fourteen - Catch Me When I Fall

Ryan followed from behind Riley down her steps that next morning, her features flat in bitter as the other brunette announced, ''Cheerleading tryouts today!''

Ryan shook her head as the bubbly friend accidentally bumped down a missing step.

She looks up at the Matthews family who eyed her with a hopeful glance.

''I tried, I really tried.''

They all slouched with a groan.

''I have better control of my body now, and when my brain tells my arms and legs what to do, they try real hard now,'' Riley attempted to convince while Ryan took a seat beside Maya.

''This is gonna be my year, guys.''

''No it isn't champ- can I get some ketchup for my eggs?''

''Ry,'' Maya scolds.

''What?'' She exclaims. She turns to Riley. She was pouting. ''Oh, you know how I talk. If I tell you the cold hard truth, it means I like you and I don't want you looking stupid.''

Maya leans over and whispers for only the two to her, ''Not when she's gonna do it anyway.''

Ryan leans back and sighs. ''Okay, let me take a sip of my spirit potion,-'' Ryan takes a sip of her Orange juice and smacks her teeth. ''Ooh, I feel something, something bubbly and sparkly and shiny, ooh-''

Riley giggles as she watches Ryan stomping her feet repeatedly while shaking her body.

She stops all at once and smiles. ''You're gonna ace these try-outs, Riley Matthews. Nothing can tear you down!''

''Yay,'' She cheers, shaking her pom poms obnoxiously.

''Oh, okay,'' She mumbles as she watches her jump on the couch.

''Give me a Q! Give me a U! Give me an I-N-C--'' With all the terribly balanced choreograph, Riley began falling back and off the couch as she got to, ''Y!''

Ryan turns to her food with the shrug of her shoulders. ''I said, I tried.''

× × ×

    ‘’Great job, Samantha,’’ Riley clapped, encouraging the backward flips the blonde performed in front of Riley Matthews, Maya Hart and Ryan Collins that day in the gymnasium.

    ‘’Thanks,’’ She smiled, lifting her hand to high five Riley as Riley compliments, ‘’You’re the best.’’

    Riley dropped the smile once Samantha had passed and told the girls, ‘’She’s the worst.’’

    Ryan was gnawing on her bottom lip and arching her brows while Maya eyed her with wide eyes, as if the girl had three heads. ‘’She’s the worst?’’

    Maya lets out a sigh of disbelief as Riley began walking. The girls followed her as she spoke, ‘’Samantha’s the one I gotta beat to make the team.’’ Riley stops walking and turns to her friends smiling. ‘’I’m better than her, right?’’

    Ryan was distracting by Samantha who was, once again, passing by the girls performing another outstanding trick by walking upside down on her hands.

    The girls watched hr as Maya mumbled to Riley, ‘’Explain to me what’s the matter with you.’’

    Riley threw her arms from her side. ‘’I’m for your entertainment pleasure.’’

    Maya shakes her head. ‘’How many years you gonna do this to us?’’

    ‘’What am I doing to you two?’’ Riley questions with furrowed brows.

    ‘’Uh, we have to pretend like you’re on top of the pyramid scheme when really you’re the football that ruins the pyramid,’’ Ryan remarks, peering around from behind Maya, now standing next to her. Letting out a puff of air, Ryan folds her arms across her chest and scans those in the room. ‘’I don’t know about Maya, but I’m sure she agrees that it gets pretty tiring.’’

    ‘‘Riley, you’re not as good as Samantha, you’re not as good as Heather, you’re not as good as any girl with any name, or doesn’t have a name or doesn’t exist, or is a rock.’’

    Riley simply shrugs them off. ‘’Well, I don’t like that she doesn’t have a name. I would call her Roxie.’’

    Maya’s lips fell apart from each other, in a dae from how hard headed her best friend is. She turns to look at Ryan, urging for some guidance, but the brunette was just as frustrated as she was. Her eyes were narrowed and her lips were thin as she seethed.

    Riley turned away and began walking, the girls following once again as Maya prompts, ‘’Every year, you try out. Every year, Coach Kelly tells you not to come back because she hates you.’’

    Just as Coach Kelly approached the group, Riley counters with Maya by telling her, ‘’Coach Kelly does not hate me.’’

