The second bell rang. Its shrill, piercing cry reverberated around the classroom, momentarily overwhelming the gentle murmur of chatting students.

After the ringing stopped, Lindsey leaned forward over her desk. “What?” she asked Alicia. Chase was in the desk to her right, and Alicia's was directly in front of Chase. Caitlin was right in front of Lindsey, completing a four-cheerleader square.

“I said it was really fun!” said Alicia with a smile. She had turned sideways in her seat to face the group, one arm resting on her seat's backrest and the other arm resting on the books atop her desk. “We ran into Samantha and Nicole at the food court, and then we all went over to The Cute Outdoors...and get this, they were having a huge sale on boots! Me and Chase each got a pair! Right, Chase?”

“Yes!” nodded Chase. “Much boot, much coot!”

Lindsey and Caitlin got wistful looks in their eyes. “Much boot, eh?” Lindsey asked.

“Yup! Much boot!” Chase leaned down and pulled up the leg of her jeans, revealing a rather darling leather boot with a fur trim. “See?”

It was love at first sight. “Oooh!” Lindsey and Caitlin cried in unison.

“Much boot AND much coot!” declared Lindsey.

“Is the sale still on?” asked Caitlin.

“Yeah! You need a pair for your Halloween costume, right? We should all go check it out after school!” Alicia suggested.

Their young world history teacher, Miss Robin, stood up from her desk. “The bell has rung, ladies,” she casually reminded them. Alicia looked up, then obediently turned around to face the front of the class, their conversation postponed.

Miss Robin yawned as she took a sheaf of paper into her arms from the top of her desk, then walked out in front of the whiteboard. Dark circles were there, as always, beneath her eyes, partially hidden by the frames of her glasses. “Before we get started today,” she said, “I've finished grading everyone's essays on the French Revolution. Some of you did very well. Others...not so much.”

Alicia whispered discreetly to Chase, “Don't worry Chase, she says that every time.”

“Yep. That's just how it goes. She just says it without thinking, and it's never about anybody in particular,” said Lindsey.

“I'm sure you find it very comforting to think that,” said Caitlin.

Miss Robin started on their side of the room, perhaps planning to get the hard ones out of the way first. She handed Caitlin a piece of paper, and Chase saw a big red 'A' on it. “Caitlin, nice work, as usual.”

“Awesome! Thanks!”

She handed a piece of paper to Alicia. “Alicia, here's yours...” she said, much more ambiguously.

Alicia let out a cheer of happiness. “YES! D average maintained! I can stay on the squad another week!”

“Alicia! Alicia!” chanted Lindsey. A couple other cheerleaders sitting at the back of the room joined in.

“I'm glad our public education system has successfully given you the tools you need to meet your academic goals,” said Miss Robin.

“Me too!” chirped Alicia.

Miss Robin moved on to Lindsey. She handed her a very concise-looking essay. “I always know exactly what to expect from you, Lindsey.”

Lindsey interpreted this as a compliment. “Aw, that's sweet,” she said, “Thank you.”

The teacher didn't hand anything back to Chase. She met Chase's eyes, then advanced to the next row of desks. “Chase, see me after class, please,” was her curt and ominous request. She looked at Alicia and Lindsey. “That goes for you two, as well.”

“Uh oh,” said Lindsey.

….......

After class, when everyone else was leaving, the three girls nervously stayed behind. Miss Robin sat down behind her desk, and the teens approached her with caution.

“What wrong, teach?” asked Chase worriedly. “Why ask for us?” Whatever it was, judging from the way Alicia and Lindsey carried themselves and from the way Caitlin had been reluctant to leave them behind, Chase could tell it was serious.

“I-I-I've never been called in after class before...” lied Alicia, biting her lip and being very cute and innocent and let-off-easy-able, “I h-h-hope I'm not in some kind of TROUBLE, Miss Robin...”

Miss Robin sighed. “You're not in trouble, Alicia.” She looked around at them. “I think you all know why you're here. It has to do with your grades.”

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Lindsey groaned. “C'mon, how about a little understanding? Sure, my grades in your class aren't the best, but you're not exactly the easiest teacher to flirt with, either. How do you expect me to bring my grades up if you won't give me a little room to work my magic? The way I see it, we're both responsible.”

“There are other ways to get good grades besides flirting, you know!” Miss Robin replied incredulously.

“Like what?”

“Well, gee, you could try-”

“And don't say 'studying' or 'completing assignments' anything like that,” interrupted Lindsey. “I want realistic, achievable solutions.” She decided to swing for the fences. With a bubbly giggle, she asked, “Incidentally, I like your jacket. Can I try it onnn?”

“No, you can't!” said Miss Robin sternly. She collected herself with a calming breath, then said, “Look, Alicia, Lindsey, I wish you'd try harder in class, but you're passing. Your grades are troubling to me, but I really called you in here about Chase.”

Alicia and Lindey looked at their cannibal friend. “Me?” asked Chase.

