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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Teens
- Theme: Family & Friends
- Subject: Inspirational / Uplifting
- Published: 04/12/2022
Katrina's Cheerleading Seaon
Born 1973, F, from CA, United StatesKatrina’s Cheerleading Season - Chapter 1, Part 1
"Katrina! Hurry up, I'm leaving in ten minutes, with or without you."
"Geez, mom, take a chill pill. I'm just making sure my hair is perfect.”
Katrina Thomas was the team captain of her cheerleading squad at
Tiger-Moon Valley High School in Hunters Creek Texas, and today was
the city sectionals in the All Around City Cheerleading Texas
Championships. The competition started promptly at 4:00 and Katrina's
mom was driving her over to Dunkin Shay Stadium where the competition
was being held. It was just approaching 3:15 and it took 35 minutes
to drive there.
Katrina loved cheerleading. She’d been involved in it ever since she
started junior high school. She was 5' 4", slender and had dark brown hair
with red streaks and was considered very pretty.
Katrina Thomas came from a line of hard workers, dedicated people, people
who didn’t have the option of just dropping a sport just because they got
bored with it. Her parents had been high school sweethearts, and her mom, Kali,
had been on the cheerleading team when she was in college. When Kat told
her mom that she wanted to try out for her school’s cheer team, Kali
was so excited for her. Kali felt like Kat was gonna follow in her
footsteps. And then, when Katrina made the squad in her sophomore year, Kali
was over the moon happy for her, but she had a contingency: Katrina
must keep her grades up in order to continue with cheerleading. And
Katrina did, so her mom was very proud of her for her.
"Katrina! Five minutes and ...”
"Mom, have you seen my other pom-pom?”
"Oh, for Heaven sake, Katrina you need to ..."
"Never mind, found it.”
"For the love of....Katrina!”
"All right, Mom, I'm coming!”
Kali Thomas loved her daughter. She didn't always love her attitude, how long it took her to get ready for things, or what she got involved in, but her spirit was undeniable.
Kali and Kat finally got into the car and headed over to the stadium. Once they got there, Katrina hopped out and immediately went over to her friends and the rest of her team.
"Hey Lucy, hey Anna, hi gals!”
"Hey Katrina, hi,” they both said. Everyone else waved.
"We have a few minutes before the competition starts. Does anyone else
wanna practice that one pyramid trick again?" Katrina asked them.
"Sure, yeah!" they said.
"Cool," said Katrina. "Lucy, so just try to get the crowd’s
attention before you do your back tuck somersault off us. It's okay
to take an extra second if you can really get the crowd
pumped and roaring for us. Part of our score comes from how exciting the
audience finds us, right?”
"Definitely!" Lucy said.
“Word! Rock it on 3.” said Katrina, "1, 2, 3, Rock it!! Woohoo!” the
five of them yelled enthusiastically.
Kat, as her friends sometimes called her for short, Anna and Kristy
got down on their hands and knees. Kelly and Meg climbed on top of the three girls and
Lucy climbed on top Kelly and Meg.
"Go Tigers!!! Do your best!!!! Yay!!” shouted Kat.
Lucy did her back tuck somersault off their small pyramid and landed perfectly.
Kat, Anna, Kristy, Kelly and Meg all got up and did their Tiger school cheer.
"Tigers rock! We will not stop! Until we make it to the top! Yeee-ha!”
"Awesome!" said Kat.
"I can't believe how popular cheerleading has gotten, huh?" said Lucy.
"I know, right?" said Anna.
"Totally," said Katrina. "So many teams are here.”
A few minutes later, the music started which signaled the start of the
competition.
"Welcome. ladies and gentlemen, to the Texas City Cheerleading
Sectionals," said the Director of the entire cheerleading program for
the West side of Texas, Brad Melner.
"All-righty then, since this is a competition, we judge on the excitement factor, which depends on y'all out in the audience, plus execution of the
tricks and team spirit. Let's get this competition started!!“
"Woohoo!” yelled the crowd.
"Our first squad comes from Midland. It's Midland Senior High
School!" said Mr. Melner
“Hurray!" yelled the crowd, and Midland’s music started.
Their routine was pretty good, but there were a couple of un-perfect
landings, plus it was uncoordinated, so their scores were only 8.7 - 8.9.
"Our next team is from El Paso: Harmony Science Academy High.”
“Hip-hip hooray” yelled the crowd again. Harmony’s music started, and they were
a little more exciting than the previous team, their choreo was also
a bit more exciting, they had a couple more tricks and good landings,
so their scores were 9.0 - 9.3.
“Please welcome to our stage next, Tiger Moon Valley High School!” said Mr. Mellner
"Okay, we're up!" said Kat. "Lets rock this!!"
"Go Tigers!! Yaaay!!” the five of them cheered enthusiastically.
“Yippee,” yelled the crowd.
The Tigers team got up on the stage, and seconds later their music
started. Those Tigers were pumped!! Their tricks were eye catching,
their choreography was terrific, and their landings were perfect! The
crowd gave an enthusiastic three cheers!!!!
“Hurrah!” yelled the Tigers as they walked off the stage.
The judges held up a 9.3, a 9.4 and a 9.475.
“Huzzah!! Omg! That's the best score yet!" said Kat.
“Yay, awesome!!” said Lucy and Anna.
"Shine bright like a diamond!" said the rest of Kat’s team vigorously
"Tiger Moon Valley wins the City Sectionals!" said Brad Melner.
The cheer judges handed Mr. Melner enough gold medals for each member of the Tiger Moon Cheer Team.
"Tiger Moon Valley wins the City Sectionals!" said Brad Melner. "Get
back up here on stage, you awesome Tigers, and receive your gold medals.”
The whole team walked back up on the stage and got their gold medals.
"Thank you so much Mr. Melner and judges! We are so proud of our team, our hard work, and we have so much school spirit, " said Kat, jumping up and down enthusiastically, beaming with pride.
Anna’s Dilemma - Chapter 2
Anna had never been a slender kid like everyone else. She was a bit on the chubby side, and she never had the greatest self-esteem either, which was why she ate more, to comfort herself. On top of that, she had frequent mood swings, so she and her family always had to deal with that as well.
Her parents had decent jobs, which just paid the bills, and were just enough to keep them out of debt.
Anna had 'dirty blond' hair, she loves animals and she had a dog walking business on the side after school.
She has different interests, so she likes to try anything once, but once she loses interest in something, she'll drop it and move on to the next thing. Once, Anna tried soccer, and after a few weeks she got tired of it and quit going to the practices. She always starts enthusiastically about the next thing that interests her, but then she gets bored with it and will quit.
Anna's parents stopped supporting her after school activities because they couldn't keep paying for the outfits that were involved in the team sport.
Anna thinks cheerleading could be the school activity that she can be genuinely great at. She loves the vibe of the team camaraderie, she's doing truly well at it, and she goes to all the practices on time.
She wants to prove to her parents that she can stick with cheerleading and be positively great at it.
Anna said to Kat, “I know we don't have to be in our team outfits for practices, just for competitions, but I wanted to let you know my parents could only afford half of my new cheer team uniform."
"Ooh," said Katrina, "Does Coach Perri know too?"
"No, not yet," said Anna, "you're the first person I told."
"Okay, we need to let her know, then the three of us can put our heads together and come up with a solution.”
"Okay," said Anna.
A bit later that day, Kat and Anna called Coach Perri to let her know about Anna's situation.
"Hey guys," Coach Perri said to them, "what's up?"
Kat started. "So Anna only has half of our new cheer team uniform, and her parents can't afford to get her the other half when we compete in Finals."
"Ooohhh," said Coach Perri, "yeah, that is a dilemma. Hmm, okay, I have three solutions. We either get the PTA involved, have a bake sale or hold a Silent Auction.”
"A bake sale would be fun, right?" said Anna.
"Totally," said Katrina.
"And we can get Lucy and some of the team involved too, right?" said Anna.
"Exactly," said Kat. “So Coach, we wanna have a bake sale to raise the money.”
"Terrific!" said Coach Perri, "I'll send out a mass email to the whole squad and my other coach friends and we'll rustle up a great bake sale to help Anna out. Go Tigers on 3. 1, 2, 3, Goooooo Tigers!!" the three of them cheered.
"Okay I'll talk to you both later? And don't worry Anna, we're gonna get you the rest of your uniform. A Tiger isn't left behind because of an inability to pay for a complete uniform," Coach Perri said. And they all hung up.
Kat’s Accident - Chapter 3
Later that afternoon, Kat's cheer squad met over at their coach's house. She had a huge backyard which made it easy to have practices and rehearsals at her place. She had just pulled up into her driveway by the time the whole squad got there.
"Hey, guys!" Coach Perri said. "Y'all are that eager to get started on our new routine, huh?" she said smiling. Coach Perri was 5' 9", strawberry blond straight hair, freckles, and usually wore her hair in a ponytail.
"Hahaha," a few of the girls laughed.
"We already thought of an amazing song to use," said Lucy
"Really?" said Coach Perri. "What is it?"
“‘Over You' by Chris Daughtry, like from the chorus," said Anna.
"Impressive!" said Coach Perri. "I like it a lot!" she said smiling.
"Outstanding," said Kat.
By that time Coach Perri had finished parking. "Let's all go inside," she said.
They all went inside.
"So, I'm thinking we add in some more backflips and a couple of twisting somersaults," said Coach Perri." How does that sound to everyone?"
"Terrific, yeah," they all said.
"Wonderful. So let's look up this song and see how we can work it, okay?" she said to her team.
"Great," they all said back.
Coach Perri searched for that song on her laptop computer and played it.
"Oh super! oh, this is gonna be great," she said.
"Yay!" said her squad.
"Okay, so let's start from the basic step work and go from there, right?" said their coach.
Fifteen minutes later, they had the beginnings of their new routine down. They practiced for an hour and a half and then took a break to have a snack.
"How does everyone feel it's going?" asked Coach Perri.
Some said ‘okay’ and other gals said ‘good, but…’.
"It needs ...maybe one more big trick," said Kat.
"Yes!" said Coach Perri. "That's what I thought too. So what about adding a double backflip with a half twist?" she continued.
"Dope! Yeah!, " said everyone in agreement.
"Terrific," said Coach Perri.
So, they practiced for another hour and fifteen minutes, and everyone was getting tired. Katrina's last trick was a back flip-half twist from standing on one of her teammate's shoulders. She landed on a extremely wet, slippery patch of grass, which made her feet slide out from under her.
"Oooowwww!" Kat yelled.
"Oh no! OMG!" said her coach and her team, as Katrina started to cry.
"It's okay, it's gonna be okay, let's just help her up and get her inside. Sit her down on the couch," said Coach Perri. "Kat, bring your leg up so we can elevate your ankle," she continued.
Kat complied.
"After the initial swelling goes down, I'll drive you over to our gym doctor for a check-up and maybe X-rays," Coach Perri said.
Fifteen minutes later, Coach Perri, Katrina, and Lucy, for support, drove over to their doctor's office, and yes, they took X-rays as a precaution.
Five minutes later, the Dr. came in with the results.
"So Katrina, you do have a hairline fracture, between your heel and your ankle," said the Doctor.
"Ooohhh gee!" said Kat.
"Okay," said Coach Perri. "So you need a break,” she said smiling at her affectionately as she smiled, encouraging her, although she knew Kat would be sad and upset.
Katrina rolled her eyes and looked towards her best friend, Lucy.
"It'll be okay, don't worry," said Lucy.
"But I'm team captain," said Kat. "I'm supposed to be the one sending out positive vibes to my team to keep them motivated," Kat continued.
"Don't sweat it," said Lucy. "I'll step in temporarily and keep our squad energized."
"That's very kind and generous of you, Lucy," said Coach Perri. "I know you have a few other things going on though. Are you sure you have the extra time to be assistant captain?"
"Yes, Coach," said Lucy.
Lucy and Kat were best friends, and besides Kat, Lucy was the most reliable squad participant. She was always on time, always at every practice, and whenever Coach Perri asked for a volunteer to help her out with something, Lucy always raised her hand to give of her own time.
