Chloe awoke to her phone vibrating on the pillow next to her head, She clicked the button and peeked at the screen with half an open eye but decided it was too bright and gave up, Pulling the blanket up over her head she grumbled and snuggled closer into her pillow with a ‘just not yet’ sigh. She drifted off back to sleep for a few minutes when there was loud banging on her bedroom door, a mixture of hands and feet working in unison. She could feel her blood begin to boil. She knew her sister was a demon reincarnated and put on this earth with the pure goal to just harass her, but surely she could hold off until 7am! Emerging from the comforts of her bed Chloe was already in bitch mode, throwing the blankets off her in one swift flick of her arm and stomping her feet down heavily on the ground “Piss off Mary-anne before I skin you!” Chloe growled launching towards the door but Mary-Anne was already half way down the stairs “Muuuuuuuum!” She squealed and Chloe slammed the door and huffed as she started to collect her things up for a shower.<br/><br/>But before she could make it to the hot steamy refuge that was her favorite morning ritual her mother was already shouting from the kitchen “Chloe! You get down here and apologize to your sister!” Alison shouted from the kitchen “I should have given your father the boys he wanted!” Chloe could hear her mother mutter. It was something that came up a lot. Chloe rolled her eyes “I didn’t do anything!” she yelled back and rushed into the bathroom and locked the door firmly behind her before her mother had a chance to reply.<br/><br/>The whole process took around an hour: shampooing her hair twice, leaving the conditioner in her hair for a good 10 minutes, shaving all the important should be hair free areas, soaping up everything a good few times and rinsing it off. Then came the three step cleanse tone and moisturize routine she had to keep her skin flawless, brushing her teeth, moisturizing her limbs, blow drying her hair, getting dressed, and finally applying a little make up and perfume. And, finally she was ready to face the day. Chloe emerged from the densely fogged up bathroom in her brand new perfectly snug pale blue skinny jeans, white plain t-shirt and a light sweater in her favorite color lilac.<br/><br/>Returning to her room to grab her bag she found Mary-Anne sitting cross legged on her bed, Chloe’s pink rhinestone encrusted cell phone in her demon like little hands. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Chloe snapped, lunging for her phone, not sure what secrets she had been talking to Susan about before she had fallen asleep. Mary-Anne started to giggle. “It says here,” she chirped dodging Chloe’s assault by ducking down off the opposite side of the bed. “That you” and then she switched to her high pitch, “I am mocking you” tone of voice, “absolutely can not wait to see Scott again.”  She then tossed the phone towards Chloe who snatched it up and chased her annoying 12 year old sister out of the room.<br/><br/>“I wasn’t kidding” Chloe hissed, trying to keep her voice low so her mother didn’t hear. “I will get you back you little toad.” Mary-Anne did not care about the threat in the slightest, poking her tongue out and skipped back down the stairs singing in a tell tale voice “Chloe and Scott sitting in a tree.....”<br/><br/>Returning to her room Chloe quickly scanned her messages to make sure there was nothing else more damning that Mary-Anne could have found. Satisfied with her findings, she slipped the phone into her front pocket and begun to shake out her bedding to make her bed. A tinkling noise came from her sheets and she inspected the noise knowing exactly what she would find: a small pile of the jewelry she had been wearing the day before. She looked at her hands.  She hadn’t even noticed they were bare this morning with all the rush. Her hands went to her ears and her throat. Nothing. She picked up her rings and started to slide them back on her fingers with a confused expression on her face. This was the third time in just over a week this had happened to her. It was creepy. Her necklaces were still linked together at the back, too small to pull over her head without at least unlinking them. Chloe only ever removed her jewelry for practice and sometimes not even then. She pulled out her phone and quickly tapped out a text to Susan.<br/><br/><strong>It happened again</strong><br/><br/>Chloe pocketed the phone again and went back to making her bed, once it was done she read her reply from Susan.<br/><br/><strong>Creepy. You must be haunted.</strong><br/><br/>Chloe scoffed and put the phone away but in the back of her mind the idea lingered for a little longer then it should of. Maybe she was haunted? Her morning already shot to hell she made her way down stairs with her school bag hanging off one of her shoulders and started to pace the living room. She couldn’t walk around on the first day of school alone, what would people think? She quickly tapped out a mass text inquiring where all her favourite people would be this morning.<br/><br/>Katie Marsh, a white five foot four girl with a wide face, light brown eyes and curly shoulder length medium brown hair, immediately texted back.  