Temporarily Mine

17

JOSEPHINE

"Okay, girls!" Scarlett claps her hands. "I hope you enjoyed your three-day weekend, because we're pulling doubles the rest of this week. We already know we won't be performing for the school until Senior Night, but what I haven't shared yet, is the principal has asked the dance team to lead the varsity players onto the field at the game."

"Cheer always leads the team," one of the girls points out.

Scarlett shakes her head with a grin. "Not this year. This year we are the show."

Holy shit.

The dance team is geared more toward hip-hop in style, which is why when they recruited me freshman year, I agreed, but to take over Senior Night that's not only full of students, but parents and faculty? Kind of crazy being our dances are on the risque side, a lot of booty popping is involved.

"There's like forty of them and only seventeen of us," another says.

"Only the seniors will be escorted, but we'll still be a little short which is why I've asked the JV dance team to help out, but only during the escorting. They won't be performing our full routine with us," she announces. "I'm still working on costumes for the performance, but I'm thinking we'll incorporate the team to help make it fresh in some way."

"How so?" I ask.

"Well, we can add eye black for fun, and knee-high socks. We can ask Coach Parks if we can borrow the boys' away jerseys since this is a home game or another option is lettermen jackets. The entire team was awarded one free last year when they won state, so every player should have one that can be worn."

"It might be hard to dance in."

"Yes," she agrees, then smirks. "But it would be a great show starter, and a piece you can easily toss when the chorus hits."

"Yes!" someone shouts. "A transition piece into our costume reveal!"

"Do we get to pick who we escort?" Ava asks with excitement, making us laugh.

"Hell no, you think I want to deal with the fallout of that when these boys aren't what you imagined in your heads?" she teases, making us laugh. She's only twenty-one, so she's always super cool when it comes to boyfriends and things. "This is about our team performing well. Hear me?"

"Yes, Coach," is said in unison.

"Okay." She rolls her wrist. "Three laps around and then fall in."

After our quick warm-up, we run through our routine twice and then there's a hard knock on the gym door.

Scarlett smirks, skipping backward toward the door. "Did I mention they'd be here today?"

My eyes widen and I glance around the room.

Most of us are in tiny booty shorts and tanks or a sports bra. Since this is only practice and not an actual class, we can get away with that.

The boys, though, they have zero period weight training, so they're on the clock right now. Still, when she opens the door and shakes the coach's hand, half the guys are shirtless, the rest sleeveless.

Thompson and Felix walk in first, Andrew and a few others behind them, followed by more of their teammates.

Felix nods in hello, so I wave, my eyes shifting along the line and catching Andrew's. He grins, then looks around at the girls.

Where's Hero?

This makes three days now he hasn't shown up to school.

"Okay," Scarlett starts. "Boys, solid straight line across the wall, shortest to tallest. I'm gonna place some girls in front of you and check height so I can get a good idea of what will and won't work for entrances. I know you normally just walk out with the girls while your stats are read over the speaker, but this year we're involving you a little more for fun."