"Okay, perfect," said Coach Perri. “I'll give you and Lucy a ride home. Either you can brief Luce on her new responsibilities as Assistant Team Captain, or you can just chill and I'll go over it with her."
"I'll go over it with Lucy, Coach," Katrina said.
"Good," said Coach Perri.
Then Kat turned to look at her best friend. “Hey Luce, wanna sleepover tonight? I'm almost certain it'll be fine with my mom."
"Okay," said Lucy, "I'll just have to call my mom and let her know."
That evening, Kat and Lucy talked Temporary Team Captain duties, chatted about school, movies, and..... dating.
Kat meets Dylan - Chapter 4
"Have I ever mentioned Dylan Mackenzie to you?" asked Lucy
"Mack?" said Katrina. "No, I've seen him around campus but I don't "know him."
Dylan McKenzie was a Junior at Kat's school. He was 6", light brown hair, green eyes, and slender. He loved plaid shirts, so he had a good bunch of them in his arsenal and, usually wore them at least twice a week, and he was a big musical theater nerd.
"Yeah, him. Well anyway, he's in my nature conservation class," said Lucy. "And he seems pretty smart too. Every time Miss Koller asks us a question, he's the first to raise his hand, and he usually gets the question right too!" She continued. "I think you'd like him, oh! and he always dresses smart and stylish. For example, he'll pair his plaid shirts with black denim pants, or he'll wear a jean shirt with a sweater vest over it."
"Really?" said Kat. " Hmm, well, you know Luce, obviously I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, so I'm not sure this is the right time to start dat-”
"Oh no, heavens! I didn't mean you should date him yet. Gosh, oh my goodness, no. I totally get it," said Lucy. "I just meant to have as another friend, a guy friend." she continued.
"Oh, you mean like Billy Porter?" said Kat. Billy was a past "try out friend" that became a bit too awkward to handle.
"Yeah," said Lucy.
“And look how well that turned out." Katrina reminded her.
"Yeah, well... yeah, he ended up being strange. What was up with him anyway?” Lucy started to laugh. "He always wanted to hang around us, and he always managed to seem like he had just popped up from around a corner. It was almost like he was tracking us," she continued. Kat just shrugged her shoulders. "But I'm talking about in the beginning. He was nice in the beginning, right?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah, he was," said Kat. "Okay, I guess I can give Dylan a shot," she continued as she winked at her best friend.
"Awesome!" said Lucy. "So I could tell him to stop by on his way home from school if that's okay with you? "
"Sure," said Kat. "I'll just let my mom know."
The next day, at recess, Lucy went over to Dylan and started chatting with him.
"Hey Dylan, how are you doing?" said Lucy.
"Hey Luce, I'm fine thanks. Did you hear about the Booster Club holding a Silent Auction to raise funds for the music program?" said Dylan.
"Yeah, just!" said Lucy. "Wanna come over to my place this weekend and we can start thinking about what to donate that people might actually want?” she started to chuckle.
"Sure," said Dylan.
"Bring a box of nice things that are in good condition and that your family is willing to get rid of," said Lucy
"Will do," said Dylan
"Oh, and also," started Lucy again, "we're doing a bake sale to raise money so one of our team members can get the rest of her team uniform for competitions. Wanna help out with that too?" she asked Dylan.
"Of course," said Dylan with a smile.
When ever there was an event at their school, Lucy and Dylan traded off going to each other's houses so their parents would have some alone time without their kids.
"So Dylan, my Team Captain fractured her ankle and she 's pretty upset about it. Her name is Katrina and she's such a nice, great kid, very grounded, smart, sensitive, I think you'd honestly like her. Would you be willing to stop at her place on your way home from school to cheer her up a bit?
"Sure," said Dylan. "Any friend of yours is a friend of mine," he said smiling. "Thank you so much," said Lucy.
After school, Dylan stopped off at Kat's place on his way home.
He walked up to Katrina's front door and rang their doorbell.
"Hello Mrs. Thomas, I'm Dylan, I go to Kat's school, I'm here to visit her."
"Of course, Dylan, come on in. Kat is in her room, down the hall," said Kali Thomas, Katrina's mom.
"Thanks," said Dylan.
He walked down the hall to Katrina's room and knocked on her door.
"Hi Katrina, I'm-"
"Dylan, yes, hi," interrupted Kat. "Wow, it's very nice to officially meet you. I've seen you around and always thought you seemed pretty decent," she continued. "I like how you dress too. So how do you know Lucy?"
"Oh, our mom's are good friends, " said Dylan. "Every school event that has to deal with food, or a kind of group event, the four of us, me and my mom and Lucy and her mom, get together and cook/ bake the food, or organize stuff together for the event. It's pretty fun. Did you know Lucy's dad is good friends with famous chef Jamie Oliver?"
"Truly?! Wow, that's so cool," said Kat. "I love his style of cooking. Simple, basic, uncomplicated," she said smiling.
"Yeah. So, I heard about your ankle. Sorry that happened, " said Dylan.
"Thanks, yeah, I'm just bummed out," said Kat. "I'm the head of my squad and we practice a lot, but we also have a lot of fun too, so I'm completely missing practice, and that’s’ why I'm bummed," she continued.
"Right," said Dylan. "One time I was skateboarding and I tried a move called back trail grab with a half twist and I landed wrong and when I fell, I busted my elbow."
"Oooff, I bet that positively smarted," said Kat.
"Yeah, I even had to get stitches!" said Dylan.
"Wow," said Katrina. Then, changing the subject, she asked, "So, what kinda music do you like?"
"I'm into a bit of everything," said Dylan, "what about you?"
"Oh you know, the usual, Jazz, Oldies, Pop and Funk," said Kat.
Dylan and Katrina chatted a while longer before her mom called out, "Hey Kat, dinner in 30."
"Okay mom," said Kat.
"I guess that means I should go, huh?" said Dylan
"Yeah," said Kat.
"Okay, well it was certainly nice meeting and chatting with you. You're a cool chick," said Dylan.
"Aw, really?!" said Kat.
"Yup," said Dylan with a wink. He said goodbye to Kat's mom and left.
Meanwhile, Lucy and the were practicing the routine. Lucy proved to be a great assistant coach. She always pepped the team up at the beginnings of their practices, she was always enthusiastically chanting encouraging sayings like, "Let's go, you can do it, you got this," to keep the team going and she even came up with a new school song cheer that they started doing at the end of their practices to keep them motivated.
Tigers are strong, nimble and grand
We're proud and we always sing along with the band
We never give up, we never give in,
We never let each other down
We stand with pride on top of the ground!
Lucy and Dylan Do Some Baking - Chapter 5
The following week, Dylan went over to Lucy's house after school with a box of stuff to donate.
"Awesome!!" said Lucy, "between the two of us and our families’ stuff, we should be able to come up with …lets see, a total of ten things we can give to the Booster Club for their auction.
"Yeah," said Dylan.
“Since the baking takes longer, wanna get started on that first?" she asked Dylan.
"Sure," he replied.
"Cool, so I'll just go get a cookbook and be right back“ she said winking. Dylan smiled.A minute later Lucy was back with her favorite cookbook, “The Minimalist Baker”.
"So, Dylan, do your parents have any pies or cakes that they like?"
"Hmmm," Dylan said thinking. "They certainly like pecan pie and coffeecake," he said with a grin
"Okay, those sounds easy enough," said Lucy, "and my parents and I like…carrot cake and cherry cobbler. So let's look at the recipes and write down anything we don’t have so if we need to go to the store, we won't forget anything.”
"Good idea," said Dylan.
They started looking up ingredients and found they didn't need too much just a few things here and there; cherries, pecans, breadcrumbs, carrots, and two ready-made pie crusts. They both took a reuseable bag, rode over to the grocery store on their bikes, and started shopping for the missing ingredients.
While they were at the store Lucy asked Dylan to pick up a couple thing for her parents while she got all the ingredients for the deserts, just to assist their parents. They were good kids.
Twenty-five minutes later, Lucy and Dylan were back at Lucy's and started to unpack their groceries.
“Hey Dylan how about you start with the cherry cobbler, and I’ll work on the coffee cake? Dylan, just follow the directions and it’ll be amazing. This particular cookbook is so great because there aren't a lot of ingredients in each recipe; they call for whole foods, no chemicals and they are so yummy!" she continued smiling. "Then we will start on the pecan and the carrot cake."
"Sounds like a plan," said Dylan, and he held up his hand for Lucy to high-five, which she did. "Let's do this!" they said at the same time, and both grinned and started baking.
Lucy had watched her mom make coffeecake before, so she wasn't really worried about messing it up. She made the batter first, then mixed the melted butter, brown sugar and flour in a medium bowl with a fork. Next, she used her hands to form larger crumbs, she spread the crumbs on top of the batter and stuck it in the oven.
Thirty minutes later, Lucy and Dylan had their first wo deserts ready to add to the bake sale. While the deserts were baking they took a break and switched over to Lucy helping Dylan organize things for the Booster Club's Auction.
While they were going thru their boxes, they continued chatting.
"So what did you think of Kat?" asked Lucy.
"She was pretty neat,” said Dylan.
"Right?” asked Lucy, "she's level headed, smart, interesting and grounded.”
"Absolutely," said Dylan, "and her taste in music is very eclectic as well," he added.
"Totally!" said Lucy.
"Are there any CD's in your box?" asked Dylan.
"Yeah," said Lucy, "I usually see at least some CD's in every garage sale I pass by, so I think CD's are a good thing to donate, right?"
"Yes," said Dylan, "As well as old classic books, especially if they are out of print or have something that makes them special, like a signature from a famous author," he continued. "Does your family have any of those blue Depression glass plates, or glasses?”
"Yeah," said Lucy, "but my family wants to hold onto them for a bit longer, they think the longer someone holds onto certain valuable objects, the more those objects appreciate in value, and I appreciate that.
Dylan and Lucy continued going though and organizing objects for the Booster Club's Auction until the timer went off, letting them know their first two baking goodies were done. Lucy pulled out one and Dylan pulled out the other one.
"Wow, these look genuinely delicious” said Lucy.
"They do, you're right," said Dylan.
“And they aren't all that difficult to make,” she chuckled.
"Ahh, yup," said Dylan, "but now we gotta do a bit of work shredding the carrots and chopping the nuts.”
"Yup," said Lucy.
They continued talking, while assembling the pecan pie and the carrot cake. When they were done they put both desserts in the oven.
“So, Luce, I just wanna say thanks again for helping me with the donation for the auction. You know the Music Program really needs help, and that’s why the Booster Cub is so important to our school. All the members get together and do research to find out what school subject or program needs help from getting canceled. Then they help raise the funding to keep that subject or program active."
"Wow, I didn't realize you were that connected in volunteering your own time," said Lucy, with admiration.
"Well, just subjects I have a passion for, I'll admit," said Dylan.
“And music is one of them, I gather?" said Lucy.
"Yes, music, and in particular, Broadway show tunes," said Dylan.
"Are you playin' me?' asked Lucy with a wink.
"No, why?" asked Dylan.
"I didn't know you were a Broadway fan!" said Lucy, "Me too!"
"No way!" exclaimed Dylan.
"Totally!" said Lucy.
“Hah, sooo interesting," said Dylan.
"Definitely," said Lucy.
Forty-five minutes later, Lucy and Dylan had four desserts to contribute to the bake sale. Lucy then called coach Perri to find out more about the details of where the bake sale was going to be and at what time, and she told her that both she and Dylan had made four yummy treats for the bake sale.
"Hey Lucy, good to hear from you. Okay, great, and I just heard from Kristy too, and she also made two pies, so we have six total, which I think is a good start. So here's what we're gonna do," started Coach Perri. "I have a friend who is part of the Tiger Moon Valley City Baking Fair Committee, and she said we can have the booth that's two rows in and two rows over from the entrance of the Fair this weekend," she said.
"Okay, great," said Lucy, “what time?”
"It starts at 10 am and goes untill 3 pm.," said Coach Perri.
“Perf” said Lucy, “will you will want help setting up that morning?"
"Sure,” said Coach Perri, "Why don't both of you come help since y'all made desserts and I will call back Kristy and tell her too," she continued.
"Okay, sounds good," said Lucy, "so Dylan and I will be there, like 30 minutes early to help, is that fine?"
