The four cheerleaders cautiously poked their heads out and watched discreetly as the rest of the squad, including Victoria, boarded the bus. The door unfolded and closed. The bus sat there at the curb for a moment, then pulled away. They all exhaled.

“Oh, man,” panicked Caitlin. “What did we just do? We just ditched the bus! We're going to be suspended for sure! I can't have a suspension on my permanent record!”

“No we aren't,” dismissed Lindsey. “For one, we're not gonna get caught, and two, as long as we're not doing anything illegal, who's going to care? The worst we'll get is a slap on the wrist.”

“I can't have a slap on the wrist on my permanent record either!” Caitlin responded. “What college would take me?!”

They figured if they were going to get to the bottom of this, they would need to do a little spying. By this point, however, all the Paranske Falls cheerleaders had split up and gone their separate ways: presumably, home. In their nervous bid to get Victoria to cover for them, none of the four had seen where any of them went.

“So where should we go?” asked Alicia.

They thought about it. “I guess let's just go to the suburbs and snoop around,” said Lindsey. “Maybe we'll run into them.”

It was the best idea they could come up with, so they figured out where the suburbs were and then went there. Of course, when they got there, nobody was out and about. An adult could be seen tending their lawn or flower garden here and there, and a couple of kids were playing street hockey, but why would a teenager ever just hang around outside in the suburbs?

“Us ask wheel foot kids to tell us homes where cheer live?” asked Chase, looking at the street hockey kids.

“I dunno...that would probably come off as very suspicious. Not to mention, creepy,” said Caitlin.

“Y-yeah,” agreed Alicia, eyeing the kids nervously. “Besides, maybe it's not just the cheerleaders! Maybe those kids have yeerks too!”

“That's what we're going with now? Yeerks?” asked Lindsey.

“It could be yeerks, we don't know,” replied Alicia.

They combed a few suburban streets, trying to look as natural as possible. Nobody seemed to pay them much mind, but neither did the girls turn up any leads. Then, after about half an hour of hunting, Chase found a clue.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. She pointed at a car which was resting parked in a driveway. “Cheer! It cheer!”

For a second, the others didn't know what she was talking about, but then they understood. On the bumper of the car was a sticker which read: 'My Daughter Is a CHEERLEADER at Westall High.'

“That say cheer!” celebrated Chase, clapping her hands. 'Cheer' was one of the words Chase was best at reading. Even if the other words on bumper sticker were greek to her, she wasn't going to overlook that one.

“You're right, Chase! Great job!” said Alicia excitedly. They looked up at the house the car was parked in front of. “That means a cheerleader lives here!”

“Unless they just bought that sticker and put it on there to look special,” Lindsey pointed out.

“I mean, there probably are people that do that,” said Caitlin.

At first, they weren't sure what to do with this information, now that they had it. They floated the idea of knocking on the door, but it seemed pointless. The Westall High cheerleaders had acted totally normal when they knew other people were around. If Chase and the rest were going to observe anything of value from them, it would have to be undetected.

The night was their only hiding place as they discreetly left the sidewalk and snuck over to the house. They peered in a couple of illuminated windows, feeling creepy as they did so, before chancing upon the dining room.

A family of five was sitting and socializing over tacos. They recognized the elder daughter as one of the Westall High cheerleaders. It looked like she was telling a story. The Sunnycrest cheerleaders couldn't hear what was being said, but they imagined from her excitement and the enthused smile on her face that she was probably recounting the events of the night's game.

It certainly looked like an ordinary scene. “Wow, I dunno...she looks really natural to me. She looks just like us,” said Lindsey.

“Wait for her by self,” said Chase determinedly.

When dinner ended, the girl took her plate and glass into the kitchen, then went down a hallway and out of sight.

She was heading toward the rear of the house, so the four Sunnycrest girls ran into the backyard. Just as they arrived, a light came on in one of the windows. They peeked inside, and saw it was the girl's bedroom.

She was about to close the door, when she stopped. Somebody must have called to her from back the way she came, because she poked her head back out the door and said something. Then, she finally closed it. She gave the lock on the handle a turn.

