Cheer Squad Try-Outs

[Simon St James]

Simon bows, collects his things, and gives a thumbs up to the next person trying out, before heading to Mike, Jai, and... that girl. She was beautiful, as far as he was concerned. Maybe underclad, but still, she was beautiful. Only slowing for two steps, he smiled anew, and tore his eyes away from her to the others.

"Thanks, y'all," he exhaled before turning to Thunder Cricket. "You were the bomb, girl! If you don't make it, none of us should! Hi. I'm Simon."

There was just something he found attractive in these girls who didn't look like the average girl. He kept reminding himself there would be a settling in period, so he could get used to things, first. He really hoped he could make it that long.

"Uh... Guys, who are these nice ladies?"

[Stasis Kiss]

Was she ever going to show up?

He wasn't worried, really. At least he told himself he wasn't worried, trying not to watch the big clock above the basketball hoop count down towards doom. Mis glanced around the gym again, counting. After Siren, maybe those two and that kid that was kinda lurking in the corner. Maybe. If he was lucky.

If he wasn't lucky he was next. With Biff and the posse watching.

He had what, fifteen minutes tops? Twenty? He rubbed his hands together and hunkered forward. Started to mentally review what he'd practiced, trying to figure out what he could manage solo without looking stupid.

A cold wave of apprehension tightened the skin between his shoulderblades. He clued in a half second before hearing Jai's acknowledgement.

"Gyul?"

Twisting in his seat he saw Stasis slipping guiltily into place next to Ginga. He grinned in sudden, giddy relief. She'd come. She wasn't going to let him do this by himself. The he did a double take and nearly split his face open when he saw what she was wearing.

"Ayuh Mis, sorry 'm late. I didn't miss it, did I?"

Her voice sounded so forlornly hopeful that he almost hated to shake his head in negation. But the best part of the whole thing was Jai's expression. His carib friend reached out and rubbed a fold of red sleeve between his fingers as if to check its authenticity.

"Plenty of time, Stasi! We're just about to get started."

Stasis shifted in her seat, her bare leg brushing Jai's. This close he could see the scuff marks on her knees and a rather suspicious looking scrape. "That's what I was afraid you'd say."

"Sometimey, wat yuh don' wearin' me shirt?"

Stasis ducked her head. She seemed to suddenly find the calluses on her hands interesting, inspecting them with thorough care. She mumbled something unintelligible under her breath. Mis grinned, watching her breath steam and then dissipate.

Jai's voice was bemused. "I cyuh hear yuh." He ran a hand down her arm. The black bull on the front of the shirt rippled as she shrugged. Memory supplied the words "Charge!" printed underneath. "Dat why yuh late? Yuh busy borrowin' me tings?"

Stasis blew the hair out of her eyes and looked up a little defiantly. If she wasn't blushing it was a close cousin.

"Needed something for luck, Jai. S'only thing I could think of."

Mis coughed and turned around. Some things he really didn't need to see.

When something poked his shoulder he figured it was safe again. Sure enough Jai had wrapped an arm around her waist but that seemed to be about it. The poke in the shoulder turned out to be Stasi's foot.

"Ayuh. Wake up, Mis, coast is clear." She wrinkled her nose at him, obviously trying to disguise nerves. "Can we get this over with already?"

Mis glanced over to see how Siren was doing. She was pretty close to finished it looked like.

[Winged Siren]

Mis. was right, Siren was close to finishing, her routine was background music punctuated by serveral musical notes sung by Siren herself. She moved left and right, letting sex appeal do most of the persuasion for her. She was not however, without at least -some- evident talent, she twisted in ways that would require a deal of flexibility and practice. She finished her routine with a backwards cartwheel, followed by a backflip which she enhanced with her flying powers- sailing through the air wiuth grace before stopping several inches off the floor. As the music finishes, she bites her lip, then flounces off to the bleachers before settiling down next to Simon, rubbing herself against him without using too much tact.

