Westbrook Academy for Metahumans: Forums

"Hey, hey, what do you say? Welcome to cheer squad!" Peyton called, walking into the gym with a bounce in her step. Both Coach Kerry and Armstrong sat in the bleachers. Kerry looked up from her texting to offer Peyton a thumbs up, while Coach Armstrong sat stoic, perfect posture, arms crossed over his chest, dark sunglasses covering his eyes even though the lights in the gym weren’t all that bright.

Shyeah, that’s not too intimidating. Peyton muttered as she set her stereo system down. She turned to face the squad, relaxing a little when she saw Sondra's encouraging smile. Maybe Sondra was super friendly, or maybe being theater folk she recognized stage fright when she saw it, but in any case, it was appreciated.

“All right, first, thanks y’all for showing up, and for wanting to be a Westbrook athlete. I say athlete, on account of cheering is one of the most athletic sports going. Done right? It combines dance with tumbling and stunts like pyramids, stands and tosses. Done wrong, it's actually the sport with the most injuries per state in the US. Back home, our motto was 'if cheering were easier, we'd call it football.' " She smiled for a second at the memory, and Lauren offered a chuckle in response. "We're gonna be learning some of the basics to start out with, learn to crawl before we soar and all, so if you're all set, let's give it a go!" She offered Mia a hand up. Mia had been sort of playing with a shoe lace, almost trying not to be noticed, so for now, Peyton put her in the center. On either side from her were Lauren and Sondra. Peyton stepped back for a second, framing things out with her fingers like a director. She'd seen Becca do that several times back home, but she couldn't see how it made that big of a difference. "Etienne, you're going to be right here." She led the tall boy to the center behind Mia. Up until that point, he looked like he could either be going to a football game or a funeral, it was tough to tell. "Wyatt? Same line as Et, only a little to the left of Sondra, there you go." Wyatt blushed hearing his name, either that or he'd suddenly sunburned his cheeks and ears, but at least he wasn't burying his face in his hands like she'd seen him do on occasion. Sondra still had the encouraging smile, hands on her hips, looking right at home, like she belonged center stage, and with the way she danced? She did. "Ar, same thing, only to the right of Lauren there." Ar was hard to read. It was almost a mix of enthusiasm and boredom. Maybe it was sarcasm. Maybe it was a 'cyborg thing.' Lauren almost looked too serious like the start of a skating program was about to begin, so Peyton pointed to both of her cheeks and smiled, Lauren quickly catching on and doing the same thing. "Now, Jeremy..." If they'd been outside, she'd half expect him to be chasing a butterfly. "Jer? Over here." She stood exactly where she wanted him to be to show him, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up slightly from static as he approached. But he was wide eyed and enthusiastic and she found his attitude catching. She smoothed her hair back down and squared out the team again with her fingers. They'd mix it up later for pyramids and stuff, but for now, it would work, and more importantly, no one would severely hurt anyone else.

"First up, I'm gonna call it out when we're ready." That's what Becca did, start of every practice. "I'll give an 'All-Set', you echo me back with a 'You Bet.' Yes, it's bad poetry, but it's what we do. So what do you say?" Peyton clapped twice for emphasis. "All Set?"

Etienne nodded. "Seem like de same as when de houghan call us all out to rites. She call out, and we call back, let de Loa know we coming 'round."

Peyton raised an eyebrow, trying to make the correlation between a ready, set, and a ... what's a houghan? She shook her head.

"Maybe, only this is more like to let your teammates know we're gonna start, in case routine starts with a T." Peyton put her feet together, both her arms outstretched to the sides like a letter T. "Someone walking by you could take a nasty hit." She mimed getting punched in the face, stunt man style. "Remember when I said cheering had more injuries than any other sport? You'll take hits, get punched, elbowed, kicked in the teeth, dropped, twist stuff, sprain stuff. I'd like to think of it as good conditioning for patrols, really."

Jeremy put his arms out to the side like a T, following Peyton's example. Then he realized that nobody else had done it, so he put his arms back down. Maybe they weren't supposed to be following her example yet? He didn't wonder about that for long, as Peyton moved on to mention injuries and patrol. "Oh wow! You didn't mention that this helps with patrol, I get punched and kicked and stuff on patrol all the time!"

