Chapter Text
Direct Message: riley🎀✨ @ ♡ Cai ♡
3:13 A.M. on Thursday, August 21st.
riley🎀✨: So, I was thinking! What if we made a group chat for the squad? 🐯🐯 Do you think they’d like it?? Or like, do you think they’d at least use it?
♡ Cai ♡: riley.
♡ Cai ♡: it is 3 in the goddamn morning
♡ Cai ♡: what the fuck?
riley🎀✨: Oh… is it?
riley🎀✨: … whoops!
riley🎀✨: Good morning, Cairo! ☀️
♡ Cai ♡: …………
riley🎀✨ So, back to the group chat. 📣 Do you think they’d like it? I was trying to figure out the best way to bond as a team throughout the year! I think it would be fun, but I wanted to get your opinion, too!
riley🎀✨: So, what do you think? ^^
♡ Cai ♡: i think im going to kill u
♡ Cai ♡: did u really wake me up for this?
riley🎀✨: You answered back right away, so you clearly weren’t sleeping, Cai…
riley🎀✨: You should really try to get a better sleeping schedule… I worry about you, you know?
♡ Cai ♡: …
♡ Cai ♡: u are unbelievable
♡ Cai ♡: i s2g riley u test me to the ends of the earth
riley🎀✨: Oh… :((
♡ Cai ♡: ugh. fine. look.
♡ Cai ♡: its not the worst idea ever
♡ Cai ♡: i mean anything is better than a sleepover
riley🎀✨: :(((((
riley🎀✨: I still wish I could have hosted that… everyone would have had fun.
♡ Cai ♡: they would not have
♡ Cai ♡: it was a murder scene waiting to happen
♡ Cai ♡: trust me everyone is much happier waiting to bond or whatever until school starts tomorrow
♡ Cai ♡: …
♡ Cai ♡: god school starts tomorrow
riley🎀✨: It does. This is why you should be sleeping, Cai! It’s our last first day of high school… You need your rest! 💤 💤 💤
♡ Cai ♡: i—
♡ Cai ♡: goodnight riley.
♡ Cai ♡: just try to go to sleep ok?
riley🎀✨: Goodnight, Cai!!! Sleep well!! 😃
♡ Cai ♡ has gone offline.
riley🎀✨ has gone offline.
Despite putting her phone down for the night, the redhead couldn’t sleep.
Her fingers itched to pick it back up and to keep texting Cairo, but it wouldn’t have been fair to keep her friend up just because Riley was nervous. It wasn’t as if it was exactly an uncommon occurrence. She and Cai had been friends for years now, but it was still hard for her not to consider herself a bother to the other girl. To everyone, really…
Riley turned over, wrapping her blankets more tightly around her. She thought about putting on something to listen to, just to keep her thoughts away. As usual, her parents were ‘out of town’ for the week (or month or year or however long it took them to get over the stress of having to pretend to be a family), so it wasn’t as if it would disturb anyone.
Curled around her phone screen, the redhead tapped it to pull it out of sleep mode. The familiar background, Cairo and her posing after their first game together back in sophomore year, made her freeze. Tomorrow was their last first day of school…
Riley wasn’t ready to say goodbye to high school. Maybe that was stupid, and she knew it. It was just… graduation meant that a certain someone might leave.
Alright, maybe she just wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Cairo.
Realistically, she knew that it wouldn’t be like that. Over the years, her friend had been the only thing constant. It wasn’t like Cai, as uninterested as she pretended to come across, to abandon anyone. Certainly not Riley. Still, knowing this and not panicking over the hypotheticals were too different things. The redhead curled herself even tighter into a ball, swiping the tears away before they threatened to fall.
Stupid thing to cry about, really. Cairo had just been talking to her. Cairo wasn’t going to leave her.
But what if she did?
The thoughts came unwelcomed, and the girl shook as she tried to get a grip. She needed to calm down. Riley had never been good at that, though, despite all her years of practice. It didn’t help that the house was so empty. She was used to that, too, but it never made her feel any less alone when the anxiety got too much. Holding herself tighter, she tried to count.
If she called now, Cairo would still be up. Really, if she called at all, her friend would answer. That was just who Cai was. It didn’t make it fair, though. It wasn’t fair of Riley to always use her like a crutch, even if the other girl had told her time and time again that she didn’t care.
She isn’t going to leave you. No one’s going to leave you. You still have one more year…
After a long time spent getting her breathing under control, the redhead finally fell into a fitful sleep.
Tomorrow is a new day, Riley. A better day.
… I hope.
Group Message: 🐯 Go Tigers! GCHS Cheer Group Chat!! 🐯
12:23 P.M. on Thursday, August 21.
