Page 14 of Fraternizing with the Enemy
“Let’s start cool-downs,” Jade announced, clapping her hands. “And then let’s get out of this heat.”
No one protested. Jade and I took our places at the front of the squad, facing rows of girls who mirrored our movements as we eased into the cooldown—reaching for our toes, elongating our legs, drawing in deep breaths. This was always one of my favorite parts of practice. The noise faded, and all that remained was the quiet ache of muscles well-used and the heat pulsing beneath my skin. A good kind of tired.
“You’re so much better at being the peacekeeper,” Jade said once we finished. The majority of the girls hit the water cooler, passing around ice cubes and pulling out plastic bottles of water. Jade sat in the grass with her arms planted behind her. “You know exactly what to say when to calm everyone down. I’m not good at that at all.”
I sat across from her, with Riley at our side. Our extended legs created half of a star. “You’re good at it,” I reassured her, but in reality, I could’ve sighed with relief. Jadehadlike the way I had handled things earlier. Therewaspraise in her eyes. “Everyone was just touchy today from the heat. Besides, you’re so much better at keeping everyone on task than me. That’s why we’re the perfect team.”
Jade knocked her tennis shoe against mine. “Right.”
“You should’ve taken my side, though,” Riley grumbled, plucking up patches of grass.
My smile instantly faded. “You both made a mistake.”
“But you could’ve said something to me after the fact. Not in front of Jen. Now she’ll think she’s better than me.”
She didn’t point out that Jade had also yelled at her,of course, and with far less fairness than I had. But whatever.
Nina brought over a bottle of water for both Jade and me, sitting down and crossing her legs, and a few other girls joined our gaggle. Our half star turned into a full constellation. Even in the heat, they wanted to stay behind and get a glimpse of the Top Tier. No doubt it’d end up on Babble later.
I sat up straighter in case anyone snapped a picture.
“Ugh, I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Riley huffed, but she turned so it was clear she was talking toeveryone. “About my love life. I mean, Nate’s great and all, but he’s, like, a junior. The optics of me dating someone younger aren’t great.”
The cheerleaders, surrounding her like churchgoers at a sermon, all nodded reverently.
“And Ashton isinterested, interested,” Riley went on, pulling up more grass. She had a mound in front of her and a bald spot in the out-of-bounds line. “You should just see the texts he sent me over the weekend.”
“Then show us,” Jade said, calling her bluff.
Riley wilted under our leader’s command. “Well, I deleted them already. I didn’t want Nate seeing them.”
The words sounded like a lie to me, paired with the avoided eye contact, but over the years, it’d become second nature to assume that every single word out of someone’s mouth was a lie. Especially Riley’s. It’d become easy to hear it. When someone didn’t make eye contact while talking, when the narrative began to get a bittooembellished, and anything proceeding the line “I swear to God.”
“Ashton said that if I wasn’t dating Nate, he’d take me out in a heartbeat—swear to God,” Riley said. Shewas flaunting the attention of one of the biggest players at Brentwood High like it meant more than it did. If it were Connor Bray she’d been talking about,thenit’d be news. “He wants to hang out tomorrow after the game… I don’t know what to do.”
Throughout all theoohsandahsand sounds of sympathy the other cheerleaders gave, I remained silent, wordlessly absorbing each line. I didn’t doubt that Ashton pried for her attention, given the fact that he’d basically worked his way through the cheer squad over the three years of high school—with a very low success rate.
If I were a meaner person, I’d tell Riley that the second she dropped her boyfriend, Ashton would move onto the next.
“He’ll lose interest as soon as you dump Nate,” Jade said, practically reading my mind.
The cheerleaders nodded again, reveling in the gospel their pastor preached, while Riley’s cheeks reddened.
I watched Jade turn back to what she’d been doing, which was tilting her face up toward the sky. The pose definitely gave the impression of languid nonchalance, though it was clear to see through. Sweat beaded down her throat, dampening down her hairline. Her makeup had smudged during practice. Her arms were far too stiff behind her how they supported herself.
I wondered if she didn’t like Riley running her mouth about potentially cheating on her boyfriend. I couldn’t imagine that was a good look.
“On a different note,” Riley began in a leading voice, one that sounded a bittoosweet. “Isn’t it so crazy that Landon was picked for quarterback? Kind of like howit’s crazy the cheer squad has co-captains this year. I don’t think that’s ever happened!” She gave a mock-worried expression. “You’re not mad at Madison, are you?”
I could’ve scoffed at her and her lame excuse for a subject change.
I’d gotten so used to being able to read Jade, but in that moment, her expression was fully closed off. “It’s not like she rigged the voting.”
“Of course, I didn’t!” I wasn’t even sure that was possible, not with how religiously Coach Chelsea treated the whole thing. “Besides, Coach had final say. She said we’re better together.”
You balance each other out, was what she’d said exactly. And today’s practice alone made that clear. Jade was the commander—I was the encourager. One couldn’t thrive without the other.
“It’s kind of like things are coming full circle, isn’t it?” Jade tipped her head over at me, the sun shining in her dark eyes. “The two of us at tryouts all those years ago, and now us at the top to end it off.”
