Half a Heart

24. So Much For Being Just Friends

Mason and I agreed to stay just friends. He couldn't do that to his little brother and I couldn't do that to myself. There were too many people that would get hurt and I'm afraid that my mental health would suffer. Never again will I sacrifice my mental health for anyone. Mason was happy with our agreement as was I. We could never happen.

At nine, my alarm went off. I had been awake since six, but it was my alarm to get ready. I was going to have to help some of the squad with hair and makeup. Some of them just don't have the skill it takes. I got up and washed my face and brushed my teeth. It was always the first thing I did in the mornings. After I turned on my curling iron and started on my makeup. We were doing silver eyeshadow with thick black eyeliner with dots of white in it. We had facepaint for drawing longhorns and things like that on our cheeks. Jaelynn was the most gifted with art so that part would be her job. I would have the task of eyeliner. I finished my makeup and began on my hair. I curled it so that it was super curly and then put it in a really high ponytail. I would have a headache within an hour but it was what we had to do. I put on my uniform. It zipped up in the back so we didn't have to go over our hair, which I was thankful for.

After securing my bow in place, I started helping my roommates with their makeup. I had brought enough protein shakes for all my squad. We wouldn't eat until after the game. We would sip on Gatorade and water after we had the shakes. It was to keep things off our uniforms and also to prevent us from messing up our makeup. Once their makeup looked as good as mine, we left to go to the other's rooms. It was going to take us at least two hours to get everyone done. Avery was doing hair, I was doing makeup, and Jae was doing school spirit. I struggled when we got to Savannah's room, but I did her makeup while staring her in the eyes. If it wasn't going to hurt my reputation, she would not be here. Next year I'll amend the rules and say that if you are to have relations with a fellow sister's boyfriend, you will no longer be part of the sisterhood. At least she'll be gone by then.

The game was supposed to start at three. We had to be on the sidelines by two-thirty and I wanted to go over the routine a few times before that. The girls were to be ready by one and down in the lobby. Jae and I were the first ones down of course. The others followed shortly after and we went into the conference room the manager was allowing us to use. We went over the routine several times. One of the freshmen kept messing up and it was frustrating me. She was panicking about being in front of all those people and I wanted to scream get it together. We perform in front of people all the time. Just because this was going to be televised did not mean that we needed to stress out. I called for a ten-minute break and I went to the lobby to get a soda. The lack of caffeine was getting to me and if I didn't fix it, someone was going to be very very sorry.

The basketball boys were in the lobby waiting on us so we could go to the stadium,. I told Rog we needed to do it once more and we would be ready to go. He went ahead and had the boys start loading up. Mason came over and wrapped me in a hug after Peter had left the building.

"I can see you're stressing out and I want you to know that you are going to do fantastic. You will shine like the star you are," he whispered in my ear.

"Thanks," I drew away, "You're going to do great too."

He winked at me and walked away. I took a deep breath and walked back into the room where the rest of the cheerleaders were.

"Let's do it!"

We got back to our places and Avery started the music for us. After we went through the routine, I knew that we were ready. It was going to be no problem. We loaded the bus and the energy was ecstatic. We had full faith in the boys winning and were excited to cheer them on. It was a twenty-minute ride to the stadium and we were all nervous and excited. Mason was super fidgety so I reached over and grabbed his hand. It grounded him and brought him back to the present. He gave me a grateful look.