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Chance Perez has always found the cheerleaders captivating. He had chalked it up to ‘puberty and his supposed attraction to girls’ or whatever. But deep down, he knows it’s not really the girls. It’s the way they dance around in sync and yell fun little cheers with bright smiles. And don’t get him started on their sparkly pompoms, the girls use them as an extension of their arms so easily. It’s sort of like how Chance treats basketball, honestly–
“Chance! Eyes on the ball!” his coach yells from across the court.
Right. Basketball. Chance was so distracted by the cheerleaders and their impressive flexibility that he forgot where he was entirely. He’s fallen behind while the rest of his teammates are up ahead practically defending their lives. It’s the second to last quarter and the scores are 74-60, the Hawkins Tigers in the lead. So in Chance’s opinion, they're completely fine. But, then again this team is pretty aggressive.
One of the players on the other team makes a point. Jason looks over at Chance, then to the coach. Seemingly getting the signal, his coach calls a time out with only 40 seconds left on the clock. The referee blows a whistle while the rest of Chance’s teammates slowly jog over. Chance sticks to the back and suppresses the urge to look over the cheerleaders again.
“H-A-W-K-I-N-S, we are definitely the best!” Chance can hear the swish of the pompoms and the squeak of the cheerleader's shoes.
“So, what the hell was that, Perez?” Jason exaggerates with his hands. All of his teammates' eyes are on Jason, then Chance. Jason has always had a weird way of commanding a room, no wonder he's team captain.
“Sorry I–” Chance starts.
“H-A-W-K-I-N-S, we are definitely the best!” the cheerleaders repeat.
“Basketball is a lot more than the chance to stare at a bunch of pretty girls in tiny uniforms,” Jason cuts him off, which honestly Chance is grateful for because he didn’t really have an excuse for his behavior.
Jason’s words don’t sit right with him, “Right,” he says anyways. The chants from the buzzing crowd is giving Chance a headache.
“Look, we're 74-62 but we still have the last quarter. A lot can happen in eight minutes. A lot of bad things.” Jason looks around at the team, “I want everyone to be in the zone, and on their best behavior,” his eyes drift to Chance, “So get your head in the game, man.”
Chance nods and the referee blows his whistle again.
*
“Hell yeah! That was awesome, dude!” Andy claps Chance on his back. He can only assume Andy is referring to Chance’s three pointer he scored with only five seconds to spare on the clock. Which, yeah, it was pretty awesome.
Ross grins at him. “Never doubted you for a second,” Chance raises his eyebrows at this, but smiles back. A couple more of his team members come closer to congratulate him, pat him on the back or nudge his shoulder as they walk into the team changing room. The team spirit after winning a game has always been Chance’s favorite thing about basketball. It’s double nice that Chance is one of the star players on the team, only second to Jason.
Now comes Chance’s least favorite thing about basketball. Chance stalls a bit before following Andy into the dressing room. He averts his eyes at the sight of his friends taking off their shirts. He shuffles around discarded jerseys on the floor and stops at his locker.
“That was an amazing play by the way,” Josh says to the right of him. Chance looks at him and decidedly doesn’t stare at his shirtless torso.
“Thanks,” Chance smiles and quickly averts his gaze again. He opens his locker and pulls out the shirt and a pair of pants he was wearing before the game. The ability of how quickly Chance can get changed should be studied.
“Hey good game guys,” he addresses the room, “I gotta head out early today again.”
There’s a cacophony of voices sounding their goodbyes and their ‘not again!’s coming from the Andy corner. Chance chuckles on his way out and turns the corner. He almost collides into Jason.
“Ah sorry Jason, didn’t see you there,” Chance smiles sheepishly.
Jason smiles, “Don’t worry about it,” Jason steps out of the way and places a hand on Chance's shoulder, “You did great out there, it almost made me forget how distracted you were in the beginning of the second half!” Jason laughs at this, clearly finding it very funny.
“Yeah, yeah,” Chance smiles in a playful manner.
Jason goes on, “But seriously man, you get a new cheerleading girlfriend or something? I mean no judgement here, believe me. I think when I first got with Chrissy I was distracted too.” Jason's face softens as soon as the cheerleader’s name leaves his mouth. Jason is a damn good basketball player but arguably better at being a smitten boyfriend.
“No, nothing like that,” Chance scoffs in amusement and waves his hand in dismissal. He wishes it was that simple.
Chance takes a deep breath, “But listen, I gotta hurry on out of here, you know how my parents get.” Well, actually, no. Jason has only met Chance’s parents once at a basketball team parent night thing. But, it’s the excuse Chance always uses whenever someone actually bothers asking why he leaves early so often.
“Of course, good luck then,” Jason salutes and smirks. He walks toward the team room, then looks back a final time, “See you at practice tomorrow, yeah?”
Chance gives him a double thumbs up back, “You know it!”
