** PEP RALLY **

[Blitzen]

GOT SPIRIT?
LET'S HEAR IT!

[Blitzen]

Kick some Pony-Tail!


GO FLYERS! BEAT THE MUSTANGS!

[Gravwarp]

"HIKE!"

Scott's voice boomed over the cheering of the small crowd gathered to watch the team practice. From the stands the next few seconds flashed by in what looked like utter chaos.

On the field, the play took an eon to finish.

-----

Even before the snap was called, as Bryan stood at the line of scrimmage, he stared down Nigel. Nigel had been assigned to man coverage on Bryan. All afternoon, he had played great. Nigel was fast; Bryan had seen him out on the track practicing lately. It was paying off. He was playing off against Bryan, setting up with several yards as a cushion between them.

For the course of their scrimmage, Nigel had stopped every play Bryan had made for the ball. Either by staying close to him and keeping his arms in the ball's path or by jamming up at the line. Once he had leapt ahead and almost grabbed an interception, bur Bryan got his hand in and batted the ball away. The pair were pushing one another to be on their "A" game.

As they both waited for the ball to start moving, Bryan grinned at Nigel. The boy returned with a smirk that crept up on one edge of his mouth. Bryan's muscled tightened as he heard Scott's voice.

"HIKE!"

Bryan's legs exploded from their mark in the deep green grass of the field. He dashed away from the rest of his team, now focused on only two things, hitting his passing lane and leaving Nigel in his dust. Nigel wasn't making either easy.

Nigel began to backpedal, letting Bryan get just far enough behind him to screen him. Then the pair made their way downfield, stride for stride running together. Hitting his mark, Bryan cut back towards the center. Throwing Nigel off just enough to get a few steps ahead.

Scott spotted Bryan down field and heaved the ball towards the receiver. Seeing the ball streaking towards him, Bryan willed his legs to go faster. Nigel was close to him, so close he could hear the sound of the cornerback breathing as he fought to keep pace.

The ball was so close now; Bryan out stretched his arms, waiting for it to rest in his hands. With an audible slap, the synthetic leather ball struck his hands. He tucked the ball into his chest when suddenly his legs were struck, when Nigel's weight was pushed into the back of his knees.

The pair hit the grass, both groaned but were prepared for the fall. Bryan's grip on the ball was never shaken. Nigel pushed himself up from the grass and Bryan rolled from the shoulder he landed on to his back with a smile. "I knew you couldn't stop me ALL day."

Nigel laughed and offered his teammate a hand to get back up. The boyreplied to Bryan, "Don't laugh too hard." With a grin he pointed back down the field, there was a flag on the play. Coach Waters was chewing out a lineman for holding.

Bryan laughed and began trotting back to the line. Tossing the ball over to Nigel, "Still... I think we're gonna be ready for next week." Nigel chuckled in reply. "Definitely." They made their way back to the group to start again.

[Mojo]

Mojo laughed as he rolled out the long paper, making sure this sheet was a little longer than the width of the hallway. Leaving the one end, he ran back to the paper cart and cut the sheet off. Laying out the paper neatly, Mojo picked up the brushes and paint he got from the art room and started painting.

After nearly almost a half an hour, Mojo stood back to look at his work. A broad smile of pride plastered his face, along with spatters and splashes of bright paint.

His banner showed a crudely drawn and sad looking, sway backed grey horse. A disembodied hand with a bullwhip was striking the animal on the rump. In giant bold blue letters it read...


"Go Saint Joe's! Whip the Mustangs!"

[D. Planet]

Mal leaned against the chain link fence, feeling it creak under his weight. Watching the team practice, he regretted his suit being declared "illegal equipment", and he'd have to do without it to join the football team. Glumly, he quietly wondered if he could try out for the marching band...

[Rudi MacKenzie]

Rudi had just finished tacking up what felt like her one millionth flier when the sound of a throat clearing caused her to look around.

"Oh, hey Maureen! What's up?" she asked the pretty raven-haired cheerleader standing behind her.

"Hello Rudi, I understand you're on the Homecoming Committee?" A lilt at the end of her sentence made it a question.

"That's right. Don't know what possessed me to volunteer, but there you have it." Rudi smiled. "Go Flyers! So... what can I do for you?"

"Do you know when the nominees for Homecoming King and Queen will be announced?"

Rudi sighed. It must have been the hundredth time she'd been asked today.

"Look, I know when, but I don't know who. Lonnie is the committee rep from the team and he won't have the list for us until tonight. Expect to know by tomorrow morning."

"Thanks Rudi." Maureen smiled and then walked off with a smug look on her face.

