I woke up in a tangled mess of sheets with my body encased in a cage known as Gray Martyn's arms. Smiling, I nestled closer to his body, ignoring the sun blaring at us through the glass window with the curtains drawn back.

All peace and quiet was thrown out of the window when I heard a snore.

You see, I've slept and woken up next to Gray for years and one thing I was sure of was that he never snores. Sure, he was a cuddler but not a single sound will escape his lips. So when I heard a few whistling sounds, I started to look around for its source.

And that when was when I felt something shift by my feet. Scrunching up my eyebrows, I leaned up as far as I could without moving away from Gray's grasp. When I finally caught sight of the interruption, I held back a scream when I saw the horror known as Vivian's face in the morning as she peacefully snoozed at the end of the bed.

Oh we all know that those 'just woke up' selfies are damn fake. I'm going to print out a picture for you – hair could be considered as a tumbleweed, make-up all smudged, dress hiking up in her sleep, and let's not to mention the small trail of saliva coming out of her mouth.

Managing to free on of my feet from the blanket, I nudged her using it and the only response I got was a groan, her body flopping to the side so her back was now turned to me. Geez, such poise.

Hold on, when did she get here?

"Hey," I whispered, careful not to wake Gray up. That was proven to be a ruthless attempt when he stirred at the sound of my voice. He didn't get up though, he only hugged me tighter and brought my body closer to his.

This would have been so romantic if my freaking co-captain wasn't squirming by our feet.

"Who is it?" he murmured close to my ear, referring to the body that he has yet to see but he could hear.

"Vivian," I answered and he groaned, finally releasing me so we could both sit up and stare at her.

Crawling towards her body, I lifted my hands before I proceeded to shake her violently. That seemed to trick because she quickly jolted up in surprise, rolling off the bed in the process and ended up hitting the floor with a loud thud. Gray held back a snicker as he stood up, watching the poor girl push herself up back to her feet.

Looking around the room, she looked worse for wear before her eyes settled upon us. Yawning, she muttered, "Good morning."

I gave her an incredulous look as I hopped off the bed, stretching my arms over my head, "Not that we don't like you or anything but if we wanted something sleeping by our feet, we would have gotten a dog."

"Not now," she complained, clutching her head, "I feel like somebody's banging my brain with a hammer."

That's from the hangover and her graceful fall.

"I'm sure he has some painkillers or something," Gray told us while he walked to the door, "Come on, I'm going to fish some food out of that guy."

And as if on cue, my stomach started to grumble loudly in protest to its lack of contents. I placed my hand on it in a failed attempt to quiet it down. Although I didn't like to admit it, I wasn't the one to mock Vivian right now as I feel like my throat was dryer than the Sahara Desert.

When we got down, I observed that many other students became the wiser and chose not to go home on their own, staying here for the night as well. A good few were laid on the mountain of pillows on the living room carpet while a pair was splayed out on the couch.

The host of the party was prepared enough because he offered everyone who was already awake a breakfast bar and told us to help ourselves with the bottle of aspirin on the kitchen counter.

Eyeing the few members of the team, I wanted to yell into the ears of those freshmen for even daring to get themselves trashed but I bit my tongue. The older ones? We were perfectly accustomed to it but you could see that even in our sober states, we still manage to mess up. What more with those youngsters?

As the clock hand ticked, the more I felt the pressure. I called dibs on one of the chairs in the dining room and I was well aware I was just staring at the damn time, hoping that it would stop for even just a minute.

Vivian occupied the seat next to me, firing questions about what happened to her last night. Stealing a glance, I held back my sudden urge to scold her for pushing herself onto Evan. Alright, I expected her to think of doing something like that, but I never imagined that she would actually go through with it.

He may be completely aware of how we act, but he was obviously inexperienced. Most of the boys Vivian pin over would either want her back or will skillfully turn her down – if done properly, she would actually listen to you. Evan should have heed my warning and stayed away from her, but I guess some things – or some people – are unavoidable.

When one of the freshmen slowly sat down on the chair opposite from me, she bowed her head disgracefully, knowing that I was already ticked off. Peeking up, she winced when she saw the glare I was sending her way.

I've decided not to say anything but instead let her learn on her own about how mad I was.

"I-I'm sorry," she apologized profusely. By now, Vivian managed to catch up with my mood and was now also sending the girl a dirty look and this made her shrink more in her chair.

She wasn't the worst as two other members from her year staggered into the room with one clinging onto the other for her dear life. They knew they were in trouble as they didn't bother to complain a second more about the headache they were experiencing.

The sophomores who had already tasted my wrath during their own time as first years looked fine and waved us goodbye on their way out, the juniors and our fellow seniors were similar to us – easily conquering the effects of alcohol.

