The Sunnycrest cheerleaders said little as they walked into the hot springs' front building to pay for their night passes. The few words that were spoken sputtered and died without much of a struggle, all conversation suffocated by the thick atmosphere of despondence that hung over and around the girls.
As Alicia held the door for her squad, she told them, with a persistent smile, “Let's just try to enjoy ourselves, okay? We knew we'd be coming here either to celebrate or to make ourselves feel better. This was always going to be one of our toughest games of the season, so we can't be too surprised. Let's just relax, unwind, and tomorrow we'll plan our comeback for the next game!”
The girls purchased their night passes, then headed toward the women's changing room. Just as they were about to enter, they heard a female voice call out behind them. “Hey! Sunnycrest!”
They stopped and looked. It was the Westall High cheerleaders, standing near the front desk. They, like the Sunnycrest cheerleaders, all had towels and bags and with them. Leading their procession was their smiling captain, who had a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. “Looks like we had the same idea.”
From the performance the Paranske Falls cheerleaders gave, Chase had fashioned a picture of them as being very serious, devoted athletes who worked hard and practiced heavily with every expectation of winning regionals and going on to state. Seeing them up close only stratified this image, especially their raven-haired captain. Perhaps the best word for the air she had was 'professional'. She seemed at once collected, focused, confident, dedicated, and of course, hungry. She had a palpable drive to win and prove herself.
It was certainly an impressive aura. Indeed, Alicia couldn't help but admire her. But it was also sort of intimidating, too, especially not knowing whether this girl was approaching them as friendly competitor or just as a competitor.
“Oh, uh, hi!” said Alicia, sounding a bit nervous.
“I was hoping I'd get the chance to talk to you,” said the Paranske Falls captain. She caught up to the Sunnycrest girls, and her squad followed. “You guys were really good out there.”
“Well, um, thanks!” grinned Alicia. It caught her off guard to be complimented by somebody like this. “But you guys were AMAZING. We couldn't believe that pyramid you did before the game.”
“Yes! Like much!” agreed Chase. She was thoroughly won over.
“Oh, you saw that?” asked the rival captain, sounding humble and slightly embarrassed.
“We've been working on it for a while,” added another Westall High cheerleader. “That's the first time we've done it in front of a crowd.”
The captain held out her hand to Alicia. “Good game,” she said warmly.
Alicia shook her hand and introduced herself. “I'm Serena,” the Westall High girl offered in turn. “Nice to meet you.”
The two squads parted ways: the Paranske Falls squad to go buy their passes and the Sunnycrest squad to change into their swimsuits.
The changing room was nice and clean. With its benches, showers and rows of lockers for guests to store their belongings, it wasn't too different from the girls' locker room back at Sunnycrest High. Chase dropped her duffel bag on a bench, then opened up the nearest locker to claim it. She sat down on the bench to take off her shoes.
“Ugh, why do they have to be here...” complained Lindsey, pulling off her top and tossing it on her duffel bag.
“Come on, at least they seemed nice,” said Caitlin. She propped a foot up on the bench next to Chase and began working on her laces.
“Well, yeah, but it's not exactly going to help us get our minds off the game,” Lindsey replied.
The windows were dark. Night had fallen during the course of the game. They could hear laughter from the pool outside. Caitlin looked up at Chase, and asked dryly, “So, what did you think of your first loss?”
Chase sighed. “It not feel good,” she said with honesty. “Not want lose no more.”
“It happens to everybody,” replied Caitlin. “You can't win 'em all.”
After untying one set of laces, Chase thoughtfully moved on to the other shoe. “It seem like us not help much. Not much us could do.”
“What do you mean?”
“At past games, us cheer and yell make crowd cheer and yell. Make team feel wild and loved. But crowd not cheer for us. Just for them.”
“Well, yeah,” said Lindsey, tossing her bra on her bag as well. “Here in Westall High country, we can't really expect the crowd to listen to us. There's nothing we can say that will get them to root against their home team.”
Chase hadn't really thought about it that way. Sunnycrest might have been the center of her world, but it wasn't the center of everybody else's. Everybody wanted to win.
Nearby, Alicia turned off her phone and put it in her duffel bag. “Yup. These away games are where we really have to bring it and carry the Sunnycrest torch. At most of these away games we're the only Sunnycrest fans there, so we're really just cheering for the team's benefit, not the crowd's.” Her eyes met Chase's, and she gave a reassuring smile. “And I'm sure they heard us. That's what counts.”
