By the time Game Day rolled around and the squad climbed aboard the school bus, Chase could have written a thesis on Westall High, if she knew how to write. Chase was glued to the window as they left Sunnycrest to the south rather than to the north, then on-ramped up onto the highway. They really were going somewhere totally different.
Westall High was located in a town called Paranske Falls, named after its biggest tourist attraction. Sunnycrest was located about an hour from this town, and the long drive left plenty of time for looking out the window. Eventually they saw a herd of buffalo.
“Wow, look at the buffalo!” exclaimed Alicia.
“There lots!” said Chase, sitting next to her. “Lots big head beasts! Not see much in woods back home!”
“They're protected around the Falls, so the closer we get the more you'll see of them. We'll probably see some big horn sheep too,” said Caitlin. She and Lindsey were sharing the seat in front of them.
“Amazing, isn't it?” asked Alicia. “To think that centuries ago, these magnificent creatures roamed the western plains in mighty herds.”
“And now, in the present day, their magnificent flavor is enjoyed by millions,” said Lindsey. She was completely turned around in her seat, arms crossed on top of the backrest. “How far they've come.”
Alicia was shocked. “Lindsey!” she scolded. “That's not a very nice thing to say about our state ungulate!”
“What?” asked Lindsey defensively. “You know buffalo burgers are awesome.”
Alicia looked embarrassed. “Well...Well, yes, but that was a very inappropriate time to remind me!”
“I can't help it, I'm starving,” said Lindsey. “Just looking at those guys makes me hungry.”
“Did you seriously not bring any snacks again?” asked Caitlin. “You know we're not gonna have time for dinner until after the game. How many times do we have to do this before you get it?”
Chase hefted her duffel bag up off the floor and rested it on her lap. “It fine, Lin! I bring much snack, we can share!”
Despite Caitlin's assumptions, legendary mooch Lindsey fully knew what she was doing. Why buy a snack when there's always somebody willing to share? “Aw, that's so sweet of you, Chase!” praised Lindsey, reaching over the back of the seat to give Chase a pat on the head. “What did you bring?”
Chase unzipped one of her duffel bag's side pockets and reached her hand inside. “Bring jerk!” she said cheerfully. She extracted a ziploc bag full of jerky and held it up proudly for all to see.
From Lindsey's expression, they could see her appetite disappear before their eyes. “Ch-Chase! Put that away!”
“Huh? Not want?” asked Chase, confused.
Lindsey looked around, then lowered her voice. “That's the jerky you made out of Babyface O'Connell, right?”
“Yep!”
“Then, no, I'm fine!” replied Lindsey.
“Y-you can't bring that to a game with you, Chase!” whispered Caitlin. “Wh-wh-what if someone catches you?”
Chase looked somewhat guilty at this admonishment. “But fake Leash taste so good.”
“I'm...I'm sure she does, but still!” said Alicia. “Lindsey's right, you should put that away before-”
“Oh, wow, is that jerky?” asked Victoria, leaning across the aisle. “I'll have some!”
Alicia, Caitlin and Lindsey all yelped loudly.
“N-n-n-no you won't!” shouted Caitlin.
Victoria was taken aback. “Huh?” she asked. “What do you mean, I won't?”
“Y-you heard her!” replied Lindsey, terrified. “You're not having any of Chase's jerky, Victoria, so, uh...so quit bothering her!”
“I...I'm not bothering her!” Victoria retorted, offended. “I was just asking for some-”
“You're being so mean right now,” agreed Caitlin. “Classic Victoria.”
“I am not!” said Victoria. “I'm sure Chase would be very happy to offer me some! She knows full well she's on thin ice with me! She'd be foolish not to take this opportunity to get in my good graces!”
“Well, um, yes, ordinarily that would be true, Victoria...” reasoned Alicia. “But in this case, it's just...um...”
Victoria crossed her arms and eyed the bag with suspicion. “What? Is there something wrong with it?”
Alicia laughed shakily. “Wrong? Wrong? With this BEEF jerky? This jerky: grass fed, grass finished, one-hundred percent local, one-hundred percent non-sentient sources? Why, whatever could be wrong with that?”
“Nothing,” said Lindsey. She gave Victoria an accusatory look. “Unless you hate America.”
