Cheer Pride

Wednesday, September 25th, Afterschool

“Sugarbabies?!”

“That’s what Felicity wants–” Cassandra continued to say until she got interrupted.

“Do they know what a sugar baby does?” Haley Abbington questioned, glancing around with a stunned expression.

“Clearly, they don’t,” Miranda replied.

"You know, Uncle Luigi has one down at the restaurant. He claims she works as a 'hostess,' but she doesn't work anything except his wallet," Zita Rossi interjected, air quoting the woman's position. "Mom says that naming the place after Luigi went to his head. Of course, everyone knows that Uncle Mario does all the work. The place would burn down if he weren't around."

“Ooh, we should get pizza there this week,” Annette St. Pierre told Miranda.

“Wait, what’s a sugar baby?” Maura Afton asked, showing off her naivety.

“I’ll tell you later, “ Shayla informed her best friend.

“How do you not know?” Tinny challenged. “Geez, Maura, it’s a woman that ‘dates’ an older, rich guy for loot, like money, gifts, or exotic vacations. If you ask me, it’s pretty damn on point for the Sugarbees.

Eleven varsity cheerleaders and one unofficial student manager sat on the bleachers overlooking the practice field shortly after school ended for the day. Bridget had brought the squad together to inform them of their visit to Fairwater yesterday afternoon and what Cassie had discovered in first period. The girls, as a whole, had been shocked even before the Sugarbaby term dropped like a bomb.

“Isn’t that…a hooker?” Maura asked, whispering the last word.

“No. It’s different,” Annette declared emphatically.

The sudden seriousness from the cheer squad’s sluttiest member caused Tinny to elbow Bridget with a giggle. It also brought an argument from one of the juniors on the varsity squad.

“Not really. I’m pretty sure my uncle’s sugar baby is a hooker,” Zita speculated.

"No, sugar babies are specifically there to be eye candy on a sugar daddy's arm. So they typically aren't sleeping with him," Annette continued.

“Uh, okay,” Haley responded. “You sure know an awful lot on the subject.”

“That’s cause Annie is researching career options for after graduation,” Tinny joked.

“Not at all. I’m willing to fuck my man to **** to lock him down. You’re the one that’s going to struggle to do that after getting kicked out of college for one of your lame pranks,” Annette shot back.

“Why would any guy lock you down with a wedding ring when he gets the used goods for free over and over?” Tinny shot back.

"Okay! Let's get back to why I called this meeting," Bridget attempted, only to fail for the least expected reason.

"No, no, this is all fascinating. Carry on, class, carry on," Cassie directed. She held her arm out with her fingers dangling downward. She flicked those fingers slightly forward on the carry-on part a few times. The gesture fit precisely with the voice the redhead mimicked.

“Cass! Don’t playact Tin at a time like this,” Bridget squealed, shocked at her more responsible friend.

“I don’t sound anything like that,” Tinsley protested.

“You do,” responded over half the squad.

“Cass has been perfecting the voice and hand wave for the last few weeks at storytime readings,” Kimberly revealed, referring to the readings the two girls performed for younger kids at the public library.

“Little Webb figured it the first time. He laughed so hard that he rolled over,” Cassie recounted.

“That kid is at your house way too much,” Tinny grumbled. “I don’t even know why.”

“My dad loves having him around when Wrenn comes over to hang out with Brandy. I think it’s his way of having the son he always wanted,” Bridget guessed.

“Hey, that’s Teddy’s role!” Tinny said about her little brother.

“No, Brandy would–” Cassie began to say.

“Seriously? Can we continue with the meeting?” Bridget queried. “I swear I should become a kindergarten teacher after being your captain. Rachel definitely has the right idea. This role is the perfect training.”

“Aw, hell no! Who would be our sexy nurse in the future if you did that?” Tinny expressed mock horror at the notion.

“Don’t you mean our slutty nurse?” Zita clarified, earning a high-five from the petite brunette.

“Quiet!” Bridget screamed.

“Ooh! Crack that whip, Bee, crack it!” Tinny cheered.

“Nurse, my ass. Bridget’s not going to heal patients; she’s going to give them pleasure through pain as a dominatrix,” Shayla joked.

“No, that’s Annie’s backup plan,” Miranda said, teasing her BFF.

“Nope. She’s too easy a lay to be in charge,” Tinny corrected.

“What is your problem?” Annette questioned, shooting an angry look at the brunette.

“Okay, okay, back to the–” Bridget attempted again.