    ‘’Matthews,’’ Coach Kelly alerts the attention. ‘’I hate you. Why would you come here? Why are you wearing that? Why would you come here?’’

    ‘’This is the year I’m going to make the team.’’

    Though coach had nodded her head, her words spoken otherwise. ‘’It’s really not. You’ve been trying to make this team since third grade pee wees, and they don’t let me reject anybody in third grade pee wees. It hurts their self-esteem.’’

    Riley furrows her brows. ‘’Then why did you get to reject me?’’

    ‘’Because that’s the year we passed the Riley rule.’’

Riley turned to her friends with a great smile, gasping. ‘’I have my own rule.’’

Ryan meekly smile while Maya gave a thumbs up.

‘’How much rejection can you take?’’ Coach Kelly urged, annoyed at the fact that she had to go another year through this.

‘’Hey, Lebron James was cut from his high school basketball team,’’ Riley wrongly facted, throwing her arms from his side.

Coach Kelly’s head lagged to the side. ‘’Lebron went straight to the NBA from high school.’’

‘’I knew it was something.’’ Riley collects herself and smiles. ‘’Coach Kelly, I’m gonna win you over.’’

Maya linked an arm with Ryan, pulling her over towards the bench as Coach Kelly points a finger at her. ‘’Stay out of sports.’’

Riley waves her off as the coach walked away. ‘’Oh, you.’’

Ryan was leaned into Maya’s side as the two held the cheerleading try out poster stuck on the board filled with various posters. Maya read them aloud as they walked closer to Riley, ‘’Cheerleading tryouts will span three days after school. On day one, applicants will be judged on coordination.’’

‘’Do I have that?’’

Ryan breaks out into laughter. ‘’Oh, sweetie.’’

‘’No,’’ Maya flat out tells her.

Ryan clears her throat before reading off what was next on the poster. ‘’Day two, tumbling.’’

‘’I tumble,’’ Riley points out.

Maya looks up for a second to counter, ‘’Not on purpose,’’ Before she looked back down to read what was left. ‘’And if you make it to day three, we will see how you dance with the team.’’

‘’That, I can do,’’ Riley assures.

‘’If you even live to do, day three,’’ Ryan remarks in a small voice. Ryan jumped when the cheerleaders started performing their chant, ‘’Give me a Q, give me a U, give me a I-N-C-Y, Quincy! Quincy, we can fly! Whoo!’’

‘’Jesus christ,’’ Ryan mumbles, watching the team bounce around.

Coach Kelly then blows her whistle, a signal for the cheerleaders to line up into two single file lines that Riley got a part of. Only, she looked the odd one out when she wasn’t making the line straight as it should.

The girls and guys stood in a clean position while Coach Kelly spoke, ‘’Alright, ladies, I’ve got thirteen trying out. I need twelve. Matthews, why don’t you make it easy on all of us and quit right now, so we don’t have to go through three days of torture?’’

‘’No, thank you.’’

‘’Riley,’’ Maya softly calls her over. RIley walked away and towards her best friends. ‘’Know why nobody else is even trying out? She already has her team. These girls are the same girls since pee wees. These girls are the reason you don’t make the team.’’

Riley walked back on the line, her smile never wavering.

‘’May we get started please?’’ RIley asked really loud.

Picking up her whistle, she say, ‘’You heard her,’’ before blowing her whistle. ‘’Launch, fly, catch. Team, launch. Jenkins, fly. Matthews, catch.’’

Ryan shook her head as she watched Riley remain in the same place while everyone else was out and about. Coach kelly had to pull her to place and repeats harshly, ‘’Catch.’’

She stuck her arms out for her before stepping to her side.

Riley waves at the girl that was being thrown and greets, ‘’Hi,’’ allowing her to fall. Riley looks up in realization and drawls, ‘’Oh, catch.’’

Coach Kelly looks down at the girl. ‘’You alive, Jenkins?’’

‘’I’m fine, coach.’’

‘’I’m fine, coach!’’ Riley yells.

Ryan and Maya both let out a distress sigh when plopping down on the bench. These were going to be a long three days.

