Mom Forced Me Into Pom-Poms - Part 8

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Sarah dropped by twice during the week but brought no more boxes  She was exceptionally nice to him, constantly telling him how cute he was, what a great cheerleader he was becoming, and how excited she was to be bringing him to Dallas.  On Wednesday he visited Megan's house. 

Her two older brothers sneered at him in his tank and shorts, but her mother told them off. Megan's room was super girly, too, but didn't contain as much One Direction merchandise as was in his or Ashley's rooms.  

Both girls were envious when he let it slip about his impending trip to Dallas. They gushed about how much they loved the Cowboys Cheerleaders, how awesome their uniform was, how pretty they all were, and how so super cool it would be to cheer for the Cowboys. 

They clicked on innumerable YouTube videos of the Cowboys Cheerleaders and studied their routines and their look. For the remainder of the week, at practice and outside of it, it seemed that all Ashley and Megan wanted to talk about was America's Sweethearts, and how super lucky he was to have the opportunity to meet them. He had to promise to take lots of photos of his trip and to tell them every last detail about it.   

And then, before he knew it, the big day arrived. He would be leaving his mom and going on a three-night road trip to Dallas with Sarah and her friends. It would be the first time he was ever away from his mom for that length of time.  

When Sarah came around to pick him up that morning, his mom had his travel and cheer bags all ready, and she hugged and kissed him for a long time and told him how much she loved him and how proud she was of him and that he was to have a fabulous time and to do what Sarah told him because she was his big cheer sister now.  

And then he was in Sarah's Beetle heading to her school where the coach was standing ready that would take them on the long journey to Dallas. Sarah talked to him excitedly all the way and explained that he was to tell anyone who asked that she was his sister, and that's how he got on this trip. That way, she said, we can also both stay in the same room in the hotel.  

At the school, he counted about twelve older girls, including Sarah. He knew Sarah's three friends, of course, and he knew Tiffany also, who was one of his cheer coaches. There was one younger girl, who stuck close to Rachel, and he guessed she must be Susie, Rachel's little sister. 

She was very cute with long curly brown hair held high in pigtails, and she wore green and pink, the colors of her school. Her eyes fell on his as he looked at her and they acknowledged each other with a weak smile.  

Then it was onto the coach. He found a seat halfway back and, to his relief, Sarah sat beside him. The girls all smiled at him and greeted him as they climbed on board, telling him how super cute he was, and how lucky he was to get on this trip of a lifetime, and then the coach began to move away.  

Sarah was busy talking to the girl across the aisle from her and, after a while, as the coach moved out of the busy city traffic onto the Interstate, he took out his music and began to listen to some One Direction. 

It was going to be a long journey. Sarah had told him it would take about eight hours to reach Dallas.  About two hours into the trip, the coach pulled off the Interstate for a pit stop. 

They got some pizza and fries - which thrilled him because his mom scarcely ever allowed him to eat this kind of food anymore and then it was back on the bus. Sarah suggested he sit beside Susie so that they could get to know each other.  "You are going to be in the same group at camp," she explained, "so it would be good for you to become friends."  

Reluctantly, he found himself sitting beside Susie while Rachel sat with Sarah. 

Both of them were shy at first but before long Susie began to open up. She told him she was so super excited about camp she had hardly slept for the last two nights. She was super relieved, too, to find she wouldn't have to go to junior camp all on her own but would have a companion, even if they were from different schools. 

She told him how cheer was, like, her whole life and how she hoped to be cheer captain next year. Her sister Rachel, she said, was awesome at cheer and he was lucky because Sarah was an awesome cheerleader as well.  

She gushed about the Dallas Cheerleaders. She had watched them, like, a thousand times. 

In her opinion, they were the perfect cheerleaders, the model for every cheerleader in the country. Her ambition when she grew up, she confided, was to be a Cowboys Cheerleader.  

She had read all about the camp they were going to, and they would have a super advantage being on it because it would mean they would have so much more confidence and poise than the other girls on their teams.  

She went on about school, too, and how much she loved St Teresa's. It's great not to have any boys there, she said. The only negative thing about parochial school was having to wear a uniform.  

"I love my cheer uniform," she said, "but I hate my school uniform. 

There's a super strict dress code. Our skirts have to reach our knees and we can't wear any make-up. I mean," she continued, looking at him, "at Madison Heights, you can wear whatever you like, and you get to do back-to-school shopping and all, but we can't."  

