R I S E ;

Addison shrugged not taking offence to how Alina responded to him. “It’s fine. I did state the obvious,” he muttered. The dark haired boy shook his head, before throwing his head back, getting his hair out of his eyes. The cheerleader smirked as the blonde turned her nose up at the drink which didn’t taste as good as she was probably expecting. “Do you want some water?” He asked. He put the lid on the bottle. “I only had a sip..”  

“Yes, you did”, she replied with a chuckle. “But it’s chill. We all do, sometimes”, she added, pushing away the half-full coffee cup so she didn’t forget about it later and take another sip. “That’d be great. Thanks”, she said, gratefully taking the water bottle. After taking a gulp of the water, she examined the bottle, realising she’d had a slightly bigger sip than intended. “Oh. Sorry about that. I’ll buy you another one”. She offered an apologetic smile. “Say. I don’t believe we’ve met. Unless we have, and I’m just the worst at remembering these things, I’m Alina”. 

“I’ve read your book a million times”. she said excitedly “please don’t apologize i shouldn’t have stared at you, i just wanted to tell you how great i think you are”. she said honestly and couldn’t believe that she was actually talking to Alina “I’ll leave you to your writing and if anytime you need a break i’m here”.

She smiled serenely in response. “Calm down! Really, it’s fine. I’m a little stressed at the moment, but it’s people like you who make me realise that, in the end, it’s all worth it. Most people either love or hate the blog, so I’m very glad to hear you enjoy it!” she replied. She didn’t sound much like herself, but the whole experience was proving rather surreal. “No, please, sit. I’ll get you a coffee- or tea, or water, whatever you want”, she said, closing her laptop lid. “You must send me your details. I’d love to send you an advance copy of the book when it’s released”. 

“I don’t know how you keep up with it.” Thalia sighed, her voice coated with a facade of interest - in reality she was just trying to find the weaknesses of other teams - she was rather a dirty player. “I mean… all this work… no wonder your skills are slacking, you really need to work on your legs while tumbling, they’re all over the place. You won’t get anywhere near the podium like that.”

AJ always paid attention to what someone else was doing, instead of training. He got invested in people-watching, wondering what they were thinking about while they focused on something hard.  The dark haired boy glanced over towards the blonde when she asked if she could help him. “I’m just wondering what your doing..” He admitted, before uncapping the bottle of water he was holding in his hand. He sipped on the drink, letting the cold liquid go down his throat. “You seem busy.”

“You don’t say”, she murmured in response, before immediately remembering her promise to be nice, or at least nicer, to people. “Sorry ‘bout that. I’m trying to appease my editor and meet all her totally unreasonable demands. Lots of fun, I can assure you”, she added, with a half-smile, picking up her cup of coffee for a sip, not realising it had gone cold. “Ugh. That is disgusting”, she said, setting down the cup immediately. “I can’t believe iced coffee is a thing. Like, people deliberately buy this”. 

Valentina didn’t mean to stare but she couldn’t help it she looked up to Alina as a cheerleader she was kind of star struck “um”. She tried to come up with words to say that didn’t make her sound stupid “oh um nothing I’m sorry I’m just a fan”.

Alina opened her mouth as though to say something, but found herself at a loss for words. A fan? That was...new. But it was definitely something she could get behind. She offered the girl an apologetic smile. “Um. Thank you”, she replied. “Sorry for snapping. It’s not your fault. My editor’s demands are getting crazy unreasonable. It’s like she’s forgotten I am at a competition right now”. 

❝ OH please even you have to admit that as much fun winning is. Winning against the PREVIOUS champions is even better. It’s like a double win you won and you beat the previous winners. And they were your opponents last year and they beat you. But sure I guess we all just have to believe that everyone here has a chance right ?? I just would have preferred to win against them than to win against some teams I haven’t even heard of ?? ❞

“You have a point there, I suppose. But they didn’t prove themselves this year. Oh well, c’est la vie. It’ll be interesting to see who does emerge this year, I suppose”, she mused in response. She let out a joking, mock gasp. “There’s teams here you’ve not heard of? And here was me thinking it was the duty of all captains to go digging for intel on the enemy, et cetera, et cetera. Or maybe that’s just me”. 

Settling into her spot, Blake reached over when the sunscreen was offered to her. “I may do a good Snooki impression but I don’t want to do a good Mr. Krabs impression, so thanks for the lotion” she replied, slathering the gunk onto her hands and beginning to work it into her arms. Still not making eye contact with the girl beside her she closed her eyes and leaned back, basking under the sun. “Um, possibly. I’ve been coming here for a few years now, competing. Blake. I’m here with the Louisiana Cheerforce. Are you new? I don’t think I’ve heard your voice around here before.” The girl could tell she was babbling but she couldn’t stop, it was one her flaws that she didn’t know when to shut up.

“No problem. Sunburn is definitely the worst”, she replied, about to pick up her book and resume reading when the girl spoke again, and instead listened intently, nodding along. “Alina. South Jersey Storm. Captain. No, I was here last year too, this is my second year. And last”, she added, tipping the brim of her hat back down. 

( @kcltyk )

There wasn’t much down time to be had while at this camp. It was clear that every team was here to win, and no one would be slacking when it came to competition. At the end of the day though, they were still college kids and when you bring a bunch of twenty-somethings to a sunny destination, you seem to get spring break-like results. Large red, heart shaped sunglasses covering her identity, Blake was making her way to the pool to catch some rays before dinner. Floppy hat bouncing and protecting the fair skin on her face she plopped down in the lawn chair beside another springy blonde. “Don’t hog the sun, hon. We all need a little GTL in our life”

“Wouldn’t dream of it”, Alina responded, not looking up from her copy of Copyediting and Proofreading for Dummies. After a moment, in which it was uncertain as to whether she would ignore the presence of the other girl and continue reading, or politely make conversation, she set down the book and glanced up, shifting the brim of her bucket hat ever so slightly backwards. “Though I must say, you do a far better guido impression than I do”, she added with an uncharacteristic chuckle, passing the other blonde her bottle of SPF 30 as a formality. She glanced sideways at her new companion, uncertain as to whether they’d met- if they had, she certainly didn’t recognise her under the sunglasses and hat. “Do I know you”? she inquired. 

“now see, that was my argument. but they didn’t steal it — they hired a choreographer! i say karma well and truly hit them for being lazy!”

“They got a choreographer? To do the whole thing? I mean, there’s nothing wrong with a little consultation and collaboration, but an entire prefabbed routine? If that’s the case, I wouldn’t waste my worries on them. They’ll get what they deserve- i.e., nothing- or else there’ll be hell to pay. Can you imagine the scandal that would cause?”

❝ AM I the only one that’s a little disappointed that last year’s champions aren’t here this year ?? I would have loved to win against them. Now that would have been a victory !!  ❞

     “you know, i heard a rumour that two teams have the same routine this year. how embarrassing! i mean, who’s so lazy that they can’t use their brains to make a routine for themselves? i guess that’s what they get for being so lame!”

“There’s actually a whole argument out there about how that’s what we should be doing- blah blah variables, blah blah subjectivity, blah blah ‘not-a-real-sport’. But isn’t there some kind of rule on that sort of thing? I mean, that’s basically the cheer-equivalent of plagiarism, right?”