"Sounds great!" said Coach Perri.
"Okay, see you then," said Lucy.
"See you then," said Coach Perri, and they both hung up.
Tiger Moon Valley’s Bake sale and Auction -Chapter 6
Two days later Lucy, Dylan and Kristy met up at the front of the fair at exactly 9:30AM
Their coach Perri came out from the fairgrounds to meet them at the front gate and direct them to their booth.
"This is gonna be cool!" said Kristy.
"Yeah, I've only been at a fair to have fun," said Dylan. “I’ve never actually worked at one before.”
"It's not hard at all," said Lucy. "Just be nice to anyone who comes up and might ask a question.”
"Okay," said Dylan.
It didn't take too long to help their coach set up, so they spent the remaining time they had talking.
"How often do you guys practice after you leave school and on the weekends?” asked Coach Perri.
"Every other day or so," said Lucy. "My mind is set on winning the ‘whole bag of tricks’.
"Me too," said Kristy, "but when, my family gets busy they always ask for my help so I can’t always practice as much as I want to.”
"Ah, okay," said Coach Perri, "I was just wondering.”
A few minutes later Meg called on the mobile.
"Hey guys, I just thought of a pretty cool idea to get the crowd routing for us even more," she said eagerly.
"What's that?" Coach Perri asked.
"We could make a big banner that has our school name on it in big 3D lettering and have sayings all around it like Go Team! Yay! Knock it out of the park and make it colorful, too," said Meg.
"That is a terrific idea, Meg, nice going," said Coach Perri. "Do you wanna do a rough sketch of it so after the bake sale finishes we can all head over to that park that's by our school and start working on the banner?" She specifically asked Meg that question because she knew that Meg liked to do creative artsy projects, as well as it being her idea.
"Sure!" said Meg.
"Great," said coach Perri, "We'll see you soon.”
"Okay," said Meg, and she hung up.
Ten am rolled around and a lot of people, the group was big, were looking forward to this event. The City Fair director came and let everyone in. There were lots of things there, Lots of food, people selling their homemade crafts, people selling Cd’s and there was even a top comedian there for entertainment.
Every so often a few people came by and asked what was for sale, and the students answered,
“a cherry cobbler, coffeecake, pecan pie, carrot cake, and lemon-blueberry squares and …
It took awhile for word of mouth to get around that Tiger Valley School was doing a bake sale table.
By 12:30, there was a stream of people coming to their booth every few minutes. Dylan and Lucy had sold every piece of pie and cake they had made in an hour.
at Dylan, Lucy, ―and Kristy had made, and more importantly, they had enough money to pay for Anna to get the rest of her cheer uniform.
The Semi-finals - Chapter 7
The whole team met the morning after the Bake Sale and told Anna the great news.
"Oh my gosh! You guys are the best, thank you so much, I'm just, wow, I- I love you guys!” exclaimed Anna ecstatically and her whole team hugged each other.
At this point, the Semis were only two weeks away, and those Tigers were training even more than usual. They were not gonna give away any points to any other team; they were in it to win it. And by this time Kat's ankle had healed and she was back in the gym practicing with her teammates and friends.
"Okay we're lookin' good gals, just remember to support each other, have enthusiasm and have fun,” stated Coach Perri. "Are we all in agreement?"
"Yes Coach!" they all agreed.
Before they all left for the day, Coach Perri sat them down and had a pep talk.
"Y'all are lookin' really great, I'll admit it, You all have improved so much and I'm really proud of all of you. I know y'all are pumped and ready for this, I just want you to keep in mind a couple of things. When we are at the Semis next week, don’t get nervous seeing all the other teams and possibly getting intimidated by their coaches and uniforms, okay? I want you gal's to just breathe, don't over-think, just do, believe in yourself and know you got this, okay. We've been training every day during school, we have our weekend workouts twice a month; we ARE gonna take our school to the finals, we're ready, just don't get overwhelmed seeing everyone else, watching their routines, and in your minds going, "wow, oh my gosh they are so good.” Everyone there is going to be fighting for a spot in the finals, right?"
Everyone nodded.
"So have fun, stay synchronized, and shine, and be your best selves, okay?" she continued.
"Yes, Coach!” they exclaimed.
"Okay group hug!" Coach Perri said, and they all grouped around her and gave each other a big hug.
"Go Tigers!" she stated.
"Go Tigers!" her team yelled back.
The following week, was the week of the Semi-Finals . Coach Perri had everyone meet her in front of the school. She borrowed the gym van to drive her team over to where the competition was being held, at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
The music started playing 20 minutes later which signaled the start of the competition.
"Hello again," said Brad Melner, the Director of the cheerleading program for the west side of Texas. "Welcome to the Semi-Finals! We have a terrifically talented bunch of schools ready to compete and excite you today. This is how it will work," he continued, "because there are so many schools here, we break it down into preliminary rounds and then those winners go to the second round and compete with each other.
"We will start with Westside High School from Houston," Mr. Melner announced.
That team got up on stage, their music started and they were pretty great. They had some neat tricks, they were well synchronized, and their choreo was on point. They got scores of 8.6 - 8.8.
One after another, each next eligible cheerleader team representing their schools, got up on stage and performed their routines.
While the Tigers were getting up on stage, Kat whispered to Mr. Melner, “Can we have an extra minute because we want to put up our special banner?”
“Sure,” stated Mr. Melner, so the Tiger Team put up their special banner and then got into position for the start of their routine.
Lots of people were noticing the banner, pointing at it, and saying wow and were quite impressed with the lettering and even the style of the lettering. Meg's idea was working.
The Tiger's music started, and they were fierce competitors. Their tricks were awesome, their choreo was very eye-catching and exciting. Their scores ranged from 9.2 - 9.5.
They were so happy, they yelled their newest team cheer;
"Tigers roar with a mighty sound
that shakes everyone else to the ground,
we don't give up and we don't give in,
when we do our best, we win, win, win!
Yeee-Haaww!" their whole team shouted.
The last cheer team to perform was the James Taylor High Woodpeckers. They were fined-tuned, on point, and you could definitely tell that they put in the effort to make their team look as synchronized as possible. So their team scored 9.0 - 9.3., making the Woodpeckers and the Tigers the two finalists.
Mr. Melner got up and explained how the next round would go.
"What we do next is, we pick a random song, and then the two teams have thirty minutes to come up with a routine off the cusp, that best represents the spirit of their school. Behind me is a box with many CD’s with different songs. I will ask one of our judges to randomly pick out a CD and song and that will be the song that both teams will have to use for their routine.
Mr. Melner signaled to one of the judges to come up and pick out a song. She walked over and took out a song title.
"The song is, ‘Tearing up My Heart’ by The Backstreet Boys!" Mr. Melner stated.
The crowd cheered and the two cheer teams were really happy.
They knew the song and knew they could come up with a good solid routine to it.
Coach Perri gave them a short pep talk.
"Okay, we know what we have to do right?" Everyone nodded their heads. Stay confident, stay strong, right? Have school spirit and have fun! Let's just add one more backflip half twist, okay?" Everyone agreed.
The Woodpeckers and the Tigers came up with their off-the-cusp routines in the allotted time.
Then Mr. Melner got up on the stage and announced, "All right, time is up would the team captains please come to the stage for the coin flip."
Both team captains came up.
"Call it when it's in the air," Mr. Melner said.
"Heads!" said Kat.
There was a pause as the coin fell to the ground.
“It’s Heads,” said Mr. Melner. "Do you guys wanna go first or second?"
"Second," said Kat.
"Okay, so Woodpeckers, your team is up first, get on up here and make your city proud," he chuckled as he left the stage.
Their music started, and again, their tricks were pretty impressive, their choreo was neat, and they seemed pretty cohesive as a team.
Their scores were 9.3 - 9.5.
Then the Tigers got up. They were fierce, strong, dynamic, very synchronized, and enthusiastic.
The judges gave them 9.4 - 9.6, the Tigers had just edged out the Woodpeckers!
"Yeeee-Hawww, Super Amazing! Wow, OMGosh! the Tigers were shouting, and everyone in the stands was cheering them on and yelling, "Tigers Rock!' Go Tigers!"
Mr. Melner called the Tigers back up on stage, and when they all got up on the stage, he said, "The City Semi-Finals champions are The Tiger Moon Valley High Tigers!" and he handed Kat the team trophy.
"This is just such a reward and culmination of all our hard work," said Kat. "We are so grateful to have such terrific team members, a fab coach, and we all share the same vision, we work hard but we also play hard too, and I think we earned this, so thank you again!" and all the Tiger cheerleaders shook their pom poms in the air.
Chapter 8 - Getting Ready For Finals / Dylan and Lucy’s predictament
The Tigers had two weeks before the Finals started, and Coach Perri wanted to try a different way to come up with the choreo for their Final routine. So she did a group call and told them her idea.
“Hey gals, hope you all are doing well and taking care of yourselves. So here’s my idea, all of us are a team, right? And I know you gals are smart and creative, so, what if we all pitched in ideas to come up with the choreo for our Finals competition? The general consensus was, yay, awesome, sure!
“Terrific,” stated Coach Perri. “I won’t make you gals come over right now,” she said smiling, “but lets say by, Wednesday y’all come over to my place. And in the meantime, I want you all to watch cheerleading videos to get ideas and inspired okay?”
“Yes Coach!” agreed everyone sounding like they had smiles on their faces.
“Coolness, I’ll talk to y’all later, okay? And by the way, each and every one of you are super great in your own way and it has been my pleasure and honor working with you.”
“Awwwwww,” all the girls said in unison.
Then Kristy told Coach Perri, “Well, we really like working with you too Coach,”
“Thank you,” said Coach Perri. Talk to y’all later, bye,” and she hung up and her team hung up too.
A little bit later on, Dylan called Lucy to ask if he could come over to her place, and she said “Sure.”
About thirty minutes later, Dylan was in front of Lucy’s door and he rang her doorbell.
“So Luce, that bake sale was fun huh?”
“Yeah it was Dylan, did you have fun helping out?”
“Indeed I did. It was interesting, chatting with different people and hearing their stories on how they got into baking in the first place, or how that pastime has been kinda handed down from generation to generation.”
“Truly,” Lucy told Dylan, “it’s kinda funny how people open up only when it comes to food,” she giggled.
“Right,” said Dylan. “So anyways, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Sure, what’s up?” said Lucy.
“Okay, so you know how we hang out a lot and spend time together for school events and because our mom’s are good friends?”
“Yeah.”
“So, I think my feelings towards you are getting stronger.”
Lucy was kinda shocked…but in a good way.
“Wait a min, hang on a second. You, have growing feelings for me?!” exclaimed Lucy
“Yeah.”
“Wow,” she said, taken aback, “I’m flattered and I guess I should tell you something too.”
“What’s that?”
“I really like you too!” Lucy whispered to Dylan.
“No kidding?
“Totes!”
“Wow, huh,” they both stated.
Then Lucy thought for a moment.
“Okay, you do know that Finals are coming up right?”
“Yeah, but I’d like to start seeing more of you,” stated Dylan.
“I’d like to see you more too, but I just can’t right now, I have all this training I have to do and finals are coming up.”
“But-“
“I know!” Lucy said strongly, “we’ve been really good friends for awhile and now we notice that we have these stronger feelings for each other, but the timing sucks, I just really have to focus on my training right now.”
“But-“
“Remember how crazy my schedule was for the Semi’s?
“Yeah.”
“So, I don’t really have the time to hang out with you al the moment. How about once a week on Sundays? We can have brunch. I’m sorry Dylan, but in two weeks I’ll have plenty of time to start seeing more of you and we can talk about possibly officially dating okay,” Lucy apologized to him.
“Oh, okay, I understand,” he said, “Sure, see ya soon then.”
“See ya soon,” and they both hung up.
Lucy wondered if she’d been too hard on Dylan. Oh well, training comes first in order to win it, she thought.
Over the course of the next two days, all of Coach Perri’s team watched cheerleading videos to get inspired to think of cool moves they could add to their choreo.
Wednesday, mid-morning, Coach Perri’s team met over at her place.
“Heeey gals!” Coach Perri said enthusiastically.
