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A link to stunts. When you see this emoji💕 this is what I'm talking abt. I'll tell u the time when we get to it

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5yX3w8MW_0Y

James POV

I wake at 9:00 am because my alarm is blaring Cheerleader by OMI. Wow that's basic.

I look to my right and see that Thomas isn't in his bed, but then I notice a note on our bedside table that reads:

Hey Jemmy,

I had football practice early this morning. Sorry I didn't catch you, but good luck at tryouts!

❤️ T. Jeffs

Well that was sweet, bu I don't have the time or the energy to waste on worrying if Thomas likes me or not. I decide to just pretend it didn't happen until after tryouts are over.

Okay so tryouts start at 12:00 and end at 5:00, so I should wait to eat till right before I leave. I'll probably just grab a protein bar or two and I'll leave at 11:20.

That gives me almost two and a half hours to get ready.

I get up and do my normal stretches plus 2 of each jump just to be warmed up. Then I head to my suitcase that I've been living out of since I got here and pick out some workout clothes. Okay I'll wear my hot pants and my junior year state championship t-shirt. Then they'll know that I'm experienced.

I shave, wash my hair and get dressed and then clip my bangs back with a white bow. I'm ready.

••timeskip to when he gets to da cheer gym••

When I arrive at the cheer gym, Laf and four other girls are already there. I say a quick hello to Laf and sit down next to one of the girls to begin stretching.

"Hi I'm Peggy, and these are my sisters, Angelica and Eliza. And my girlfriend Maria."

Maria and Eliza smiled at me, but Angelica looked like she had a stick up her butt. Man, I don't even wanna know what her problem is.

"Hi, I'm James! What year are you guys in? I'm a freshman by the way."

"Well I'm a junior and so is Eliza because she skipped eight grade." Angelica still seemed kind of stuck up. "And it's both our first years cheering because Peggy bet that we couldn't do it."

"No," Eliza butted in, "She made the high school squad and you didn't and you got butt hurt so now you're trying out for the Klover's.And I'm just here because you dragged me along."

Damn. Now Angelica's acting real mean, like she's gonna kill someone, yikes. And now Peggy looks upset, as though it's her fault which it obviously is not.

"Hey, I never caught your year?" I whisper so Angelica can't interrupt Peggy. She brightens a bit. "I'm a freshman, too. And Maria is a sophomore. She's already on the squad she just came to tryouts to help Laf and to keep me from freaking out."

I wink, "Oh, so you're into older girls~" and Peggy laughs. "What position are you usually in a stunt. I'm a flyer" I tell her.

"Me and Maria are both flyers too!!"

I'm happy to see her excited. We continue talking until about 30 other people walk in, most sitting on the floor stretching and the rest going to stand by Laf.

At around 12:05 Laf claps his hands and says, "Okay so all the people standing up here with me are current members of our squad. We will all state our year, stunt position and of course name."

"I'm Lafayette, call me Laf. I am a junior and I am a base and occasional backspot."

I see Maria step forward and say, "I'm Maria. I am a sophomore and I'm a flyer."

Then a tall lanky boy with dusty red hair, freckles and green eyes steps up. "I'm Samuel Seabury, you can call me Sam. I'm a backspot and I'm also a sophomore."

Next was this really buff guy, about 6 ft tall, his voice was deep and raspy, "Hey, I'm Charles Lee and I'm a base. I'm a junior."

And now he's looking at me, not the crowd of people I'm with, but me specifically. He smiles and I don't know what to do so I smile back. Then I look away but I can still feel his eyes boring into me like drills. A few other squad members introduce themselves and then Laf starts talking again.

"Okay, so we are going to judge you on your jumps, the dance and some cheers that we will teach you, basic stunting, tumbling and your spirit. We'll divide you into groups of 6"

He starts reading off names. I look at Peggy and we give each other reassuring smiles.

"Angelica, Eliza, Peggy, Hannah, James, and Britney. You are in a group.and we'll see your... tumbling first"

Me and Peggy high five and head over to the tumbling mats. That Sam guy was already over there, clipboard in hand.