‘’Alright, let’s try that again,’’ Coach Kelly instructs. ‘’Matthews, you fly. Jenkins, you catch.’’

As Riley walked over to the guys that were going to throw her, she points at Jenkins and asks, ‘’Can I trust you?’’

She stood up and replaced Riley’s spot. ‘’Oh, yeah, I know exactly what I’m gonna do.’’

Just when Riley was thrown, she exclaims, ‘’I’m gonna die.’’

× × ×

Ryan Collins and Maya Hart were in Mr. Matthews class that day. Riley was in the nurse's office during Cory’s lesson.

    Mr. Matthews points to the chalk board, where a lightbulb was drawn. ‘’Who invented this?’’

    ‘’Thomas Edison,’’ Farkle answered. ‘’The wizard of menlo park.’’

    ‘’After how many times?’’ Mr. Matthews continues to question.

    ‘’Six,’’ Lucas exclaims.

    ‘’No,’’ Mr. Matthews shoots him down. ‘’Anybody here think he invented it after his first try.’’

    ‘’I do,’’ Lucas continues.

    ‘’No!’’

    Lucas tilts his head to the side. ‘’All right, I was trying something, and now I’m going back to the way things were.’’

    Ryan pursed her bottom lip out as she chuckles. ‘’It’s fine, bubba, not everyone could be good looking and smart.’’

    Farkle turns to her. ‘’You are.’’

    Lucas jerked his head back, furrowing his brows as Farkle. His gaze switched between him and Ryan as the scoffed, flipping her hair off of her shoulder.

    ‘’Well,’’ She begins to giggle. ‘’I mean-’’ She continues to giggle.

    Cory Matthews, Maya Hart, Zay Babineaux, Lucas Friar and pretty much every other person had furrowed their brows at Ryan who couldn’t stop giggling.

    Maya turns around in her seat slowly, her brows still furrowed. ‘’Why didn’t he invent this light bulb on his first try?’’

‘’Cause it was dark,’’ Zay exclaims. He pats Lucas by the arm. ‘’Got your back. I got your back.’’

    Mr. Matthews never stopped furrowing his brows as his daughter walked in with a big bag of ice. She was being lead back to class with nurse behind her.

    ‘’Did the best I could,’’ She briefly informs her teacher before walking off.

    ‘’I’m fine,’’ Riley flatly tells the class. More specifically, to her friends and family. ‘’Nothing to see here. Go on with your business.’’

    As Riley was back to her seat, Maya asked, ‘’Uh, but wouldn’t the ice work better if you put it on something?’’

    Riley gripped the desk as she slowly with hesitance sat down on the pile of ice she placed in her seat.

    ‘’I see.’’

    Lucas looked between Ryan and Maya, scolding the two. ‘’You were suppose to talk her out of this.’’

    ‘’Every year, Riley tries out for cheerleaders,’’ Farkle informs for Zay’s knowledge.

    ‘’Oh,’’ Zay leaned back. ‘’Riley, you are no cheerleader.’’

    ‘’That is a terrible thing to say to me, Zay.’’

    He arches his brows. ‘’I meant it as a compliment.’’

    Ryan points a finger at Zay and smiles. ‘’Are you talking about-’’

    He gave her a pointed look. ‘’Don’t you dare say her name.’’

    ‘’Back in Texas, Zay had a little incident with a cheerleader,’’ Lucas explains for those who didn’t know.

    Zay looks at the back of Lucas’ head with wide eyes. ‘’It wasn’t just a little incident. It was true love. But I’m over it now.’’

    Lucas turned to Ryan sharing similar features. THeir lips were pursed, suppressing the urge to burst into laughter.

    Ryan decided to mock Zay as the two gripped the edges of the desk in unison, yelling, ‘’Vanessa!’’

    Lucas laughs along with Ryan once she was finished.

    ‘’Matthews, you’re her father,’’ Maya prompts. ‘’It’s your job to talk her out of this.’’

    ‘’Thomas Edison saw the need for a new kind of light source for the home,’’ Mr. Matthews continues with his lesson. ’’See, people relied on kerosene lanterns, and he tried a lot more than six ways to come up with an electric light without success. You know what he said?’’

    ‘’I have failed!’’

