Ch 13: Head B***h In Charge

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TYLER POV - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I ran past the defender at the end of the field, positioned myself, and kicked the ball towards the goal. The keeper missed it by an inch. My practice team roared as I ran to them. That was my 4th goal of the day.
"Way to go, Giamatti!" Jake shouted, catching up and punching my shoulder.
"Bring it in, bring it in!" the coach yelled, scrambling to round us all together. "We have a few more days of this intense schedule and then the team will be picked. If you want this, you will work for it. You will prove yourself."
At this point, I was zoning out. Coach always drowned himself in these deep and "life-changing" speeches as if we all just won the nobel peace prize, or created the first living community on the moon. After what seemed like ages, "Get to the showers!" was bellowed and I ran to the locker room with the rest of the guys.
"We got this, we'll make it," Blake said, pulling his cleets off.
"Ah, I hope," I sighed, sitting down and pulling all my sweat-drenched clothes off. I grabbed my towel and hit the showers, letting the warm water ease my mind.

I pulled my hoodie up over my head, grabbed my duffel, and started walking back to the field with Jake. He was skimming through his phone and suddenly began laughing hysterically. I stared at him strangely until he cracked.
"Logan just sent me this video of these two idiots who sing acoustic versions of Weezy's songs," he managed to let out, laughing even harder. He pretended to play air guitar and began singing in a high pitched tone, "Girl I got that dope d---come here, lemme dope you!"
I couldn't contain myself and erupted with laughter as I watched him prance around with his air guitar. We laughed all the way until we reached the entrance gate to the field. I saw the rows upon rows of empty stands, the track team running their usual laps, and the coach gathering all the soccer balls.
"Dude!" Jake howled, "look!"
I looked in his direction and saw Kelly standing before the cheerleading team, holding the clipboard.
"I'm looking in the direction of Kelly, why?" I asked, rolling my eyes.
"New girls, dude....NEW GIRLS," he winked, walking towards the bleachers and taking a seat. I laughed and sat next to him and pulled up my phone. No new text messages. I sighed, laid back, and watched the field. I passed through the crowd until I couldn't believe what I saw. I looked over at Jake in surprise, but he finished the sentence in my head for me.
"IT'S JC!" he whispered, shaking me. We both sat there, glancing surprised looks to each other.
"No way," he said, laughing lightly, "I bet she'll beat Kelly at her own game."
I didn't have anything to say, I just stood there frozen and watched her stretch. Her spandex shorts stopped just below her bottom, her tank top cut off above her belly button and hugged her waist tightly . Her hair was tied back and flew everywhere as she bent down to grab her toes. Her flat stomach tightened as she touched her other toe. Her long legs glowed under the soft sunlight, the sweat shining off of her neck and chest. I couldn't help myself.
"Wow," I mouthed out.
"Right?" Jake asked, leaning back, "she's so...," he trailed off. I raised an eyebrow and looked at him.
"She's so, what? If I may ask," I asked, slyly.
"Naw, not like that. I just didn't know she was that fit. Looks like she works out...or something," he finished. I looked back at her as she got up and laughed while talking to her friends. I couldn't help but smile. She was so...pretty. It was insane. They all got into a line as Kelly handed them pom-poms. JC grabbed hers and held them while putting her hands on her hips.
"So this is what cheerleaders have to go through," Jake laughed as he watched Kelly teach them the routine. One by one the girls redid the routine in front of her. The ones who failed, were told to sit out. It was JC's turn.
I bit my lip and sat up.
"We all know where this is going to go," Jake sighed, pulling his hood up. I was hoping nothing would rise from the situation at hand, but Kelly was the captain of the squad and she would probably get away with anything she wanted. Kelly queued the music and JC stood in her spot. She began dancing, moving her body precisely to the music. She spinned and threw her pom-poms to the ground.
"What?" Jake asked, getting anxious.
