Chapter 51
ANGEL SINCLAIR.
At the end of the party, I decide not to sleep with Lorenzo at his house. After all, there's cheerleading practice tomorrow and, as captain, I have to be there. Usually, when we have these practices, we have to arrive at school well in advance.
Since I get home quite late, I go straight to the shower and lie down in bed afterwards. I'm reassured to know that Bryan is already here asleep, because I saw his car downstairs in the garage. I can sleep soundly now, but thinking about what happened today.
***
I wake up the next day in high spirits and sort out my clean uniform in my bag, since I'm wearing my cheerleading outfit. I go downstairs to have coffee with my backpack on and, as I expected, there's no one here. It's still very early and Dad is still asleep next to Madison.
I sit at the table and have coffee with Margareth, who is great company for me. Margareth always listens to me and talks to me about the most mundane things. No matter what, she always understands me, which is why I like Margareth so much. She always puts herself in my shoes and not many people do that.
When I've finished eating, I say goodbye to Margareth and leave the house. I stop by Ashley's house to pick her up, as the public transport she uses doesn't usually pass her street so early. Ashley greets me as I get into the car, but doesn't say anything afterwards. We drive the whole way in silence, which bothers me to no end. I like Ashley precisely because she's such a chatterbox and always brings me joy with her crazy antics, but lately she's been quieter than me. I want her to go back to the way she was before, but it's hard when I don't even know what happened to make her act this way.
"We're here," I say as I park the car.
"Just in time," she says as she looks at the display on her cell phone. "Are we going to the court?" Ashley asks as soon as we get out of the car.
"Yes, I've arranged with the girls to rehearse there," I reply, carrying my backpack.
"Right," Ashley replies.
We drive to the court and I meet all the cheerleaders. I greet them all in general and go over to the speaker to organize the playlist.
"Angel, why don't we rehearse outside?" one of them asks.
"I think this is the most suitable and private place for us to rehearse," I reply.
"I'd prefer it outside in the field too," says another.
"And what's out there?" I ask.
"The boys in the team are practicing," she replies and all the others give her a mischievous little smile, "We don't need to be so close to the boys so as not to disturb their concentration, but we can be close by," she suggests.
They all have ulterior motives, they want to get the players' attention.
"Even, girls, the captain of the team is here," one of them says and all the others make excited noises, "You're not going to deny us seeing a bit of your almost-brother playing, are you, Angel?" she asks.
I feel my blood boil. Of course these bitches are dying to attack Bryan. I can deny this imbecilic request, but maybe it would be too suspicious. I have to pretend I don't care.
"You're too much, huh, girls? Of course, let's train on the pitch," I say.
They all smile in celebration and some of them grab the speaker we use to rehearse. We all go down to the pitch together and I soon see Bryan very much in charge of the players. It wasn't until I told him that he was falling short in training that he quickly decided to come today. I watch him a little from afar and covertly give him a little sideways smile. Bryan grins from ear to ear at me, without disguising it in the slightest.
The boys watch the girls getting organized to start the dance and soon they start smiling and exchanging glances. If it starts to get in the way of the game and the dancing, I'm going to have to take all these women back to the court. I don't want any distractions, especially from men. We need focus.
"Come on, girls!" I say, positioning myself right in front of them, "Today we'll have five songs to get the rhythm going, so you need to do your best, as always," I say.
The girls nod and I play the first song. I start dancing and they all follow my steps. I feel the gazes of the boys at the game on us, especially Bryan's gaze on me. He could at least disguise it, but I imagine that only I notice his perverse gaze on me. The girls are too busy making a living at dancing to try and impress him, they won't even notice that he only has eyes for me.
"Two minute break for the next song, girls," I announce.
Everyone rushes to stand at the railing watching the boys and I just take the opportunity to drink some water, as I always spend a lot of saliva explaining each step or helping some girls who are unprepared for the dance. Ashley is next to me and is typing something on her cell phone, but I don't pay any attention. I don't make a point of asking anything about her, so that she feels my absence and realizes that I don't like her attitude of having reduced her intensity with me. I want Ashley to feel what I'm feeling.
"Are you going out for lunch today?" Ashley asks.
"No," I reply dryly.
"So you're staying here at school during the break?".
"Yes," I reply in the same way.
"Okay," Ashley says, "Can I call the girls now? We've already hit the two-minute break".
"Go ahead," I say, returning to my seat.
Ashley was probably going to call me out during the break, which she never does. She's probably noticing my silence and wants me to loosen up, but it's too late now. She should have thought things through before she simply treated me like some kind of girl and played upset with me, who didn't do anything to make her upset.