Millie~

The car park of Central High School was filled with students, all wearing light and navy blue. Today was Friday, the day of the first big game of the school football season. Everybody was kitted out in their school colours. The football squad were all wearing their team kit, ready for the evening game, and the cheerleaders were all wearing their uniforms. That included me. To say I got a few stares as I slid out of the Aston Martin wearing my new cheerleading uniform was an understatement. To be honest, I couldn't quite believe it myself, but then again, expect the unexpected!

When the sheet had been pinned on the cheerleading noticeboard, Cindy had dragged me there as quickly as she could - she was by far a lot more excited than I think I ever would be. Two after school training sessions later and I just about knew the signature cheer. There was even a ceremonial pom-pom handing out ritual which I was forced to take part in.

I smoothed the front of my short cheer skirt down, thankful for the navy blue shorts underneath, and tried to ignore the gawping looks from other students as I walked past them.

"A guy on the team is having a house party tonight after the game. He told me to invite you and you can invite your cheerleading friends as well," Brent told me as we walked up the steps at the front of school.

I nodded to him in response, "Which guy?" I asked curiously. I didn't really know any of the people on the football team, apart from Brent, Aiden and Nick, of course.

"Jake Marshall," Brent responded, "I think he came from West High, he's pretty good friends with Nick Wright I think," at this I raised an eyebrow, this meant the party would likely be on the West side of the city. Brent saw my skeptical look and continued, "He's the captain this season and I don't really feel like getting on his bad side. He's a cool guy to be fair," I nodded again, shrugging my shoulders. If Brent was going and seemed keen on going, then I suppose it couldn't hurt.

"I'll ask Cindy if she wants to go," I replied as the bell signalling the first lesson of the day rang through the now crowded hall.

"Yeah, and all of your other cheerleading besties," Brent joked as he walked off in the direction of his first period lesson, shooting me a cheeky grin at the same time. I scowled back at him, but laughed as I headed in the opposite direction towards my Geography lesson. Spotting that Cindy already sat in her seat, I walked over and took my usual seat next to her. I was actually really happy that I had a friend outside of my family, it was nice to have a bit of outside perspective on life. Also, since Cindy's outburst at Aiden, he never came near me in the lesson - Cindy quite literally was my saviour.

"The captain of the football team in having a party tonight after the game at his house," I started before the teacher walked into the classroom, "Brent told me he wanted me to invite the cheer squad, so that's you," I finished.

Her bright eyes sparkled and she pulled out her phone quickly, "Oh good, I love a good start of the season party. I'll text the girls now," and she set about texting all of the cheer squad girls. I smiled at her excitement and then the teacher walked in and so the lesson began.

Maths was my final lesson of the day and as I walked in, Mr Ryans was stood at the front of the classroom, waving a piece of paper for everybody to see.

"This is the new seating plan, you will sit in these seats from now on, take them quickly, please, and then we will begin the test," I inwardly groaned. A seating plan and a test in one lesson, I knew I hated this guy for a reason. I peered at the sheet quickly and found my seat, not noticing who was sat by me. I had taken my seat when a tall figure sat down in the seat next to me. Not taking much notice of him, I pulled out my books and sat back in my seat, shooting a glare in the direction of Mr Ryans.

"At least I'm not the only one who hates Ryans," I heard a low mumble come from beside me. I turned to the look at the boy who had been seated next to me. He was pretty tall and wore the football team kit. He was fairly tanned and had blue eyes and light, short brown hair.

"You've got that right," I replied, scowling slightly, but turning and giving the guy a small smile.

"I already know who you are, but I'm Jake Marshall," he said, returning my smile as realisation dawned on me.

