Hunted (7 page)

I
changed back into my normal school clothes, packed Cindi's workout
clothes into my backpack and then walked to school with Cindi. Cindi
spent the whole trip gushing over how excited she was that I was
going to be on the team, which was nice, but it made for a more
jarring transition when I got to school and found that now the
whole
school disliked me.

The
cheerleaders and popular kids had never stopped hating me, but now
that rumors had started flying around the school about me trying out,
the nerds and geeks seemed to have decided that I'd betrayed them
too. Honestly, it was enough to send my headache into overdrive,
which then reminded me of the dreams that had made their appearance
at the same time as the headache.

My
recollections of the dreams were still pretty hazy, but once I
started thinking about them I remembered the encounter with the
wax-faced woman and I started shaking. At one point I thought I was
going to puke. Apparently I went white as a sheet too because Mr.
Jenkins, my English teacher, sent me to the bathroom.

I
was still freaking out when the bell rang to announce that English
was over and it was time to go to history. I stood up to go, more
because I knew I couldn't afford to be late than because I'd pulled
myself together, and nearly broke down into tears. I still felt
jumpy, like there was someone standing just behind me, always barely
out of sight no matter how quickly I might turn and look for them. I
kept telling myself that it was just a dream, that I'd survived, but
I knew that wasn't true. My dreams lately were more than just dreams
and I was in danger—it just didn't seem to be immediate danger.

Cindi
found me less than a minute after the bell rang.

"Adri,
are you in here?"

"Cindi,
is that you?"

I
let her help me over to the sink. I probably would have collapsed if
I hadn't had
something
to lean against while she grabbed some
paper towels and got them wet.

"You're
going to be okay, Adri. It's just nerves, it's perfectly natural,
especially when you're trying to get something that you really,
really want. I literally puked before my first game, but it's obvious
that you've practiced a ton, so you're going to be okay. Don't let
this tryout get inside your head like this. You'll go out there on
the field and the routine will just kind of take over and the next
thing you know it will all be over and you'll be on the team. Trust
me; I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you."

I
opened my mouth to tell Cindi about the dreams, to tell her that I
was worried about something much worse than some silly tryouts, but
the words just wouldn't come. Cindi and I were closer than we'd been
a few weeks ago, but I still didn't know if she'd be able to deal
with the revelation that her sister was some kind of psychic freak.
Instead of telling her the truth I just took a deep breath and
nodded.

She
was right, if not quite in the way that she meant. The dreams were
important, but they weren't as immediate as my actual everyday life.
I had people who cared about me and who would do everything they
could to protect me and keep me safe. That was the important thing. I
couldn't let my dreams start controlling my waking world or I'd go
crazy. I had to live in the real world and I'd deal with the
consequences of the dreams as they happened.

Mr.
Jenkins took quite a bit of reassuring when I went back for my books,
but eventually I convinced him that it hadn't been anything more than
nerves and he let me go on to history. The rest of the day passed
more or less like the first half of school had, and then before I
knew it I was changing into my shorts and hurrying out onto the field
with the rest of the girls who were trying out.

It
was a relief to be out of the locker room. The other girls had all
pretty much turned against me too, and I heard a lot of whispering
going on that I was pretty sure was them saying nasty things about
me. The football field was marginally better even if it did mean that
I had an audience now.

All
of the current cheerleaders were there, as was Miss Winters, their
coach, but I was surprised at some of the other people who were
sitting in the bleachers. Amber Bondie was there with her camera,
obviously hoping to capture something worth going into the yearbook,
and behind her was a collection of nerds and geeks who were
pretending not to watch as a couple of the cheerleaders demonstrated
routines to some of the hopefuls who still weren't confident that
they had all of the movements down.

Beyond
the geeks, sitting at the very top of the bleachers was a handful of
popular kids who were playing on their phones and looking extremely
bored, but all of that faded into the background because there was
one figure who stood out from the rest. Jackson Ayer, the Jackson who
Janessa had been so busy trying to turn into a social pariah, stood
off to the side of the bleachers talking to Sheree Fieros.

My
stomach clenched back up. Out of all the people who could have
attended, why had
Jackson
decided to come watch us? It wasn't
just that he was gorgeous, tall with broad shoulders and wavy dark
hair, there was something about him that just pulled my eyes towards
him whenever he was around.

Normally
I hardly noticed guys other than to wish that they'd hurry up and
mature to the point where they were capable of carrying on a
conversation that didn't revolve around sports or video games, but
Jackson was different somehow. It was like the idea of dating Jackson
filled a hole in my life that I didn't even know existed when he
wasn't around. I couldn't really explain it, but it was a little bit
the same as the way that I kept feeling that Cindi and I should be
closer than we actually were. I've never believed in soul mates or
anything, but being around Jackson was almost enough to convince me
otherwise.

Jackson
abruptly looked up from his conversation with Sheree and caught me
watching the two of them, but he just smiled and waved, which caused
my cheeks to heat. I awkwardly waved back to him and Sheree and then
pretended to be interested in what was happening on the other end of
the field.

Cindi
had been involved in a conversation with Miss Winters, but she
noticed me as I started stretching, so she said her goodbyes to her
coach and hurried over a few seconds later.

"Remember,
you've got this. Just relax and let all of that practicing take
over."

I
nodded jerkily and gave her my best smile. "I'll give it my
best."

Cindi
squeezed my arm in a suitably sisterly fashion and then walked over
to a clump of cheerleaders. I'd been stretching for nearly five
minutes before I realized that the stretches I was using were from
the stretching regimen that the squad used to warm up before games, a
regimen that I'd never bothered learning, but which I'd absorbed via
my dreams just like I'd absorbed their routines.

