What I Learned From Being a Cheerleader

   Dear Diary . . .

The Cross Creek Middle School sixth grade cheerleaders are as follows:

Ashley – Mean.

Cheryl – Mean.

Sheila – Our captain – Probably mean.

Kathy Whitmore – The prettiest girl in the whole class – Hasn’t really done anything mean to me (that I know of – yet.)

Donna Dorsey – Also popular and pretty.

 (See above.)

Me, ( Elaine)  – Super nice. (Or, at least, I try to be nice if people actually let me.)

No one ever tells you when you become a cheerleader that there is so much spelling involved.

V-I-C-T-O-R-Y spells victory!   And

B-E   A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E 

I guess all this spelling will be helpful if I’m ever in a spelling bee or something like that. And, this also goes to prove that cheerleaders are not stupid.

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead,) events or locations is entirely coincidental.

Bell Bridge Books

PO BOX 300921

Memphis, TN 38130

ISBN: 978-1-935661-75-7

Bell Bridge Books is an Imprint of BelleBooks, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 by Adrianne Ambrose

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

We at BelleBooks enjoy hearing from readers. You can contact us at the address above or at BelleBooks@BelleBooks.com

Visit our websites– www.BelleBooks.com and www.BellBridgeBooks.com.

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Cover design:       Debra Dixon

Interior design:       Hank Smith

Cover Illustration: Ted Naifeh

Interior Cheerleader: © John Takai @ Dreamstime.com

Author Caricature: Monica Gallagher, www.eatmylipstick.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my mom, for being a great mom. Thank you for giving me a love of reading, writing, learning, travel, history and adventure.

Special thanks to: Jason Carrick, Debra Dixon, Michael Glaser, DS (for your sage advice), Deborah Smith, everyone at Bell Bridge Books and Mrs. Stevens.

Many thanks to my friend Ted Naifeh, who created the cover art for this book. Ted writes and illustrates the Courtney Crumrin books and the Polly and the Pirates books for Oni Press. He also illustrated Death, Jr. for Image Comics, and does lots of other super cool stuff. Check out his amazing worlds at www.tednaifeh.com.    

Last but not least, applause for my fabulous author picture (see the last pages of the book) goes to writer and illustrator Monica Gallagher, who created the webcomic Bonnie N. Collide, Nine to Five among many other fascinating things she does. Visit Monica at www.eatyourlipstick.com.

And hey, if you want to visit yours truly, by that I mean ME, come see me at www.adrianneambrose.com.

Dear Diary . . .

Saturday September 26

Today is my eleventh birthday, and I’ve received the following presents:

From my sister Amy:

A pack of gum–Juicy Fruit.

A blue ball–Bouncy.

She’s only five, so that’s pretty generous for five.

From Mom:

New shoes–Really cute! Perfect for school.

A new watch–Green! Now I’ll always know what time it is. For example, right now it’s 6:37 p.m.

This diary–Mom said it’s the perfect time for me to start keeping a diary, because Amy is too young to read it. Mom promises she won’t read it unless she thinks I’m on drugs or instant messaging some weird old guy on the internet. I would never do either of those things, so I guess my private thoughts are pretty safe.

There’s another reason I really wanted this diary that I didn’t tell Mom. It’s because sometimes I find it hard to talk about stuff. I mean, I talk about stuff like a normal person, but then sometimes I hold stuff in, and I get really anxious and stressed out about it. Writing in a diary is like having a best friend you can tell everything to and know, no matter what, that they won’t blab. At least that’s what I hope it’s like. I think it’ll be cool to be able to get stuff off my chest and not feel like a total freak about it.

I also got a G.I. Joe action figure from my friend Tim. He gave it to me after school on Friday because he had a doctor’s appointment and couldn’t make it to my party. It wasn’t wrapped or anything and I’m pretty sure he just grabbed it off his shelf. He also gave me a handmade card that said Happy Birthday Elaine and drew a Cyclops beheading a unicorn. Mom says it’s the thought that counts.

9:01 p.m. - I love my new watch! I can’t stop looking at it!

It was kind of a small party. None of my friends could make it. Grandma didn’t even come over, which was weird, but in a way it was a lot nicer than when she does come over. After we had cake, Amy and I tried to see who could bounce the blue ball highest off the sidewalk in front of our apartment. I let her win a lot, because that’s what big sisters do.

9:52 p.m.

P.S. If diaries are for keeping secrets, then here is a HUGE one. I am going to try out to be a Cross Creek Middle School basketball cheerleader! I can’t think about it anymore, or I’ll never be able to sleep!

