Always Upbeat / All That by Stephanie Perry Moore Page A

my heart. Brenton Strong had it going on.
    â€œOkay, just because it’s the first day of school and it’s a long day, don’t come into cheerleading practice acting like y’all can’t give it your all,” Whitney said, picking up right where I left off.
    I was stretching when Coach came over to me and said, “I’d like to talk to you about your e-mail.”
    Whitney yelled out, “There’s nothing to talk about. We all got it. Resignation accepted.”
    Coach sternly replied, “Whitney, lead the cheer, please.”
    Whitney cheered, “Everybody do this … and this … and this … everybody do this. Our first game is Friday. Let’s turn it up, girls.”
    I scratched my head. Gosh, Whitney was annoying. If I was anything like that, I wouldn’t be able to handle it either. When Coach Woods and I got to her office, she said, “So uh, what was the e-mail all about?”
    I really wanted to say, “Duh. What part of it didn’t you understand? Like, I spelled it all out on the computer. Did you comprehend the fact that I was such a witch that I needed to quit?” But all of that would’ve been jerk language. So not wanting to be disrespectful, I smiled.
    â€œYeah, I understood what it said,” she said, picking up my body language. “I don’t know why you said it. Yeah, you were difficult, but you were difficult for the right reasons. You want us to win; you don’t wanna boss people around just because. You have high standards. Maybe you were a little brash in your tactics, but sometimes some of these girls need to be pushed. You’re an excellent cheerleader, and you wanted to make sure everyone else exuded excellence. We need you. Look at the alternative, and I love Whitney to death. She’s a scholar, but she’s a snob. Everybody knows you had a hottie, and you were dissing him for this team. From what I hear, his ego got bruised, and he couldn’t take it. He couldn’t stand that he was second. He was second to cheerleading. Your commitment, your dedication, your accountability to this team was phenomenal.”
    Still not feeling good about my tough actions, I said, “I’m just not the right person, Coach.”
    â€œTo lead anybody you must have that ‘it factor’ … that support from them … that willingness to follow your lead.”
    â€œI had that when they elected me, and I got the big head somewhere along the way. I don’t know. I was humbled quickly. I messed up.”
    â€œWhich means you learned from it. Don’t walk away from all of that.”
    â€œYeah, don’t walk away, because if Whitney stays up there and continues to be the lead, I might have to yank some of her poor weave out and then quit,” Eva said, surprising me. Coach gave her that Watch your mouth! glare. “Sorry, Coach.”
    I was shocked to see her standing there. She wasn’t alone. Ella, Hallie, and Randal were with her.
    Coach smiled, walked to her door, and said, “Y’all talk some sense into this girl.”
    Dropping my head, I said, “Why do y’all care?”
    Rubbing my shoulder, Ella said, “Your email said it all.”
    â€œSee … we took this test,” Hallie blurted out.
    â€œHuh?” I was real confused, and Randal was tugging on her to hush.
    Hallie continued, “It will just take a sec. I’m going tell her. There is a test in the book, The Five Love Languages of Friendship , and we found out that you’re a task person. You can’t help but to be on people about doing things because that’s just who you are.”
    â€œI’m confused,” I said, knowing I was at a disadvantage for not reading the book with them.
    â€œLike Hallie said, it’s this book called, The Five Love Languages of Friendship . It has one test for marriages, one for jobs, one for the kids, and then there’s one for