I
was idly wondering what else I'd learned that I hadn't stumbled onto
yet when Miss Winters turned to those of us on the field who were
trying out and wished us all luck. A few seconds after that Cindi and
the rest of the cheerleaders positioned themselves around us and the
first cheer started.

I
hadn't practiced since the night before, so I started out worried
that I wouldn't be able to repeat my earlier performance, but the
routine came naturally. We progressed on to the second cheer and then
the music came on for the final routine, and just like Cindi had
promised, my mind shut down and I just moved to the beat.

When
the music stopped it was all I could do to keep my legs from
collapsing rather than holding the ending pose for three seconds like
we were supposed to. It wasn't exhaustion, at least it wasn't just
exhaustion. It was more just relief at having made it through the
tryout without making an idiot of myself.

Miss
Winters released us all from the field, but asked us to hang around
for a few minutes while she deliberated with her squad. Since Cindi
was off huddled up with the rest of the team, there wasn't anyone for
me to talk to, so I walked off of the field and then just kind of
stood there by myself.

Now
that the initial rush of having made it through tryouts was past I
was left with the question of whether I'd join the team if Miss
Winters did indeed pick me as her first choice. As much as I wanted
to spend more time with Cindi, the nasty looks I was getting from
most of the rest of the cheerleaders was a pretty good indication
that they were prepared to make my life extremely difficult if I
joined the team.

I'd
pretty much decided against joining the team when someone gently
touched my arm. I turned and found myself looking into a pair of deep
blue eyes. Jackson smiled at me and then cleared his throat.

"I
just wanted to say that I thought you did really awesome out there."

I
was blushing again, but it wasn't like I could run away and hide when
he was standing right here talking to me.

"Thanks.
I didn't think I'd be nervous, but it turned out I was pretty freaked
out by the time I made it onto the field."

Jackson
shrugged. "It didn't show. Don't tell the other girls, but I
thought you were the best one out there. I didn't know that you were
interested in being a cheerleader. Have you tried out before?"

I
shook my head. "This is the first time. Honestly I'm not even
sure if I can handle the time commitment if I join."

I
got another smile, and this one made my heart beat even faster
somehow. "Well, I'm pretty sure that you'll make the team, so
all I can say is that I hope you decide to join. Miss Winters just
announced that she wants to start doing some coed stunts, so she's
looking for some guys to join the team. Maybe we'll be on the team
together."

Did
it make me a fraud if I joined the team solely because I was hoping
to spend some time with Jackson? Probably, but I didn't care. If Miss
Winters gave me a chance to be a cheerleader then I was going to say
yes and I was going to put up with whatever crap the rest of the
girls put me through.

I
wanted Jackson like I'd never wanted anything or anyone else before.

As
I ran out onto the springy green grass of our school's football field
I had a split second to wish one last time that my first football
game had been an away game. Dream-assisted learning or not, I was
still pretty sure that I was going to screw up in some kind of
spectacular fashion. At an away game there would have been fewer
witnesses, but in the grand scheme of things it probably wouldn't
have made much of a difference. The other cheerleaders were going to
make sure the entire school knew exactly how badly I did regardless
of how many witnesses actually saw my mistakes. At least Miss Winters
had put me on the back row for all of the routines.

I'd
only been able to attend two official practices before the night of
the next game, but Cindi seemed confident that everything would be
okay. Dad had shelled out a painfully large amount of money to get my
uniforms both ordered and overnighted to our house, which had almost
been enough to make me reconsider my decision to join the team, but
he'd waved away my concerns and promised to be in the stands for at
least my first game.

Most
of the other girls were doing handsprings or flips, but I wasn't
about to do anything that complicated. I just ran, waved my pom-poms
and then let out a quiet sigh of relief when it was time to line up
with the other girls so that the football team could run between us.

Miss
Winters hadn't gone any further than just assigning everyone to one
side or the other for the good luck tunnel, but we might as well have
had assigned spots. We basically lined up according to status inside
of the squad. The leaders were all closest to the entrance, with the
rest of us filling in the spots according to seniority in the squad,
which meant that I was at the absolute end.

I'd
known that going in, but I hadn't expected for Cindi to come over and
stand by me. She glanced over at me just before the starting
quarterback ran past us, and I realized that seeing her smile had
turned my smile from the plastic expression that I'd had drilled into
me over the last couple of days to something genuine and radiant.

I'd
expected for things to get better with Cindi after I joined the team,
but I hadn't expected them to get this much better. I finally felt
like we were headed toward being as close as I'd always wished we
were. Cindi had helped me a lot over the last
few days. She'd covered everything from doing my hair up with a
blue velvet ribbon for the game, to showing me half a dozen other
things that she'd said would make my first game less traumatic.

Watching
over the shoulder of other cheerleaders as they'd dreamed had
apparently taught me the cheers, but it hadn't been any help when it
came to all of the other aspects of being a cheerleader. I would have
been utterly lost without Cindi's help, especially since the rest of
the girls on the squad still seemed to hate me.

It
seemed to take forever for the football team to run through the good
luck tunnel, but then finally the last blue-and-white helmeted figure
was past me. I turned to run over to our normal spot on the sidelines
and found myself face to chest with Jackson.

He
looked incredibly gorgeous in the blue-on-white uniforms that Miss
Winters had picked out for the male cheerleaders. I was still
honestly more than a little blown away that Jackson was on the team.
Not that he'd made it, but that he'd tried out in the first place.

I
didn't have any room to talk, but the guys we'd had try out for the
cheer squad were mostly nerds. I generally got along with nerds
better than with most other kinds of people, but once I'd realized
that the guys on the team were going to be catching Cindi as she did
a backflip off of the top of the pyramid I'd suddenly become a lot
more concerned about how strong they were than how smart they were.