Without another word, I gulped down the rest of the orange juice in my glass and kicked myself up. Apparently, silence was more terrifying for them because as I walked out, they looked like they were ready to break down into a fit of tears.

The sliding door towards the back garden was open and I could hear the many male voices coming from outside. Just like I suspected, there was Gray and his lackeys all having a pleasant conversation with each other over the company of their cigarettes.

"Yeah, the little fucker wanted to beat me up for stealing his girl," he chuckled, finding the thought of anyone planning to harm him amusing, "Not my fault she was the one who threw herself onto me."

This was met with howls of laughter as he continued, "When my fist collided with the nose, he shut up."

Once again, he was congratulated and patted on the back for the way he handled things and I rolled my eyes. I'm not the one to judge, I knew I would have done something just as bad if anyone tried to go near Gray.

When he caught sight of me, the speed of how he was dropped the stick to the ground before stomping on his foot would have made Usain Bolt proud.

He told the rest of his crew to hold on before approaching me, flashing me a sheepish smile when he saw that I was less than happy, "Hey."

"I better get going," I told him, tucking away the few stray hair that got caught by the wind, "Still have to clean myself up."

Nodding in understanding, he spoke, "Want me to drive you?"

Glancing over his shoulder to his little groupie, I shook my head, "I have my own car, remember?"

He shrugged before bending down to press a kiss on my cheek, "See you later then."

I smiled softly before waving at the other guys behind him who also said their goodbye. Going back inside, I gestured to Vivian – who was still giving the freshmen the silent anger treatment – that it was time for us to leave.

"You know, you're not the one to talk about keeping those drinks at bay," I scoffed when we finally got inside my car, "Remember that accident during the freshman year with the chair?"

Don't ask.

"At least I didn't do that when we had a competition the next day," she defended, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Whatever," I said, starting drive, "And by the way, I demand that you apologize to Evan for causing him such a trauma."

She turned her head to the side, puffing out her cheeks like a child, "Serves him right for being a prick."

"I say you should tell him that you're sorry," I spoke, turning the wheel towards the street of her house, "You were about ready to rip his clothes off when we came by you."

She huffed and unbuckled her seatbelt when I stopped right in front of her house. She was about to open the door and leave, but I clutched her arm and gave her a stern look, leaving her no room for arguments. With a groan, she finally agreed to apologize and only then did I released her.

She was halfway to the front door when she whipped around, cupping her hands around her mouth to amplify her words, "Happy birthday!"

I waved to her and flashed her a smile as my response and with that, she turned back around. Looking straight again, I started to drive back home.

When I stepped into my house, I wanted nothing more but to hop into the shower. Since we were cheering beside the field, the idea of dirt sticking to my skin was inevitable but add the party to that, which was full of sweaty bodies, I craved nothing more but the feel of clean water running down my figure.

Unfortunately, when I closed the front door behind me, my mother quickly called me into the living room. Part of me wanted to overanalyze this and the other part just wanted to say 'fuck it, let's get this over with.'

Choosing the latter, I stalked towards the direction of her voice and lifted a brow as I looked around, "Shouldn't you be at work right now?"

"They won't need me in the office until one," she waved off my statement as she leaned against the back of the couch, "You know, when we visited the compound, I spoke to your father about the thing with Will."

Alright, she had my attention now.

"He advised that that I should talk it over with Will," she sighed, her fingers tapping anxiously on her skirt, "And I had a conversation with him last night..."

My sneakers skidded on the floor, ready to make a dash upstairs if her answer wasn't something I wouldn't agree with. I've learned that the best coping mechanism with my mother's relationship is to keep my mouth shut because if I don't, the situation will explode into something more drastic.

"And we've decided that a thorough discussion would be the best," she finally said, walking closer and placing her hands on my shoulder, "I don't know if divorce is on the table or not but I just want to let you know."

I nodded as my response and perhaps it was the only way I can walk away from this unscathed. She let out a soft smile before pulling me into a hug, something that rendered me frozen stiff.

I'm sorry but showing signs of affection with each other was not something either of us was accustomed to.

But I don't blame her if she wanted to give this a second chance. You've seen how I've been with Gray, always watching as he talks up some other girl, but I still had faith in him. I still hate Will, don't get me wrong, but I guess this was something only my mother can decide on.

And besides, I'm not willing to be a subject of meeting with some lawyer about marriage separation again.

When she guessed that I wasn't going to respond to her embrace, she let me go and we had this awkward staring contest with my blue eyes widely observing hers. She cleared her throat before her face lit up, walking around the couch towards the coffee table.

Noticing the small box she grabbed onto, she strolled back to me and placed the thing right on top of my palm, "Happy birthday, Clara."