“What’s up your butt today? It’s not the usual dick,” Tinny challenged, leaning forward on the bleacher to see Annette two levels down more clearly.

“Knock it off, Tin!” Miranda ordered, coming to her friend’s defense.

“Don’t give me orders. I’m the co-captain.”

“Okay, that’s enough. Let’s all listen up and behave.”

Every cheerleader turned to look at their captain while shushing. That behavior further flummoxed the busty blonde.

“Wait, you listen to Shayla just like that, but not me. What the hell?” Bridget sounded, throwing up her arms in frustration.

“Shay’s going to be captain next year, so we need to respect her,” Haley replied.

“And we love our little sister,” Annette announced proudly. That referred to last year’s feeling on that varsity squad that the mid-fall promotion of Shayla from the JV to the main roster meant she became everyone’s extra little cheersister as Alexis Laffont often failed in that role.

“Whoa! Back off there, bimbo. You lost your privileges to call Shay that when you failed to lock down Nadia as a returning cheerleader. Losing her is on you,” Tinny argued.

"Enough!" Bridget roared, finally getting the desired effect. "Back to what we came here to discuss, Felicity told Cassie that Carmella wants to create a junior varsity dance squad."

“Hence, Felicity calling them Sugarbabies,” the bookish redhead picked up where she’d left off. “And no, that name is not going to last. Josie Jinkerson flat out threatened Fliss if she ever called her that again,” Cassie relayed about the lone sophomore dancer.

“What?!” yelled several cheerleaders.

“How dare that little bitch?” Miranda questioned furiously.

“And you wanted her as the Babybee captain,” Kimberly scoffed at Bridget.

“Felicity is a school–No, she’s a Honey Hollow treasure,” Haley proclaimed.

“She’s such a sweetie,” Maura remarked.

“I bet Josie got pissed because she knows precisely all about sugar daddies,” Zita speculated.

“Huh?” Annette sounded.

“Oh, because her family is loaded, right, Zita?” Kimberly double-checked.

“Totally!” Tinny jumped in first. “Her family has the cabin next to the Diamonds on Wasp Lake.”

“Cass, you said the name isn’t going to last. Does that mean they are getting a JV squad?” Maura inquired.

“Oh, sorry. No, no, I misphrased that,” the squad’s unofficial therapist clarified.

“Yeah, I can handle this part,” Bridget told her co-BFF. “So I called Rachel last night. She said–”

“How’s Rachel?” Kimberly asked.

“How’s college life? Her classes?” Maura queried.

“Classes? How’s the guy selection?” Zita questioned.

“Does she have a boyfriend?” asked another junior.

“The conversation went about as well as this one. What with Gabby prying the phone away from Rachel, Tinny doing the same on my end with Brandy getting on the kitchen extension, and finally, my mom taking the phone away from her to ask if Rachel needed anything sent over,” Bridget recounted.

“Aw, that’s nice of your mom,” Maura cooed. “She should send one of Mrs. Day’s special–”

"We can hand deliver it to Rachel whenever we have our road trip," Miranda interrupted. "What did Rachel have to report? Did she hear anything?"

"Rach heard rumblings over the summer but didn't take them seriously. She figured it was just more backlash against us forcing Coach Kessler out," Bridget revealed about their ex-coach. "However, she heard more about the Sugarbees getting two more varsity slots, not a whole JV squad."

“Yet, Felicity seems to think it might happen next year,” Cassie continued, flipping open a small notebook and ignoring the exclamations of the squad’s juniors. “Carmella is still planning to lobby the district administration and Principal Busch again. Mrs. Trixler is fully behind the plan. Apparently, Josie wasn’t in the summer but now loves the idea for next year.”

“Of course, she didn’t want to lose her status as the only Sugarbee sophomore and just assumes she’d get elected captain next year,” Shayla commented.

“Nadia will put up a fight,” Annette declared about her former little cheersister.

“I wouldn’t count out Brixton either. Those Bumble Girls don’t like to play second fiddle, and she’s part of the Wynwicks,” Haley added, mentioning fellow junior and ex-Babybee Brixton Burnett.

“I wouldn’t count Josie out, not with the nuggets that Felicity dropped before she covered her mouth to hold it in,” Cassie teased.

“What is it?”

“That sounds like her.”

Rechecking her notes, Cassie revealed the next shocker. "The Sugarbees have two unofficial sophomores as trainees."

“What?”

“No way!”