“Heey Coach,” they all chimed back.
“C’mon in and let’s get started! Does anyone want some water or are y'all okay?"
They all said they're fine.
"So what have you gals seen and thought about that we could put in our routine?"
"So, I saw these cool turns where like three or four other gals lift one girl up on one leg and then spin her around while she lifts one of her legs and does a standing split," stated Anna.
"That is cool," Coach Perri said.
"And in some videos," said Kristy, "they do these different, like air flips by tossing another gal up and while she's up there she does a flip or a twist."
"That's also cool," stated Coach Perri.
"And then also, they mix up the cartwheels and the flips, like, they don't just do some backflips all in a row, they will do a cartwheel or roundoff into a backflip and then mix that up," said Kat.
"Interesting," Coach Perri said. Okay, that's good to start. What about for the cheer choreo part?"
"Well ya know, we all know really good dancers, like Paula Abdul and Jennifer Lopez, why don't we just watch a few of their dance videos, and we could pick from them and add in a bit of our own style?" said Kristy.
"Cool-beans" smiled Coach Perri, "Perf, okay then, let's get started! Go Tigers!
"Go Tigers!" they all shouted.
Thirty minutes later the had their routine choreographed.
They all took a thirty-minute break and Kat thought to call Dylan and say hi.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Oh not too much, ya know, mmm my dad got to have lunch with Jamie Oliver the other day," said Dylan, "he said the food was excellent and Jamie is one of the nicest people he's ever met."
"That's so cool Dylan! So how are you doing?"
"I'm good thanks, how are you Kat?"
I'm fine too. So I was wondering,"
"Wondering about what?" Dylan asked almost interrupting Kat.
"Well, I was wondering, would you like to hang out sometime?"
"Uh, sure, what do you wanna do?"
"I mean like just for lunch, so I have company," Kat said with a smile on her face.
"Ohh, haha," Dylan said laughing, "sure, why not."
"Great! I'm actually at my training right now, but there is a neat U.S.A sandwich shop down two blocks and across the street from Coach's Place, do you mind driving over?" Kat asked.
"Sure, no problemo," smiled Dylan, "just give me the address."
"Cool," and she did, and twelve minutes later, Dylan met Kat at the sandwich shop.
"Hey you," she said with a big smile on her face.
"Hey cutie," said Dylan, "wow, I haven't seen this place yet, I guess I drive by and never look," he laughed.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool actually, you know how there are classic sandwiches but then some states have specific sandwiches that are just popular in their state, for example, like maybe cheese sandwiches are more popular in Wisconsin?" said Kat.
"Uh-huh,"
"So, this place researched all that & decided to make and sell some of the sandwiches that are popular in different states."
"Oh, that is a cool idea!" said Dylan.
――Chapter 9―
Dylan parked, and as he was getting out of his car Katrina saw him and said,"Hey you," with a big smile on her face.
"Hey cutie," said Dylan, "wow, I haven't seen this place yet, I guess I drive by and never look," he chuckled.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool actually. You know how there are classic sandwiches but then some states have specific sandwiches that are just popular in their state?" said Kat.
"Uh-huh,"
"So, this place researched all that & decided to make and sell some of the sandwiches that are popular in different states."
"Oh, that is a cool idea!" said Dylan.
“Right! I’ve only been here twice before and I’ve tried the Carolina sandwich, which is chicken, bacon and cheese and the Louisiana Pork Belly Burger Sandwich
“Nice.”
Kat and Dylan went inside and looked at their menu. Kat ordered an Alexandria Pot Roast Sandwich and Dylan got a Mississippi Smash Burger Sandwich which has strip steak, bacon, special sauce, melted cheddar, onions and pickles, and they both got a mixed ice tea lemonade.
Dylan and Kat talked and ate for the rest of the time she had for her lunch break. Dylan started.
“Hey so you remember when I came to visit you after you hurt your ankle?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I think I should probably tell you something.”
“Ya know, Dylan, I think you’re really cute,” he smiled.
“Thanks, Kat, you’re really a nice girl and I admire your dedication to your gymn. team and your hard work, but..”
“But?”
“Well, my mom and Lucy’s mom are good friends, so that means we all hang out a lot together and..”
“And?”
“And, I have strong feelings for Lucy. I’m sorry Kat, I can’t go out on dates with you, but we can be friends, okay?”
“Okay,” said Kat.
Kat and Dylan finished eating then left the sandwich shop and Kat walked back to Coach Perri's house and Dylan drove off.
Everyone got back from lunch and Coach Perri wanted to show them a few cheerleading-acrobatic videos. She explained to them how she wanted to practice some of their new tricks with a harness, just for twenty minutes so the gals who are doing the high tricks, get a sense of how they need to move their bodies when they get tossed in the air. Then for the next twenty minutes the Tigers practiced their choreo and made sure everyone was synchronized, and if anyone was not in step with everyone else, Coach Perri would have them stop and ask if anyone had any questions regarding the routine, the cartwheels, or round-offs.
Practice finished, and Coach Perri asked Lucy to hang back for a minute.
“Do you think we should have a roster?”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be a bad idea,” smiled Lucy.
“Okay, can you take care of that if I give you all the phone numbers?” asked Coach Perri.
“Definitely!”
“Awesome, and ya know, make it nice and organized etc.”
“Oh totes!” said Lucy,
"See ya tomorrow, Lucy."
Friday rolled around, and Coach Perri asked for her team to meet her in the outdoor lunch area after school, which they did.
"Hey gals, how's everyone doing?'
"Good," "Fine," her team replied.
"So, I just wanted to do something a bit different today. I wanted to kinda put out some "feelers" from y'all and see which school you think will be our biggest competition and in your opinion what, if anything, we need to work on to be absolute perfection for the finals. I know y'all have friends that go to different schools, so I assume sometimes you go over and meet them and may get to see a minute or two of what their teams are working on.
"I have a friend at J.M. Hanks High School," said Kristy, "and they are working on triple twisting double backflips."
"Okay," said Coach Perri.
"One of my good friends goes to Eastwood High," said Anna, " and they're working on alternating backflips and whip backs."
"Good to know," said Coach Perri, "Anything else in the way of cheer steps or the routine that you gals think could help us." Everyone thought for a few minutes.
No, was the general consensus.
"Cool beans," said coach Perri, "so it's just back to hard training as usual. Great, so y'all get your asses back in the gym; champions don't sit around doing nothing!" she teased.
"Haha," everyone said back, as they headed toward the gym.
The week of the Finals rolled around and everyone was so pumped! Coach Perri again asked her team to meet her in front of the school, then she would again borrow a Tigers bus and drive them all over to the stadium. She thought she pretty much had told her team everything that they needed to hear because she had already given them a few ‘pep-talks’, so as her team was getting on the bus, all she said was, “Be confident, have enthusiasm!” And after they got there, all she said was, “Let's go get 'em!” And her team cheered back, “YEAH!”
Before the competition started at 3:30, everyone had a thirty-minute final practice so they all took advantage of that.
Halfway thru the final practice a loud "OWW!," was heard from two teams over. "Ohh Noo!" a co-teammate from that team said.
While they were practicing, one of their cheer teammates landed wrong and sprained her ankle. Which meant that team was short one person and could not do two of their tricks because that specific girl was the one doing both tricks.
"This is so bad!" was heard again from over yonder.
"What?!" Kat said half empathetically and kinda excited at the same time.
"One of the girls from one of the East Texas teams can't compete? That's so.....good for us!" said Katrina with a big smile on her face.
"Wow, sucky timing," said Lucy, "I feel bad for them....but not that bad."
"C'mon guys," said Anna, "don't be like that. We wanna win but, like fairly, right?"
"Aw geez, don't be a 'Debbie downer' said Kat. "We're just playin' around.”
"Okay," said Anna.
The music started, which signaled the start of the competition.
Mark Holloway, the Cheerleading Coordinator for the East side of Texas got up on stage and introduced himself and started the competition. "We have our top three cheer Semi-Finalist here, including the winners of the West-side Semi-Finals, the Tiger Moon Valley Tigers.”
Right then, the coach of the East Side Texas Foxes, Joan Smith, ran up on stage and whispered to Mark about their current situation.
"Oh no!" Mark whispered back to Joan. "Does your team have an alternate?"
Joan shook her head no.
"I'm so sorry, but you know rules are there for a reason.”
Joan nodded yes.
Mark hugged her and then turned back to the mic and Joan walked back down the stage steps.
"Ladies and gentlemen,” Mark announced, “I have just been notified of a sad situation. Our Texas Foxes are down one cheer team member and per the rules of the Championship Cheerleading Finals, each team must have a total of 8 cheerleaders on their team otherwise they are disqualified. So, we will only compete with our two top two teams, and then that winner will compete against the Tiger Moon Tigers. Our Champions will not only receive the cheerleading champions trophy but will also receive tickets to a country concert by Faith Hill and opening for her is Nickel Creek," Mark said.
"Yay, Yes! OMG! WooHoo!" all the gals were yelling.
When everyone calmed down, Mark continued. "We will see and judge routines from the Hamlin High Pied Pipers and the Fort Worth Polytechnic Parrots. Would captains from each team please come on stage for the coin flip." and they did.
"Please call it in the air," said Mark.
"Heads," said the team captain for the Parrots.
"It’s tails,” said Mark, then he asked the captain of the Pipers, "would you like to go first or second?"
"We'll go first," said the Pipers captain.
The team captain for the Parrots walked off the stage.
"Please welcome to the stage, the Hamlin High Pied Pipers!" Mark said enthusiastically. And all the Pipers got on stage with their team captain.
Their music started, and their routine was really neat. They had some different lifts, some neat tricks where they alternated back-flips and front-flips, and their choreo was on point.
The crowd cheered and applauded when they finished their routine. Then the judges held up their score panels. 8.75 - 9.2
Everyone clapped for them and their coach could be heard saying, "Good job, good job!"
Then the Parrots got up on stage. Their music started, which was different from the music that cheerleading usually teams use. It had kind of a Funky-rock/rhythm vibe. Those Parrots were terrific, their tricks were impressive, and their choreo was unique in that they used a style called Funk. Their scores ranged from 8.86. - 9.36
So the Parrots won over the Pipers. Family and friends of the Parrots cheered and yelled out, "woo-hoo, go Parrots!!"
Now it was Tiger Moon Tigers, against the Parrots.
Both team captains got up on stage for the coin flip.
“Call it in the air," said Mark.
"Tails!" yelled Kat.
"It is indeed tails. Does your team wanna go first or second?"
"Second," said Kat.
"Okay then, Parrots get up here on stage and make your school proud." Their music started and the Parrots were darn amazing. They had air flipping tricks that the judges hadn’t seen before, they were perfectly synchronized and had lots of spirit in their cheer choreo. The judges held up their score panels, 9.3 - 9.5.
"Okay, this is it!" Coach Perri told her team, “Put your heart and souls into this routine, okay girls?" Everyone nodded.
"Tigers, get on up here, your turn," said Mark.
The Tiger team got up on stage and got into position for their routine. Their music started and their routine was awesome! It had style, it had panache, their tricks were varied, front-flips, back-flips, whip-backs, and their choreo was super tight and their synchronicity was perfect. All the family and friends of the Tiger team cheered and yelled Hoorah! when they finished their routine.
It was now up to the judges. There was a moment of silence, the judges conferred with each other and then wrote the scores on their paddles. 9.47 - 9.6.
The Tigers had just barely edged out the Parrots.
"Yeeee-haaaa, awesome! woo-hoo! we did it!” yelled the Tigers as they jumped up and down.
A stagehand from backstage handed Mark the championship cheerleader trophy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you, our cheerleading champions, the Tiger Moon Valley Tigers!” The Tiger team went up on stage and accepted the trophy.
"Thank you Mark, thank you judges, oh my gosh we are just soo excited and soo happy that we won," said Kat, "and honestly, we're also all exhausted, ha, ha, ha. But really, we worked so hard for this, and just to have made it to the Finals is a big deal for us, and a privilege. We have friends and family here, we wanna thank you for coming and supporting us, and to all the kids out in the stands watching: if you have a dream if you wanna be the best at something, just keep working hard and your dreams can come true! Thank you!"