Riley is now online.
Riley Williams has added Cairo, Kate, Annleigh, and three others to the chat.
Riley: Welcome everyone! ✨✨ I’m so excited to have everyone together and to be sharing the first day of school with all of you. As I’m sure everyone knows, I’m Riley, and I’m super excited to be your Giles Corey cheer captain for this year! Go Tigers!! 🐯
Kate has left the chat.
Farrah: that was fast
Cairo: well this is going great
Riley has added Kate to the chat.
Riley: Okay, first rule: please don’t leave the group chat! 😐 We need everyone here to be able to do announcements and make sure everyone bonds as a team!
Farrah: lmfaooo this is already hell. love that for us
Kate: i don’t want to be in this chat.
Riley: Well, I’m sorry you don’t like it! However, it’s important that we all stay here, so we can make sure that everyone receives important information! 📣 🏆
Kate: important information like what?
Chess: Kate… be nice.
Cairo: yeah kate listen to ur gf
Kate: she’s not my girlfriend. .
Kate: just get on with the information already.
Reese: !! Hi everyone !!
Riley: Hi Reese!
Cairo: whys reeses even here?
Riley: Cairo.
Cairo: …
Kate: yeah, cairo. listen to your girlfriend.
Cairo: die.
Riley: Cairo and I aren’t— I mean, we haven’t— I mean, that’s not important right now! 😶 Please make sure this chat stays a nice and positive environment for every member of the team!
Farrah: wow that was definitely not a no…
Annleigh is now online.
Annleigh: Who’s dating?
Annleigh: Oh! A squad group chat! This could be fun :-)
Cairo: kiss ass
Farrah: why did you give the emoji a nose? who does that?
Annleigh: That’s how God made him! ✝️
Kate: can i leave now?
Chess: Kate, please...
Reese: I think the emoji looks nice !!
Annleigh: Thank you, Reeses :^)
Farrah: hell is real and its this fuckign group chat
Annleigh: Farrah! Language.
Riley: Okayyy… great! Everyone’s getting along! I’m going to go ahead and add our newest member to the chat now. Make sure to be super welcoming, please!
Riley has added Mattie to the chat.
Riley: Everyone, this is Mattie Wheeler! Mattie’s a freshman, and her squad came second last year, so we’re very excited to have her as a Tiger. 🐯🐯 Please give her a warm welcome!
Mattie: Um, hi everyone!
Farrah: welcome to hell
Riley: Farrah, please don’t scare her! Mattie, don’t worry. She was just joking!
Chess: Hi Mattie!
Annleigh: Hi Mattie!
Reese: Hi Mattie!!
Farrah: it’s like a broken record in here
Cairo: sup freshman
Farrah: finally, some variety
Riley: Okay, great !! Well, the first order of business is that I thought it might be fun to personalize our nicknames here! That way, everyone has a chance to express themselves and have a little fun, too! ^^
Riley has changed their username to ‘rarariley’.
rarariley: See! Fun, right? 😊😊
Kate: have you never had fun or something?
Farrah has changed their username to ‘cairoandrileyrtotallydating’.
rarariley has changed cairoandrileyrdating’s username to ‘Farrah’.
rarariley: Okay, not like that!
Farrah: lame
Chess has changed their username to ‘checkmate’.
rarariley: Perfect! Thank you for demonstrating, Chess!
checkmate: No problem haha
Kate has changed their username to ‘kate’.
Cairo: dalton did u seriously just put ur name in lowercase
kate: you know nothing about aesthetics.
checkmate: Of course you would lol… I love it
Cairo: once again
Cairo: listen to your girlfriend.
kate: once again.
kate: shut up.
Reese has changed their username to ‘senior-spirit’.
rarariley: Cute!! Tiger pride!
senior-spirit: Thank you Riley!! 😊
Cairo has changed their username to ‘prom_princess’.
Annleigh has changed their username to ‘romans 8:28’.
Farrah: oh my god
rarariley: Annleigh… we really can’t keep bringing religion into school-related events and activities. We have talked about this before…
romans 8:28: This is just a group chat, though, right? So, I think it would be fine! :^)
rarariley: Well… I suppose so…
Farrah has changed their name to ‘satan 4:20’
prom_princess: lmaooo
romans 8:28: >:^(
romans 8:28: Farrah. No.
satan 4:20: farrah yes
rarariley: This is spiraling out of control more rapidly than I expected… 😔
prom_princess: u think
kate: i’m absolutely not staying here.
checkmate: Kate, you’re not allowed to leave me here lol
It was a good thing that Kate Dalton had mastered the art of concealing her emotions so deeply down inside her that people tended to doubt she had them. Otherwise, the entire math class would have seen her turn bright red.