"You don't say..." Peyton snickered, trying to keep a straight face. "Cheering helps with everything,co-ordination, physical conditioning, but most of all? With teamwork. Cheerleading is all about teamwork, working together, making each other look better. Helping each other out." She walked around to his side, showing him a "T" again, reminding him to keep his feet together. He enthusiastically followed, and luckily Peyton's reflexes kept her from catching a "T" fist to the teeth. "Teamwork."

Coach Kerry looked up a few times to write something on a clipboard during cheer practice. Peyton wished one of them would say something, anything, or just go away. Armstrong, well, he was probably sleeping behind those dark glasses.

But over all? Peyton thought it went great. They covered some basics, Hi V's, Lo V's, T's, H's and Candlesticks. Both Lauren and Sondra could do near perfect heel stretches. And Mia, after a little practice, she could hold her own with a liberty. She just had to work on her confidence. Sondra and Lauren, you could tell. They had 'it'. They could play to a crowd, even when the only crowd was two phys ed teachers off to the side.

Wyatt.... He wavered back and forth. You could tell he had some sort of athletic ability, but it was almost as if he was afraid to break anything. Etienne, for all of his seven feet was pretty graceful, which was good considering Peyton reckoned he could break something if he put his all into foot stomping. And Jeremy? Jeremy was super enthusiastic, and at times surprisingly well co-ordinated. At other times, Peyton was once again glad she was quick because Jeremy was energetic and enthusiastic and vaguely aware there were other people in the gym. He would definitely wow the crowd, if he could stay focused. But he looked like he was having fun, that's what counted.

But the surprise break out to Peyton was Ar. Arthur Rawlings, the boy people warned her was full of piss and vinegar and more piss to top it off. The boy she worried was only joining the squad to cause a big enough stink that he'd get to wear a skirt on cheer squad as a fashion statement. Mr. Awesome himself.

He was good. He was beyond good, and she'd have told him if she wasn't worried about his head fitting back out through the locker room door. Everyone lined up for some basic cartwheel/cartwheel-roundoff/cartwheel drills, and Arthur Rawlings, gave a perfect right-to-left cartwheel/cartwheel-roundoff/cartwheel. On his way back left to right, no springboard mats, he cartwheel-roundoffed into two backflips then a no handed back flip into a reverse front tuck. Effortlessly! Becca likely would have gone off about breaking routine, it didn't matter what you *could* do - just how well you matched what everyone else was doing, but Peyton was too busy trying to look unimpressed while picking her jaw off the floor at the same time.

She clapped for them, all of them after practice. Coach Kerry even stood up to clap, tucking her clipboard under her arm. Coach Armstrong... maybe he died. It was tough to tell. He did help put the mats down by making them super light.

"All right, so... great! Everyone did fantastic, it was an amazing first practice! Next week, we're going to get a basic routine down, and if we have time? Maybe a basic, very, very basic pyramid. There's a cooler full of juices by the locker room, and if you didn't get a uniform yet, it's just because the dry cleaners are taking their sweet time is all. See you all next week!"

“Sondra. Psst. You awake?” Peyton whispered loudly from her bed.

“No....” Sondra slightly groaned. “Wait, what time is it?”

“Five-thirty.”

“Five thirty?” Sondra whispered back.

“In fairness? That’s almost noon in England.” Peyton said in her normal voice, propping up on her elbow to face her roommate.

“Ten-thirty.” Sondra giggled, lifting her head off her pillow. “It would be 10:30 in London. Having lived here for four years, I am fairly used to Eastern Standard. Everything okay?”

“Oh yeah, fine, it’s fine. I was just thinking.”

“About?”

"Well, first I thought of going for a run, but I ran yesterday. So then I was thinking about going out to the field to work on a new routine I could teach the squad, but that made me miss Kayla Culepepper because she would come over sometimes to help me work on new stuff. Then I thought that it’s a shame I couldn’t just run home and work with Kayla Culepepper, which made me wonder if I could actually do that, but then I figured if I did, I might be too pooped to pom pom it up when I did get there. After that, I figured that maybe I’d see if you were up and if you wanted to come to the field with me to work on some stuff so the Mustangs can get started on a few routines, but then I figured you might not be a morning person so then I thought that I’d wait and ask you after school, but then I remembered I have a book report due so I might have to work on that, and then I thought about the book that I read because it had a really sad ending. So then I figured maybe I’d ask you after dinner, but then I remembered that sometimes Kayla Culepepper would upchuck if she cheered on a full stomach, but then I thought...”