She made it sound like an awful tragedy, he thought.  She was thrilled to discover he was a Directioner. She loved the boys, too, though she found that she was beginning to like Five Seconds of Summer more now.  "I mean, they're super hot as well."  

Harry was her favorite of the boys, she confided. She adored his cheeky smile and curly hair. Her favorite song was 'Little Things.' That was one of his favorite One Direction songs, too, and they both agreed that Ed Sheeran was an awesome songwriter. When he admitted that he followed the boys on Twitter, she took out her smartphone and immediately followed him, insisting that he follow her right back.  

He now had over three hundred followers on Twitter, he realized, after he logged on. That was amazing for just a few days.  He realized also that Susie was a really sweet girl, and he didn't even feel the time pass as she chatted away as if they had been friends for years.    

As darkness began to descend, the bus pulled into the hotel just outside Dallas where they would be spending the three nights. Jesse waited in the lobby with Susie while Sarah, Rachel, and the older girls signed in and got their keys.  Their room was big with two Queen-size beds and a wide-screen TV. Sarah allowed him to choose which bed he wanted, then escorted him downstairs to get something to eat. 

 It was after nine by the time they returned to their room. Sarah told him to get ready for bed and that he could watch TV, while she had some business she needed to conduct with her friends. She wouldn't be gone for long, she assured him. 

Sarah placed his bag on a side table, extracted his toiletries case, and then told him to go into the bathroom, brush his teeth, and wash himself properly for bed.  

Stepping back into the room five minutes later, Jesse was shocked when he saw the pajamas that lay waiting for him. 

]They were One Direction pjs, comprising a pink top with tiny cap sleeves that had pictures of the five boys on the front and red leggings with '1D' written in large silver script on the sides. He had never seen those pjs before.  

"Aren't they super cute?" Sarah gushed, holding them up. 

"I know how much you love 1D and I just had to get these for you. 

Come on, take off your clothes and get ready for bed."  He didn't want to wear those little girl's pjs and he didn't want to strip off in front of Sarah, but she just stood there impatiently, waiting on him, and he had no choice but to pull off his tee and slip out of the yellow shorts his mom had dressed him in that morning.  

Before he knew it, he was in his One Direction pjs. He felt ridiculous, but Sarah told him he looked super cute. She pulled back the covers and ordered him between them. 

Then she handed him the remote control and told him she would be back real soon.    

He must have fallen asleep before she returned because, next thing he knew, it was bright outside and Sarah was blow-drying her hair before the mirror in the corner. 

"Morning, sweetie," she greeted him, over the hum of the hairdryer. 

"Why don't you have a shower and brush your teeth? We have a really exciting day ahead of us today."  

He climbed out of bed and blushed when he saw his reflection in the mirror. The pjs he was encased in made him look like a little kid.  

Sarah had his outfit ready on the bed when he emerged from the bathroom. He balked when he saw the bright pink top and tiny white shorts. They were the same as what she was wearing.  

"This is like our uniform for camp," she explained. 

"All of us from East High will be wearing the same thing, and that means you and Susie, too."  She held out the little white undies for him to step into and then the low-rise shorts that had curved pink accents on the side. 

The hot pink top had tiny cap sleeves and a round neck, and covered his shorts almost entirely, concealing the little bump between his legs. It had an image of a cheerleader waving poms in silver glitter on the front. The shoes she slipped on his feet were adorned with pink laces. 

Everything matched and he had never seen any of these items before.  All done, she put him standing beside her before the mirror, and he could see that they were dressed exactly the same.  

He wanted to say something, to protest, to tell her he didn't want to wear this pink stuff, that it made him look like a girl, but his mouth felt so dry that no words would come out. And anyway, he was miles from home now, all alone except for this girl, and there was nothing he could do about his situation.  Then Sarah's face lit up again as if she had just got a bright idea. 

Grabbing him by the hand, she put him on her bed by her locker where her makeup bag lay.  

"Show me those nails," she commanded, holding up his right hand so she could examine them.  

"You shouldn't be biting your nails, Jess," she scolded. "That's a really filthy habit. I know what will cure you."  She put his hand down, then rooted around in her makeup case and took out a bottle of pink nail polish. 

 "Spread out your fingers on the locker," she ordered. 

He hesitated; this was going way too far.  "Spread out your fingers, now," she repeated, more firmly this time. 

