Sanctuary's Fiend
Chapter 10

What was I becoming? My hands… they… pompoms? I waved them half-heartedly.

Yes, I had signed up so that I could cheer for Rick, and yes, I felt stupid, and yes, I now had to spend more time with Sasha, and yes I was still going to do it anyway. Peter and Bhav were already on the squad, Erin had no interest, and obviously, Ariel couldn’t shout out any of the words.

You have to plan for the future. Okay, right now, I was constantly on the verge of biting someone. But I was positive that in a month’s time I’d be just fine. However, in a month’s time, it would have been too late to join the cheerleading squad this semester.

I was dressed in the school colors. White, blue, and yellow. Well, technically, it was eggshell white and saffron yellow with sky blue highlights, according to the school prospectus.

I suppose the fact that someone had taken the time to be oddly specific on the colors proved they really cared about the team. Great. However, I wouldn’t have minded if the person who then designed the costumes had given me more than what I would consider a belt for a skirt. I wriggled and pulled it downwards for the fifth time in as many minutes.

Then again, clearly the budget was being stretched in every aspect of costume design, as the top barely covered my midriff. Peter and Bhav also seemed to be wearing clothes several sizes too small, but when I asked them about it, they didn’t seem to mind this obvious exploitation.

That wasn’t just unfair, it was downright creepy. A group of boys were huddled at the top of the bleachers while we all practiced, and I was pretty sure they weren’t there to study.

“Yeah,” Sasha said. “I can see why someone like you wouldn’t like these uniforms.”

Damn. She must have overheard me. I tried to play nice. “I didn’t mean I don’t–”

“I know what you meant,” Jessica said, skipping over to get in between us. “Don’t worry!”

Sasha looked at her like a cat would look at a mouse. Then she looked at me like a cat would like at something even the mouse would hunt. ‘Water break.’ She walked off to pose in front of some people. She just happened to be drinking water too.

“You know how she can be. Don’t mind her,” Jessica said cheerily, her smile absolutely perfect.

“I was just pointing out that they could have sprung for a bit more fabric on the costumes. That’s all.”

“Hey now. At cheer practice, we keep it happy. There’s no room for sadness when you need to be cheering.”

I half smiled and lifted a pompom.

“That’s the spirit! And don’t you worry. She just doesn’t like people criticizing her skills.”

“Her skills? I didn’t say anything about how good she is at cheer leading.”

“No, silly!” Jessica playfully hit me with one of her pompoms. “The costumes. She designed them.”

“Oh. Good. Because for a second, I thought she didn’t like me for no real reason. But now I see it’s completely justified. Thanks, Jessica.”

“No problem! I’m going to get some water, and then we’ll go back to making sure we’ve got the basic cheer sorted out.” And with that, she hopped happily away.

I walked over to Bhav and Peter who were talking to another male cheerleader, a guy I didn’t know.

“You’re really going to need to put wall plugs in first. I know it’s tempting to just go for it, but trust…” Seeing me join them, Peter stopped talking about whatever that was. “Hey, new cheerer! How are you replaceing it so far?” He raised his hand to give me a high five, but dropped it when he realized he wasn’t going to get a response.

“Have you ever jumped into a shark tank?”

“I did once,” Bhav said. “It wasn’t too bad.” I hoped he was joking.

“Well… it’s a metaphor, okay? I’ve made a terrible decision.”

“Because of the costume?’ Bhav asked. ’I agree, the white is a bit harsh with your skin tone.”

“Actually, Bhavesh, I had not known that, but thank you for bringing it to my attention. I was actually referring to Sasha.”

“Yeah. She’s a bit… crazy.” Peter said.

“I haven’t really seen her be crazy. She just doesn’t like me, and doesn’t mind making that very obvious.”

“Well, word of advice, don’t let her show her crazy.”

The other guy sniggered.

“Oh, come on, Dave. That wasn’t funny.”

Dave waved himself out of the conversation, giggling to himself about wanting to see Sasha’s ‘crazy’.

Boys.

“What was he laughing about?” Sasha demanded. I jumped, having not heard her come up behind me.

Peter and Bhav’s faces dropped, and they both shook their heads and walked away.

“Gotta hydrate,” Peter called as they walked off. “You two should catch up though!’

“Jessica told me to come and apologize, so… here I am,” Sasha said.

I waited a few seconds, but apparently she was done. “Okay. Thanks?”

“Yeah.” She looked about as uninterested as a person could be before actually developing narcolepsy. “I heard you went to Rick’s house. Why?”

How did she replace that out? Who could have possibly told her? Would Rick have? Oh yeah, he said she was going to take him out. Jeez, had he been talking about me behind my back?

“I was tutoring him. How was your date with him?”

“Pretty amazing. He kept asking about our ‘pearl industry’ or something, but apart from that we got on great. He did say that you were acting really weird though. I told him that yeah, that’s because you are.”

I let out a defeated little, “Oh.”

“Yeah. He seems cool. Which is why I thought it was weird that you had been to his house. Right?”

“Yeah. I dunno.”

“Yeah.” She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, ready to get back to practice. “It’s probably best to stay away from him.” And she began rounding up the resting cheerleaders.

God damn, she was a bitch. But she had a point. Keeping my distance from Rick was probably a very good idea right now.

I felt my hunger coming on again. It had been intermittent throughout the week, but physical activity like leaping around with the cheer squad seemed to suppress the urge. Getting annoyed, like at Sasha now, clearly made it worse.

But on the up side, the guys were about to start their football practice, so I might get to catch a glimpse of Rick from across the field! Which was probably a terrible idea for keeping my instincts under control.

I saw Peter and Bhav share nervous glances. Oh yeah. The football team coming out was great for me, but for them… well, they’d gotten really good at ignoring certain words from certain people. People with names you’d expect, like Chad.

The countdown to start the cheerstrosity that was this humiliating experience began. Sasha was in the lead, and I was… still stood by the bench. I ran over to catch up. There’s nothing worse than being late to start the routine.

At least, that was what I thought. Until I slipped in my usual clumsy way, and fell into Peter, who collapsed onto Bhav who…

We fell like dominoes.