Chapter 5

Week after

Monday morning, Drew picked me up for school like always and we went to the cafeteria for breakfast. Mike was there, a bandage on his face from Saturday night. He kept sending me ice cold glares that made my stomach turn, so I stayed close to Drew's side, holding his hand tight all morning and between each class. I was dreading for school to end though, because then I had to leave his side and walk to the bus alone. I was hoping I could make it there without Mike getting to me first.

When the bell rang, ending my last class, and the school day, I quickly packed up my backpack and headed for the door. I was half way there when I felt a sharp tap on my shoulder. I jumped and turned around quickly expecting to see Mike looming over me. Thankfully it wasn't Mike. It was Jill. I knew they were still broken up, but I hadn't bothered to ask Drew what had happened between them. I figured it wasn't any of my business. I mean, I wasn't exactly close friends with either of them, even less so now with Mike.

"I heard what happened at the dance Saturday night." Jill said, cutting right to the chase I guess.

"Uhhh… yeah." I replied dumbly. I wasn't sure what exactly she wanted with me.

"You should watch out for Mike. He's been looking at you ever since Drew brought you over to our table; but now that Drew's beaten him up over you, he really wants you. I guess I'm not good enough anymore."

"I… I'm sorry Jill. I didn't know I was what broke you two up." I felt really awkward now. What was I supposed to say? I was pretty sure she was probably mad at me, even if I hadn't done anything.

"It's whatever. Mike isn't all that great anyway, if you know what I mean. He thinks he's all that, but really he's clueless in bed. I've had way better, and I can again if I wanted. I could even have Drew back if I really wanted him. But look, I gotta get to practice. We are having try outs today and as assistant cheer captain I have to be there."

She had dated Drew? When? I didn't remember that and I had been secretly watching Drew since the 7th grade when he moved into town. "Uhh yeah sure. I should get home anyway. Thanks for the heads-up." I turned and started walking towards the door leading to where my bus would be waiting but as soon as I turned the last corner in the hall, I saw Mike looming by the exit, probably waiting for me. I quickly did a 180 and searched for some reason to stay after school. I wasn't in any club, and I wasn't in any of the sports. I needed some reason not to round that corner and pass Mike. Then I remembered what Jill had said about cheer try outs. I wasn't exactly your typical cheerleader material, but at least the try outs would get me out of having to walk past Mike. And by the time I was done, he would be gone and Drew would be out of detention.

I headed towards the girl's locker room as quickly as I could, hoping I wouldn't be late. When I walked into the room where they were holding the try outs, I saw about a dozen girls all sitting on the floor in their gym clothes and the cheerleaders gathered together in a little huddle a few feet away. There was a sign-up sheet on the table against the wall and I quickly signed my name before joining the girls sitting on the floor. They all looked like they had either cheered their whole life, or like they had always wanted to cheer but had never made the squad. I awkwardly sat down on the outside of their little group and watched the door hoping Mike wouldn't come looking for me around the school. Especially here where Jill was. I didn't figure he would want to be anywhere near her right now after their recent breakup.

After a few minutes all the girls started standing up and wandering over to the middle of the floor, so I followed slowly. Jill and another cheerleader who I was assuming was the cheer captain pulled away from their little huddle and came to stand in front of the group of girls to try out.

"When we call your name, you will come to the middle of the floor, show us your routine, and demonstrate anything we would like to see. The results will be posted tomorrow afternoon after school in the girl's locker room." the girl standing next to Jill said as she glanced down at the clip board in her hand.

We all went and sat back down in the floor as one girl after another went to the middle of the floor and showed what she could do. Jill and the other girl occasionally made a little notation on the clip board or whispered to each other, but for the most part they just watched. When each girl was done with her turn, she left the gym and went to change. I was glad I was the last one to come in when my turn came, because it meant that all the other girls were already gone and I would only suffer embarrassment from the cheerleaders, not all the other girls too.

"Maggie Keaton" the cheerleader called out my name and I rose and walked to the middle of the floor. The entire time I had been sitting there watching the other girls, I had been trying to come up with a cheer that I could demonstrate. I had seen a few football games, and had always watched the cheerleaders more than the game, because at least it made a little sense to me. I mentally ran through my hastily created cheer in my head one last time before turning to face the group of cheerleaders and beginning.

"Hey! Hey you! Stand up and clap your hands! Go! Go Wildcats! Hey! Hey you! Now let's see you wave your hands! Go! Go Wildcats!" I clapped in time with my cheer and did and few steps and jumps before ending in the splits. I hated learned how to do those in dance, and thought they would never be useful, but now I was glad that I could. I didn't feel quite so stupid as I was the only one of those girls who had done them.

