𓆩♡𓆪

𝐈𝐓 𝐈𝐒 𝑾𝑨𝒀  𝐓𝐎𝐎 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒, Lizzie thought to herself as she crossed the school parking lot at a shocking 6:30 in the morning. There was a basketball pep rally before school, and Lizzie was going to ask to join the cheer team, since they'd be there.

There were just a couple of problems though. Number one, tryouts were last October, and the team had been working together for months now. And number two, Lizzie had never even shaken a pom pom before, let alone knew any cheers or stunts.

Lizzie was very aware of these issues, she had even written them down on in a page on her notebook in just last night when making a pros and cons list. Luckily, Lizzie had come up with counter arguments for both of them.

One, there were only twelve people on the Hawkins High Cheer Team, and that was with no cuts made last semester. If she talked with the coach about how passionately she felt about wanting to be on the team, Lizzie was sure that she could convince her to let her at least try, even if it's just to have more bodies.

And two, Lizzie was a fast learner. She'd even be willing to take private lessons or stay after school to work on her cheers if need be.

For the first time in her life, Lizzie Harrington wasn't backing away from a challenge. In fact, she was walking into this one head on, just like she was walking into the gymnasium, on a mission.

Lizzie made a beeline for the cheer team. The girls were getting their stuff ready for their routine today and chatting in the corner of the room. Lizzie felt her mouth grow dry and palms clammy as she stopped in front of the cheer captain, Chrissy Cunningham.

"Um, Chrissy?" Lizzie's voice was meek, and suddenly she felt a lot less confident. But she pushed onwards through the fear.

The bright eyed blond girl faced her. "What's up?"

She seemed friendly enough. Her nerves calming slightly, Lizzie took a deep breath before saying, "I want to join the team."

Chrissy kept the kind smile on her face, but her eyes grew confused. "I'm sorry, but tryouts were in October."

"I know." Lizzie started to fidget with her jacket. "I just was thinking, and I realized that I had always wanted to tryout but just never did it because I was too scared. And it's my senior year, my last chance to go for it. So, yeah, I know they were last year, but I was just hoping that an exception could be made."

Chrissy opened her mouth but another girl stepped forward and cut her off. "She already said no, so, get out of here, Whore-ington."

Lizzie winced at the familar taunting nickname. All the girls in her grade have been calling her Lizzie Whore-ington since the eighth grade. Lizzie had to hand it too them however, it was a clever play on words. Annoying and untrue, but clever.

Chrissy shot the mean brunette a look. "C'mon, Rachel." She frowned. "Don't call her that."

Lizzie's heart softened as Chrissy defended her, but was immediately shunned once again by Rachel.

"Why? It's the truth." Rachel scoffed. "I'm just saying it how it is. She'll sleep with anything that moves. So watch out Chriss, she might be a lesbian too." She said the last word like it was a swear.

Lizzie's eyes fell to the floor, feeling tears prick at the corners of them. I never should've done this, I should've just stayed in my bubble.

She turned to leave, her heart having sunk all the way down to her converse, but Chrissy grabbed her arm. Lizzie turned back to look at her.

Without looking at Rachel, Chrissy spoke to her, "Rach, why don't you go fill up our water bottles?"

"That's not my job-" Rachel started, but Chrissy subtly kicked her in the shin, causing the brunette to grimace and then scurry off to do as she was told.

Chrissy dropped Lizzie's arm and sighed. "I'm really sorry about her. I don't know why all the girls talk about you like that. And to your face, none the less."

"I appreciate you sticking up for me." Lizzie said shyly. "It means a lot."

This made Chrissy smile. "I think you should be given a chance to prove yourself on this team. I can tell that it matters to you by how you were talking about it. We need that kind of drive on the team. That is, if you even still want to join, with Rach and all."

Even though Rachel's nasty comments did scare Lizzie, and her initial reaction was to run out of the gym all the way back to her house and shut herself in her bedroom, Lizzie still nodded at Chrissy. "Yeah, that'd be nice."

"It would." Chrissy agreed. "Why don't you stay and watch our routine today, just get a feel for what you'll be expected to do?"

"Okay, I will." Lizzie nodded quickly, feeling her nerves start to melt away at Chrissy welcoming words.

"Perfect!" She beamed. "Oh! And practice tomorrow is at 4."

"Wait-" Lizzie spoke up. "I've never cheered before, I don't know how I'd do at a practice." There was the fear once again.

"Good point!" Chrissy thought for a moment. "How about this, I'll give you a one on one lesson tomorrow, say, around 6 o'clock. Does that work?"

"That works." Lizzie nodded appreciatively.

"Great." Chrissy glanced over Lizzie's shoulder and saw the crowd that was starting to enter and gather in the gym. "I'll see you then."

"See you." Lizzie gave a little wave, which Chrissy returned, and then they both turned away and walked off in opposite directions.

