Stereotype

I put myself in a cross legged sitting position after I got out of the spits. I looked at the other girls that were here. Some were panting hard; others were lying on the floor talking to the person beside them. I got to my feet and strolled over to the benches where the water bottles were. I sat on the aluminum bench and unscrewed the lid of the water bottle. I placed the opening to my lips and tilted the top to my lips. I parted the water bottle from my mouth, looked over to my left and saw Stacy walk over to me

"Hey Brooke," Stacy said. I took a sip of my water, maybe it would give a sign that I didn't want to talk but then again I never want to talk.

"Hi." I answered back after I swallowed the liquid.

"That was a killer routing that Hillary thought up, wasn't it? All those splits, flips, and cartwheels, damn, someone call 911, I might get a heart attack." I tuned Stacy out because she always talked so fast I couldn't understand her half the time. Stacy was my best friend, mostly my only friend. Of course, I knew a lot of people, but I put them in the acquaintance.
Hillary came back into the gym and wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand. Hillary dried her hands on her blue cheer leading outfit. Hillary was the captain of the squad and also dating the high school quarter back. She cheated on him all the time and everyone knew. She was easy, give her a sweet smile and you'll get lucky. Of course, her boyfriend knew, but she played it cool.

"Okay, let's take it from the top." Hillary said. She smoothed her hair and uniform, then walked to the stereo while everyone got into position. The music started going and we start with pumping our arms. Each row was made up of 4 people.

After we stopped pumping our arms, the front row would go down into the splits. The second row would pick up the first row and the first row would run off to the right side and start throwing someone in the air. The second row, which I was in, would run and flip to the left side and the girls would pick me up, I was a flyer. The third row would break out into a dance and then they would hoist someone in the air after the dance. The groups would join together, grabbing the hands of the other girls; the side girls would lift their opposite leg to about their shoulder length. The routine would go on for several more minutes.

When the practice was over, I grabbed my water bottle and headed for the locker room. I went to the locker and grabbed my gym bag. I took out my bathroom necessities, shampoo soap, and towel. my feet guided me to a bare room with showerheads on the wall. I undressed, leaving my clothes on the side of shower room. My hand turned on the shower head and My body turned towards the water. The water was cold because I didn't give it time to heat up

The door opened and the other girls started to come into the locker room. Girls started coming into the shower area. I start to lather up my hair with my shampoo. I heard the doors opening for the girls who just shower at home. I rinsed the shampoo suds from my head and started to put soap on my body. My ears picked up other conversations that were going on around me.

"Did you hear? Allen Smith broke up with Chrissie Gray, that’s why she’s not at practice today." April Peterson told Kayla Pacherte.

"No way! They have been together for what, a year?" Kayla said.

"Yeah, she was crying and she almost overdosed on oxycodone pills she found in her mom’s medicine cabinet. Her brother found her on the floor and brought her to the hospital. I wouldn't be surprised if she started cutting," April said.

"Let's kick her off the team if she goes all goth, It wouldn't be good for our reputation if we had a suicidal, dead, goth girl on the team." Kayla said.

"Agreed," April said then changed the subject. I tuned them out, and focused on myself. I washed the last soap suds off of me and turned my shower head off. I grabbed a towel and put it around my body and grabbed my clothes from my bag. I started to dry myself and put my clothes on. I was always the first one done. I usually kept quiet, I was just a fly on the wall, observing what other people are doing, I like to people watch. Conversations still going on around me, each one different from the other, were making it harder for me to focus on my own thoughts.

After I was done getting dressed, I sat on the bench and waited for Stacy to finish since she was my ride home. I took out my iPod and pressed play. I had a wide variety of songs on my iPod. Some weren’t stereotypically supposed to be in my genre of music, but I liked it anyways. Cords of a Rise Against song played through the ear buds and I quickly turned down the volume down. I didn’t want people to hear the song.

Cheerleaders are supposed to listen to Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and all those stupid rappers. I can't stand those songs or singers, they make my ears bleed, but I pretend to love them when people are around or I will get kicked off the cheer leading squad. Nobody would talk to me if I was a loser. When people talk to me it's only because I'm cheerleader, so therefore I'm popular and I hear about all the parties with alcohol, one of the only reason I’m staying in this fucking, stupid, self-centered, bitch squad, minus Stacy, but she has her moments.

