Cheer Squad Tryouts 2008

[FrancisCross]

"I could tell you why this cheer squad is in a sorry state alright, but if I did, I'd probably get detention again. And let's face it, Michael is not the first guy to show up in a skirt on a dare and Elly's not the first girl to "sexy cheerleader" her way into this type of thing. I mean, Christ on a crutch, look at you. If this squad gets anymore bubble gum in it's sneakers we'll have our own pride parade."

Franky took a moment to wind her fingers around a pencil.

"I'll be damned if I have to suffer through another season of giggles and pom-poms without some balance. I'll *get* some edge to this squad if it kills me."

[Brianna Landers]

"Oh my God, Franky. Is that what you think this is about? The skirt? Please! He can't do any cheer moves with his powers. And at games, we don't get those! If you really want him on the squad, he has to show that he can do a routine without using his wings to get extra height and rotations out of his jumps and flips! Nevermind the spiky thing he did! If he can't cut it without powers, he doesn't belong on the squad."

Bri took a deep breath, and narrowed her gaze at Franky. "As for Elly, when a person tries out for a squad, they should bring what they think the squad is and wants more of. Elly's tryout obviously shows what she thinks this squad is. A bunch of sexually charged... sluts, shaking our butts for all the boys to stare and drool. And I'm sorry, but that's not what we are."

"She. Doesn't. Belong."

[FrancisCross]

Raising a bemused eyebrow, Franky did her best to stifle the smile threatening to creep up on her.

"Alright, calm down, calm down, don't get your panties in a twist." She spread her fingers non-threateningly.

"Sounds like what your saying is that ol' Thorny and Elly need to convince you a little. No powers and no pole-dancing."

She leaned back in the chair, the supports of the ancient office furniture creaking ominously.

"Sounds like we have ourselves a back-alley cheer-off."

[Brianna Landers]

Bri nodded to her quickly.

"You think it'll help? Fine, Franky. I'll let them flail around a little more."

[FrancisCross]

Franky nodded, "Old school rules then."

Her determined smirk seemed to indicate that meant something. Whether it did or not...who knew.

"Alright, I'll send out the "invitations" to Elly and Thorny. You do whatever it is you do with your popular self to drum us up some audience."

She stood, brushing her skirt reflexively.

"Got it?"

[Patriot Prime]

Dexter walked through the Halls of SJS. He was thinking about getting involved in some school activities, but sports didn't really seem an option. He had heard about the coach. However, even with his powers nullified that didn't change the fact that his body was peaked, and that he didn't earn it. To Dex, that gave him an unfair advantage.

As he walked he caught a glimpse of a Flyer on the wall. He stopped mid step, and took a step back, turning and looking.

"Cheerleading squad?" Dex said to himself, "Not the most macho of activities, but I suppose I could be a "Cheer Chucker".

Dex smiled to himself. Why not? It would give him a chance to show some school spirit...and maybe meet some girls. All he had to do not was find whoever was running the show.

[Brianna Landers]

She couldn't believe she was back here again. Sitting at this table. Again. Waiting to see the two worst contestants for cheerleaders. Again.

But still, Bri knew that being co-captain of this ongoing train wreck of a squad was going to be hard when she signed up. So she smoothed the blue and shite skirt over her legs and folded her hands on top of the table. She turned to the gathered crowd and flashed them her brightest smile and flipped her ever-growing hair back over her shoulder.

There was no way Franky was going to win this one.

[FrancisCross]

Putting this little shin-dig together certainly wasn't easy. She had to surrepticiously start rumors in the halls that there was going to be a fight after school, behind the gym. With girls.

Now, it wasn't a real fight per se. More like a....cheer battle. Anyone who showed up got to cheer the contestants on and watch the "cheer off" ensue. In a way, Franky continually came back to the image of Rock-em Sock-em Robots. It was kinda like her and Bri were playing it...with cheer leaders. First one to knock the others block off wins, and she was determined to knock Bri into next week. Metaphorically speaking.

She had drug the card table and boombox out of the gym and into the bushes behind the greenish brick walls. There was a small, open, grassy space to have the cheerleaders. All in all, it wasn't bad. It was just a matter of everyone showing up, not getting caught (although they weren't exactly doing anything....well...wrong), and seeing to it that her cheer roster had the right names on it in the end.

Hell, who knows, maybe others would join in.

But first, she had to talk to Elly.

[Kara]

Kara followed the rumors, mildly curious about the fight. If nothing else, she wanted to be there to heal the combatants if things got out of hand.

She giggled when she saw the preparations that had been made, and went back to her room to grab a blanket. She came back and spread it on the ground before gingerly lowering herself onto it. Her tailbone still hurt from her fall, but she was willing to be there to watch.

[Elly]

"I've got to try out again? Today?"

"Them's the breaks, Elly." Franky looks both sympathetic and annoyed at me; I'll grant that she wasn't the one I should be yelling at. "Bri didn't like your routine, said it needed more cheerleading and less pole dancing. Not her exact words but you get the idea."

"What's wrong with sexing up the routine a little?"

"Advice for the future. Never ask Bri that."

"She's the one who wanted the skirts shorter. She's probably just mad she wasn't the center of attention."

