Fireheart [Fanfiction - Alternate Universe]

Cheering with the squad

[Header image of Kaya Hamahiku]

"I can't believe it's October already! Where has the first month of classes gone?" Thea said happily as Kaya lifted her onto her shoulders.

"Girls, concentrate, we can talk after practice is over," Lysandra's voice rose over the sound of the music. "We have 3 months until the season starts, and I want this year to be the best!"

Thea and Kaya stopped talking and concentrated as the whole team kept practicing some shapes. Celaena didn't know why she found herself drawn to the two girls, as she often watched how easily they got along despite seeming so opposite to each other.

She had ended up joining the team as a base, trying not to call too much attention to herself. She was paired up with Ansel at the moment, who was always beaming with energy and trying to make up conversation.

"That cute guy is looking at us from the bleachers," Ansel interrupted as they all lined up to rehearse some dance moves twenty minutes later.

Celaena looked up and noticed Sam sitting on his own, casually flipping over a magazine as he watched them practice. When their eyes met, he smirked, and she almost wanted to laugh. He would tease her about this until the end of their days, she knew it. Not because she was a bad cheerleader, but because she had always teased the kind of girls that got up to such things.

The girls she was training with had proved to be so different from her initial impressions, and she had come to even like some of them; especially Ansel. The fire-haired girl was fierce and funny, and Celaena could see how they would've been good friends under different circumstances.

"Who is he here for?" Ansel asked the group as she lifted her brows playfully. Lysandra turned around to look at the bleachers, and Celaena watched as Sam's smile widened.

"Sam! Stop distracting the crew!" Lysandra yelled loud enough for him to hear. Sam lifted his hands in apology and turned around to keep reading the magazine with his back to the field. "Perfect, now bees, let's get back into it! In five, six, seven, eight!"

As the beat dropped, Celaena instinctively pulled her sweater down before she started to follow Lysandra's lead. They practiced the same routine five times before the training concluded for the day, and everybody started to stretch on their own. Sam made his way down the bleachers slowly and approached the field.

The jocks were on the other paddock yelling loudly and bumping chests as they did every time they had a good training session. For such a small school, Celaena was still surprised they had two fields, but she guessed it was a way of showing off how much money they had.

"Hey Lys, how did it go?" Sam asked as he got next to the queen bee and casually handed her a bottle of strawberry-flavored water that he took out of his bag.

"Would've been better if you weren't there distracting my girls." She pushed him lightly in the shoulder, and Sam staggered back, feigning pain.

"Ow, that still hurts!"

"I'm so sorry! I forgot about the shoulder!" Lysandra raised her hands to her mouth, her eyes widening slightly in surprise. If she had known Sam for longer, she would have noticed the way his eyes diverted to the side, like every time he was lying.

A second later, Sam was laughing, and Lysandra was punching him again, this time a bit harder. His shoulder had fully healed a week ago, and his bruising had finally disappeared. He was back to looking like his usual cheerful self; not like he had ever stopped being his painfully cheerful self.

Celaena huffed and got up from the ground, her stretching all done. She was about to head back to the locker room when she spotted Aedion coming their way, and her curiosity won the battle. She stood close enough to Sam and Lys, stretching her quads again by bringing her heel to her glute.