“I don't hate America!” argued Victoria.
“It's just that there's not enough for the whole bus to have a piece,” said Caitlin carefully.
“It's her jerky! She can give it to whoever she wants!” replied Victoria. She looked at Chase, annoyed. “Well? Can I have some or not?”
Without hesitation, Chase happily held the bag out to Victoria. “Sure, Vic! Help self! Bring lots!”
“Nice!” said Victoria, reaching in and pulling out a couple thick, meaty pieces. “You know, far be it from me to give THE AMAZING CHASE advice, but you really shouldn't let them boss you around like that. Not even you deserve that kind of treatment.”
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“V-V-Victoria,” trembled Alicia, watching Victoria's handful of meat like it was a bomb about to go off. “I really don't think you want to-”
“Alicia, please,” said Victoria in an irritated way, selecting a particularly savory-looking slab. “Chase and I are talking.”
Lindsey put a hand on Alicia's shoulder. “Just let it go,” she said soberly.
“What?! But-”
“Just let it go.”
Victoria raised the piece to her mouth. Caitlin, Alicia and Lindsey held their breath as the little blonde took a polite, dainty bite.
She chewed thoughtfully for a moment, then turned and walked away. “Mmm!” she hummed through her mastication. She swallowed. “That's not bad!” Alicia, Caitlin and Lindsey thought they were going to be sick.
Paranske Falls was located in an area with a tremendous amount of natural beauty, and as such, it attracted a tremendous amount of fresh, sweet tourist dollars. These dollars poured in from the east coast, the west coast, Europe, the far east, anywhere people made money. As the Sunnycrest High bus rolled into town, its passengers saw signs pointing them toward nature trails and hot springs, beautifully landscaped and carefully maintained parks, information kiosks, and as many hotels and restaurants as Sunnycrest had bars and churches, all priced for a vacationer's credit card and not for a local's. Perhaps most astonishing to a Sunnycrest resident would be the sidewalks and streets: all completely pristine, without a single crack.
“Imagine having to live here,” remarked Lindsey, disgusted.
“Seriously,” Caitlin agreed.
“You remembered to bring your swimsuit, right?” Alicia asked Chase.
Chase patted her bag. “Yes! Did bring small clothes for wet!”
“Good!” said Alicia. “Because win or lose, we have to go to the hot springs after the game!”
“It's been a long time since I've gotten to go,” said Caitlin.
“Me too,” said Lindsey cheerfully. “You'll really like it, Chase!”
“What is hot spring?” asked Chase. “I get wet?”
“Yeah,” said Caitlin. “It's a pool-” it occurred to her that Chase might not know what a pool is either, “which is like a lake or pond, but the water comes from deep inside the Earth, so it's really hot and has all kinds of minerals and stuff.”
“It's really refreshing!” added Alicia. “And relaxing! If you have any tension in your body it just melts away.”
While Sunnycrest was in the shadow of mountains pretty much in all directions, which had its own kind of looming, impressive beauty, Paranske Falls was a bit less claustrophobic, and a lot more postcard photogenic. It had mountains to its west, but to its east was an open valley with a fast-moving, whitewatered stretch of Davis River, off on the other side of which was a wall of truly majestic cliffs. The sun was low in the sky, casting shadows across the cliffs that made their craggy details stand out in sharp relief. If the bus continued on through town, out the other side, and on down the highway, they would soon be able to see the Falls themselves.
“Oh, we should show Chase the Falls!” said Caitlin. She looked at the bus driver. “Can we?”
In her research for this trip, Chase had found out what the word 'waterfall' meant. “Have seen wet fall. There creek in woods which have.” In her head she was picturing the brook which babbled near her former mountain home. There had been a spot where the brook's waters rolled over a drop of about three rocky feet.
“Yeah, but you haven't seen any like this,” Lindsey assured her. “Picture that waterfall but five times as big as the apartment building Caitlin lives in.”
Chase pictured it. “Wow!” she exclaimed. “Want see!”
Alicia looked hesitant. “Come on, you guys. We have a game to get to! Maybe we can do it after.”