"Maybe, maybe not, but you aren't getting on the team without her okay, no matter how much I want you in. I bought you a second chance, but that's as far as you're getting unless you can prove you can pull off a single flip."

The timing was bullshit. I said so. "I've got class until 4, and I'm on patrol starting at 5. There's no damn time to rehearse anything! There's barely enough time to perform!"

"So? You're the great Elly Smith. Improvise. 4:45, behind the gym, be there."

****

Okay, so maybe I did have time to rehearse a little; when Franky poked her head into the gym I was in my gym clothes and on my hundredth flip. Or flip attempt, anyway, but at least I'd landed nine of the last ten.

"Hey, we're set up outside. You coming?"

What time was it? I glanced at the clock: 4:35. Damn, time flies when you're getting sweaty. "Okay, I still have ten minutes. Give me some cooldown time, alright?" I planted myself on the bleachers and caught my breath.

"Got anything to drink?" I got a water bottle from Franky, took a gulp or two and then splashed another handfull on my face. "Thanks. So what's my inspiration?"

Franky held up two demo tapes. "Daft Punk or Cyndi Lauper."

"Oh hell."

"What's wrong with those?"

"Okay, fine, I'll give it a shot. Daft Punk, definitely; at least it has a beat to work with. Run, uh..." I looked through the songs on the cassette. "...Harder Better through once while I'm sitting so I can brainstorm something."

Franky nodded, put the tape in the player, and after some false alarms found the right song. "Work it, Make it, Do it, Makes us / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger..." I closed my eyes to visualize.

"Okay, I've got it. Find the start of the song again."

That took longer than playing the song itself, but Franky managed to catch it on the sixth pass. "Bri's waiting. Let's get moving."

"Hey Franky?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for the backup."

[Thorn Hawk]

"Wait...say that again?" Thorn asked, turning to face Franky in the hallway.

"You need to try out again today. 4:45 behind the gym." The first of two cheer captains said, looking a little annoyed. "Then again, if you don't want to, just tell me right now."

For a while, Thorn said nothing, leaning against one of the walls and frowning. Should he even go to this? Well....maybe...he had joined the practice group simply out of a dare and to poke a little fun at Brianna...He, like most guys, felt that a cheer squad was just girls and the guys who were more in touch with their feminine side than most. However, the appearance of Roo in the tryouts had thrown him a bit. He was a cool guy, and Thorn had a good deal of respect for the martial artist. That in of itself could convince him to go if only for the fact that he'd have someone more like himself on the squad.

Then there was Franky. The fact that she came to ask him to come to try-outs take two meant that there was a debate on whether he should be on the squad or not. Two guesses who stood on which sides.

"Alright. I'll be there." Thorn said, raising his eyes to meet Franky's. He couldn't read her expression, but there seemed to be a slight glimmer of smug satisfaction behind them.

"You need to show that you can do a routine without your powers or wings since you can't use them on the field. Don't be late." With that Franky vanished down the hall with a flash of black and blonde.

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While Franky was looking in on Elly in the gym, Thorn was busy rehearsing his bit in the grass behind the chapel wing of the school. It was hard to do anything without using his wings for balance and support, especially because they added weight and shifted his center of gravity slightly. It was like trying to do gymnastics with a limp arm. Even though he couldn't use his wings for the added balance, he was still fairly well off with the basic gymnast abilities; but what really weighed on him was his music choice.

Wiping a thin layer of sweat off his brow, Thorn leaned down to his iPod and looked at his new music choice. The Foo Fighter's song "Learn to Fly" glared back at him, and while Thorn thought that it was poetically appropriate, he was still kinda debating how good a choice it was as an actual dance song.

Oh well, he'd have to make it work in any case...and he'd have to cheer. That was the fact that scared him the most. He still had a slight embarrassment about cheering...who knows, maybe it was some deep rooted psychological thing that if he decided to say a cheer, there would be no turning back from this cheer squad path. Picking up the iPod, Thorn took wing and headed to the back of the gym, landing softly and then quickly trying to forget the fact that he had wings. He managed to spot Bri but not Franky or Elly yet...well he was a bit early after all.

Thorn walked up to Bri and held out his iPod without ceremony. "It's already on there for whenever it's my turn." He said before backing up a bit and moving to the side. He took a shaky breath, hoping no one was really watching him before he actually had to go out there.

Well, there is always the football team...

[FrancisCross]

With little more than a minute to show time, Francis Cross finally sauntered out the gym doors and onto the school lawn. Seeing Bri at her perch behind the card table was all she needed to remind herself to school her features and plaster on her best thousand-watt smile with as little teeth clenching as could be managed.

She glanced at the gathered crowd. Not big, but a decent showing. She nodded towards Kara on her left before offering an equal gesture to Michael. Smoothing her misbehaving blonde locks back down into a semblance of order, she plopped unceremoniously into the second chair next to Bri.

"Alright. I've pressed Elly for time, so I'm putting her on the field first. Then," she motioned to Thorn Hawk, "it' all him."

Trying not to let her eye twitch, "Waddya say, Sport, you ready for this?"

