Be Free, Be You

The whole first half of the day passed by in a blur, all I want to do is go to nationals. We already had the first place slot in the red and white bag, now all we needed was for it to come. I sighed and picked at the salad in front of me. It was a sorry excuse for food, all it was, was lettuce and low calorie Italian dressing thinly drizzled on top. Coach Sylvester was very hard on us about our weight, but we weren’t complaining… not out loud anyway.

I pushed out a hot breath of air from between my lips and looked at the girls in matching uniforms beside me; we all also had identical plates of food and the same exact expressions of sadness as some chubby girl walked by with a cupcake.

“My god, that looked really good.” My friend Jenna whined as the plus-sized girl walked away with her golden treat.

“Yeah, but she didn’t.” I snapped her out of it and she thankfully looked at me.

“You’re totally right, thanks Val.” Jenna said as she took a bite of the salad. I ate mine too and sipped slowly at the water inside of my “eco-friendly” container.

“I can’t wait for nationals; we get to go to Virginia Beach, in Virginia!” We all looked at the owner of the voice, Taylor Yates. I raised an eyebrow at her, it was like she was a semi-smart Brittany Pierce, but with brown hair. The lunch bell rang in time to save her from the snappy replies from the rest of us and we all simultaneously got up and threw out the rest of our salads.

I looped arms with Jenna as we strutted out of the café, expertly swinging our hips in sync and laughing loud enough for the geeks to be jealous. I turned my head in closer to whisper in Jenna’s ear, “So for practice tonight, I head Kayla is going to try and drop me for my flying position. How pathetic is that?”

Jenna laughed, “She’s way too fat to be a flyer like us. She’s lucky she’s even on the team at all.” I laughed too and I couldn’t help but feel that twinge inside of my head.

I didn’t enjoy being a bitch, well not all the time anyway, but being a Cheerio was hard work. It was impossible to be a Cheerio and be nice, or eat chocolate…

“Hey sexy,” we both turned our heads to face Jenna’s swimmer boyfriend. He was beyond attractive, but he always smelled like chlorine so I wasn’t sure how Jenna hugged him without gagging. I waved goodbye to the two of them and walked to my next class, which I seriously didn’t care about. I let the rest of the day pass by just like I had the morning and made my way into the locker room with Jenna behind me.

Instantly we heard Santana yelling at one of the new Freshman girls and it was followed by the sound of someone crying, as usual. I opened my locker with ease and so did Jenna, hers was right beside mine, and changed into our new school-issued practice clothes, a tight red t-shirt with the standard ‘WMHS’ logo pasted on in black and white lettering twin to that of the uniform we wear every day to school and white shorts. I shrugged as I surveyed myself in the mirror and touched up my already flawless makeup.

“I kind of like these new practice uniforms; they make my butt look good.” I heard someone say as we all went out of the locker room in a single file line.

“Alright into formation, now!” Coach Sylvester’s voice boomed from the huge mic in her hands. “I don’t have all night ladies, get your asses moving!” Everyone instantly shut up and did exactly as told, just like every other practice. As we got into our pyramid sequence one minute into the routine I could feel Kayla moving her fingers out from under my foot and before I could brace myself I was laying on the floor in pain. “Don’t move Tattoo Barbie!”

I inwardly laughed at Coach’s nickname for me, ever since I’d gotten my infinity tattoo on the back of my neck she had called me Tattoo Barbie and I kind of liked it. I was the only girl on the team with a tattoo and I could tell that a good three quarters of the girls were jealous of me.

“Way to go Kayla! She’s one of the best flyers!” I could hear Santana yelling at the malicious girl. “You’re too fat to be a flyer, give it up already! You’ve got no talent, no drive, no boyfriend, no one even likes you being here—”

“That’s enough Sandbags,” Coach Sylvester said as Jenna helped me get up. “You good Tattoo Barbie?”

“Yes Coach,” I said even though my head was spinning and I couldn’t stand up straight. I didn’t get a moments rest until practice ended and Jenna helped me to the locker room.

“Are you okay, Val? Can you drive home?” Asked Jenna, her worried brown eyes were staring at my grey-green ones.

“Steph is waiting in the library, she’s got her permit, I’ll make her drive.” I said simply as I got changed into fresh clothes, a simple form-fitting grey tee and jeans.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” She asked again.

“Jenna, go take some Prozac or something, I’m fine.” I laughed and headed to the library to find my dorky sister.

“Steph, come on.” I waved her over; she had her nose in a book and was ravenously ripping through its contents. I put the keys in her open palm and smiled, “You’re driving, some bitch dropped me on purpose at practice and my head hurts.”

She raised her perfectly arched brows at me, “You trust me with your car?”

“No. Let’s just go okay?” I sighed and we headed home. “Just don’t dent, scratch or crash my car or I’ll dent, scratch or crash your face. Get it?”

“Got it, Val.”