Chapter Text
“You ready for tryouts?” Oliver asked Sae.
Sae didn’t even attempt not to scoff at the question. It’s not like Oliver meant anything smug by it, but it was such a stupid question regardless. Sae only scoffed because it was not worth the effort to laugh.
“I think the better question is,” Sae started, barely looking up from her nails. “Are you ready for tryouts?”
It was barely a week into senior year, and Sae was already letting the title of cheer captain go straight to her pretty pink head. Actually, that was a lie. Sae had been letting the title go to her head since she was appointed it last year from the last captain. It’s not like it was any mystery before then either as to who would be getting it, so this was actually a long time in the making, and she had no intention of wasting a single second of it.
“You’re joking,” Oliver said with the bitchy laugh only she got away with in Sae’s presence.
But getting away with something was different than being given free-for-all privileges. Sae smiled her best nice girl smile, reserved solely for routines and delivering devastating blows that needed to pack an extra punch.
“Of course I’m not. Everyone’s trying out this year, including the vets.” Sae whipped her head around to look at Rin, who was sipping her diet coke and well prepared for the incoming jab. “I’m not having any losers or underperformers on the team this year, got it?”
Rin didn’t bother responding. She just rolled her eyes and flipped her sister off, never even taking her soda filled straw out of her mouth. It didn’t matter if Rin had to try out. She would, and she’d make it on, and they both knew it. Sae gave her a hard time because they were sisters, but they were both well aware that Rin was the best third the squad had had since she joined two years ago. She wasn’t going anywhere.
Shuto, on the other hand, had every reason to be nervous, including her subpar skill and Sae’s general dislike of her, and was also well aware of it. She nervously twirled the end of her blonde ponytail around her finger. “Have you thought about what we’ll be doing for tryouts?”
“Tell you what,” Sae said. “We lost a lot of good talent with last year’s seniors. If you bring someone with potential, I’ll consider going easy on you.”
Shuto nodded, immediately knowing this was something to take seriously.
“That goes for all of you,” Sae said to the small group of girls crowded around her. “We need girls and we need them to be good. Scout the freshman and the transfer students before basketball or volleyball or god forbid swimming gets to them.”
“What’s the big deal, queen Sae?” Oliver asked. “Even with the old seniors gone, there’s at least twelve of us left. That’s more than enough to count as a squad.”
“I want at least twenty,” Sae snapped back. “Good athletes. And at least three alternates in case someone gets injured.”
“That’s,” Shuto said, counting on her fingers. “Five full stunt groups?”
“We don’t need that many girls to dance on the sidelines during games,” Oliver said.
She’d long been one of the least invested cheerleader Sae had ever known, not to mention the off putting purple and lime green hair she insisted on bleaching and redyeing every six weeks, but she kept her around because she was almost unmatched as a base. Her grip was firm, she could see a fall coming from a mile away, and she could toss a flyer in the air like nobody’s business.
“I don’t give a shit about shaking our asses on the sidelines of fucking football games,” Sae snapped back. “I want twenty girls and at least three alternates because this year, we’re going to nationals.”
“Nationals?” Shuto asked, the hair twirling becoming quicker.
“Seriously, Sae?” Oliver said, her hands finding her hips.
“I want to go to nationals,” Rin said. “Why are you two even here if you don’t want to go to nationals?”
“Boys think cheerleaders are cute,” Shuto answered.
“Looks good on college applications,” Oliver answered. “And I like being able to use practice as an excuse for pretty much anything.”
Sae rolled her eyes and tightened her ponytail before snapping her perfectly manicured fingers in both of their faces.
“Well, if you want boys to keep thinking you’re cute and you want to keep your excuse for being a delinquent,” she said, looking at each of them in turn. “Get with the program or quit.”
The four of them parted, a nervously muttering Shuto and eye rolling Oliver in one direction, a soda sipping Rin and resting bitch faced Sae in the other. Sae tried not to complain, or stress, or scowl, but found she was doing all three after such an unpleasant conversation. Rin was used to it. She’d had seventeen whole years of knowing Sae to learn how to tune her out and diffuse her when the situation demanded it.
“Can you believe those two?” Sae asked her sister. “What kind of cheerleader doesn’t want to go to nationals? And in our senior year of all years.”
“Yes,” Rin answered, even though she knew Sae wasn’t really looking for one. “Oliver’s only any good because she spends all her spare time climbing fences and running from rent a cops, and Shuto barely qualifies as a flyer.”
Sae sighed. Both statements were true. The one about Shuto especially. Shuto’s flexibility was subpar, her movements were jerky, and she seemed to have zero idea what it meant to actually tighten your muscles enough to pull off a clean trick. Rin knew it better than anyone, having been Shuto’s third since she joined the squad as an already nearly model tall freshman. They kept her around because she could, by some grace of god, pull off the routines, and was incredibly pretty in that blonde, baby faced, girl next door kind of way. Every single captain, Sae included, knew the team’s worst flyer needed the best third to make sure her brains, or lack thereof, stayed inside her head where they could continue to do the bare minimum.
Sae was more than bitter about this for a number of reasons. First and foremost was that Sae considered herself flyer perfection personified. She was blessed with being pretty, petite, and muscular, and spent every waking minute living and breathing cheerleading from stretching while she did her homework to skipping parties to going to the gym to scoffing at every single deep fried food item that dared cross her path. It paid off every single time she stepped onto the mat, and she judged every other girl on the squad for anything else.
