Welcome To Enumclaw

Chapter Five

It had been a couple of days since Nevaeh and I had become friends. But that wasn't the milestone this week. Today was the first day of cheerleading practice. I was nervous because I was only a freshman and I was leading the varsity squad.

I waltzed into the gym after school with Nevaeh and found that Coach Fromata had been waiting for me to arrive. She had three large boxes in front of her as well as ten smaller sized boxes stacked together. She looked at the boxes, deep in thought. When Nevaeh and I got closer, it seemed there were a bunch of maroon shirts in one box, gold shirts in another box, and maroon and gold cheerleading uniforms in the other.

"Oh good, you guys are here!" Coach Fromata was startled by our entrance. She shoved a maroon T-shirt and a gold T-shirt in each of our grasps. "Put the maroon one on."

Nevaeh and I nodded and went to the bathroom to change. I put on my maroon shirt that read "Enumclaw Cheerleading". I waited for Nevaeh to emerge out of the stall and we entered the gym once again. There were a few more girls in the gym now. I recognized a couple from the varsity table I sat at a couple of days ago when the big lunchroom fight happened. I said hi to Leyla as she passed to go to the bathroom to change into her shirt. Nevaeh stopped in her tracks when Leyla passed. She stopped to watch her walk out of the gym.

"Wh-who was that?" Nevaeh quivered at me.

"That's Leyla, I met her the other day," I confirmed. Nevaeh was wide-eyed, still staring at the spot where Leyla disappeared out of the doorway. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Nevaeh said quickly and walked further into the gym, leaving me to wonder. I reluctantly followed after a couple of seconds of confusion.

After all of the other girls arrived to practice, we started trying on our uniforms.

"Emily, come here," Coach Fromata called me over to her.

"What's up, Coach?"

"This is your uniform." Coach Fromata held up a uniform that was slightly different from the other girls'. Instead of straight white sleeves, there were maroon and gold rings around the elbow area. "The rings are to symbolize that you're the HC." I took the uniform from her and held it in my hands like it was the only valuable thing that I owned.

"Thank you," I breathed. "So much." Coach Fromata nodded me back to the bathrooms to try on my uniform. I came back and I feel like I had just slipped into my second skin. It fit like a glove. Meant to be. The rest of my girls walked in in their uniforms. I retrieved my maroon and white pom-poms and led my girls through the first few cheers Coach Fromata taught me.

After practice, the cheerleaders didn't take their uniforms off and went straight to the football field. They did this because most of the cheerleaders on the squad aside from Nevaeh, Leyla, and I had boyfriends on the football team. I came with them just because they wanted to introduce me to their "friends" on the football team.

We surfaced the outside of the school building and the rest of the girls traipsed across the football field while they left me behind, straggling along. Each girl ran up to hug a different guy except for Nevaeh, Leyla, and I.

"Leyla, don't you have a boyfriend on the team?" I asked.

"Nah, I play for the other team. Just broke up with my old girlfriend the other day," she trailed.

"Sorry that I asked."

"No, it's okay. I broke up with her, I'm not that emotional or upset about it."

Nevaeh's eyes widened once more as she took her cellphone out of her skirt band. Seconds later, my phone dinged with a message from Nevaeh.

Nevaeh: Before you say anything, I like Leyla and this is a super good sign!