The Babybees

Sorry again for the delays. Yesterday was the first day this week that I felt clear-headed. I'll be rolling out the revised Character Pages over the next several days. Only the Teens and High School Cliques will be added tonight, but I'm sure it will be beneficial for this chapter.

---

Sean cringed as Whitney's high-pitched whistle blared next to him. Despite the cheer captain's reminder not to make a scene, her action caused conversations to abruptly stop as many eyes swung in her direction. Used to attracting attention, the blonde barely noticed, but Sean did as he preferred to keep a low profile.

Ending her summoning, Whitney waited.

And waited.

Her high-heeled foot started to tap impatiently.

Suddenly, several teenagers scrambled over in a rush. One brunette couldn't stop her momentum, sending her onto the round table. A redhead shot a hand to her mouth in a combination of horror and giggles.

"I told you not to wear those heels, Kizzy," a dark-skinned teen reminded, shaking her head as the brunette lifted herself off the table. "They're impossibly high to walk in."

"Well, they look fabulous with my dress," Kizzy retorted. "That makes the effort worth it."

"And they make you look less like a munchkin," a fourth girl with raven hair stated.

"Whatever, Bea. It wasn't that long ago that you were as short as me and way flatter. You just wait until I get my growth spurt," Kizzy shot back. "I'll be way more busty than your scrawny ass."

"Scrawny? Does this ass look scrawny?"

Sean's eyebrows raised as Beatrice turned around and bent over to show off a toned ass encased by her tight dress.

"If one goes based off of genetics, I'd say that it's accurate to suggest that Kizzy will develop a larger pair of breasts than you, Beatrice," the dark-skinned teen declared. "That's based on her older sister and mother."

"Can you lay off the science for one night, Zara?" Beatrice questioned in exasperation.

Sean glanced over at Whitney and cringed again. This time, due to the look of disbelief on her face that began to wash away as it was tinged with red. Having witnessed enough of the blonde's outbursts over the last several days, he braced himself for the explosion.

"Ahem," Whitney sounded.

The bickering amongst the teenagers continued.

"Ahem!"

Abruptly, the bickering stopped as four pairs of eyes swung toward Whitney. Realization dawned as they remembered who had called them and why. Without a word, the four teens scrambled to line up side-by-side, facing the senior cheer captain.

"Beatrice, I'm very disappointed. You had orders to wait here--" Whitney began her scolding, only to be interrupted.

"What happened?" Aurora asked, walking over with Roxie, who added, "We just left you not more than five minutes ago."

"Wait, I wasn't calling you. I was calling--" Whitney started to explain about her whistle.

"You see? She always knows," Caterina declared, dragging Yumi over by the wrist.

"I only had two. I swear!" Yumi exclaimed, reaching out to clutch her cheer captain's arm.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Whitney questioned.

"Cat said they were crescent cocktail wieners. I know that sounds dirty, but they looked like a tiny hot dog in a bun. So I ate one to see, and I thought I was right. I swear the second one was going to be my last," Yumi explained in a rush.

"Why would--"

"I can't handle the pressure of this diet," Yumi screeched as her eyes began to well up.

"What? I never invoked any diet rule," Whitney said, throwing her hands up in exasperation as she looked around for an answer. "Besides, you're skinny as hell already, Yumi. If anything, you should probably eat a little more."

"B-B-but...Cat said...," Yumi sputtered.

"I told you, it was Cat's order, not Whitney's," Kaitlin said, walking over to the group.

"Yeah, I never said anything about a diet," Whitney repeated.

"I'm co-captain. That means I can make rules--" Caterina began to explain before Yumi snapped. Well, at least what Yumi would call snapping for her.

"What?!" the petite brunette exclaimed, yet still sounding chipper. "Y-You mean that I've turned down--turned down!-- all those sweets for the last week for nothing? Tasty, yummy-looking holiday treats! I am so M.A.D."

Then, stomping her foot into the floor, Yumi spun around and half-stormed, half-skipped away.

"Great. Now you went and pissed off Yumi," Kaitlin admonished Cat while tossing her hand in the air.

"Oh, she'll be fine. Now, why did you call us over?" Caterina finished by asking Whitney.

"I wasn't calling you girls; I was calling them,' she replied, pointing at the four younger teens.

"What did they do? What did you do, Kizzy?" Kaitlin questioned sharply

"I didn't do anything!" the younger brunette shot back.

"Tell me, or I'm telling, Mom," Kaitlin demanded. Placing her hands on her hips, she gave that glare that only a big sister could give to a little sister.

