Chapter 4- A, J, K
Ariana pulled out her phone. The final bell had just rung, and there were forty-five minutes of free time until practice for the upcoming cheer tryouts.
3:25 p.m. Ariana: What do you guys want to do before practice?
3:25 p.m. Jade: Ugh bad day. Anything away from school.
3:26 p.m. Kiara: Oh no. What happened?
3:26 p.m. Jade: The rumor is that I had sex with Taron and his friend last weekend
3:26 p.m. Ariana: Oh J…
3:26 p.m. Jade: At the same time.
3:26 p.m. Kiara: Your real friends know that’s not true.
3:27 p.m. Jade: Yeah. Still blows.
3:27 p.m. Kiara: Wait, Imma genius. Let’s run to my place and smoke (just a little) before practice. It’ll be fun & get ur mind off things.
3:27 p.m. Jade: Haha oh man. I can’t tell if ur a genius or insane but you know what. Who cares? Let’s do it.
3:29 p.m. Ariana: Umm…
3:29 p.m. Kiara: Oh come on. Tryouts practice is so fing easy. You could do that shit in your sleep Ari. Plz?
3:29 p.m. Jade: Plzzzzzzz Ari
3:31 p.m. Ariana: FINE. But can we smoke something really mellow K?
3:31 p.m. Kiara: Yes! I’ve got y’all.
Ariana grabbed the aquamarine dolphin-shaped pipe from Kiara, drawing in the tiniest inhale possible. Ariana’s relationship with marijuana was a tumultuous one—she had either absolutely the best or the most horrible time ever, depending on if her anxiety decided to make an appearance and take over her mind or not.
Kiara laughed. “Ari, it’s such a mellow Sativa. Take another hit, you’re not even going to feel that baby one.”
Ariana put her lips on the nose of the dolphin. She drew a breath and felt the hot smoke make its way to her lungs. She coughed, her nostrils burning.
“Hell yeah, Ari!” Jade said from the bed, her speech slightly slurred. Jade had already taken three hits and Kiara double that amount.
Ariana rolled onto her back on the bed next to Jade. Jade’s arm brushed against hers and her skin tingled with pleasure. “Mmm.”
Kiara squished between them and took both of their hands in hers. “This is nice.” Kiara shimmied her butt to make more room for herself and the girls burst out laughing.
“Stop, K!” Ariana finally said when she had quelled her laughter. “I’m like... super high. Is this normal?”
“Yeah, me too,” Jade said, sounding like she needed water.
“I mean, I gave us the most chill strain I have,” Kiara said. She stood and absentmindedly picked the canister up, reading the label. Kiara’s blue-green eyes widened, then she abruptly set the canister back down.
“Kiara,” Ariana said, worried.
“Yes? No. Everything’s fine,” Kiara said.
“Kiara…” Jade and Ariana said in unison.
“So… I may have given us the wrong strain,” Kiara said.
“WHAT!” Ariana shouted.
“Yes, um… yep. It’s the wrong weed,” Kiara said with a nod of her head. “But don’t worry chickadees, this bud will open your third eye to possibilities you didn’t see before.”
“I’m gonna open your third eye, K,” Jade said, attempting to reproach her, but then they all burst out laughing again. Kiara laid down and rolled over toward Ariana. A whiff of her vanilla-scented shampoo filled Ariana’s nose.
“Dude…” Kiara said to Ariana in what seemed like slow motion. “Your eyes are sooo red.”
Kiara’s own eyes were barely slivers.
“That’s literally not helpful at all,” Ariana said. Kiara burst out laughing.
“Eye… eye drops!” Jade struggled to say as she sat up on her elbows. “We need eye drops.”
“Aye aye captain,” Ariana said, giggling. What were they, sailors? How many times had they all said “eye” in the last minute?
Kiara didn’t respond. She had a seriously spaced-out look on her face. Ariana could guess where this was heading.
“Do you ever think that the government—” Kiara began, but Ariana stopped her.
“NO! No conspiracy theories now, K. We have to…” Ariana trailed off, forgetting what she was trying to urgently say.