[Brianna Landers]

Brianna crossed her legs and began bobbing her foot, smiling just a little too sweetly at Franky. "But of course, buddy."

It didn't take an empath to see that Bri had been anxiously awaiting the moment these two took the stage again. She was utterly convinced that both of them would fall on their faces and Franky would have no choice but to cut them. Bri had no idea why she was letting anyone who tried out on the squad anyway. You let subpar members on the squad, you get a subpar squad. That's why they couldn't do any of the stunts and cheers Franky had outlined last year.

A smirk played across Bri's face as Elly stepped up. This year things were going to be different.

This year would be Bri's year.

[Elly]

I wasn't expecting an audience to be waiting as I walked out, but I'd live. Just so long as I landed the flips. "Hey! How're you doing, people?" I called out, and got a bit of a cheer in response. Not much of one, but still a good sign.

I looked to the judges' table, gave them both a smile, then pointed to Franky. "Hit it."

Franky hit it. The player sounded out the first beats of "Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster."

It had been very tempting to take a marker to my limbs and mimic that online video that had made the rounds in the school inboxes. But even Franky would have had to reject me for that, and I intended to win this one. To give my roommate the humbling she needed.

But okay, I borrowed some of my opening from it. Really, robot dancing came naturally with techno, even when holding pom poms.

I'd planned to keep that going straight through to the lyrics, but Bri, damn her, was already starting to look obnoxiously bored. Fine, be that way. I started clapping on the next stanza, waving for the audience to join in. Then, when I was sure I had the rhythm, I spent my first backflip.

The concrete was harder than the gym floor and I felt it through my shoes, but I didn't show more than a slight wobble. Well worth it to see Bri's eyes widen. Oh ho, didn't think I could do that, did you?

Now the lyrics started. "Work it." I punched the air. "Make it." Again. If the punches were in Bri's direction, it was of course mere coincidence. "Do it." Up this time, with both hands. "Makes us." Jump. Not a flip, just straight up and down, but I tried to split my legs a little to look more cheerleaderly. Or cheerleadery? Whatever.

And yeah, then I more or less repeated the same thing a few times. The song's repetitive, so why shouldn't I be? After all, the impressive part is when you can maintain it as the tempo increases.

Which I couldn't. My first jump after the the song sped up didn't quite land right and I tried to punch too soon after or... something... and I was suddenly on my ass. OW. I scrambled back to my feet, ignored a snicker from somewhere, and decided that was enough jumps for the moment.

You're the great Elly Smith. Improvise. Dancing at this speed was no problem, which meant I could pump and roll pom poms too. So I did, as many ways as I could think of, tossing in kicks here and there when they felt right. And there might have been some regular dance moves in there, but nothing the nuns would bitch about, which meant nothing Bri could bitch about.

The end of the song was coming up... did I want to risk it? ...Hell, I'd already fallen on my ass, what was left to lose? I paused to brace myself, then closed with another backflip.

Landed it. Awesome. I froze as the music did with one pom pom-slash-fist pump in the air, and gave Bri was was probably a smug look. Reject me now, I dare you.

[Thorn Hawk]

And then, soon enough, it was Thorn's turn. Shaking out the last bit of jitters, he glanced towards Franky and Bri, nodding as he did so. As the song began, Thorn smiled, raising his hands and clapping in beat with the drum. It didn't last long, as when the lyrics began to kick in, Thorn went into his gymnastics routine.

He had been practicing these for a while, but without the use of his wings, it was much more difficult. At first, the tempo of the song was slow, and he started out with a few turns and dance moves on the floor, spinning but not lifting up off the ground much. During this time, he was trying to get the audience involved as much as possible, pumping his hands up and smiling.

Then the quick tempo of the refrain hit and Thorn smiled, turning a bit to the side and launching himself forward. His hands caught the ground, pushing off to complete the front flip forwards. He landed it, a little awkwardly due to the dead weight on his back but he was able to roll with it. He came up from the front flip with a cheer and immediately pushed off his legs backwards. His hands reached up and his back arched almost painfully as he was able to complete the back flip's rotation without having to touch the ground. The sudden flips brought a bit of a cheer from the crowd, which Thorn latched on and tried to pump up even more with his own cheers and energy.

He continued to clap in the slow sections and moved to the flips in the quick refrains, and as the final chorus came up, he did another front flip, hitting the ground with his hands first to push him into the next part of the rotation. However, after the first, he did it again. One flip, two flips, and then with a powerful surge from his sore and quaking legs, he pushed himself into the air, trying to do a full front flip without touching the ground. He misjudged, however, and overturned himself in the air. Thorn had to quickly duck a shoulder down to the ground to roll with the fall, which caused his wings to hit the ground at a painful angle.

Ignoring the fall as best he could, Thorn came up to his knees, facing the crowd and pumped his fists into the air.

"Spread your wings and soar! Go Flyers!" He called, finished with his cheer. He made certain to keep his wings immobile as much as he could because even if he had a neurological ability to move his wings like they were his arms, Bri would latch on that as her excuse to keep him from the team. His wings hurt, and one of them might have been sprained, but he stood without showing it as best he could and walked back towards where Elly was waiting.