"14 Cheers" // SkepHalo Fanfiction // Cheerleader AU

5. Routines

Zak and Darryl hadn't hung out much for a week.

Ever since both boys had gotten their new teams, they hadn't spoken often.

Zak still hadn't told Darryl about his cheer team, which made him feel bad, but he was too nervous to tell him about it.

He was scared of being ridiculed.

Not for being a boy cheerleader, but for cheering Darryl on and maybe humiliating him, since everyone thought they were dating.

Zak was reconsidering his choices.

He shook away those thoughts. He liked, hell, loved cheerleading. He had just learned the pyramid formation.

But Darryl was starting to make him feel different.

Almost like, he was floating on air whenever Darryl spoke. Whenever he touched his arm, Zak blushed a vibrant pink, and his face got hot, his lungs squeezing in on themselves, gasping for air and tingling in excitement.

It was a different kind of connection. After all, Darryl was his best friend. N-nothing more.

Besides that, Zak wasn't sure Darryl wanted to hang out with him after he made a fool of himself by not making the team. I mean, what popular straight guy doesn't make the basketball team?

(Disclaimer: A lot of straight males don't actually make the teams for which they audition. It all depends on talent, not stereotypes with cis-het people and LGBTQIA+ members. Your sexuality doesn't define you. Neither do the stereotypes that come with your sexuality.)

Zak sighed, tapping his pen against his history book. He was barely paying attention to the lesson, not that it mattered though. He was way too distracted to be able to listen anyways.

"Don't you agree, Zak?" His teacher called.

Zak's head shot up in surprise, nervous that the teacher had just called on him. The best bet was to agree with her.

"Y-yep!" Zak called out anxiously, desperately hoping he didn't just enthusiastically agree to world hunger.

His teacher eyed him suspiciously, but said nothing about it. "Mhm, okay, so World War I was fought over...~"

The rest of the words became slurred again, Zak not learning from his last mistake and continuing to think about Darryl.

After all, amongst other things, Darryl was his favorite subject.

❤️✨💙

Darryl sat, watching the other team member practice playing. He was faking an injury, a headache, but in reality he was still wrestling with what Puffy, er, Cara had said.

Was he really in love with Zak?

He couldn't tell. It was way too confusing. But the answer was simple.

He just couldn't face the facts.

He sat and stared at one boy standing in the corner of the gym, chattering away with his girlfriend, who wasn't on the basketball team, but was on the football team.

"I want a relationship like that." He thought.

Then he paused.

"But... am I jealous of the guy... or of the girl?"

He blushed, because he knew the reality. It was getting harder to hide. The fact that he was... ahem, 💅✨.

But, nevertheless, it was getting harder to think about. He wanted to hang out with Zak, but he wasn't sure if Zak wanted to hang out with him.