Sondra snickered again, pulling aside the covers. “I would be glad to help.”

“Great! I’ll meet you on the field in five minut.” The look on Sondra’s face told her she might need a little longer. “Ten?... Fifteen?”

“Twenty. “ Sondra replied, causing Peyton to giggle from the bathroom where she was already brushing her teeth.

“Slowpoke!”

Out on the field, the sun crested the bleachers. Sondra stood at the ready. Peyton cued up her MP3 through the speakers of her system, and the cheer mix started. It was generic, dowloaded from the net and it combined a lot of crowd favorites with some great jazzed up transitions. Firework, Tick Tock, Just Dance, Dynomite, and Gonna be a Good Night, Just like they practiced earlier, Sondra was perfectly in step. In her head Peyton pictured where the rest of the squad would be and what they were doing, while counting the 8 beat out loud for Sondra. She broke each song into four 8 counts of dance, each with an 8 count of transition between them. This way, everything could be practiced in segments.

“Five, six, seven, eight!” Sondra followed the moves fluently as the transition led into Ke$ha’s Tick-Tock. Sure it was overused, but there was a reason. Great beat, and what could be better than performing tick-tocks to a song with the same name. “Good! A little less jazz, and a little more stomp the yard. Cheering is a little more rigid than dance. Lock your joints.” Peyton demonstrated the 8 count, and Sondra scowled for a second.

“Let’s do it again, from the start of the transition then..” She said determinedly, spinning her finger for emphasis. Peyton giggled.

“You don’t need to get the whole thing this morning. Rome wasn’t built in one day.”

“From the start of the transition?” Sondra asked again. Peyton smiled, and back-tracked the music. Sure enough, Sondra locked her joints and the whole segment just popped. Peyton clapped and pressed stop right as Sondra hit her walk-over.

“You got it! That was amazing! A-may-zing. There are no other words.” Peyton cheered. Sondra smiled confidently.

“Right. So let’s take it one more time, from the start of the transition.” She replied, but Peyton shook her head.

“You nailed it, Sondra, and we have plenty of other mornings to practice. What we don’t have is plenty of time til class starts. We’ve been at it near two hours already.”

“Already?” Sondra asked, as if it was no sweat. Peyton nodded.

“All ready. Tell you what, I’ll go buy us a couple of smoothies for breakfast, right after I shower up. Plenty of time, because....”

“You’re fast.” Sondra finished for her with a grin. She picked up her towel and water bottle from the stands while Peyton grabbed her radio.

“And?” She added with a grin before taking off. “Like you with this cheer routine, I’m already half-way there!”

With Sondra to demonstrate, it was much easier to work with the squad. Sondra could break the routine down into a slow eight count leaving Peyton to keep an eye on the squad itself, rather than trying to demonstrate and watch at the same time.

"Five, Six, Seven, Eight!" It'd be great if she could spend the 75 bucks for something custom, but it's not like anyone would notice that it was the same music used in the state finals in Topeka.

"Ar! Excellent. Etienne! Good, but less hips. Step clap, step-step clap. Lauren! Good! But Flex your foot on the heel stretch, you don't have to point your toes. Hold it for the full four until the transition. Mia! Looking good, you're going to go into a Liberty here until we get you up to heel stretches. Jeremy!" Peyton smiled. Was he really hearing a different beat?

"I can count to eight just fine!" Jeremy said enthusiastically. He'd been counting out loud the entire time, and he was actually following which move went with which count. Of course, half the time he was on six while everyone else was on four, but now and again he'd lap everyone and sync up.

"Dang straight, and you're doing great!" She encouraged, herding him a little to the left so he wouldn't trip up into Ar.