"Oh, it's your party tonight," I replied, remembering what Brent had told me earlier. He was from West High and friends with Nick Wright. He didn't seem that bad though, yet anyway. He nodded in response, but I didn't miss the small flash of shock that shot through his eyes. Before he could say anything, Mr Ryans came around with the test sheets and the class descended into silence. I read through the first question and actually knew how to do it. Granted it was the first question but maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

***

The large crowd of blue on the bleachers went crazy as the football team ran out from the changing rooms and onto the pitch. The opposing team, Oak Grove High School, had already run out and were waiting on the pitch. The cheerleaders were stood in a line, creating a tunnel which the players ran through and we waved out navy and light blue and white pom-poms in the air as they ran past us.

Arden shouted at us to all form a line on the sideline of the pitch so that we were ready to cheer on the team. We walked to the side of the pitch as the Central High team formed a huddle in the middle of the pitch. I turned around, looking up at the vast number of people on the bleachers and caught sight of Tom, who was stood with some of his friends, and shot him a smile. He smiled back and was then interrogated by his friends. Turning away laughing slightly, my eyes wandered over the football huddle, only to meet a pair of brown eyes.

He was staring right at me and it definitely was not one of those coincidental looks. I stared right back at him for a moment, my eyes narrowing out of confusion. Somebody in his team must have shouted something because his head snapped away in an instant and he went back to focusing on their team talk.

"Are you okay?" I heard a familiar voice ask. I looked to my side to see Cindy stood next to me, holding her pom-poms over her stomach. I nodded in reply and gave her a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Am I doing alright?" I asked her over the noise of the band playing, the chattering crowd and the two teams shouting.

"You're doing brilliantly!" she exclaimed, her bright eyes glimmering with excitement, "This is my favourite part," she began, "Right as they kick off, we start our cheer, the 'Who are we...' one" she trailed off after I had understood which chant she meant.

"Come one girls, get ready," Arden shouted to all of us as we watched the teams take their starting positions on the field. The tension grew as the crowd went quiet before the whistle blew and the game began. We started our routine and the crowd went crazy, cheering on each team.

The game was surprisingly a very exciting one, with the Central High team winning by a landslide. Nick Wright was, annoyingly, the star player of the match, but Brent, who was playing at running back, managed to score a touchdown. The whole team were ecstatic about their first game of the season ending in a victory and the whole crowd was chanting along with us cheerleaders at the end of the game. We were all in the changing room after the match had ended but I was in no rush to leave because I knew Brent would take his time celebrating with all of his friends.

"Hey, Millie," Cindy spoke up, "We're all going to go and get ready at Gisele's house, do you want to come with us?"

All of the girls were looking at me and waiting for an answer. Other than the fact that all of my clothes were at home so I had nothing to get ready into, I wasn't sure about getting ready with a bunch of girls I hardly knew; added to which they were a bunch of girls who judged me every day. Cindy was the only one I trusted. However, at home, I would be getting ready on my own, since Izzy was at college. There would be no pre-drinking and to be honest it would all be a little dull.

"Sure," I began, "But I don't have any of my stuff," I finished.

"Don't worry, Arden and I are driving by our houses on the way to get our things, we could stop by at yours too," Cindy replied, smiling at me hopefully. I glanced at all of the other girls and for the most part, they seemed pretty positive about me getting ready with them.

"Okay then, I'll text Brent," I confirmed, smiling, and was met with squeals of excitement from all, except Arden, who had been studying her nails for the whole time, only looking up when Cindy had mentioned her. I zoned out their loud conversations, which were on the topics of 'Brent scored a touchdown, didn't he' and 'Nick Wright looked so hot in his uniform', as well as many other comments on hot boys, etc. I texted Brent to tell him what I was going to do and he replied quickly, saying he was going to go with his football friends anyway and that he would see me at the party.

Soon enough, I was sat in Cindy's car with Arden and we were on our way to the east side of the city.

"Do you both live in East Side?" I asked them as we drove through the dark streets. They both nodded and mumbled 'yes' in response, and soon we pulled up in front of a large house, with a big garden at the front and a path that went up to the door. Before I could ask who lived here, Arden opened the car door and got out, saying she would be back in five minutes.

