A New Beginning

All day, when I thought no one was looking, I would pull my skirt down a little and make sure that nothing was showing. I had never worn skirts this short before, and it was making me entirely uncomfortable.

That was why during practice, I almost had a nervous breakdown when I was supposed to climb up the human pyramid to my position somewhere in the middle.

“Lopez!” Coach Sylvester yelled angrily. “Get up that pyramid!”

“My last name is not Lopez!” I sighed angrily, but not loudly enough for her to hear. The last thing I needed was to get kicked off Cheerios on my first day. That definitely wouldn’t have helped my social standing at all.

I started climbing onto the structure of girls, accidentally stepping on someone’s head. She snapped her head around to give me a kind of glare out of the corner of her eye, and I glared back at her. Her name might have been Camila, but I didn’t care enough to know for sure.

Finally, I got to my position and gave the fakest smile I could. I knew it looked more like a grimace, but I never claimed to be the best actor ever.

Right as someone took their place on my back, I was grimacing for real. It was incredibly painful. No one else seemed to be having that much of a problem, which meant that it was probably because I had never done this before.

“You are pathetic,” Coach Sylvester informed us as she walked back and forth in front of the structure, shaking her head. “That took you five minutes to make that sorry excuse for a pyramid. This fact makes me almost as sad as Will Schuester’s hair.”

I rolled my eyes for a second before remembering that I was still in pain. “Alright, back into the beginning positions. We’re taking this number from the top. The way we’re going, we won’t even make it to Nationals.”

We were doing as we were told when the gym doors opened. Santana came bouncing in, her ponytail like a little spring behind her head.

Some girls glared at her for being late (I was one of them), but most just ignored her. As if she showed up late all the time.

A little smirk pulled at the corner of my mouth as I retied my ponytail, watching Coach Sylvester and waiting for her to unleash on Santana.

But she didn’t. Santana just went to her place in the front, next to Brittany, and they talked and giggled for a second until the music started.

I wanted to punch someone. Why was it that she got to show up late without consequence? I had been told very clearly that if I was late or I missed a practice, I was off the squad. Apparently, this rule didn’t apply to Santana, who was on top of a friggin’ pedestal all the time.

Smoke was nearly coming out of my ears as we got into the first positions for the dance. Then, the music started to play, and I forgot about the crap that was going on around us and focused on dancing.

* * *

“It just makes me so angry,” I vented to Finn as we walked down the hallway after his football practice. “Why does she get special privileges?”

“This might make you mad, but it’s because she’s the star Cheerio. Her and Brittany are the center point of every routine. It’s how they’ve won Nationals the past two years.”

I mulled this over. The longer I did so, the sourer it grew in my mouth. “Well, that sucks. Everyone should be treated equally.”

“No argument here.” Finn fixed the backpack strap on his backpack. “Oh, so do you want to hang out on Saturday? Are you and Puck doing anything?”

“Yes and no,” I replied. He looked confused, so I clarified. “Yes, I want to hang out, and no, Puck and I aren’t doing anything.”

“Oh, cool.” Finn grinned.

Just then, Puck butted in between the two of us, putting his arm obnoxiously around my waist and pulling me closer to him. “Hi, there,” he smiled, kissing me on the side of the head.

“I’ll, um, see you later, Sydney,” Finn granted before walking away.

“What the hell was that all about?” I snapped, shoving him away from me.

“I thought he was getting too close to my girl.” He looked me up and down for a second. “You look so hot in that. Did I say that already?”

“Yes. No, I won’t sleep with you.” I rolled my eyes. “Does that mean you’re giving me a ride home again? Because it went so well yesterday.”

Puck glared at me for a second. “I was planning on driving you. As long as you don’t talk shit about my truck again.”

I opened my mouth, but decided that was an argument not worth revisiting.

“Oh, so you know this week’s theme?”

For a second, I stared off into the distance, trying to remember. Before venting to Finn, I had been so angry that I’d forgotten about anything that wasn’t irritating-Santana related.

Then, it came back to me. Mr. Schue said that we were doing songs about sexuality, which was surprising to me, but exciting for everyone else.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Because I think we should do a duet.”

If I had water, I would have spit it at him. “What? Why would I want to do a duet with you?”

“Because you’re my girlfriend and it’ll be a song about sexuality. That means that it would fit. People would expect it.”

“Shouldn’t we do what people don’t expect?”

He thought about that for a second. “What?”

“You’re such a meathead,” I sighed and ran a hand through my bangs.

“Um…thanks?” He kind of smiled, not understanding that I’d just insulted him. “But anyway, I got the perfect song.”

“What?”

“Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5.”

I nodded. “So I guess I’ll have the Christina Aguilera part, huh?”

“Totally.” He put his arm around me again. “So is that a yes?”

“I guess so.” I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but whatever. It would make Santana insanely jealous for sure, so that was the major plus. “You’re just lucky I love that song.”

Someone brushed by me, and I turned to yell at them. I stopped myself when I realized it was that girl Camila, holding an ice pack on the back of her head.

I let out a loud laugh, and Puck looked at me like I was crazy. It reminded me of when Santana said that I wasn’t mean enough to be a Cheerio.

Maybe if I was laughing at people’s pain, I was on my way. A girl could dream, anyway.