Their trek led them past some large double doors. Alicia gestured animatedly toward them. “In there is the gym. That's where the cheer magic happens! We'll be having tryouts in there today.”

Chase was dying to see inside and was about to request a look, but she became distracted by something. Mounted on the wall next to the gym doors was a large glass box. Inside were all kinds of strange gilded statuettes and cups, blue ribbons, photos of groups of students in bulky uniforms, and other miscellaneous knick knacks.

“What this?” she asked.

“Oh,” said Lindsey, “that's the trophy case.”

When Chase heard the word 'trophy', she expected to see some human body parts, but there were surprisingly few.

Alicia clenched a fist passionately as she admired the case's glimmering contents. “A monument to school spirit and the Sunnycrest will to overcome and win. Each trophy, a triumph of dedication, perseverance, and school unity. Each one containing the heart, the soul, the dreams of an athlete, with all of Sunnycrest joined behind them to cheer them on. If this doesn't set your cheerleading fervor ablaze, nothing will.”

Chase was thoroughly romanced by this presentation. She looked at the trophies with awe, trying to read the names and dates on them.

As she passed a photo of a lacrosse team, she was surprised to see a small cluster of statuettes depicting mini cheerleaders. “Cheer!” she said, pointing excitedly.

“Oh yeah.” Caitlin nodded. “Our school's even won some state cheerleading championships. Before our time though... back in the eighties.”

Alicia put an encouraging hand on Chase's back. “I bet once you make the team, you'll lead us back there! Wouldn't that be great?”

Chase did think it'd be great. She had no idea cheerleading could be competitive, and since she was a competitive person, this news only made her more excited to get started. She wanted to win one of those trophies, not just for herself, but for her new friends, for the squad, and for the school.

“Speaking of her making the team,” added Caitlin. “I was going to mention this earlier, but does she really need to try out at all? I mean, you're the captain, Alicia. You've seen how good she is. Can't you just kind of grandfather her in?”

One corner of the redhead's mouth tugged itself upwards in the facial equivalent of a shrug. “I wish I could,” she said helplessly. “It's not that easy, though. Both the captain AND the assistant captain have a say in who makes the cut, remember?”

She said this in a measured way (especially the 'assistant captain' part), as though trying very hard not to alarm anyone. It would take more measure than she possessed to keep from alarming Caitlin, however. “Oh yeah,” she worried.

“I forgot about that,” said Lindsey uneasily. She cast a glance at the confused Chase, then looked back at Alicia. “Should we... be concerned?”

The captain smiled reassuringly. “She's not THAT bad, you guys. I'm sure once she sees how good Chase is, she'll warm right up to her.”

Chase had no idea what they were talking about. “Who not bad?”

Almost on cue, flashes of a cheerleading uniform were spotted parting the crowd of students on its way over to them. The timing was so convenient, Chase realized this had to be the girl they were talking about.

When she emerged, Chase was a bit surprised. All the cheerleaders she'd met so far had similar body types to her own: A bit on the tall side, a bit on the leggy side, a bit on the athletic side, a bit on the busty side. But this girl looked completely different. She was not on any of these sides.

She had a very petite body: half a foot shorter than any of them, and very skinny, with thin, smooth, pale legs and arms that made her think of the mannequin she'd chewed on. Like Chase and Lindsey, she was a blonde, but the shade was much lighter, almost platinum. Her hair was long with straight bangs, and had such a striking shine that Chase almost believed it could show her reflection. It occurred to Chase that she was very beautiful, but with a sort of haughty sourness about her that suggested she could also get very ugly when she wanted to.

What was impressive about her was that despite her small stature, she carried an imperious air that somehow made her seem bigger than any of them.

“Oh!” said Alicia cheerfully. “Hey, Victoria!”

“Hey, Alicia,” answered Victoria, giving Alicia a disdainful look. “I like the hair. Glad to see you're taking tryouts seriously.”

Alicia turned red. Unconsciously, her hands flew to her hair to try and smooth it. “I, I didn't have time to get ready today. I'll fix it during lunch.”

“Well, I certainly hope so,” snobbed Victoria, putting a hand on a slender hip. “You have to set a positive example for the new recruits. Being the CAPTAIN and all.” She said the word 'captain' with a disgust that could not be expressed any more clearly.

She turned her attention to the others, giving them a cold smile. “Caitlin, you look nice today. Lindsey, I heard you had fun after the game Friday. Thanks for all your hard work reinforcing the stereotype that cheerleaders are sluts. I mean that.”

Victoria didn't give Lindsey time for so much as a “you're welcome” before her interest migrated to Chase. Her eyes gave the girl a quick once-over, and she asked, “Who's this?”

“Oh! This is Chase!” chirped Alicia. She sensed the atmosphere was getting a bit apprehensive, so she dialed up the perkiness to combat it. “She's trying out today!”

“Oh, really?” judged Victoria. She gave Chase a twice-over now, as well as a brief orbit of inspection. “Well, you have the looks, Chase. I'll give you that. But do you have the skill?”

Chase enthusiastically pumped a fist in the air, a surprising motion that made the small blonde jump in surprise. “Chase got skill! Cheer good!”

