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The girls PE coach, who also is the pep squad coordinator and Lisa Janush are ready to oversee the open tryouts for the squad to fill their vacancy.  Lisa has asked Megan to be there with her.

"So, Megan, my folks are going to be out of town this weekend so my brother and I agreed to throw a party.  I had Lance Harbor invite Cal Stewart.  The only downside is I have to let my brother's band play.  Please tell me you can be there?"

((OOC: Anyone going for the tryout please roll an Acrobatics roll.  If you have Dance as a skill you can add 1/2 your Dance skill to the roll rounded up.))

OOC: Donnie's roll is:



just kidding. ;D

Sylvia slinks into tryouts in her gymnastics leotard.  She tries to find anonymity amid the other applicants until her name's called, and then she hits the floor with as much pep as she can muster--sweaty palms, dry mouth, and a pained smile.

Acrobatics (1d20+6=11) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=619007)

[Have I mentioned how much I hate d20 games?  And how much they hate me?]

"Can I start over?" Sylvia quavers.

“Of course I will be there.”  Megan replies to Lisa’s comments about the party.  “Even if Cal wasn’t going to be.”  When Lisa added the fact that her brother would have to be there to, the blond teen shrugged.  “Well, just having a live bad should be cool, hopefully they don’t suck.”

Megan then turns to focus on the girls that were trying out for the opening in the squad.

The coach tells Sylvia to give it another go, and to try and relax.

Lisa rolls her eyes and looks back at Megan, "We're doomed.  even if we find a replacement for Fern we're gonna be horrible tomorrow.  It's gonna look so bad."

Megan could understand Lisa’s frustration as she mentioned the game tomorrow.  It had to be hard to have someone that had been working on the routines all summer just suddenly be gone.  “Well, does the new girl have to be there tomorrow?  Kind of wouldn’t be fair to who ever it turns out to be to suddenly be expected to have to do the dances and other stuff.  Maybe she could just be there to watch, maybe tumble a bit if we get one that is good with that.”

"We'll have to go over the routines and see which ones will work with one less girl.  Can you take a look at the book and see what one's we can managed while I concentrate on finding a replacement for Fern?"  Megan can see Lisa is desperate for the help.

Sylvia sees Lisa roll her eyes and begins to feel the dismal, sinking vertigo of shame and failure, but when her gaze falls to the gymnasium floor, a kind of stubborn pride, a righteous indignation, starts to heat the skin on her face and the back of her neck.  Dammit, these are cheerleaders.  They couldn't pull a Yurchenko vault if they were thrown at the horse while tied to the ceiling with bungee cords.

She gives it all she's got.

Acrobatics (1d20+6=11) (http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=619219)

[And still sucks.  Man, I hate d20.]

Kel strolls in nice and lazily, his boots clanking across the floor of the gym.  There is one pink highlight running down his straight black hair, running along the right side of his face.  He plucks off his coat and says before anyone can question, "Yea, I'm trying out."  He tosses his coat off in to some random suggestion, and then drops into what one could call a graceful fighting stance, before flowing across the floor in a dance-like state, and landing with a little somersault into a handspring.

((silliness+roll+fate roll=Kel trying out...http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=619316))

Sylvia, who's trying to scrape together her pride after her poor showing, watches Kel do his thing with rapt admiration.  If Kel gets in and she doesn't, she'll never show her face in the gymnasium again, but still, just to watch the boy move. . . .

When Kel finishes his little amount of insanity, he leans into Sylvia and whispers, "So like, I'm totally going to toss you up in the air and stuff, right? Cause like hell am I doing this alone."

Sylvia buries her face in her hands in a melodramatic gesture.  "I so sucked!  I'm getting too tall or too fat or something.  I can't do this anymore."  It's the end of the world as we know it.