Her personality was completely effervescent.  But, amongst the cheerleaders, her reputation was somewhat poor as she tended to treat everyone in the school equally, not buying into the implied caste system.<br/><br/><strong>Hey!  All the cheerleaders are meeting early before the school at the steps.  Didn’t Suz tell you?</strong><br/><br/>Another text came in from Ashley Avery, the new Varsity cheerleader Captain.  She had straight blond hair that reached nearly to her bra strap, blue eyes and stood about five feet, six inches tall.  Her nose was a tad hawkish and everyone knew that crossing her was an incredibly bad idea.<br/><br/><strong>Is Susan going to be with you?</strong><br/><br/>As soon as Chloe read the text, her front door opened and in pranced the lady of the hour: Susan Murray. She had long blonde hair that fell perfectly every single day without any effort on her part whatsoever.  Her smile was wider than usual because she was amped about the first day of school as only a true social butterfly would be. “You look wonderful!” Susan exclaimed making her way over to give Chloe the first hug of the day.<br/><br/>“Morning,” Chloe said tapping out a reply to Ashley behind Susan’s back as they embraced.<br/><br/><strong>Yes, Be there soon.</strong><br/><br/>It was always a wise option to have Susan around. Not only did she do most of the talking, but she was the well liked one. Chloe still hadn’t made any other true friends amongst the cheer squad yet and wasn’t entirely sure they had fully accepted her yet. “Shall we get going then? There’s so much to do and not much time to get it done!” Susan said, her eyes twinkling with the kind of excitement that Chloe could only wish she could muster.<br/><br/>Chloe’s mum drove the girls to school, or at least as close as the girls would allow her to get before they got out and walked. They quickly did a presentation check in the reflection of the car window and linked their arms together, making their way slowly to the front steps where a ‘gaggle’ of girls were forming, watching the students as they arrived and passing judgment on their attire. The ring leader of those girls was Ashley, who Susan immediately set her sights on. Susan spread her arms out as she approached, ditching Chloe, and gave the queen a hug. “Ashley! Don’t you just look stunning” Susan said.<br/><br/>Chloe stood their kind of awkwardly putting on her best ‘nice to see you again smile’ to the other girls.<br/><br/>Ashley was wearing a pair of silver earrings with a heart inside a crescent moon.  Her fingernails were polished green.  She wore a blue varsity jacket with the trident symbol on it.  Underneath that was a pink shirt that had the word "princess" arched on the front in varying colors and glitters.  She wore blue jean shorts and blue croc shoes to complete the outfit.   She gave Susan a generous hug back.  Then, she noticed Chloe and gave her a slightly less than enthusiastic hug.  “Hey, Chloe.”<br/><br/>Katie, however, rushed over to Chloe and squealed, “Oh, my God!  You are so adorable today!” and before Chloe could object, she embraced her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.  She was wearing a varsity jacket that matched Ashley’s, a plain light blue t-shirt underneath, and a light blue skirt with a frill at its bottom.  She wore some short matching blue pumps.  “So great to see you, Chloe!  Got your eyes on any guys this year?”<br/><br/>Chloe felt her cheeks flush a little as she relived her sister’s song this morning. She glanced at her feet as she dug  around for a come back that would not make her look like an idiot. “No, well, not yet,” she lied, looking over to Susan for assistance but she was too busy gossiping with Ashley. “Cute skirt,” Chloe said trying to recover from her lack of conversational skills. “How about you? Any one you have your eyes on?”<br/><br/>Katie melted a bit as she squealed, “Thanks!  Well, you know, I think that I could go for Matt Miles.  Have you seen his chest?  It is so ripped and his six pack....  Ass is pretty tight, too,” she verbally drooled.  “I just don’t know if he likes me back, though, not to mention that I’m sure everyone wants him and you know....”<br/><br/>At that point, Jessica Domke appeared and stood next to Katie.  She was the captain of the junior varsity team.  She probably had the talent to be on Varsity but her attitude was commonly a source of concern for staff and students alike.  Her short, straight blond hair was parted to the left and hung dangerously over her left eye. Her hazel eyes were warm and yet somehow distant, almost begging someone to ask about her history.  She told Katie, “Hey Bubbles.”<br/><br/>Jessie  then switched her glance over at Susan and wrinkled her nose before turning to Chloe and asking, “Lose something?” referring to her Chloe’s best friend, Susan.<br/><br/>Chloe had never had a comfortable moment near Jessie in the entire time she had known her. She was difficult to say the least. It infuriated Chloe to no end because you just had to take it on the chin or else she would personally orchestrate your fall from grace. The disgusted little wrinkle of her nose as she looked at Susan made Chloe’s blood boil and she had to physically bite down on her tongue to stop herself from saying something she would regret. Taking in what she hoped would be a calming breath she looked up to meet evil in the eye  “Nice to see you again, Jessie,” Chloe lied.