Soon, Arden was back in the car and we set off again. We pulled up at Cindy's house and she told us to wait in the car because she only had to grab her bag. Then, just like that, I was left alone with Arden, and I had this feeling that Arden wasn't my biggest fan. It was about to turn into a major awkward silence but luckily Cindy jumped back into the car, throwing her bag into the back.

"And now for Millie," she exclaimed. I directed her to my house and put in the code to open up the gates. We drove up the drive and I could tell the two girls were eyeing up my house.

"I have to get my stuff together so do you want to come inside?" I asked them. They were about to reply when a black Maserati drove up behind us before parking in front of the steps.

"Err, no, we'll just stay here," Arden answered, as they eyed the sleek car. I nodded to them as Jace and Rob, both wearing black suits, got out of the Maserati.

"Hey, look what the cat dragged in," Rob remarked as I walked up to them, "They let you on the cheer team?!!" he exclaimed, noticing my uniform. I cocked my head to one side and placed my hand on my hip, waiting for the teasing comment.

"You've got about as much cheer as Eeyore!!" he finished. Poor Rob, he never was very talented when it came to parring people off.

"Get wrecked, Mill," Jace added, chuckling as Rob laughed. We all walked into the house, as Rob and Jace did impressions of me cheering - this included a bored, tired voice saying 'Go Central' and waving pom-poms slowly.

"Okay, get out of my way, idiots, I'm in a rush!" I said, flicking my hair over the shoulder, pretending to be pretentious. I could hear them laughing as I jogged up the staircase. Quickly I grabbed the things I would need before running back to the car.

When I got back in the car and we were driving away, Arden asked, "Were those your brothers?"

"One them is," I began, "Jace is the one with dark brown hair, pretty much the same colour as mine. Rob is the other one, my cousin. He's slightly shorter with lighter hair," they both nodded in response and then Cindy turned the music up as Gecko came on the radio.

We arrived at Gisele's house, a large town house on the West Side of the city. I couldn't say I had been to West Side of the city too many times, but I'd been there enough to know where everything was, and I believe this area was a pretty wealthy one. All of the girls were already getting ready in Gisele's bedroom and en suite. There was music playing and a lot of squealing going on. Clothes were flying around the room and people were doing each others makeup.

"Hey," Gisele called out when she saw us, walking over and giving us all a hug. At them same time, she handed each of us a red coloured cocktail, "Cranberry and vodka, my specialty drink," she confirmed, "Enjoy girls," she finished, winking.

"Okay, what is everybody wearing?!" Cindy groaned, exasperated, as she threw her bag down on the bed. The chatter grew after this as everybody discussed what they were wearing.

"Millie, what are you going to wear?" she asked turning to me. Placing my bag next to hers on the bed, I pulled out a pair of black, velvet high-waisted shorts with lace on the bottom.

"Probably these, and then my black long sleeved crop top," I began, pulling that out of my bag as well, "But I'm not sure about shoes," I finished, taking a sip of my drink as I contemplated. Despite its bright colouring, it was actually really tasty and I smiled.

"What shoes is everybody wearing?" Cindy called out across the room.

"Probably heels," numerous girls responded, so I pulled out my two shoe options; my pair of black high heeled ankle boots and my black strappy platform heels.

"Ooh, the strappy ones!" a girl said excitedly over my shoulder. I looked around to see Erica, a bright blonde haired girl on my team. Cindy nodded excitedly in agreement and I smiled. Walking into the spacious bathroom, I quickly changed into the shorts and top before going back out into the room of girls. I was met by squeals of excitement was I walked into the room.

There were many girls crowding around all of the many mirrors in Gisele's room. I looked at myself in the mirror, and took a makeup wipe so that I could remove the blue eyeshadow and star on my cheek from cheerleading. I quickly applied some more foundation, powder and contour, before creating a smokey eye look that would match my all black outfit. I had straightened my hair before tying it up into a ponytail for the game, so I took out the ponytail holder and left it straight, fluffing up my roots to get more volume.

