Prepsworth Academy

Chapter 44 - "How about we don't."

Lily

"And, one, two, three and four. No, no, no, do that move again Lily!" I sighed and returned to my starting position. Cheer practice was horrible and repetitive. I'd tried plenty of sports in my life, and was excellent at pretty much all of them but I'd still trained, still practiced. I could do gruelling fitness workouts, could run marathons, but the simple mundanity of cheer practice was incredibly boring. Especially trying out the "choreography", it was cheering on people, I didn't think it was meant to tell a story or interpretive dance. All of the cheers I'd seen at Prepsworth had been pretty standard, , but Rose had apparently had a epiphany and decided to do a dance/cheer combination for the half time show, as well as the typical cheers.. It was boring and difficult, especially with Amy and Elle missing. I sighed and threw down my pom-poms. Ugh, even thinking the word...pom-pom's and the simple fact that I owned a pair, I felt like the very cliché I'd spent years trying to destroy.

"How about we do a backflip, turn it into a spin into the centre, do a high kick and finish." Katie suggested. Rose narrowed her eyes.

"How about we don't!" Rose shot back. Rose took a step back and surveyed the cheer team.

"Look, we've got to be amazing for the first game, more stunning than the stars in the sky." Rose exclaimed sharply, as if we were all idiots. Rose looked right at me and smiled a smile that would typically have me running in the other direction.

"Which is why I thought that Lily could be in charge of the choreography with Amy!" Rose finished. Oh I fought a despairing sigh, ignoring everyone's heads that whipped to me. Was this some kind of stupid way of complimenting me, appeasing me for what she'd done? Well, it had backfired. I didn't bother to force a smile as I looked over at the cheer team, before meeting Millie's eyes. I smirked slightly, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear. If Rose wanted me to be a cheerleader, so be it. This could be fun

Tom

I hung up the phone, her voice still grating in my head. Well, I'd found the truth all right. Now, it was just the matter of what I was going to do with it. I'd practically conducted a full scale investigation, searching through all of the books that I could find, before using every resource available. And I'd finally found the truth I'd desired. The truth. I'd known it was going to be bad. I hadn't know that it was going to be that bad. That settled it then - I was going to the party and I was going to save as many people as I could. Because after hearing ... that – I couldn't be bitter and cruel. It seemed wrong, almost evil to do so. My hand was shaking as I put the phone down and I cursed quietly, pacing to the end of the room. It was understandable, given the situation. Because, if what I knew was correct, then what Rose and Lukas were planning ... it would change Prepsworth Academy forever. And I couldn't let that happen.

I was still shaking when I walked to the main oval, fighting to keep my emotions steady. As I walked across, people looked up, waving and smiling hello. It had turned out that dating Rose, or fake dating Rose boosted my popularity status even higher, but at that point I couldn't care less. I ignored them, pulling my jacket further over my shoulders, approaching Rose as she sat on the bleachers, Katie and Saya at her side. They all looked up at me, and Saya smirked as I approached.

"Look Rose, it's your boyfriend." Saya said. The way she spoke made it clear enough that she knew the relationship was fake, but it wasn't exactly unusual at Prepsworth.

"Can we talk? Alone?" I asked. Katie laughed as she stood up, hooking her arm through Saya's as they strolled off. I watched them go, before turning back at Rose.

"I think we should come clean about the relationship. Or, at the very least, pretend to break up." I said abruptly.

"I wasn't expecting that." Rose said honestly.

"I had a change of heart." I said as way of an explanation.

"Who?" Rose asked sharply. I laughed, a single sound ringing through the air, before shaking my head."

"There's no one. I just don't want to keep pretending." Rose smirked.

"A change of heart indeed. A couple of weeks ago, you would've killed to date me." Rose said harshly.

"Maybe so, but it's probably better that I break up with you before you break up with me." I said dismissively. Rose eyed me coldly.

"There's the Tom I know. Stupid, weak, shallow. So, so afraid of getting hurt." Rose said contemptuously, a sneer crossing her face. I shrugged, not letting her see the impact her harsh words had on me.

"You can get back with Lukas again, if he doesn't dump you for Eve." I said simply, turning around and walking off. I knew she thought she'd won, but she was wrong. I couldn't have been tied to her if what I thought was going to happen, happened, and I couldn't stand to pretend I was dating her. My desperate attempt at cunning had failed miserably, but it had led into another thing, something that was undoubtedly more important. The one question was, would I be enough to prevent it?

Amy

I stared blankly at Lily, unable to do anything but blink dumbly as her words settled in my head.

"I don't know the first thing about cheerleading." I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air in a sudden fit of anger.

"How on earth am I supposed to choreograph a cheer routine?" I continued, my face frozen in an expression of disbelief.

"How am I supposed to?" Lily retaliated, equal to me in her annoyance. I stopped pacing, my face furrowed in concentration.

"What did you do in your tryout?" I asked Lily, thinking hard. Lily shrugged.

"I just...danced." Lily replied. It was an immense effort to keep my eyes from rolling. Maybe I'd been spending too much time around Jake. My thoughts started to wander, and I closed my eyes tightly, before opening them and focusing on Lily.

"Can you show me?" I asked. Lily nodded and stepped out onto the field.

It would be difficult to describe Lily's dancing – any dancing, when one is trapped by words. As with singing, it is difficult to describe a step, a note and the music. Even if I had one million pages to describe it – the atmosphere would still be lost. Atmosphere, I believe, is always an element in dance: the best dancers can make a crummy, crumbling concrete floor into a stage, complete with velvet curtains and an adoring crowd. A truly incredible dancer, can turn the most bland living room into a busy city street, brimming with excitement and energy. It turned out that Lily was that kind of dancer

Despite Lily's skill, apparently we weren't supposed to be dancing, which was why Lily and I agreed – we should definitely add a dance element. If Rose though that she could just order us around, she had another thing coming.

After Lily and I were finished with the basic choreography, I went to the dance rooms. I wanted to dance more, to practice more. Dancing was something I never got bored of, no matter how often I did it.

I started to dance Storm, but something didn't feel right. I felt off, as if in a nonsensical dream, my limbs not quite responding. The lights of the studio seemed glaringly bright and my head began to spin. The world seemed to swoop around me and every sound was far too loud. I could feel my body starting to shut down, to close off. I couldn't place my thoughts, everything was in a haze. I felt as though I could be standing in a crowd of people but still be completely lost. My vision blurred, and I stumbled to the floor, my head pounding and aching. What was wrong? I pushed myself up, wobbling on the balls of my feet. I started to run, getting ready to leap across the room. The room twisted furiously before I leapt up into mid-air and I fell to the ground, feeling rather than seeing, the harsh impact of the hardwood floor beneath my body, hearing the murmurs that grew into shrieks, figments of my own imagination. I wanted to move, to even just trail my fingers across the cold floor. But I couldn't, my head seemed to spin and fade out, my limbs working and moving in ways I did not want them to. I reached out, for my hands to be clasped together but I missed, my hand flopping uselessly at my side. What was wrong? What was happening to me? I couldn't comprehend anything more than that something had happened. Darkness washed over me, cool and calm, cooling the heat that had settled on my forehead. And then...sleep.