Who knew cheer tryouts could be so brutal. Aren't the cheerleaders suppose to be peppy and overly friendly?
Through out the tryouts, Bucky and The Aceys, as they call themselves, have been eliminating the people that are not to 'their standards'. But just looking at the people they are choosing I cannot help but wonder if I will be next. I mean all they had to do was make one little mistake and Bucky or The Aceys humiliate them and send them off crying.
But I need to stay focused, so shaking off the negative thoughts I put on my smile and stand ready for the final test.
"Alright, listen up this is the last test before we are officially done with cheer tryouts and have our new cheer team!" Bucky announces, while looking up from his clipboard, putting his hands together.
Looking around he seems to linger in my direction before carrying on, "Now we all know if you want to be a cheerleader, you need to be able to get a crowd to love you, just like they love me!" He exclaims while pulling a string revealing a crowd of people sitting in the bleachers. Ugghhh....
Sitting down, trying to motivate myself, I watch as person after person stands in front of the crowd and tries to get a reaction from them. Some are good, being praised by the crowd, resulting in them getting their official Mighty Shrimp Pom-Poms but others are not that lucky which results in The Aceys dragging them away, kicking and screaming.
Looking around I see that it seems to be only Addison, Bree and I left. So when Bucky shouted for the next person, Bree started to freak out. She kept on saying that she was not good enough for the team and that we are much better than her. We tried to reassure her that she is just as good as us but she just shook her head and went to go sit by the other rejected people.
Sighing, me and Addison walk in front of the crowd. Yeah, I know we are suppose to do this individually but Bucky said it was fine if we go as a team because he knows that I get a little shy on my own. Hey, just because he is a big jerk does not mean that he is heartless. That is one of the reasons that I was hanging out with him this summer. Maybe he is changing?
Addison and I walk in front of the crowd and I look towards her, nervously, I reach towards her hand, needing a little support from one of my besties, she gave me an assuring hand squeeze while nodding her head towards Bree, trying to hide between the rejects. We need to do this for Bree, if we get in maybe we can try and convince Bucky that Bree deserves it too. So with that we get into position and hope for the best.
Yeeeesssss........ we made it!!!
I cannot believe that we will be apart of the Mighty Shrimp Cheer Team. We even got Bucky to let Bree in too, even if it is only as a stand in. While we are busy celebrating Bucky announces that we have a pep rally this afternoon so we need to start and practice. Luckily the routine we had to learn for tryouts was the one he wants to use so all we have to do is fine tune it.
After doing the same routine five more times, Bucky finally says that it is good enough and lets us rest before we need to get ready.
"Can you believe it, we are finally on the cheer team, just like we always wanted!" Addison exclaims while she is busy doing Bree's hair for the pep rally.
"I know, this is a dream come true. Thanks you guys for what you did. I would have never been able to be here if you did not convince Bucky," Bree confesses. Addison quickly puts down the hair brush she was holding and hugs Bree, which makes me hug them both.
"You are welcome, but I still think that you would have been able to get in on your own," I say while giving her one more hug. "Now with that done what should I do with my hair?" I ask twirling my hair with my fingers.
"Ooohhh, I have the perfect idea. Just sit back and let me do my magic," Bree says while grabbing my hair brush.
Wow, I could not believe how good my hair looked. Turning from the mirror in front of me, I tackled Bree into a hug, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank -" I kept on going before I was interrupted by someone saying that there were zombies at the pep rally.
What, zombies! Why would they be here?
Clearly I was not the only one wondering this because the moment that he announced this, Bucky and The Aceys piled in front of the door to look at the zombies, walking around to get a seat in the bleachers.
Wow, it is the group of zombies that I saw this morning. OMG, what if I mess up in front of Bonzo- NOT that I care, I mean I could mess up in front of everyone and he is kind of apart of everyone so I am just-, Uggh... stop with the internal argument.
"....lets show the school what monsters these zombies really are. Get the spirit sticks," I heard Bucky say to Tracey. What is he up to?
"Oh I cannot believe Zed came," I heard Addison whisper to herself. Mmmhhh, I knew something was happening between her and that zombie.
Without being able to question her, Bucky announced that we should get into our places. So without any further delay, and with one more look into the mirror I walked out of the dressing room. Yay, my first pep rally!
So far the pep rally has been successful. Everyone was getting into the school spirit, surprisingly, even the zombie, which from where I am standing, I could see Bonzo chanting with us. Aaahh, he looks so cute-, No Daisy, bad.
However, suddenly, everything changed. We were coming to the end of the routine when suddenly Bucky and The Aceys came out with sparklers. Oh no, is this what they meant with spirit sticks? Do they not know what they are doing? Do they know how zombies react to fire?
Quickly I look toward the bleachers where the zombies are. It seems that Bonzo was having a really bad reaction towards the sparklers because from where I was being lifted into the air, I couldsee how Zed, I think, and the girl zombie next to them was trying to hold Bonzo back.
But they did not seem to be strong enough because the next thing I see is Bonzo charging through the cheerleaders, knocking down the people under Addison, that was in front of me, and even the people under me just before I landed. So guess where I landed instead- right into Bonzo's arms.
I let out a gasp as he caught me in his arms. Looking up I see him huffing, fractically looking around, probably searching for fire. Poor guy, he looks so scared. I do not even think he knows he caught me.
I try to say something to him but all that came out was a squeek. Luckily that seems to get Bonzo's attention because he looked down.
When he saw that I was in his arms, his eyes went wide, and his whole body jerked resulting in me being dropped on the floor.
"Umm, ow," I say while standing up, rubbing my back, " Are.... are, um, are you alright?" I question, taking a step towards him. Why am I not freaking out right now? I have no idea.
"Fire, fire , baa-dddd fire," he mumbles still looking around. Aawwhhh, poor guy he really is scared of the fire.
"No, no umm... there is no fire near us right now, I think that everyone is still in the gym. I cannot believe that Bucky did that. No wait, yes I can," I say while mumbling the last part to myself.
That seems to reassure him because he instantly relaxes.
"So, umm, hi. My name is Daisy. What is yours?" I say, trying to remove the awkward silence between us. Hey just because I already know what it is, does not mean that he needs to know.
"Umm, Bonzo my name," he answers pointing to himself.
"Oh, I think I have something of yours ," I exclaim while getting the necklace from around my neck. Yes, I kept it on the whole day. It just did not seem right to put it down.
Firstly, he tilted his head a little to the side probably thinking I got the wrong person. Or worse maybe I had a sparkler too. So to show him I meant no harm, I took the necklace and put it in his hand.
As he looks down, at the thing that was in his hand, he saw that indeed it was his necklace. How on earth did the human get my necklace?
Slowly taking it out of his hands, Bonzo put it back around his neck, looking at the pendant with almost a sense of longing he looked back up at Daisy and gave her a smile.
And in that moment I could feel a little flutter in my stomach. So I did the only thing that seemed appropriate, I smiled back.