CHAPTER SIXTEEN, air leo

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Emilia had been watching Leo and Chase test out the high top sneakers invention to help Leo get better at basketball when Bree had dragged her upstairs to watch her practice cheerleading.

"Ready! Okay!" Bree called out, with cheer poms poms in each of her hands. "We're dynamite! We're dynamite! We're tick-tick-tick-tick boom! Dynamite! We're boom! Dynamite! Whoo!"

Emilia smiled about to applaud the girl when Adam suddenly ran in with panting breaths. He abrupted to a stop, sighing in relief. "Bree, you scared me! I thought you blew up!"

Bree held out her pom-poms as she said. "No, I was practicing my cheer." Adam nudged her before saying. "Oh, you mean. Tick-tick-tick-tick boom! We're dynamite! We're boom! Also, what is boom dynamite? I'm all excited and I don't even know what it is!"

"Adam, that's the beauty of cheerleading. You don't have to think." Bree explained, making Emilia gasp as she looked at Adam before calling out. "Then that's perfect for you!"

Adam smiled. "I cannot wait for tryouts." He went to walk away but Bree stopped him. "Wait, you're trying out?"

"Duh, you just saw my mad tick-boom-pow skills." Adam said, like it was obvious. He kicked the air while shouting out. "Pow!" He shrugged his shoulders with a smile. "That's the 'Pow' part."

Bree furrowed her brows. "You can't try out for cheerleading. That's my thing. And besides, there's only one spot open on the squad, and you do not wanna compete against me."

"Yes, I do. See, cheerleading is one of the few sports that isn't competitive enough to raise my adrenaline and make me glitch out. So, primp your pompoms, girly. 'Cause I'm about to... Be aggressive! Be-e aggressive!" Adam chuckled before continuing. "Again, I'm all excited and I don't even know why!" He threw the pompoms at Bree before walking out.

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After witnessing Leo join the basketball match, Emilia went to the gym hall to watch Bree in support, and also to make sure she wasn't taking any bullshit from Stephanie. Bree and Adam were talking when she finally gave up and told him. "Okay, fine. I'll think of a number between one and five and if you guess it right, you can try out before me."

Adam hummed before guessing. "Four."

Bree smiled. "Nope, you lose." She walked away from him and towards Emilia as Adam questioned. "How do you always win that game?"

Stephanie walked to the front of the table as she announced. "Next, we have Riley, Bella, Olive, Siri, and Tommy." Walking in front of the people who are trying out, starting from her right, she said bitterly. "Uh, that's a no. No. Never. Nice try. You might wanna think about Tennis."

"You might wanna think about keeping your mouth shut." Emilia grumbled to herself, already fed up with Stephanie's attitude as she fake smiled to the people. "Bye! Thanks for coming!"

"Next we have Adam and Bree." Stephanie said, reading off her clipboard before she turned to the other cheerleaders with a sigh. "Well, they got two points for lame names." She turned back to face the two siblings before telling them. "And cheer."

"We're dynamite! We're dynamite! We're tick-tick-tick—" Adam and Bree cheered, with the latter having pompoms in her hands until Stephanie stopped them. "Okay, Okay, I've heard enough." She flicked her eyes over to Bree before saying. "Better luck next year." She moved to stand in front of Adam before smiling. "And welcome to the squad!"

Emilia widened her eyes, watching as Adam went for a hug but Stephanie stopped him. It wasn't that Adam was terrible, she was just shocked that Bree didn't get it. "How is that possible?!" Bree questioned, furrowing her brows in confusion as she continued. "He spent all morning wearing my pompoms as a wig!"

"Oh, not a wig!" Adam countered before leaning closer to Bree with a whisper. "Secret Agent Disguise." Emilia rolled her eyes as Stephanie explained. "We need someone to catch us when we dismantle the pyramid. There have been a few problems." She looked behind her, staring at the cheerleader with a strap around her neck before looking back at the Davenport siblings. "It's ironic 'cause she's a total pain in the neck. See you at rehearsal, him, not you."

Emilia walked towards Bree, grabbing her arm as she side eyed Stephanie. "And you're a total bitch. Toddles!" She rolled her eyes as she pulled Bree out the room, who sent her a grateful smile.