"Here, you do it like this."  She spread her own pink-coated fingers wide to show him what to do, then watched as he tentatively followed her example. She splayed his fingers wide and told him to keep them like that; then, one by one, began to paint them hot, bright pink. 

He watched, both frightened and intrigued, as she ran the brush expertly up and down his nails, never straying over the edge.  "Now, hold them out like this for a few minutes to let them dry," she instructed him, as she put the bottle back in her makeup bag.  

He studied his hands. He was used to wearing his cheer ring now, and to the weight of his charm bracelet on his wrist, and how it jangled whenever he moved his hand around. But wearing nail polish was different. 

He couldn't believe that those hands with pink nails were actually his. They sure made his fingers look way more girly. 

 "Look, now, our nails match, too!" Sarah exclaimed, holding his hand next to hers, so he could see they were wearing the very same color nails.  

"Now, we're ready to go meet the others. Come on." 

 He held back, his resistance building.  "I don't want to go out like this," he said, quietly. "Please, Sarah, people will laugh at me."  She got on her knee before him so she could look him square in the eye. "Nobody is going to laugh at you," she said, tenderly. 

"I promise you, all they will see is a perfect little cheerleader. Don't you want to be a perfect little cheerleader for me?"  

He found it impossible to resist those big blue eyes and that big sister look that she liked to give him. He nodded, defeated again. She beamed a huge, big sister smile at him.  

"That's better. I know you do, sweetie," she said. "Now, let's go. Today is just gonna be such a super big day."    

He felt desperately self-conscious as Sarah led him to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. 

He bent his fingers tight and held them close by his side so no one would see his nails, and he imagined that everyone would laugh at him in his pink outfit, but most people paid no heed to him at all. Those whose eyes did meet his simply smiled at the little one who was dressed the same as the older girl beside him.  

After breakfast, the participants from East gathered in the lobby to wait for the coach to ferry them to the AT&T stadium. It was easy to spot everyone from his coach - all were wearing the same pink top and white shorts as he and Sarah. Susie saw him and waved. 

Except for the large pink bow that held her hair in a high ponytail, she and he were dressed as if they were identical twins.  The coach ride to the stadium took just about twenty minutes. Jesse couldn't take his eyes off the structure as they approached. This was the home of the Dallas Cowboys; the home of his very favorite team; the place where his heroes routed opponents and scored glorious touchdowns and won stirring victories. 

He couldn't think of a more fabulous spot in the whole wide world, and here he was outside it, waiting to go through its doors, waiting to step on its hallowed ground. In his excitement, he almost forgot what he was wearing who he was with, and why it was that he was here in Dallas in the first place.  

Lots of other busses were also arriving now, their passengers stepping out onto the wide forecourt by the stadium entrance. And then he noticed that they weren't all girls and they weren't all cheerleaders. 

There were lots of boys, too, boys his age as well as younger and older boys, carrying helmets and pads and cleats. And the brutal realization swept over him that a football camp must be taking place that day also. 

These boys would get to practice and improve their football skills. Even better, these boys would get to meet the Dallas Cowboys footballers, talk to them, hang out with them, get their autographs, and have their photos taken with them. And he felt supremely jealous of them. 

These boys were doing all that he dreamed of doing; they were going to experience what he wanted to experience; they were fulfilling his dream.  And here he was in his pink and white outfit and his cheer bag waiting to go to cheer camp with a bunch of loud and giddy girls. 

He saw how the boys looked at the girls, the younger ones sniggering at them dismissively, but the older ones clearly interested in the more mature teen beauties who were standing in little groups only yards away from each other. He saw how they would look at each other, catch each other's eye, then look swiftly away.  

Jesse felt overwhelmingly sorry for himself. He should be standing there with the football guys looking across at the cheerleaders, sniggering at them and their stupid poses - not the other way around.  

He moved to swat away a fly that had landed on his arm, then pulled his hand back in embarrassment when he saw his pink nails, hoping nobody had noticed them. But, as he looked around, red-faced, he realized he was no different from any of the other cheerleaders gathered there that morning. All had painted nails, and most were in bright reds or pinks, just like his own.    

The arena doors opened, and they were ushered inside. The boys were pointed in one direction and the cheerleaders in another. There must have been several hundred cheerleaders, he figured, of all ages, but mostly younger girls. 