For a moment, Victoria looked perplexed, but this soon changed to a smirk of condescension. “Oh? 'Got skill', have you? That's excellent. We always need people who 'cheer good.'” She looked at the other three girls. “Is she a friend of yours?”

“Yeah, she's our friend. What about it?” asked Lindsey hotly.

Victoria waved a hand. “No, nothing! It's just... she's not the brightest, is she? You must be very patient people.”

“She's actually really sharp, she's just, uh, European. She doesn't speak much English yet,” explained Alicia.

“But she heard all about the cheerleaders in America.” added Caitlin. “The only thing she was able to take with her from the old country when the raids started was the desire to cheerlead she carried in her heart.” Bit by bit, they were fleshing out her backstory.

Victoria frowned when she heard this. She glared at Chase. “Well. Seems like you've got your sob story all packaged and ready,” she withered. “It might have worked on a moron like Alicia, but I'm a bit more discerning. If you want to make the squad, you'd BETTER blow me away. End of story.”

“How do you do that?” asked Caitlin, mystified.

“How do I do what?”

“Crane your neck to look down on someone.”

Victoria looked incensed, but when she spoke, she was calm and composed, her anger boiling just below a placid surface. “Yes, ha ha, Victoria's short. Very funny,” she smoldered, pointing at Caitlin. “But there will come a day when I'm the captain of the squad, Caitlin. And when that day comes, you'll regret that. If you're lucky, I'll just take you and your little friends off varsity. But more likely, I'll kick you off the squad altogether.”

“Yeah, well, you're not going to be captain, ever, as long as Alicia's around. So get over it,” said Lindsey. “Or crawl under it. Might be easier for you.”

“C-c-come on guys! We're all on the same squad! Let's not fight!” suggested Alicia brightly. Keeping the peace between Victoria and her other squadmates was one of her most enduring challenges as captain.

Chase almost knew what the argument was about, and decided it was time to extend an olive branch to Victoria. She put a supportive hand on the girl's thin shoulder. “No be mad, Vic. When Vic get more years, she big like us. No rush.”

Victoria looked shocked, then infuriated. She threw the girl's hand off her. “Oh, now YOU'RE joining in? Big mistake. In case you forgot, you can't make the cut without my okay. After that little remark, you can forget about ever being a cheerleader.”

She stormed off. Chase had no idea what just happened. “What I say?”

“Chase, she's OLDER than us. She's a SENIOR,” said Alicia, mortified.

“Now should we be concerned?” asked Lindsey.

......

They got Chase checked in just in time for the first bell. The principal initially showed some reluctance to admit a student who had no identification, no permanent address, no parents or guardians, and no shots. Once Alicia, Caitlin and Lindsey assured him that Chase was a very good cheerleader, however, and would likely help get Sunnycrest some more trophies and ribbons, he sang a different tune.

“Welllll, since you put it that way, I don't see why we can't make an exception!” he said giddily, turning to his computer. He began to type. “Now then, what's your name, young lady?”

“I'm a cannibal!” Chase cheerfully announced.

The principal missed a beat. “Ex... excuse me?”

Caitlin laughed and quickly covered Chase's mouth. “Ha ha ha! She said she's a... a Campbell! That's her last name! Chase Campbell!”

“Oh. Right.”

Chase got fitted with a mostly random course schedule. There weren't many classes to choose from that had an empty seat, and even fewer where that seat was in her new friends' field of vision. They felt it important that she be constantly under their watch.

The girls tried their best to find easy classes for her though, and were very happy with how her morning classes turned out. Four words: First period Study Hall. That would be more than enough for a happy semester, but there was an icing to this cake: Second period was Home Economics, and third period was Pottery.

On paper, it seemed like the easiest morning ever. But there were a few surprises the cheerleaders failed to foresee.

“You know, we really should have remembered that both the Home Ec classroom and the Pottery classroom contain large ovens,” noted Caitlin, eyeing the kiln nervously.

The girls were in Pottery class now. All four of them were wearing large aprons over their regular clothes, shaping careful bowls on their rapidly spinning potter's wheels.

“I mean, she hadn't even put the apple in that guy's mouth yet, but it was still a little too close for comfort,” agreed Lindsey, who seemed to be making some kind of dick-shaped bowl, or possibly just a dick. Caitlin looked over at it and laughed.

“Well, we'll just have to keep a closer eye on her this time,” said Alicia cheerfully. “Isn't that right, Chase?”

“AAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHH!” screamed one of their classmates, as Chase held his face, which was rapidly ceasing to exist, against her whirling wheel.

“Oh my god!” shouted Caitlin. Blood and chunks of flesh sprayed everywhere as the sheer friction of the mechanism seared his visage to the bone. It was a good thing the three cheerleaders were wearing aprons; their uniforms would have been ruined otherwise. His shriek died out and his body went limp just as one of his eyeballs was shaken loose and flung across the room.

Acting fast, Chase picked up his body and tossed it in the kiln to bake.

The other kids in class turned to see what the ruckus was. When they saw the mess of gore, a few girls screamed.

“Wh... whoa! Holy cow!” remarked Alicia, feigning shock. “I... I can't believe Chet just shredded his own face off and jumped in the kiln!”

“Y-yeah! I didn't even know he was depressed!” confirmed Lindsey.