Sunday September 27– 8:12 p.m.

Grandma came by for my birthday today! Seriously! When Mom told Grandma it was yesterday, she said, Nonsense! I should think I know the birthday of my only granddaughter. When I pointed out that Amy was her granddaughter too, she said, Of course she is. I never said she wasn’t.

Grandma gave me a huge present wrapped in silver paper with pretty pink netting making a giant bow. I got totally excited, but when I opened it, here’s what was inside:

A white slip–Boring.

A beige slip–Extra boring.

Three pairs of socks–White with lace around the ankles–Uhmmm . . .

A training bra–Really embarrassing!–Gee Grandma, thanks for noticing.

A pair of white gloves. White gloves!

When I asked Mom about it later she said, In a way your grandmother is still living in the nineteen-fifties.

Grandma spent the rest of her visit saying things like, This party isn’t very festive, and It’s rude to cut the cake before all the guests have arrived. I could tell Mom was really mad, but Grandma pays for Amy and me to go to school, so Mom usually doesn’t say anything.

I know it wasn’t a smart thing to do, but I asked Grandma if my dad maybe sent a present or anything. She said, Elaine, your father is too busy to worry about that kind of thing right now. She also told me, You shouldn’t be so greedy. It’s unladylike to beg for presents. That’s when Mom told Grandma that the party was over and it was time for her to go home. Grandma said that was fine because she was getting a headache. She gets a lot of headaches.

9:37 p.m.

Now that I think about it, I’m kind of mad at Grandma. I wasn’t begging for presents! I just wanted to know if Dad remembered my birthday. My dad almost never remembers my birthday. It used to make me feel really bad. But now that I’m eleven, which is practically a teenager, I am not going to worry so much about those kinds of things anymore.

After Grandma left, we had fun dressing Amy up as a bride. We put her in the gloves, the white slip for a wedding dress and used the pink mesh from the present as a veil. She looked really cute, and it made me feel a lot better. I have to go to sleep now, because starting after school tomorrow, I have to learn the cheers for cheerleading tryouts. I’m kind of worried about telling Tim what I’m doing, because he kind of hates most of the popular boys and a lot of them are on the basketball team.

Monday September 28 - 2:16 p.m. Study Hall

I don’t know if I’m allowed to write in my diary during study hall, but I don’t really have any homework. So I guess it’s okay.

I brought the white gloves to school today to show Tim during lunch. We had fun putting them on and inspecting the table for dust. We sit at one of the small, non-cool tables with my friends Bethany and Linda. As usual, Bethany just read her book. She loves reading and doesn’t really care what we do. But Linda made it really obvious that she thought we were stupid. She shielded her eyes with her hand and turned her head away from our table, as if she was too embarrassed to even look at us. Linda really, really wants to sit at the popular table.

On the first day of school, all the popular girls and trying-to-be-popular girls ran to one of the big tables in the cafeteria and grabbed seats. I didn’t know what was going on, and by the time I figured it out, there were twelve girls crammed around a table for eight. The popular boys did the same thing at a different table. I wanted to sit with Tim anyway, so I guess it’s not that big a deal. We are the only co-ed table at Cross Creek Middle School. Bethany doesn’t really care about being popular. If she sat at a table with all those girls talking all the time, then it would make it harder for her to read. Linda wasn’t fast enough to get a seat at the cool table, so she had to decide which table was the next least losery. She picked us, even though she spends most of her time running over to the cool table and whispering in some girl’s ear. If anyone is ever sick at the cool girls’ table, Linda eats with them instead of us. Bethany said she thinks Linda spends every morning checking the attendance sheet to see if anyone is absent.

Bethany was out of town with her parents over the weekend so she couldn’t come to my party, but today at lunch she gave me a present. For a minute, I was totally excited, but it turned out to be a book. Seriously. It’s called Animal Farm, and there’s a pig wearing a hat on the cover. It’s not even a cute pig, but kind of a mean looking pig smoking a cigar. I’m not sure Bethany really understands what makes a good birthday present.

Linda gave me a pair of really pretty hair clips that look like tortoise shell with blue rhinestones. I love them! I put them in my hair right away, but then I felt bad because I didn’t even invite her to my party. I mean, we’ve been friends since we both had Mrs. Lehman in third grade, but she spends so much time ignoring me lately that I didn’t really even think about inviting her. I guess I should have, because we do sit together for lunch almost every day. So, I didn’t know what to say, and I was feeling totally stupid until Tim came to the rescue by asking what else my grandmother gave me. I told him about the socks, but did NOT mention the training bra. We all laughed at Grandma coming a day late to my birthday. Everyone but Linda, of course, she was too busy texting someone and pretending like she didn’t know us.

