Chapter Text
First Day
Juliet rolls her eyes as she parks. The upperclassman next to her makes out with his giggling girlfriend against the side of his shiny truck, license plate still made out of paper.
It reminds her of Declan. And her.
Juliet O’Hara is 16 years old, and she has banned the word romance from her vocabulary for the rest of time. She has no intention of ruining her last two years with a boyfriend. Look at Mom, left at the mercy of the IRS by Frank. Look at her. She spent the entire summer crying, and for what? A stupid rich boy who broke her heart.
She has a plan for this year. Her grades are good, her background in cheer is strong, but with their bank accounts drained, she needs to be more than that for a scholarship. She needs to be someone college admissions wants plastered on the cover of their advertisement magazines: Studious, but involved; smart, but not stuck up. She needs letters of recommendation from highly respectable people and a resume that blows the rest out of the water. She isn’t here to play games. Kissing someone like that before class is out of the question.
She’s here to win.
Juliet checks her makeup in the visor mirror of her car. It’s just enough to cover any imperfections and then some.
She has to jiggle the key in the lock to lock the doors of the 2008 Accord; the lock button doesn’t work anymore, and every time she has to do this, she misses her old Chevrolet more than anything. They had to sell it to help pay for a lawyer. She knows she’s lucky to have this car at all- her cousin’s off at college and was forbidden by his parents to have it his first year- but she can’t help but want to yell at how unfair all of this is. She misses Miami. She misses her home. She misses her cheer team and Lizzie, her supposed best friend who stopped answering her texts after her dad was on the local 10 news. She even misses Declan, who broke up with her without batting an eye. If only she’d realized how horrible he was before she spent a year and a half with him.
Whatever. She doesn’t need friends or a boyfriend. And if she doesn’t like Santa Barbara, it doesn’t really matter. She’s only got two years left. Then she can go back, cheer for U.M. like she’s wanted since she was twelve.
She takes a deep breath and makes herself hold her chin up high as she walks up the steps of the high school.
Abigail
Stuffing all their belongings in her mom’s car and driving the thousands of miles wasn’t easy, but Juliet swears it was easier than choosing where to sit during lunch. She doesn’t do more than simply pass the cafeteria before realizing there’s no way she’s going in there. She ends up sitting in one of the benches in the hall, alone, on her phone. That is, until a voice interrupts her scrolling through the instagram stories of people she isn’t friends with anymore.
“Hey! Juliet?” She looks up to see a girl who was beside her in AP lang.
“Yeah. You’re Abigail, right?” They had hit it off after Juliet noticed a mini pom pom hanging off her zipper. They talked about how Juliet’s hoping to be accepted into the squad even though it isn't a tryout season, and Abigail had offered to talk to the head cheerleader about it. She’s pretty, beautiful really. She has light skin, with her wavy brown hair framing her face and sharp eyeliner. She’s the kind of girl that looks like she belongs in her skinny jeans and blouse and makeup, instead of playing pretend like Juliet feels she’s doing.
“My friends call me Abby. Why don’t you come sit with me?” She points towards the cafeteria. We’re over there-”
Riiiiiiing! Her invitation is interrupted by the bell. Juliet stuffs her lunch in her messenger bag and stands. She hadn’t been planning on making friends, but maybe she’s been a little too guarded. “What about tomorrow?”
“Definitely! That way you can meet the team. Here, give me your number.”
Cafeteria
Juliet walks with Abigail from the Humanities hallway to the cafeteria. They have more in common than she thought. They both like Taylor Swift, the show Criminal Minds, and of course, cheerleading.
The rest of the team is just as nice, scooting over to let her sit down. The Cheer Captain, Karen, introduces everyone by name. “I hope you’re able to get in,” she says, “There’s a spot open since Clara left over a few weeks ago. I know Coach is looking at the junior varsity team to fill it, but if you’re good enough, she might let you in.”
“I stopped by her office yesterday. She told me to come by after school Thursday.”
“Are you any good?”
Juliet blinks at the senior’s directness. “I got in varsity sophomore year, so I like to think so. We got first at state.”
Karen whistles.
“What!” Abigail excalims. “And I thought I was good!” She pulls out her phone. “Are there any videos of your team online?”
Panic spikes in Juliet’s blood. Snooping around on the internet could lead to Abigail finding out about Frank the second day of knowing their friendship. “No, but I’ve got some saved. Why don’t I-”
“ Abbyyyyy !!”
