The sun was blazing as it shone bright and warm in the August morning. Different squads were practicing cheers and clapping before a loud whistle sounded. As the girls and boys ran around to get into their designated groups, four judges were sitting at a table, watching a cheerleading squad run onto the blue padded matts in the middle of the green fields of freshly-cut grass. The judges were probably the only ones happy about being able to sit underneath a tent's cool shade as the sun was passing through the clear, blue sky. The group of mostly black cheerleaders were hopping up and down and getting everyone's spirits up as best as they could. Each girl wore workout shorts and spandex sports bras or wife beaters. The squads were cheering for them to show their attention had been gained. As the girls got into position, they waited for the number to start. After ten seconds passed, the boys in the front pivoted around to do numerous backflips as one girl cheerleader cartwheeled then flipped above one of the cheerleaders. The group performed a fun routine as the crowd gave them encouraging plaudits. The number was over and one of the girls rose her arm up and began to shout.

"Ready?" the girl shouted. She was very pretty and had a curvy body like some of the other girls. Her other came up in a perfect arc as she shouted, "Okay! I said Good God."

"Suns' playin' it hard," the team chanted, adding a bit of crumping into the cheer. "We bouncin' off walls like the game is the jump off. Too bad, don't be mad. Clean up the weak act and you might not get had."

"Hold up, slow it down, a roll call is in order now," the leader shouted, getting into position with seven other girls.

"Reeses," one girl called, flipping her weave.

"Gabby Q," one girl called, blowing a kiss to the audience.

"Farah," another girl called, flipping her long hair out of her face and shaking her breast playfully.

"Eda K," another said, seductively twirling her fingers in hair and winking to some of the boys behind the judges.

"Cada," one more said, swirving her hips around before snapping her fingers.

"Sherry Cola," a curvy-bodied girl called, tracing the contours of her body with her hands.

"Nicki," the main character introduced, whipping her hair long, curly hair around as she swirved her hip around boldly.

"Jody," the second tallest girl called, slapping the side of her butt.

The leader got in the middle of the circle and said, "You already know, my name Unique."

The number ended and the crowd cheered for the girls as they bowed and hopped around. As the Suns' team went to cool off and release their nervous and/or excited tension, the leader, Unique, relaxed her neck and shoulder muscles before turning to Nicki. She was planning to talk to her until the scout master called her and exchanged a few words with her.

"Alright, ya'll, water break before one more practice," Unique called, speaking to the scout master. Feeling this chat was going to be a bit longer than anticipated, Unique turned again and said, "Ya'll know what, don't worry about practice. It's almost time to eat."

"You sure?" Cada asked.

"Yeah, ya'll go head. I got something to take care of," Unique said, waving the team off.

Everyone shrugged their shoulders as they went to their cabins to chill for a while. Unique watched as some of the team spoke to Nicki, one of her biggest enemies. The scout master brought her attention to something else for the time being, however, as the Suns walked off.

Several hours passed and the sun was setting. The Suns and other squads were done with practice until tomorrow's demonstration. Everyone was running to get some water before dinner in the mess hall. Horns sounded, signaling dinner, and all the squads lined up in front of the door as if it were boot camp and not cheer camp. The mess hall was just a big log cabin cafeteria except the security came from the military for some reason or another and the pedestal area was in the style of an old church pedestal. Once everyone was seated, the scout master stood on her pedestal to speak. She had a roller-curled hairstyle and glasses with sharp corners at the rim set onto her soft, wide nose. Despite her age, she was very funny and cheerful. She had more energy than most forty or fifty-something year olds.

"Good evening, ya'll," the scout master greeted.

"Good evening," everyone returned.

"Tomorrow is our last day at Cheer Camp for the summer, you guys. Everyone should have finished refining new routines and blowing the dust off some old ones for the morning demonstration. Your judges for tomorrow will determine which of you girls have the most potential for regionals, which of you have made the most progress, and which of you are the best inspirational leaders," the scout master informed, earning some cheers and clapping herself. "I hope you all get a good's night rest and bring it on like nobody's business. Tonight we're having pizza to commemorate our time together as a family and as a hard-working team. Hope you all will be well for tomorrow and don't shove no extra slices in your purses. We were kids, too; we know that trick."

Some people laughed at that comment while others stood up and left before the cafeteria staff got the food ready. It was going to be another hour or so before everything was set up, so Nicki of the Suns' squad stood up and left to her cabin. Two other girls from the squad got up to follow her, which gained Unique's attention again, but before she could say anything to them they were gone from the mess hall.

In the cabin, Nicki grabbed her purse, sat on her bed, and took out some nail polish and other products. She heard a knock on the door and looked up to see who it was. Her two best friends, Eda and Farah, were waving at her as they came to sit around her.

"Hey, ya'll, what chu doin' in here?" Nicki questioned, grabbing some wipes and a stone out of the purse.

"Nicki, you goin' to the pizza party tonight?" Eda asked. "I know they're the worst thing for a cheerleader tryin' to lose weight."

"They only bad for me 'cause I'm allergic to the sauce," Nicki said. "You alright, child. Go have fun with Trelli. You like him, right?"