5:43 p.m.

The most important part of today was the start of cheerleading tryouts. Tim was really surprised when I told him I couldn’t go to the comic book store after school, which we do almost every Monday.  That’s when they put out the new comics and mark down the stuff that goes on sale. I tried to not tell him what I was doing, but he guessed pretty easily. He gave me a funny look, like I was doing it to hurt his feelings or something, then he said, You know they’re going to be mean to you, right? When I asked him what he was talking about, he said The other cheerleaders. You know they won’t be nice to you. It’s not going to be any fun. But that’s stupid. We haven’t tried out yet, so he doesn’t even know who is going to be on the squad. I think Tim has a prejudice against cheerleaders.

Bethany was there too. She just rolled her eyes and said, Being a cheerleader isn’t going to make you popular, you know.  It’ll just make you part of the herd. That made me mad, and I almost gave her back the book she gave me. Instead I said, I am not trying out to be popular! I’ve just been taking ballet for a really long time and I want to try something new. But then she said, I’ve been taking classes with Mrs. Stevens just as long as you have and I wouldn’t be caught dead trying out for cheerleading. In a way, Bethany is right. We’ve both been taking ballet at Steven’s Dance Studio since we were six, and Bethany is the best in our class. Mrs. Stevens wants to put her on pointe, but her mom won’t let her because she says the shoes will deform Bethany’s feet.

Anyway, tryout practice went pretty well. They showed us two simple cheers which were super easy for me. I’m used to learning dance routines because Mrs. Stevens is very strict. Linda was there too, but she ignored me most of the time. The only bad thing is when Ashley Little was in front of me in line at the drinking fountain. She acted like she was looking me over, then stopped at my new barrettes. Then she said in this really snotty voice, Who are you trying to be?

9: 07 p.m.

P.S. What does that even mean?

9: 52 p.m.

P.P.S. I know Bethany thinks being a cheerleader is stupid, and I know that as a ballerina I’m not supposed to even want to be a cheerleader, but I still do. I know Tim thinks being a cheerleader won’t be any fun because I’d have to hang out with all the popular kids, and they only like sports and clothes and stuff that Tim finds really boring.

But, I don’t care! My favorite part of ballet is in the spring when we do a recital. And it’s not at the studio. We perform in an auditorium with a stage and costumes and everything. It’s almost like being a real ballerina, except no one has to pay to get a ticket because it’s free. I think cheerleading will be a lot like doing a recital, but you get to perform a lot more. I don’t care what anybody says, I know it’s going to be fun.

11: 28 p.m.

Triple P.S. Now it’s really late, but I can’t fall asleep. I keep thinking about what Bethany and Ashley said. I have always wanted to be a cheerleader, and I don’t care if it doesn’t make me popular.

Except, if I was a cheerleader then maybe that would make me stand out a little. Then maybe a cute boy like, I don’t know, Todd Watson might notice me.

Tuesday September 29 - 8:50 p.m.

I am the most average person on the planet. I’m not tall or short. I’m not fat or skinny. I’m not pretty or ugly. I don’t have blonde, red, or black hair. If I walk past someone on the street, the thing they remember most about me is nothing. Seriously! I’m that average. That’s one of the reasons I want to be a cheerleader.  When you’re wearing a cheerleading uniform, people notice you. Boys notice you. Boys like Todd Watson notice you. It’s like they have to recognize you because you’re a cheerleader for their team. They have to be nice to you. Maybe you don’t get to date them, but at least they know you exist.

Wednesday September 30 - 2:22 p.m. - Study Hall

Bethany is still down on me for trying out for cheerleading. She thinks I’m only doing it to be popular, but that’s not true. Maybe I want to be a cheerleader so that I can be more involved with school activities. Mom’s always saying that’s something I should do. And even if being a cheerleader did make me a teeny, tiny bit more popular, so what? Would that be such a disaster?

5:56 p.m.

Mom heard me practicing cheers in my room this afternoon and asked me what I was doing. After I told her, she said, Good for you, Elaine. I think that’s a great idea. She likes Bethany and Tim a lot, but she has always encouraged me to broaden my interests and make more friends.  This isn’t as easy as it sounds, but she thinks it’s important for me to become a well-rounded adult. Mom was a football cheerleader when she was in high school, and she said she’d like to help. So now I have somebody who actually knows what she’s doing to tell me if I look stupid or if I’m doing something wrong.

9:15 p.m.

After dinner, I was helping Amy make pompoms out of newspaper when Grandma called and asked to speak to me. When I got