**girl in picture above is Julie

~After school, Basketball practice in the gym~

Time for basketball conditioning. During the first few weeks of basketball season, the coach always makes us lift weights and run a whole bunch of suicides. Today, we will be running. Woo-hoo... Sarcasm.

The boys' basketball team always practices on one side of the gym, while the girls' team practices on the other side. We have two different coaches - Mr. Tom coaches the girls, Mr. Jerry coaches the boys - but we all have to do running drills.

It can be distracting at times with both groups practicing in the same gym. Some girls on our team will be totally distracted by the guys running laps, and vice versa for them. Not to mention, the cheerleaders practice on the sidelines of our gym, setting up another distraction for the guys. At least I somewhat get to be in the same space as all three of my homies Becca, Dig, and Khalil, but we can't talk to each other.

"100 suicides, everyone, and then we'll start practicing our drills. Okay?" Coach Tom said.

"Okay," I replied

"Ohhh my goosshh. You doin' too much, coach," one girl whined.

"If you don't wanna do it, you can always quit the team. You don't even have to go to the State Finals with us--"

"Noooo. I'm good..." she quickly replied with a fake grin.

"Alrighty then. Run your laps and I'll be back..." Coach Tom leaves the gym. The team stares at me as if waiting for guidance.

"Welp, let's get these laps done," I say as I clap my hands.

"Do we really have to?" A different girl whines.

"Laps are no fun! We wanna go watch the boys," another girl says.

I sigh and roll my eyes.

"Look, y'all, I feel you. I don't wanna do this either, but how do you expect us to get better? We can't get distracted," I tell them.

"Come on, Sam! We practice every single day and we already da best of da best! We can have one day where we do nothing. I mean the coach ain't here anyway," another teammate says.

"Yeah. When he comes back, we'll just tell him we did our 100 laps. Or you can tell him, you know since he'll believe the team captain over anybody else..." another girl explains.

I sighed and thought about what they said. I honestly didn't feel like doing anything today, but I don't want to get on Coach's bad side. I am the varsity team captain and I'm not tryna catch no heat for lying. I gotta set a good example. Hmm... what should I do?

"Okay. How about we all do just 10 suicides, then sit on the floor and stretch? And then we can-- I mean Y'ALL can watch the boys play, okay?" I suggest. "At least we can say we did something..."

"Okay," the team happily agreed.

***

BECCA's POV

I was in cheer practice-slash-auditions in the gym. Me and two other seniors on the team, Dana and Ladelle, had to watch and critique new upcoming cheer-wannabees to become a part of the squad. It was a bit hard to focus since the basketball teams were also practicing within the same space, but we made it work.

Each of the girls wanting to audition lined up along the bleachers. We had them tell us their names, personal contact info, their grade, and then we requested that they do a series of gymnastic tricks. We had to have gone through fifteen girls already and none of them were good at all! Some girls merely relied on their beauty to get them in. They should know that beauty is important in cheerleading, but... you have to actually be able to do front-hand springs, backflips, jerkys, the splits, etc. to make it. I mean, those are just the basics.

There was this one girl I had never seen before -- she was tall, thin, and very pretty. She had done all the moves we told her to do and then some. She was perfect for the team!

"Great! Thank you. Stop the music," Dana told another cheerleader huddled beside the CD player as she pressed the 'stop' button. After the music halted, Dana looked at the girl who had just auditioned.

"What did you say your name was again?" I asked the girl with intrigue.

"Julie Martinez," she answered with a smile on her face. "I just moved here from LA."

"You're from the South, too?! I came here from New Orleans, girl," the not-so-bright Ladelle said.

"No, Ladelle, she means Los Angeles... California," Dana said, rolling her eyes.

"So... what did you think? Did I make it or what?" Julie asked while bouncing impatiently on the balls of her feet.

"Absolutely!" I said. She was the best one all day. I definitely think she deserves a spot on our team.

"Um, as the TEAM CAPTAIN," Dana began while emphasizing her leadership position, "I thought you did very good, but no one will know the final results until tomorrow morning."

