Past
“Do you get a cheerleader assigned to you or was that a lie from the movie?”
I laughed at Hayley’s reference to the movie we’d watched last week. I was torturing her with every sports-themed film in existence. “Maybe that happens in Texas, but not here. We’re not that important. Football isn’t life in Oak Grove.” It was my life, but not the blood of a town like so many movies portrayed. Hayley and I were hanging out in the bleachers watching the new squad figure out basic cheers. Varsity and junior varsity cheer teams were on the field. There were ten cheerleaders on varsity and about fifteen on JV. “They look so young,” I said.
Hayley grabbed my cheeks. “You look younger than they do.”
I pulled away. She loved doing that to me. “I look like I’m supposed to. They look twelve. Look at the JV team.”
“Some of them are freshmen. That makes them about fourteen. Maybe they’re like the Olympic gymnasts and never hit puberty,” Hayley said.
“That’s rude.” I scowled at her. I hit puberty at ten. It was a nightmare. Hayley didn’t start her period until she was fourteen. Also, a nightmare. She was the last of her friends to start. The stress of worrying there was something wrong didn’t help.
“You know what I mean.”
“How come you never tried out for cheerleading? You’ve got the energy for it.”
She snarled at me. “That’s offensive. I’m not going to be any football player’s doormat except for yours.”
“Damn straight.” I loved her. I would always love her. Even if time made us drift apart later in life, I knew we would always be able to pick up where we left off. True friends and siblings could do that. Hayley was the closest thing to a sister I had. I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it. “Promise me we’ll always be friends. Even if you run off and get married. Promise me we’ll always be close.” She linked her arm around mine.
“I will love you more than my husband and six kids.”
“Six? Wow. That’s a lot.”
“I’ll have my own basketball team and one substitution.” She nodded and I believed her.
“Except you’re really short and unless you date the Incredible Hulk or Thor, your children will be genetically disposed to be soccer players or horse jockeys.”
“Maybe they’ll be famous actors. They obviously don’t need to be tall,” Hayley said.
“Good point.” We watched the cheer team divide into groups.
“I love that Missy’s about to lose her shit with them.” Hayley pointed to the head cheerleader who stood with her hands on her hips barking at the scared squad in front of her. “How important are cheerleaders? Do you even hear them out on the field?”
“Their job is to get the crowd into the game, not us. We’re already there. You know how rude teenagers can be. Also, no, I can’t hear them. I have Coach yelling at me and the opposing team yelling at me. I hope to God when I’m older, people stop yelling at me.”
Hayley patted my leg. “You’ll be yelling at them. I promise you that.” She wiped off the dirt on my knee. “You probably should’ve changed. And let your hair down. Some of the cheerleaders don’t know who you are.” She turned to me and squeezed my arm. Her body language screamed excitement and I groaned before she even said anything. “You should go down there like ‘Oh, hey, I’m the quarterback. Anyone interested in dating the quarterback?”
“Yeah, that sounds like it’ll work.” I rolled my eyes and was rewarded with a gentle shove.
“Would you date any of them? I know you like sporty girls, but some of the cheerleaders are super cute,” Hayley said.
“Excuse me. Are you watching them? They are sporty, too. They tumble, do backflips, forward rolls, get tossed in the air, and land on their feet like cats,” I said.
“We should go down there and parade you in front of them.”
I looked at her in disbelief. “Why? Why are you pushing this?”
She shrugged. “Because I love you and the quarterback should get to date a cheerleader. I think it’s a rule.”
I laughed. “It’s not a rule. And don’t worry. I’ll find somebody.”
She took my hand. “But it’s high school and I want you to be happy and have fun with all of us. Going out in groups is fun, but alone time is funner.”
“More fun. Alone time is more fun.”
Rolling her eyes, she huffed. “Whatever. You know what I mean. Surely, one of those cheerleaders is gay.”
I ignored the JV team because they were too young for me. “We know Missy and Amberlynn aren’t. I’m clueless about the rest.” I didn’t have gaydar yet. Maybe it was something I would gain once I spent more time with lesbians and gays, but for now, everyone was straight. I sat up when Missy waved me over. “Does she mean me?” I pointed to myself. She nodded. I stood and marched down the bleachers and out onto the field.
“We’re all getting together to make posters for the football team’s first game. Do you want to join us? It’s before school in the art room. Ms. Elling said we can use all the posterboard and glitter and paint we want,” Missy said.
What a weird request. Why would she assume I’d want to hang out with them? She must’ve noticed my confused look because she elaborated.