The girls celebrated with a big dinner at Coach Perri’s place.
Katrina's Cheerleading Seaon(Lyrissa Paz)
Katrina’s Cheerleading Season - Chapter 1, Part 1
"Katrina! Hurry up, I'm leaving in ten minutes, with or without you."
"Geez, mom, take a chill pill. I'm just making sure my hair is perfect.”
Katrina Thomas was the team captain of her cheerleading squad at
Tiger-Moon Valley High School in Hunters Creek Texas, and today was
the city sectionals in the All Around City Cheerleading Texas
Championships. The competition started promptly at 4:00 and Katrina's
mom was driving her over to Dunkin Shay Stadium where the competition
was being held. It was just approaching 3:15 and it took 35 minutes
to drive there.
Katrina loved cheerleading. She’d been involved in it ever since she
started junior high school. She was 5' 4", slender and had dark brown hair
with red streaks and was considered very pretty.
Katrina Thomas came from a line of hard workers, dedicated people, people
who didn’t have the option of just dropping a sport just because they got
bored with it. Her parents had been high school sweethearts, and her mom, Kali,
had been on the cheerleading team when she was in college. When Kat told
her mom that she wanted to try out for her school’s cheer team, Kali
was so excited for her. Kali felt like Kat was gonna follow in her
footsteps. And then, when Katrina made the squad in her sophomore year, Kali
was over the moon happy for her, but she had a contingency: Katrina
must keep her grades up in order to continue with cheerleading. And
Katrina did, so her mom was very proud of her for her.
"Katrina! Five minutes and ...”
"Mom, have you seen my other pom-pom?”
"Oh, for Heaven sake, Katrina you need to ..."
"Never mind, found it.”
"For the love of....Katrina!”
"All right, Mom, I'm coming!”
Kali Thomas loved her daughter. She didn't always love her attitude, how long it took her to get ready for things, or what she got involved in, but her spirit was undeniable.
Kali and Kat finally got into the car and headed over to the stadium. Once they got there, Katrina hopped out and immediately went over to her friends and the rest of her team.
"Hey Lucy, hey Anna, hi gals!”
"Hey Katrina, hi,” they both said. Everyone else waved.
"We have a few minutes before the competition starts. Does anyone else
wanna practice that one pyramid trick again?" Katrina asked them.
"Sure, yeah!" they said.
"Cool," said Katrina. "Lucy, so just try to get the crowd’s
attention before you do your back tuck somersault off us. It's okay
to take an extra second if you can really get the crowd
pumped and roaring for us. Part of our score comes from how exciting the
audience finds us, right?”
"Definitely!" Lucy said.
“Word! Rock it on 3.” said Katrina, "1, 2, 3, Rock it!! Woohoo!” the
five of them yelled enthusiastically.
Kat, as her friends sometimes called her for short, Anna and Kristy
got down on their hands and knees. Kelly and Meg climbed on top of the three girls and
Lucy climbed on top Kelly and Meg.
"Go Tigers!!! Do your best!!!! Yay!!” shouted Kat.
Lucy did her back tuck somersault off their small pyramid and landed perfectly.
Kat, Anna, Kristy, Kelly and Meg all got up and did their Tiger school cheer.
"Tigers rock! We will not stop! Until we make it to the top! Yeee-ha!”
"Awesome!" said Kat.
"I can't believe how popular cheerleading has gotten, huh?" said Lucy.
"I know, right?" said Anna.
"Totally," said Katrina. "So many teams are here.”
A few minutes later, the music started which signaled the start of the
competition.
"Welcome. ladies and gentlemen, to the Texas City Cheerleading
Sectionals," said the Director of the entire cheerleading program for
the West side of Texas, Brad Melner.
"All-righty then, since this is a competition, we judge on the excitement factor, which depends on y'all out in the audience, plus execution of the
tricks and team spirit. Let's get this competition started!!“
"Woohoo!” yelled the crowd.
"Our first squad comes from Midland. It's Midland Senior High
School!" said Mr. Melner
“Hurray!" yelled the crowd, and Midland’s music started.
Their routine was pretty good, but there were a couple of un-perfect
landings, plus it was uncoordinated, so their scores were only 8.7 - 8.9.
"Our next team is from El Paso: Harmony Science Academy High.”
“Hip-hip hooray” yelled the crowd again. Harmony’s music started, and they were
a little more exciting than the previous team, their choreo was also
a bit more exciting, they had a couple more tricks and good landings,
so their scores were 9.0 - 9.3.
“Please welcome to our stage next, Tiger Moon Valley High School!” said Mr. Mellner
"Okay, we're up!" said Kat. "Lets rock this!!"
"Go Tigers!! Yaaay!!” the five of them cheered enthusiastically.
“Yippee,” yelled the crowd.
The Tigers team got up on the stage, and seconds later their music
started. Those Tigers were pumped!! Their tricks were eye catching,
their choreography was terrific, and their landings were perfect! The
crowd gave an enthusiastic three cheers!!!!
“Hurrah!” yelled the Tigers as they walked off the stage.
The judges held up a 9.3, a 9.4 and a 9.475.
“Huzzah!! Omg! That's the best score yet!" said Kat.
“Yay, awesome!!” said Lucy and Anna.
"Shine bright like a diamond!" said the rest of Kat’s team vigorously
"Tiger Moon Valley wins the City Sectionals!" said Brad Melner.
The cheer judges handed Mr. Melner enough gold medals for each member of the Tiger Moon Cheer Team.
"Tiger Moon Valley wins the City Sectionals!" said Brad Melner. "Get
back up here on stage, you awesome Tigers, and receive your gold medals.”
The whole team walked back up on the stage and got their gold medals.
"Thank you so much Mr. Melner and judges! We are so proud of our team, our hard work, and we have so much school spirit, " said Kat, jumping up and down enthusiastically, beaming with pride.
Anna’s Dilemma - Chapter 2
Anna had never been a slender kid like everyone else. She was a bit on the chubby side, and she never had the greatest self-esteem either, which was why she ate more, to comfort herself. On top of that, she had frequent mood swings, so she and her family always had to deal with that as well.
Her parents had decent jobs, which just paid the bills, and were just enough to keep them out of debt.
Anna had 'dirty blond' hair, she loves animals and she had a dog walking business on the side after school.
She has different interests, so she likes to try anything once, but once she loses interest in something, she'll drop it and move on to the next thing. Once, Anna tried soccer, and after a few weeks she got tired of it and quit going to the practices. She always starts enthusiastically about the next thing that interests her, but then she gets bored with it and will quit.
Anna's parents stopped supporting her after school activities because they couldn't keep paying for the outfits that were involved in the team sport.
Anna thinks cheerleading could be the school activity that she can be genuinely great at. She loves the vibe of the team camaraderie, she's doing truly well at it, and she goes to all the practices on time.
She wants to prove to her parents that she can stick with cheerleading and be positively great at it.
Anna said to Kat, “I know we don't have to be in our team outfits for practices, just for competitions, but I wanted to let you know my parents could only afford half of my new cheer team uniform."
"Ooh," said Katrina, "Does Coach Perri know too?"
"No, not yet," said Anna, "you're the first person I told."
"Okay, we need to let her know, then the three of us can put our heads together and come up with a solution.”
"Okay," said Anna.
A bit later that day, Kat and Anna called Coach Perri to let her know about Anna's situation.
"Hey guys," Coach Perri said to them, "what's up?"
Kat started. "So Anna only has half of our new cheer team uniform, and her parents can't afford to get her the other half when we compete in Finals."
"Ooohhh," said Coach Perri, "yeah, that is a dilemma. Hmm, okay, I have three solutions. We either get the PTA involved, have a bake sale or hold a Silent Auction.”
"A bake sale would be fun, right?" said Anna.
"Totally," said Katrina.
"And we can get Lucy and some of the team involved too, right?" said Anna.
"Exactly," said Kat. “So Coach, we wanna have a bake sale to raise the money.”
"Terrific!" said Coach Perri, "I'll send out a mass email to the whole squad and my other coach friends and we'll rustle up a great bake sale to help Anna out. Go Tigers on 3. 1, 2, 3, Goooooo Tigers!!" the three of them cheered.
"Okay I'll talk to you both later? And don't worry Anna, we're gonna get you the rest of your uniform. A Tiger isn't left behind because of an inability to pay for a complete uniform," Coach Perri said. And they all hung up.
Kat’s Accident - Chapter 3
Later that afternoon, Kat's cheer squad met over at their coach's house. She had a huge backyard which made it easy to have practices and rehearsals at her place. She had just pulled up into her driveway by the time the whole squad got there.
"Hey, guys!" Coach Perri said. "Y'all are that eager to get started on our new routine, huh?" she said smiling. Coach Perri was 5' 9", strawberry blond straight hair, freckles, and usually wore her hair in a ponytail.
"Hahaha," a few of the girls laughed.
"We already thought of an amazing song to use," said Lucy
"Really?" said Coach Perri. "What is it?"
“‘Over You' by Chris Daughtry, like from the chorus," said Anna.
"Impressive!" said Coach Perri. "I like it a lot!" she said smiling.
"Outstanding," said Kat.
By that time Coach Perri had finished parking. "Let's all go inside," she said.
They all went inside.
"So, I'm thinking we add in some more backflips and a couple of twisting somersaults," said Coach Perri." How does that sound to everyone?"
"Terrific, yeah," they all said.
"Wonderful. So let's look up this song and see how we can work it, okay?" she said to her team.
"Great," they all said back.
Coach Perri searched for that song on her laptop computer and played it.
"Oh super! oh, this is gonna be great," she said.
"Yay!" said her squad.
"Okay, so let's start from the basic step work and go from there, right?" said their coach.
Fifteen minutes later, they had the beginnings of their new routine down. They practiced for an hour and a half and then took a break to have a snack.
"How does everyone feel it's going?" asked Coach Perri.
Some said ‘okay’ and other gals said ‘good, but…’.
"It needs ...maybe one more big trick," said Kat.
"Yes!" said Coach Perri. "That's what I thought too. So what about adding a double backflip with a half twist?" she continued.
"Dope! Yeah!, " said everyone in agreement.
"Terrific," said Coach Perri.
So, they practiced for another hour and fifteen minutes, and everyone was getting tired. Katrina's last trick was a back flip-half twist from standing on one of her teammate's shoulders. She landed on a extremely wet, slippery patch of grass, which made her feet slide out from under her.
"Oooowwww!" Kat yelled.
"Oh no! OMG!" said her coach and her team, as Katrina started to cry.
"It's okay, it's gonna be okay, let's just help her up and get her inside. Sit her down on the couch," said Coach Perri. "Kat, bring your leg up so we can elevate your ankle," she continued.
Kat complied.
"After the initial swelling goes down, I'll drive you over to our gym doctor for a check-up and maybe X-rays," Coach Perri said.
Fifteen minutes later, Coach Perri, Katrina, and Lucy, for support, drove over to their doctor's office, and yes, they took X-rays as a precaution.
Five minutes later, the Dr. came in with the results.
"So Katrina, you do have a hairline fracture, between your heel and your ankle," said the Doctor.
"Ooohhh gee!" said Kat.
"Okay," said Coach Perri. "So you need a break,” she said smiling at her affectionately as she smiled, encouraging her, although she knew Kat would be sad and upset.
Katrina rolled her eyes and looked towards her best friend, Lucy.
"It'll be okay, don't worry," said Lucy.
"But I'm team captain," said Kat. "I'm supposed to be the one sending out positive vibes to my team to keep them motivated," Kat continued.
"Don't sweat it," said Lucy. "I'll step in temporarily and keep our squad energized."
"That's very kind and generous of you, Lucy," said Coach Perri. "I know you have a few other things going on though. Are you sure you have the extra time to be assistant captain?"
"Yes, Coach," said Lucy.
Lucy and Kat were best friends, and besides Kat, Lucy was the most reliable squad participant. She was always on time, always at every practice, and whenever Coach Perri asked for a volunteer to help her out with something, Lucy always raised her hand to give of her own time.
"Okay, perfect," said Coach Perri. “I'll give you and Lucy a ride home. Either you can brief Luce on her new responsibilities as Assistant Team Captain, or you can just chill and I'll go over it with her."