A secondary but still important reason that she could make use of nearly any bases, and it’s not like Oliver wasn’t good, because she was, but Sae deserved a third like Rin too. She deserved a team full of Saes and Rins, but that was a little ambitious, so she stayed humbled by begrudging over wanting a skillful stunting group.
“Whatever,” Sae finally decided. “Let’s just hope they actually bring some fresh blood.”
“Shuto definitely will,” Rin said. “She’ll bring ten girls if she thinks it’ll get her out of trying out.”
“Good,” Sae said. That had been her intention after all.
The math and science wing where Rin and Sae headed was all the way on the other side of the school, so they had a fair trek to get there from the steps where they hung out on their free period. It took them across the courtyard, past the office, and down the main staircase. And Sae was planning to be quick about it, because she wanted to make sure Rin actually went to calculus before making her way to bio, but between the complaining and the rushing, she didn’t have adequate time to notice that the office door swung open to let someone out of it just as they were about to pass it.
Rin grabbed her sister’s arm and yanked her back, and a somewhat flustered Sae was about to form some kind of watch where you’re going statement, but was surprised when the girl that had come out just stood there, looking at them while she smacked her gum.
“Oh, hi Rinrin,” this girl said right at Rin. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Rin didn’t answer. The girl didn’t seem to expect it. Sae took this opportunity to look over this girl. Obviously new. Because she knew everyone, and she had never seen her before.
She was blonde, with a half decent albeit faded pink dye job on the ends. Wore horrifically thick eyeliner and was the type to keep the first two blouse buttons undone. Those were all things Sae would normally cringe at, but there was something about her that Sae found herself hyper fixated on. Namely, how she had to crane her neck and look up at her to notice at of this.
She was tall.
The new girl closed her mouth and started making a bubble with the sticky pink stuff. This is when she seemed to notice Sae right back. She looked over her for a second, from her head all the way down to her feet and back up, and then said, “Hmm.”
The bubble popped. She started walking off without another word. Neither of the Itoshis said anything else either. It’s not like that they felt particularly obligated to. They didn’t know this girl. Or rather, they weren’t friends with her. Rin clearly knew her. Sae wanted to know her.
Sae watched her the entire time she walked away down the hall, tilting over to the side to offer herself a better view. She wasn’t just tall, she was strong. Her shoulders bulged through her blouse, the same way her calves did in the knee highs. And the way she walked, it wasn’t awkward. It was intentional, and there was a bounce to it. The way one walked when they had more body awareness than most. The walk of an athlete.
“That ass is amazing,” Sae thought aloud.
“You are so fucking weird,” Rin said, shaking her head.
Sae turned back to her sister. “Who is that?”
Rin pointed down the hallway with one intentional fingernail and raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows. Sae nodded, and glared for good measure, to get her to get on with it. Rin’s grimace deepened. She made a sound of deliberate disapproval.
“I don’t know,” Rin said.
“Well, she knows you,” Sae said back.
“She knows my name,” Rin defended. “We don’t know each other.”
“What’s her name?” Sae asked.
Rin shook her head and started walking off.
“Rin!” Sae called, chasing after her.
“No,” Rin said harshly, spinning around, lifting one finger to her sister’s face. “No way.”
“I just want her name,” Sae said.
“No, you don’t,” Rin accused, and to her credit, she was right. “I know what you’re thinking, and trust me, it’s not a good idea. That bitch is a psycho.”
“How do you know?” Sae said, her arms crossing in front of her chest. She tilted her weight to one foot, tapping the other. “If you two don’t know each other.”
“We don’t,” Rin said again, but Sae could tell her defense was crumbling. She couldn’t commit to both truths. “I just know, okay?”
“Where’d you two meet?” Sae asked.
Rin paused, sucked her teeth in defeat, and glared down at her sister. “We met in detention.”
“In detention?” Sae asked, bringing her voice down into a low whisper. She had temporarily forgotten about the new girl entirely. “Are you serious? It’s barely the second week of school and you’re already landing in detention? Are you stupid?”
“Not half as stupid as you for what you’re currently considering,” Rin shot back, motioning down the hallway in the direction the new girl had disappeared down.
“What did you get detention for anyways?” Sae asked harshly, raising her eyebrows. She didn’t always care what Rin got up to in her spare time, but she cared deeply if it could affect their squad and their chance at nationals.
“I was sucking dick in the woods behind the school,” Rin said.
It was not only a horribly blatant lie, but Sae knew what it was covering up. She gasped, horribly offended, and yanked the end of her sister’s long black ponytail quick and harsh in a way she knew would hurt.
“Ow!” Rin protested.
“Smoking again?” Sae hissed. “Are you insane?”
“Mind your own business!” Rin hissed back.
“It is my business if you’re sabotaging our chance at nationals!” Sae defended.
“I have the occasional cigarette,” Rin defended right back. “And so long as Shuto’s brains, or lack thereof, are inside her head instead of sprawled out on the mat, you can shut up about it.”
Sae wasn’t pleased, but she could hardly press the issue further. It was a half decent point. Not only that, but there was only so far she could go with Rin. They had an understanding that way. The both loved cheerleading and they both needed each other. But with that matter more or less settled, Sae’s focus turned back to the new girl from the office.
“So, is that her deal too?” Sae asked, trying and failing to seem casual about it. “She’s a future lung cancer patient too?”
“I don’t know,” Rin said. “And guess what? I don’t care.”
Sea reached out for Rin’s arm. It was meant to be a sweet, sisterly gesture, but neither of them really considered it one. “If you bring her to tryouts, I won’t make you try out.”
Rin made a sound that was half scoff, half laugh through her smile. “I think I’ll take my chances, thanks.”