Kel laughed and gave Sylvia a slap along the shoulder, and then he whispers again, "You haven't done this before," He gestures over to the cheerleading squad, "and you have done that,"  He plucks her liatard as he emphasizes the that, "In a long time "

"I always sucked," Sylvia confesses.  "I mean, I was never going to the Olympics.  But I thought I could at least pull off a little floor work today."  She shakes her head and then tries to stop talking about this, her most recent trauma.  "You were great.  They're so going to pick you.  They're always short on guys, and you're actually good."  Then she pauses.  "Aren't you afraid you're going to get, uh, remarked upon for trying out for pep squad?"

"There's a large gap between being olympic level and sucking.  I've seen what you do, the other night when you like, jumped around our houses...literally.  That's skill Syl, pure skill."  He smiles down at her, and he shrugs, "I only want to do it if you get on the team.  I came out here to make sure you don't get trapped with a bunch of well...ya know."  He lets his whole body form into a level of disgust for the picture perfect cheerleaders.  Kel chuckles when she proposes the implications of what he did then whispers as quietly as possible, "Not really, I just tried to break into the inner circle of the hottest girls in the school, I think my motivations can be made pretty clear to anyone who says something."

But Sylvia can imagine the school bullies salivating over Kel, the freshman who dared to cheer.  "No fighting," she tells him.  "If this is some kind of roach trap for the school vermin. . . ."  She shakes her head.  "I don't want you getting in trouble."

Kel smiles, "I wish I could say that I planned that far ahead.  Though now that you gave me the idea..."  He let's his sentence hang there before continuing, "I promise I won't start any fights."  Kel adds beneath his breath, "On school grounds."

Sylvia cringes.  For the bullies.

Megan went to work looking through the book for the things they could do without Fern, glancing up every once and awhile to see some of the tryouts.  When Kel came out to try out, she looked up a bit disbelieving at the fact he would be here.  Just judging by his appearance, she was pretty sure he could careless about being on the team, let alone having any school spirit.  But it was interesting that just the other day she had mentioned to Sarah how it would be good to have some boys on the team, but one boy really wouldn’t be all that much use.  Two boys, maybe, for they could do the basket tosses, which would likely get her and the other girls a good bit more air time. 

Another boy came into the gym, late.  He filled out the sign-up sheet and waited for his name to be called, Dallas Winston.

Dallas went through the majority of the routine the girls had done at the game last Friday, with almost perfect form.

The coach thanked him when he had finished and he went over to teh bleachers to sit down afterwards.

Megan watched the performance of the other boy, a little surprised at how easily he was able to duplicate the dance routines the squad did.  After he had finished, she could only watch a moment and then focused back on her task and picking out routines for Saturday.

After the last of the applicants finished the coach thanked everyone for their time and asks Sylvian, Kel and Dallas to stay.  Once everyone else has left she comes over to where you guys are sitting.

"Congratulations."  She says with a smile, shaking each of your hands, "Welcome to the squad.  Since we have a game tomorrow I wont expect you to be ready, but I'll want you to be there to watch the squad and lend moral support.  This is a team effort, and I'll expect a commitment from each of you.  If you don't think you can give that commitment, then let me know now."

Assuming no one declines, she gives each of you the routine book and gets you uniforms.  She also gets all the necessary permission slips togehter for each of you.

Lisa Janush comes over, she's the head of the squad.  She's polite and introduces herself to each of you, "I really look forward to getting to know all of you and working with you."

Lisa comes over to Megan afterwards, "Well, the plus side is we have two boys now, then minus side is we have to get them up to speed before next week or we'll be doing gimped routines forever.  Tell me you found enough routines for us to not look stupid tomorrow."

((OOC: You did))

“And the fact that one of the guys has a pink stripe in his hair.”  Megan comments, looking back over at Kel, noting that he sure didn’t seem like the most likely candidate to be overflowing with school spirit. 

“But of course I found things we can do tomorrow.  And with two guys, we can probably teach them to do basket throws today or tomorrow before the game, which will mean we can catch some serious air.”

