Ready, Set, and Cheer!

Chapter 10 (:

The car ride was of absolute silence. Laurent wanted to bring up the whole cheerleading topic, but was afraid of making her tear up again! So he just turned on the music and continued to sing along with it.

After they reached, Julie politely thanked him and went back to her house. She still had a lot of remaining homework, and also had to wrap up her whale project. 

Dinner that night was unusual. Julie was extremely quiet, very surprising

because she was never quiet at dinner time. Her mother had circles under her

eyes, which indicated how really tired she was.

Jake was normal, and Bryan seemed hyper excited, because apparently he

had cracked some very difficult code. The dad was grumpy.

“Darn that guy. Amatuers seriously shoudn't be allowed to interfere in

important investments. Do you know how much is at stake? Around 10

grand.” he sighed. “Oh well. Diana dear, how's your case going on?”

“It's pretty difficult, and it's taking a pretty heavy toll on me.”

Julie looked at both her parents. They were facing insignificant, but pretty big

problems, and there she was, brooding over this whole cheer captain thing.

But getting into Chipgal was so important to her. Julie was feeling really guilty. She tried to enlighten the atmosphere, and was

acting over bubbly and cheerful, causing her parents to look at each other,

Jake to snort, and Bryan to raise an eyebrow.

“JULIE!” They all shouted together.

“What?” Julie said, in a hurt voice.

She was just trying to help, and all of them shouted at her. How upsetting.

“Take a chill pill, girl. The situation isn't that bad.” said Jake, knowing well

enough how his sister tries to help even down the serious tone.

“In fact, I believe, a certain someone is in a crisis, but isn't sharing it with

us.”

Julie inhaled sharply. “ What was that?”

 “Nothing,” Jake mumbled, as Julie gave him an angry stare.

“In case you didn't know, I'm vice captain. Diara's the captain. I'm probably

the world's worst cheer leader.”

Tears springing to her eyes, she cleaned the table a few minutes later, and

went back upstairs, to write in her diary.

“What's up with her? I didn't know it was that bad.” Jake muttered.

“You know her. But she's never been this way before.” Bryan said.

“Boys, that's enough.” Diana said, sternly.

The door bell rang a few minutes later.

“Hey, is Julie there?” Laurent asked.

“Man, you are the Laurent Nicolas, aren't you?” Jake said in awe.

Laurent had rippling muscles that made Jake just stare. Laurent nodded.

“Yeah, that's me.”

“I'm Julie's brother, Jake. My mom just adores you.” Jake said, whispering.

The two shook hands, and spoke for a little while. Bryan in the middle of his experiment, nodded at Laurent, who had said hi. He asked him what he was doing. Bryan explained everything, and Laurent gave him a tip on how to make the experiment work, which immediately saw a brightened Bryan.

David shook hands with Laurent, and Diana gave him homemade gingerbreads for him to take home to his mother. Laurent thanked her.

A little while later, Jake ran upstairs and called on his sister. “ Hey Juls?”

“Go away, Jake. Leave me alone.”

“Okay, if that's what you want me to tell Laurent.”

Julie gasped. “WHAT? What's he doing here?”

"I don't know. Maybe you should ask him?"

“Yeah I will. Now move it.”

She opened the door, and punched Jake on the arm, who moaned in pain, and ran down the stairs.

“What do you want?” Julie asked, panting.

Laurent grinned sheepishly. “Nothing really, just wondering if I could give you a ride tomorrow. I need directions again. And also, to make up for wrecking your whale project, I would love to drop you off everyday. I'm extremely sorry.”

Julie was stumped. He was actually sweet. Apologizing like that.

Blushing and not knowing what to say, Julie said, "It's fine, Laurent, I usually take the bus. It's cool."

"Like I said, I need directions. Besides, Diara told me to pick you up and make you are there safely for your project. You know her. I can't disobey orders. " 

He continued, “So, how about it?”

“Oh! Um okay, I'll meet you outside, at 7:30, okay? School starts at 8:10, but I need to be there early. Cheerleading practice.”

“Fine with me. So 7:30, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay see you tomorrow. Byee. Good night.”

“Good night.” Laurent smiled and left.

Julie stood outside for a few minutes after he left. Suddenly feeling unneccessarily happy and smiling to herself, she skipped inside. I can't seem to figure him out. One day he's so arrogant, and the next, he's so nice, she thought.

Jake and Bryan gave each other a knowing glance at each other, but both didn't say anything.

The next morning, Julie got up, and got ready to go to school. It was a sunny day, and feeling much better, she wore her yellow Sundress, which stood for a bright day.

Julie was just drinking her chocolate milk around 7:25. At 7:30, she said good bye to her parents and headed to Laurent's house.

Half way to school, she realized she had forgotten her whale project, which was due that day.