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"We have a major problem." Chase panicked as he ran into the gym with Emilia stood behind him, throwing one of her arms up to gesture to the scene in front of them. "Yeah, Leo's doing the basketball match." She scoffed, getting a look from her friend.

"Trent stole your sneakers." Chase notified Leo who panicked as soon as he saw the boy himself showing the sneakers off to everyone. "No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

Chase placed his hand on Leo's shoulder. "Let's look at the bright side." He tried to reassure the boy who looked at him in question. "What's the bright side?"

"He is gonna kick your butt much faster now."

Janelle approached them, looking over at Leo as she told him. "Alright, thirty seconds until game time. Trent's got first ball."

"Trent is wearing my sneakers." Leo repeated to Chase and Emilia once Janelle had walked away from them. "What am I supposed to do?!"

"Here's an answer. Run. Run far, far away." The Hunter girl advised with the shrug of her shoulders.

Chase nodded in agreement. "Cry like a baby and hope for sympathy. Fake a cramp!"

Leo looked at them with furrowed brows before asking. "Is that all you've got? Chase, where's that unattractive light-bulb face when I need it?"

Emilia raised a brow, watching Chase show his idea face, making her crack a smile. That was definitely not unattractive. "Oh, there it is!" Leo grimned, pointing towards the boy who looked at him before saying. "We'll be right back. Stall."

"Wait, we?!" Emilia exclaimed before she was pulled out the gym hall by Chase.

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After Chase got what he needed from the house, him and Emilia arrived back into the gym hall with the girl on his back, before Emilia dropped down to the floor.

"Where have you been? I tried stalling, but I ran out of injuries to fake." Leo explained once he saw Chase and Emilia arrive, who furrowed their brows at his comment.

Chase then went to explain. "The compound in the sneakers is highly susceptible to electron beams. So, we ran home and got these electron-beam generators from the lab." The boy held up the devices for Leo to examine. "And those will mess up the shoes?" Leo asked.

Emilia hummed, nodding in response as Chase said. "Say hello to 'attract' and 'repel'. I'll make Trent dance like a puppet. If I were less mature, I'd evil laugh." Leo nodded before looking back at Chase who evil laughed.

Leo approached the centre of the court as Janelle announced. "Okay, first player to score 11 points wins the second game. Go!" She blew the whistle before moving away. The game had started and because of the sneakers, Trent very easily made it jumped up high and dunked the basketball into the hoop.

"Oh! Did you see my hang time on that one?! I'm even greater than I thought!" Trent bragged, making Emilia roll her eyes before trying to hold in her laughter when Trent started dancing, due to the electron-beam generators. Leo grabbed the ball and used this as his chance to try and score but he failed, as it missed the hoop and rolled back into Trent's arms who scoffed. "Nice try."

Without another word, Chase made him start dancing again making Emilia laugh. "What is this? What is this magic?" Trent shouted, making Emilia laugh more. Chase's eyes danced over to the girl beside him with a bright smile, happy that he was making her laugh.

Adam stood up, looking at Trent with an angered expression before saying. "Hey, you're not a cheerleader! Quit stealing our boom-pow!"

"Hey! Stop laughing at me! I'm supposed to laugh at you!" Trent yelled, looking over at Leo who's face dropped when he noticed Janelle's face. "What is this?!" Trent continued to ask, when Janelle approached Chase and Emilia with a look of annoyance. She stared at Chase who pulled back the electron beam generators when she asked. "What are you doing?"

Emilia glanced at Chase before looking back at Janelle with her excuse. "He is... cheering, Duh!"

The boy nodded and span one of the devices. "Go, Leo." Janelle looked at them in disbelief before looking towards the court as Trent pulled the sneakers off and cried. "I want my old shoes back!"

He ran out the room, with Janelle saying. "Okay, since Trent left the court, I guess game two goes to Leo." Everyone clapped for the boy, making him smile. "That's right. Leo, me, winner! Small'e the new tall, y'all! Bam!"

While Leo sat down to take a break, the cheerleaders all ran in holding their pompoms in the air. "Move back! I'm in front!" Stephanie ordered the other cheerleaders. "Ready! Okay!"