“And by you, I mean the whole football team. It would be good for the new cheerleaders to meet the entire team. I’ll bring doughnuts and I’m sure we can have the cafeteria brew coffee for us. The lunchroom ladies get in so early.”
“A meet-and-greet? That’s a good idea. I’ll bring it up to the guys tomorrow. When do you want to do it?”
She bounced on the balls of her feet as though for two minutes she couldn’t abandon cheering just to have a conversation. “The first game is Friday so why don’t we try on Wednesday morning? It’s not like they need to do anything other than show up.”
“Okay, sounds good. I’ll talk to them.”
“Thanks, Sutton.”
Missy bounced away and pulled the team into a huddle. Hayley mouthed something to me but I ignored her and motioned for us to leave. She met me on the side of the bleachers.
“What did she want?”
“She wants the football team to meet the cheerleaders for breakfast one morning.”
“Is that weird? I mean, don’t you all know one another already?”
“Not everyone. And she’s bringing doughnuts. I mean, she could’ve started with that and I would have committed right then.”
“Are the guys really going to help?” Hayley said.
I snorted. “I can barely get them to do drills. What do you think?”
“It’s nice that she’s trying, right?”
* * *
“Thanks for coming. I have name tags for everyone to wear,” Missy said. She waved a stack of white labels with a red border that read HELLO, my name is.
I passed them out to the team. Last night I reminded them to behave and be nice. Coach Larson told them he was showing up, too. I knew that he wasn’t. Just the threat that he would be there was enough to keep the guys in line. I wrote my name in big block letters. Wyatt used five stickers, one for each letter in his name. I was positive everyone knew his name already because Coach was forever yelling at him to pay attention to the field, not the cheerleaders.
I managed to grab two doughnuts before they disappeared. Missy must’ve spent a fortune. I excused myself from the table where Max and I were trying hard to draw two junior varsity cheerleaders into conversation. I grabbed another cup of coffee from the cafeteria’s urn. A slightly burnt but comforting smell wafted around me when I hit the spout. It looked like jet fuel and I was sure it tasted as bad. Two sugars and two creamers couldn’t kill the bitterness, but I needed the caffeine to get me through Algebra in thirty minutes.
“It’s horrible coffee and yet here we are, lining up for more.”
I turned to find the new girl standing in line. “Anything to keep me awake. Are you on the squad?” We both knew I knew she was, but she played along.
“Yes. I’m new to Oak Grove. I’m Parker O’Neal. And you’re Sutton.” I smiled at her smugly. She took the time to find out my name. That was promising. But then she pointed to my name tag. “It’s hard to miss.”
“Right.” I blushed and took a sip of coffee that was unbearably hot. I turned my head and coughed as it scalded my throat. Fuck, that hurt.
“Are you okay?” Parker asked.
I waved her off as though this happened a lot. “I’m fine. Still not awake and still making bad choices.” The smile she gave me took my breath away. I was already nervous to talk to her, but now that we were in each other’s personal space, I felt skittish and wanted to bolt back to the table. “How’s cheerleading?” Hayley would kill me if she knew that was my opening question.
“It’s good. How’s football?”
“Painful, but I’m excited about the new season.” I took another sip of coffee and tried to mask the burn but failed.
“You should probably wait to drink that,” Parker said.
“I keep telling myself the caffeine will wake me up, then I forget it’s hot as fu—” I stopped myself. I wasn’t around the guys. I was standing in front of a new cheerleader and I was trying to make an impression. “It’s just too hot.”
She smiled. Her smile was beautiful and made my stomach do backflips. She wasn’t like the other girls at Oak Grove. She seemed more refined and delicate. Even her clothes weren’t casual for school. I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and she was wearing pants and a sleeveless top. Her arms were toned and tanned. She looked amazing. Her flats screamed money whereas my Converse should’ve been tossed over the summer. I looked worn and I had never been so self-conscious in my life.
“Have fun making posters. I’ll see you on the field, quarterback,” she said.
What she said wasn’t even flirty, but I felt a bounce in my step like I was Missy getting ready to direct a cheer. I sat next to Max again.
“Who were you talking to?” Max asked.
“New girl.”
Max gave me a look. “I know it’s the new girl. What’s her name? Where’s she from?”
“Her name is Parker and I think she’s from heaven.”
He bumped my shoulder and laughed. “Maybe she’s the one.”
I couldn’t stop staring at her. She sat down with the defensive tackles and made small talk with them as they painted their signs. They laughed with her, but every few seconds, her eyes drifted my way. “Yeah, maybe she is.”