"Fine. I tried to steal Palmer away from you. What you gonna do about that?" Kizzy challenged, throwing her hands out to her sides.

"Why, you little--that's not funny!"

"It is because I'd never touch the lecherous bast--"

"Enough!" Whitney screamed at the top of her lungs. That shut up the bickering Beal sisters and every other conversation within thirty feet. Then, placing her fingers on her temples, she took several deep breaths to calm herself.

"Uh, you okay?" Sean inquired, concerned about her health and endurance.

"I'm fine. No, I am not fine. I'm embarrassed by the behavior of both cheerleading squads," Whitney proclaimed in a cold voice as she stared at each cheerleader. Suddenly, her eyes lit up as she realized another issue. "Why are there only four of you? Where the hell are the rest? Where's Cadence?"

"Right here," Lacey announced, seething through clenched teeth. "I found the brat flashing her jailbait cleavage at Griffin Green. He's six years older than you!" Lacey stated, pushing her cousin toward the other four teenagers.

"And a waste of time," Whitney added from experience. "That's five. Where are...Roxie, where is your cheersister?"

"She's here somewhere," Roxie replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Whitney turned with a questioning eye toward the younger teens. Focusing her attention on her own little cheersister, she waited.

"You know YoYo, Whitney. She's probably off flirting," Beatrice offered, the best response she could come up with.

"Kizzy?"

"Um, last I saw Yo, she was trying to see if she could get Dawson and Seth to fight over her," Kizzy responded to the varsity captain. Starting a fight between Dawson Fox and Seth Francy wasn't a hard thing to do, as the two sophomores despised each other.

"Oh, for the love of...I'll go get Yolanda," Roxie announced.

Racing off, she went in search of the junior varsity squad's resident flirt. It was an odd match with the varsity's tomboy mentoring the younger girly girl. Yet, Roxie selected Yolanda out of a sense of obligation as she'd been mentored by Yanet Fuentes, Yolanda's older sister.

"Alright, that makes six. Where are the other four?" Whitney inquired.

"Uma has the flu," Beatrice offered hurriedly. That led Whitney to suspect bad news was coming next. But first, she had to deal with another return.

"I'm sooo sorry for being rude. I get that you might all be upset, but please--"

"We forgive you, Yumi," Whitney interrupted, not wanting to deal with the bullshit that Caterina created. "It's Cat's fault anyway. But let's just act like it all never happened. Okay?"

"Okay!"

"Now...Cadence, where are your two best friends?" Whitney questioned her fellow blonde.

"Well? Tell her," Lacey prodded, nudging her cousin in the arm.

"Mercedes and Saylor had better things to do," Cadence Aylward answered sullenly.

"Better things? I issued an order that the cheer squads were to be here tonight. Mrs. Singer was one of us," Whitney hissed.

"Margo told the other sophomores that they didn't need to show up," Cadence revealed further. "So Mercedes and Saylor are at a party over on Bumble with the families that didn't come here tonight."

"You mean the ones that think they're too good to be here. And I bet you wanted to be with them," Lacey accused her cousin. The usually pleasant redhead fumed at the disrespect shown toward Finn's mom.

"My mom said I had to be here," Cadence admitted.

"And Fern is--" Zara started to explain about the final sophomore.

"I don't care about Fern," Whitney brushed off as she began scanning the ballroom. "Where. Are. The. Juniors?"

"Did Fern screw up again?" Yumi whispered to Rory, who immediately hushed her.

"I haven't seen any of them," Kaitlin responded.

"That little bitch," Cat hissed, meaning Margo. "She told them all not to come, didn't she?"

"Wait, what about Dreama?" Lacey queried, referring to the one junior cheerleader they sort of liked. Turning toward the spacey junior's little cheersister, she asked, "Zara?"

"I don't know. I thought Dreama was coming, but then she said something about her horoscope and the alignment of the stars showing her the way to the best party for the dawn of the new year."

"Of course," Whitney murmured in frustration and annoyance. Then, spotting Roxie returning with a smiling brunette, she sarcastically added, "Nice to see you could join us, Yolanda."

"You know, I really wanted to hit up Milner's party as the boy-to-girl ratio sounded sky high, but this party has quality guys," the sophomore remarked, sliding into line.

"Did you start a fight?" Kizzy inquired.

"Enough talking," Whitney overrode any reply. "Now, I ordered you girls to stay at your assigned table and wait for me. Why did you disobey that command, Beatrice?"

"I'm sorry, Captain Diamond," the sophomore captain responded, causing several smiles and snickers from the varsity cheerleaders. "It's just that we were concerned about your health. Nobody informed us of anything, so all we heard was from Nosy Nectar. As we were worried, we asked around--"

"And then we spotted Zoey Gibble arrive," Kizzy burst out, opening the floodgates.