[Barrier]

Biff whistled long and low as Siren rose from the far bleachers and took the floor. Jack straightened up a little and squinted, narrowing his focus. Tolliver leaned forward onto Barrier's shoulders, as though moving a foot and a half closer would somehow make the difference. Barrier didn't much care for the sudden intimacy, but she didn't say anything. At least they were staring at someone else.

"Dear sweet God," said Tollilver, practically salivating. "Tell me someone else can see her, right?"

"I can see her," Jack said absently.

"I can see most of her, actually," Biff said with a smirk.

Tolliver nodded, his eyes still consuming the light green girl's supple body. "Okay," he said, "glad I'm not dreaming. Now you two can fuck off and stop staring at my future girlfriend."

Barrier chuckled. Boys. But still, she thought, they had somewhat of a right to stare: Siren was wearing next to nothing, and what she was wearing wasn't much more than flimsy undergarments. She tilted her head back and looked up at Tolliver, still leaning on her. "You going soft, Tolliver? Gonna settle down, raise some green striped kids?"

Tolliver looked down at Barrier and winked. "I didn't say steady girlfriend, B."

Barrier smiled until she saw Tolliver's eyes unfocus from her face. She suddenly realized that from his vantage point, we was most likely getting a nice view straight down. She reached up with her right hand, grabbed his chin, and forced his head back up pointing it in Siren's direction. "Show's over there, Stripes," she growled.

Tolliver felt one side of his jaw pop from the pressure of her grip. "Got it, B. Sorry."

Barrier released his chin. Apology accepted. She glanced backwards towards Biff, wondering if he had seen. His eyes were still fixed on Siren. Barrier turned back around and watched the girl lift into the air and start a slow spin. Her thin cotton wifebeater rose above her slim tummy when she extended her arms over her head.

"Nipple," Biff declared like a referee.

"Where?" Tolliver asked immediately.

"What do you mean, 'where'?" Biff asked, annoyed. "On the basketball backboard. On the girl, stupid."

Barrier frowned, straining her eyes. "Bullshit," she said.

"I know what I saw, B," he answered matter of factly. As though there was no room to question it.

Barrier ignored his tone. "We're like a hundred feet away," she said. "It coulda been anything."

Biff snorted. "That is the stupidest thing I have heard all day. And I've been hanging out with Stripes most of the morning," he said.

Tolliver let it pass rather than look away. "I have to meet this girl."

Barrier was going to say more, but when she saw Stasis walk into the gym, she decided against it. Instead, she raised a hand and waved to her friend, but Stasis didn't notice. She was making her way over to Jai and Mike. Barrier waved a second time, but now she and Jai were nuzzling, kissing. Barrier thanked whatever diety had distracted her boys from that show with Siren.

She'll notice me eventually, Barrier thought. It hadn't even occurred to her yet why Stasis Kiss might have come.

[Misericorde]

Micheal finished his perusal of the floor with an explosive sigh, and palmed his thighs to stand up.

"Ok," he utters, to no one in particular. "Let's do this."

He spins about on one foot, grabbing Stasi by the forearm before she can forumlate an excuse or an avenue of escape. Michael winks at Jai.

"I promise to bring her back in one piece!" Jai shakes his head with a grin, and facepalms, Stasis style. After a moment, he shoos them away with a free hand. "Jus' go do what yuh must do," Jai replies, voice muffled by his hand.

Michael stalks off across the floor, Stasi in tow; she stumbles along slightly off-balance for a few steps with a half-hearted "Hey!" As they arrive at the table, Jas looks him up and down and rolled her eyes. Frankie leans over the table curiously. "Hey Mis...what's this?"

Michael releases Stasi's arm after half-dragging her to stand next to him. "We're here to try out for the squad. I brought some music..." he begins. Frankie quickly interrupted him with a hand held up. Stop.

"You're trying out...together?"

Michael flashes his winningest smile, and continues, "Yeah, I'd look kind of silly with pompoms and a skirt, so I figured we could try some stunting for our try-out. Maybe some acrobatics. We've been practicing really hard." Frankie eyes Mis skeptically, then looks sidelong at Stasi. "This true, Tara?"