"I didn't know you were trying out." Jill said when I got up off the floor.

"I uh… I figured why not."

Jill nodded and said something to the cheerleader standing next to her then looked back at me. "Well, that was good. Thanks. The results will be posted tomorrow in the locker room after school."

I nodded and went to the locker room to change. I was really hoping that the try outs hadn't taken so long that Drew was already gone. I checked my phone and saw that he should be getting out in less than 5 minutes. I rushed through putting my clothes back on and ran out of the locker room and out to the student parking lot where I saw him half way to his car.

"Drew!" I yelled as I ran in his direction, trying not to drop my backpack which still held all my books. I had forgotten to drop some of them off in my locker after school.

"Maggie?" He turned and saw me and ran over taking the bag from me. "What are you still doing here? I thought you rode the bus home."

"I was going to, but I saw that the cheerleaders were having try outs today so I decided I would try out."

"You want to be a cheerleader? That doesn't really sound much like you."

"I… uhhh I figured it wouldn't hurt to try out. Right? It will give me something to do while you're in detention if I make the squad. And then I can cheer for your games the rest of the season." I smiled at that because I hadn't realized that until that very moment.

"Well, if that's what you wanna do, that's fine with me." He smiled and opened my door, then tossed my backpack into his back seat as if it weighed no more than a feather.

"So…. How was detention?" I asked jokingly.

Drew gave me a look as if that was a stupid question, then laughed and said it was like all other detention. Boring as hell.

He held my hand all the way to my house, then kissed me before letting me out of the car.

"See you tomorrow morning?" He asked and I gave him the same look he had given me. Stupid question. We both laughed as he drove away and I walked into my house.

As soon as I got through the front door, my mom was all up on top of me.

"Where have you been? I text you three times and you didn't reply! Did you get detention and didn't tell me? You weren't out doing something stupid with Drew were you?" Mom said before I could move more than two feet past the door.

"I'm fine Mom, I didn't see your texts because I was in cheerleading try-outs." I replied laughing a little to try and calm her down.

"Cheerleading?" She questioned. "Are you feeling well, you've never wanted to cheer before? Did Drew put you up to this? Does he want you to be a cheerleader? Honey, you know you shouldn't change who you are for a boy. We've been through this a million times."

"No Mom, Drew didn't even know about it till today when I told him. I just decided I would try it." I hadn't told my mom about what happened Saturday night because I didn't want her to worry, so I couldn't very well tell her that Drew was in detention and that I was avoiding Mike. I hated lying to her, but I didn't see much other choice in this instance. Besides, it wasn't like it was important why I tried out. I probably hadn't even made the squad anyway. Which meant I would need to come up with some other excuse for why I wouldn't go past Mike tomorrow? There was no doubt that he would be standing there by the door again waiting for me.

The next day after school I went to the locker room to look at the results of the try-outs the day before. There was a piece of paper hanging on the bulletin board that said "Cheer Squad" in bold black letters on top. Under that was the list of girls who made the squad. On the very bottom of the list was my name. I think it took me a few seconds to realize that that was really my name there. On the bottom of the page was a note that said to go to the school office for uniform measurements, then to return to the gym.

In a daze I walked to the office to be measured, and then I returned to the gym as the note said. When I walked into the gym, I got a few glares from other girls who had been cheering their whole lives, and knew that this was my first time to try out.

The cheerleaders all stood in front of the group of new girls and the captain cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"Congratulations. You are now a Wildcat cheerleader. You will be expected to be here every day after school for practices, and every Friday night at games. Your uniforms will be in before the next game and you will be expected to be in uniform and here in the gym an hour before game time to warm up. Is that understood?" The cheer captain spoke in a voice that demanded she be obeyed and all the new girls nodded in understanding. "Good. I'm your cheer captain. My name is Nicky. Jill is my co-captain. Now, since half of our practice time has been lost to measurements and instructions, we will just warm up and start working on a few of the cheers we will do Friday night."

With that the warm-ups commenced and for the next hour we worked on stretching and learning the cheers for Friday. None of them were very hard. In fact, I thought that mine was more original, and I made it up in half an hour having had no experience. But I didn't mind that they were easy, it meant that I could learn them all before the game.

When practice was over and I was changed, I left the locker room, and this time remembered to empty my backpack of the books I wouldn't need that night before going out to Drew's car to wait on him. I hadn't been standing there more than 5 minutes when I saw him walk out of the building. When he was half way to the car, he pushed the button on his key and unlocked the door, letting me get in as the wind had picked up and it was getting a little chilly out. A minute later he climbed in the seat next to mine and started the car.