Many were dressed in matching outfits, like his group, but lots were dressed in random colors.  Sarah grabbed his hand and led him to a queue before a table behind which two official-looking women sat.  

"We get our name badges and passes here," she informed him, "and then we'll be told where to go. Like I said already, I can't be with you during the camp sessions, because we are in different age groups, but Susie will be with you all the time. I'll come get you at lunch, okay, sweetie?"  

He looked up at her and nodded. He guessed he would be able to survive with Susie until lunch break.  At last, they made it to the top of the queue and Jesse stood a few steps behind while Sarah talked with the ladies at the desk. Having obtained their badges and passes, she ushered Jesse to a quieter spot away to the side.  

"Here's your name badge, sweetie, and your pass. Let me pin this on your top, and then we'll wait for Rachel and Susie before we figure out where to go."  As she held up the badge to fix it to his tee, he recoiled in horror.  

"But that's not my name," he protested. "They got the wrong name. I'm Jesse Skelton."  Sarah sighed and smiled at him with a look of exasperation.  

"Now, calm down, Jess," she said, stroking his cheek, "they got the right name. Remember, how I said I was your big sister, and my second name is Jeffers, right? So your second name had to be Jeffers, too. 

I wrote in the application form that your first name was Jess but they must have thought that was short was Jessica. I think Jessica Jeffers is a really cool name, though. I mean, it's got, like, a super cool ring to it J. J. Jessica Jeffers."  "But it's a girl's name," he shouted, a little too loudly. "Jessica is a girl's name, and I'm not a girl."  

"Well, that's your name while you're here," Sarah retorted, matter of fact. "We can't go changing it now. You're just going to have to act like a Jessica, and no one will know otherwise."  

He felt the tears well up, and then begin to stream down his cheeks. This was a disaster. Everything was a disaster. Everyone would think he was a girl.  

Sarah retrieved a tissue from her purse and gently dried the tears away.  

"It's alright, sweetheart," she assured him. 

"You look gorgeous and you're going to have a super time, and you have the sweetest name. Just relax and enjoy yourself, and everything will be just fine."  She had just finished speaking when Rachel and Susie joined them, their name badges already in place.  

"Hey, guys," Rachal greeted them. "Ready to go?"  "Just fixing our badges here, and we'll be right with you," Sarah answered, pinning Jesse's badge on his shirt, then fixing her own.  Jesse dropped his head and tried to turn away. He didn't want Rachel and Susie to see the stupid name he had been given. It was just way too mortifying.  

It was a wasted effort, though. As the two older girls spoke, he saw Susie staring at his name tag, her face clearly puzzled.  

"Your name is Jessica?" she asked. She was sure Rachel had told her Jess was a boy. She must have been mistaken, though that was understandable, she thought, given Jess' short hair. 

 "I love the name Jessica," Susie went on. "I think it's a really pretty name, way nicer than mine." 

 He glanced at her name tag, which said Susan Johnson. 

 "Yours is real nice," he said, trying to return her compliment, his mouth dry.  "Thanks, Jessica. But not as nice as yours," she countered.  She's going to keep calling me Jessica, he said to himself. She thinks I'm a girl. How can I ever come back from this?  

"Okay, then, sweeties," he heard Sarah say. "Let's go find the room where you two have camp."   

 They found the room halfway down a long, wide corridor and were greeted at the door by a gorgeous, dark-haired, 20-something in a tight cheer top and shorts. She told them her name was MacKenzie and she was a Cowboys Cheerleader. She would be facilitating the camp for the thirty 7-14-year-olds who had been assigned to this room. There were so many in that age category, she explained, that they had divided them into ten groups of about thirty girls in each group.  

Despite the predicament in which he found himself, Jesse could scarcely take his eyes off Mackenzie. 

He didn't think he had ever seen such a beautiful woman. Her eyes, her hair, her boobs, her legs, everything about her made his jaw drop and his eyes gaped. She must have noticed how he stared at her because the next thing he knew she was squatting before him looking him in the eye.  

"Aren't you the little cutie!" she said, causing him to blush deeply. She brushed his cheek lightly, then stood upright again. 

 "Jess has always been a real tomboy," he heard Sarah tell her, "and just started to cheer this summer."  "Well, there's nothing like cheer to knock the tomboy out of a girl," MacKenzie said. She looked at Jesse again, then ran her fingers through his hair. 