Ariana looked to Jade for help, but Jade was intently rubbing her hands back and forth across the golden bedspread, smiling to herself. “Ari, this bedspread reminds me of your hair in the sun…” Jade said. “Do you know what I mean? It’s not like your hair, it IS your hair…”
Ariana could feel her own eyes widen. They were so screwed. Kiara reached over and patted her on the head. “It’ll be fine. Just leave everything to me,” she said in a consoling voice, seeming to have returned to reality. She glided from the room, smiling and humming. Ariana prayed she was going to procure eye drops.
Kiara came back a few minutes later with a tray of so-called remedies. “Sit up, girls. Drink this tea and take these vitamins.” She handed them each a cup and a couple of round pills.
“How is this going to help?” Ariana muttered.
“Just believe,” Kiara said, leaning Jade’s head back to administer eye drops.
After nearly poking Ariana’s eye out with the bottle, Kiara held up a mirror. “See? Much better.”
Ariana’s eyes were still shining and red. She looked like a puffy hedgehog after a long nap.
Kiara took another look at Ariana and laughed. “Wait, never mind,” she said, cracking up.
Jade burst out laughing from behind them. “Sunglasses?”
Fifteen minutes later they were standing in Kiara’s front yard, miraculously dressed and ready for practice in their black workout shorts and white tanks.
“Okay, remember: everyone talk as little as possible once we get there,” Ariana instructed.
They set off toward the school with Ariana in the lead. She was so intensely concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other that the sudden outburst of laughter from behind made her jump. She whipped around to see Jade laughing so hard that she was rolling around in the neighbor’s yard and Kiara bent over double.
“What!?” Ariana yelled.
“You’re walking like a moon man!” Kiara spit out, roaring with laughter all over again.
“What’s a moon man?” Ariana asked in confusion. She thought she had been walking fine.
“Like a man on the moon!” Kiara said as if it made perfect sense. When Ariana showed no signs of recognition, Kiara imitated her, walking slowly and picking her knees all the way up every time she took a step.
“Oh my God, I really can’t walk!” Ariana said, her heart rate accelerating. “Guys…” she heard the panicked note in her voice.
Jade reacted to Ariana’s distress immediately, composing herself and picking her perfect ass up off the neighbor’s yard to jog to Ariana’s side.
“Just breathe,” Jade said. She lifted her aviator sunglasses to sit on top of her head and made eye contact with Ariana. She slid her arm around Ariana’s waist, her warm hand touching Ariana’s bare skin, and smiled. Her piercing green eyes offered tacit encouragement. “I’ve got you.”
An immediate calm enveloped Ariana—maybe they could pull this off. Kiara led the way toward the school. A few minutes later, they stopped outside the doors leading into the gym. “Okay, ready?” Kiara asked.
Ariana and Jade nodded.
They opened the doors, took one step inside, and stopped short. All the cheerleaders had already been put into groups to begin practice. This seemed to be too much for any of the girls’ oxygen-deprived brains to comprehend because none of them moved. Ariana’s brain was mush. What were they supposed to do now? Everyone was staring at them, including their cheer coach, and Ariana had just remembered they all still had their sunglasses on. Indoors.
Great.
“Greetings, earthlings!” Kiara called out, slowly waving her hand.
Oh. My. God. We’re done for—we are dead, Ariana thought. A few of the cheerleaders started laughing; some of the bitchier older girls simply glared at them. Reigh and Aubrey seemed to realize the situation was about to become dire if someone didn’t step in to help them because at the same moment they both sprung into action.
Reigh called out for the girls to stop goofing around and trying to delay practice, while Aubrey jumped up and went to them, guiding them back to where he and Reigh were sitting.
After taking a seat, Ariana looked toward their cheer coach, Coach Krall, to see if she had noticed anything off, but the coach’s attention seemed to be elsewhere as she talked to a Varsity cheerleader on the other side of the gym.
“Thank you… you saved us,” Ariana said gratefully to Reigh and Aubrey.
“Sure. But Ari, why were you walking like that?” Reigh whispered so that only they could hear.
“Oh no,” Ariana said, feeling like a complete idiot. “I was doing it again?”
This sent Jade and Kiara into another fit of hysterical laughter.
Aubrey looked at them like they were half insane. “I don’t know what you guys are smoking, but I want some,” he said with a laugh.