    ‘’Stop it,’’ Ryan scolds Lucas.

    ‘’You can’t stop history, Ry.’’

    Ryan blinked rapidly at him. She honestly had no idea had to respond to that.

‘’I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that will not work,’’ Mr. Matthews quoted.

Farkle nods. ‘’But Edison finally succeeded. That’s why we have light in here.’’

Mr. Matthews pointed at him. ‘’Because he never gave up.’’

Riley perks in her seat. ‘’And neither should I.’’

‘’Cory,’’ Ryan seethes. ‘’What are you doing?’’

Maya shakes her head. ‘’Today had to be the day you talked about Edison?’’

He nods at her. ‘’Yeah, that’s something, isn’t it?’’

‘’Okay, when we were at home, you didn’t want her to do this,’’ She turns to Ryan, pointing at herself and her. ‘’Nobody did.’’

‘’Yeah, because, as her father,I’ve gone through this with her half a dozen times. And it kills me every year.’’

‘’Again, Cory,’’ Ryan repeats. ‘’What are you doing?’’

He shrugs his shoulders. ‘’In this room, I’m your teacher.’’

× × ×

    Maya Hart, Lucas Friar,Ryan Collins Farkle Minkus, and Issiah Babineaux sat close to each other, in that order, on the bench in the gymnasium the next day as they watched Coach Kelly talk to Riley Matthews, the team standing around.

    ‘’You’ve made it to day two.’’

    Riley hummed in satisfaction as her friends began to clap for her, cheering on with encouraging yeah’s.

    Ryan instantly stopped on the spot when Coach Kelly broke her neck to look at the group, her features stern furiously as if she was mad on a daily. ‘’Nyah,’’ She mumbles, holding her hands close to her chest.

    ‘’You brought your own cheering section?’’

    ‘’I’m just here to pick up the pieces,’’ Maya nods along.

    ‘’I’m here because I wanna see this,’’ Lucas explains.

    Farkle shrugs his shoulders. ‘’I’m here because I believe in Riley.’’

    ‘’I’m here because I need to show my cheerleader enemies they have no hold on me,’’ Zay spoke. His agenda was contradicted when Samantha took a step forward, waving at him, ‘’Hi, Zay.’’

    He starts giggling. ‘’You know my name.’’

    ‘’I’m here because my phone’s charging,’’ She looks down at her group of friends and pursed her lips. ‘’But the stuff for Riley’s benefits can be apart of it too.’’

    Coach Kelly walked away from being in the center of her team while speaking, ‘I hold in my hand,’’ She picks up a bell from the ground that just so happen to be next to the little desk that had her white sugar coated donut on it. ‘’A bell. This is the Riley bell.’’

    ‘’I have my own bell,’’ She grins.

    ‘’When you quit, and you will,’’ Coach Kelly places the bell on a stool close by Maya’s end of the bench. ‘’You will ring this bell, and this travesty will be over.’’

    ‘’I will never ring that bell,’’ Riley contradicts.

    ‘’Uh huh,’’ Coach Kelly nods. ‘’Day two, tumbling. This is the day we learn what kind of control you have over your bodies.’’

    Maya rang the bell.

    ‘’Maya,’’ Riley scolds in disbelief.

    ‘’I want you to live.’’ She was shook.

    Coach Kelly glances down at her clipboard. ‘’Alright, ladies, round off, back handspring, yamashida. Stick the landing.’’

    Lucas got up to ring the bell.

    ‘’Lucas!’’

    ‘’Yamashida, man!’’ He exclaims.

    ‘’Alright, ladies, show her how it’s down,’’ Coach Kelly demands.

    A blonde from the group ran and flipped, doing at least two back flips.

    Coach Kelly bops her head. ‘’Fair.’’

    ‘’What?’’ Ryan gaped as the next girl went up. It was the same, Jenkin’s girl from yesterday. She did the same as the blonde, only when she had landed, she lost her balanced a little but composed herself quickly.

    Unfortunately, not quick enough for Coach Kelly to see. She points a finger at her and tauntingly questions, ‘’What was that?’’

She walked in front of her. ‘’Hi, there. Did I see a little something?’’

Her eyes wide in fright, Jenkins shook her head vigorously. ‘’No.’’