"I'll go over it with Lucy, Coach," Katrina said.
"Good," said Coach Perri.
Then Kat turned to look at her best friend. “Hey Luce, wanna sleepover tonight? I'm almost certain it'll be fine with my mom."
"Okay," said Lucy, "I'll just have to call my mom and let her know."
That evening, Kat and Lucy talked Temporary Team Captain duties, chatted about school, movies, and..... dating.
Kat meets Dylan - Chapter 4
"Have I ever mentioned Dylan Mackenzie to you?" asked Lucy
"Mack?" said Katrina. "No, I've seen him around campus but I don't "know him."
Dylan McKenzie was a Junior at Kat's school. He was 6", light brown hair, green eyes, and slender. He loved plaid shirts, so he had a good bunch of them in his arsenal and, usually wore them at least twice a week, and he was a big musical theater nerd.
"Yeah, him. Well anyway, he's in my nature conservation class," said Lucy. "And he seems pretty smart too. Every time Miss Koller asks us a question, he's the first to raise his hand, and he usually gets the question right too!" She continued. "I think you'd like him, oh! and he always dresses smart and stylish. For example, he'll pair his plaid shirts with black denim pants, or he'll wear a jean shirt with a sweater vest over it."
"Really?" said Kat. " Hmm, well, you know Luce, obviously I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, so I'm not sure this is the right time to start dat-”
"Oh no, heavens! I didn't mean you should date him yet. Gosh, oh my goodness, no. I totally get it," said Lucy. "I just meant to have as another friend, a guy friend." she continued.
"Oh, you mean like Billy Porter?" said Kat. Billy was a past "try out friend" that became a bit too awkward to handle.
"Yeah," said Lucy.
“And look how well that turned out." Katrina reminded her.
"Yeah, well... yeah, he ended up being strange. What was up with him anyway?” Lucy started to laugh. "He always wanted to hang around us, and he always managed to seem like he had just popped up from around a corner. It was almost like he was tracking us," she continued. Kat just shrugged her shoulders. "But I'm talking about in the beginning. He was nice in the beginning, right?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah, he was," said Kat. "Okay, I guess I can give Dylan a shot," she continued as she winked at her best friend.
"Awesome!" said Lucy. "So I could tell him to stop by on his way home from school if that's okay with you? "
"Sure," said Kat. "I'll just let my mom know."
The next day, at recess, Lucy went over to Dylan and started chatting with him.
"Hey Dylan, how are you doing?" said Lucy.
"Hey Luce, I'm fine thanks. Did you hear about the Booster Club holding a Silent Auction to raise funds for the music program?" said Dylan.
"Yeah, just!" said Lucy. "Wanna come over to my place this weekend and we can start thinking about what to donate that people might actually want?” she started to chuckle.
"Sure," said Dylan.
"Bring a box of nice things that are in good condition and that your family is willing to get rid of," said Lucy
"Will do," said Dylan
"Oh, and also," started Lucy again, "we're doing a bake sale to raise money so one of our team members can get the rest of her team uniform for competitions. Wanna help out with that too?" she asked Dylan.
"Of course," said Dylan with a smile.
When ever there was an event at their school, Lucy and Dylan traded off going to each other's houses so their parents would have some alone time without their kids.
"So Dylan, my Team Captain fractured her ankle and she 's pretty upset about it. Her name is Katrina and she's such a nice, great kid, very grounded, smart, sensitive, I think you'd honestly like her. Would you be willing to stop at her place on your way home from school to cheer her up a bit?
"Sure," said Dylan. "Any friend of yours is a friend of mine," he said smiling. "Thank you so much," said Lucy.
After school, Dylan stopped off at Kat's place on his way home.
He walked up to Katrina's front door and rang their doorbell.
"Hello Mrs. Thomas, I'm Dylan, I go to Kat's school, I'm here to visit her."
"Of course, Dylan, come on in. Kat is in her room, down the hall," said Kali Thomas, Katrina's mom.
"Thanks," said Dylan.
He walked down the hall to Katrina's room and knocked on her door.
"Hi Katrina, I'm-"
"Dylan, yes, hi," interrupted Kat. "Wow, it's very nice to officially meet you. I've seen you around and always thought you seemed pretty decent," she continued. "I like how you dress too. So how do you know Lucy?"
"Oh, our mom's are good friends, " said Dylan. "Every school event that has to deal with food, or a kind of group event, the four of us, me and my mom and Lucy and her mom, get together and cook/ bake the food, or organize stuff together for the event. It's pretty fun. Did you know Lucy's dad is good friends with famous chef Jamie Oliver?"
"Truly?! Wow, that's so cool," said Kat. "I love his style of cooking. Simple, basic, uncomplicated," she said smiling.
"Yeah. So, I heard about your ankle. Sorry that happened, " said Dylan.
"Thanks, yeah, I'm just bummed out," said Kat. "I'm the head of my squad and we practice a lot, but we also have a lot of fun too, so I'm completely missing practice, and that’s’ why I'm bummed," she continued.
"Right," said Dylan. "One time I was skateboarding and I tried a move called back trail grab with a half twist and I landed wrong and when I fell, I busted my elbow."
"Oooff, I bet that positively smarted," said Kat.
"Yeah, I even had to get stitches!" said Dylan.
"Wow," said Katrina. Then, changing the subject, she asked, "So, what kinda music do you like?"
"I'm into a bit of everything," said Dylan, "what about you?"
"Oh you know, the usual, Jazz, Oldies, Pop and Funk," said Kat.
Dylan and Katrina chatted a while longer before her mom called out, "Hey Kat, dinner in 30."
"Okay mom," said Kat.
"I guess that means I should go, huh?" said Dylan
"Yeah," said Kat.
"Okay, well it was certainly nice meeting and chatting with you. You're a cool chick," said Dylan.
"Aw, really?!" said Kat.
"Yup," said Dylan with a wink. He said goodbye to Kat's mom and left.
Meanwhile, Lucy and the were practicing the routine. Lucy proved to be a great assistant coach. She always pepped the team up at the beginnings of their practices, she was always enthusiastically chanting encouraging sayings like, "Let's go, you can do it, you got this," to keep the team going and she even came up with a new school song cheer that they started doing at the end of their practices to keep them motivated.
Tigers are strong, nimble and grand
We're proud and we always sing along with the band
We never give up, we never give in,
We never let each other down
We stand with pride on top of the ground!
Lucy and Dylan Do Some Baking - Chapter 5
The following week, Dylan went over to Lucy's house after school with a box of stuff to donate.
"Awesome!!" said Lucy, "between the two of us and our families’ stuff, we should be able to come up with …lets see, a total of ten things we can give to the Booster Club for their auction.
"Yeah," said Dylan.
“Since the baking takes longer, wanna get started on that first?" she asked Dylan.
"Sure," he replied.
"Cool, so I'll just go get a cookbook and be right back“ she said winking. Dylan smiled.A minute later Lucy was back with her favorite cookbook, “The Minimalist Baker”.
"So, Dylan, do your parents have any pies or cakes that they like?"
"Hmmm," Dylan said thinking. "They certainly like pecan pie and coffeecake," he said with a grin
"Okay, those sounds easy enough," said Lucy, "and my parents and I like…carrot cake and cherry cobbler. So let's look at the recipes and write down anything we don’t have so if we need to go to the store, we won't forget anything.”
"Good idea," said Dylan.
They started looking up ingredients and found they didn't need too much just a few things here and there; cherries, pecans, breadcrumbs, carrots, and two ready-made pie crusts. They both took a reuseable bag, rode over to the grocery store on their bikes, and started shopping for the missing ingredients.
While they were at the store Lucy asked Dylan to pick up a couple thing for her parents while she got all the ingredients for the deserts, just to assist their parents. They were good kids.
Twenty-five minutes later, Lucy and Dylan were back at Lucy's and started to unpack their groceries.
“Hey Dylan how about you start with the cherry cobbler, and I’ll work on the coffee cake? Dylan, just follow the directions and it’ll be amazing. This particular cookbook is so great because there aren't a lot of ingredients in each recipe; they call for whole foods, no chemicals and they are so yummy!" she continued smiling. "Then we will start on the pecan and the carrot cake."
"Sounds like a plan," said Dylan, and he held up his hand for Lucy to high-five, which she did. "Let's do this!" they said at the same time, and both grinned and started baking.
Lucy had watched her mom make coffeecake before, so she wasn't really worried about messing it up. She made the batter first, then mixed the melted butter, brown sugar and flour in a medium bowl with a fork. Next, she used her hands to form larger crumbs, she spread the crumbs on top of the batter and stuck it in the oven.
Thirty minutes later, Lucy and Dylan had their first wo deserts ready to add to the bake sale. While the deserts were baking they took a break and switched over to Lucy helping Dylan organize things for the Booster Club's Auction.
While they were going thru their boxes, they continued chatting.
"So what did you think of Kat?" asked Lucy.
"She was pretty neat,” said Dylan.
"Right?” asked Lucy, "she's level headed, smart, interesting and grounded.”
"Absolutely," said Dylan, "and her taste in music is very eclectic as well," he added.
"Totally!" said Lucy.
"Are there any CD's in your box?" asked Dylan.
"Yeah," said Lucy, "I usually see at least some CD's in every garage sale I pass by, so I think CD's are a good thing to donate, right?"
"Yes," said Dylan, "As well as old classic books, especially if they are out of print or have something that makes them special, like a signature from a famous author," he continued. "Does your family have any of those blue Depression glass plates, or glasses?”
"Yeah," said Lucy, "but my family wants to hold onto them for a bit longer, they think the longer someone holds onto certain valuable objects, the more those objects appreciate in value, and I appreciate that.
Dylan and Lucy continued going though and organizing objects for the Booster Club's Auction until the timer went off, letting them know their first two baking goodies were done. Lucy pulled out one and Dylan pulled out the other one.
"Wow, these look genuinely delicious” said Lucy.
"They do, you're right," said Dylan.
“And they aren't all that difficult to make,” she chuckled.
"Ahh, yup," said Dylan, "but now we gotta do a bit of work shredding the carrots and chopping the nuts.”
"Yup," said Lucy.
They continued talking, while assembling the pecan pie and the carrot cake. When they were done they put both desserts in the oven.
“So, Luce, I just wanna say thanks again for helping me with the donation for the auction. You know the Music Program really needs help, and that’s why the Booster Cub is so important to our school. All the members get together and do research to find out what school subject or program needs help from getting canceled. Then they help raise the funding to keep that subject or program active."
"Wow, I didn't realize you were that connected in volunteering your own time," said Lucy, with admiration.
"Well, just subjects I have a passion for, I'll admit," said Dylan.
“And music is one of them, I gather?" said Lucy.
"Yes, music, and in particular, Broadway show tunes," said Dylan.
"Are you playin' me?' asked Lucy with a wink.
"No, why?" asked Dylan.
"I didn't know you were a Broadway fan!" said Lucy, "Me too!"
"No way!" exclaimed Dylan.
"Totally!" said Lucy.
“Hah, sooo interesting," said Dylan.
"Definitely," said Lucy.
Forty-five minutes later, Lucy and Dylan had four desserts to contribute to the bake sale. Lucy then called coach Perri to find out more about the details of where the bake sale was going to be and at what time, and she told her that both she and Dylan had made four yummy treats for the bake sale.
"Hey Lucy, good to hear from you. Okay, great, and I just heard from Kristy too, and she also made two pies, so we have six total, which I think is a good start. So here's what we're gonna do," started Coach Perri. "I have a friend who is part of the Tiger Moon Valley City Baking Fair Committee, and she said we can have the booth that's two rows in and two rows over from the entrance of the Fair this weekend," she said.
"Okay, great," said Lucy, “what time?”
"It starts at 10 am and goes untill 3 pm.," said Coach Perri.
“Perf” said Lucy, “will you will want help setting up that morning?"
"Sure,” said Coach Perri, "Why don't both of you come help since y'all made desserts and I will call back Kristy and tell her too," she continued.
"Okay, sounds good," said Lucy, "so Dylan and I will be there, like 30 minutes early to help, is that fine?"
"Sounds great!" said Coach Perri.