"Yeah, so we rushed over to get the scoop, as everyone knows that her sister is friends with your rescuer," Yolanda chimed in.

"But we didn't know that JoJo was on the trip too!" Beatrice added.

"Or that I'm not the only girl whose older sister doesn't tell her what's going on," Kizzy remarked, shooting Kaitlin a dirty look.

"Don't blame Katie. She didn't know--" Whitney defended before the younger teenagers chatted right over her.

"And then the boys were paying attention to Zoey because she developed big tits, and that got Bea and Kizzy all pissy."

"Whoa, girls, whoa. Don't blame JoJo," Sean spoke up as he didn't need to hear about the big breasts of either Gibble sister.

That silenced the sophomore cheerleaders immediately, and they turned to stare at him in awe. That made him uncomfortable, while Whitney felt slighted. Lacey watched their reactions with a tiny smile.

"Uh, I honestly don't know if Jo ever called home, but the cell reception is spotty out at the Diamonds' cabin. I know Whitney's dad or my mom called the cabin phone a few times with updates, but that's it."

"I thought Whitney's father paid to install a fiber-optic line for internet to the cabin. Couldn't you have used the signal for that--" Zara questioned before Whitney cut her off.

"Forget that nonsense. It's not why I wanted you all here waiting for us. Let me give you a quick rundown of what happened. Okay?"

---

"What?!" Cat screeched before repeating it again. "You stopped breathing?! What the..." she trailed off before turning to face Lacey. "What the fuck, shortstuff?! You didn't tell us the other morning that Whitney died!"

Next to the bottle blonde, Kaitlin nodded as she leaned over to pat Yumi's back. The most emotional varsity cheerleader had her arms wrapped around Whitney as she sobbed. Several of the younger teens wiped their eyes as well.

"I didn't tell you for this very reason. You would've freaked out," Lacey pointed out. "My mom said we weren't allowed to visit as Whitney needed her rest. You know, you would've all raced over to the hospital."

"Damn right, we would've."

"Alright, alright, let's knock it off. And you can let go of me, Yums. I'm going to be fine. I swear, okay," Whitney reassured.

"Okay," the crying cheerleader said, nodding.

"Now, I'm going to be fine. However, as you can see, my knight in shining armor isn't. Sean's going to be in a cast for weeks because of the risks he took to save me. So that means he's going to need help. And that's where you girls come in," the blonde cheerleader captain nodded in the direction of the younger teens.

"Sean, I'd like to introduce you to the--"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, the Babybees," the boy supplied, starting to feel a little cranky. Sean had a feeling where this was going, and he didn't care for it.

"Nobody calls them the Babybees anymore. We call them the sophomore squad or the junior vars--"

"I call them the Babybees. Can't we call them that anymore?" Yumi interrupted, sounding worried.

"Everyone still calls them that," Kaitlin muttered, with Lacey and Roxie nodding.

"I call them the Baby Brats," Caterina offered.

"I like calling them babies," Yumi added.

"Nobody is calling them that anymore," Whitney insisted/ordered.

"Can't really stop a tradition that old," Lacey mumbled, earning several nods from the cheerleaders that overheard.

"You know what? Varsity cheerleaders aren't necessary for this. So go back about your business. Go!" Whitney added, flicking her hand to wave them away.

"Kinda rude, wasn't that?" Sean remarked as the seniors walked off.

"Shut it, Tarver," Whitney growled.

"Whatever you say, damsel in distress."

That brought a couple of snickers and giggles from the Babybees. Whitney responded with a glare.

"Now, the sophomore squad--all of them--will act as your servants until that cast comes off."

"Whoa, I don't like the idea of having servants," Sean protested.

"Fine. Think of them as nurses, then."

"I live in a house with two doctors. I don't think calling them nurses is going to go over well, especially if my dad hears," he pointed out.

"Right. Your mom is cool, but...fine." Annoyed at the semantics game, Whitney mulled it over before finding the solution. "How about we call them your candy-stripers?"

"Whitney's going to make them strip?!"

"That's not what it means," hissed another voice. "Or the way you pronounce it."

The blonde captain turned and spotted the eavesdroppers.

"Katie, get Yumi away from here!" Shaking her head, Whitney glanced quizzically at Sean. "Is that acceptable?"

"Is it to them?"

"If I tell them it--"

"No. No ordering it, Whitney," Sean stated, standing his ground in his wheelchair.

