9: I'm Nice

Monday's are gross. Fact.

I walk to my locker. Oliver drove me as he always does after dropping off the boys at school. Today was designated "sports tryout" day in town. For some weird reason all teams had tryouts on the same day. It's some weird small town tradition.

"Hazel, please tryout with me."

"Emma, please," I roll my eyes slight, "You see me being a cheerleader?"

"Come on! I don't want to do it alone," she fakes a frown, "They'll bully me."

"Yeah, and they'll bully me to."

We're literally the nerd and the prude. I didn't say that out loud though, but I knew she'd thought about that fact. Emma was the smartest girl in school, although she was still beautiful. But no one seemed to give her a second look because of her high school title.

"What will it take for you to leave me alone about this?"

"A yes."

I roll my eyes once again and shrug my shoulders, "I'll tryout but I'm not trying."

Emma nods in satisfaction and leaves to make her way to class. She'd been bugging me about this all day so I knew she was determined. She usually gives up at the third no, but today we made it to 20 and I have in, not her.

I go to English and sit in my seat. Surprisingly, Oliver is already seated in his seat behind me.  He's got a bored look on his face but when I walk in his eyes snap to mine. I smile to him, trying to be friendly, but he doesn't react. I sit in front of him and his shadow immediately takes over me. It's still cold, but I'm getting used to the cold his shadow brings.

"Trying out for cheerleading?"

"How did you? What?"

"I'm Oliver Grey," is all he says before leaning back against his chair and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket.

I roll my eyes, "Yes."

"You're no cheerleader."

"I don't want to anyway."

"Then don't."

I shrug, "I'm helping out a friend. Something nice people do."

"I'm nice."

I roll my eyes and turn around to face the front. I think we have different definitions of nice, but I choose to keep my mouth shut. Oliver, however, has other ideas. He grabs a strand of my hair and pulls slightly to grab my attention.

"Say I'm nice."

I stay silent, shaking my head and not turning around to face him. He's stubborn though and tried again.

"Say it," His voice is deep and angry.

Someone has a short temper.

I stay quiet and when I do I hear shuffling behind me. When I look up, Oliver is walking out the door. Well, I knew he was stubborn, but this is a little of an over reaction in my opinion.

"I'll see you after your tryouts, it's when practice ends for me anyway."

I nod my head and make my way towards my locker. Emma is already there waiting anxiously. She's changed into some legging and a crop that that really show her off. She looks amazing and I can't believe all these boys in this school brush her aside just because she can multiply better than them. Boys are truly a stupid species.

"Ready?" I ask her when I'm close enough.

"Born ready," She jumps up and down.

I laugh and link her arm with mine, "Let's kick cheerleader butt."

Yeah, that didn't happen.

"Alright ladies," Miss Queen Bee herself starts the tryouts, "We have three spots open this year. Most of you will leave in the first 10 minutes. The rest of you will cry. Those 3 that don't cry, congratulations."

All he girls trying out looked like they were ready to run away already. I laugh internally at the chickens around me. They're actually afraid of some blonde barbie bimbo. Trust me, the most harm they can do is poke you with their 80 dollar nails.

Some other cheerleaders give us a combination and expect us to learn it in 10 minutes. I keep glancing towards Emma to see her smiling and somehow understanding what's going on. I, however, am lost, barely understanding the first few seconds.

Thankfully, I was in the last group that had to perform. Have the girls had already left and given up. But momma didn't raise no quitter, and I was still here supporting Emma who was killing it in the first group.

When my group's turn was up I stood in the back purposefully. I'd rather not attract any attention to myself. It didn't work.

"Hazel the Prude wants to be a cheerleader?" Ally, the queen bee asks with a rude tone, "Are you sure the uniforms aren't too revealing for you?"

I just roll my eyes and cross my arms. There's no need to engage. She wants to kick me out for talking back since she's technically not allowed to kick people out of tryouts for being bad.

Ally rolls her eyes and starts the music. Here goes chaos.

Surprisingly, there's only five of us left. I'm one of those five as well as Emma. Honestly, I'm only here because everyone else left in tears. Ally wasn't kidding when she said they'd leave in tears. I was afraid they'd flood the gym.

"Alright, we've made a decision."

"Grace, Emma, Hazel."

I look up shocked. Emma was ecstatic. She's wanted to be a cheerleader forever, it was a dream come true for her. And also quite the social boost. A cheerleader uniform was enough to bump you up several status leaves.

I roll my eyes and speak up, "I don't want it."

"What do you mean, you don't want it?"

Ally was glaring at me with her hands on her hips and her posey behind her glaring at me as well.

"I know you heard me."

"No one refuses a spot on the cheerleading team."

"There's a first for everything."

She scoffs, "I knew you were too much of a prude for cheerleading."

I shrug my shoulders and walk away out the gym. I spot Levi and walk up to him. He smiles when he sees me and gives me a quick side hug. He's all sweaty from having to give his own tryouts. Guess they made him show the newbies what they were supposed to do. I peel off him and laugh at his sticky sweat.

"How was it?"

"I got in and then I refused."

"Badass," he laughs.

I smile at him and nod, "Ally was livid."

"No one says no to a me," Levi says in a bad falsetto trying to imitate Ally.

I laugh at his poor imitation. My laugh is cut short though by a wave of students rushing to the football field. They seem eager and are pushing each other to make it there first. Pretty sure we don't have games on Monday afternoons though.

"What's happening?"

I shrug and, against my better judgement, make my way towards the hoards of people. There's cheering and yelling and several people recording water is going on on their phones.

I push my way through the crowd. Being short, I couldn't see anything unless I was in the very front. I was more curious than I wanted to be. And when I saw what was going down, I knew why.

"Get off of him!"