Sylvia looks at the uniforms, looks at Kel, looks at the uniforms, looks at Kel.  "O-oh, boy," she says and leaves it at that.

Lisa and Megan come over to where the boys are.  "Hi."  Lisa says, "Do you two know how to do basket throws?  We'd like to take a little time to work with you today, if you have time?"  Lisa throws on her charming smile and that little cock of the hip and flip of the hair that makes most boys stutter when they try to speak. 

Dallas looks at Kel, then back at Lisa, "I've got no where to be, who wants to fly first?"

Megan looks over at Lisa, figuring it might be best if she went first, that way Lisa can see how they do the first time to offer better advice on how to adjust early.  “I guess I will, unless Lisa really wants to.”

She looks back at the boys as she continues.  “Its pretty easy, just grab your left wrist with your right hand, then face each other and grab each other’s right wrist with your left hands, forming the ‘basket’.  On the count of three, you bend your knees down as I jump onto your forearms and then toss, using your legs and arms, then let go and be ready to catch me.  I’ll come down pretty much laid out, catch me at the legs and upper back together.  Got it?”

Sylvia gives Megan a look full of foreboding.  "You don't want to do this on a softer surface?"  She's sure the girl knows what she's doing, and in a back alley, there's no one she'd rather have looking out for her than Kel.  But who really wants to be the crash test dummy in a back-of-the-matchbook Evel Knievel course?

“We’ll just start with some light tosses, no trying to put us in orbit or anything.  After all, tomorrow night we will be doing this on the sidelines of the football field, no soft surface there.”  Megan replied.

"I'm sure Kell and I can manage to keep from dropping you."  Dallas says with a confidence and smile that are both impressive and hard to imagine from a freshman.

Kel just sort of gazes at the uniform, and sighs in that way that makes you know he's thinking what have I gotten myself into and why?  He then looks up and sees the two other cheerleaders, and turns to look at Sylvia and just seems to nod to himself.
Kel smirks, "Sounds simple enough, just helping you get into the air and catching you, right?"  He stands up, and cracks his neck, stretching his arms a little bit.  He looks over at Dallas as they begin to walk to an area with a bit more space around it, so that the girl won't fall on anyone's head or something, "Ever help someone start crowd surfing?"

"A few times."  Dallas says.  They get ready to launch Megan.

Megan, make a single roll and apply any appropriate skill.  Add +4 for the assist from the boys.

“Not just help me in the air, toss me in the air.”  Megan replies as she steps up beside the boys, putting a hand on each of their shoulders and waiting for Lisa’s count.  On three, she jumps and lets herself be thrown in the air, riding the momentum up and straddling at the top before bringing her legs back together and straightening back out as she beings to fall back down.

(ooc roll is a 15 total for the straddle jump.  http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=620972)

The boys manage to execute the move very well, and Megan got a good bit more air then she was expecting.  Kel and Dallas seem to be a lot stronger then they look.

Megan lands the two boys arms, her arms wrapping around their shoulders as she did and was then sat back down on her feet.  “That was really good, lot more power than we have gotten with just girls.”  She says as she looks over at Lisa.  It was kind of to bad they didn’t have a bit more time, they might have been able to get the boys and the other girl up to speed on some of the pyramids, but one day wasn’t nearly enough, and it was a bit to dangerous to try and rush that.

"That was really good." Lisa said with a slight look of suprise.  "Ah, maybe we can try some tomorrow if we find a good spot to do it."  She takes Megan off to one side, lowering her voice some, "Wow.  This could actually work.  As long as the new girl isn't a brick we might be okay before next week.  You think you can spend some extra time with her this week.  We'll see how she does at practice, and if she needs help can you take care of it?"

Kel smirks as he let's all the weight distribute out evenly, a nice simple momentum, brace, soften, and break.  When Megan is dragged off by Lisa, he extends his hands to Dallas, "Nicely done, I think this is going to be one hell of a year."