"Okay, see you then," said Lucy.
"See you then," said Coach Perri, and they both hung up.
Tiger Moon Valley’s Bake sale and Auction -Chapter 6
Two days later Lucy, Dylan and Kristy met up at the front of the fair at exactly 9:30AM
Their coach Perri came out from the fairgrounds to meet them at the front gate and direct them to their booth.
"This is gonna be cool!" said Kristy.
"Yeah, I've only been at a fair to have fun," said Dylan. “I’ve never actually worked at one before.”
"It's not hard at all," said Lucy. "Just be nice to anyone who comes up and might ask a question.”
"Okay," said Dylan.
It didn't take too long to help their coach set up, so they spent the remaining time they had talking.
"How often do you guys practice after you leave school and on the weekends?” asked Coach Perri.
"Every other day or so," said Lucy. "My mind is set on winning the ‘whole bag of tricks’.
"Me too," said Kristy, "but when, my family gets busy they always ask for my help so I can’t always practice as much as I want to.”
"Ah, okay," said Coach Perri, "I was just wondering.”
A few minutes later Meg called on the mobile.
"Hey guys, I just thought of a pretty cool idea to get the crowd routing for us even more," she said eagerly.
"What's that?" Coach Perri asked.
"We could make a big banner that has our school name on it in big 3D lettering and have sayings all around it like Go Team! Yay! Knock it out of the park and make it colorful, too," said Meg.
"That is a terrific idea, Meg, nice going," said Coach Perri. "Do you wanna do a rough sketch of it so after the bake sale finishes we can all head over to that park that's by our school and start working on the banner?" She specifically asked Meg that question because she knew that Meg liked to do creative artsy projects, as well as it being her idea.
"Sure!" said Meg.
"Great," said coach Perri, "We'll see you soon.”
"Okay," said Meg, and she hung up.
Ten am rolled around and a lot of people, the group was big, were looking forward to this event. The City Fair director came and let everyone in. There were lots of things there, Lots of food, people selling their homemade crafts, people selling Cd’s and there was even a top comedian there for entertainment.
Every so often a few people came by and asked what was for sale, and the students answered,
“a cherry cobbler, coffeecake, pecan pie, carrot cake, and lemon-blueberry squares and …
It took awhile for word of mouth to get around that Tiger Valley School was doing a bake sale table.
By 12:30, there was a stream of people coming to their booth every few minutes. Dylan and Lucy had sold every piece of pie and cake they had made in an hour.
at Dylan, Lucy, ―and Kristy had made, and more importantly, they had enough money to pay for Anna to get the rest of her cheer uniform.
The Semi-finals - Chapter 7
The whole team met the morning after the Bake Sale and told Anna the great news.
"Oh my gosh! You guys are the best, thank you so much, I'm just, wow, I- I love you guys!” exclaimed Anna ecstatically and her whole team hugged each other.
At this point, the Semis were only two weeks away, and those Tigers were training even more than usual. They were not gonna give away any points to any other team; they were in it to win it. And by this time Kat's ankle had healed and she was back in the gym practicing with her teammates and friends.
"Okay we're lookin' good gals, just remember to support each other, have enthusiasm and have fun,” stated Coach Perri. "Are we all in agreement?"
"Yes Coach!" they all agreed.
Before they all left for the day, Coach Perri sat them down and had a pep talk.
"Y'all are lookin' really great, I'll admit it, You all have improved so much and I'm really proud of all of you. I know y'all are pumped and ready for this, I just want you to keep in mind a couple of things. When we are at the Semis next week, don’t get nervous seeing all the other teams and possibly getting intimidated by their coaches and uniforms, okay? I want you gal's to just breathe, don't over-think, just do, believe in yourself and know you got this, okay. We've been training every day during school, we have our weekend workouts twice a month; we ARE gonna take our school to the finals, we're ready, just don't get overwhelmed seeing everyone else, watching their routines, and in your minds going, "wow, oh my gosh they are so good.” Everyone there is going to be fighting for a spot in the finals, right?"
Everyone nodded.
"So have fun, stay synchronized, and shine, and be your best selves, okay?" she continued.
"Yes, Coach!” they exclaimed.
"Okay group hug!" Coach Perri said, and they all grouped around her and gave each other a big hug.
"Go Tigers!" she stated.
"Go Tigers!" her team yelled back.
The following week, was the week of the Semi-Finals . Coach Perri had everyone meet her in front of the school. She borrowed the gym van to drive her team over to where the competition was being held, at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
The music started playing 20 minutes later which signaled the start of the competition.
"Hello again," said Brad Melner, the Director of the cheerleading program for the west side of Texas. "Welcome to the Semi-Finals! We have a terrifically talented bunch of schools ready to compete and excite you today. This is how it will work," he continued, "because there are so many schools here, we break it down into preliminary rounds and then those winners go to the second round and compete with each other.
"We will start with Westside High School from Houston," Mr. Melner announced.
That team got up on stage, their music started and they were pretty great. They had some neat tricks, they were well synchronized, and their choreo was on point. They got scores of 8.6 - 8.8.
One after another, each next eligible cheerleader team representing their schools, got up on stage and performed their routines.
While the Tigers were getting up on stage, Kat whispered to Mr. Melner, “Can we have an extra minute because we want to put up our special banner?”
“Sure,” stated Mr. Melner, so the Tiger Team put up their special banner and then got into position for the start of their routine.
Lots of people were noticing the banner, pointing at it, and saying wow and were quite impressed with the lettering and even the style of the lettering. Meg's idea was working.
The Tiger's music started, and they were fierce competitors. Their tricks were awesome, their choreo was very eye-catching and exciting. Their scores ranged from 9.2 - 9.5.
They were so happy, they yelled their newest team cheer;
"Tigers roar with a mighty sound
that shakes everyone else to the ground,
we don't give up and we don't give in,
when we do our best, we win, win, win!
Yeee-Haaww!" their whole team shouted.
The last cheer team to perform was the James Taylor High Woodpeckers. They were fined-tuned, on point, and you could definitely tell that they put in the effort to make their team look as synchronized as possible. So their team scored 9.0 - 9.3., making the Woodpeckers and the Tigers the two finalists.
Mr. Melner got up and explained how the next round would go.
"What we do next is, we pick a random song, and then the two teams have thirty minutes to come up with a routine off the cusp, that best represents the spirit of their school. Behind me is a box with many CD’s with different songs. I will ask one of our judges to randomly pick out a CD and song and that will be the song that both teams will have to use for their routine.
Mr. Melner signaled to one of the judges to come up and pick out a song. She walked over and took out a song title.
"The song is, ‘Tearing up My Heart’ by The Backstreet Boys!" Mr. Melner stated.
The crowd cheered and the two cheer teams were really happy.
They knew the song and knew they could come up with a good solid routine to it.
Coach Perri gave them a short pep talk.
"Okay, we know what we have to do right?" Everyone nodded their heads. Stay confident, stay strong, right? Have school spirit and have fun! Let's just add one more backflip half twist, okay?" Everyone agreed.
The Woodpeckers and the Tigers came up with their off-the-cusp routines in the allotted time.
Then Mr. Melner got up on the stage and announced, "All right, time is up would the team captains please come to the stage for the coin flip."
Both team captains came up.
"Call it when it's in the air," Mr. Melner said.
"Heads!" said Kat.
There was a pause as the coin fell to the ground.
“It’s Heads,” said Mr. Melner. "Do you guys wanna go first or second?"
"Second," said Kat.
"Okay, so Woodpeckers, your team is up first, get on up here and make your city proud," he chuckled as he left the stage.
Their music started, and again, their tricks were pretty impressive, their choreo was neat, and they seemed pretty cohesive as a team.
Their scores were 9.3 - 9.5.
Then the Tigers got up. They were fierce, strong, dynamic, very synchronized, and enthusiastic.
The judges gave them 9.4 - 9.6, the Tigers had just edged out the Woodpeckers!
"Yeeee-Hawww, Super Amazing! Wow, OMGosh! the Tigers were shouting, and everyone in the stands was cheering them on and yelling, "Tigers Rock!' Go Tigers!"
Mr. Melner called the Tigers back up on stage, and when they all got up on the stage, he said, "The City Semi-Finals champions are The Tiger Moon Valley High Tigers!" and he handed Kat the team trophy.
"This is just such a reward and culmination of all our hard work," said Kat. "We are so grateful to have such terrific team members, a fab coach, and we all share the same vision, we work hard but we also play hard too, and I think we earned this, so thank you again!" and all the Tiger cheerleaders shook their pom poms in the air.
Chapter 8 - Getting Ready For Finals / Dylan and Lucy’s predictament
The Tigers had two weeks before the Finals started, and Coach Perri wanted to try a different way to come up with the choreo for their Final routine. So she did a group call and told them her idea.
“Hey gals, hope you all are doing well and taking care of yourselves. So here’s my idea, all of us are a team, right? And I know you gals are smart and creative, so, what if we all pitched in ideas to come up with the choreo for our Finals competition? The general consensus was, yay, awesome, sure!
“Terrific,” stated Coach Perri. “I won’t make you gals come over right now,” she said smiling, “but lets say by, Wednesday y’all come over to my place. And in the meantime, I want you all to watch cheerleading videos to get ideas and inspired okay?”
“Yes Coach!” agreed everyone sounding like they had smiles on their faces.
“Coolness, I’ll talk to y’all later, okay? And by the way, each and every one of you are super great in your own way and it has been my pleasure and honor working with you.”
“Awwwwww,” all the girls said in unison.
Then Kristy told Coach Perri, “Well, we really like working with you too Coach,”
“Thank you,” said Coach Perri. Talk to y’all later, bye,” and she hung up and her team hung up too.
A little bit later on, Dylan called Lucy to ask if he could come over to her place, and she said “Sure.”
About thirty minutes later, Dylan was in front of Lucy’s door and he rang her doorbell.
“So Luce, that bake sale was fun huh?”
“Yeah it was Dylan, did you have fun helping out?”
“Indeed I did. It was interesting, chatting with different people and hearing their stories on how they got into baking in the first place, or how that pastime has been kinda handed down from generation to generation.”
“Truly,” Lucy told Dylan, “it’s kinda funny how people open up only when it comes to food,” she giggled.
“Right,” said Dylan. “So anyways, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Sure, what’s up?” said Lucy.
“Okay, so you know how we hang out a lot and spend time together for school events and because our mom’s are good friends?”
“Yeah.”
“So, I think my feelings towards you are getting stronger.”
Lucy was kinda shocked…but in a good way.
“Wait a min, hang on a second. You, have growing feelings for me?!” exclaimed Lucy
“Yeah.”
“Wow,” she said, taken aback, “I’m flattered and I guess I should tell you something too.”
“What’s that?”
“I really like you too!” Lucy whispered to Dylan.
“No kidding?
“Totes!”
“Wow, huh,” they both stated.
Then Lucy thought for a moment.
“Okay, you do know that Finals are coming up right?”
“Yeah, but I’d like to start seeing more of you,” stated Dylan.
“I’d like to see you more too, but I just can’t right now, I have all this training I have to do and finals are coming up.”
“But-“
“I know!” Lucy said strongly, “we’ve been really good friends for awhile and now we notice that we have these stronger feelings for each other, but the timing sucks, I just really have to focus on my training right now.”
“But-“
“Remember how crazy my schedule was for the Semi’s?
“Yeah.”
“So, I don’t really have the time to hang out with you al the moment. How about once a week on Sundays? We can have brunch. I’m sorry Dylan, but in two weeks I’ll have plenty of time to start seeing more of you and we can talk about possibly officially dating okay,” Lucy apologized to him.
“Oh, okay, I understand,” he said, “Sure, see ya soon then.”
“See ya soon,” and they both hung up.
Lucy wondered if she’d been too hard on Dylan. Oh well, training comes first in order to win it, she thought.
Over the course of the next two days, all of Coach Perri’s team watched cheerleading videos to get inspired to think of cool moves they could add to their choreo.
Wednesday, mid-morning, Coach Perri’s team met over at her place.
“Heeey gals!” Coach Perri said enthusiastically.
“Heey Coach,” they all chimed back.
“C’mon in and let’s get started! Does anyone want some water or are y'all okay?"