“Those motherfuc–”

“Zita!” Maura gasped, cutting off her friend.

“I’ll guess that Adrienne Collins is one of them,” Miranda said.

“Good guess. It’s her and Susan Roscoe,” Bridget revealed.

“Now we know why they didn’t even bother to try out for the JV squad back in August,” Shayla commented, earning multiple nods about the strange no-shows.

“Adrienne is good too,” Tinny praised. “She was cheer co-captain at Central last year.”

"Losing those three talented girls is a major reason why this year's crop of Babybees is thin," Miranda acknowledged. However, she didn't add that losing Nadia hadn't helped their junior side of the roster either.

“That’s partly on me. I’ll admit it,” Bridget declared. “We thought it was odd that Adrienne and Susan didn’t try out. I should’ve followed up and looked into the reason.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Bee. Kessler’s family and allies pushed tryouts back almost two months. The same with your election,” Shayla pointed out. “Perhaps if we’d had them at the end of last year, they wouldn’t have been poached.”

“Can they do this? Isn’t it against the rules?” Maura, the straight-A student, inquired.

“Technically, they can’t without any of the liability waivers both squads need to sign,” Cassie confirmed.

"Yeah, if they get injured, the school could face serious lawsuits." Miranda pointed out.

“So we can shut this shit down, right?” another junior questioned.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Bridget replied. “We don’t know if Trixler got Busch or Lomax to sign off on adding two trainees.”

“So, who’s office are we breaking into?” Tinny asked, not caring that the two men were the school’s principal and assistant principal.

“Tin!” Cassie scolded.

“Let’s worry about that later. Carry on, Cass,” Bridget gestured.

“There’s more?” Haley asked, eyes widening again.

“Yes, there is more. What the others saw last night at Fairwater is Didi implementing Carmella’s second part of the plan: recruitment,” Cassie revealed, leading to more gasps and shouts.

“Carmella, Didi, and Trixler want junior high cheerleaders ready and excited to join any JV dance squad when they reach high school. Fairwater is their test site. They probably figured we’d hear sooner if they did it at Harborside or Meadowmilk,” Bridget speculated.

“That’s not going to happen. We’re going to stop them, right?” Haley demanded to know.

“Countering their lobbying to get the new squad added will take time. I think we’ll need Rachel, Sela, Shelly, and other former cheerleaders to help. As for their recruitment drive, I have a plan to fight back,” Bridget revealed. “We’re going to show younger girls that the cheer squad is the proper place for them.”

“Damn right, we fight,” Tinny stated, slamming a fist into her palm and rubbing them together.

“How are we going to do it?” Miranda asked, hoping to avoid **** or any crimes.

“By using homecoming and our float as advertising,” Bridget replied.

“Hell yeah!” Annette cheered. “Shake Your Pom-Poms is the perfect theme to get girls–”

“Sorry, Annette. We’re going to need to change the theme,” Bridget revealed, preparing for the inevitable argument.

“What?! Shake Your Pom-Poms is my idea, my creation! You can’t toss it aside. It’s awesome,” Annette shrieked.

"It's a great theme. I won't deny it. Unfortunately, it's not what we need now," Bridget responded apologetically.

“Why not? Girls join us to be sexy, to be popular.”

"She's right, Annie," Shayla agreed. "We must find a way to get junior high school girls and younger to want to be like us. Shaking our tits and asses isn't going to help. Hell, their parents might forbid them if we used your initial ideas."

“Do we even have the time to change our plans? Homecoming is in ten days,” Maura reminded.

"And our float is partially built," Kimberly added.

"See? We can't change them. So we'll have to stick with the original plan," Annette announced, jumping all over the limited time.

“Just hear me out, Ann. Please?” Bridget asked. “I think our new theme should be Today, Tomorrow. We have some of us up on the float with others walking alongside. Several junior high cheerleaders will be joining us at both spots.”

“Ooh, I like that idea,” Maura praised, never comfortable with Annette’s theme.

“I like it too. We’re the present, with the younger girls as the future,” Shayla agreed, earning a negative grunt from Annette.

“I also think that we need to change the float’s layout by adding another smaller section higher up,” the cheer captain continued. Immediately, a question about safety was asked. “I agree that’s a concern. I called Monty Rusk last night. He’s agreed to come out and evaluate our float before we make any changes.”

“Monty Rusk? Really?” Miranda questioned, shaking her head.