Kiara watched Jade gracefully float through the motions of a cheer while looking only slightly spaced out. She giggled, causing Jade to stick out her tongue pointedly in Kiara’s direction. Ariana shushed the girls, shooting them a warning glare. They had placed themselves in the back row during practice, staying out of everyone’s way as they attempted to look and act normal while waiting for the effects of the weed to wear off.
Ariana pulled Coach Krall to the side and spoke in a hushed tone. “I don’t know how I did it, but I was practicing so much that I hurt my knees. I know all the cheers already—can I go ice in the sports doctor's office?” Ariana rubbed her knees as she spoke.
“Oh good for you, Ari. Yes, go! I hope you feel better,” Krall gushed.
Sucker, Kiara thought.
Coach Krall, or simply “Krall” as she insisted they call her, was an easy target for Ariana’s influence. She was only ten years their senior and had an odd obsession with popularity and the girl’s lives, which, although it freaked Kiara out, worked in their favor as she, Ariana, and Jade were some of Krall’s favorites.
Ariana smirked at Kiara on her way out of the gym, and Kiara bit her tongue to keep from laughing while Krall’s eyes were still on her. Kiara admired Ariana for being so quick on her feet—metaphorically of course in this scenario—Ariana had just covered why she was walking so weirdly and managed to get herself out of practice at the same time.
Kiara returned her attention to practice, thinking of how boring their cheers were. She had once seen a show in which a woman made up interpretive dances to poems—now that was interesting. Kiara shrugged to herself. Why not? She closed her eyes and began an interpretative dance version of the classic “Be Aggressive” cheer they were taught each year. She let her limbs move freely to the beat of the other cheerleaders’ claps and got lost in the rhythm.
A minute or two later Kiara heard Jade’s chiming laugh and opened an eye. Jade had her hands on her knees as she watched Kiara, who was now crawling on the ground like a tiger.
“Kiara!” Krall shrieked.
Their friends laughed while the freshmen looked around, confused.
“Should we be doing that?” a young-looking freshman with strawberry-blonde hair asked, a serious expression on her face.
“No, please, please do not do that,” Krall said, changing her tone to playful when the seniors behind her began to laugh.
“Thank God this is what you normally act like,” Jade whispered to Kiara.
“Thank you for the break in seriousness, Kiara,” Krall said. “But everyone, go back to work on your cheers now. K, please stick to the normal cheers.”
“Back to the boring stuff, got it,” Kiara said through a smile. She imagined a squad of interpretive dancers at the games instead of cheerleaders. What a fun world that would be.
As the monotonous drills wore on, Kiara let her mind drift farther away from Krall and cheer practice. She thought back to last night when Teague had come over for dinner. Her parents had prepared steaks for the main course, with salads and steamed veggies for sides.
“I’m giving up meat,” Kiara said when her mother went to serve her. “Put it on Teague’s plate, Mom.”
“Since when?” her dad asked.
“Since I don’t want to kill the planet,” Kiara said.
“Well, that’s definitely a good reason,” her dad said, laughing.
Eating only salad and veggies for dinner would keep her a little below her allotted daily calorie intake. Encouraged by the pounds she had already lost in the last month, Kiara would try to dip under her number as often as she could. When she ate fewer calories than she had planned, she considered that a very good day.
After dinner, Kiara and Teague excused themselves at the chance to be alone. They made their way upstairs to Kiara’s room, climbing out of her window and onto the flat portion of her roof to look at the stars. Kiara laid down to get a better view of the sky while Teague kept his eyes trained on her.
“Don’t you want to look?” Kiara asked, taking in his dark, angular face and dimples.
“I am looking,” Teague said. ”You’re a better view than the stars.”
He smiled at Kiara like he had the first time he asked her out, making her insides twist in a delicious way. Teague’s expression was a mixture of desire and cockiness, like he already knew her answer to some question he hadn’t asked yet. He ran his fingers from her stomach up to her chest and back down again, each time stopping a little further down in her shorts, turning Kiara on more with each sweep of his fingers. After a few minutes, Kiara’s groin was on fire and she felt like ripping her clothes off and telling him to take her, right there.