"Alright, so just say your name do a layout and get back in line. You can do as many as you'd like."

I start walking to the end of the mat when Angelica actually shoves me aside to get there first. I'm not one to get into a fight but she needs to stop testing me.

"Angelica Schuyler," she says cockily and then she does a rather sloppy round off triple back handspring, which would have been fine.... in middle school!

Me and Peggy share look of "can you believe this?" Before Peggy steps up to do her layout. She looks back at me and I give her a thumbs up.

She does a perfect round off double back handspring double tuck. I cheer and after her rebound she jokingly bows at me. I just giggle. Now it's my turn.

"James Madison." Sam nods at me.

Breath in and out. I throw myself into a tight round off and feel the world flip as I'm perfectly executing my back handsprings then I do a full twist. Rebound! I'll really put in everything I've got next time but I want to tell Peggy so that I don't accidentally show her up. "Hey Pegs, what's ur next layout look like, I'm thinking of adding some double straights and a triple tuck."

"Oh I'll probably just add a full twist triple tuck. No big."

I laugh, "No big? C'mon that's some serious tumbling Peggy."

"Whatever it's my turn."

She does her layout perfectly and I follow with mine. Now we switch to learning the dance. Maria is teaching it and me and Peggy pick it up as soon as she's done. Angelica is getting frustrated, but Eliza just stands there when she misses a move and starts again when she remembers. By the first time that they both get it right, me and Peggy have it sharp and memorized. Now we go to learn the cheers.

They're pretty simple and the girl teaching them is super sweet. I'm doing good when I feel somebody's hands on my hips. I turn around and see Charles Lee. I just push his hands off of me but he clearly can't take a hint because then he starts adjusting my high-V, which I know for a fact does not need fixing. And this whole time he hasn't said a word to me. Finally he leaves me alone when our group moves on to jumps.

"Hey did you know him?," Peggy asks. I shake my head, "No, but he's giving me the creeps."

Laf has each of us do a right and left hurkey, right and left hurtler, toe touch, pike and double toe touch. It's no problem for Peggy, Hannah, Britney and me. Angelica and Eliza are having trouble with it again. Then he asks us to do some of our spirit separately. No problem. Even Eliza can do this, but Angelica is hesitating between phrases and she attempted a spirit kick. Not pretty. I'm embarrassed for her. Now we go to the area for basic stunting.

Oh no. Charles is directing this section of tryouts.

"Alrighty y'all. As you guys know, I'm Charles. And here I'll just be making sure you can do basic stunts. We'll start off really easy, don't worry."

Okay he seemed normal just then, maybe he's actually a nice guy- oh nope he's staring at me again.

"James, you're a flyer, right?" I nod, wishing he would leave me alone. "We're doing a prep, you'll fly. Hannah and Angie will be bases Britney will be a backspot and Peggy will be front. Eliza I'll get you in the next stunt, no worries."

I don't know how much I trust these people to hold me up, but I've got to if I want to make the squad.

5, 6, 7, 8

Okay Hannah and Angie are equally bad bases, their arms are shaking like jello. Britney is holding me like an egg that she's afraid to break and Peggy needs to move before I crush her. I start to feel myself fall and I shut my eyes tight, ready to hit the ground. Wait a minute, the ground isn't soft and it doesn't smell like overused AXE cologne. Suddenly I'm starting to wish that I had hit the ground.

I finally look up and see Charles staring at me with that creepy smirk glued to his face, "So I guess you could say that you just fell for me?"

I grimace and hop out of his arms as fast as possible.

"Okay people, if I'm being completely honest: that sucked. It's okay though, I'll figure out who exactly was the problem there in just a moment. James, come here. I'll be your base, I just want to make sure that it wasn't your flying that caused that stunt to fall apart."

The audacity! My flying?! It's absolutely flawless, the problem is that Ang is a salty wannabe and these other people aren't much better. But I keep my mouth shut. I'll just prove him wrong. Who does he think he's talking to anyways?