Dallas shakes Kel's hand.  "Should be cake.  Besides, how many guys get to spend time with the entire pep squad."  Dallas' smile is almost a reflection of Kel's.

Kel laughs hard, "I count two, and looking at the rest of the squad, I must say, I am enjoying the odds right now."  He lets his eyes roam about everyone in the room as furtively as he can..

"I saw your tryout.  You have some training?"

Kel shakes his head, "If by training, you mean climbing and jumping out of trees or rooftops for the hell of it, or some really basic kung fu and stuff.  Then yea, sure I have training.  What about you, you like, did their exact routine."

"I saw them do it last week.  I like to dance, it comes easily."

Kel nods, "Very cool, I personally am not a very good dancer.  Least I don't think I am."

"Maybe you should think of it as a Kata.  Only one that has a partner sometimes."

Kel nods, "Interesting analogy, I'll definitely look into it that way."

"Well, we have to get it all down anyway.  Maybe we can get Megan or Lisa to walk us through it once or twice and give that a go?"

Megan nods in response to Lisa.  “Sure, I can help her out.  If we had more time before the game we might be able to get the guys into helping with the pyramid, but right now it might be to short of notice to mix things up too much.”

The blond teen then makes her way over to Sylvia as she gives the other girl a warm smile.  “Hi, Sylvia right?  I remember you coming to see me in the hospital after the accident at the lab.  You used to be a gymnast right?  I was to, though it has been a bit longer since I gave that up for dance and cheerleading camps.  Its always great to have someone that can tumble well, you will just need to get used to tumbling in tennis shoes without a spring loaded floor.”

“One thing that most gymnast find hard to adjust to, I know I did, is working with others in some of the things we are doing.  As a gymnast, you were always in complete control of everything you were doing, or at least you should have been.  With a lot of the stuff we do, you will need to get used to giving up a good deal of that control to the partner you are working with or a couple of other members of the team.  Take the basked toss the boys just did with me.  Your first instinct would likely be to do as much as you can to increase the toss, but there you mainly just need to relax and let them do the work, you can do a few things to gain an extra few inches of height, but that is about it.  Then you will likely be wanting to land on your own like any dismount of beam or bars, you will have to break that instinct and just let yourself fall and trust in the boys or girls doing the toss to catch you.”

“With boys on the team now, we will likely start working some partner stunts in the next few weeks.  There you will have to give up a lot of control as well, otherwise you will be working counter your partner and the stunt will fail.  Also, hope your ready to be groped and grabbed a lot, just the nature of what we do.  One of the first stunts we will like practice are chairs, where we will end up sitting on one of the boys’ hand.”  Megan shrugs, having worked partner stunts in cheerleading camps her parents had sent her to over the last few years.  “You’ll get used to it.  So tell me, how much dance experience do you have?  Outside of floor routines that is?”

"Groped?"  Sylvia's eyes dart toward Kel, and while her skin doesn't show it (much), she blushes so hot her hands start shaking.  "Uh, dance?  Dance?  Um."  Focus, Sylvia.  Focus.  "I don't know.  Not much.  I took a few years of ballet when I was little, but that was just to teach me form.  I never really got it."

“Well, most girl’s would likely view a guy having his hands on your butt a lot as being groped, it is just part of the stunt though.  Also happens sometimes when we are working on other things that go wrong and they catch us as we fall.  Often happens so fast they have to grab the first place they can.”  Megan shrugs.  It wasn’t exactly enjoyable, but it sure beat landing on your head from ten or more feet in the air.

When Sylvia replies about her dance skills, or somewhat lack there of, Megan sighs just slightly.  “Well, guess that will be the first thing to focus on heavily.  We do lots of dance, mostly eight counts.  And the big trick is we have to be synchronized.”

"I can count to eight," Sylvia offers as some kind of weak consolation.