Julie looks slightly deflated but nods her head. Dana stood to her feet and addresses the rest of the people who auditioned.

"Thank you, everyone! So like I said, the results will be posted on the gym doors tomorrow morning. For those that make it, we will have a short meeting after school tomorrow. Bye now!"

All the girls walked out of the gym and I gathered my stuff to leave as well. I noticed Julie was still standing there looking confused.

"Uh, auditions are over. Are you deaf?" Dana smirked at the newbie.

"I really love your outfit. Where'd you get it from?" Julie asked Dana with a grin.

"Well, thank you. I got it from Forever 21," Dana flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"I can tell you have great taste in clothes... I was just gonna go to the mall to spend this $300 gift card my dad gave me--"

"$300? As in thirty-five pennies?!" Ladelle asked.

We all looked at Ladelle and sighed. Poor child, she is a slow one.

"Um... anyway. I was wondering if you'd wanna tag along. I'm buying and I'd love to get some fashion tips from you," Julie gushes to Dana.

"Well, well, well. The newbie's got taste. I don't usually hang out with people I've just met, but I also don't get offers of $300 on a daily basis. So sure. I'd love to go to the mall with you," Dana replies with a smirk.

"Great! I'm just eager to learn more about Wesley High's flawless cheer captain. Oh, and you guys can come, too," Julie glances at me and Ladelle with a huge smile.

"Oh, I have plans tonight... but thanks for the offer. BTW, your outfit is really fly, mamacita," I tell her.

"Touche'..." she says.

Aww, this new girl seems nice. She was kinda laying on the kiss-a** pretty thick but she seems passionate. As I gather my things, I peep over at one side of the gym where the girl's basketball team was practicing and saw them sitting on the floor. Throwing my purse over my shoulder, I walked over to my friend Sam and tapped her on the shoulder.

"What are you doing?" I bat my eyelashes with a knowing grin.

"Shhhhhh! Nothing." She whispers from her seat on the floor.

"Why are you whispering? Does the coach know you're not doing warm-ups?" I teasingly ask.

"Becca, shut up! I don't want anyone to know, okay? Plus, we already did our warm-ups, thank you very much."

"Yeah. Five seconds of them, ha!" I stoop down next to her and notice how her teammates are all glancing in the same direction. "Why are you spying on the boys over there?"

"Noneya business. Bye! Text you later," Sam replied, pushing me away.

"Wow. Okay. Have fun, I guess. Hope you guys get caught!" I roll my eyes and walk out of the gym.

***

SAM's POV

Ugh. I caught that new girl Julie waving at Diggy and the boys during practice. She was standing with Dana and Ladelle, or as I like to call them, dumb and dumber. I hope she realizes that those girls are nothing but FAKE trouble. 

I even catch Julie blow Diggy a kiss while he bites his lip and winks at her... -__-

I swear all the guys on the team are mesmerized by her presence; it's disgusting. Now, don't think I'm jealous or anything, because I couldn't care less if any guy gives me attention or whatever! But, I also don't appreciate this girl playing mind games with my best friend!

She looks over at me and our eyes lock. My facial expression doesn't change, but she winks at me and smirks. OH NO SHE DIDN'T. This little--

"HEY! SAM? What's going on?"

Uh-oh, our coach is back. I quickly scramble to my feet and so do the other girls.

"Sup, Coach? How are you?" I stall, guilt reading all over my face.

"Hello, Sam. Why aren't you guys running laps?" He asks while crossing his arms. Everyone looks at me, waiting for my answer.

"Uhh... um... we did them already, Coach. We were just... resting our legs for a while," I said with a smile. Nailed it.

"Oh, really?" He stares at me, trying to read if I'm lying or not. "Well, okay. Wow. You guys were pretty quick! That means next time I won't go so easy on ya: 200 SUICIDES!!"

"NOOOOOOOO!" Everyone groaned. 

Oh, now they talk.

"YESSSSS!! Now let's run these drills. Come on! Get those legs moving."

Man, we were so close to getting away with it! Coach Tom passed me the ball and practice officially began...

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