a few guys trying to get to the seat next to Fin first. Pally, who was also part of their basketball team here, and who was a full Therian back at home, got to it first.

“Hey, Fin,” he greeted, trying to act cool. Fin only nodded at him then continued to disregard him.

I thought of this before, but I wasn’t too sure then. Was Fin—tall, bookworm, sweater-loving Fin—sought after here? I mean, back at home, I always thought that if he came out of his shell a little, he could be popular with the ladies. I guess in this reality, he actually was popular. Except, not with women.

My comparison of my original Fin to the Fin 2.0 behind me was stopped short when I heard a familiar noise. My suspicion turned out to be correct when I saw the three monkeys step into the bus with Gareth, greeting and fistbumping with other kids as if they hadn’t just seen each other all day yesterday.

They took a seat a few rows ahead of us, and just as he was about to sit down, Gareth’s gaze landed on me. I quickly averted my eyes and looked out of the window, as if something caught my attention. After a few seconds, I glanced at their direction again and saw that he was still staring at me, so I made conversation with Maria. It wasn’t until I heard Baron call Gareth's attention that I finally felt his eyes off me.

Weird, I thought. There really was something weird with this Gareth that I just couldn’t shake off.