Chapter 2

By the time I got to the gym it was crowded with students. Lines leading up to coaches went from them to a random direction away. The girl walked over to me once her eyes searched. My eyes found where the football team was and stared.

“Reconsidering the football offer? Want me to go with you to get your name down?” She grabbed my arm. A tug came after and I planted my feet.

“I can do this on my own! Having you come might make me seem weaker.” I said. Her face twisted as she processed the thought.

“Hopefully you see me on the sidelines cheer on the squad. That is, when he gives you a position on the field.” The girl let go and went into the girls’ locker room. Cheering on the squad? Could a guy be eligible to do that?

A boy was leaning against the wall. His eyes were in the direction of the cheer line. He was about my height and not as physically active as he could be. I know most guys might try to be the only one around a group of girls with the spotlight on them. I’m not one of those guys though.

“You thinking about joining them?” I asked.

“Does it matter to you? What if I did think about joining them?” he asked.

The line of girls ended and the one coach spoke up. “Last call for anyone wanting to try out for the cheer team!” I walked over and stood in front of her. “Can I help you, sir?”

“I would like to sign up for the cheer team, ma’am.” I answered. Her eyes examined me. Did I word it in a creepy way?

“And what is your name?” she asked.

Now it would be crazy to give out the town name, but my full name is even worse. Let’s just imagine I only needed to say my first name for now. “Matt. Is it okay if I just watch today and come ready tomorrow?” She nodded and handed me a piece of paper. It contained details about what they do, requirements for junior varsity and varsity.

“Matt. Do you know anyone else who is planning to try out?” Something about the way she asked said it was a bad relationship between us already. I looked over at the boy against the wall and pointed my thumb.

“He mentioned wanting to but is convinced people will laugh and call him names if he does.” She looked over and waved him over. He rushed over and stood next to me.

I could tell he was nervous about this. Thought of what I did and anger probably formed. “You head up to the other gym and wait. The other coach should be there already.” She glared at me. Two people were mad at me already and more will be when that girl and my parents find out about this. Speaking of which…

A girl came out of the locker room wearing pink nike pro shorts and a thin, gray short sleeved shirt with the school name on it. Everything seemed familiar from the long, black hair, the Caucasian skin, body size and shoe size besides the red eye changing back to hazel as she walked closer.

Sneering sounds came out of her demonically mad lips as the paper and half drank water bottle came into view. As I said, one more mad person. “What are you doing out here? Isn’t football try outs held OUTSIDE?” The cold hands of distaste flew from her eyes and into mine like a platoon of armed angels.

“I said I would look and see. My new friend also said they didn’t want to try out alone today.” The sneering sort of fell apart as new information kicked in.

She continued up the stairs with an indefinite facial expression written across. I followed her in suit like this girl was my only guide forward. When we got up to the gyms, I felt an urge to run and spread out my wings to release the pain. My conscience, the laws written millions of years ago for this job, held back that urge like it was a rampaging bull.

No one else was in there. The ceiling was somewhere between four or five of me standing on top of each other. About seven lined up blue things, rolled up, were lined against one of the walls. There was just enough space to line them up sideways from wall to wall.

“If you are serious about that paper, start rolling those up with me.” One by one straps were taken off and placed against the wall. I proceeded to unroll whatever these were across the floor. The boy came in wearing a new outfit than before. He had on black basketball shorts and a blue shirt that had a cougar on it. It was time to meet my new friend.

“Hey there! Do you mind giving us a hand?” I waved over to him while grabbing the bottom of a rolled out thing. He slowly walked over to the girl who was pointing down next to her.

Now I’m not someone who gets jealous about anything. Other people use to tell me about how jealous someone else was of another person, but it has never been the other way around. Today I felt that when he was accepted here and I wasn’t. Was it because I got louder and he was the shy one?”

“We need to pull the mats back so there are spaces on either side.” The girl said. “We’ll go first so you know where to stop. You ready?” The boy nodded and started pulling. Both of them stopped when they reached the middle. I followed their way and started unrolling more “mats.” 

After everything was rolled out and pulled into place we sat down against the wall everything used to be at. No one else had come up yet. And no one knew another’s name.

“So… Everyone here doesn’t know our names right?” I asked trying to break the irritating silence. Both of them kept quiet and looked away from me. “I’ll start. I’m Matt, the town I live in is full of atheist and people think I am strange because of my obsession to wear wind breakers outside.”

I looked over at the boy who was probably really mad at me. “I’m Max, the town I live in is quiet and calm and my parents work in a science laboratory.”

The girl started chugging a water bottle after Max finished. We both watched and waited for her to finish. Three more girls from the gym came in carrying rolls of blue stuff. They placed the rolls on the ground and began to talk.

“My name is Brendely, but no one remembers that.”

“Is there a reason why they don’t remember? Are you like me and come from a town, far enough away, that your old friends would choose to stay there?” The three of us sat in silence. My brain was swirling with ideas.

Other girls started coming in and talking to each other. Brendely stood up. She moved her arms in circles going forward. “Okay Max! If you are starting today, you should follow me to start stretching.” Max stood up and copied her. I sat back and watched as around 50 girls crowded into a gym. My luck was fine until a group of three walked over…