When the Sunnycrest cheerleaders emerged into the pool area, they had shed their identical uniforms for of a palette of colorful swimsuits in a variety of styles. There weren't a lot of other people there, but the few males present instantly realized they'd picked the right day to give the hot springs their patronage.
“Why us wear such small strange clothes in springs?” asked Chase, looking down at the teal two-piece Alicia helped her pick out.
“Oh, well, they have to be small,” said Caitlin, wearing a black one piece with white piping and a flowery design of blooming white magnolias down her left side. “Wet clothes are really heavy, and if they're loose they can also tangle you up in the water, so it has to be something that is light and form-fitting.”
“Plus it has to look sexy,” added Lindsey, wearing a flashy maroon string bikini. It was thoroughly decked with ruffles. Even its ruffles had ruffles.
Chase supposed she didn't make her point clear. “No, mean why wear clothes in springs if them just get wet?”
They stared at her. “Well...you have to wear SOMETHING,” said Caitlin. Oh, that explained it. Chase realized this must have been one of those civilized society things.
“It's...it's supposed to get wet. It's a swimsuit, it's made for that,” added Alicia.
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The pool that held the hot spring's mineral-rich waters looked much like any other public pool, except surrounded by granite slabs instead of tiles to give it a more natural appearance. Its open-air construction graced its poolgoers with a nice view of the cliffs across the river. The sky was clear, and the light of the full moon dressed them up even more beautifully than the afternoon sun had. The night air was too cold to stand around in for very long wearing only a bathing suit, so the girls were quick to get in the water.
“Oh, wow,” said Alicia, wading out into it. “That feels awesome.”
Lindsey sank in up to her neck. “Ohhh, man. I'm not getting out. You guys are gonna have to drag me kicking and screaming.”
Brittany looked around at the squad and realized, “You know what? This would make a great group picture.”
“Oh! You're right!” said Alicia. “Let me go get my phone!” She grabbed the handrail and started to climb the steps, but as soon as her wet body hit the cold air, she shivered and sank back down. “Oh man. J-j-just give me a minute.”
Chase was the only one not in the pool yet. She stopped on the first step of the stairs descending into the shallow end, the warm water lapping around her ankles, and turned around. “No, you stay there, Leash! I go get phone!”
Alicia thanked her and told her the combination for her lock. Chase quickly ran back to the locker room, getting a stern warning from the lifeguard in the process.
As she opened the door and rounded the privacy partition, she stopped. The Paranske Falls cheerleaders were in there, changing.
She hadn't been seen yet, so she backed off behind the partition. She wasn't sure what the etiquette for this situation was. She still didn't really know any of these people...would they be uncomfortable if Chase walked in while they were in a state of undress? She supposed they had to expect things like that in a public changing room, but...
Her thoughts were interrupted as something very unusual distracted her. She attuned her ears to the cheerleaders and listened. However, it was not a noise she was listening to, but an absence of noise.
The Paranske Falls cheerleaders were making almost no noise as they changed. No one talking, no one conversing. Chase knew from her time on the Sunnycrest squad that a locker room was typically a place boiling with chatter, joking around, and laughter, especially when everybody was in there at once. But this one as quiet as the grave.
Curiously, she poked her head around the partition.
The girls were quietly helping themselves into their swimsuits. Even though none of the girls spoke to each other, the mood of the room was not awkward or nervous, but neutral. None of them even seemed to notice each other, staring blankly into space as they dressed. It was as though each of them were changing alone, rather than with a group of people.
The girls who had already finished changing were simply standing motionless, waiting for the others. They looked almost like mannequins. They stared in whatever direction they happened to be facing, with a couple of them even staring at the walls, no expression on their faces.
Even to Chase, it was very eerie. The air was warmer in the locker room than outside, but even still, Chase still felt goosebumps rise on her skin.
Of course, she wasn't going to let it stop her from getting Alicia's phone. She backed behind the partition, opened the door again, then slammed it loudly, to make it sound like she'd just entered. To her surprise, a conversation whipped up the second the cheerleaders realized they had company. Giggling and banter rang out in the open room. It sounded so natural and real that Chase would never have suspected something was amiss.
She walked around the partition. None of the cheerleaders were standing around any more. They were all occupying themselves with authentic-looking tasks like looking for something in their bags or checking their locker combinations. Some of the cheerleaders looked up at her, but most went around their business, unconcerned.
Serena was standing near Alicia's locker, chatting with one of the other girls. She giggled at something the other girl said, then looked at Chase as the blonde drew near. “Oh, hey!” she said by way of greeting.