<br/><br/>Susan doing what Susan did best, smelled the fear that was associated with the presence of Jessie. Politely excusing herself from her chit chat session with Ashley, she moved to Chloe’s group so could take some of the heat off Chloe. Jessie was known to swallow girls whole and just spit out the bones. “Jessie! Katie!” Susan said, sounding pleased as punch to see them as she approached, giving them both a quick squeeze before linking her arm with Chloe’s. “Doesn’t she just look too cute in that skirt?!” Susan said with a general hand wave over Katie’s attire.<br/><br/>Chloe nodded, more confident now her bestie was by her side. Giving Katie a  genuine ‘I agree, but you already know that’ smile while trying her best not to look at Jessie again because she knew the expression on her perfectly flawless face was not going to be a pleasant one.<br/><br/>Jessie knew the lie for what it was.  She did not appreciate it and it crashed her slim hope that Chloe might turn into a semi-decent human being.  She simply rolled her eyes and told Chloe, “You’re a horrible liar.”<br/><br/>When Susan arrived and hugged Jessie, Jessie stiffened and responded, “And here’s Ashley’s pet....”  She gave a depressed sigh and told Katie, “When you’re done with all the candied shits, I’ll be inside.”<br/><br/>Katie gave a broad smile at Jessie and told her, “Be there soon.  K?”  Katie knew that Jessie had an undeserved reputation as a slut but the girls around school insisted on reminding both her and Jessie whenever an opportunity arose.  Returning her gaze back to Susan and Chloe, Katie bubbled, “So, ready for the first home game on Friday?  I can hardly wait!  What about you?”<br/><br/>Before Chloe had a chance to open her mouth, Susan was already bouncing on her toes like a popcorn kernel ready to pop. “So excited! Aren’t we?” she asked nudging Chloe forward a bit.<br/><br/>Chloe smiled and pushed the loose hair around her face behind her ear. “Super excited,” she nodded. “We have been training hard, I can’t wait for practise.” She eyed up the other girls, no one had accidently let themselves go over the summer or returned with a bump stashed under their shirts. “The team’s looking good.  We may even be better than last year,” Chloe said.<br/><br/>Katie thought to herself,<em> I can hear Jess saying, “Like that would take much.”  I so need to work on her spirit. </em>She then laughed and said, “Of course we will be!  And if we can help by raising their spirits or being so super sexy so that the opponents get distracted, all the better!  We have to show our spirit!  So, what’s your class schedule look like, you two?  Do we have anything together?”<br/><br/>Chloe tugged her schedule out of the pocket on her back pack. She had already highlighted her classes that she shared with Susan in a bright pink. Teeny little hearts were decorated around the end of day PE session to signify it was the best part of her day. She held it out so everyone could compare.<br/><br/>Physics / English3 / Lunch / Algebra2 / Theatre / Worldhistory / PE-Cheerleading<br/><br/>Susan sighed in relief as she finally dug hers out from the bottom of her bag. “I thought I had misplaced it for a second there,” she said holding hers up alongside the others, using the moment to show off her perfectly manicured nails.<br/><br/>Spanish2 / English3 / Lunch / Chemistry / World History / Choir / PE-Cheerleading<br/><br/>Katie squealed delightedly and hugged Chloe.  “We have four classes together!  How cool is that?  English, Algebra 2, history and PE-Cheerleading!”  She jumped up and down.  “And Susan, that sucks that we will only have two!  But we still have cheer after school....”<br/><br/>Chloe smiled broadly as she hugged the ecstatic cheerleader. “I can’t wait!” she said folding her schedule up neatly and tucking it back into her pocket. Susan still looked pleased, as if a few classes without her friends would dampen her spirits. “I will hopefully have some classes with Ashley too. Don’t worry about me!” she replied hauling her bag back over her shoulder and flipping her wrist to check her watch. “We should probably get going.”<br/><br/>Chloe checked her phone. The girls were not exactly late. She eyed Susan suspiciously. “Who are you in a hurry to meet?” Chloe asked with smirk spreading across her face. It had to be a boy. Susan would only be early to class if it meant she got to stare at a boy. “Who is he?!” Chloe demanded. “Who is in your first class?”<br/><br/>Susan started to laugh and kissed her bestie on the cheek. “I will tell you in English,” she said. “Both of you.” She turned her attention to Katie for a farewell hug before skipping off merrily with her secret intact.<br/><br/>Katie laughed as Susan hugged her.  She advised Susan, “Have fun and don’t forget to tell Chloe and I about it!”  Turning to Chloe she asked, “Catch you in English?”<br/><br/>“Absolutely.” Chloe nodded giving Katie a farewell hug. “Good luck with your first class!” Chloe said as she begun to casually stroll off towards her home room.<br/>