Juliet swivels to see a boy with a letterman jacket barreling in their direction, his annoyed looking friend walking behind him as he narrowly avoids hitting several people to get to the cheerleaders’ table. He gets there much faster than he should’ve, and for a split second, he’s staring at her and she’s not sure why, but she notices two things at once. One, she’s annoyed. He reminds her of Declan, taking up space without consideration, wanting attention 24/7. Frank always told her to trust her gut, and her gut’s telling her he’s nothing good.
And two… he’s cute. He’s muscular, with tan skinned and brown unruly hair, and he’s staring right at her.
“Hey, babe!” Abigail wraps her arms around mystery boy and kisses him long enough the cafeteria monitor yells at them to stop.
He squeezes his (hopefully) girlfriend. “Hey.” He’s gaze lingers on Juliet, who refuses to look away. She can’t stop thinking about Declan. Frank. Leaving people falling behind them without giving a shit.
Okay. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic. But really, he won’t stop looking at her, and he’s got a girlfriend, so what does he want? “What?”
“You’re in my seat.”
Juliet raises an eyebrow, anger flaring. “Am I?”
“Yes, you are, actually.”
“Shawn-”
“I didn’t know there were assigned seats here,” Juliet answers cooley.
“Shawn, be nice!” Abigail commands. “Buzz can scoot over and you can sit on my other side. This is Juliet. She just moved from Florida.”
Shawn cocks his head and holds his hand out, fingers splayed, for Juliet to shake. “Nice to meet you, Juliet from Florida.”
Juliet reluctantly shakes it, quickly turning back to the team. She ignores Shawn for the rest of the period, even if she can’t quite shake the feeling of his piercing hazel eyes.
Tryouts
Juliet has divided her goals into three sections: Education, extracurriculars, and cheer. Maintaining each will make her stand out when she sends universities her application next fall.
Go to university. Study criminology. Make her mom proud.
She was on track to be cheer captain senior year when it was all ripped from her. Now, she might have to wait until January to get on a team again. Unless this goes well. It’s such a rare opportunity, it must be for her. She’s still nervous.
She had emailed Coach Lutz the letter her old coach wrote for her when Juliet contacted him in July and links to their top performances. She’s lucky the team competed instead of only cheering at games and she has proof that she’s good, but now that she’s sent all her reinforcements, all that’s left is her. She has to prove she, an outsider, is worthy of the open spot.
They don’t have money to pay for a private team. She needs this.
And the girls on the junior varsity team are good.
All those trying out stand in a line in the center of the gym, while the varsity team sits on the bleachers, watching. Coach Lutz stands in front of them. Juliet smiles at her, but she doesn’t smile back. She whistles, and Karen comes running from the bleachers to stand beside her. “Okay, girls. We’re starting with a cheer. Watch and copy.”
Karen performs a quick cheer, and Juliet watches closely to memorize it. Clap, Up, Down, Clap, Forward, Back, Clap. Repeat. We are Santa Barbara’s Best! Bosseigh Bosseigh Bosseigh High!
They all do it together with Karen, and then it’s one by one. Juliet makes sure to project her voice. They do some jumps, repeat the cheer, and a few handstands and cartwheels. Then all but Juliet and two other girls are sent to the sidelines.
Coach takes them over to some mats. “One at a time, I want you to do some somersaults.”
She’s last.
“Go, Jules!” She instinctively looks in the direction of the shout as she’s taking off. It’s Shawn. He’s watching her! She loses her focus, takes off with her left shoulder in front of her right; there’s a second in the air where she thinks shit- then she lands with a thump on her back on the mat. She stares up at the ceiling. Get up!
Abigail gives her a sympathetic look from the stands, and Shawn won’t meet her eye.
“Let me try again,” she tells the coach.
“One more time.” Lutz frowns and waits in front of Juliet expectedly. Giving her ponytail a tug to tighten it, Juliet launches herself into the air again, not letting herself pay attention to anything else this time. Muscle memory takes over, and she lands on her feet with a grin. She holds her arms up for good measure.
“She can do a backflip too, Coach, just as good,” Karen says. “She showed us her videos.”
“All right, show us.”
Juliet straightens her shoulders. She crouches, pushing off from the mat, arching her back in the air, flipping backwards; she lands on her feet, like always.
Coach Lutz hands her a sheet: an order form for their uniforms. “Welcome to the team, O’Hara.”