"Wyatt!" Peyton glanced in his direction. Wyatt didn't even answer. He was there, he was sort of following along, but he was still a million miles away. "Wyatt?" Peyton snickered as she zipped up beside him, tapping him on the shoulder. "Forget your Ritalin? It's a good thing we're not practicing tosses today. " She shot him a smile to show she wasn't really serious, then flickered back up to the front.

"One more time, from the top. Then I got an ice chest full of rocket pops which are the perfect post-cheer treat."

(And because a thread about Cheer Squad shouldn't *always* be cheerful...)

“Forget your Ritalin? It's a good thing we're not practicing tosses today.”

Peyton smiles as she says it, but I know she’s serious too. I was out of it again, watching Mia, watching her move, watching her hair bounce and fly around her face as she practices. It’s hard to watch. Especially after yesterday.

What got into me? It was like... like I lost my mind. It was Mia’s idea to go swimming in Talos, but for me to lure her so far out to that rock, just to get her alone, and then to try to...

Am I as user like Heidi? It sure felt that way when we swam back to the beach and Krista was there with Brook. I'm not sure which hurt worse -- the daggers of anger Brook was looking at me with or Krista's hiding her reaction behind sunglasses. If not for my feelings for Mia, Krista and I might have...

“Wyatt!” Peyton calls again.

Focus. Practice. Take your mind off of Mia. Don’t think about her. Don’t watch her. Don’t love her.

“Hey Patton!” Jeremy called walking onto the field waving a hand frantically even though he was less than ten yards from Peyton. It was easier to just respond than correct him at this point.

“Hiya Jeremy. Thanks for coming out.”

“No problem! I thought we just had practice yesterday though?” Jeremy asked.

“We did, we did, this is just extra...” she thought for a second. She didn’t want to discourage him. Extra help would sound like he needed extra help, which he did, and a lot of it.

“Extra credit?” He finished for her, his blue eyes all sparkly and inquisitive.

“Yeah. Sure. We’ll go with that.”

“I didn’t know you can get extra credit in cheer squad.” Me either.

“Well, you can! Plus it’ll really help me out with next practice. Get a guy’s perspective. Think you can do that?”

“I know I can!”

“Great, then. All set?! “

“All set!” He called enthusiastically, punching forward a big thumbs-up that would have stopped mere inches from her jaw if she hadn't dodged fast. “Oh, Wait! No! I mean, you bet!” She dodged again, just in case.

“You bet.” She replied with a chuckle.

Peyton checked her clipboard. Plan A.

Jeremy. Jeremy. Jeremy. Even though he was a rock climber, he really didn’t have the upper body strength to be a base for stands. Then again, even if he did have the upper body strength, he didn’t have the concentration. On top of that? He’d involuntarily shock you. Peyton likened it to rubbing your socks on a carpet then touching something metal. Even worse, the one time Peyton stood on his shoulders with him holding onto her ankles, the hair on her head was so fly-away from static, it looked like she’d put a finger in a socket.

“All right, this just isn’t going to work.” Peyton told him as she wobbled. Jeremy was bouncing on his toes to the beat of the music.

“You mean this song? I think it works great!” He exclaimed, moving his hips back and forth. Peyton got a shock as she touched his head using it to steady herself to jump down before falling.

After picking herself back up, she checked her clipboard, crossing out Plan A and moved on to Plan B.

Long ago, like in the 80’s, The Mustangs had a mascot, affectionately known as the Iron Horse. It was an awful gray color with a maroon mane and accents. Maybe Jeremy could be the next Iron Horse. Mascots were goofy, right? Lexington had a minor league ball team, the Ducks, and Peyton loved Quacker Jack as a kid. Everyone loved the Philly Phanatic guy. Mascots were energetic, charismatic, everything Jeremy was rolled into one.

“It smells like bad soup in here.” He complained, his voice echoing when she helped him slip into the giant head.

“I think you’ll get habituated to it in a minute or two, then it’ll go away.”

“I don’t want to get habituated to anything! Just say no!”

“It’s not that form of... I meant you’ll get used to it is all.”

“Oh.” He paused for two full seconds. “Patton? I’m still not used to it.”

