Clash of the Cheerleaders Read online

  But people were everywhere. “Not here, I’ll tell you at tumbling.”

  “All Silver Wing High students,” Miss Peters called out, “please come pick up a worksheet before entering the store.”

  “All right, tumbling it is,” Brittany said, as we followed the flow of noisy students.

  8

  We got back to school a few minutes after the last bell rang. Mrs. Hemming, Nicole’s mom, was parked in the visitors’ parking lot, waiting. The four of us jogged over to her, since tumbling practice started in fifteen minutes.

  “Hey, guys. How’d the trip go?” Zaniah asked as we climbed in. She and Lavender were already sitting in the back of the van.

  “It was awful,” Steph said, slumping into her center seat. “I had to budget for me and a baby with a hundred dollars to last us a whole week,”

  I grabbed her headrest to help me climb into the back. “Don’t forget, I had that much to support a family of four.”

  “Ouch,” Mrs. Hemming said.

  “Well I got five hundred bucks to last me a week,” Nicole said from the front seat. “So after shopping for food, I picked out a Blu-ray player and a few movies to watch on it.”

  “Good for you, honey. Now everyone buckle up and hold on.” With that, Mrs. Hemming threw it into drive and screeched her tires on the way out of the parking lot.

  “Hey, Hadley can go to the mall with us today,” Brittany said, looking back at me.

  “That’s right, no more lame-oh Blaine-oh,” Steph added.

  I tried to look happy about it, but it was hard. Every Tuesday after tumbling, Blaine took me out for ice cream while the others went to the mall. It was probably the only time I could always count on him. But not anymore. I swallowed down my tears, tuned out the excited voices, and stared out the window the rest of the way.

  Once we got to tumbling, and the four trivials were there, all anyone wanted to do was talk about my upcoming date with Ty. I could tell it was getting on Mr. Ray’s nerves. He’s our tumbling coach, an old man in desperate need of some hair plugs. It was getting on my nerves too, because it was something I really didn’t want to think about. But it never ended. All the way through class, someone had something to say about Ty or where he might be taking me.

  I was just glad no-one was talking about it after tumbling when we stepped out of the gym and into the front office, because guess who was there?

  “Hey, Hadley,” Blaine said, standing up.

  “Blaine? What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I’m here to take you out for ice cream, just like I do every Tuesday. You didn’t think I’d miss it, did you?”

  The other girls walked around me and went outside. Only Nicole remained at my side.

  “I can’t just be friends with you, Blaine,” I said, painfully.

  “Then don’t.” He tried to kiss me, but I moved away.

  “We broke up for good. I told you I was serious this time.”

  Blaine just laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  I shook my head and headed for the door.

  Nicole held out a hand to stop him when he tried to follow me. “You’re too late. You shouldn’t have treated her so badly. So just move on.”

  Nicole and I went outside and climbed into Mrs. Hemming’s van. “Thanks, Nicole,” I said.

  “Don’t worry. Time heals all wounds. And he’s not worth a moment of suffering.” She must have known how hard this was for me.

  “To the mall, girls?” Mrs. Hemming asked.

  She was met with a chorus of, “Yeahs!” and “Wahoos!”

  As we pulled away, I had to look back at Blaine. He stood there on the sidewalk with a look of frustration on his face… his gorgeous, used-to-be-mine face… It took everything in me to turn away, instead of telling Nicole’s mom to stop the van and let me out. But somehow, surrounded by my five favorite people, I did.

  It was the strangest thing. For the next three days, Ty pretty much ignored me. He might offer me a grin or a wink in the hallway, but that was all. It was like the ride to the grocery store was a forbidden secret we shared.

  It always sent a thrilling little shock through my body when we had one of these strange interactions. I even sort of looked forward to Friday night. He was quickly becoming this great mystery I wanted to solve, a handsome man hiding behind a mask, even if I half expected him not to bother showing up.

