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Chapter 38
Chapter 7: Friendship Retest
The next week was already Homecoming.
Friday, especially exciting with Homecoming approaching. It was morning assembly time at Wharton School, where the entire student body gathered in the gym.
Siana, waiting backstage in her cheerleader outfit, spotted Hazel and Aaron in the stands and smiled brightly.
She waved her pom-poms to greet them, and they responded in kind.
“Siana, what are you doing?”
Kylie, a cheerleader standing beside her, peeked her head around to follow Siana’s gaze.
“I was just saying hi to my friends. Over there.”
“Oh.”
Kylie glanced in the direction Siana pointed and murmured in amazement.
“It’s really amazing. Hazel I get, but Aaron—he was the type who always just read books during assemblies.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Siana looked at Aaron again. He still had a book with him, but it was simply resting neatly on his lap.
Kylie seemed like she wanted to say more about him, but before she could, Lucy called them.
The principal’s lecture warning them not to act recklessly during Homecoming Week—which would begin next week—was coming to an end.
Next, it would be their turn. The decisive moment that would determine the victory between Lucy and Victoria had arrived.
“You all worked hard to get to today,” Lucy said, gathering the cheerleaders and smiling reassuringly.
Even though she must have been just as nervous, Siana thought it was incredibly impressive how composed Lucy appeared.
“Even though it would have been easier to comply with Victoria, thank you for trusting me and following me.”
The cheerleaders, comforted by Lucy’s words, looked even more determined.
Lucy could have chosen the easier path.
Just a few days ago, the cheer coach had secretly tried to persuade both her and Victoria to take different sides. If she had agreed, it would have all been forgotten. She could have apologized for defying Victoria, revised the choreography that had been problematic, and even ensured all the cheerleaders who had followed her would have an equal chance on stage.
But Lucy refused.
Her decision wasn’t born from confidence that she would defeat Victoria. She was actually prepared for the possibility of losing. But if she gave in to their persuasion now, how could she face the cheerleaders who had trusted only her?
“I will accept the results of the competition,” she resolved.
She committed to fighting until the end, and that brought them to this day.
“Lucy, why do you talk like today’s the last day?” one cheerleader teased lightly.
“Just because we lose today doesn’t mean our lives are over. Relax, everyone.”
“So what if we lose? We can just start a new cheerleading club among ourselves.”
“No, why are you all thinking about losing already? I believe we will win, no matter what.”
Because there were so many of them, even a single comment from each added up to more than ten remarks.
Practicing together daily and sweating through the sessions had strengthened their bond as a team.
Siana giggled along with them.
After the principal finished his speech, he handed the microphone to the cheer coach.
“You all know that our cheerleader club is one of Wharton School’s prides,” the coach said.
He explained, in a businesslike tone, the background of why this competition had arisen.
“But in order for our club to grow even further, we realized that a more objective and impartial evaluation was necessary.”
Sounds reasonable, Kylie muttered sarcastically from the side.
Siana shrugged instead of agreeing. She thought the coach had done his best.
“From now on, the two teams will perform, and the audience’s reactions will determine the winner.”
It was essentially a proxy war between Team Victoria and Team Isabel. The gym quickly heated up with anticipation.
“The order of performances will be decided by a coin toss.”
Victoria and Lucy stepped forward at the coach’s call.
All eyes were on them as the coin flew into the air.
Victoria chose heads; Lucy chose tails.
“Please be heads, heads!”
“Oh, I hope we go first.”
The cheerleaders, tense, stared at the coin resting on the coach’s hand.
Finally, the coach lifted it high—it landed on tails.
“Team Lucy, get ready.”
The moment those words fell, Siana’s heart began pounding.
‘I might pass out.’
Her mind went blank, her vision darkened. Her hands and feet felt cold, and her legs trembled.
She wasn’t the only one. Even the cheerleaders who had been joking moments ago now had frozen expressions.
“Let’s go.”
Siana grabbed Kylie’s hand. Kylie then held another cheerleader’s hand, and that cheerleader held yet another.
Hand in hand, they stepped onto the stage and stood in their positions before Lucy.
The red ribbons Siana had suggested they all wear waved beautifully above the cheerleaders’ lifted heads.
Lucy, checking them over, nodded and gave a strong cheer.
“Who rules the world?”