But, her parents were home and she didn’t exactly want her mom walking in on that sight. Instead, Kiara grabbed Teague’s hand and pushed it down her shorts, a devilish grin on her face. Teague let out a groan in surprise. She linked her arms around his neck, pulling his face to hers and kissing him deeply until he finally had to go. Kiara knew she was ready to have sex with Teague, she just didn’t know when or where.
A flurry of activity in the gym brought Kiara out of her memory. Practice had come to an end and everyone was collecting their belongings.
“Why are you smiling like that, K?” Jade nudged her with a knowing grin. “Were you fantasizing about T?”
Kiara grinned back. “Maybe.”
Ariana walked into the gym toward them, normally this time, with a scowl on her face. Kiara couldn’t help but giggle.
“Never. Again.” Ariana said sternly.
“Oh, it was fine!” Kiara protested.
“You got out of practice altogether and didn’t even break a sweat Ari—look at how well you made out in the situation,” Jade joked. A light layer of perspiration shined on Jade’s brow. Of course she still looked like a supermodel, but that wasn’t the point.
“I don’t think you realize how much deep shit we were almost in… what we did was so stupid,” Ariana said.
“What was stupid?” Krall asked, popping up behind the girls and putting her arms around Jade and Ariana.
“Nothing!” Ariana and Jade chimed together.
Jade trailed behind Ariana and Kiara as they walked through the back parking lot by the football field, letting her cheer shoes scrape against the concrete with each step. Tryouts were such a bore—if she had her way, they would have practice outside so she could ogle the football players as they raced across the field in their tight-fitting athletic pants.
Jade tried to spot Ian on the field. She wanted to feel his eyes on her again; she was craving that feeling he had stirred in her on Friday night. But she also wanted more than that—she wanted him to get to know her before he knew her through other people. Would he like what was underneath her looks? She thought of Dani’s eyes when she had called Jade a slut this morning. They had been so cold. So sure of it. This was probably around the fifteenth rumor about her supposed sexual escapades since Jade had started high school, so others would be sure of it as well.
A loud smack on the field and a grunt from one of the players caught Jade’s attention. She whipped around to spot Weston standing over a player twice his size.
“OOOOH!” Kiara yelled in awe. Ariana laughed automatically and then clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Holy shit. Was that West?” Jade asked.
“Yep,” Kiara answered. “That’s our West all right.”
“Damn,” Jade said, her voice giving away a note of awe. Kiara smirked at her and then continued walking a few steps ahead with Ariana. Jade watched Weston help the larger player up. They bumped fists and the larger player ran down the field. Weston took his helmet off and turned, looking directly at Jade. He smiled while running a hand over his head. Jade grinned back at him and shook her head.
Before their eye contact lasted for too long, Jade turned on her heel and jogged to catch up with Ariana and Kiara. “Hey,” she said, having a burst of inspiration. “Want to watch the rest of football practice?”
“Why not?” Ariana said, squinting up at the sky. “We can get some sun.”
“Doesn’t matter to me,” Kiara said.
Jade grinned—now she could spy on Ian easily. And maybe he would see her too. She had worn one of her favorite teal sports bras today, and she couldn’t help but wonder what he would think of it.
The three girls walked along the backside of the field to the bleachers and plunked their bags down, claiming a spot toward the middle. There were a few groups scattered around the bleachers. Jade recognized a brunette with freckles dotting her face from an algebra class they had taken together last year, sitting with a group of sophomore girls Jade only vaguely knew. The brunette’s name was Holly, and they had been friendly enough. Right as Jade was about to wave, Holly scrunched up her nose and turned to her friends, seemingly to tell a story. The girls laughed as Holly spoke, turning to sneak glances at Jade every few moments, their eyes judging and sizing her up. Jade’s insides boiled—Holly and her friends had better chill out unless they wanted Jade to come down on them. Her muscles tensed as she got ready to stand up. If that little scene was what she thought it was…
“Ahh, isn’t this nice?” Ariana said, breaking Jade’s train of thought.
“AAAAAHHHH,” Kiara let out a ridiculously loud sigh of pleasure in agreement. Despite herself, Jade laughed, effectively cooling the rising anger in her bones. She turned back to the group of girls, who were now focused on the football field, giggling any time one of the players ran close to the bleachers.
