The bases launched Victoria into air that was excited, electric, and filled with music. She twisted the way she was supposed to, but intentionally let her arc list slightly towards the back, towards Chase. It would require the utmost precision to do this right... or more accurately, to do this wrong.

Not too wrong, of course. Not wrong enough to arouse suspicion. Just wrong enough to make it look like Chase had dropped her on purpose.

Chase realized very quickly that Victoria wasn't going to land properly. Most of the girl's weight was going to be on Chase. The other two bases were not going to be of much help in catching her. This was no problem. If Chase could lift her, Chase could catch her, although it would be tricky with the angle she was plummeting at. She judged Victoria's fall and repositioned herself so she could catch the little blonde with one right arm under the girl's back and her left one under her knees.

It should have been a safe landing. It would have been, had Victoria not tucked her knees in at the last millisecond. Chase's left arm caught nothing but air, and her right arm was pushed aside by Victoria's imbalanced weight. Victoria hit the turf with a hard, painful sounding crunch which the crowd's collective gasp of horror came just slightly too late to drown out.

The band stopped playing instantly. The other girls didn't see what happened, but they immediately knew something was wrong. Alicia was first on the scene. “Oh my gosh!” she cried. The blonde was sprawled on her back, eyes closed, unmoving. “What happened?” She looked at Chase. “Chase, what happened?”

Chase looked just as worried as Alicia did. “Vic fall!” she panicked. “She go up, spin... try to catch! Chase so sor-ree!”

By now the other cheerleaders were gathering around. The sniper swore against the wall of skirts that had risen in front of him.

Victoria's eyes fluttered open, and they all breathed a sigh of relief. “Ohhh, what happened?” she moaned dramatically. She stirred, then moved to sit up.

“Whoa whoa whoa,” said Alicia, gently putting her hands on Victoria's shoulders. “Don't try to sit up until we know how hurt you are.” Victoria relaxed and settled back down on the grass. Alicia looked up at Caitlin. “Are the medics on the way?”

Caitlin searched over her shoulder, then looked back down at Victoria, who had started crying. “Yeah, they're coming.” She knelt at the sobbing girl's side. “It's okay, Victoria. The medics are coming. Where does it hurt?”

“I... I feel okay. I don't think I broke anything,” she sobbed, being incredibly brave.

Chase was grateful for this news. “Oh. That good. That so good!”

Victoria covered her face with her hands. “I'm j-j-j-just sorry I screwed up the half-time showwww! Boo hoo hooo hoo hoooo...”

“It was almost over anyway,” said Lindsey. “But what happened? You've nailed that stunt a million times in practice.”

She rested the back of her hand on her forehead to make herself look more fragile. “I... I don't know. It's... it's all so hazy...” She made a big show of pretending to realize something, eyes widening. “No, no, wait... I remember what happened now!” She pointed venomously at Chase. “I fell because SHE dropped me! On PURPOSE!”

This revelation stunned the cheerleaders momentarily. Alicia was the first to speak. “Victoria, that's ridiculous. Chase wouldn't do that.”

The others looked skeptical as well, so Victoria decided to turn up the heat. “She did! I remember! I didn't want her to join the squad, so she decided to MURDER me! She's a KILLER!”

The words pierced Chase straight to the heart. She was utterly crushed, and recognizing how crushed she was only crushed her further. False accusations can hurt a lot, but Chase knew that only a partially true accusation could do this kind of damage.

She dropped to one knee and put a hand on the girl's slender shoulder. “No, Vic!” she promised. “Would no do that! Chase love whole team! Feel real bad!”

Victoria quickly pushed her hand off and tried to scramble away. “Aah! Get her away from me! She's trying to finish me off!”

At this time, the paramedics showed up. They told everyone to give Victoria some air, so Alicia and Caitlin quietly grabbed the stunned Chase and helped her to her feet. In order to give Victoria some air, some cracks had to form in the wall of skirts. This caused the sniper to perk up. His opening was close.

Chase watched the paramedics strap the moaning Victoria onto a stretcher until her vision became too wet and blurry to see her anymore. She wiped her eyes on the back of her wrist, and turned to run.

Alicia grabbed her wrist. “Chase, wait!” Chase stopped, but didn't turn around. Alicia wanted to face her, to say what she was about to say to the blonde's face and teary eyes, but that seemed so much harder. She wasn't strong enough. She told the girl's back, “I know you didn't mean to, Chase. There's no way you could have. We all know that.”

“No. She right.” choked Chase. “Try to catch, but Vic still some right. Chase not cheer. Chase is kill.”

“That's not true! You are a cheerleader now! You are!”

“If Chase was cheer, then catch Vic!” she replied. “Fake! No good! Big fake!”

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

And then, the gunshot.

It made an impossibly loud crack, the sound slicing effortlessly through the din of the busy paramedics and the murmuring, worried crowd. Chase acted on pure instinct, whirling around and tackling Alicia, throwing both of them to the turf. A bullet hole bloomed in the water cooler they were standing in front of just milliseconds earlier.

Everyone seemed frozen in disbelief for a second. Then, all at once, it hit them. There was a gunman in the stands.