Several Babybees watched in shock as Whitney let Sean talk to her that way. Already in awe at their big captain's hero, many of them felt a growing respect for the senior guy.

"So you heard him. Are you fine with being Sean's candy-stripers?"

"I'd be your candy anything, Sean," Yolanda remarked saucily.

"None of that, YoYo!" Whitney ordered, as Kizzy oohed at the offer. "Bea, keep your girls in line."

Whitney waited for the girls to calm down before motioning toward the raven-haired captain.

"This is--"

"Beatrice Ledux, captain of the sophomore cheerleaders and your little cheersister," Sean supplied. "I'm not blind and deaf, Whitney. My mom and her friends discuss both the varsity and junior varsity rosters."

"Sean!" Whitney complained.

"And the blonde over there is Cadence Aylward, co-captain. She's also Lana and Lacey's cousin on their mom's side. Hi, Cadence."

"Hey," came the non-enthusiastic greeting.

"And Yolanda Fuentes already did her teasing thing with me." Sean saw the sixteen-year-old's face brighten with hope. "Of course, I know about you. Not only did I have Yanet in a couple of classes before she graduated, but I've also seen you hanging around with Zoey."

Sean turned his attention to the next girl as Whitney bristled at his mocking of her introductions.

"Same goes with Zara Ossai. She went to Fairwater Junior High, so I've seen her at the Gibbles plenty of times working on school projects with Zoey. " Sean paused at the next girl. "I'm not as familiar with Kizzy, but Kaitlin's relationship drama is well-known around school. So I knew she had a younger sister."

"Yep. I can screw up a lot, and I'm still better behaved than my big sis," Kizzy chuckled.

"Finally, I've known Harley Peel for years. Hey, Harley, how was your Christmas?"

"Good. Hi, Sean," the redhead blushed as she shyly greeted the son of her mother's rival.

"Sean! You ruined my introductions," Whitney whined with a pout.

Seeing that she really appeared hurt, he put two and two together.

"Oh, is this kinda like your cabin tours?" Sean whispered.

"Sorta."

"Well, uh, then you can introduce me to the cheerleaders that aren't here. I mean, whenever we see them. That cool?"

"That will work," Whitney accepted the compromise.

"Um, does that include the juniors?" Sean asked with concern.

"Fuck no! I'm not putting them in charge of your health. Margo or Elaine might go all Misery on you. Or Joyelle might show up naked and blind you for life."

"Dreama might forget where she left him stuck in his wheelchair," Kizzy chimed in.

"Exactly!" Whitney agreed before her face showed fear. "And Greta's way of helping might break the other leg or your neck."

"Uh, Fern..." Harley spoke up for a rare time.

"Oh, no! You can't let Fern be one of Sean's candy-stripers," Kizzy protested.

"Check that. You only have nine candy-stripers. Fern's out," Whitney declared as she realized that Greta's cheersister was nearly as inept.

"Good. Less competition for us," Yolanda purred.

"No. Bad YoYo!" the senior captain scolded. "Sean is off-limits to all of you. He doesn't need the trouble that comes with girls your age, and I have plans for him."

A few groans sounded while Cadence acted as if she didn't care.

"Now that doesn't sound very fun for the Babybees, does it, Whitney?" Bridget asked as she joined the blonde teen and her son. "But it's best for my boy. He needs to focus on experienced girls--older, experienced girls," Bridget added as she saw a mouth open to protest.

"Mom!' Sean squealed in embarrassment.

"Hello, Cadence," Bridget greeted politely before walking over to hug Harley. "How are you doing, dear?

"Alright," the shy ginger replied before asking about Mrs. Tarver's holiday.

"More adventurous than I expected. But I think you girls have all heard about that," Bridget responded. Then, kneeling slightly, she brought her face level to Harley's. "How's your father doing? Better or still the same?"

"Mostly the same," the teen admitted.

"Well, I think it's high time that we get him back out on the dating scene, don't you?" Seeing the concerned daughter's unsure face, Bridget added, "The clock is ticking. Beverly is here, and she's going to be of the same mind. And I think I have better taste, right?"

"Oh, yeah," Harley nodded, recalling the woman that Mrs. Baccaro attempted to set her dad up with two years ago.

"I'll point out my prospects to you later tonight," Bridget promised, standing back up. "Now, I need to steal back my son."

"But Bridget! I have plans for Sean tonight," Whitney whined, sounding like a Babybee.

"Hmm, maybe if you tell me, I'll reconsider," the mischievous mother replied, winking at her son.

Sean groaned as his night of embarrassments appeared ready to continue, and the Babybees leaned forward to overhear Whitney's plans.