As soon as Jason turns into the room, Chance lets his smile fall. His hands find his pockets as he solemnly walks back towards the gym. He ignores the eruption of excitement from his teammates as they celebrate with their captain. He sighs and opens the door to the gym, immediately getting overstimulated again. On top of that, there's a group of kids running around, probably on a sugar rush. It makes Chance question the PTA’s decision to price the candy at the concession stand so low. There’s no way they can make a profit with that low of prices, right?
Chance’s eyes drift from the small children making a ruckus to where the cheerleaders were at during the game. All of them are gone by now, probably went to their own changing room after the game ended. A sparkly glint catches his attention. Two pompoms are laying on the shiny floor most likely discarded and forgotten by now. Before he can direct his legs someplace else, Chance walks up and picks them up. He hasn’t really had the opportunity to really look at the things that have distracted him for a while now. The pretty ribbons of orangey gold and metallic green are connected at a sort of base where the cheerleaders hold them by.
He finally looks up to see a familiar face in front of him:
“Chrissy! Hey,” Chance scrambles to return the pompoms to their rightful owner. “Sorry, I just saw these abandoned and was looking for who left them–” he slows his rambling, “–and I guess that would be you.” Chance scratches the back of his neck and slumps awkwardly. This really shouldn’t be as embarrassing as it is.
Chrissy laughs softly, then covers her smile, pompom in hand. “It’s okay, I’d rather you have them than some random kid. I left them here because–” she trails off and furrows her eyebrows, “Actually, Chance, do you think you could help me with something? The other cheerleaders have definitely left by now.” She says that last part more quietly, with a bit of sarcasm filling her words.
Chrissy Cunningham has always confused a part of Chance. He’s known her since middle school, she was known—or rather unknown—as the really quiet kid. Something had changed ever since she got into high school. Hell, she's the cheer captain for crying out loud! Not to mention she’s known across the school as ‘The Queen of Hawkins High’ (well, Chance supposes that title only surfaced after she started dating Jason, but still.)
She’s nice, does relatively well in classes, and is amazing at cheerleading. Minus the cheerleading part, Chrissy doesn’t really strike as a ‘miss popularity’ type to Chance. But, her and Jason have won Prom King and Queen all the years they've been here and Chance certainly hasn't. So it’s not like he knows anything.
Chance smiles after a moment. “Sure,” he says, “It’s not like I have anything else to do.”
Chrissy’s eyes light up at the reply, which is when Chance notices how…tired she looks. There are dark circles under her eyes, poorly concealed like she was in a rush or something. The struggles of being head cheerleader, he supposes.
Chance follows after Chrissy’s quick steps.
*
“They don’t look too heavy,” Chance eyes the five blue rolls in front of him. “What are these even used for?”
Chrissy looks at him like he’s a little stupid, “You didn’t see us using them during halftime?”
Chance thinks back and can only remember the sparkly pompoms.
“Uhhh–no?” Chance admits.
Chrissy laughs again. She has a very nice sounding laugh, maybe that's why she's so popular. Now that Chance thinks about it, Chrissy is also very pretty. She's not his type, but he can't blame her. It seems to him like no girls are his type. Which is something he really doesn't want to think about right now.
“They're tumbling mats. It's what we use to do stunts like flipping and stuff. It's mainly there for safety precautions, y’know, to break our falls and stuff.”
Chance nods in understanding, “And you need help moving them then?"
"Yeah. You see those circle platforms with the wheels? We just have to push the mats on top of the platforms, that way they can be moved to the storage closet easier.”
Chance takes a note of the platforms and nods again, “Just tell me where I can help.”
Chrissy gives him a grateful look, “Just keep this steady for me.” She walks over to one of the platforms and pushes it towards Chance with her foot. “Then I’ll lift this mat onto it,” Chrissy pats the mat next to her. He wheels the platform closer to where Chrissy begins to bend down.
“Are you sure you don’t want to switch jobs?” Chance looks at the big roll in front of him, it actually looks pretty heavy.
Chrissy smiles, “It’s my job as a cheerleader to be able to lift people up, I’m fine.”
It goes like that, Chrissy lifts the mats onto the platforms while Chance holds the platform still. They do it five times, each for the number of mats.
Once they finish, Chrissy claps her hands together, “That should be it! Thanks for all of your help Chance.”
He doesn’t know why he asks this next question, “I can help you wheel them back to the closet if you’d like,” he offers. “It would go a lot faster.” That part is true, it would go a lot faster. The thing is, Chance is just really curious to see more about what it’s like to be a cheerleader.
Chrissy looks like the thought hadn’t even crossed her mind, “Oh!” she pauses and bites down on her lower lip, “Only if you want to help, I feel bad already making you do so much.”
“I really don’t mind, I like to do things for others,” Chance says. He internally cringes, maybe that was a little too weird of a thing to say. Chrissy doesn't seem to mind though. She smiles brightly and turns her attention back to one of the now transportable mats.