‘’You sure, Jenkins? You sure I didn’t see a little-’’

‘’No,’’ She repeats, continuously shaking her head.

‘’Give me your foot.’’

‘’I don’t want to give you my foot,’’ Jenkins declined.

Ryan’s eyes went wide as she watched along with everyone else, Coach Kelly spoke fastly in a different accent. From what she was going to assume was Russian, ending it off by calling her by her last name.

‘’I’m sorry,’’ She whimpers. Jenkins ran back to her group.

‘’Matthews,’’ Coach Kelly calls up.

Farkle rang the bell.

‘’Farkle!’’

‘’Nyet!’’ He fires back in Russian.

Riley smiles at her group of friends as she makes a turn to the small desk Coach Kelly had, smacking her hand against the donut that was lying there, purposely getting the powder on her hands.

Coach Kelly furrows her brows and tilts her head to the side. ‘’What are you doing? That’s my donut!’’

She puts her donut down and walks away from the table.

‘’Tumble,’’ Coach demanded.

Riley ran before she flipped sideways until she made it in front of Coach Kelly. She posed for her, out of breath from those three sideway cartwheels.

‘’Okay,’’ She nods. ‘’You ready for me now, champ?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ She breathes out.

‘’You get two attempts.’’

Riley cranes her neck forward. ‘’That wasn’t twice?’’

‘’Wanna show us what you can do, or you wanna ring that bell?’’ She offered an ultimatum.

Bowing her head, she turned around walked back over to where she started, which was only feets away from being in front of her friends. She lets out a sad, ‘’Goodbye.’’

The group repeated an even sadder, ‘’Goodbye.’’

She turns around and exhales deeply before running straight to Coach Kelly with an aggressive scream.

Lucas turned away, hiding his view behind Maya’s as he covered her eyes. Zay sat on his end, his eyes screwed shut while cringing as Farkle faced the music, all the while Ryan was ringing the bell constantly.

‘’Turn around, turn around!’’ She begs.

× × ×

‘’Jeez, first time I climbed through the window and everybody’s here to see it,’’ Ryan mumbles as she climbs into Riley’s bedroom. Lucas, Farkle, Cory Matthews, Topanga Matthews, Auggie Matthews and Maya stood around while Zay stood close by the window.

She walked further into the room, eyeing the straight line that could have been mistaken for a body under the covers in Riley’s bed.

Pursing her lips, she points a finger at the bed. ‘’Is Riley in bed?’’

‘’Of course it is,’’ Maya slaps her hand down against her thigh. ‘’Don’t you see her?’’

Zay gets up from the bay window and breathes out. ‘’Her sight isn’t the problem.’’ He pulls the covers away, revealing the pillows that arranged to make it look like Riley was in bed.

‘’Ooh,’’ Ryan exclaims. ‘’If I had kids, they would always be getting caught.’’ She turns to Zay and high fives him.

× × ×

    The group was back on that bench in the gymnasium later on that morning in a different order. Lucas sat on one end, followed by Farkle, Zay, Ryan and Maya sitting on the other end.

    ‘’Incredibly, welcome to day three,’’ Coach Kelly introduced.

    ‘’I can’t believe this,’’ Lucas lets out a shaky breath. His leg was bouncing repeatedly. He turns to look at his friends. ‘’How much are you rooting for her right now?’’

    Farkle perks up. ‘’As much as always.’’

    ‘’Guys,’’ Maya scoffs. ‘’You know how this ends. How could we let it get this far?’’

    Zay jerks back. ‘’Don’t you even know your best friend? There’s no stopping her.’’

    ‘’Yes, I know my best friend and I don’t want my best friend to get hurt.’’

    ‘’Most likely she will,’’ Ryan smiled softly. ‘’But, I’m actually proud of her. She made it this  far and never looked back. She’s brave. We need to show her that we are her biggest fans just as she is ours.’’

    ‘’Yeah, we shouldn’t stop her from doing what she wants,’’ Lucas adds on. ‘’We just need to be here when she needs us.’’

    ‘’You’re right,’’ She caves in. ‘’I know you’re right. I just.. I don’t want her to fail.’’