"No, she like that other boy," Farah said, taking a wipe before sitting down and taking her shoes off. She wiped her feet with the moist, powder-scented cloth before saying, "Otherwise, she wouldn't be wearing her special green polish. She already showed off that funk-ass zebra print."

"You know what, I ain't worried 'bout you, Ms. I-can't-get-a-man-because-I'm-clumsy," Eda said, sitting beside Nicki and grabbing a wipe.

"Now, you need to stop 'cause you know you can't dance with yo' big offbeat self," Farah remarked.

"See, that's why I don't like you right there," Eda commented, pointing her manicured fingers at Farah then returning to wiping her feet of sweat.

"Then what you gettin' ya nails done fo'?" Farah argued, not understanding why she needed to have them repainted if she couldn't stand speaking to her.

"'Cause Nicki got a nail shop in her purse. Don't play like you wanted to get yours done just because," Eda retorted.

"Alright, ya'll, calm down. Let's just finish this before the camp cop come up in here with his curfew bell. Hand me that yellow, Farah," Nicki requested, taking some nail polish remover out of her purse.

"But, Nicki, real talk. Let's do somethin' else," Eda suggested.

"Like what? You hit on just about every dude with legs," Nicki said, dabbing the polish remover onto a cotton swab and rubbing the cracked polish off her toes. She had considerably pretty feet with exception to the bruise on her toe that came from wearing horribly made tennis shoes.

"Let's go swimmin'," Eda said, shrugging as though her suggestion was obvious.

"Oooo, let's go skinny dippin' like them people on TV," Farah said, getting excited and picking out red and gold polish.

"I ain't gettin' in no water with my ass stickin' out. You lost yo' damn mind," Nicki said, giving Farah a look.

"C'mon, it's just gonna be this once. We gon' do it before curfew out in the lake," Farah said.

"Just wear some pasties and come on. It's just gon be us. Who gon know?" Eda asked.

The girls looked at Nicki with anticipation and excitement in their eyes. If they were going to go out of Cheer Camp, they may as well go out with a boom. Skinny dipping in the lake should be okay since the lake had clean, blue water and was cool year round. Nicki looked into Eda's eyes then into Farah's and sighed resignedly.

The party was in the middle of getting a bit more rowdy, and Farah was beckoning Eda and Nicki to hurry to the lake while the camp cops were sipping some wine with the scout master and the judges. The girls were giggling as they ran around in robes, with exception to a reluctant Nicki, and scattered to the lake. Once they reached the moonlit water, Farah took off her robe - revealing a tall, slender, light-skinned naked body - and dove into the lake. She cheered before covering her mouth to stay quiet and swam backwards a bit. Eda took off her robe to reveal a shorter, chubbier body then dove in the water and made a louder splash than Farah.

"Whoo, this water cold!" Eda said, shivering a bit before relaxing.

"Alright, Nicki, jump!" Farah called, laughing a bit.

Nicki looked behind her to make sure no one was around then back at the girls waving to her. She was even more reluctant than before as she looked into the lake. It wasn't as refreshing and nice-looking as before when they went swimming during the day. This time the lake looked ominous.

"Ya'll check to make sure they ain't got no sharks in the water," Nicki said, waving her hand to the evil-looking lake.

"Sharks swim in the ocean, girl!" Eda remarked. "Hurry up and jump!"

"You want me to come up there and jump with you?" Farah asked, swimming towards the shore.

"Nah, that's alright," Nicki said to them. She took her robe off, shivering from the cool air caressing her lower back, then took some steps back to prepare to jump. She said, "I swear on high if I scrape my ass up on one of these rocks I'm a kill them."

"Nicki, Farah comin' up there if you don't come down," Eda called.

"Alright!" Nicki called, preparing for the run. "Here I come!"

Nicki ran to the edge of the cliff, but as she jumped, her foot got caught on a tree root that was hidden by Farah's bright yellow robe and made her flip around in the air instead. As Eda and Farah watched her spin about, Nicki let out a yelp then fell onto the rocky shore and bumped her head onto a thick, smooth stone that made her world turn black and red.

Voices were pouring through her ears as heat and cool air mixed and passed over her skin. Her head was spinning and beating as she felt a painful heat wave before her closed, lidded eyes. She flinched at the pain then heard more voices beat her skull mercilessly. As her eyes opened, she cringed at the flashlight waving in front of her face. She saw a man with a small afro holding a miniature flashlight in his gloved hand. He turned off his light and put something cold onto her chest as he examined her heartbeat. Nicki groaned as she placed her hand onto her forehead. A pack of ice was resting there.

"She's comin' to, sir," the afro man said.

Suddenly, he was knocked over and Nicki's father appeared before her. He inquired, "Baby, baby, you alright?"

As quickly as her father's image came, her mother shoved her father aside and shouted relentlessly, "Girl, what the hell were you thinkin' jumpin' off a cliff like you crazy? Suppose the raper-man would've came and snatched you up. You are outside your mind agreeing to do somethin' dumb like this with no draws on! You ain't got the decency to wear none?"