  Blaine, on the other hand, seemed to pop up everywhere. Between half my classes, every lunch hour, before and after cheer practice, he was there wanting to talk to me. We’d never broken up for more than a couple of days, so he’d never had to try so hard. But I kept my resolve not to go back to him. It still hurt every time I saw him, though.

  I couldn’t decide if I was excited or terrified when the final bell rang that Friday afternoon. The happenings of the night were so uncertain.

  When I got to my locker to dump all my school stuff for the weekend, I saw a note sticking halfway out of the air vents. At first, I thought it was from Blaine. I ripped it out of the long slit through the dull metal, intent on shredding it into tiny pieces. How long would he keep torturing me like this?!

  Fortunately, I stopped mid-tear when I realized it was written on a napkin and my name wasn’t on the outside. Blaine always wrote my name in big, bold letters on the outside.

  I opened the makeshift note and discovered it was written in unfamiliar handwriting:

  * * *

  See you tonight.

  —T

  * * *

  I looked both ways, searching the crowded hallway for Ty. No sign of him. I leaned against my locker as I stared at the simple message, rubbing my thumb across each letter, and I had to smile.

  9

  Later that night, I was a total wreck. I couldn’t decide what to wear, how to do my hair, if I should accessorize. I was totally clueless. No matter how many times I told myself to stop freaking out, since he probably wouldn’t even show, I just—couldn’t—help it.

  “This guy must be something special.” My mom stopped in my doorway when she saw the disaster inside my room. Clothes still on hangers were laid over my bed and desk chair. Shoes had been scattered all over the floor.

  “It’s not the guy; it’s the date,” I said. “I have no idea what we’ll be doing.”

  “If you didn’t care about the guy, you wouldn’t care about the date.”

  Maybe she was right. I had spent the last three days obsessing over Ty a little. Fantasies of who he was and what we might be doing Friday night were constantly creeping into my thoughts. Not to mention that I hadn’t cared half this much what I looked like last Friday night with Blaine.

  “Do you want to have a snack with me before you go?” my mom asked.

  “I’m too nervous to eat, and I still don’t know what I’m gonna wear.” I held a blue dress in front of me so I could study it in the three giant side-by-side mirrors on my wall.

  “Why don’t you just wear what you’ve got on?”

  I moved the dress out of the way and stared at my navy blue jeans and black sweater with a row of shiny red X’s and O’s on the front. “My regular old school clothes? I feel like I should dress cuter.”

  “You look fine. Your school clothes are the only thing he’s ever seen you in, so it’s probably what he’s expecting you to wear.”

  She was right. And it would be sooo much easier to just stop worrying about it. “I guess so.”

  “I’ll help you hang these back up.” My mom picked up a handful of hangers as I pushed my shoes back under the bed in pairs.

  I decided to wear my favorite cherry and lime swirl strappy stilettos, so I could at least feel like I’d dressed up a little.

  “Come on, honey,” my mom said when my clothes were put away. “Let’s go downstairs and watch some TV until he gets here. That’ll help distract you.”

  “Just give me a sec.” I looked in my mirror once more to make sure my hair was perfectly straight. It’s pretty wavy and a little frizzy
naturally, so sometimes a wave or two creeps in during the day and I have to re-straighten it. “Okay.”

  My mom and I went to the living room and switched on the TV. The gold-rimmed clock hanging above it told me it was a quarter ‘til six.

  “What are you in the mood for?” my mom asked.

  “See if you can find a good reality show.”

  The doorbell rang just then, making me jump. “Well, he’s early. That’s nice for a change,” my mom said, standing up.

  I trailed toward the door behind her.

  She gasped when she opened the door and saw Ty standing on the porch. “Hadley, you didn’t tell me you were going out with Thomas Black’s son. What a wonderful surprise to see you here, Ty.”

  “It’s nice to see you again, too, Mrs. Cane,” Ty said. He was wearing a black leather riding jacket and held a helmet in one hand.