 "We need to do something about that hair, though. You should take her to the salon on Level 2 during lunch break," she told Sarah. "I think they would be able to do a good job on her, and it wouldn't cost much either."  "We might just do that," Sarah replied. 

"Sounds like a super idea. Well, hunny," she continued, turning to Jesse, "you and Susie have a fab time, okay? I'll come get you at noon."  The walls of the room were painted in Dallas Cowboy blue and adorned with large portraits of Cowboys Cheerleaders. About half the participants were younger than Jesse. 

A couple were wearing miniature Cowboys Cheerleaders outfits. All were buzzing with excitement.  

The mention of hair made him look at the others in the room. The girls all had longer hair, which they wore in ponytails or resting on their shoulders. Even though his mom had refused to let him get a haircut all summer, nobody's hair was as short or boyish as his. 

He realized just how different it made him look. 

He sure didn't want girly hair, but he didn't want to stand out as different either. 

He was glad Susie was with him. It meant that he didn't feel quite so alone.  

MacKenzie arranged them into three lines of ten. He was relieved that she placed him in the back row alongside Susie because it meant he wouldn't be quite so conspicuous. 

Then, she stood before them and began to talk.  "Good morning, girls. My name is MacKenzie Grogan. 

I'm a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, and I will be your instructor during this three-day workshop. 

We are going to work on the key aspects of being a cheerleader so that by the time you're ready to go home each of you will be cheer captain material. 

This morning we are going to focus on poise and confidence. Proper poise and posture are absolutely critical if you are to be an awesome cheerleader.  "So now, first of all, I want you to stand tall. Hands at your side, feet firmly on the ground, shoulders back, chest out, chin up."  

She demonstrated what she meant, then moved among the group, getting the participants to do exactly as she had instructed. She put her hands on Jesse's shoulders and told him to push them back more.  

"Remember," she told the group, "cheerleaders always stand tall, erect, full of poise and confidence. Cheerleaders never slouch; cheerleaders never hunch their shoulders; cheerleaders never go around with their heads down, whether during cheer or outside of cheer. Now, let's go over all of this again."  

And so it went for what seemed like ages. MacKenzie kept repeating the same message, making them adopt the same posture over and over until it was imprinted on his brain.  

"You are cheerleaders; you face the world with confidence," she said.  

As he followed MacKenzie's instructions, he could see what a talented cheerleader Susie was. But he could see, also, that he was as good as most of the girls in the room and better than some.  Next, MacKenzie got them to move forward and back, then from side to side.  "Cheerleaders don't walk," she explained, "they glide. They move across the floor or the field gracefully, effortlessly, as if they are floating over it as if they're not walking at all."  

She demonstrated what she meant, and they spent a long time trying to imitate her movements. Jesse never realized that walking could be so hard.

"Now I want you to glide around the room like I showed you, heads held high, chins up, shoulders back, chests out, legs straight."  They moved around the room, as she watched and corrected them. Jesse concentrated hard. It was tiring and really, really difficult trying to remember to do all those things at the same time.  

"You're doing really fantastic, girls," he heard MacKenzie say, as she lined them up in their original formation again.  "The final thing we are going to focus on this morning is our smiles. Sure, we all smile every day, and smiling comes naturally to us, but a cheerleader's smile is different. 

It communicates so much more. It gets the crowd going. It tells people that we are strong and happy and confident, full of spirit. We don't want a forced smile or a stupid, cheesy smile. 

We want a natural, super confident, preppy smile. Brilliant big smiles are something you need to practice all the time so that you'll do it without even thinking." 

 MacKenzie demonstrated a proper cheerleader smile. It seemed to Jesse like you could see every one of her teeth.  

"Now, I want y'all to do the same," she said.  And so Jesse spent the next ten to fifteen minutes smiling a cheerleader smile. He felt ridiculous smiling the way she wanted them to. His face felt funny, and his jaws began to ache. 

He didn't think he would be able to maintain that look for very long.  Proclaiming herself satisfied with their progress, MacKenzie got them to combine everything they had learned that morning.

 Jesse tried to hold the proper posture while gliding around the room with a super big cheerleader smile on his face. 

It was much easier said than done.  "I want to see that smile on your faces all the time from now on," MacKenzie instructed them, wrapping up. "I'll be really disappointed if I catch any of you without your natural big cheerleader smile."   

 Sarah was standing at the door waiting for him when the session ended.