Stasis mumbles something to the affirmative. The air around the table gets a little colder. She was definitely different around school than on the street. Michael nudges her in the ribs. "Yes!" she exclaims, before scowling half-heartedly at him.

"See?" Michael says innocently. "Nothing says we can't try out in tandem. We won't disappoint you."

Frankie eyes him suspiciously. "What are you up to, Mis?" He looks at Stasis, then over to Jai sitting alone in the bleachers. Then to Simon and Siren smiling at each other and talking. Finally, to Saskia, Hannigan, Tolliver, and the other kids watching in the bleachers.

Michael turns to Frankie, and places both palms on the table, leaning in. His expression as serious and earnest, his eyes as plaintive and open as he has ever been.

"Frankie, please...I...I need to do this. All I'm asking is a chance, to show you what we can do! Please!"

[FrancisCross]

Francis paused in thought and glanced over at Jasmine, who by now, was nearly cross-eyed with the effort of creating a huge bubble out of her chewing gum. Francis was pretty sure she had stopped paying attention shortly after the Faster/ November incident.

A heavy sigh pressed out of her lungs and she leaned in towards Misericorde with a sly smile.

"Alright," she whispered, "I'll go with it.....but lunch is on you tomorrow..."

She leaned back, bumping into the chair back.

"Next up...."

[Simon St James]

As the music finishes, she bites her lip, then flounces off to the bleachers before settiling down next to Simon, rubbing herself against him without using too much tact.

Simon watched the girl, and tried his best to disguise his arrousal by the girl, but was even further frustrated by her rubbing against him. Growing red, like a candied apple tossed into the snow, he looked to the girl. What was he going to say? He liked her attention, and he certainly wanted to get to know her. But, the words just wouldn't form.

Absolutely beautiful!

"Uhm, hi," she said as felt the lump growing in his throat, and tried to swallow it. "I'm... Simon."

He had to be a gentleman. His mother would have been so let down if he wasn't. Okay. Maybe he didn't have to be one, but, he had to act like one. Besides. There was no guarrantee this was going to go anywhere, and, he wasn't about to treat this girl like an object.

((May edit for response to the yet to be made previous replies))

[Barrier]

(No time to update. Just wanted to remind myself that Barrier is about to get really conflicted.)

[Faster Pussycat]

The cat was drawn by curiousity of the music.

She spied the French girl peering through one of the windows and crept over. The girl had a basket, and small ribbons of fake plastic grass tufted from the sides. The cat fought the urge to tear the basket away, rip all the grass out, and chew on it until she threw up. She had done such things before. She hated tinsel.

Suddenly, the girl laughed, dropping the basket all over the floor. The cat twitched, a primal urge rising.

The French girl started to gather up the wonderful small shiny foil eggs and the deliciously crinkly plastic grass. She was muttering to herself in her native tongue. She had not yet seen the cat. Her hands were moving swiftly, scrunching the grass back into the basket.

The cat was on the edge of reason. She noticed that at some point, she had dropped to all fours. She felt her tail twitching.

The French girl tried to gather up too many of the shiny foil eggs at once, and one of them popped from her grip and skittered dleightfully to the floor. Like prey.

The cat could resist no longer, and pounced.

[Kris O'Sullivan]

Kris approached the doors, dressed in what she thought was a very embarassing outfit, consisting of a pair of bicycle shorts and a t-shirt with a cracked and faded "Athletic Dept." on the chest. Seeing Faster pounce after something, and the response that was building from none other than Novembre, she quickly glanced inside and saw the crowd assembled.

This was not for her. Her face flushed with sudden panic, and she felt sick. She had no idea why she tought she could do this. It was a horrible idea. She couldn't handle being laughed out for screwing up, due to being nervous.

Quickly, the redhead turned and walked back toward the door. Each step became longer and quicker, without actually making her run. Her heart was in her throat and thundering like some sort of massive engine designed for ships or other very large vehicle, only driven by her fear and panic. She didn't want to be seen like this. It was too much for her to take. At least for the moment it was.