“The girls!”
Every time they shouted the cheer, adapted from a famous Beyoncé song, Siana felt her heart swell.
Sometimes, Hazel and Siana shouted the cheer in front of Aaron just to tease him.
The music began as the cheer ended.
Once the familiar tune played, their bodies moved automatically, as if all the tension had evaporated.
“Siana!”
She flinched at Hazel’s loud voice mid-performance but otherwise finished without major mistakes.
Individually, they may have looked a bit clumsy, but the team’s synergy made the performance seem far better than their actual skill.
“Great job, everyone! Really great!”
“I think I messed up…”
“It’s okay. No one noticed a thing.”
Even after the performance, Siana’s heart raced violently. She hugged the cheerleaders tightly.
Everyone was sweating, and some even cried.
At that moment, she truly felt affection for them. The women who had endured hardships together, now embracing each other’s waists and shoulders.
In this moment, thoughts of Ian or Blaire, who would also watch from the same venue, didn’t even cross her mind.
“Team Lucy, please clear the stage for the next team.”
Once the coach organized the stage, they stepped aside.
Still flushed from the excitement, Siana chattered with Kylie when they encountered Janice. She was walking toward the stage with Victoria.
“…”
Janice froze upon seeing Siana, alternating her gaze between Siana and Kylie.
It was awkward to just ignore them. Siana smiled and greeted her with a nod, then stepped aside.
Janice clenched her fists and walked onto the stage.
“Positions!”
Victoria stood at the center of her formation. Her team had fewer members due to dropouts compared to Lucy’s.
“Who am I?” Victoria led the chant.
“Victoria!” shouted the boys in the audience, her devoted followers.
“Is that supposed to be a cheer?” Kylie muttered with a laugh, arms crossed.
Then came a shocking sight: Victoria and her teammates twerking with legs spread wide. Even after Lucy had criticized them once, the moves were now even bolder.
“Oh my god, if Victoria wins today, I’m quitting cheerleading.”
“I wanted to be a cheerleader, not a stripper.”
The cheerleaders’ expressions grew cold, while the boys in the audience erupted with cheers and whistles.
Just as Siana sensed defeat approaching…
“Huh?”
“What’s going on?”
“What is she doing?”
Before the music even ended, one cheerleader stepped out of formation.
Victoria, absorbed in the crowd’s cheers, realized it too late.
The girl snatched the microphone from the cheer coach and abruptly cut off the music.
“Janice, what are you doing…!” Victoria screamed, then shut her mouth as she noticed other students’ stares.
Janice, however, was faster.
“I have something important to say to everyone.”
The boys who couldn’t see Victoria’s dance booed, but Janice didn’t release the microphone.
“It has to be now.”
Despite trembling, she held the microphone tightly. Siana’s heart felt conflicted watching Janice.
“Wasn’t she the one who used to be friendly with you and then switched to Victoria?” Kylie nudged Siana.
“That’s right.”
“What’s going on all of a sudden?”
Janice answered the question everyone was silently asking.
“I know what you all call me: Fat Janice, Snub-Nose Janice, Traitor Janice.”
“Add Attention-Seeker Janice too!” someone shouted, and the crowd burst into laughter.
Janice, on the verge of tears, continued with determination.
“I betrayed Siana. I’m the one who secretly stole Siana’s old photo that was recently released as a Royalty candidate photo.”
Siana calmly observed her—she already knew this. She just didn’t yet know Janice’s purpose in confessing.
“I was wrong to betray her. I won’t deny it,” she whispered, biting her lip.
“I want to take this chance to ask Siana for forgiveness. You don’t have to forgive me for life. But the person who made me do this and pushed me to do it is Victoria Nelson.”
The atmosphere shifted instantly.
The jeers directed at Janice turned toward Victoria.
Victoria froze, unsure what to do. Who could have known that timid Janice would publicly reveal the secret in front of the whole school?
“Victoria is not a good leader. She sows discord among cheerleaders, drives a wedge between them, and makes everyone loyal only to her.”
“That’s a lie! It’s all a lie!”
Victoria lunged to snatch the microphone from Janice.
“This is all slander!”
Janice, as if to drown out Victoria’s screams, spoke with force.
“I don’t think Victoria should be cheer captain. She is unfit to lead.”
