Chapter one: Broken

“Alright class, please read pages seventy three through seventy nine for tomorrow.” Mr. Clemmings yelled as the many students whizzed pass on their way out.1

“Hey Celest are you coming to practice after school today?” asked Tammy, flipping her long red hair out of her eyes as she ran up to Celest.2

“Yes…” Celest answered her voice trailing off.3

“Yes…?” Tammy Pressed. “Hey what’s wrong?”4

“What?” Celest said suddenly snapping back to reality. 5

“What’s wrong?”6

“Oh nothing, just tired I guess.” She replied. “Yes I am coming to practice I always do.”7

“Well good, I thought we could work on a new cheer today, you know, for the semi finals coming up in a month.” Tammy explained. 8

“Sweet, sounds like a plan, I have a couple new ideas myself.”9

“Cool, sounds great but I’ll see you in a bit.”10

“Where are you going?” Celest inquired.11

“Oh no where…” 12

“You aren’t going to talk to Greg, that new exchange student are you?” Celest asked inquisitively.13

“What if I am…?”14

“Oh brother,” Celest began before getting cut off.15

“Oh there he goes…See you.” Tammy yelled running off.16

Celest and Tammy have been friends since grade two, when they saw they had matching shoes and went crazy. They have been inseparable ever since. Through grade school, middle school cheerleading and now into their second year of high school they are still crazy best friends. They joined up with a couple other girls: Jamie, Sarah, Rose and Paige when they were in grade eight. Since then their group has gained nothing short of total popularity and high school recognition. You may not think that a big deal but to these girls it was everything.17

“So she finally went over there eh?” asked Jamie walking up beside Celest.18

“Yeah, well she has been wanting to all week.” She replied.19

“Hmm…” Tammy said. “Well they make a cute enough couple.” 20

“Yeah, I guess.”21

“So what’s new on your end of loser Ville?”22

“Oh nothing much just thinking up some new cheers for the squad,” She answered. 23

“Interesting…” Jamie Replied.24

“Indeed.”25

“Well Ashley wanted me to tell you that she is not coming to practice today, Bret is taking her to dinner for their third year anniversary.” Jamie explained.26

“She has been missing a lot of practices lately.” Celest said quietly.27

“What’s that?” Jamie asked.28

“Oh nothing, just talking to myself,” Celest replied.29

Celest in her climb up the social ladder had found her way to the role of Cheerleader Captain. And she took her job seriously. For the last two years the Mighty Lions has been beaten by the Pythons in the semi finals and this year she was determined to break that losing streak and bring home gold.30

Later that day the cheerleading team met on the football field.31

“Okay girls, we’re on a tight schedule,” Celest announced. “This week we only have two practices because of football tryouts, which means we only have three weeks before the semi finals.”32

“And we need to kick into high gear, because we are getting lazy girls!” yelled Jamie. 33

“Thank you Jamie.” Celest began. “And like she said, we really have to get crazy and down to business. Cheerleading is supposed to be a fun time and we look like we are all sleeping out there.”34

Celest really loved the squad and she put a lot of long hours into perfecting every cheer and every move that she could think of. And she took it really hard when the girls didn’t produce the results she wanted.35

“Okay let’s do some drills.” Yelled Celest pointing positions for the girls to go to warm up.36

A little while later the girls were attempting one of the big finishes and it wasn’t going to well.37

“I hate that Ashley isn’t here, I really don’t want to put in Tamara to hold the side up but we are going to have to.” Celest announced to Jamie.38

“Well we’ll have to make due, and I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”39

“Okay.” Celest replied.40

“Yes, but I am going to get into my position,” Jamie said running to the front of the pyramid. “Let’s go girls, into position.”41

“One, Two, Three, Four, Five. UP UP! UP!” Celest yelled waving her arms above her head.42

The girls hoisted Amanda up onto the top of the pyramid but it was too wobbly to she fell off the back side of it and onto the ground. 43

“Oh my God!” Rose Yelled.44

“Hey people, get out of the way!” yelled Celest running to Amanda. “Are you okay?”45

“I’m fine; it’s just my leg that hurts a little.” Amanda said frantically.46

“Hey you don’t move, okay. I am going to go call the ambulance.” Sarah said running away towards the gym to get her cell phone.47

Oh my God what are we going to do now? Celest thought to herself staring at Amanda.48