As soon as the lock was fastened, her cheery expression went blank.

The cheerleader picked up a backpack off the floor, unzipped it, and took a textbook and a book of lined paper out of it. She set these on her desk, then pulled her chair out and sat down in it. For a second, they thought she was going to do homework. However, she made no move to open the book to study. For five minutes, then ten, they watched her, and she did nothing but sit with her hands on top of the desk, staring blankly at the wall in front of her.

“S-spooky...” said Alicia, backing away from the window.

Chase looked around at her squadmates. “That what they do in change clothes room,” she said. “Just look straight, no move. No feel on face.”

“Whatever's going on, her parents don't know anything about it either,” said Caitlin, glancing at the frozen girl, then back at her friends. “She pretended around them the same way she pretended around us.”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

They watched for a bit longer, but there was really nothing to see. They decided to go find another cheerleader. After a couple blocks worth of prowling, they located a minivan with a pink 'CHEER MOM' decal on the rear window.

The cheerleader in this house acted the same as the other one. When they found her, she was sitting on her bed in her room, staring off into space. Her hands were folded over a book in her lap.

The window was cracked open, so they were able to hear the sound that suddenly made the girl open her book and pretend to read it: A knock on the door.

“Come in,” she said.

A woman who must have been the cheer mom opened the door. “Knock knock,” she said. She kept her hand on the doorknob uncertainly.

“Oh, hi mom,” said the girl, looking up from the book. Though the door was open, her mom hadn't entered the room, creating a physical gulf between them. “What's up?”

The mom looked like she wasn't sure. She fumbled with her explanation. “Nothing, I guess,” she said. “I just thought I'd check on you to see if you were okay.”

“Huh? Why?” asked the girl, looking surprised.

“I dunno,” said the mom. “You were just being so QUIET...”

The cheerleader offered her mom a smile. She held up the book. “I'm just reading, mom. It's getting really good. Plus, it's due back at the library tomorrow, so I need to hurry up and finish it.”

The mom looked slightly unconvinced, but smiled back and accepted this explanation. “Well, don't stay up too late. Night, dear.”

“Night, mom. I love you.”

“I love you too.” The Sunnycrest cheerleaders felt ill.

They found another cheerleader-friendly home, and then another one. At each it was the same story. One was sitting at her computer, staring blankly at the screen, hands not moving across the keyboard. Another was simply standing in the middle of her room, looking down at the floor.

“Yeah, we definitely have to do something about this,” said Caitlin, watching from safely behind Chase. “This is actually...kind of scary.”

The girl looked very eerie, standing slouched. A lock of hair slipped over her ear and fell in front of her eyes. She didn't bother to move it. Watching her was making Alicia antsy. “Should...should we just...go in there? Maybe we could find some way to help her.”

Chase shook her head vigorously, and put a hand on Alicia's shoulder. “Not should do. Right now, us have...us have...” She searched blindly for the word, then whirled on the high-strung, fidgeting Caitlin. “Boo!”

“Aaah!” Caitlin yelped, then covered her mouth. Their four pairs of eyes darted toward the window. The girl inside didn't move from her idle position.

“S-surprise,” Caitlin understood. “We have the element of surprise.”

Chase nodded. “Yes. Us have boo. To show self when not see foe, not know place of foe or even who foe...much risk.”

Alicia listened to this, and comprehended it, but still seemed conflicted. “I guess that makes sense, but...It's just so hard to look at something like, like THAT and not intervene. I just want to go to her side and help.”

Chase took Alicia's hand. “Yes. Want do too,” she said seriously. “See cheer hurt...make mad. Want fight bad guys till all is well! But most big part of fight is plan. Is wait. Is track foe and learn of foe. Us will save girls. But must be calm.”

Alicia felt instantly reassured. If Chase said they would save the Paranske Falls cheerleaders, they'd save them. Chase was someone she knew she could rely on. Her strength and capabilities were something Alicia knew she could count on in times like this. Past experience had proven that.