"We're dynamite! We're dynamite! We're tick-tick-tick-tick boom! Dynamite!"

"Cheer bomb!" Bree and Adam yelled over them, making Emilia smile knowing they planned this when Bree came in doing cartwheels with super speed as Adam questioned. "Oh, Stephanie, can you do that? No, I didn't think so!"

"Ready! Okay! Ooh, what's that? What do I see? Bree cheers better than Stephanie! Hold up there! Not so fast! Stephanie's a thing of the past! Better call your mom! It's a cheer bomb! Huh! Ring, ring! Hello? Oh, it's your mom! Hey there, mom! It's a cheer bomb! Whoa... cheer bomb!"

Everyone's eyes widened in shock as Adam got too excited and accidentally glitched, using his plasma grenades, causing some of the rubble from the ceiling to drop to the floor.

"Yeah, that's right. Special effects. When we say 'boom'! We mean boom!" Bree lied, before Adam chimed in. "Yeah, and when we say 'brunch', we mean a delicious combination of breakfast and lunch!" Everyone clapped for them as Stephanie and the cheerleaders stormed off, making them smile.

Janelle approached Leo who sat beside Chase and Emilia on the bench before asking. "Did you have anything to do with that little display of dancing with the jocks?"

"What makes you think that I would be responsible for giving Trent his comeuppance for always picking on smaller, smarter, cuter people?" Leo questioned before Chase decided to chime in. "Yeah, not Leo. Nope." He laughed evilly making Leo whack his stomach.

"You're right, it's crazy to think the guy with the inventor dad and genius brother would somehow use electron beams to manipulate Trent's shoes so you'd win." Janelle theorised, before Leo told the girl. "Don't be ridiculous."

"They're actually our shoes. Trent stole them from Chase." Emilia awkwardly chimed in, before Janelle dropped the sneakers onto the floor, making them bounce off high enough. Leo followed the shoes before humming. "Huh. Will you look at that."

Chase awkwardly smiled, slapping Leo on the back before saying. "Good luck, buddy." Janelle pulled Leo off the bench before telling him. "Leo, you know why I can't stand Trent? Because all he does is make people look bad. And now you're doing the same exact thing."

Leo sighed. "I guess there's only one thing left to do."

Chase nodded. "Yeah, I agree."

"Get out there and lose fair and square." Leo suggested, making Chase and Emilia look at him with wide eyes.

"What?! No! That's a terrible idea! I was gonna say slip out the back door." Chase told Leo who shook his head before walking towards Janelle and Trent.

"Okay, let's finish this thing." Leo announced as Emilia and Chase ran off to get the sneakers back. The Dooley boy looked over at Janelle with a smile. "And this time, you're getting the real Leo."

"Okay." Janelle nodded before passing the ball over to Trent. "First one to eleven wins. Good luck, Leo."

"Good luck, Leo." Trent mocked the Dooley boy before Janelle blew the whistle to start the game as she moved off the court.

Leo moved in front of Trent who bounced the ball and spun around him before throwing the ball into the hoop making the shot. As the game continued, Trent kept on shooting the ball into the hoop successfully, making the crowd groan every time.

"Come on, Leo. Don't give up." Janelle encouraged him, before chanting his name, along with the rest of the crowd.

Trent started dribbling the ball and as he went to move to his left, Leo grabbed the ball from his hands and turned around to face the hoop before jumping up, throwing the ball to the hoop, it bounced on the ring and spun around on the edge before falling in, making the crowd jump up and cheer for him.

Emilia smiled proudly before engulfing Chase into a hug who stood beside her, wrapping his arms around her waist before pulling away, both wearing smiles on their faces.

"Yes! I did it!" Leo exclaimed, with a bright smile on his face. "I scored a point! That was nothing but net! And rim and backboard, but it went in!"

But of course, Trent had to ruin his fun by grabbing the ball and throwing it into the hoop, making Emilia roll her eyes. "Winner, right here!" He yelled, stepping towards Leo. "I'll be signing foreheads in the hallway!"

Janelle approached the group with a smile, looking towards Leo before saying. "Leo, you may have lost, but that shot was awesome! And you did it on your own, without any gimmicks or gadgets."

"Nope, I just relied on the other 'G'— Greatness."

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