Lizzie's spirits were high, feeling really satisfied with how that chat with Chrissy went. But if course, her happiness was stomped on once again when she spotted Steve coming into the gym.

They locked eyes, and Steve motioned for his date, some random girl that he had brought with him, to stay put. Then, he approached Lizzie, looking confused.

Lizzie frowned. She didn't like when people saw them together, it only pushed the stereotypes further on her when they go to all the same things and events.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. "I thought you hated sports."

"I do." Lizzie replied. "I was just talking with Chrissy about joining the cheer team. Besides, this whole pep rally thing is mandatory isn't it?"

"First of all, I think it's called a cheer squad," Steve replied, and Lizzie rolled her eyes at him. He always had to be right, didn't he?

He went on, "Second of all, since when do you like cheer? And yeah, it's mandatory but I figured you'd just skip it anyways and sleep in or something."

"I've liked cheer for years, Steve." Lizzie sighed. "But nobody ever asks me about me so why would anyone know that?"

Steve looked visibly hurt at this. "Liz, I know I used to be a jerk, and Mom and Dad aren't the best either but I'm really trying here. I want you to talk about things with me. I would've loved to hear about how you wanted to do cheer. Why didn't you try out in the fall?"

Lizzie felt herself tense up, and she wanted to lie or just mumble 'I don't know' under her breath, just get away from this conversation before more people saw and associated them together. But, since she was on a roll with pushing her comfort zone today, she forced herself to explain.

"All the kids in my grade aren't the nicest, and they love to assume. What they assume about me is that I'm exactly like you," While she was being brave and finally opening up to her brother, Lizzie couldn't look him in the eyes, instead opting to stare at the floor as she spoke.

"So, I thought that if I did anything sporty or even remotely similar to you, that would only push the narrative. But now, as I'm about to graduate, I realized that because of this way of thinking, I had missed out on so many things that I wanted to do, just because I cared too much about what people thought of me. I don't want to do that anymore."

Steve gave her a teasing smile, "While I'm proud of you for saying that, I find it hard to believe that you, Lizzie 'I hate change' Harrington, came to this conclusion on her own. I love you, but you're really stubborn."

Lizzie's heart swelled at his kind words. "Maybe I talked with somebody who changed my mind." She said with a sly smile.

"Does this certain somebody happen to be a 'he'?" Steve wiggled his eyebrows at her and Lizzie giggled.

"Not all of us are desperate to be in a relationship, Steve." She said sassily. "And desperately failing at that."

Steve gawked at her, mockingly offended. "I'm not failing, look, I brought a date today! She's right over the-"

Both of the Harringtons looked over to where his date had been standing, only to see that she was currently chatting with another guy whilst twirling her hair.

Steve's voice trailed off and Lizzie scoffed. "You were saying?"

"Whatever." Steve shook his head. "I'm glad your making friends, Liz. You deserve it."

Steve walked away after saying this, and left Lizzie standing in the gym, thinking over their conversation. She was lost in her own world, smiling softly to herself, feeling really happy with her conversations and progress to get out of her comfort zone today, when suddenly, a loud whistle blew.

The varsity boys basketball team ran out of the locker room and the crowd cheered loudly. Lizzie scurried off of the court to get out of the way, and found a seat in the corner by herself.

Hey, I'm making strides but I'm stil never gonna sit next to a complete stanger. That's one thing about me that will never change.

As she watched the cheer squad do their routine, trying to take mental notes on their form and their moves, Lizzie found her mind drifting off to thinking about Eddie. She thought about how much he has made her think about and reconsider in the short period of time they have known each other.

She couldn't wait to see him again.

𓆩♡𓆪

Later that day, during lunch break, Lizzie squeezed her food tray between her hands. She was glancing around the whole cafeteria, wondering what she should do.

Option one; go outside and eat alone under a tree like she did most days, or sit with-

"Hey, Lizzie!"

She snapped her head towards the basketball table, where Chrissy was sitting, with her boyfriend, Jason, and the rest of the basketball team. She was calling yo her. "Come here!" She patted the empty seat to her right. "Sit with me!"

Lizzie took a deep breath before moving across the cafeteria over to Chrissy. She tried not to make eye contact as she passed Eddie at his table with his D&D club.

Lizzie knew how much Eddie hated the popular crowd, so maybe if she kept her head down he wouldn't see her. It was unlikely, but worth a shot.

Lizzie slid onto the bench beside Chrissy, setting her tray in front of her. She forced a smile at the blond, feeling somebody staring at the back of her head, and she feared that it was Eddie.

She had just befriended him, she didn't want this to ruin things between them. Eddie was the one who told her to go for her cheerleading dreams but he probably didn't think that she'd start hanging out with them. Lizzie hoped he didn't think she was abandoning him or something.

"What did you think about the pep rally?" Chrissy asked her, popping a baby carrot into her mouth.

"Yeah, I liked it, it was fun." Lizzie nodded, trying to be polite, even though she remembered how Jason had brought up people that had passed in a tragic mall fire to get people excited for a high school basketball game. But yeah, besides that it was great.