  “I forgot to tell you that you’ve met him before,” I said. Actually, I’d been forgetting a lot of things lately.

  “Well, you two have fun and be home by midnight, Hadley.” My mom gave me a big hug.

  “I will.”

  “Don’t worry,” Ty said. “I’ve gotta be in by eleven, so I’ll have her home before midnight.”

  I started to walk out the door.

  “Honey, wait, your purse.” My mom went to grab it off the couch, leaving me and Ty alone with only a very awkward silence between us.

  He looked so cool, standing there smiling at me. I doubted the same could have been said for me.

  “Here you go.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” I grabbed my black purse and walked outside.

  “Ever been on a bike before?” Ty asked me as the door closed behind us. He stopped at the edge of our long portico and held a hand out for me.

  “No.” I took his hand, figuring I should play along like I liked him.

  “That’s okay. Just hold on to me and you’ll be fine.”

  I noticed the shiny black bike parked in front of my house, catching a glint off the street lamp next door. “Is that yours?” I asked him.

  “It will be when I finish working off what it cost with my dad. I’m almost two thirds of the way there.”

  “But… how come you walk to school if you’ve got a bike?”

  “I only live a couple of blocks away. It seems pointless to pay for gas to get me there.”

  The whole bike thing got me wondering if he was a sophomore like me or not. I’d always just assumed. “How old are you?” I asked.

  “Sixteen. I’ll be seventeen in January.” He handed me the helmet he was holding when we got to his bike.

  “So you’re a junior?”

  “Yep.”

  He put on the helmet hanging from one of the handle bars. Then he swung his leg over the seat, reminding me of a cowboy climbing on a horse. “Ready?” he asked me, a dark stranger now hiding behind his helmet.

  I put mine on and swung my purse over my shoulder, praying it would remain there. Then I climbed on the bike behind him.

  “Hold on tight,” he said, revving it up. I barely got my feet off the ground before he took off. And then we were sailing over black pavement and weaving through cars. It was actually a lot of fun, except for the turns. Every time we tilted to the side I was sure we would wipe out at any moment, and my arms tightened around Ty.

  I didn’t realize where we were going until we got there. “Petee’s Cove?” I asked myself more than Ty, who I’m pretty sure didn’t even hear me. It was a pirate-themed family restaurant with a stage in the back. Actors performed as hilarious pirates every night. It was once my favorite place on earth. My parents and I used to go there every Friday night to laugh at the pirates, eat lots of hush puppies and fish, and play on the nautical claw machines. My dad almost always won something for me. But… my mom and I hadn’t been able to bring ourselves to come back since his death.

  The giant Petee Pirate on top of the restaurant waved his electronic hook-for-a-hand at me, like he was welcoming me back. He looked so cartoony with his gigantic, dopey smile and the friendly-looking lobster painted on his eyepatch.

  Ty pulled into a parking space and shut off his bike. He removed his helmet and smiled back at me. “You can let go now,” he said.

  I realized I was still clinging to him, too lost in my memories to bother letting go. “Sorry.” I climbed off the bike and removed my helmet.

  Ty pulled up the motorcycle seat and put his helmet underneath. “So, I know this place probably isn’t what you’re used to, but it looked like it might be fun.”

  “Actually… my family used to come here every weekend. I haven’t been here in years, though.”

  “Yeah? Why’d you stop coming? The food make you sick?”

  “No,” I looked down. “My dad died.”

  He took my helmet from me and put his arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry. We can go somewhere else.”

  I looked up at him. His face was only inches away from mine. His eyes shone with concern. I couldn’t explain it, but it put a warm deep attraction into me.

  Petee’s Cove might have actually been the best place he could’ve taken me, because it would definitely take my mind off my nerves. I didn’t really want to avoid it forever. So I figured I might as well dive back in with my masked man. “It’s all right. I have to face it sometime,” I finally said.