"So? Did you make the squad?" he asked.

"Yes." I replied calmly.

"That's great baby! We should go celebrate!" That was the first time he called me "baby". It sent butterflies shooting off in my stomach and I was sure I blushed a little.

"Uhh sure, just let me call my mom and let her know I'm gonna be a little longer. She kinda flipped out yesterday when I wasn't there when she got home."

"Alright, that's fine. Where do you wanna go? Maybe just get a bite to eat or something?"

"Yeah, that sounds good." I smiled and dialed my mom's number and told her that I was going out to get something to eat with Drew to celebrate that I made the squad. She congratulated me and said that since I was going out with Drew, her and Dad would probably go out to supper as well, and maybe a movie afterwards. I said that was fine, and then we ended the call.

"So, pizza sound good?" Drew asked as he pulled out of the school parking lot.

"Yeah, that does. I'm starving!"

Drew laughed and we drove to a local pizza place. While we ate we just talked about school and what was going on with our families and such. He said his mom was on a business trip this week and that his dad would probably work late because of it. I told him about my parent's plans and that my mom didn't work, but that my dad had been working late a lot, which was probably why they were going out tonight as they were.

We finished out pizza and then got back in the car and he drove me home. When we got to my house, Drew turned off his car and came around to my door to let me out.

"Can I come in? I need to use the bathroom and my house is on the other side of town." He asked as he walked me to the door.

"Sure." I replied as I unlocked my front door and walked in. "The bathroom is down the hall on the left. Last door." While he was in the bathroom, I went into the kitchen to get a bottle of water, and then went to the living room to wait on him.

I didn't have to wait long, not 30 seconds after I sat down, he came out of the bathroom and walked into the living room.

"You have a really nice house. I've only ever seen the hall and the outside." He said as he stood in the door to the living room.

"Want a quick tour?" I asked as I stood up.

"Can I?" he asked, almost sounding a little worried that I would get in trouble or something.

"Yeah, sure." I took him to the kitchen and then through the downstairs showing him all the rooms and the back porch and yard, then I walked back to the main hall and glanced at the stairs and hesitated.

"You don't have to show me the upstairs if you don't want to, that's fine." He said, as if sensing that I was a little uncomfortable.

"No, it's fine." I said and smiled a little nervously still as I started up the stairs. "That's my parent's room, and my bathroom, and this is my room." I said as I opened my door and stood just outside it.

Slowly he walked in and looked around at my light blue walls, and white curtains and bed. He faced my bookshelf and looked at all my books.

"How many of these have you read?" He asked still looking at them.

"All of them but the ones on the very bottom shelf. Those are newer and I haven't gotten to them yet." I replied as I walked into the room some.

"That's a lot of books." He said.

"Yeah, I've been reading a long time. I've always loved to read. I write some too."

"Really? That's pretty cool. What do you write?"

"Just some fiction stuff online. It's nothing really."

"Well, I would love to read it sometime if you're comfortable enough to show me."

"It's not very good, but maybe one day I will."

He continued to look around my room some, and saw my dance trophies.

"You must be a pretty good dancer."

"I'm alright. It's not the same kind of dancing that people do today, so most people think I'm stupid or crazy."

"I don't think you're stupid or crazy. Do you think you could teach me how to dance like you like to?"

"You… you want to learn to dance?"

"Yeah, you seem to really enjoy it or you wouldn't have done it long enough to get this many trophies. If you enjoy it that much, I want to try and see if I like it too."

"Oh, well, um yeah I could teach you some. When would you like to learn?"

"Can we now?"

"Uhh sure."

I took his hands and put one on my back, and the other in my hand, and then I began to instruct him on where to put his feet for the basic waltz. After a few minutes he began to get the hang of it, and he stopped looking at his feet all the time. He pulled me a little closer and kept his feet moving in a simple box on the floor. While I was there, dancing in his arms like that, it felt like magic. Like something special. Then he leaned down, just like in all the movies, and he kissed me. After a moment our feet stopped moving and he pulled me a little closer, wrapping both arms around my waist, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. We hadn't kissed like this before. Only in the front seat of his car when he dropped me off or picked me up for school had he even kissed me anything more than a peck on the lips. This was so different. I felt my chest tighten and my head began to spin as I kept kissing him and he kissed me back. I felt his leg move and he took a step towards me, and I stepped back, our feet moving together again, only this time it wasn't in a box shape that we were moving before, it was a straight line, with my back ending up pressed against the now closed door.