Twenty minutes later, Rudi saw Maureen and Biff corner Lonnie outside the MECCa building. Hobbling on crutches, the injured boy had no chance of escaping the deadly duo.

"I'm sorry, Lonnie..." she whispered under her breath.

[FrancisCross]

Franky sat dourly on the bleachers as the SJS cheer squad managed another spectacular pyramid. And by spectacular, she meant spectacular failure. Somewhere beneath the heap of arms, legs, and irritated mumbles she could have sworn there lay some cursed Twister mat hidden from her view by mischievous fairies.

"Alright everyone!" She barked for the eighth time that day. "Let's try it again..."

As the disheveled cheer squad peeled itself apart and once again resumed their places, the pink-haired goth let out a huge sigh.

Deep down....she was considering inventing a new cheer maneauver.

The SJS dog pile.

[Nigel Barlow]

Nigel's two teammates were already waiting beneath the yellow when he arrived for their meeting. Lonnie, plopped on a bench with his crutches next to him was looking rather pale and shaken for some reason. Zack was his usual laid back self, calmly picking at his 'fro while eyeing the various young women passing by on their way home from work.

"Hey Lonnie... is it taken care of?"

"I've got it right here, Nigel," the injured DB replied, patting his jacket pocket where "the list" presumably resided. "Zack got a couple more of the receivers on board. That cinched it."

Nigel looked over at Zack and gave him a grateful nod.

"Yeah, I got da seniors. Stephen's goin' ta be right pissed though." Zack didn't sound too concerned about antagonizing the team's backup Quarterback. Nothing seemed to faze him. "What about you, Barlow? You hold up your end?"

"I got it right here, Zack." Nigel dropped his gym bag on the bench between the two boys. Lonnie reached over and slowly unzipped the bag, looking inside. A second later, Zack looked as well. Smiles slowly developed on each of their faces.

"So... we all square?" Nigel asked.

"Yeah man, we square."

[Ty Cloud]

"HIKE!" Ty started off the line of scrimmage like a bullet. Lucas, who has been guarding him him all day, had been doing an outstanding job. Always there where ever he went.

Ty sprinted straight breathing heavily from all the running he had done. There was no doubt he was going all the way. Lucas knowing exactly where he was running to, sprinted ahead a little giving him a few more feet then he should have. Big mistake.

Ty seeing this mistake, stopped dead in his tracks and turned around. The football was already coming at by the time he turned around. He hardly had time to adjust to the pass. He reached the opposite way his body force was pushing him.

Reaching as far back as he could go he tipped the ball up. Lucas sprinted for the ball. Ty laying on his belly looked up and held his breath. Lucas dove for it. Barely missing the ball by half an inch, Lucas fell to the ground. Ty rolled over, and stuck his hand out and caught the ball with one hand.

Everyone laughed, including Ty and Lucas. "Was that luck or skill?" Lucas grinned as he got up. Ty laughed as Lucas stuck his hand offering to help him up, Ty accepted his hand and pulled on it getting up. "99% skill, 1% luck." Ty flexed his arms jokingly.

Complete pass. 21 yard gain.

[Lagomorph]

"You know what I heard?" Matt asked. Not really giving anyone a chance to respond, he quickly followed up with the answer. "I heard that the Mustangs got disqualified from the playoffs last year because four of their players were caught using steroids. Two of them got expelled, and another one got hauled off to jail."

"Come off it," Anton "Xerox" Williams laughed. "You don't honestly expect us to believe that, do you?"

"Oh! Well, I don't really know if you'll believe it or not. I mean, I'm just telling you what I heard." Matt shrugged. "And I heard that the year before, their coach got caught bribing the referees."

"That can't be true." Matt startled a bit at Sam Stinebrenner's disembodied telepathic voice. It always seemed to come out of nowhere! "They'd have fired him if that were the case."

"Unless they're covering up for it." Matt nodded to himself. "What school would want people knowing that its coach had to resort to bribery just to win a few games? But anyway, that's all nothing compared to what I heard about this year's team."

Despite themselves, the other students found themselves listening with curiosity. "What's that, Matt?" Becky prompted.

"Well, supposedly, their star quarterback is a transfer student from the Rogue Isles. From that school, Bloodwine is it?"

"I think you mean Bloodvine." Sam's wry voice caused Matt to startle again.

"Yeah! Bloodvine. Well, anyway, rumor has it that he got up to a lot of criminal mischief over there. But that's not really the point. The point is, he got one of the teachers at his school pregnant, so they had to transfer him out to avoid a scandal. But the thing is, she apparently really hates Saint Joe's, so she's got him really hating Saint Joe's. Rumor is that he's planning to use his powers on the field to make sure their side wins."

