Backseat Serenade

002 how to be a heartbreaker

SEPTEMBER, CHEERLEADING TRYOUTS

BLAIRE

🫀

Clipboard and pen in hand, I pace down the length of the sports hall, eagle-eyed and assessing. My silver coach's whistle swings at my side, scraping against my purple leggings. In the far corner of the hall, the squeak and rhythmic thud-thud of shoes against the thin foam mats reverberates within the sports hall like a thousand-footed heartbeat echoing in a large chamber. I feel it in the hollow of my chest, surging through my lifeblood, a sharp peal pounding in my bones.

Earlier, before tryouts began, Addy and I had devised the game plan—she'd take the tumblers, and I'd check out the stunters. We'd converge on the dance segment. Right now, Addy and the Level 3 vice-captain are running the tumble group, scouting for their pick of the litter. In twenty minutes, we'd swap over.

"First rule of stunting," I say, my voice clean and commanding, cutting through the background noise, regarding my half of the freshmen with a critical look. "Never let your flyer touch the ground. As bases and backspots, your first duty is to look out for your flyer. She's the most prone to getting hurt. Eyes on your girl, always."

I eye the line of girls standing before me, arranged in ascending order of height, their eyes wide, their cotton-puffy faces staring back at me, wondering what's turning in my head, what my all-seeing eyes have divined from their form. They push their shoulders back and pop their chin as I pass them, their flighty gazes catching on the pink bedazzled words emblazoned across the back of my black Hartell Heartbreakers hoodie. CAPTAIN. Instantly, I can already pick out the greenhorns, the girls who've only had tumbling experience. I can see it in the way they glance longingly at Addy's side of the hall, watching those girls bound across the mat, Addy barking—tucks! Full-fulls! Layout! Aerials! Anybody who has their doubles down, go over to the side!—at them, brows furrowed, their nervous energy rife in the air.

It feels like a full-circle moment. Just three years ago, I'd been one of these girls. Participation number tacked to the front of my shirt, smiling until my face felt like cracking, muscles wound tight as I was elevatored up into an extension liberty, arms V-split over my head, my heartbeat thrumming in my teeth and my skin pulled so tight with all the hope that I'd make it onto the team. And now, here I am, Blaire Kwan, standing at the helm, choosing my crew of warriors to meld into perfection.

"Now, we're going to break you up into stunt groups. Let's start with the flyers. If we call your number, come forward and find a space on the mat."

Ashley, the Level 3 vice-captain helping me run the stunting section, steps forward and starts sorting out the stunt groups. We pull the flyers out first, the smallest girls standing in their designated corners of the mat, then we assign them backspotters, picking from the other end of the line, the tallest girls. When we've paired up the bases and delegated them to their respective flyers based on their builds, we start warming up. First, preps.

"Pull up tall, number sixteen," I command, stopping by one of the stunt groups, their flyer wobbling in the air for a moment, fear colouring her expression pale.

During the first week, we'd hosted a couple taster sessions for girls who wanted to try their hand at cheer, just to see what it's like. It's a mandatory requirement for the girls who wanted to tryout for the team to attend both taster sessions, so we could teach them the basics: preps, libs, extensions, jumps, and, lastly, the dance segment. For everyone who was new to cheer, this would be their introductory course before tryouts.

We'd posted the base requirements to make each of the teams on our Facebook page, above the sign-up link. At the beginning of the session, we handed out pieces of paper with numbers written in bold black Sharpie for the freshmen to pin to their shirts, their names we wouldn't learn until much later, as per tradition. They had to earn it. They get their names back once they're on the roster.