Panic washed over the crowd. All of a sudden, everyone was up, everyone was screaming, everyone was running. The band members dropped their instruments in their haste to flee.

Alicia was still lying on her back, with Chase on top of her. “Ch-Chase!” she said, looking up at the girl's face. Chase's head was turned, scanning the direction the shot had come from. “What's going on?”

“It them!” she shouted, rising to a crouching position. “It cops! They come for me!” Another gunshot was heard, and she quickly ducked and grabbed Alicia, pulling her out of the way. The other cheerleaders screamed and jumped backwards as a puff of dirt exploded out of the ground, just inches from their feet.

“Whoa! That was close!” exclaimed an urgent male voice.

It came from behind Alicia. Startled, she looked over her shoulder. “K-Kirk!” she cried, relieved, jumping up to her feet and spinning around to face him. In the confusion, none of them noticed his arrival. “What are you doing here, Kirk? Shouldn't you be in the locker room?”

Kirk gave an embarrassed smile. “I, uh, had to come back out. I forgot my helmet. Then I heard the gunshot and saw you and Chase go down...” The sentence trailed off as his face sobered.

“O-oh, it's okay! Don't worry, I'm fine!” she blurted.

His expression relaxed. “Well, that's a relief. That was one serious hit you took!” He gave Chase an impressed look. “Hey Chase, maybe if you ever get sick of cheerleading, you should try out for the football team! I didn't know you had that much power!”

Caitlin was about to tell them that this really wasn't the time to stand around chatting, when another gunshot told them instead.

The bullet screamed past Chase's ear. The mountain girl raised her voice, so everyone present could hear her over the chaos. “Go! Run! Get out! I stay fight!”

“What?! But, but, Chase! We can't just leave you here!” replied Lindsey, shocked.

“Must fight! Just Chase can stop! Not safe you!” the girl answered determinedly.

Caitlin looked worried. “But... you don't know how many there are. It might not just be the sniper. There could be a whole swarm of them around here.” She bit her lip. “You were... scared to face them again.”

Her tone implied that she was scared for Chase to face them again as well. Chase's understanding of English was not so poor that this fact eluded her. Her voice softened, and she took Caitlin's hands.

“Scared, yes. But must do. Must fight all,” she said gently. “And SAVE all. But all must get safe first.”

She understood. They all did. Alicia gave the command. “Well, come on! Let's get out of here! Everybody run! Chase will cover us!” They started running for the gate.

Kirk didn't move. He looked from Chase to the fleeing cheerleaders. Clearly, there was something he was missing. “W-w-wait!” he called after them. “You're really just gonna go along with this and leave her all by herself? How's she gonna fight some crazy sniper?”

The look Chase replied with left him taken aback. He had never seen someone so willful, so determined, so assured. “You need run too, Kirk Kirk. I fine. I good for fight.” Her tone was firm, her eyes filled with strength. He couldn't explain it, but he somehow felt obliged to believe her.

“H-hey! What about me?!” asked Victoria, struggling against her stretchers' bonds.

Kirk dropped to one knee by her side. He grabbed the straps and tried to loosen them, but they held fast. With the clock ticking, Chase intervened, crouching next to him.

“You can run?” she asked Victoria. The little blonde nodded anxiously. Chase broke the straps with just a couple firm yanks each. Kirk's eyes bulged in shock. “Then run, Vic! Sor ree for drop!”

Victoria looked surprised at this selfless act. Flustered, she stood and dusted herself off. “W-whatever, loser!” She turned and broke into a run, straining to catch up with the rest of the squad.

As Chase stood back up, Kirk was frozen in place for a second, watching her with silent awe. Then, the second passed. He snapped out of it, joining Victoria's retreat.

Another shot rang out as they fled. Chase flipped over the table, sending the leaky Gatorade cooler rolling across the field, and dove behind it. Another shot opened up a hole right next to her, letting a small beam of stadium lighting shine through. She was all alone now. She'd sent her friends away, told them she could do this alone. Now, she had to prove it.

She peered around the side of the table. The shots were definitely coming from the commentator's box. If she squinted... yes, she could see him up there. It was difficult to parse him from the shadows in his black clothes, but her experience hunting at night made it possible.

Her eyes scanned her surroundings for a weapon. Any weapon. There was nothing on the sidelines but some dropped towels and bags and things. Perhaps on the field?

And then she saw it. She wanted to go for it, but it had been a while since the sniper fired. She knew that was what he was anticipating.

Frozen in place, the sniper watched the overturned table. He saw no need to waste a bullet firing blindly. Patience was what a sniper was best at. He could wait for her to make her move.

Then, movement! A blur, darting out the table's right side. He made a split-second adjustment and fired.

He hit his target. A thrown towel.

As fast as he could, he swung his sight over to the left side of the table, but he was too slow. Chase's distraction had done what it was supposed to. She was already halfway across the field, running towards him.

She dove, grabbed a drumstick one of the snare drum players had dropped, and hit the grass, rolling expertly into the fall. She tumbled up to one knee, aimed, and fired the stick off like a dart.

The last thing the sniper saw through his sight was the stick streaking through the air towards him. It smashed through the front lens of his scope and out the other side, piercing through his eye and into his brain. He died instantly, slumping forward onto the open windowsill.