💕1:18

I just stand in front of him signaling that I'm ready to go. He grabs my waist and pauses for a moment before assisting me into the air. He catches my feet with his right hand. Ok James, keep your core tight and show him what for. I pull my right leg up with my right hand and put my left arm into a high V. Perfect. I return my foot to Charles's hand only to move my left leg into the scorpion position. I hold it and transition to a needle. Okay I've shown off enough it's time to come down. He must sense this because he throws me up only to catch me on his right shoulder. I'm about to slide off when he grabs my legs, a little too tight.

"Huh, anybody else willing to go after THAT amazing performance. I didn't think so, let's-ouch! What was that for?"

I had thumped him on the head. "Maybe because A. You won't let me down even though I have made it clear that I have no interest in being anywhere near that close to you and B. My bestie Peggy is an amazing flyer who could totally match if not outdo me. So shut up and give her her well deserved shot."

I cross my arms and glare down at him. All he does is roll his eyes and smile before setting me down. Oh I am so glad to get away from him, but before I can walk away he grabs my arm, hard. "You've got an attitude baby, I like em' feisty."

I rip my arm out of his grip and return to the rest of the group, hoping that he finally catches a hint. I can't even focus on Peggy's flyer skills. But I assume she did great because Eliza cheers and Angie looks as pissed as ever.

Finally, it's time for our group to perform the cheers and the dance. The cheers are easy and I spend most of it just making sure I'm being sharp and smiling. Then we get to the dance. I try to be as sharp as possible while also adding some sass and some ass. I think it works because I see a thumbs up from Laf and a hungry look from Charles Lee. Gosh I hope that we aren't close to each other in any formations, ever.

Laf clasps his hands before making the announcement, "Okay before I tell you who made the squad I just want everyone to know that they did a great job and not to be hard on them self no matter what. Now let's get to it!"

This is it! I can't believe it I'm so excited!

"Angelica, Cathy, Eliza.."

I can't believe Angelica made it, the standards were THAT low. Well this practically guarantees me a spot on the squad.

"Frank, Grant, Gia."

My name is coming up! I'm so excited!

"Hannah, Isabelle, Lauren.."

Im so hap-Wait, they skipped J. I'm J. As in James Madison. Oh no. What if they cut me because I was rude to Charles. I mean he deserved it, he was being an asshole. I can't believe I didn't make it. All I've ever been is James Madison, the cheerleader. What am I without this? Cheer is the only thing I have ever been able to fully rely on. What will I do?

I look to my right and I see Peggy. She has tears welling up in her eyes. I notice the tight ball of emotions in my throat. "You too?" I croak out. All she does is nod and bury her face into my shoulder. I pat her head because dealing with her emotions is better than dealing with my own right now.

"And Yvette. If I said your name just now, you can go ahead and leave. The rest of you: practice is at 7:00 pm on Monday. We will have uniform fittings then as well."

Peggy and I both sit upright and look at each other for a good twenty seconds, jaws slacked. Then we do what normal adults would do in that kind of situation. Scream and happy cry and jump up and down and hug. Eliza congratulates us before going to warm up the car. Angelica is steaming and follows soon after Eliza. Maria comes over to us with a huge grin on her face.

"Babe!" Peggy exclaims, "We did it! I can't believe I get to do something I love sooooo much with the woman I love.... so much!"

"Aww babe~"

Yeah they're making out now, which is fine I just don't feel like sticking around and watching.

I practically sprint home and throw open the door causing Thomas to drop the bowl of m&m's he was eating onto the floor.

I jump towards him and wrap him into a hug. Well more of a tackle considering that we're both on the ground now.

"So I'm guessing tryouts went okay?"

"I did it! I did it! I DID IT!!!"

"Good job, hun"

Now I'm just lying on his chest, exhausted from a day of cheerleading and emotional spikes. I notice him snoring and I fall asleep to the vibrations in his chest.

•••••ayyyy I luv dis so if u don't heck u cuz I'm proud of how it turned out. Especially the part where Laf it reading off names oooo, I actually cried a lil bc guess who totally knows the feeling of not making a squad.... THIS GAL•••••