Raising a brow, I pulled off the ribbon before lifting up the lid. Tilting my head, I blinked at the silver bracelet with each charm having some significance to cheering. Pompoms, a ribbon, a megaphone, even having a tiny cheerleader doing a pose.

"Thank you," I muttered, reaching down and letting my fingers run down on the charms before we settled back into silence.

Once again, awkward.

"I'm going to take a shower upstairs," I declared as a way to break the tension and she gestured for me to go ahead.

As the warm water pelted down on my body, I tried to concentrate. I need to put my game face on and after that, I could celebrate. Vivian has assured me that everything was ready with the party and such, but my worries about the championships cannot get me in a preppy mood.

Oh look at this, I'm a team leader for a contest about peppiness and I'm not feeling any.

Compared to past contests, we had to leave a lot earlier because it was being held in a school that was a few towns away. Despite this, I took my sweet time with doing my hair and applying makeup.

While I was squeezing myself into my uniform, mom hollered that she was leaving. Looking at myself in the mirror, I did a slow assessment of my look. My ponytail was higher than most people's future, the skirt was short enough to allow us free movements, and the charm bracelet was loosely wrapped around my wrist.

The loud horn coming from outside snapped me out of my trance and I reached out for my party dress and my gym bag, turning everything off and walking out of the house. After locking the front door, I raced to Vivian's car and dumped everything on the backseat then climbing into the passenger side.

"One more," she spoke as I buckled on my seatbelt and signaled her that I was ready to go, "One more and then we're done."

"But if we win," I countered, lifting up a finger to make my point, "We might get chosen to go to the nationals."

And if we don't win, I'm going to scream.

Arriving at the school, we noticed that we were the only ones left. When they saw us, they all went inside the bus and just before we followed, someone tapped me on the shoulder to catch my attention. Glancing at her, I observed that although her hair was curled, she lacked the ponytail that I required everyone to wear, "Can you help me with this?"

I agreed to this but I told her that I will do that during the journey. One girl wasn't enough to annoy me, what did was the fact that a good portion of the team hasn't done their makeup or got their hair up. All of them reasoned out that they didn't have time to fix themselves since we were scheduled to leave early.

Hell, I partied, woke up in another person's house, nursed a headache, managed to have a talk with my mother, and yet I still managed to fix myself up.

And so we were all put to work. The teacher who was assigned to accompany us during the ride fell asleep as a way to block out the noise and screams we were producing. The amount of girls that complained about accidentally poking their eye because of a bump on the road was slowly making my patience run thin.

"Ouch!" the girl who I was fixing the hair of complained when I tugged too harshly than intended. The cause of this sudden aggression was because I was too busy glaring at the one who burst into tears after failing to do a smokey-eye look.

I reached into my bag and plopped a pack of remover wipes onto her lap. If she cried anymore, those horrible bags on her eyes known as eyeliner will drip down on her face.

Tying the hair as tight as I could to make it would stay in place, I then put on the blue and silver sparkling ribbon to hide the hair tie before spraying it with hairspray. I patted her shoulder and instantly, the seat she was occupying was then claimed by another girl whose hair was also down on her shoulders.

Be preppy, be preppy, be preppy, be preppy.

"My lipstick!" someone yelled from somewhere in the vehicle.

Be fucking preppy!

"I can't do it!" raccoon eyes sobbed again and I felt a vein pop.

My finger laced into the brunette locks of my teammate and she yelped as I attempted to take calming breaths. I still kept doing her hair, albeit putting more force than necessary, keeping that freaking preppy mantra in my head.

By the time we neared the school, I have assaulted about six people's scalps.

I made Vivian step in with raccoon eyes and she was the same as me, her patience has gone out of the window with this chick so she all but stabbed her in the eye when fixing the makeup. From the sinister look on her face though, I wouldn't be surprised if she did jab her eye with the eyeliner.

The teacher conveniently woke up when we parked inside the school grounds and when she turned to us, she blinked in confusion at the mess that was known as the bus. She shook her head, deciding that asking would just be a bother before gesturing the driver to open the door, tossing a good luck as we got down.

When we arrived into the locker room, I was engulfed with birthday wishes from the girls from the other schools and that was only when my mood considerably brightened. Even my own team, aside from Vivian, hasn't greeted me yet so the mere thought that they remembered was enough for me to crack a smile amidst the annoyance I was feeling.

It wasn't too long before we were given the instructions as the competition was about to start. This time, we all had to wait in anticipation inside the locker room while the team called was performing outside.