Lizzie went on, "I really like the routine that you did. It was really impressive, especially when you thrown into the air and then caught it was-"

She was interrupted but a familiar voice coming from behind. She slowly turned to face Eddie, who was standing on top of his table.

"-as long as your into band. Or science." Eddie's voice was mocking and he looked to each table as he referred to them. "Or parties."

Now Eddie faced the basketball table, and made eye contact with Lizzie. "Or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets!"

Jason pushed himself up from the table angrily. "You want something freak?"

Eddie held his hands against his temples, making the sign for devil horns with his fingers. He stuck his tongue out at them tauntingly.

"Prick." Jason muttered.

Eddie smirked, keeping his eyes on Lizzie and she dropped her own gaze to the floor, feeling uncomfortable.

"He's so weird." Chrissy said distastefully.

"Yeah, weird." Lizzie murmured, slowly looking up from the floor.

Chrissy shrugged the whole Eddie situation off, instead turning to Jason and trying calm him down. Lizzie peeked over her shoulder at Eddie's table, catching those brown eyes once again.

"Meet me under the bleachers after school," Lizzie mouthed to him.

Eddie looked shocked at her upfrontness for a moment, eyes wide as he just stared back at her.

"I need to talk to you." She mouthed again.

This time, Eddie got the message and nodded. Lizzie faced forward in her seat and went back to chatting with Chrissy and the boys, but she was unable to shake her thoughts from being about Eddie.

𓆩♡𓆪

Lizzie was surprised to see that Eddie was waiting for her, already out by the soccer feild bleachers. She had assumed that she'd get there first.

"Did you sprint here or something?" Lizzie joked.

Eddie shook his head. "I skipped last period actually."

"No wonder you can't graduate." Lizzie smiled, making sure he knew she was joking.

Eddie's jaw dropped and he scoffed at her. "Unbelievable." A smile grew on his face. "You grow meaner every time we talk, Harrington."

"Okay," Lizzie shrugged, her smile faltering as she remembered why she had told him to meet up with her. "I feel like you deserve it after this morning."

"Are you mad about that?" Eddie was shocked.

"You embarrassed me, Eddie." Lizzie hugged herself, digging her nails into the back of her forearm, trying to keep warm against the crisp spring air.

"I wasn't even talking to you," He replied.

"Yes, you were." Lizzie was getting frustrated now. "You literally stared at me the whole time you were talking. You saw me sit with them and got mad and caused a scene."

"Not everything is about you." Eddie snapped.

"No, it's not. But this is!" Lizzie shot back, uncrossing her arms to appear more confident. "Admit it!"

Eddie looked at the ground for a moment and Lizzie took her chance to catch her breath. When he glanced up at her through his eyebrows, he was wearing a devilish smile.

"Fine," he admitted. "I was trying get your attention, cause you didn't look at me when you walked in. I thought you were ditching me or something."

Lizzie sighed, all of her anger leaving her body. "I was sitting with Chrissy because I joined the cheer squad. And I would never ditch you, Eddie."

"You got on the squad?!" Eddie's face lit up. "Congratulations, that's really awesome!"

A smile overtook Lizzie's face. "Thanks," she suddenly felt shy. She gathered herself, forcing her next words to sound confident. "I meant what I said."

"About?" Eddie wasn't sure what she was referring to.

"About never ditching you." Lizzie's voice was quiet now, and she spoke meaningfully. "You really mean a lot to me. I've only known you for a couple of days and in that time you've somehow managed to convince me to try new things and change the way that I think about my life. It's crazy, I feel like we've been friends forever."

"Friends..." Eddie murmured. "Right, yeah." He shook his head at himself lightly. "Well, you've taught me some things as well."

"And what's that?" Lizzie smirked.

"Not to judge a book by it's cover." Eddie shrugged. "And that some people are more complex than they seem, they have layers to them."

Lizzie's eyes twinkled as Eddie went on, "Sometimes I feel like my life sucks and nobody understands me. Nobody has it as hard as me and everyone is better off. Since talking to you, I'm starting to think that maybe we've all got shit that we deal with, not just me."

"Who's sounding selfish now?" Lizzie joked with him.

"Touché."

Lizzie could've sworn that she saw Eddie glance at her lips, but the movement was so swift that she couldn't be sure. And before she could think he was moving away from her and grabbing his satchel from the ground.

"Anyways, I, uh," He stuttered as he started to walk away. "I have a really big D&D campaign tonight so I have to set it all up. We're down a player, any chance you'd like to join the club?"

Lizzie giggled. "I don't think I'm out of my comfort zone enough for that yet."

"Fair enough." Eddie nodded. "See you tomorrow."

Lizzie waved but he didn't see because he had turned his back to her and fast walked off the field. Lizzie stood there, feeling confused.

Did he really look at her lips or did she imagine it?

𓆩♡𓆪

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