Atlas Grove, once a dancer with dreams of dancing under the stars, now lives petrified in the shadows of abuse. To escape her living nightmare she must keep her head down and work hard, being her senior year this is her last chance to get out. Altho...
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"So, you guys looking forward to the state game?" Vixxie asks the uniform-clad football players sat guzzling water on the bleachers. Exhaustion plain as day in their hunched positions. I watch as the sun glints down on their sweaty faces, a trickle of sweat runs down the side of Blaze's face, through his eyebrow, over his white scar and onto his strong jaw. How does someone make sweat look so fricking sexy?
"We're ready to fucking crush them!" Brady shouts jumping to his feet, exhaustion seemingly gone and bangs on his chest like king kong. A few distant cheers are heard behind us from guys further up the bleacher making us laugh.
"Are you nervous?" Carrie asks stretching her hamstring out in front of Ethan who is desperately trying to keep his eyes on her face.
"Nah, Nationals here we come." Blaze nods, winking sly at me getting fellow nods from his teammates as they slap him on the back with grunts of agreement.
I place my right leg on the lowest bleacher and the left out behind me stretching into half elevated splits. I push down stretching out my legs as we all talk about what we're going to do to 'celebrate' after winning- so presumptuous- I smile to myself although I don't doubt the boys won't win, they are the best team in this state hands down.
My smile quickly vanishes as Hannah saunters past with her entourage of followers, all glaring at me. I feel like I'm a fish swimming around in a fishbowl at the moment. Ever since the Hannah incident, I can't even walk the halls without odd stares or the whispering and gossiping. I'm trying to not let it get to me but it's really hard. People think I have some kind of death wish which is ironic.
I look down avoiding her nasty gaze but my vision is drawn to the fading bruises on my legs. I didn't want to do cheer practice at all considering my skin would be on the show but I can't let Hannah think she's hurt me enough to quit, I also owe it to Vixxie and Carrie. Blaze kept telling me he couldn't play as well without his personal cheerleader but we all know he'll just keep playing better and better. However, I can't deny the rush of butterflies it gave me when he said that. I run my fingers across one patch of discoloured skin and frown.
A warm hand lands on top of mine and pulls it away from my skin, Carrie smiles at me as squeezes my fingers, "Ignore her Atty. She's honestly not even worth a single breath." Her eyes are sympathetic but there's an element of fire behind them.
"I know. I don't think I harvest the energy to care anymore." I snort in a jokey way but really it's half true, it's frigging exhausting all the pointless Hannah drama. There are more important things happening in my life that I need to focus on.
"How the fuck are you still in that position?" Brady interrupts my thoughts.
"Hm?" He points at my elevated splits, "Oh... I don't know... flexibility?" I shrug adding a little bounce to my stance.
"I wanna try." He joins me on the floor and I instruct him to move his legs. He does so just about as gracefully as Bambi on ice. Wincing and hissing.
