Group Conflict


The school's field is a busy place. In the middle, where the football field is, the team is busy running drills for both offense and defense. Around the edge of the outer rim of the football field, the track team is running laps. And just off to the side on a slightly smaller field area, Pandora, Sarah, Nina, Kat and the other cheerleaders are running through their routine. Music is playing and the cheerleaders are moving in formation, dancing to the beat and shaking their pom poms along with it. Sarah is standing apart from the rest of them, watching the routine as it unfolds, looking for anything out of place.

"Nici, you're out of sync, speed it up." yells Sarah as she starts to move back and forth in front of her teammates, "Candice you're not stretching high enough. Dora, watch your footing, you're..."

Almost as if on cue, Pandora steps on Kat's foot, causing things to suddenly stop.

"Ow! DAMN IT Dora!" Kat yells.

"Sorry Kat, I didn't..." begins Pandora before being cut off by Kat.

"Of course you didn't... just like you didn't mean to step on it last time. Or on Melissa's before that." Kat says, insulting Pandora for her clumsiness.

"Sorry, I'm still getting used to the routine." insists Pandora.

"Sure you are." says Kat before shoving Pandora, sending her tumbling into one of her teammates, Dani.

"HEY!" Dani yells, shoving Pandora back.

Pandora gets her balance back before she really runs into Kat from the force.

"What the hell are you doing Kat?" asks Dani forcefully as she closes the gap between them with Pandora in the way.

Pandora attempts to keep them at a distance.

"Whatever the hell I want Dani. I'm in charge here." insists Kat.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure Sarah's the one in charge." says Pandora, barely managing t keep them apart, "Sarah, you want to step in here?"

Sarah for her part seems completely uninterested in what's going on.

"Sarah?" Pandora tries again.

"Why should I?" asks Sarah, "I figure if they're going to have a problem with each other it's better to get it out now. That way we'll be united when things get real. Besides, it was your bad feet that made it happen in the first place. If they should be mad at anyone, it should be you."

That makes Kat and Dani stop going for each other, turning their focus to Pandora.

"She's right. What the hell is wrong with you Dora?" says Kat.

"Yeah." agrees Dani.

Pandora looks at Kat and Dani who are now clearly more mad at her than one another. She turns her attention to Sarah.

"Gee, thanks." a sarcastic Pandora says.

Just as Kat and Dani are about to team up against Pandora, the head cheerleader steps in. Sarah puts her hands on their shoulders and a red light flashes in her eyes before it flashes in Kat and Dani's. Sarah takes a deep breath with a smile at the end then lets both of them go. Pandora watches all of this happen in front of her.

"Look, we need to focus on what we're really doing here. Practicing so that we can be the best we can be for the game coming up. We have to be at our best or the team's never going to win anything. Agreed?" explains Sarah.

Kat and Dani look at each other, then to Pandora before responding.

"Agreed." Dani complies, reluctantly.

"Fine." Kat says, begrudgingly.

"Pandora?" asks Sarah.

"Sure." says Pandora.

"Great..." Sarah moves back to her position in front of them, "How about we run it again?"

"How about you not?" a voice asks rhetorically.

Sarah, Pandora and the rest of the team turn towards the voice. They find Amber, head of the drill team, flanked by the rest of her team standing behind them, decked out in their gear.

"What are you doing here Amber?" asks Sarah, clearly annoyed by the interruption.

Amber twirls her baton in her hand.

"I'd think that would be obvious. It's our turn. Get off the field." says Amber forcefully.

Sarah straightens up, trying to look imposing, "We're not done yet."

"You are now. We need to do some run throughs and we don't want you and your mediocre team stinking up our routines." insists Amber.

"Please, your routines haven't been fresh in a year. If anything, you should step down and put me in charge." Sarah says as she moves through her teammates to meet Amber face to face.

"And if I did, no one would ever watch them. They'd be too focused on our team losing a game to care." Amber fires back with Sarah invading her personal space.

They stare each other down.

"Well that wouldn't be much of a change since most of the crowd is so bored they take long ass bathroom breaks during halftime." Sarah suggests with a smirk.

"Why you..." starts Amber only to be cut off suddenly by Sarah's hand on her shoulder.

Just like before, Sarah's eyes glow red for a second and then so do Amber's.

"Look, you want the field? Fine. We're done with it." Sarah says, much to the confusion of Amber and their respective teams.

She turns to Pandora and the rest of the cheerleaders, taking a deep breath with a smile, "Let's go girls. They need it a lot more than we do."

After looking at each other a bit, they head off with Sarah who suddenly walks right through the middle of the drill team as they open up a space for her. Pandora grabs her bag but something catches her eye from the nearby bleachers. She stops and sees Jemma on the bleachers, far enough away that she's out of earshot. Jemma is watching the cheerleaders as they leave, and Pandora in particular. Pandora raises her hand to wave but just as she does, Jemma walks away. This leaves Pandora staring at the space where her friend used to be, confused.

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