“It'll be dark by then, we won't be able to really see it,” said Lindsey. “Come on, kickoff isn't for half an hour. It's not that much further. We've got time to go there, get back, warm up...” She trailed off, knowing as she spoke that it wasn't going to work.
“We'll come back another time, Chase,” Alicia assured her friend. “We can really make a day of it and not be rushed. Tourist season is over aside from a few stragglers, so this is the time of year to go.”
When they arrived at the football field, the Westall High cheerleaders were already out in full force. Chase was overjoyed.
“Cheer!” she exclaimed. After their last away game at Lawman Creek, Chase wasn't sure what to expect from Westall High's cheerleading squad, but she was pleased to find they looked like a normal batch of girls. Different school, different uniforms (a very crisp blue-and-white), but otherwise not too different from Sunnycrest's squad. They looked like they were already warmed up, and were pumping up their home crowd with one of their routines.
“Yep, that's them!” confirmed Alicia.
“If you really want to improve your timing, they're the squad to watch and take notes on,” said Caitlin. “They're always really in sync, it's incredible.”
Hearing this, Chase paid extra close attention to Westall High's routine. Three girls were engaging the crowd with a chant while the rest of the squad ran through a tough floor routine, complex not just in the level of stunts performed, but especially in just how choreographed it was. The way the lanes of the cheerleaders' stunts crossed paths and intertwined without causing them to collide with each other was like nothing Chase had ever seen. The trio who were chanting joined the elaborate dance and were replaced by a group of five new chanters, so quickly and subtly that it took Chase a second to even realize what had happened.
These new chanters finished their lines, and four other cheerleaders flipped in to join them in the construction of three groups of bases. The three remaining cheerleaders, the fliers, did backwards handsprings over to these bases, who lifted them gracefully up.
The fliers clapped their hands and belted out another rousing chant before striking their poses. The two fliers on the outside raised legs up in the air for scales, while the center girl raised a knee and a fist for a liberty. She was then tossed high up in the air for a toe touch and landed cleanly in the arms of her bases.
They expected it to end there, but it did not. The girl who did the toe touch rolled backwards out of her squadmates' arms, and one of the girls who was previously her base leapt up to take her place. She was a girl with black hair pulled back in a ponytail. She had a pale, pretty face with determined eyes.
“Oh! That's their captain!” recognized Alicia.
Chase expected the captain to be raised up again, but to her astonishment the bases threw her high up into the air instead. Even more amazingly, it was not those bases that caught her, but the other two fliers, who were still up on their own pyramids. Each one quickly wrapped an arm around one of the black-haired girl's legs, and braced a hand under the corresponding foot.
The whole Sunnycrest squad gasped at that.
“A two-and-a-half high pyramid!” exclaimed Melissa C.
“I-I-Isn't that illegal in high school?!” asked Caitlin, not sure if she should even be seeing this.
“Only in competitions...” said Alicia, “There's nothing to stop them from doing it at a game. They're really throwing down the gauntlet for us!” She sounded really excited.
The captain was raised up even higher by her two fliers. Then, she caused everyone on the Sunnycrest squad to suck in a worried breath as she spread her arms, leaned forward and pointed her leg backwards for a pretty daring arabesque. She was balancing on one leg, with only her fliers' hands to support her. Then, she swept the extended leg around and kicked it up, propelling herself into a twisting backflip. The two fliers caught her and safely let her down, before doing their own twisting dismounts.
The whole crowd burst into applause. The Sunnycrest squad clapped as well, dumbfounded.
“Holy shit,” said Lindsey. “Yeah, I think they're going to be ones to watch out for at regionals.”
“They were even more together than I remember! They didn't miss a beat!” praised Caitlin. “They must practice like crazy!”
It was true. The whole time, Chase didn't see them drop a stitch. She felt incredibly inspired. Seeing a squad like that made her realize how good Sunnycrest could be. If Westall High could do it, there was nothing to stop Sunnycrest from doing it too, if they just kept working at it.
Alicia felt the exact same way. She turned to her squad and raised a pom pom in the air. “Okay!” she shouted, fired up. “This is what we've been practicing for, you guys! They might have the home field advantage, but it'll take a lot more than that to make us worried! Our spirit doesn't waver! Sunnycrest is in town, and we're here to kick BUTT!”
“YEAH!” the squad shouted.