Ready, Set, and Cheer!

Chapter 19 (:

“The people who will be doing a seminar in the last week of November will be Tedson, Roberts, Simmons, and Nicolas. Please meet me after school. ” Ms. Elmore said.

Beginning of the week, another whole list of new things to do, Julie thought. Tedson was grinning big, Laurent was confused, and Diara showed no emotion. If Julie had thought that the previous week was extremely busy, she was in for a surprise.

After school, Ms. Elmore gave them the material.

“Now, you know the rules. Laurent, Tedson will explain it to you. I believe you have high potential. Don't let me down.”

Laurent nodded solemnly.

“It will be a one hour presentation , fifteen minutes for each of you. You have more than a month to prepare. Surprise me. You may go.”

For the last week of September and the whole of October, her schedule was like this:

Julie would wake up at five thirty in the morning. 

She would run for an hour with Synthia, and at 7 she would start getting ready for school.

Laurent would always come exactly at 7:30, and they would head for school.

School would always be the same. New lessons, more homework, weekend assignments, and two projects a week either in math and science or Social studies and Science.

 As Julie and Diara were going for the Essay competition, they were asked to write an essay everyday. Classes go on as usual. There

would be surprise pop quizzes which were always a surprise.

Ms. Annabeth was getting stricter everyday. She wanted it to be perfect too. The president was coming to watch, she kept reminding. So if anyone in the entire dance messed up, they had to start all over. But that happened only during the last week of October.

Andrea wasn't being a lesser pain in the neck. She started barking at them now. Synthia and Julie still hadn't figured out why.

Track was the only outlet for Julie. She could run all she wanted, and get her tension out. But that didn't mean she wasn't ever tired. She was very tired. So tired. But she never showed it. But later, even that become troublesome. Julie kept maintaining her record. She never beat it but she also never went below it. But the coach wanted improvement. And only that. Synthia was having a harder time with the coach. She was always a few miliseconds behind her record. Although Synthia was the fastest in the team, and the sprinter, the coach wasn't being less hard on her.

“Seriously. Can't he ever give us a break. How much can we take. We did win the quarter finals, and semi finals.” Synthia would say every time.

And Julie would always say, “Chuck it. He's just tensed. The finals are only a few weeks away.”

Cheer leading, although fun, was exhausting and nauseating. Every Sunday, the girls had a football game to cheer for, and every week they had a new unique cheer. Julie had learned a lot from Mrs. Nina. During one of her practices, she went and asked her what she was lacking on.

“What do you mean, dear? You're doing fantastic.” Mrs. Nina said.

“Well, you know what I mean.” Julie said.

“I'm afraid I don't.” Mrs. Nina said, confused.

Julie sighed. “ I've been team captain for five years. I was hoping I could be the captain again this year. And well, you might laugh, but I really want to get into Chipgal. I thought being the captain would help my chances in getting into it.”