The horse head turned out to be a disaster. Surprise. Jeremy couldn’t see all that well out of it, so he ended up tripping into the bleachers a few times. Peyton could see that going over REAL well if he stumbled into the guys on the bench. His static caused all the hair on the horses mane to stand on end. And finally, when she asked him to try a few simple dance steps, Jeremy got so into the music that he literally flung the horse head off his body onto the field. Peyton crossed off Plan B, then slowly walked over to the horse head and mimed shooting it with a pump action shotgun to put it out of its misery.

Plan C.

“Okay, all you have to do is run the length of the field carrying this big flag.” She told him, handing him a four foot pole with a large silk gray and maroon flag attached to it.

“Why does it have a big W on it?”

“It’s for Westbrook. The name of the school.”

“Look! If I hold it upside down, it’s an M for Mustangs!” Jeremy near took Peyton out swinging the flag around but she ducked in the nick of time.

“That’s right! It is! But we need it to be a W. All you have to do is follow this white line down , cross behind the goal posts and come back up.”

“Those goal posts?” Peyton ducked as Jeremy spun around again with the large flag pole over his shoulder.

“Those goal posts.” She ducked once more as he turned to give her a thumbs up.

“Almost forgot!” He said, spinning around again, causing her again to duck. “ALL SET?!” He yelled at the top of his lungs. Peyton couldn’t help but laugh.

“You bet.” Instead of ducking, Peyton zipped to midfield where it seemed safer.

She watched Jeremy travel the length of the field, and she remembered back to when she was dating Jason Cross, a running back who played ice hockey in the off season. They watched this hockey movie “Slapshot” and in one scene, a hockey player smacked an entire bench full of players with his stick when he skated by. That would be Jeremy with the flag. He’d likely take out their team, part of the crowd, part of... She winced as he caught the flag on the goal post and went sprawling on the ground.

“I’m okay!” He called across the field. “I’m okay.”

“You're okay.” She called back, shaking her head while crossing off another letter on her list.

PLAN D.

Peyton pulled a large megaphone out of her duffel bag. It was blue and white and said “Wildcats!” but she doubted he could do much damage with it. Actually after everything with the big flag, she didn’t so much doubt it. Likely he could and would find a way.

“All right! The most important job there is, leading the cheers!” It was a line. She said it with a straight face, but it was still a line. “The key thing to remember, don’t put your mouth too close to the megaphone. Sound will pick up better if you’re about six inches back from it. Got it?”

“Got it!” He replied as she handed him the megaphone. “I mean, ALL SET?” Peyton closed her eyes until her ears stopped ringing.

“Scratch that. The key thing is to remember that your voice will carry, so you shouldn’t stand very close to someone when using a megaphone. Now, how about we work on some basic chants?”

“That would be great! I can chant! Just like those monks!” He brought the megaphone up to his mouth and made some God-awful noise that Peyton likened to humpback whales going at it. She closed her eyes, imagining how great it would be to take a cool shower and a few aspirin.

Still, the megaphone was a maybe.

She circled it on her clipboard, then slumped into one of the bleachers.

“Let’s take five. Or ten. Ten is good.”

“SURE THING, PATTON!” Peyton groaned and grabbed the megaphone from him. Jeremy smiled, and balanced himself walking along the bleachers. “This is fun, isn’t it?”

“It’s a blast.” She said half-heartedly, smoothing her hair back down from the fly-aways he caused. She'd gotten used to it, the static electricity he generated had the same effect on her hair as dry winter days back home. She'd automatically try to smooth it back down whenever he was near. Satisfied her tresses were behaving again, she leaned back with her elbows propped up on the bench behind her. Jeremy promptly stepped on one of her elbows, but if he noticed, he didn’t seem to show it.

“I think it’s a great sport. You were right about it being all sorts of athletic.” Jeremy backflipped from the third row, landing on his feet on the field. Peyton perked up.

“Do that again.”

“Do what again?”

“The backflip.” Jeremy looked at her like she’d sprouted a second head. “The backflip you just did from the bleachers. Can you do that again?”

“This?” Jeremy said, going up three steps and performing another back tuck.

“That! Jeremy? We’re going to let you try your hand at tumbling.”

“I’m great at tumbling!” Before Peyton could write it down on her clipboard, he had the megaphone in hand again. “ESPECIALLY DOWN HILLS!”