Miss Robin nodded. “I know you still don't speak English very well, so I'm sure there's a lot of obstacles you're facing to try to keep up in your classes. But,” she looked at Alicia, “she's still here to get an education. We, the teachers here at Sunnycrest, are going easy on her given the circumstances, but we still have a responsibility to make sure she learns something during her time here.”

At about that time, Chase got distracted by Miss Robin's stapler, so the conversation paused to allow everyone to watch her. Chase picked it up and turned it over in her hands, inspecting it from all angles. She pulled and pushed on it in different ways, testing its moving parts. Miss Robin continued, “Alicia, you're her...well, not exactly her host family, but you're SOMETHING to her. Because of that, it's partially your responsibility to make sure she gets a proper education while she's staying with you, regardless of any barriers she might have.”

Alicia looked a bit ashamed. She hadn't thought of it that way. “Y-yeah, I guess that's true.”

Chase figured out how the stapler worked. She pounded it repeatedly, gleefully banging out about twenty staples before Alicia got it away from her. Miss Robin held out her hand, and Alicia put the stapler in it. “I'm going to let Chase take the test again. But if she doesn't pass...I'm afraid I'm going to have to fail her.”

“You can't do that!” said Lindsey, shocked. “She'll get kicked off the squad!”

This finally grabbed Chase's full attention. “No cheer?!” she asked, stricken with worry. “Not cheer no more?!”

Miss Robin finally handed Chase her test back. There were a lot of red marks on it, but Miss Robin didn't bother to assign a grade to it. “Sorry Chase, but if you're failing, that means you're not taking enough time to study. Limiting your distractions...might remedy that.” She took a sip of coffee, then began grading some papers from another class. “If you want to pass, you can pass. You just have to put the work in.”

….......

Chase sighed as the three of them plus Caitlin walked down the front steps of Sunnycrest High. Their classmates were flooding out of the building around them, laughing and chatting and hollering to celebrate another school day put safely behind them. But the cheerleaders were not in a celebratory mood at all.

“Why nice book miss want to take cheer?” moped Chase. “Not hurt book miss or treat bad once.”

“It's nothing personal, they're just the same rules everybody has to follow,” said Caitlin. “If you're an athlete you have to keep your grades up or you can't participate.”

Chase looked down at the cement walk sadly. “So if grades bad, cheer gone,” she concluded.

“Don't worry, Chase. We won't let that happen!” Alicia piped up. “All you have to do is pass your test! Then you can do as much cheerleading as you want!”

“Not like test,” complained Chase. “Test hard. Much words to read and more words to write with stick. Like cheer more.”

“Well, sure, but you have to do it. That's part of school,” said Caitlin. “It's not all cheerleading and seeing your friends.”

Lindsey scoffed. “I think Miss Robin's got it out for us cheerleaders, personally. You just know she spent her high school years marinating in jealousy over the cool, popular cheerleaders. Now the shoe's on the other foot, and she can't wait to put the screws to us! She's desperate for payback! She probably became a teacher just to play out her revenge fantasies!”

“Book miss put screws on?!” asked Chase, terrified.

“Oh, come on, Miss Robin isn't like that,” said Alicia.

“Yeah. I'm a cheerleader and she gives me A's all the time,” said Caitlin.

“She just wants to help Chase learn. Honestly, after talking to her, I think she's right,” said Alicia. “Chase had a primitive upbringing. There's a lot about this world she still has to learn if she's going to function in it. We've really kind of let her down by just goofing off with her and not helping her more.”

Chase shook her head vigorously and grabbed Alicia by the upper arms. “Not true! Leash, Cait and Lin teach much! Teach cheer, teach friends and buy clothes! Teach lip ex!”

“Lip ex?” wondered Caitlin.

Embarrased, Alicia explained. “Er...lip exfoliator...” she mumbled. She looked at Chase. “Yes, it's true, we taught you about cheerleading, shopping, and...and I helped you put together a lip care routine. But there's some other things that probably should have taken priority in your education.”

“Oh!” said Chase. She had no idea.

“That's okay though,” said Lindsey. “It'll all work out, we'll just have to help you study!”

Alicia clapped her hands together. “That's a great idea, Lindsey!” she cheered. “We'll all have a group study session for Chase!”

Chase looked confused. “What stud?”

“That's when you prepare yourself for a test by going over what you think will be on it,” said Caitlin. “But in this case, we'll be there to help you!”

They crossed the street. Shadows from the trees that lined the sidewalks of Sunnycrest's residential district embraced them as soon as they were out of the high school's reach. It was the day before Halloween, and it showed. The leaf-littered front-yards they passed were festively decorated with things like skeletons, tombstones, and jack-o-lanterns. “Where do we want to do it?” asked Lindsey. “Caitlin, you're the smartest, why don't we go to your place?”

“My mom's probably still sleeping...” said Caitlin. “We wouldn't be able to be loud.”

“Read book is loud?” asked Chase.

“Well, you know. We want to have a LITTLE fun,” Caitlin admitted.

“Well, my dad's probably going to be watching NASCAR. We won't be able to hear ourselves think over BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, BWAAAAAAAAAAAH,” said Lindsey, imitating car noises.

Alicia smiled. “Well, I guess my house it is, then!”