“Hi!” said Chase, trying to sound peppy and carefree though her mind was still racing.
Serena swept a lock of her long, straight hair back over her shoulder. She was wearing a two-piece bikini, white with blue horizontal pinstripes. “You're one of the Sunnycrest cheerleaders, right? I don't think I got your name.”
Chase went to Alicia's locker and began inputting the combination. “Am Chase.”
“Ooh. Cool name,” Serena appraised with a smile. She clapped Chase on the shoulder as she passed her. “Well, catch you in the pool!” She and the cheerleader she'd been talking to headed for the door.
A third jogged to catch up with them, fixing a roll in her bikini bottom's waist as she went. “Wait for me! Wait for me!”
It seemed so natural.
............
Chase subtly observed the other Paranske Falls cheerleaders as she retrieved Alicia's phone, and then later when all of them were in the hot spring together. She noticed no unusual behavior from them, nothing to indicate anything about them was off. She wondered if she imagined the bizarre scene in the changing room, but knew she couldn't have. Chase didn't just 'imagine' things. Her senses were not ones to spontaneously fail her. She knew what she'd seen.
“You're sure they weren't just...you know, goofing around?” asked Alicia. As they left the hot springs, Chase had pulled Alicia, Lindsey and Caitlin aside and explained to them what she'd seen. With their hair still damp from the changing room showers, the night had a penetrating chill.
“No. Not goof,” said Chase. “Not laugh or joke. Them much still and say no words.”
As she said this, the Paranske Falls girls walked out the hot springs doors. Chase fell silent as group walked by them, giggling and talking.
Once they had passed out of earshot, Caitlin spoke up in a nervous whisper, “Sounds like they were under some kind of spell!”
“Or maybe they're all robots like Melissa C.!” whispered Lindsey.
The Sunnycrest bus was supposed to pick them up in front of the hot springs building, so the other Sunnycrest cheerleaders were hanging around not too far away. Alicia glanced over at them quickly, then looked back at Caitlin and Lindsey. “Should we... do something?”
“What do you mean, do something? What would we do?” asked Caitlin.
“I don't know, exactly. We don't even know what's going on with them,” said Alicia. “But we might be the only ones who know anything about this. I think if something's wrong, if they're all being hypnotized or something creepy like that, we should try to help them, right?”
Chase hadn't really considered that they might be in danger. “If need help, should help,” she put forth. “Them cheer, us cheer. Our job to help.”
Caitlin and Lindsey considered informing her that it actually wasn't, but they had to admit they didn't want to stand by and do nothing, either. “But the bus is going to be here soon,” said Caitlin. “They'll know if we're not on it.”
They thought on this for a moment, unsure what they could do. Victoria walked by them. Getting a flash of an idea, Alicia grabbed her arm. “Hey, Victoria!” she whispered.
“Aah!” the blonde shouted, startled. “What?”
“Can you please do us a huge favor? When the bus gets here, get on board right away. Then, when the driver takes roll, call out 'here!' and pretend you're us.”
Victoria looked shocked. “You guys are ditching?” Her eyes narrowed. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” said Caitlin. “Chase just wants to see some more of the sights.”
Victoria looked at Chase, then back at Alicia with a devious smile. She pulled her arm free, then brushed it off with her opposite hand as though Alicia had dirtied it. “I don't just DO favors,” she said. “What do I get in return?”
Chase took off her backpack and opened it up. “Can have rest of meat bag.” She pulled out the baggie of jerky and showed it.
Victoria looked offended for a moment, as though insulted at the notion that she would eat that whole bag of jerky by herself, but took it anyway. “What else?”
“What else do you want?” asked Alicia.
Victoria looked smug as she folded her arms over her chest. “Let's hear some offers.”
“I'll set you up with a hot guy,” said Lindsey.
Not expecting that, Victoria stumbled a little over her answer. “I...I don't need YOUR help to get a hot guy, Ericson!” she declared. After a moment's silence, she added, “How hot are we talking here?”
“Victoria, it's me. Lindsey,” said Lindsey. “How hot do you THINK we're talking?”
Victoria thought about this. She uncrossed her arms. “Well jeez, now I feel like I'm robbing you.”
The bus pulled up to the curb. “You're not, you're not! Go ahead!” insisted Alicia, turning Victoria around and pointing her toward the bus. “Don't forget the plan!”
“I won't, I won't,” said Victoria.
“Thanks!” Alicia replied, as she, Chase, Caitlin and Lindsey ran off and hid behind the hot spring building.