𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬

32

Maddie's whole day went uneventful, it was actually weird how uneventful it was. Her mom didn't say anything to her all day, nobody at school mentioned her tied up hair, the baggy clothes, or the purple circles that were formed under her eyes from crying. Maddie spent most of her day thinking about dancing, the basketball team had a game which meant that the dance team and the cheerleaders would perform and cheer them on, Maddie was excited since she hadn't been able to dance or to even really go to practice in awhile due to the coach being sick. While everyone on the side cheered the actual cheerleaders and dancers stretched while the basketball team decided to warm up. Maddie was in a backbend when Clay walked in and looked around the room first meeting the eyes of Zach, then Justin, then looking over to Maddie before Courtney started a conversation with him asking why he was there since he normally didn't show to these types of things. When Maddie finished with her strecthing she finally noticed Clay, Maddie smiled and looked back to the girls. "Okay, hey Autumn can you fix Rocky's hair? I'll be right back." Autumn nodded and Maddie thanked her before running off to Clay. "Clay." Maddie greeted with a smile and Clay gave her an uneasy one back. "It's great that you're here, thanks for coming." Maddie smiled and Clay nodded. "Yeah, I'm excited to show some school spirit." Clay said sarcastically and rasied his hands with a bored face. Maddie laughed and pushed his shoulders lightly. "Come on, just enjoy it, if nothing else cheer me on during my solo." Maddie laughed and Clay could tell she was joking so he laughed as well. "Well see ya Clay, maybe I'll talk to you later." Maddie said smiling before she walked off but she made sure to note the fact that he had his headphones around his neck showing her that he must of had the tapes on him.

After a little while the game started and all the girls both cheerleaders and dancers joined together on the same side to cheer on their team. Maddie kept her eyes between Justin and Zach as they got in their positions with their hands on their knees waiting for the game to start, but then within a second both their eyes were locked over at Clay. "What are they looking at?" Maddison asked Maddie as they both looked over to see Clay. "What is he doing?" Rocky asked and Maddie shrugged with a confused face until he stepped onto the court. "Clay you can't be on the court right now." Maddie called out to him but he didn't seem to listen and once again in sync Justin and Zach stood up straight both annoyed with the boy. "Clay get off the court!" Zach shouted as he looked straight at the boy who was walking towards him. "Jensen get off the fucking court!" Maddie jumped at Justins tone but nodded along with him, as Clay grew closer to her two boys and the crowd began to boo Maddies nerves got the best of her. When Clay didn't back down Zach rolled his eyes and scoffed. "What the hell Jensen? The games about to start!" Zach was upset and Maddie could understand why, all of them could understand why all of the players were mad, for most they wanted this to be their future, so for Clay to get in the way of that? That was something none of them were going to stand for.
"Hey skinny kid get off the court!" The coaches kept shouting at Clay who wasn't moving and the team huddled in pairs confused about what was going on.

"Okay Ladies lets go!" The cheer coach shouted and the dance one nodded as well and the two teams went to seperate sides of the gym floor to cheer on their team. A little bit into the game one of the other teams players didn't catch the ball and it fell into the stands. "Oh, Clay actually catch it, that's good." Rocky commented while she stood slightly behind Maddie since they had to stand in the pyrimad stance in order of height. "Clay." Tyler says letting him know to throw it back. "Why the hell is he talking to Tyler?" Maddie asks turning back to the girls to see if any of them knew but just like her they were too busy focusing on their dancing/ cheering to notice when they came together. "What the hell Jensen throw the ball back!" Zach shouted and Clay stood up uneasy with the basketball in his hand while the whole gym stared at him After a minute or two of Clay not throwing the ball Tyler took it and threw the ball to the players, but he threw it very poorly making everyone including Maddie laugh. While performing their normal pep rally dance Maddie looked over to see Jessica arguing with the cheer coach and then within a few seconds the coach stormed off. "I don't think she's in todays game." Rocky said laughing and Autumn agreed behind them but Maddie pretended not to hear the conversation going on behind her. While Maddie was cheering, Justin kept his eyes on her but then he seen something out of the corner of his eye, he seen Bryce take Jessica to the top of the bleachers with him and Justin just rolled his eyes and walked away getting ready to keep the game going.