The other students stared at Matt for a few moments before Xerox broke the silence by laughing. "Matt, that's got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Where the hell did you hear that anyway?"

"Let's see..." Matt got a distant look as he mentally traced through his day. "Was it Tracy? No, she was telling me about the Pokemon student... Francis? ... No, that was something about someonesuiciding. Steve? No... Wait, yeah!" Matt nodded. "It was Steve."

"You mean Steven Knight?" Becky piped up. "Matt, you can't b--"

Xerox interrupted her, grinning big. "You can't find a more reliable source of information than Steven."

Becky suppressed a sigh. She knew that Xerox knew that was a load of bull. Steve was constantly in detention for pulling his infamous practical jokes. Given Matt's apparent gullibility, he was probably putty in Steve's hands. But... well, Xerox was cute.

"Exactly what I was going to say." She chimed in, laughing. "So I guess we'd better be careful this weekend."

"Are you serious, Matt?" Sam's voice floated in again. "You really believe the Mustangs have a Bloodvine transferee who got a teacher pregnant and is going to use his powers to rig the game? With Coach Waters standing right there watching?"

"Well, I mean, I know it sounds crazy," Matt shrugged. "But sometimes, it's the craziest things that actually end up being true. Never hurts to be aware!"

"Absolutely," Xerox added, grinning. "We'll all just have to be extra careful during the game this Friday."

[Erika Raeder]

GO FLYERS!

[Gravwarp]

Standing in the hallway outside the art class room, Bryan and Nennya were hunched over a small folding table. They were laughing and whispering to each other as they repeated aligned parts on a small press.

With a heave, Bryan shoved down on the handle of the press and out popped a plastic coated metal disc.

With a grin, he handed the first one to his girlfriend who pinned the disc onto her uniform jacket. In bold blue text, aligned around the circumference of the circle it read:

"Go Flyers! Vote Baxter!"

[Mojo]

Laughing with delight, Mojo takes a badge and scurries down the hall giggling.

[Blitzen]

((It's a little late, but better late than never and all))

The team was filthy. A light rain that afternoon had turned the field to mud but the Flyers didn't mind. Come that weekend they'd be back on their own home field, their stadium fully repared and ready to go. Still the coach called them around him and told them to take a knee, pulling a pencil from behind his ear and tapping it against his clipboard.

"Ladies..." He began, looking around. "And Sam." He emphasized, making sure to insult everyone on the team equally. "As you know, Friday night's game will be at home. That would make it what? Homecoming." He said, without waiting for an answer. "Each of you numbskulls will be on the ballot for homecoming king. By the end of tomorrow, what I need from you is a nomination for Homecoming Queen. Now I don't care who you pick, but I'm telling you this- if not picking someone will cause you physical injury? You pick them. I don't want to hear about any groin injuries prior to the game." The team erupted in snickers, a few playfully pushing their teammates and making whip cracking sounds. "So if we're clear on that? Think it over if you need to, but get me the names as soon as you know. Sign up sheet will be outside my door just in case I'm not there. Nominate, or forever hold your peace. And I want all of you looking sharp on Saturday night, you hear me? You are FLYERS! Win or lose- you hold your heads up high at that dance. I take that back. You best win!" He smiled warmly, patting Sanders on the helmet before dropping his coach face back into place.
"Now hit the showers, move it!"

[Brianna Landers]

Brianna sat in a folding chair as Diyar and Stephen set the legs of the table on the ground in the quad. She smiled over at Myshka sitting next to her as the boys began draping the bright blue tablecloth over the table. "This was a great idea, Myshka. What would I do without you?" The other girl grinned back at her, pleased with Bri's approval. A cold wind blew through and Bri pulled Stephen's letterman's jacket tighter around her. She would have prefered her own letterman's jacket from Seacliff. The red and grey looked better on her anyway.

But this was Saint Joe's. And if she had to wear the Wal*Mart blue and white to win these people's approval, so be it. While Stephen laid out her fliers and Diyar ran an extension cord to the nearest outlet, Bri pulled out a bag of styrofoam cups and package of cocoa mix. She'd never had to work so hard for people's approval before. It was a little disconcerting to her. She hadn't been outright mean to anyone. Not without provocation anyway. And yet it seemed like even new students she had just met didn't like her. Even when she went out of her way to be nice to them.

Bri sighed and turned on the coffee pot to heat the water. Within minutes, her close knit group of friends were grinning widely and handing out steaming cups of cocoa to a group of students that had gathered around.