  “Okay.” He put my helmet next to his and locked them both under his seat. “I just didn’t want our first date to be so complicated.” He held me close at his side as we walked through the crowded parking lot.

  Guilt began swirling madly around with my nerves and sadness. What if he wanted more dates? And what if I wanted more, too? Nicole would never go for something like that. On the other hand, Ty seemed really sweet so I didn’t want to hurt him. I was seriously ticked off at Nicole for putting me in this position.

  10

  Ty and I walked through the submarine-style doors and were met by a familiar woman in red with a live parrot on her shoulder. It was the same hostess that used to seat my parents and me every Friday night.

  “Hadley?” she asked.

  “Hadley, Hadley, Hadley,” the parrot started squawking as it flapped its wings slightly, scaring me half to death. I flinched and grabbed Ty’s shirt, just like I used to do to my dad. How could I have forgotten that horrible thing? Ty slid his arm around me.

  “H—hi, Ms. Susan,” I managed to say.

  “Well I haven’t seen you in ages. How have you been?”

  “Fine.” I wondered if she knew about my dad.

  “It’s nice to see you back here. You’ve grown up just beautifully. So, you’ve graduated from dates with mom and dad to dates with boys?”

  “Yeah, thanks. You look great, too.”

  “You still like sitting up as close as you can get to the show?”

  I couldn’t believe she remembered. We would be harder to miss if we sat right by the stage, though. “Actually, it might be nice to sit in the back for a change.” I looked over at Ty.

  “The back sounds fine to me.”

  Ms. Susan picked up two menus and led us to a little circular table nearby, since the stage was on the opposite end of the room. “All right, your server will be with you in just a minute.”

  “Thanks.”

  Ty took the seat right next to mine and waited until she was gone to say anything. “So I’ve been wondering… why’d you ask me out, anyway? I always thought you were into jocks.”

  That was a hard question. It took me a minute to answer. “Maybe I figured out jock is just a nice way of saying jerk, and I never want to go out with one again.”

  “Hmm… Marksen must have hurt you pretty bad to turn you against an entire race of guys.”

  “It was a lot of things. Like all the times he never did what he said he would, and how he blew me off for his friends all the time, like he’s more worried about disappointing them than me… Last Friday night’s what really pushed me over the edge, though.” I watched Ty for a response, d
oubting he seriously wanted to be hearing this.

  He reached across the table for my hand. “Yeah?” he asked.

  “So—it was my sixteenth birthday. I planned everything around him, not my friends, not even my mom. And he calls when he’s supposed to be picking me up to let me know the team can’t handle watching a game without their precious star player and he’s not coming. I can only take so much, you know?”

  “Everyone has their limits. I wouldn’t do that, anyway, but you’ll never have to worry about me standing you up for someone else. You’ve probably noticed I’m kind of a loner.” We smiled quietly at each other for a moment.

  “Why are you—” I began, but was cut off by the waitress.

  “Can I start you off with something to drink?” I recognized Cindy from school, under the heavily-feathered pirate’s hat. “Oh, hey, Hadley. Hey, Bl—” She stopped when she saw Ty and his hand over mine. “Sorry. I thought, um, what can I get you to drink?”

  “I’ll just have water,” I said.

  “I’ll have a coke,” Ty added.

  “Do y’all know what you want to order yet?”

  Ty and I looked at each other. “If you like fried fish and hush puppies, you’ll love theirs,” I said.

  “That sounds good. We’ll have two orders.”

  Cindy scribbled on her notepad. “All right, I’ll be back in just a few minutes.” She glanced back a couple of times on her way to the kitchen.

  “What were you asking before she got here?” Ty asked me.

  “I was just gonna ask why you’re such a loner?” He seemed normal so far, cool, even.

  “Why not? Kids are cruel, especially in high school. They just seem like a waste of time to me. Most of them, anyway.” He gave my hand a little squeeze. “I don’t mind spending time with you. You’re not like everyone else. And you’re not like Nicole. I’ve always wondered why you’re even friends.”