“I agree,” Lindsey spoke up. “Alicia, these girls' parents don't know what's happening here, and they live under the same roof with them. It's likely that nobody else knows about this. We might be the only people who can help them. If we botch this, they might never be saved.”

“You guys are right,” she said. She squeezed back on Chase's hand, then looked at her friends with renewed determination. “Let's keep moving.”

They found a fifth house. This one had a car in the driveway, affordable on a teenager's budget, with some pom poms and a megaphone in the backseat. On the front of the house was a large bay window which provided a view into the living room. They saw a woman in there, probably the mom, vacuuming. As they crept through the side yard toward the back of the house, another vehicle pulled into the driveway, next to the cheerleader's car. They ducked around the corner of the house just in time. It was a windowless van with the words 'Cerebral Solutions' printed on the side.

“Okay, now that's fishy,” said Caitlin.

They watched a man get out of the driver's seat. He was middle aged, with dark hair combed to one side. He wore a business casual attire of a polo shirt and khaki pants. On his round face he wore glasses that only partially concealed the dark circles under his eyes. In his right hand he carried a brown briefcase.

He slouched up the front walk, looking around nervously as he approached. He opened the door without knocking, and stepped inside. Before the door closed they heard the mom's voice say, “Hello? Dear?” alongside the descending wheeze of the vacuum cleaner being turned off.

Saying nothing, the foursome hurried back around the front of the building to the bay window. The man was standing in the living room, talking to the woman. The window was closed, so at first they couldn't hear much. But as they watched and listened, the couple's movements became more animated, and their voices grew loud enough to hear as their conversation mutated into an argument.

“You're not yourself lately,” the woman said. “You look like shit, every night now you're working late at the lab...”

“I'm fine,” the man replied. “Mind your own business!”

“How dumb do you think I am? You can't sneak around me. I know you're hiding something,” accused the woman. “What is it, another woman? What was it you told Dr. Sweeney? I'm not intellectually challenging enough for you? So I guess you decided to bang some intern at work?”

The man let out a frustrated grunt. “It's not what you think! It's not an affair! It's...more complicated than that,” he said vaguely.

She rolled her eyes. “I'm sure it is.” She looked at the briefcase. “Give me that.”

The man suddenly looked distinctly scared. “Excuse me?”

“Give me that or open it up and let me see what's in it,” she said.

“You're crazy!”

“Every day you come back with that thing...if you're not cheating, what are you doing, sneaking stuff out of the lab?” she demanded. “I have the right to know what you're doing!”

The man clutched the briefcase to his chest, then gave her a defiant look. “If you want it, then take it from me!” he challenged.

The smaller woman looked up at him in surprise, then back at the briefcase. A flash of anger in her eyes told them she was seriously considering trying, was sizing him up. However, she just turned with a huff and walked back to her vacuum. “Fine. Whatever. I'll figure it out eventually. I don't know what exactly is going on with you, but believe me, I'll figure it out.”

She turned the vacuum cleaner back on and continued her work, plowing it over the carpet with much more ferocity than before.

Her husband watched her for a moment. Then, he calmly set his briefcase down on the coffee table. He snapped the latches free and opened it up. From the cheerleaders' angle, they couldn't quite see its contents.

The man reached inside and took out a small, white object. It was a square of white paper with rounded edges. He peeled a backing sheet off it, and they saw it was a sticker with some microcircuitry affixed to the center of the sticky side. It looked a lot like one of those anti-theft things that come in books and DVDs.

The man turned to his wife with a look of eerie composure on his face. Her back was still facing him, as she angrily attacked the carpet with the vacuum. The sticker was resting in his palm, sticky side up.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “I didn't want to have to do this...but you just got too close to the truth.”

The cheerleaders gasped as he lunged forward, and slapped the sticker on the back of her neck.

The handle of the vacuum cleaner slipped from the startled woman's hand, and the machine thudded to the floor. The woman whirled to face him. Her eyes and mouth opened wide as if she were about to scream, but a scream did not come. She simply stood, mouth agape. Frozen. Then, her expression went blank, and her mouth closed, with no protest voiced.

Silently, she turned back around, picked up the still-roaring vacuum cleaner, and continued her work.