I could only think of one surefire way to find out what was going on: be at the practice gym at five-thirty the next morning. Sure, it was obscenely early, but really, what was the worst that could happen?
CHAPTER 4
Code Word: Tumbling
“Cheerleading practice? You guys woke me up at this ungodly hour for cheerleading practice?”
I am not a morning person, especially when I’m expecting a revelation of some kind and instead get eight cheerleaders telling me to stretch out so we can tumble.
What the hellwastumbling anyway?
“We always practice before school,” Bubbles said solemnly.
Why was I even talking to a person named Bubbles? Why? From the moment I’d gotten here, they’d all acted like my presence was nothing out of the norm. No one had said a word about why I was there. They’d just told me to stretch and gone back to stretching themselves, like I was supposed to read their warped little ponytailed minds.
“Can anyone here explain to me why I’m at cheerleading practice right now?” I asked, my voice dangerously pleasant. All seven of the other cheerleaders turned to their captain, and I awaited with bated breath the wisdom she was sure to impart.
“If you can’t cut the hours,” Brooke said, “don’t join the squad.”
“I’mnotjoining the squad,” I said. “Why would I join the squad? I don’t even like …”
I searched for something to go in the blank. People? This school? Any of you? More like (d) all of the above.
“I don’t like … cheers,” I finished, trying to be diplomatic. After all, they outnumbered me eight to one.
“Oh, really?” Brittany-or-Tiffany (it was impossible to tell the twins apart) asked, like I was trying to put one over on them. “If you don’t like cheers, then why are you here?”
Because you told me to be here, I said silently, but I wouldn’t admit that out loud. They’d ordered me here, and I’d dragged myself out of bed to come, under the delusion that I might actually figure out why they were messing with me in the first place.
“Don’t be such a grumpy bear, grumpy bear,” Lucy said in a voice so bright that the sound of it made my teeth ache. “It’s not that early, girly!”
My left eye twitched at the rhyme, and when she flashed me a big, toothy smile, I lost it.
“No,” I told her in a firm tone I usually reserved for household pets that were chewing on my boots. “I don’t do perky before nine.”
The entire squad frowned at me in one synchronized motion.
“So are you in or aren’t you?” Chloe’s tone was more command than question.
In for what?
“I’ll teach you to do a herkie!” Lucy, completely unaffectedby my “no” voice, bounced into the air and did some kind of funky cheerleading jump. “Now you try.”
“In for what?” I asked Chloe, ignoring Lucy and trying to strike the memory of this moment from my mind forever. “In for what?”
I was getting really sick of asking.
Bubbles was the one who answered, her voice a reverent whisper. “The Squad.”
This was just too much. Don’t ask me what I’d expected, but it wasn’t this. Invisible ink, encoded messages, and the night before, I could have sworn I’d seen someone in a cheerleading skirt standing on my front lawn, surveying the house, and now …
“You want me to be a cheerleader?”
“Give the girl a cookie,” Brooke drawled. “She finally figured it out.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Brooke cut me off. “Most sophomores would die for this chance,” she said. “Are you in or are you out?”
“Out.” This had to be some kind of sick prank. Me on the God Squad? No way. This was just part of a time-honored tradition of high school cruelties: confuse the asocial bottom-dweller, convince her she’s on the squad, and then dump her. Only this time, they’d picked the wrong bottom-dweller. I wasn’t jumping for joy at their invitation; I was dangerously close to losing my infamous temper.