    Ryan rests a hand on top of Maya’s as Farkle reasoned, ‘’And if she does, you and Ryan will be the first she goes to when wants an arm around her.’’

    Maya looked at Ryan mimicked her small smile. ‘’Okay, I’m not going anywhere.’’

    The group then paid attention back to Coach Kelly who was speaking aloud, mostly to Riley. ‘’This is our choreographed routine that we have perfected over all our years together. Newcomer.’’

    Riley took a step closer to her.

    ‘’Have you learned the steps?’’

    ‘’Yes, coach,’’ She responds very loudly.

    ‘’Wow,’’ She mumbles. ‘’I was about to say, I can’t hear ya, but you got me.’’ She walks away and demands from her team. ‘’Okay, places, everybody.’’

    The team got into formation. Coach Kelly started up the music, allowing the cheerleaders. All throughout the performance, though Riley’s actions were cringey, she happened to good for the most part. Or at least better than what Ryan had expected.

    ‘’Okay,’’ Coach kelly cleared her throat, pinning down a piece of paper on his cork board with the name Riley Matthew’s written on it.

    ‘’What?’’ Ryan exclaims, jumping onto her toes. ‘’I want a do over!’’

    Coach Kelly turns around with furrowed brows. ‘’There’s no do overs when it comes to tryouts.’’

    ‘’But I’ve seen her dance and trust me, that wasn’t her worse!’’

    ‘’Ryan,’’ A small voice called her softly. Ryan turns to find Maya holding onto Riley from one side. Her face relax as Riley eyed her back. ‘’I’m really tired.’’

  She flattens her lips into a straight line. ‘’I’m sorry, Riley. I know you worked really hard.’’

Ryan walks up to her and occupies her other side by wrapping an arm around her shoulders while Maya had an arm wrapped around her torso. The group got up and held onto each other with Farkle taking up Ryan’s end before leaving the gymnasium.

× × ×

    Ryan Collins was the first to push through the gymnasium door the following afternoon the next day, with Maya, Lucas, Farkle and Zay following behind in that order as Riley contradicted Coach Kelly. ‘’Just because you say I didn't make the team, doesn't mean I didn't make the team.’’

Coach Kelly nods her head. ‘’Yeah, it does. It's actually the thing that determines who's on the team, and you. Because I say, you're not good enough."

‘’I want to be on the cheerleading team.’’

‘’As what?’’ Coach Kelly furrows her brows. By now, the group was sitting on the bench.

‘’You need 12. What if one of your girls gets hurt? I could be an alternate,’’ Riley attempts to reason.

Coach Kelly turns away from her, proudly stating, ‘’My girls don't get hurt. They're machines.’’

Ryan smirks when the Jenkins girl lifted a leg up, holding onto it as she lets out a small, ‘’Ow.’’

Coach Kelly broke her neck when she looked at her. ‘'Scuse me?’’

‘’Ow,’’ She repeats louder.

‘’Put that one hop little leg back on the ground, Jenkins.’’

Maya and Ryan turned to each other grinning when they saw Samantha do the same. ‘’Ow.’’

Coach Kelly looked back and forth between Samantha and Jenkins ‘’What? Cut it out, Samantha. Jenkins, she didn't even know how to catch you.’’

‘’She hasn't been coached like we have,’’ Jenkins pointed out.

Samantha shrugs her shoulders. ‘’Yeah, maybe if you coached her.’’

‘’Why are you doing this? Why would you encourage her like this?’’

‘’We're cheerleaders.’’

Samantha smiled at Riley. ‘’We know spirit when we see it.’’

Maya gets up and hands Coach Kelly her bell that she just so happened to take. ‘’I think you're gonna need this.’’

Coach Kelly looks down at Riley. ‘’Matthews You finally broke me.’’

Once Coach Kelly rang the bell, the team along with Riley’s achievement. They went in for a group hug until Riley toppled everybody down.

‘’Oh, come on, Riley, it hasn’t even been five minutes.’’

Ryan Collins Outfit #1

Ryan Collins Outfit #2

Ryan Collins Outfit #3

Ryan Collins Outfit #4

authors note; THE TEXAS EPISODES ARE COMING UP, GET PUMPED !!