Everyone was getting out of the showers, so, I went to wait for Stacy outside the locker room. The Gym was bare and a pale cream color. There were benches in each corner of the room, with big doors in the middle of the gym on each side. The gymnasium was so quiet; I ran my fingers against the wall. My fingers led me to the doors that separated me from outside. They were black, with no windows. I opened the black door and the parking lot scenery was facing me. I pushed the metal door open wider and stepped outside. I took a deep breath and scanned the parking lot. I realized no one was here, I walked to Stacy's car to wait for her.

I ran my fingers along the black paint of the Honda when I reached it. I always loved Stacy's car, it was not too old but not too new, perfect in my eyes. I tried to open the door to the car but it was locked. I placed my bag on the hood of the vehicle and leaned against the car. The lead singer of Silverstein’s voice sang into my ears. I started to sing along to the song until I realized someone was watching me. I looked at him out of the corner of me eye. He had black, spiky hair at the back; he had a side bang that covered his left dark brown eye. He was chuckling which made his snake bites noticeable. He was wearing a white hoodie with a black shirt underneath, black skinny jeans dressed on his legs with a studded belt around his waist. I quickly change the song to some Taylor Swift song and started to sing that instead.

"I saw that" he said walking towards me. I turned and faced him now.

"Saw what?" I asked. I laced my voice with curiosity, playing dumb was my only option now.

"You were singing a Bring Me the Horizon song.” he said

"Actually it was Silverstein." I said. My eyes widened then I quickly covered my mouth at the information I just leaked.

"I knew it!" he shouted. I sighed in defeat and then looked at my toes. I've never really been good with talking to guys, I was always shy. I have had only one boyfriend, the one I have now. If he didn’t ask me out first, I wouldn't know how we would have gotten together.

"My names Robyn, Robyn Meadows." he smiled at me, flashing a set of pearly white teeth. His smile was contagious and soon I felt myself smiling back.

"I'm—" I began to say before I heard a voice interrupting me.

"Brooke Hennessey." A stern familiar voice called. I turned my head to find the owner of the voice. In front of the Honda stood Stacy. With her bag still in her hand, her eyes were glues to Robyn and I. Robyn looked at Stacy and back at me.

“Are you ready to leave?” she asked me, sending daggers to Robin.

"Oh, you’re that Brooke Hennessey." he said turning around to leave, disappointment washed over his face.

"Later." He called while walking away; leaving me there and Stacy's ice cold glare set on my face. A wave of sadness washed over me as I got into Stacy’s car. She stared down that guy until he disappeared around the brick wall of the school, leading into the forest. Stacey got into the car and didn’t say a word. We were half way home and she decided to grace me with her voice.

“Why were you talking to that freak?” she asked not taking her eyes off the road. Her voice didn’t portray any irritation just curiosity. Stacy never told the other girls about what I did; since I never stood up for myself I wouldn’t know what to do if that little conversation that Robyn and I had got out. The student body would have a field day if people knew about the intersection of people from two different groups.

“He started talking to me about what I was listening to.” I answered honestly.

“What were you listening to?” she asked.

“Taylor Swift.” I answered. It was half true considering the fact that I did change to Taylor Swift after I caught him looking at me. Stacy just nodded her head.

“I’m only trying to protect you, Brooke. You know what the other girls would do to you; they’re considering kicking you out to replace you with someone better for their reputation. You’re my friend and I don’t want to see you crash and burn, I know you want to stay popular.” She said. I stared at the window and kept quiet. She sighed and started talking about what she and Kyle did last night. I tuned Stacy out again and my thoughts wondered to Robyn.

Would he ever talk to me again? Or will he go off and tell all his friends that he talked to a cheerleader. Not me as a person but me as a cheerleader. He was really cute but he didn‘t fit in the cheerleader standards. This isn’t some fairy tale. I’m looking for a prince, not some mutant who was obsessed with death. He isn’t right for me and my image and I need to keep it up because of the other cheer freaks that have the power to break me.