JC ran and ran and then flipped and landed into the splits. My jaw dropped as I watched her body stretch and reach the ground. She lifted her arms up, did the stupid cheer, and smiled. I looked at Jake and we laughed and high-fived each other. She definitely had to have made the team. Before we could continue our giddy fan-girl celebration, Kelly cut the music and began yelling. We both stopped laughing and tensed up. All I could make out was "not apart of it!" She moved into JC's face and grabbed her pom-poms.
"TYLER! JAKE! Get down here!" was randomly heard from below. I searched for the voice and my gaze met Coach. I sighed, helped Jake up and ran down the bleachers to meet the Coach on the field with the rest of the players. He handed us papers to get signed and started speaking about try-outs and the procedures involved. To the side of us, Kelly was screaming her lungs out, about 10 feet away.
"You want to change up the routine? Then fine, let's see you change it up," she said through clenched teeth.
"I just added a stunt, it's no big deal," JC re-butted.
"Girls, get in a group. She's going to be the flyer."
The girls stood there and didn't move. "What are you waiting for? Hurry up," Kelly barked.
"But Kelly," Alison interrupted, "we can't make the try-outs do any stunts. Coach said not to."
"I don't care. We're doing it. Get ready to be tosssed," she mentioned to JC while gathering with the girls.
"What?" JC asked, confused.
"You're being tossed," she mentioned bluntly.
"Tossed? Tosses weren't mentioned, I'm not doing a toss, someone could get hurt," JC refuted.
"It's the toss or you're done."
JC stood there and moved her hair out of her face. She sighed and glanced a look towards Robbie, her eyes pleading for a yes or no answer to the request. Robbie nodded. JC stretched her arms and walked into the middle of the circle. I balled my fists our of anger and tried not to get up, or else I'd get the lecture of a lifetime by Coach. Was Kelly out of her mind? This was getting dangerous. The girls lifted JC's legs as she tried her hardest to keep her body straight. My mind was about to explode, I couldn't keep it in. Every move the girls made, every time JC's body flinched, I tensed up and wanted to kick my soccer ball towards Kelly's head. JC was slowly being lifted; she had to be 6 feet from the ground.
"You're not doing it right!" she shouted, shoving her way into the circle. One by one, each girl 's arm gave out and JC hit the ground. I lost it; I almost rose to get up but Jake held me down furiously. I watched as Robbie ran towards her to help her up; she was having a hard time get up. The anger built in me every second I watched her hold her head, trying to get up. Who could be so down right horrendous like this?
"Jordyn! Are you okay?" Robbie shouted, trying to help her up. The rest of the girls ran over and crowded around her, blocking my view. This just made things worse. I couldn't see anything. Was she okay? What was happening?
"Is she okay?"
"Oh, no, this isn't good, Kelly," Alison shouted from the crowd. All the girls bent down and eventually I saw the top of JC's head as she got up. She shook her head a few times and held her side.
"HEY, HEY, HEY!" a woman screamed, breaking the group up that surrounded JC, "What's going on here? Why was she on the ground?" the woman questioned, a look of pure shock on her face. "Who allowed tosses to be made?" she asked. Everyone got quiet.
"Kelly did," Alison said softly, looking towards the ground. She got ratted out by a close friend.
"She changed the f*****g routine coach, she tried to be the big shot. This is my squad," Kelly babbled on angrily.
"I made it clear NO tosses would be made," the coach said sternly, walking towards JC. She put her hand on her shoulder and began asking her questions.
"I'm fine, really," JC replied, "It was just a bad fall. No big deal."
"No big deal?" Robbie asked, "the captain of your squad is not mentally stable to hold down an entire squad, or try-outs for that matter," she added furiously. I felt her anger and watched the whole ordeal. JC walked to the benches and drank some water. The coach pulled Kelly into the locker room and the girls dispersed.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow at 7 am," the coach ended, "If you're going to be late, don't show up at all."
I got up immediately with Jake and we casually walked over to the bleachers. JC was standing by the cheer coach, smiling and shaking her hand. She laughed as she conversed with the coach. I stared at her in disbelief. Here was a girl who got bullied and pressured into doing something she had never done before, was slammed into the ground, and still managed to laugh and smile. She was just amazing. She walked to the bleachers to Robbie. She threw JC a water bottle and they were still smiling. Robbie took her water bottle and walked behind JC, as she was stretching. She poured the water down her neck slickly and within seconds, JC was squealing and laughing as she got up from the stretch. The water trickled down her collarbone, her chest, her stomach. This was getting intoxicating and it was getting harder to cover it up. We walked closer and JC met my eyes as she laughed and wiped the water away.
