The middle school only has 3 sports available for 6th graders: track, cross-country, basketball and wrestling. Liesel's petite frame would only be suited for wrestling but she had 0 interest in it. Cheerleading and Poms aren't an option until 7th grade so when Spirit Squad was offered as a club, Liesel was eager to sign up.
Her enthusiasm was infectious and pretty soon all the girls were practicing stunts.
Even though they gave her the smallest uniform available, Liesel was swimming in hers. The arm holes were so big you could easily see her bra and of course she noticed all this about 15 minute before she was supposed to leave for the bus. By some miracle, my sewing machine was already set up. I grabbed the C from the LUCKY letters Brent's mother gave me at Christmas for St Patrick's Day and managed to sew a perfect fitted waist into that uniform.
That drama was only the beginning. The girls could be competitive and catty. Some girls had done club cheer before and already knew how to stunt. Some girls just didn't get along with other girls. More than once I picked Liesel up from cheer and she told me all about what when down with some girl crying in the locker room... again.
Once when the girls were supposed to stagger- one in front and one in back- one of those girls with lots of cheer experience positioned herself just so Liesel would have to move back, even though she's shorter. Liesel tells me she glared at her and condescendingly said "We're supposed to be staggered" as she did so. When Liesel relayed this story to us, Brent and I were settled into bed while Liesel was perched on the end, hands flying wildly in the air and her voice anguished. I told her to stop right there and said if I were a gambling woman and I had a line on this in Vegas, I'd be 2:1 this girl's name started with an A, K or R. Liesel's angst took a pause and she said, "How did you know that?! Her name starts with an A!" We all laughed. As the French say, "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose." The more things change, the more they stay the same. Mean girls tend to have boutique names and boutique names often start with one of those letters. This became a discussion with my sisters and girlfriends and everyone chose the same 2 letters- A and K and then either R or T. Whitney commented, "A, especially Ashley- Ashley's can be mean." Ha ha!
Liesel's schedule suddenly became jam packed. Between Spirit Squad, dance, Young Women and Girl Scouts, Liesel was feeling pretty squeezed. Due to work, I was never able to make it to the beginning of the games but I made it for half-time.
Here's one of the cheers:
One of the dance routines (Liesel's on the left):
Even though Liesel's group had learned to catch her in a cradle, the coach wouldn't let them do it which frustrated her because they'd put in so much time on it in practice. I'm sure the coach was thinking safety first, which I'm grateful for, because even seeing Liesel up there turns my stomach in knots. At 0:54 Liesel is at the tip of the triangle and she would always get the funniest smile because she felt so strange having all those poms on her shoulders.
Another dance routine:
An 8th grader did the choreography for this one and as she taught it to the girls she warned them that it would get pretty fast. You can see it at 0:40 and Liesel, with years of dance experience, thought quietly to herself it wasn't terribly complicated. They begin the kick line at 0:48 and those always make me smile because they seem to fall apart even before they begin.
Liesel had fun and made new friends in Spirit Squad. Today was the end of season party. They gave awards and the girls had juice boxes, cupcakes and cookies. However, she's definitely relieved it's over!