“Here I’ll take this one, pick whichever one you want,”
Chance chooses the one next to her and follows her into the cheer room. It’s tucked in a little hallway near the bleachers. Chance abandons his mat of choice to hold the door open for Chrissy.
“Thank you,” she smiles politely. She pushes it in further and turns around to hold the door open for Chance.
“No, thank you,” Chance parrots. Chrissy laughs.
They go back taking two mats again, holding the door for each other. It's nice.
Chrissy makes good company, it's the kind of company he could get used to. But…well. It's not exactly normal for girls and boys to be friends, especially not in the circles he's in. And it's even worse when Chrissy is dating a person Chance would consider to be one of his closest friends. And it's not like he’d do anything. God, Chance really doesn't want to think about this right now.
They go back for the final mat, which Chrissy insists on taking. Chance walks beside her making some small talk.
“So why’d the other cheerleaders leave so early anyways?” he asks.
Chrissy sighs, “It’s been something we’ve been struggling with lately, honestly.” They make it to the room and Chance, one again, holds open the door. Chrissy smiles in acknowledgement and goes on.
“Even with practices, I feel like they’ve lost the commitment to stay the whole time. A lot of the girls come late or leave early.” Chrissy pushes the final mat into the room.
He shrugs, “It might be because we’re halfway through the season. I’m sure the commitment will return once we get closer to the season’s end,” Chance kicks at the floor. Chrissy walks back down the hallway to where they’d come from. All the families watching the basketball game have left by now and she sits down on the closest seat on the bleachers.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Chrissy begins to fidget with her hands. Chance moves to sit down next to her. “But…ah never mind.”
“Wait what?”
“No, it’s kinda stupid anyways,” Chrissy says dejectedly.
“Aw, c’mon!” Chance nudges her foot with his, “I say stupid stuff all of the time.”
Chrissy smiles at this. “You? No wayyy,” she says, her smile growing. She stops fidgeting and folds her hands onto her lap. “I just think it reflects my ability as the cheer captain then it does the cheerleaders themselves,” Chrissy looks down at her feet. “And maybe, if I were a better captain, then they wouldn’t want to miss any part of practices or stay to clean up after games.” She tilts her head up, looking at the ceiling, then back to Chance, “See? Pretty stupid.”
Chance stays silent for a moment. He furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Who the hell wouldn’t want you as a cheer captain?” He huffs, those girls don’t know how lucky they truly are. “It’s not stupid, Chrissy. Not in the slightest. They’re the stupid ones for taking cheerleading for granted.”
She raises an eyebrow and a small smirk forms on her mouth. “If I didn’t know any better, it’d sound like you wanna be a cheerleader much more than any of my girls do,” she laughs, obviously going for a joking tone.
Chance goes bright red. It doesn’t matter if she was joking or not, she still hit a nerve.
“W-what? No way! Well–I mean obviously I appreciate what the cheerleaders do, cheering on the team and stuff, but it’s not like I would want to be up there with those–those pretty pompoms jumping around–”
Chrissy cuts off his painful rambling, “Right, no. Of course not. I was just joking.” She smiles and looks in front of her, probably wanting to avoid eye contact. She purses her lips and looks back to him. “Well, nothing would be wrong with that. I mean if you actually wanted to be a cheerleader.”
The soft smile on her face somehow calms him down enough to speak. Chance lets out a quiet, “Yeah?”
“Yes. And I really mean that. You have more enthusiasm for the sport than all of my cheerleaders have combined!” Chrissy bumps his shoulder with hers.
Chance looks down, face still red. “I-I don’t know about that…” The jig is clearly up, there's no more denying that he’s considered the prospect hundreds of times. Chrissy could see right through his facade, which makes sense, considering he has a hard time concealing his true feelings.
“Wait here a sec,” Chance looks up to see Chrissy jumping up from her seat and practically running towards the cheer room. He does wait, despite the fact he would love nothing more than to run out and never speak to Chrissy about this stuff again.
She comes barreling back with something in her hands–oh god those are pompoms. What on Earth is she planning?
“Here,” Chrissy drops the pompoms in his lap, “This is the extra pair we keep in the back.” she smiles so genuinely that Chance can feel the tears already pricking at his eyes. Goddamnit, don’t get so emotional about this.
“Thanks Chrissy, it really means a lot.” He grins, this will probably be the best gift he’ll ever receive.
“We should hang out some time,” she continues with a matching grin, “I can teach you some of our cheers.”
“You’d really do that for me?” Chance sounds pathetic right now, but he can’t help it. He’s never been this vulnerable with someone before.
Still standing, Chrissy puts her hands on his shoulders, “I think it would be really fun to teach someone new,” she says it with such honesty that it erases any doubt Chance had. “Are you free after school on Fridays?”
Chance smiles, looks down at his newly acquired pompoms then back to Chrissy. He couldn’t be more grateful to have a friend like her.