𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠 𝐌𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧 (𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏)

11

Song: Since U been gone - Kelly Clarkson

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"Okay, girls. Is everyone ready?" shouted Paris, wandering around the locker room where the team was preparing to go out there. "We're out in five minutes. Five minutes everybody!"

"Yeah, yeah." muttered Sadie next to me while adjusting her skirt. I giggled and she rolled her eyes. "Oh, God. It's just a game."

"Just a game!" our captain heard her complains and halt mid-step before spinning around to glare my friend. "Look here, Braham. This isn't just a game. This is our first game. Maybe there will be browsers out there. Maybe this will mark our fate for the season. So, I don't know, maybe this IS important!"

"Okay, chill." I said, trying to calm their mood, but that turned out to make me the blank for Paris ire. I forced a sweet smile and talked softly. "We've been working hard this week, and it's just the first game. We'll be good."

She took a deep breath, clearly trying to put herself back together. Damn, I hadn't realized this was such a big deal for her.

"Good is not enough." she mumbled harshly, but calmer.

"We'll be great." she looked me in the eyes and I sent her a reassuring smile.

Her lip twitched and her muscled relaxed a bit. She then nodded and turned to face the rest of the team, that kept looking that scene not knowing what to do.

"Fine. I'm sorry, girls. You've done a great job this week and you'll nail it." she grinned and fixed his already perfect pony tail. "Three minutes, everyone, come out so I can pair you."

And she left. All the girls started moving again. I locked gazes with Sadie and huffed. God, that week had been stressful indeed, with all the hard work and Paris pressure. Don't get me wrong, she is kinda a great captain and leaded us effortlessly, like she'd born for this. But we trained every lunch break and two hours after school. She told us it was only for now, that when we get in shape and learn the choreography she'll go soft but I had my doubts.

Not to mention that after that I had detention. Yep, detention. Remember that Mrs Rodes punished me working for the janitor for two whole weeks?! Mr Dantlin was and old man, nice and sweet, but that didn't change the fact that I had been in charge to sort the gym when the cheerleading stuff ended; and after that he sent me to the basement to get rid of the trash nobody use anymore.

And that wasn't even the worst part. Oh no. The worst of this exaggerated punishment was that Hayden was there too. Or at least he was supposed to be. Lucky me, he only stays 'till the janitor left us to go do his stuff, then he disappears. I could report him for avoiding the detention, but if I did then I would have to deal with him even more. And I was already sick and tired of him being my chem partner.

Surprise, surprise: he didn't work. At all. Not only he didn't help me, but he seemed to use any chance he had to annoy me, which caused me to piss him off as much as I could as well. What can I say? It's a fair exchange.

So when the detention came none of us wanted to spend more time breathing the same air.

Just one more week, one more week and I would only have to see him in the chem lab.

Sadie made my hair and when we were both done, we got out the locker room to the hallway between bleachers that leads to the field. Cheerleaders and players were all along it, the sky blue and white of our outfits overwhelmed the whole place. We took the pom-poms and waited for Paris to pair us with some player. Everyone was chatting and getting ready trying to calm down the nerves.