They all said they're fine.
"So what have you gals seen and thought about that we could put in our routine?"
"So, I saw these cool turns where like three or four other gals lift one girl up on one leg and then spin her around while she lifts one of her legs and does a standing split," stated Anna.
"That is cool," Coach Perri said.
"And in some videos," said Kristy, "they do these different, like air flips by tossing another gal up and while she's up there she does a flip or a twist."
"That's also cool," stated Coach Perri.
"And then also, they mix up the cartwheels and the flips, like, they don't just do some backflips all in a row, they will do a cartwheel or roundoff into a backflip and then mix that up," said Kat.
"Interesting," Coach Perri said. Okay, that's good to start. What about for the cheer choreo part?"
"Well ya know, we all know really good dancers, like Paula Abdul and Jennifer Lopez, why don't we just watch a few of their dance videos, and we could pick from them and add in a bit of our own style?" said Kristy.
"Cool-beans" smiled Coach Perri, "Perf, okay then, let's get started! Go Tigers!
"Go Tigers!" they all shouted.
Thirty minutes later the had their routine choreographed.
They all took a thirty-minute break and Kat thought to call Dylan and say hi.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Oh not too much, ya know, mmm my dad got to have lunch with Jamie Oliver the other day," said Dylan, "he said the food was excellent and Jamie is one of the nicest people he's ever met."
"That's so cool Dylan! So how are you doing?"
"I'm good thanks, how are you Kat?"
I'm fine too. So I was wondering,"
"Wondering about what?" Dylan asked almost interrupting Kat.
"Well, I was wondering, would you like to hang out sometime?"
"Uh, sure, what do you wanna do?"
"I mean like just for lunch, so I have company," Kat said with a smile on her face.
"Ohh, haha," Dylan said laughing, "sure, why not."
"Great! I'm actually at my training right now, but there is a neat U.S.A sandwich shop down two blocks and across the street from Coach's Place, do you mind driving over?" Kat asked.
"Sure, no problemo," smiled Dylan, "just give me the address."
"Cool," and she did, and twelve minutes later, Dylan met Kat at the sandwich shop.
"Hey you," she said with a big smile on her face.
"Hey cutie," said Dylan, "wow, I haven't seen this place yet, I guess I drive by and never look," he laughed.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool actually, you know how there are classic sandwiches but then some states have specific sandwiches that are just popular in their state, for example, like maybe cheese sandwiches are more popular in Wisconsin?" said Kat.
"Uh-huh,"
"So, this place researched all that & decided to make and sell some of the sandwiches that are popular in different states."
"Oh, that is a cool idea!" said Dylan.
――Chapter 9―
Dylan parked, and as he was getting out of his car Katrina saw him and said,"Hey you," with a big smile on her face.
"Hey cutie," said Dylan, "wow, I haven't seen this place yet, I guess I drive by and never look," he chuckled.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool actually. You know how there are classic sandwiches but then some states have specific sandwiches that are just popular in their state?" said Kat.
"Uh-huh,"
"So, this place researched all that & decided to make and sell some of the sandwiches that are popular in different states."
"Oh, that is a cool idea!" said Dylan.
“Right! I’ve only been here twice before and I’ve tried the Carolina sandwich, which is chicken, bacon and cheese and the Louisiana Pork Belly Burger Sandwich
“Nice.”
Kat and Dylan went inside and looked at their menu. Kat ordered an Alexandria Pot Roast Sandwich and Dylan got a Mississippi Smash Burger Sandwich which has strip steak, bacon, special sauce, melted cheddar, onions and pickles, and they both got a mixed ice tea lemonade.
Dylan and Kat talked and ate for the rest of the time she had for her lunch break. Dylan started.
“Hey so you remember when I came to visit you after you hurt your ankle?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I think I should probably tell you something.”
“Ya know, Dylan, I think you’re really cute,” he smiled.
“Thanks, Kat, you’re really a nice girl and I admire your dedication to your gymn. team and your hard work, but..”
“But?”
“Well, my mom and Lucy’s mom are good friends, so that means we all hang out a lot together and..”
“And?”
“And, I have strong feelings for Lucy. I’m sorry Kat, I can’t go out on dates with you, but we can be friends, okay?”
“Okay,” said Kat.
Kat and Dylan finished eating then left the sandwich shop and Kat walked back to Coach Perri's house and Dylan drove off.
Everyone got back from lunch and Coach Perri wanted to show them a few cheerleading-acrobatic videos. She explained to them how she wanted to practice some of their new tricks with a harness, just for twenty minutes so the gals who are doing the high tricks, get a sense of how they need to move their bodies when they get tossed in the air. Then for the next twenty minutes the Tigers practiced their choreo and made sure everyone was synchronized, and if anyone was not in step with everyone else, Coach Perri would have them stop and ask if anyone had any questions regarding the routine, the cartwheels, or round-offs.
Practice finished, and Coach Perri asked Lucy to hang back for a minute.
“Do you think we should have a roster?”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be a bad idea,” smiled Lucy.
“Okay, can you take care of that if I give you all the phone numbers?” asked Coach Perri.
“Definitely!”
“Awesome, and ya know, make it nice and organized etc.”
“Oh totes!” said Lucy,
"See ya tomorrow, Lucy."
Friday rolled around, and Coach Perri asked for her team to meet her in the outdoor lunch area after school, which they did.
"Hey gals, how's everyone doing?'
"Good," "Fine," her team replied.
"So, I just wanted to do something a bit different today. I wanted to kinda put out some "feelers" from y'all and see which school you think will be our biggest competition and in your opinion what, if anything, we need to work on to be absolute perfection for the finals. I know y'all have friends that go to different schools, so I assume sometimes you go over and meet them and may get to see a minute or two of what their teams are working on.
"I have a friend at J.M. Hanks High School," said Kristy, "and they are working on triple twisting double backflips."
"Okay," said Coach Perri.
"One of my good friends goes to Eastwood High," said Anna, " and they're working on alternating backflips and whip backs."
"Good to know," said Coach Perri, "Anything else in the way of cheer steps or the routine that you gals think could help us." Everyone thought for a few minutes.
No, was the general consensus.
"Cool beans," said coach Perri, "so it's just back to hard training as usual. Great, so y'all get your asses back in the gym; champions don't sit around doing nothing!" she teased.
"Haha," everyone said back, as they headed toward the gym.
The week of the Finals rolled around and everyone was so pumped! Coach Perri again asked her team to meet her in front of the school, then she would again borrow a Tigers bus and drive them all over to the stadium. She thought she pretty much had told her team everything that they needed to hear because she had already given them a few ‘pep-talks’, so as her team was getting on the bus, all she said was, “Be confident, have enthusiasm!” And after they got there, all she said was, “Let's go get 'em!” And her team cheered back, “YEAH!”
Before the competition started at 3:30, everyone had a thirty-minute final practice so they all took advantage of that.
Halfway thru the final practice a loud "OWW!," was heard from two teams over. "Ohh Noo!" a co-teammate from that team said.
While they were practicing, one of their cheer teammates landed wrong and sprained her ankle. Which meant that team was short one person and could not do two of their tricks because that specific girl was the one doing both tricks.
"This is so bad!" was heard again from over yonder.
"What?!" Kat said half empathetically and kinda excited at the same time.
"One of the girls from one of the East Texas teams can't compete? That's so.....good for us!" said Katrina with a big smile on her face.
"Wow, sucky timing," said Lucy, "I feel bad for them....but not that bad."
"C'mon guys," said Anna, "don't be like that. We wanna win but, like fairly, right?"
"Aw geez, don't be a 'Debbie downer' said Kat. "We're just playin' around.”
"Okay," said Anna.
The music started, which signaled the start of the competition.
Mark Holloway, the Cheerleading Coordinator for the East side of Texas got up on stage and introduced himself and started the competition. "We have our top three cheer Semi-Finalist here, including the winners of the West-side Semi-Finals, the Tiger Moon Valley Tigers.”
Right then, the coach of the East Side Texas Foxes, Joan Smith, ran up on stage and whispered to Mark about their current situation.
"Oh no!" Mark whispered back to Joan. "Does your team have an alternate?"
Joan shook her head no.
"I'm so sorry, but you know rules are there for a reason.”
Joan nodded yes.
Mark hugged her and then turned back to the mic and Joan walked back down the stage steps.
"Ladies and gentlemen,” Mark announced, “I have just been notified of a sad situation. Our Texas Foxes are down one cheer team member and per the rules of the Championship Cheerleading Finals, each team must have a total of 8 cheerleaders on their team otherwise they are disqualified. So, we will only compete with our two top two teams, and then that winner will compete against the Tiger Moon Tigers. Our Champions will not only receive the cheerleading champions trophy but will also receive tickets to a country concert by Faith Hill and opening for her is Nickel Creek," Mark said.
"Yay, Yes! OMG! WooHoo!" all the gals were yelling.
When everyone calmed down, Mark continued. "We will see and judge routines from the Hamlin High Pied Pipers and the Fort Worth Polytechnic Parrots. Would captains from each team please come on stage for the coin flip." and they did.
"Please call it in the air," said Mark.
"Heads," said the team captain for the Parrots.
"It’s tails,” said Mark, then he asked the captain of the Pipers, "would you like to go first or second?"
"We'll go first," said the Pipers captain.
The team captain for the Parrots walked off the stage.
"Please welcome to the stage, the Hamlin High Pied Pipers!" Mark said enthusiastically. And all the Pipers got on stage with their team captain.
Their music started, and their routine was really neat. They had some different lifts, some neat tricks where they alternated back-flips and front-flips, and their choreo was on point.
The crowd cheered and applauded when they finished their routine. Then the judges held up their score panels. 8.75 - 9.2
Everyone clapped for them and their coach could be heard saying, "Good job, good job!"
Then the Parrots got up on stage. Their music started, which was different from the music that cheerleading usually teams use. It had kind of a Funky-rock/rhythm vibe. Those Parrots were terrific, their tricks were impressive, and their choreo was unique in that they used a style called Funk. Their scores ranged from 8.86. - 9.36
So the Parrots won over the Pipers. Family and friends of the Parrots cheered and yelled out, "woo-hoo, go Parrots!!"
Now it was Tiger Moon Tigers, against the Parrots.
Both team captains got up on stage for the coin flip.
“Call it in the air," said Mark.
"Tails!" yelled Kat.
"It is indeed tails. Does your team wanna go first or second?"
"Second," said Kat.
"Okay then, Parrots get up here on stage and make your school proud." Their music started and the Parrots were darn amazing. They had air flipping tricks that the judges hadn’t seen before, they were perfectly synchronized and had lots of spirit in their cheer choreo. The judges held up their score panels, 9.3 - 9.5.
"Okay, this is it!" Coach Perri told her team, “Put your heart and souls into this routine, okay girls?" Everyone nodded.
"Tigers, get on up here, your turn," said Mark.
The Tiger team got up on stage and got into position for their routine. Their music started and their routine was awesome! It had style, it had panache, their tricks were varied, front-flips, back-flips, whip-backs, and their choreo was super tight and their synchronicity was perfect. All the family and friends of the Tiger team cheered and yelled Hoorah! when they finished their routine.
It was now up to the judges. There was a moment of silence, the judges conferred with each other and then wrote the scores on their paddles. 9.47 - 9.6.
The Tigers had just barely edged out the Parrots.
"Yeeee-haaaa, awesome! woo-hoo! we did it!” yelled the Tigers as they jumped up and down.
A stagehand from backstage handed Mark the championship cheerleader trophy.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you, our cheerleading champions, the Tiger Moon Valley Tigers!” The Tiger team went up on stage and accepted the trophy.
"Thank you Mark, thank you judges, oh my gosh we are just soo excited and soo happy that we won," said Kat, "and honestly, we're also all exhausted, ha, ha, ha. But really, we worked so hard for this, and just to have made it to the Finals is a big deal for us, and a privilege. We have friends and family here, we wanna thank you for coming and supporting us, and to all the kids out in the stands watching: if you have a dream if you wanna be the best at something, just keep working hard and your dreams can come true! Thank you!"
The girls celebrated with a big dinner at Coach Perri’s place.
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