“It’s not like I’m trying to date the guy,” I said changing out of my dress in the girls’ locker room. Coach had promised us the practice from hell since we missed two days because of the health class.

“You were fawning all over him,” said Maggie. “I saw you.”

I shook my head with a smirk. “I was not! You guys are crazy!”

Hands on her hips, Nova exclaimed, “He asked you out right in front of all of us!”

Frowning, I asked, “How is that my fault?”

Susan said, “You didn’t tell him to go fuck himself. No! Instead you invite him to our after game dinner!”

I laughed. “That’s hardly a state secret, you know. He could have just shown up without saying anything. Susan it’s not like your boyfriend doesn’t show up every time.”

Susan scowled at me. “He’s on the team. And so, you admit Bobby is your boyfriend?”

Before I could respond, Coach slammed the doors of the locker room open and shouted, “Time to end this hen party ladies. We have a big day tomorrow. Let’s move it!”

Steph and Susan both gave me dirty looks as we ran out onto the gym floor. I wanted to just tell them both to grow up, but we were all soon deep into practice.

The practice was quite a workout. We kept messing up on a stunt we had planned for the pep rally and coach was just in a mood. She kept us an hour over. I had actually worked up enough sweat to where I dared to take a shower. Honestly, it doesn’t matter as I’m just accepted as a girl anyway.

When we exited the gym, I noticed a girl waiting. The girls gym is right by one of the exit doors and through the glass around the door, we could still see the boys at football practice. It was odd because they usually finish an hour after us and we had finished our practice an hour later.

I didn’t know the girl that was waiting, but she waved at Susan when we came out. “Hey Susan! Can I get ride home from you? I usually ride with Thomas, but the coach is working them to death today.”

Susan nodded. “Sure, Carly. No problem. What does the coach have a bug up his butt about?”

Carly adjusted her book bag on her shoulders. She said, “Thanks. Well, coach doesn’t want to lose again. The chance for state is riding on tomorrow’s game. He doesn’t want that blonde chick distracting the team again.”

Susan glanced back at me. “Yeah. I hear that. My car’s out this way.” They hurried down the hall.

What the hell? If I knew who he was, I’d say I felt like I was in the second act of a Frank Capra movie.

“Do you like him?”

I shrugged. “He’s nice to me. He’s cute. I haven’t really talked to him.”

Janet sighed. “But do you like him? Aside from the fact he wants to bang you.”

I laid back on my bed while talking to my sister on the phone. “If you discount that, then yeah. I realize he’s a boy and all.”

Janet chuckled. “Nobody’s surprised you like boys, Ronnie. But you need to be careful with this one. Yeah, you know the game he’s playing, but you can still get hurt.”

“I’m not going to let him ‘bang me’ as you so eloquently put it,” I said as I applied the nail color for our uniform tomorrow.

“Are you sure? Babe. There’s more than one way a boy can hurt you,” said Janet seriously. “And from what I’m hearing from you, and you can deny this all you want, but I think you really got the hots for this boy. Trust me, I’ve been attracted to my share of bad boys myself.”

I put my nail polish down. “Okay. I’ll admit I like him. But in this case, I have all the power, right? I just say no.”

“Ronnie. When was the last time you ever told a boy no?”

“Have we ever had a crowd this big for a pep rally before?” I asked as students continued to file into the field house.

With a wide grin, Nova looked around the field house. “Not since I became a cheerleader. The student population is almost never this interested.”

Steph said, “Everyone wants to go to state this year. This is the closest we’ve been in a while.”

Susan frowned at me. “Yeah Ronnie. Stay away from Jeff.”

All my muscles tensed and my eyes flashed as I spun to face Susan. Before I could say anything, Coach Martin stepped between us.

In a stern voice at a volume only we could hear, Coach said, “This stops now. We’ve been over this already. The next girl that accuses Ronnie of causing us to lose last week will be suspended from the squad for two weeks with detention. Despite the rumors, the football coach never claimed Ronnie had anything to do with our loss. Since this concerned one of my girls, with the football coach present, I personally discussed this issue in general with Jeff. He was horrified that anyone would suggest that Ronnie or any of the squad would behave in such a manner. So not another word about this.”

There was a chorus of “Yes ma’am” from the squad. I really hoped that was the end of that. Gary owes me big time for sure.

The pep rally was really high energy. Probably the most in my short career as a cheerleader. Everyone cheered when the team walked out onto the stage and took their seats. The principal was applauded after she made her announcements. Even our skit got an applause this time.

What surprised everyone was when Jeff took the stage and made an actually rousing speech about how we’re going to win against the other team and made an appeal for every student to show up to show their support for the team. I got a little emotional myself watching him and hearing him get cheers. Last week was forgotten and winning this week was the only concern. Thankfully, there was no mention of some little blonde girl fucking things up.

I scanned the crowd in the stands to try to see Bobby. I was disappointed at not seeing him there, but not really surprised that he wouldn’t come to a pep rally. Pep rallies aren’t cool apparently.

Trying to keep the energy high, after the rally, we all marched through the school’s halls three times. I hope we win. Our season won’t end if we lose. We still have the homecoming game, but continuing to state will be next to impossible.

I guess it had to happen. Right when we finished marching through the halls, some asshat in the band shouted, “Keep that blonde away from the stadium tonight!” He was booed and the band director admonished him, but I still collapsed to the floor and cried.

The squad all sat on the floor around me in a show of support.

“Maybe I should stay home tonight,” I said as I poked at my salad. The cafeteria was more crowded and a lot more noisy than usual.