Why should I worry about what they think? Jade thought. It’s not like she would change their minds by yelling at them. And besides, she wanted to enjoy this moment, not spend it worrying about some girls she didn’t even know, and that didn’t truly know her. And if they don’t know me, then maybe it is more about them than me, Jade thought as she stretched out and scanned the field, determined to spot Ian’s butt in football tights.
A few minutes later she found him and her stomach did a flip when she saw that he was staring directly at her. He was tall and lean in his uniform but built at the same time. Ian’s lips slowly parted into a sexy smile as he continued to stare, and Jade returned his smile, her head woozy like she had a slight buzz. After a moment, Ian turned and ran back down the field, leaving Jade smiling at no one with her cheeks burning. She checked herself, glancing at Ariana and Kiara to see if they had noticed, but Ariana was busy reading 1984 by George Orwell and Kiara had laid out on the bleachers with her eyes closed, her headphones surely spouting some Krishna chanting music.
Relaxing, Jade smiled again and fished her phone out of her bag, searching through her music for a song that sounded like Ian until she stopped on “Awake and Pretty Much Sober” by The Violents and Monica Martin. Ian was entertaining to watch—he was quick yet graceful on the field and no one seemed quite able to catch him. The plays slowly moved toward the bleachers, and Ian looked up at Jade now and again, each time smiling a little more when he saw her looking at him, too.
Kiara sat up. “I’m getting hot,” she said, wiping her glistening forehead. “Are you both ready?”
Jade nodded reluctantly as Ariana packed up her books. The girls began their descent with Ariana in front when Holly stood up and blocked their path as her friends looked on.
“Hey, Ari,” Holly said.
Jade’s insides were immediately boiling again. This girl thought she could talk shit and then come up and speak to her friends minutes later with no repercussions?
“Only our friends call her Ari,” Jade said, her voice as sharp as a razor.
The color drained from Holly’s face. She glanced back at her friends, looking embarrassed. Ariana shot Jade a look but Jade didn’t move her eyes from Holly. Funny that the girl’s freckled features seemed sweet and innocent up close.
“Sorry. I mean, I meant, Ariana,” Holly stammered.
“Hey Holly, don’t worry about her,” Ariana said in a coaxing voice. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Holly said, barely audible.
“Hi, Holly!” Kiara said brightly from behind Jade. Jade felt a sharp pinch on her back, but she didn’t give in and apologize.
“Hi, Kiara. Um, I wanted to say good luck with cheer tryouts. And I’m having a party in a few weeks that I wanted to invite you all to,” Holly said, keeping her eyes on the ground.
“Oh, that’s sweet, thank you,” Ariana said, smiling. “We’ll try to stop by.”
“Okay,” Holly said, looking up again. She didn’t meet Jade’s eyes. She seemed like she wanted to say something else but then muttered a hasty goodbye and quickly sat down with her friends.
“What was that, Jade?” Ariana asked once they had descended the bleachers.
“What’s your read on her, Ari?” Jade asked, ignoring the question.
“Holly? Why?” Ariana asked, her head tilting in surprise.
“Yeah.” Jade ignored the question again.
“I think she’s a little lost right now. I heard she’s going through a rough time at home. Her dad turned to drinking and messing with pills after losing his job and her mom is trying to help him but also get a divorce at the same time. It’d be nice if we went to her party… and were nice to her in general.”
“Shit,” Jade said.
“Yeah,” Ariana said. Her eyes ran over Jade’s face, then turned soft. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I just fucked up, is all,” Jade said.
Jade’s mind raced. The girl hadn’t deserved that. Not that Holly’s behavior should be excused, if it had even been what Jade had thought it was, but at least Jade understood now. She knew what it was like to have chaos at home and have the anger and emotions bleeding uncontrollably into school.
Jade decided to be nicer than usual when she saw Holly now. She let out a breath as a little weight lifted off her shoulders. She followed Ariana and Kiara away from the field, but not before turning to look for Ian one more time.
The players were further down the field again but she could have sworn she saw Ian following her with his eyes, watching her leave.