[November Bell]

November tucked a lock of hair behind an earpiece as she noticed the crouching shadow forming behind her. Just as she craned her neck to make out what it was, it lunged at her, knocking the baffled girl through the gymnasium door. Both the cat and she slid with a screech across the hardwood floors, the grass and eggs scattering everywhere. The music seemingly came to a halt. November was on her back and the cat was straddling her, her paws busily swatting at the bits of grass that tumbled through the air. Jasmine cocked her glasses down the bridge of her nose as she looked at the intrusive imps with an umimpressed gaze. Francis sat up with her teeth clenched in embarrassment for the two, stammering blinks now and again. The Peanut Gallery first gasped and then broke into a wild frenzy of cachinnations.

An absorbed Faster finally caught on and glanced away from the settling blades of synthetic grass to ponder the crowd. November, with a pained expression, propped herself up on her elbows, "Cretin! GET OFF!" Faster peered down at the piqued girl and she shrugged as she gathered herself to her feet, greedily grabbing a fistful of grass and two smashed eggs on the way up. She stared into the crowd with her arms cradling her precious bounty and assembled a raspy growl, "And what?" She turned, lifting her tail high in the air, and with a refined countenance, the elusive cat exited.

November slowly rose, her eyes prudently darting from face to face. She straightened and cleared her throat, "C-carry on now, enfants. Nothing to see here."

[Winged Siren]

As the music finishes, she bites her lip, then flounces off to the bleachers before settiling down next to Simon, rubbing herself against him without using too much tact.

Simon watched the girl, and tried his best to disguise his arrousal by the girl, but was even further frustrated by her rubbing against him. Growing red, like a candied apple tossed into the snow, he looked to the girl. What was he going to say? He liked her attention, and he certainly wanted to get to know her. But, the words just wouldn't form.

Absolutely beautiful!

"Uhm, hi," she said as felt the lump growing in his throat, and tried to swallow it. "I'm... Simon."

He had to be a gentleman. His mother would have been so let down if he wasn't. Okay. Maybe he didn't have to be one, but, he had to act like one. Besides. There was no guarrantee this was going to go anywhere, and, he wasn't about to treat this girl like an object.

((May edit for response to the yet to be made previous replies))

Oh Simon! *her brow furrows* You are turning very red! Is there Something that matter with you? Do you feel all fine? Let me feel your face..*Siren stands up inbetween Simons legs, placing both palms on his forehead, and taking in a deep breath that pushes her bust closer to his face, while making concerned-sounding sighs* You do feel slightly hot, shall I fetch the Nurse?....*she brightens* Oh! My name is Siren, she says while breaking into a dazzling smile.

[Simon St James]

Simons eyes widened in fear of where this was going, and whether he was going to be able to react properly. His heartbeat raced as he was afforded a more close view of Siren's cleavage, and he felt the flush expanding beyond his face to his neck and shoulders. Trying to take a slow deep breath to figure out what to do next, he was able to smell the girl, and what scent she may have been wearing. He certainly could smell the activity she'd just been through, and swallowed as his throat went dry. Reflexively, his hands went to the girl's waist, feeling her smoothe and fit form in his grasp. Remembering where they were, he pulled her around to sit in his lap instead, which only called attention to what had embarassed him to begin with.

"I, uhmm... Ah think Ah'll be okay. Maybe Ah should just git a breath of fresh ayuh."

[Winged Siren]

Siren squeals in surprise as Simon pulls her into his lap, and rests her hands on his shoulders as she listens to him talk. Her eyes widen in delight, as she exclaims "That sounds like fun! We should go get some!! And we could go to City of Gyros! Have you tried it yet? You have too! Even if you have, you should come with with me while I go- I'm hungry!" She says in about one breath. She jumps up and grabs on of his hands, "Come on! You want to come, right! It'll be fun I promise!"

[Simon St James]

Simon decides to take Siren's offer.