“Look, we don’t have much time or many options. Monty’s not away at college. He’s still local, and just as importantly, he’s loyal to us. Besides, he understands trailers and that stuff from his family’s used car lot,” Bridget defended her choice.

"Plus, Rain will use her brainpower to ensure it works," Tinny added.

“Wait, where is Rain?” Kimberly asked about the missing senior cheerleader, Rain Onishi.

“Rain and Posey went to the store to buy the new supplies we’ll need for the changes,” Bridget answered.

“Hold on a fucking second!” Annette cried. “So this isn’t you asking us to change my theme because you already decided to do it. And you told a Babybee–the weird fucking Babybee, no less–before you told me. What the fuck, Bridget?!”

“I’m the one that sent Rain and Posey to the store,” Cassie revealed, chiming in first. “Rain understands engineering, and Posey is a talented artist. I thought they made the best team to–”

“You?! You’re not even a cheerleader!” Annette roared. "You have no right to decide anything!"

Her words immediately set off rounds of shouting.

“Ann!” Miranda yelled, shocked at her best friend’s statement.

“You bitch!” Tinny screamed, leaping down to the bleacher level above Annette.

However, Kimberly got up in Annette's face before Tinny could lay a hand on the brunette.

“After the shit we went through last year with Kessler, how can you fucking say that?!”

“Low blow, St. Pierre!” Haley screamed from behind Tinny.

“Apologize now!” Zita ordered.

“Apologize now, Ann,” Miranda also ordered, using a tone that her best friend knew meant business.

“Fine! You’re all right. I’m sorry, Cassie. You are a member of this squad.”

"I'm sorry that I didn't have time to inform you," Cassie apologized but didn't get much further.

"No, no, you’re not the issue, Cassandra. Bridget is the fucking problem here!” Annette shouted, drawing attention from the practicing football team.

“Bitch, you better watch your mouth,” Tinny growled.

“Bridget, Bridget, Bridget. That’s all it’s ever about. Don’t any of you ever care that she’s always the one who has to have the spotlight? Well, I do, and you all should, too. It’s been like this since day one of sophomore year.”

“I’m not trying to steal your spotlight, Annie. It’s the Sugarbees that complicated the situation,” the blonde captain attempted to explain.

“It’s always the Sugarbees. You just admitted to screwing up by losing three kickass cheerleaders to them. So why are you the only one that knows how to fix that best? Why? Because you think you’re better than the rest of us.”

“She does make a good point,” Kimberly muttered. That earned a shove in the back from Tinny and admonishment from Cassie.

“Ann, please stop,” Miranda begged.

“Annie, this could still be fun for you. I thought Audra and her friends could make up part of the cheerleaders of the future contingent,” Bridget added, hoping to placate her squadmate.

“My little sister is going nowhere near your bullshit thievery!” Annette screamed before suddenly freezing. Everyone knew that she just had an idea based on past moments. “Fine. Take my homecoming float away from me. I’ll just have to settle for something better.”

“Ann,” Miranda said, her eyes widening as she realized her BFF’s intentions first.

“I’m breaking the cheer rule. I’m running for homecoming queen, and I’m going to fucking win the crown you just assume is yours.”

Another round of shouts broke out. Tinny managed to lean over Kimberly’s back enough to land a partial slap on the rebellious cheerleader’s face before getting pushed back.

“Stop! Fucking stop!” Bridget screamed.

“No, she’s breaking the rule!” Haley argued in reply. “Cheer rules state that the captain gets the first opportunity to run from the squad.”

“I don’t care. Let her,” Bridget stated, sounding tired.

“Bee, don’t give in!” Tinny responded.

“Annette, run for homecoming queen all you want. I’ll announce that I’m not running tomorrow.”

“Hell no! You’re going to run too, and I’m going to beat your ass,” Annette vowed.

“You dumb bitch. That’s just going to split the vote,” Tinny pointed out.

“And likely get Gemma elected,” Shayla added.

“I don’t care. Stopping the Sugarbees from getting a JV squad and becoming the favored option is more important,” Bridget said before Miranda and Kimberly helped lead Annette away from the bleachers.

“You’re going down faster and harder than ever, slut!” Tinny shouted after racing to the top of the bleachers for a better vantage point.

---

Reminder: The Appendix has an easy-to-skim list of the various cheerleaders and dancers. You'll want to scroll down to the 22 Years Ago entries for this story.

https://chyoa.com/chapter/%2AAppendix%3A-Cheer-%26-Dance-Squad-Rosters-%28Past%29%2A.1146779__