Which meant, about four seats behind her and three to the left, Chess also would have seen her turn red.
The fact that there was a seating chart for the first day of class (seriously, who does that?) had annoyed the dark-haired girl enough. Being about as far away as the classroom allowed from her best friend had done very little to improve her mood during the period. However, as the nonsense that was whatever the fuck their cheer squad could be called continued to play on, Kate found that she was almost grateful for their distance.
It wasn’t as if it was the first time Cairo had made comments about her friendship with Chess, of course. Talk about projecting your own emotions on the wrong person. Just because the other girl was madly in love with her own best friend didn’t mean that Kate was pining after Chess. God.
Except, the annoying voice in her head always popped up at the wrong times, you definitely are.
Shut up.
Yeah. That was sort of the problem.
Kate snuck a glance back behind her when the professor had his back turned, looking at her best friend. Unlike her usual braid, Chess had left her hair down today, so it fell in these loose curls around her back. The rest of her was as familiar as breathing to the shorter girl, though. Blue-and white windbreaker and soft, brown eyes... Sometimes, Kate wondered why someone like Chess chose to spend time with her.
Unfortunately for her, Kate wasn’t as subtle as she thought she was. Within a few moments, Chess had turned in her direction. Her friend raised an eyebrow, both amused and vaguely surprised to find the younger girl staring at her, and then nodded in the direction of the teacher as if to say ‘ pay attention, you dork’ before returning to her own notes.
Dear God, she’s so pretty.
Kate slumped further into her seat and tried to keep her mind on the formula in front of her. It wasn’t a hard problem, but she’d always had trouble focusing in math class. Big surprise, huh, since she and Chess had been in the same period since Kate had started high school. It was really no wonder that her mind started to wonder. Her friend didn’t have the same problem, really. Chess had always been better at math and science that she’d been, anyway. She was more of a liberal arts kid herself, not that she’d ever admit that to anyone.
“Ms. Dalton?”
The dark-haired girl shook herself out of her thoughts just in time to release the whole class was staring at her. That was… unfortunate. The teacher, a stern looking, no-nonsense kind of man, was glaring at her impatiently. “Uh… yes, sir?”
“I asked, how would you go about answering this equation.” He nodded in the direction of the board.
Kate attempted to take in the problem, knowing full-well it would take her longer to solve it than she had to answer the question. Thankfully, she had perfected her snarky voice at this point in her high school experience. “Solve for x?” She said, flippantly.
Around her, several of the other students chuckled. Even the professor’s lip twitched upwards a bit, although he turned around with an eye roll for show. “Thank you for stating the obvious, Ms. Dalton. Now, would anyone like to be a little more specific?”
Class continued around her, letting Kate return relatively safely to using her phone under her desk. Riley’s cheer group chat from hell seemed to be continuing at full speed, judging by the amount of unread messages she had from it. Ignoring that, Kate also noticed a text from Chess. She shot her friend a smile across the desk, and was met with a wink that made the junior’s heart flutter.
She’s got to stop doing that…
Kate opened the notification on her phone.
Direct Message: checkers♟️ @ girl in red
12:59 P.M. on Thursday, August 21st.
checkers♟: Kate I’m crying
checkers♟: There wasn’t even an x in the equation
checkers♟: You are unbelievable sometimes, you know that?
girl in red: wait there wasn’t?
girl in red: fuck.
checkers♟: katherine—
girl in red: uhh… whoops?
checkers♟: LOLL
checkers♟: I love you
Alright, composure? Gone. Kate was absolutely bright red at this point. She had to hope that Chess was too absorbed in her phone to notice her. She decided to stare at the white board as intently as she possibly could, ignoring any possible… anything.
Why did Kate’s heart still flip-flop this much every time Chess said those words?
She looked back at her phone. No more messages, which made sense since it was Kate’s turn to reply. Quickly, she sent a message in response.
girl in red: love you too checkers
Another message caught her eye from the group chat. Oh dear Lord, there was so much going on—
Group Message: 🐯 Go Tigers! GCHS Cheer Group Chat!! 🐯
1:02 P.M. on Thursday, August 21.
romans 8:28: Cairo! There’s no need for that kind of language!
prom_princess: bitch im going to end u
Kate threw her phone back into her backpack and turned back to the board. Behind her, she could hear Chess’s stifled laughter at whatever Cairo was threatening Annleigh over this time. As good as Riley’s intentions had probably been, the brunette was pretty sure the only thing this chat would actually lead to was being a serious pain in Kate’s ass.
This was going to be a long year.