"Oh my gosh, your makeup is amazing! Please could you do my eyeshadow?" Erica complimented and asked.

"Of course," I said, knowing that I had nothing more to do and seeing as some girls hadn't even changed we still had a lot of time until we were leaving. I set about doing her eye makeup, and smiled at the finished look. Fortunately, she said she loved it, and gave me a hug which I gladly returned. Maybe these cheerleaders weren't the snobby bitches I had always thought they were.

***

The music was turned up loud as we all walked into Jake's house, and I'm not going to lie, we were channeling major #squadgoals as we walked in. I saw lots of the football team stood around as walked in. Everybody who knew each other greeted one another and everybody settled into the party. Catching sight of Brent, I went over to him, giving him a hug.

"Well done cuz, you did really well!" I congratulated him, remembering his touchdown from earlier.

"Thanks Millie," he said, releasing me from the hug. I noticed he was stood with two other guys. They were both tall, about the same height as Brent. One had blonde short hair and was wearing a snapback, the other had grey eyes and short black hair and was wearing a surfer necklace. I didn't recognise them so they must have come from Central or West Side High.

"This is Finn and Pax, guys this is Millie," Brent said, motioning first to the blonde boy and then to the black haired boy. I nodded, shooting them a smirky smile, not wanting to let my appearance down simply because I had turned cheerleader.

"It was the shock of the century seeing you cheering on the sidelines," the blonde boy, Finn, said with a cheeky grin on his face. The corners of my mouth tugged up into more of a smile.

"It was a shock for me too," I replied, to which he laughed. At that moment, a heavy arm slung itself around my shoulders.

"Haven't spoken to you in a while, sugar," Aiden obnoxiously drawled in my ear. He was so close to me I could smell his stale beer breath. Turning my nose up, I elbowed him away from me.

"Don't touch me, Aiden" I said, moving away from him, but turning my shoulders so that I was stood facing him square on.

"Sugar, c'mon" he groaned. Why was he so much more drunk than all of the other boys? He took a slightly stumbling step towards me and was about to fall on me, when somebody slammed their hand onto his chest to steady him.

"Do as she asks and stay the fuck away from her, Wall, or you're out," Jake growled at Aiden, causing him to sober up slightly. I folded my arms over my chest, raising an eyebrow at Jake's dramatic entrance. By this time, everybody in the vicinity had stopped what they were doing to watch the show. In response to Jake's threat, Aiden stuck his hands up above his head and half stumbled, half stalked out of the room.

"Are you alright?" Jake asked, turning back towards me. I nodded in response, smiling slightly, but still shocked about the fact that he had intervened.

"I'm fine, I'm used to it. He just doesn't learn, hey Brent?" I replied, shooting Brent a knowing look.

"Nope, he's got issues," Brent added, shaking his head as he thought about how desperate Aiden always has been.

"Yeah, but the question is, why is he more drunk than everybody else?" I questioned, turning to Brent, Finn and Pax, who all exchanged smirky looks. As I suspected, I thought, folding my arms across my chest and smirking. Jake, who was still stood next to us, turned to me.

"Do you want to go and get a drink?" he asked.

"Sure," I replied, shrugging my shoulders. Jake got me a drink, but more people turned up so he went to see them. With the alcohol now coursing through my system, I explored Jake's house. Going upstairs, I drifted along the people filled corridors. Rounding a corner, I saw two people making out with each other and if my calculations were correct, it was indeed Brent.

"Oh, shit" I mumbled under my breath. There was a door on my right which I quickly pushed open and stumbled into the room. Shutting the door quickly but quietly behind me, I hovered by the door for a few seconds, listening to hear whether they would move away. Then I heard something that would shock me even more.

"What are you doing in here?"

***

Heey people!! Long time no post!!!

My exams are finished now, so I'm free to write as I please, which means I'm going to try and finish this book now!! XD

Hope you enjoy!!

Alice XD