"Hey, Tyler," she laughed, grabbing a towel.
I smiled as I approached her, "So I had no idea cheerleading was another forte of yours."
She laughed and wiped the water off of her body with her towel, "It really isn't, I didn't want to but miss let's-get-more-involved-Robbie over here said we should get involved, so we are." She sat down and pulled her shoes off, to reveal her socks.
"Tinkerbell socks?" Jake asked, amused.
"What?" she asked, laughing, "they're cute!"
"How childish," Jake added in an english accent. She smiled and crinkled her nose as she rummaged through her bag.
"I apologize for my partial nudity," she said in an english accent, looking for her clothes.
I laughed and sat next to her. Her body looked ten times better up close and I wasn't looking at it in a I-want-to-do-her-now kind of way, but more of a i-had-no-idea-anyone-could-be-so-beautiful way.
"Are we still working on our project, tonight?" she asked, pulling her sweatshirt out and slipping it on.
"If you're okay and can still make it," I said softly. She stopped and looked over at me, questioning my words with her intense eyes. "I saw what happened...with the cheer and the toss and Kelly," I sighed.
"Oh that?" she asked, "pffft, she's got nothing on me," she added with a smile, getting up and throwing her bag over her shoulder and picking up her books. My mind cleared and I just had this huge, sappy grin covering my face about the fact that nothing Kelly did bothered her.
"Well then," I began, grabbing her books, "I'll take these and walk you."
I was lost in JC world that I didn't even notice Jake and Robbie having an in-depth conversation about sports.
"Try-out for sport number one can be crossed off," JC said cooly, touching knuckles with Robbie.
"See you tomorrow for round 2!" she laughed, as she grabbed her things and walked off. Jake said his goodbye and walked to the other side of the school. It was just me and her. I looked down at her and smiled until she looked up. "What's round 2?" I asked, laughing.
"You'll see," she said suspiciously, "be at the field at 4 if you really want to see."
"I'll be there," I said, smiling and putting one arm around her, walking to her car. She unlocked the car and then bent down to pop the trunk. Her hair fluttered in the wind lightly as she shivered.
"Why does it have to be so cold?" she asked, teeth chattering and all.
"Well maybe you should put some real pants on!" I joked, pointing to her sweatshirt that fell long past her shorts from earlier, showing nothing but her long and softly tanned legs.
She hit me playfully and pouted as the wind picked up. I laughed and tried to pull her into a hug, but she moved back a step.
"Aw, c'mon," I whined, holding my arms open.
"Oh Tyler, can you manage to hug someone who doesn't have...REAL pants?" she asked in a dramatic voice, putting the back of her hand to her forehead like in those overly-dramatic soap operas.
I laughed and walked towards her like a monster until her back touched her car.
"Looks like you have no where else to go," I said in a deep voice. She pretended to be scared but ended up laughing as I put my arms around her. I wrapped my arms around her a little bit tighter and smiled.
"I'll see you in a little bit," she said, crinkling her nose while looking up at me. I tried not to let my emotions about her letting me go show but I smiled and thought about dinner later on.
"Later it is. My mom's excited to see you," I added with a laugh.
"Really?" she asked, standing up straight, "Excited? To see ME?"
"Yes, you," I said, poking her nose softly.
She squealed in excitement, hugged me one more time, and then sped off to grab her things for our project and then dinner after. I sat in my car and thought about how much I had fallen for her. It had been a few months and I knew what I wanted. I wanted her. To be mine and only mine.

Reviews

[Joy Njoroge]

Zee,
This was really good. He's exactly the kind of guy I have always wanted, so it really connected with me. Try and show who Tyler is before you start talking about him. I was a little lost because I had no idea that he had a name, in the previous chapters you talked about him as just a guy. But overall that was amazing, you have a talents. Keep writing.
Joy Njoroge