The first practice was kind of a mess, but because first practices always kind of were, Sae didn't let herself become bothered by it. That was just how it went. Anri had come by at the beginning to meet them and welcome them to the team, but then she made herself scarce like she normally did and Sae took over.
The newbies were a little shaky and nervous. The vets liked to puff out their chests and act like hot shit. Plus, there was a brand new dynamic that nobody had been able to figure out the flow of as of yet. Oh, the joys of first practice.
Besides Sae, the only person who seemed entirely unbothered was Ryusei. She just stood at her side, arms crossed, looking over the whole scene like it amused her more than anything else, and Sae found it comforting to have her there. She was something she could tether herself to. She could take one look at her and be like, right, none of this is a big deal. It was like a reset every time.
By the end of the first practice, they had gauged everyone's strength, flexibility, and tumbling and even managed to move through a few group stunts. As such, Sae had mostly gotten the stunt groups together and had a decent idea of who the alternates were going to be. Plus, for all the shit she gave Shuto, she had really come through with the newbies she'd recruited. Some of these girls were really good.
Reo and Nagi for instance, were two of the most promising girls Sae had seen in her four years on this squad. Reo was a little firecracker who took only a few tries to really get a stunt and could perform the hell out of it while she moved through it. Nagi was someone Sae had initially hated and nearly cut, because she looked like she'd rather die than be there, but she listened to Reo, and when Reo told her to do something she did it. Well.
Sae still had to make some final decisions of who would best compliment who in the groups of four, but those two were a solid flyer-third pair that she knew better than to separate.
And even though Sae had graciously let Rin have her the two bases of her choice, she was sourer than she usually was having to spend an entire practice having to compensate for Shuto. Sae didn't know what Rin's problem was. Maybe it was nicotine withdrawal. Sae would need to talk to her, or rather, warn her that if she cost the team nationals, she would have her smoke riddled head.
But she didn't linger on it all that much. In addition to Ryusei being calming through her ability to feel anything but amused, she was good. Just like Sae knew she would be. Because she was always right about these things. She'd always been a great flyer, but having Ryusei as a third brought her to an entirely new level. She could be up at full extension, and she could feel that steady grip more than anything else, and it felt like it would be physically impossible to fall. She even felt like she could bend deeper and jump higher before dismounting, because when she did, she'd fall into those arms every time, Ryusei looking down at her and telling her, got ya, bestie!
She could basically taste nationals, and it was only the first practice.
So, as annoyed as she thought she would be about not everyone being at her level on the first day, it was dulled by the promise of nationals and the pleasure it had brought.
The rest of the first week went better and the second, even more so. The girls were improving, just like they always did, and the whisper of promise was slowly becoming a shout. By the end of week three, the new uniforms had come in and the girls were competent enough in some of the basic repertoire routines for them to start performing at the matches for their brother school's sports matches. An exciting milestone for any new captain, but an ambitious one especially.
The numerous practices they held each week and the response to their performances were enough to feed her confidence, but the team meetings and debriefs were even better. Sae had expected them to be just her, Rin, Oliver, and Shuto, but Ryusei tended to stick around, and Sae didn't necessarily mind that.
Nobody else felt that way. Rin still openly disliked her and they bickered, but when Sae told them to shut up, one out of the two of them did. For a little while before it started back up again, anyways. Oliver found her a little standoffish too, but Sae didn't care what Oliver thought at long as they worked together, which they did. Shuto didn't say anything, but she was less openly friendly to her, which was her own personal brand of disliking someone. But Sae had long stopped caring about what any of them thought.
Then, after the meetings, Ryusei would walk Sae home.
At some point during the debrief, Sae could usually do or say something that got Rin to threateningly shake the keys at her and storm off. It was pretty easy to set her off these days. Besides, Sae could always use the extra cardio, so it just seemed like an alright situation all around.
Besides, Ryusei would always be waiting. "Ready to go, bestie?"
And she'd never really had a friend before, let alone a best friend.
They didn't really talk about much. They talked about everything. In that, they didn't say much, but nothing was off limits. So much of these walks home involved long stretches of silence, and then Ryusei would say I wanted to punch that little bitch in the face today or Sae would say if she doesn't smarten up and nail her fucking back handspring this week I'm going to strangle her and then they would laugh. She was pleased she could just say these things to someone. She spent so much time censoring herself so that people would like her and even then, they often didn't. Not really, anyways.
But Ryusei liked her.
"I actually feel like this team is halfway decent this year," Sae said during one of these walks. Her lack of self censorship went both ways. She could be harsher. She could be softer.
"Yeah?" Ryusei said.
"Yeah," Sae said. "And it never is. All three years, every captain I had was satisfied with mediocrity."
"But not you," Ryusei commented.
"No, never," Sae said. "I want everything perfect. I need everything perfect. Always, but especially with cheerleading."
"You really like this shit, huh?" Ryusei asked.
"I love it," Sae said, and she hadn't said it in a while, but she meant it.
She'd done cheerleading as a kid, and she'd always loved it. She'd always been good at it. She'd always been the best. She'd always loved things she was good at, and on the inverse, she'd always been good at things she loved. It was unclear which had come first, but it didn't matter. She loved it.
"Hmm," Ryusei said. "Interesting."
"You don't like it?"
"I like it fine," Ryusei said, shrugging.
Sae was deeply unsatisfied with that answer. She loved it, so her third and best friend had to love it too. "Did you love gymnastics?"
"I liked it a lot," Ryusei said.
"If you liked it," Sae said. "Why'd you quit?"
She didn't answer right away.
"I mean, it's this sport of pure unbridled power and technique. I loved that," Ryusei started, smacking her gum. "And it's good to have an outlet like that, especially for me."
Sae wanted to ask what she meant by that, because she felt she only half understood, but Ryusei kept talking before she could muster up the courage.
"But it's so political." Ryusei rolled her eyes. "And I don't look right, and I don't act right. It's hard to love something that makes it so clear you're unwanted."
That struck Sae in some type of way. And more than that, she really didn't understand it.
Sae wanted everything perfect, and that's why she'd sought her out. She was strong, tall, obedient, perfect. She didn't find a thing undesirable about her. Ryusei didn't seem sad, but she must be, right? That was so sad. But she didn't know exactly how to go about it. Emotional support had never been her strong suit, and she could hardly empathize. She'd always been perfect for the sport she loved, and it had always, always, loved her back.
"Well, which do you like better?" Sae asked. "Gymnastics or cheerleading?"
"Depends," Ryusei said.
"On what?" Sae asked.
"On whether you're there," Ryusei said. Just like that. "I like gymnastics because it's just me and the trampoline or me and the bar. I don't really care about team sports one way or another. I only like cheerleading when it's with you."
This too, she said so casually and steadily, and Sae didn't understand why it made her feel so flustered.