Who Knows?

Chapter 33

"Olivia are you okay?" My face is bleak and I feel like I'm about to burst out in tears. This cannot possibly just have happened. Elaina shakes me and I quickly come back to reality.

"We lost. All my hard work and we lost." Tears form in my eyes as she hugs me.

"It's just cheerleading. You are a great captain and you'll thrive at Princeton." She says, she also sounds so sad. We lost our final school cheerleading competition and I am utterly stunned. How is this possible? We worked hard for so many weeks and we lost. As Elaina hugs me, I can see all the sad faces from the team as they watch the judges give the trophy to the Wildcats. How is this possible? We've been first for so many years I don't know where we went wrong.

"Olivia." I hear Nick's voice behind me. He and I have barely spoken or seen each other for a week now, he has been so off with me but he showed up at least.

"I'm sorry you guys lost." He kisses my forehead and that's it. He looks at me and just smiles.

"It' okay." I look down and then he puts his hand on my chin, lifting my face. Our eyes lock for a minute and then he kisses my forehead again. Coach clears her throat behind us and Nick lets go and just walks away. All the girls hurdle together and the coach gives us a small pep talk. I feel like I've failed them, it is depressing.

"I'm sorry girls," I say and they all smile.

"Liv. We still kicked ass." They say and the mood becomes a bit better.

"Yeah we just did our best and we all know that no matter what we stuck together as a team," Elaina says and the girls form a group hug.

"I'm going to miss you guys next year." We all stand like that for a few minutes and then the coach interrupts us.

"Girls, we have to leave, we still have the final match for the boys tonight." We all release and in a hurry we collect our stuff and head to the bus. Nick is nowhere to be found, I honestly hate feeling like this. We head back home and the bus ride back is really quiet, the girls truly are quite saddened by the fact that we lost but unfortunately it is what it is. As we sit there, my phone vibrates.

- I won't be able to make the game tonight. I have to study.

I read Nick's message and I just feel so hopeless, he isn't acting like himself and I'm worried.

- K.

It is all I reply and he just reads and ignores it. Wow okay then. I put music in my ears and I just keep quiet until we reach the school again. The car park is already packed with people and this is the biggest game of the football season so everyone has been talking about it for months now and the boys must be so excited and so nervous. We head to the change rooms where Elaina decides to give us all another pep talk and most of the girls are over the loss by now. We get ready to put on our last and final performance for Everstone and It is going to be fun and we will make the best of it. We head out and before we reach the football field I see two people standing behind the bleachers busy making out, as I walk closer I see it is Amber and Aiden, my eyes widen a bit and I just walk on, wow, good for them. As we reach the field, I feel someone tap me on the shoulder and as I turn around, Aiden is towering over me in his football uniform.

"Heard you guys lost. Sorry about that." He smiles at me and then before I could open my mouth he walks off. Um, okay then.

"Come, girls," I say and we head in front of the bleachers cheering the boys on. I feel like I'm in my head and I can't even enjoy the last night of my cheer career because I'm so worried about Nick. I think I'll just speak to him when I get home. I choose to put aside all these thoughts and feelings and put all my focus on the game and the cheerleading. The boys are playing so well. Half-time comes up and we do our cheer and it went so successful. As we head back to the bleachers, we see Khloe and Amber standing there.