Girl Meets Season 4

14. Girl Meets Cheerleading

By the time she went to bed every night she was exhausted, but she made sure to write about what she was doing, she wanted to remember all of the effort she was putting into tryouts. She did that a lot lately, she wanted to remember the good memories because they outweighed the bad ones.

On the morning of the tryouts Riley could feel herself getting nervous, the moment she opened her eyes she just stared at the ceiling wondering if this was the right thing to do. She sat up and noticed something taped to the bay window, when she walked over and opened the window to get the envelope she saw Lucas' handwriting. When she opened it the note inside only said one line.

You can do it.

It was all she needed to get ready for school, she grabbed her sneakers and a pair of tights along with an extra-long sweater and got ready. She didn't want to have too much clothing on before she had to change, she could audition in her tights and her gym clothes. When she walked into the kitchen she could see the tension from her family but she just smiled and sat down at the table.

"Morning Matthews Family," Maya said walking inside the apartment. "Feed me."

Riley laughed as her mother put down Riley's favorite pancakes in front of her and placed a plate next to hers for Maya.

"Do they not feed you at your house?" her father said as Maya sat down at the table.

"Yes, but my mom went to the café early and my dad had an early morning assignment so he left at like five in the morning," Maya said. Each time she called Shawn dad Riley smiled, she was happy that her best friend had that influence in her life.

The five of them ate in silence until her father got up to go to school, Maya and Riley left not to long afterwards. Walking to school instead of taking the subway, because it was a nice day and they didn't want to waste the money on the train.

"Are you nervous?" Maya asked as they waited for the stop light to change.

"Not really, I mean I was a first but Lucas told me I could do it, and I worked so hard for this so I know all that's really left is standing up and actually showing them that I'm good enough to be on the team."

Riley could feel her self-confidence rising because she was doing something completely for herself, she was doing something selfish and going for what she wanted.

Her friends wished her luck throughout the day, Zay still thinking that it was a bad idea but wanting Riley to make her own decisions. Lucas sat in the bleachers being Riley's only moral support at the tryouts, since everyone else had club activities that they couldn't get out of. He was there sending messages to everyone in a group chat, with pictures of Riley in her gym clothes bouncing up and down.

"First round," the head cheerleader said, before explaining what they had to do. The basic cheer was simple, Riley had been to enough pep rallies for Lucas that she had always admired the cheerleaders. She worked on the cheer while Lucas watched all week long, he constantly told her where she should put her feet so that she wouldn't trip, or making sure she didn't trip. He always encouraged her to work a little harder and it paid off when she did it with the rest of the girls trying out because she didn't trip or mess up at all.

As they called out the names of girls moving to the next round Riley remembered the encouraging email she had received from Coach Kelly. She had sent it to her telling her that she was going to audition for cheerleading. Her former Coach wrote back, Show them your spirit, it's where you shine brightest. Riley hadn't expected those words but they had made her want to show the cheerleaders at Abigail Adams that she had what it took to be a part of their team.