So you could only imagine how jittery I was; I tried sitting down but in the end, I couldn't keep still so I resorted to pacing back and forth, mindlessly closing and opening a few lockers on the way. The upbeat music coming from outside did nothing to calm my nerves and I couldn't help but picture what kind of choreography they were doing with those remixes.

The lady told us that our school was going next and I arranged the girls into a line for our entrance. I didn't bother on doing a motivational speech because that would be just fooling all of us. I couldn't even calm myself down, what more the team?

We heard our school name and the doors were pushed open for us, making me instinctively squint my eyes at the sudden change in brightness. Taking a deep breath, I started to jog enthusiastically as I kept a smile on my face, the rest of the girls trailed right behind me, following my steps until we reached the mat.

This gym was a lot bigger and now I know why they chose this place to hold the championships. I couldn't even identify anyone from the crowd since the spotlight was shining so bright on our faces – everything else was just an unidentifiable figure. As the announcer were saying trivias about our team, I caught Vivian's eye and she nodded at me, sending a silent message.

"And now let's watch the silver and blue wolves howl!" he finally said which erupted a bunch of claps and cheers from the crowd.

The beat sounded and we instantly snapped our bodies to the quick paced dance. My smile didn't falter a single bit even though my chest was heaving with both anxiousness and the urge to catch my breath.

Lifting my arms in the air, I kicked up and then threw my body forward, tumbling three times before landing safely on my feet, blowing a kiss towards the crowd.

When we were doing our lifts, I was uneasily eyeing the three freshmen I scolded earlier. They were wobbly but I guessed they took some painkillers and had a nice nap because they managed to do the moves properly, mostly shaking because of the nervousness.

We grabbed our pompoms and started constructing the pyramid. While we did the main one, there were three groups in front of us doing lifts and flipping bodies in the air. As the signal from the music sounded, the groups started to file in front of us. A junior clapped her hands and was instantly lifted off of the ground.

Skillfully bending her body backwards, the second group caught her arms and she lifted her feet into the air. She swayed them in order to be caught by the third group. We all watched her heave before she pushed her hands to put her body upright before finally falling her weight down onto the main pyramid.

And just as we finished, we all tore the string that was keeping our pompoms together and threw it in the air, creating a huge explosion of confetti in shades of blue and silver, flashing the crowd a final smile.

We were ushered back into the locker room and I instantly collapsed on one of the benches, my eyes wide. We actually managed to finish without anyone falling or breaking a limb.

When the last school finished their routine, we were ushered outside with the rest of the competitors to hear the announcement of winners. The host said a bunch of crap about teamwork, sportsmanship, and all that jazz.

Yeah, yeah, you're just stalling.

The first to be announced way the second runner-up. The team who snatched it looked torn between devastation and relief – they were clearly disappointed that they didn't win but they managed to be happy enough because they managed to grab a place. Nonetheless, they accepted the small trophy, each getting a medal before posing for a picture.

The host once again snatched the mic as he read his card, "And now for the first runner-up..."

I didn't care whose it was, but I grabbed the nearest hand I could take and squeeze the blood out of it. My teammate yelped at the sudden force but I ignored it, my attention solely focused on the man.

And then it happened.

Our school name escaped his lips and I was rendered speechless as my eyes widened in realization.

We didn't win.

The claps were drowned by the blood rushing into my head. The girls were all scrambling around, some bodies crashing against. They were showing some form of reaction but I could only stand there with my eyes wide and my mouth pressed into a thin line.

We were only second best.

The other girls managed to snap out of the shock earlier than I could and they were now urging me to move forward so we could accept the trophy and medals. My feet were glued to the ground while they continued with their attempts – I couldn't move even if I wanted to, my mind was swimming in my head.

So my team resorted to the next thing, they hoisted me up and the audience cheered, thinking that this was some sort of celebration.

Only, it wasn't. The only reason why I was in the air was because that my body felt so stiff.

They placed me back down on my feet and a silver trophy was thrusted into my hands as someone hung a medal around my neck. Letting my instincts kick in, I lifted the corners of my mouth when the camera was presented in front of us.

What's more devastating than being in second place was looking horrible while being in second place.

But it still didn't cover up the fact that the title of champion wasn't ours. Four years was down the drain and never in my life did I have the sudden urge to run away.

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Oh dear, we have one chapter left and then the epilogue. I'm going to be an emotional mess when I end this book because sure, it's not as popular as my other ones but it certainly is high in my favorites list.

Yes, they didn't win because that's reality. No matter how hard you work. No matter if your body just wants to cry in ruthless pain. No matter if you're a barely functioning human being because of the training you'd gone through, there is always a possibility of losing. 

Question: What do you want to see for the last chapter of this book?

Dedicated to Em4hawk111 for the cover.

Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow. I love you guys so much and I shall see you all next chapter!