𝑾𝑨𝑳𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑬𝑫𝒀━━𝒆𝒅𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝒎.

𝒊𝒊. 𝒑𝒆𝒑 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒑

( walking tragedy ! )
chapter two, pep in your step
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━━arabella tugged her skirt down, the cheap material scratching down her thigh. did they really have to spend all the school's money on the basketball uniforms?

this was the one part of the year she dreaded most━━well, one of them. having to put on a smile and look at all the students before her whose mouths gaped open at the cheerleaders in their cute little outfits.

ara plastered a wide smile on her face, trying her best not to show how uncomfortable she was as the basketball team tried to make conversation with all of the girls.

"show them up. put cunningham in her place." her mother had said before she left the house, tugging on ara's uniform and putting every strand of hair on her head into place. it made her sick to her stomach. not only the fact that chrissy was one of ara's only real friends from school, but that her mom only pretended to like her. she could honestly care less about cheer, though.

turning away from the boy who was talking to her, arabella walked up to her friend. "you ready?"

"ready as i'll ever be, i guess." chrissy looked up at her with wandering eyes.

ara squinted at her. "i've never seen you this pale before a performance, what's wrong?" the girl looked like she wanted to say something but stopped before any words came out of her mouth, instead motioning for her to line up with the rest of the team.

the group of girls walked onto the court, arabella front and center. she spotted a familiar face in the crowd, who subtly smiled at her before tossing her pink hair over her shoulder. focus.

they started their routine, which had taken months to prefect. much longer than any usual routine, given that it was for a "special occasion." every move, every toss, every step had to be perfect.

the large pompoms in her hands brushed against her legs, threatening to slip out of her hands. she moved them above her head, down again, and then up, shaking them on either side of her body.

the music stopped━━people began cheering, and so did the cheer team as they jumped up and down, heading off of the court. ara sat down next to chrissy, bumping her shoulder and smiling at her.

"and let's hear it for your tigers!" everyone cheered again as the basketball team ran out. it was a little ridiculous in her opinion.

"good morning hawkins high!" jason shouted into the microphone, nearly shattering ara's eardrums, though no one else seemed to be bothered by it. "first off, i'd like to thank each and every one of you. without your support, we wouldn't be here." he said, pointing at the crowd. "and of course, of course, i have to give a special shout-out to the best and prettiest fans of all time, the tiger cheer squad!"

more cheers erupted from behind the girls━━it felt like her head was going to explode from all the noise.

"chrissy..." ara glanced at her as she gazed at her boyfriend. "chrissy, i love you, babe." jason patted his heart as the crowd awed. she blew a kiss back at him and ara felt temped to roll her eyes. love. how disgusting.

she began zoning out, her eyes moving to the far wall in front of her. all should could hear was jason's boring speech coming from the speakers. she didn't snap back to reality until chrissy elbowed her, and the crowd started cheering again. something about winning the game or whatever.

━━━━

"you're sure you're fine?" arabella asked chrissy as they grabbed their bags out of their lockers.

"yeah, i think i'm just gonna run to the bathroom really quick." she said, turning and leaving ara in the locker room by herself.

she opened the front pocket of her black backpack, grabbing her walkman and putting the headphones over her ears. she clicked a button and war pigs by black sabbath blasted through in her ears, drowning out the noise of her teammates.

she walked out into the hall, heading to the bathroom to take her hair down and brush it out. she almost didn't hear the scream. a blood-curdling scream that caused goosebumps to form on her skin.

opening the bathroom door with one hand, she pulled the headphones onto her neck. "chrissy?" the girl chose to ignore her as she walked out of the stall, pushing past her and running out of the door.

arabella ran after her until she was lost in the sea of students. the bell had just rung and kids were piling into the hall left and right, squishing her into the lockers.

someone was pushed into her, nearly knocking her over. "watch it!" she screamed, before quickly noticing who it was. she glared at the boy in front of her, whose face stood out more than anyone's in the entire school.

"if it isn't miss perfect." he waved her off, "sorry, sweetheart." eddie said, jokingly, turning to his friends who all laughed as they turned away from her.

"fuck you!" she screamed at them, though they seemed not to hear her.

"miss murray," she felt a cold hand on her shoulder. "need i remind you of our school's policy?"

━━━━

no, she didn't end up in the principal's office. instead she was sitting in front of ms. kelley, the school's counselor. she was all too familiar with this room.

it was filled with plants and filing cabinets and all sorts of posters that made it feel as if she was in a child's room━━but more professional.

"i think i can speak for some people when i say that i am concerned about you, arabella." the lady lifted a small stack of papers out of a drawer and placed them in front of ara. "you're aware of what these are, correct?"

of course she was. files upon files of disrespecting teachers, being late for class, yelling at other students, it was all a bunch of crap. she rolled her eyes before scanning over the page on top marked with today's date.

ms. kelley picked it up, holding it up in front of her face. "another violation of our code. using inappropriate language towards another student?" she sighed as she crossed her arms on the desk. "if we keep going down this path, we're going to have to━━"

"you can't! i mean...you can't tell them." ara tugged on her necklace. a dainty silver chain with a small heart on it━━one her younger sister had begged her mom to buy for ara's fifteenth birthday. it was a simple, anxious habit she had acquired over the years, but she never could seem to rid herself of it.

"we can't keep these sorts of things under a rap for this long. if anything worse happened..." ara looked at the counselor with pleading eyes. her parents━━her mom could not find out about this. she would have a fit if she knew her eldest daughter was putting their family's "reputation" at risk.

the woman sighed. "okay, i'll make you a deal. if you can avoid getting any more write-ups for the rest of the year, i won't say a word."

"you just saved my a━━i mean, thank you so much." ara said, standing up from the chair placed in front of the counselor's desk. she nodded and motioned for the girl to leave the room, softly smiling as she did so.

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( note ! )

━━  .* ੈ✩‧₊˚  /  am i using the enemies to lovers trope? yes. yes i am. and nobody can stop me.

━━  .* ੈ✩‧₊˚  / also, to clear this up, ara is a senior. and for the sake of this book we'll say that chrissy is, too.

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