Nova grasped my hand. “Don’t talk like that, girl. We need you. Don’t let some douche bag rattle you.”

“I’m going to kill Gary,” I said with a growl. “This is all his fault.”

Nova shook her head. “He didn’t start the rumor.”

I furrowed my brow at Nova. “Then who did?”

Nova sighed. “It was Bat. What did you ever do to him, girl?”

I sighed. “I might have known he’d be at the bottom on it. He’s mad because I gave him his stupid nickname.”

Susan asked, “How? What did you do?”

I shook my head. “It’s stupid. It’s really really lame. I can’t believe he’s still mad about it. What happened was…” Everyone suddenly looked up behind me. I turned to see Jeff, Tank and Trace. Trace looked like he was holding something behind his back.

Jeff said, “On behalf of the whole team, we’d like to offer you an apology for this stupid rumor going around.”

I looked up at Jeff and said sincerely, “It’s not your fault. You don’t have to apologize.”

Jeff shrugged. “We didn’t try soon enough to squelch it and you’ve been hurt. We hope this makes you feel better at least.” Jeff glanced over to Trace who stepped forward. He then handed me the small bouquet of carnations he was hiding behind him.

I took the flowers and began to cry. Sheesh. All this crying is going to damage my cred as a boy when I go back. I sniffed the fragrance of the flowers and said, “You didn’t have to, but thank you so much!”

Tank said, “This is from all of us.”

Jeff bent down and kissed my cheek.

Nova frowned and said, “The football team never brings me flowers!”

Tank asked, “Would you like me to start a rumor about you, baby?” He wiggled his eyebrows.

Laughing, Nova said, “No thanks!”

Jeff ruffled my hair. “Come on guys. We have a game to win.” The football team all got up and exited the cafeteria.

The stands at the stadium were packed. More than even the cross town rivalry game. This isn’t our last game. It’s not even if we lose. But losing takes us out of the running for state. Thankfully, all the hate directed at me had died down.

It was weird to be leading cheers and actually have people cheering with us. I’ve never seen the free, student section full. Tonight it was standing room only. I couldn’t believe everyone was so excited about this one game. I scanned the faces in the student section and there he was! Bobby was there apparently with a few friends. He saw me, grinned and waved. I waved back.

Our team definitely had their work cut out for them. It wasn’t that our team sucked. The other team was just very good. Come half time it was zip to zip. I don’t think our squad ever cheered quite so hard before. At one point I was worried that Jeff was injured as he was knocked down pretty hard on the sideline. But he got back up on his feet and waved to the crowd.

In the second half, they scored and then we scored and it remained tied almost to the very end when Trace got the final score just before the game ended. The crowd in the stands erupted in cheers and shouts. All of us in the squad started hugging, screaming and jumping. It was total chaos and everyone was happy. I got a hug from Tank and Jeff as well. Down on the field, it had become a carnival atmosphere.

Local media interviewed Jeff and Trace. Even Nova got an interview. It was almost an hour after the game that we finally all got loaded on the busses to return to the school. I rode over to Rosa’s in Tank’s car, with Nova and Trace.

We were all laughing and talking when we entered Rosa’s and the staff directed us to the back. It was already starting to fill up. And then I came to a sudden stop. Sitting at a table with a couple of the school’s tough’s and one or two members of the infamous Street Rod club, was Bobby. He grinned and waved me over. I looked over at Nova and she just shrugged and then followed Tank over to where Jeff and Olivia were sitting.

“Ronnie!” shouted Bobby as he waved again. “Come sit next to me. Wow. Don’t you look hot in that little cheerleader uniform!”

I hesitated a moment, and then smiled at him and walked over to him. He pulled a chair out for me to sit. He slid his arm around my shoulder as soon as I sat down.

“Did you enjoy the game?” I asked as I looked around the group I was seated with.

Bobby said, “Yeah. It was great. You were the best part of it though.” He pointed at me and said, “Guys. Have you met Ronnie? Just the cutest little cheerleader ever. Ronnie, this here is Lumpy, Spike, Melvin and Gearhead. Gearhead’s real name is Percy but no one can call him that and live.” They all laughed.

Feeling uncomfortable, I said, “Nice to meet you all.”

Taking the toothpick he was chewing out of his mouth, Gearhead said with a leer, “Definitely nice to meet you, for sure.”

Leaning on me, Bobby said, “I already ordered you a taco, is that okay?”

I nodded. “Sure Bobby. Thanks.” I usually get a chicken fajita. But hey. Variety and spices of life and all that.

As our food was brought to us, Bobby looked at me and asked, “So Ronnie. Have you ever been to a street race?”

I shook my head. “Um, no.”

Bobby grinned. “You should come with me sometime. These guys are usually there. Mel has a totally awesome car. We meet once a month at the old abandoned mall’s parking lot. We always have a blast.”

Not sure how to react, I giggled. “Sounds exciting.”

Bobby laid his hand on my leg and looked at me earnestly. “So Ronnie. I have two tickets for tomorrow night’s showing of that new Nathan Adams movie. I was… um wondering if you… if you would like to go see it with me? Dinner first? Movie starts at 9:30. Spike says it’s awesome.”

I giggled. “Well, if Spike says…”

Bobby leaned in towards me. “So. Would you like to go out with me?”

He’s making his move. Should I accept? His friends are creepy, but he seems nice. I know everyone thinks he’s so bad. I don’t know. Free dinner and movie.

I said, “Sure, Bobby. I’d love to.”

With a cat that ate the canary grin, Bobby exclaimed, “Well shit!”

To be continued…