"My draws?" Nicki questioned, not remembering or understanding her situation. Abruptly, the memory of agreeing to Eda's and Farah's request to do something different to commemorate the end of summer camp came to her. They agreed to go skinny dipping in the lake, but she only remembered taking off her robe. After that, nothing. She shot up from her laying position and said, "Wait, where my draws at?"

"Nicki, you alright, girl?" Eda asked, sitting beside Nicki to see her head. "You bleedin' anywhere? Did you scrape yo' ass?"

"Eda, where my draws?" Nicki questioned, looking around for her robe, clothes, anything really.

"Girl, you smashed yo' head on that rock hard. You alright?" Farah asked.

"Where are my draws?" Nicki asked, getting impatient and worried.

Everyone looked down at Nicki, including the paramedic, and said nothing. Nicki shook her head, hoping she wasn't still naked. When she looked down at her own body, she was in fact still naked and perfectly exposed to everyone. She looked into everyone else's eyes and after losing her breath in shock just started screaming as she scrambled to cover herself.

Oh, Nicki, you so fine

You so fine you blow my mind

Hey Nicki hey hey

Hey Nicki

Oh, Nicki, you so fine

You so fine you blow my mind

Hey Nicki hey hey

Hey Nicki

At the airport, a tall, youthful woman wearing a sundress and wedge heels with hair styled in a bob was texting someone with her Blackberry. She looked up every now and then to make sure she didn't miss anything. There were quite a few people at the airport this summer. Usually it was empty, but some families and businessmen were probably coming from all over to get ready for the working fall season. Kids have school in two weeks while businessfolk have their busiest work schedules around this time. Once she was done sending her message, she saw a tall, young girl running towards her through the crowd.

"My baby!" the woman said, clutching her purse and putting her phone away.

She ran to the girl in excitement and embraced her tightly as they squealed in glee.

"Farah! Hey, my baby!" the woman said, rocking back and forth as she squeezed her daughter's slender body.

"Mommy!" Farah returned, bouncing up and down.

Two other girls came towards them and smiled at how cheerful mother and daugher were after not seeing each other for two whole months. Though Farah, the baby girl and daughter, was taller than her mother, they looked identical. They both had big, toothy smiles, light skin, straight black hair - Farah's being the longest since her mom cut it short, and sharp noses. Even their styles for fashion were similar. They both loved bright-colored dresses, which is what they were wearing, and sandals during the summer. The mother turned to the other girls and spoke to them with just as much excitement as she had for her daughter.

"Hey, ya'll how was camp?"

"We had to do gymnastics for two weeks," Farah said, chewing on a piece of gum still.

"How'd you do?"

"Good," Farah answered, hopping. "I can do the helicopter now."

"That's my baby. Ya'll got all ya'll stuff ready to go? I gotta drop Eda and Nicki off before we go home."

"The only thing we lost is a cheap thing of lipstick," Eda commented, making Farah's mother laugh.

Farah's mother led the girls to the Subaru van and helped them pack their bags in the trunk. Once the van pulled off, everyone was on their way home. There were some silent moments as the van took the interstate homeward, but once Nicki saw Young A. Wessex Senior High School she spoke up.

"Junior year comin' up, ya'll," Nicki started. "We gotta decide who gon be the next captain."

"It's gon be you anyway. What you trippin' over?" Farah asked.

"Don't say that! It might not happen," Nicki said, pushing Farah playfully.

"Well, if it ain't you, it's gon be itchy bitchy Beaux and her nasty attitude as co-captain," Eda said, gesturing a bit.

"Hey, now, watch that language," Farah's mother warned.

"Oops, sorry," Eda apologized, cringing.

"Unique's not that bad. She's just under a lot of pressure because of the last captain," Nicki said. "Ya'll know Jody can be mean to her sister?"

"Jody Unique sistah?" Farah questioned.

"We called you twice to tell you that and you still forgot?" Eda asked.

"Ya'll didn't call me to say that!" Farah shouted, offended by not knowing such a valid piece of information.

"Nicki called you to make sure you knew," Eda said, wondering how Farah didn't know. "Cheerleader captain runs in the Beaux family. They mama was captain in her high school, Jody became captain our freshmen year, so if Unique win that's a third captain of the family."

"That's gon be tough to beat, though. Unique gon have her sister's vote automatically, and if she impresses the graduating seniors she's got half the votes," Nicki inserted, beginning to worry.

"But you got all the lower classmen. You gon be alright. Stop worryin' so much!" Eda said, pushing Nicki playfully. "Daryl gon call you grandma if you get worry wrinkles on your face."

"Stop!" Nicki responded, giggled.

"We should get a coach who gon help us get to regionals, though. Captains ain't got no money like that to bring like twenty of us to Houston," Farah noted. "They gotta find a bus, pay the driver, get hotel rooms, worry about food - "

"I'd worry about food, too, if I knew you was gon be there. You snacks on anything that ain't poisonous," Eda remarked.

"Now, Eda, you can't call the kettle black, child. You eat too," Farah's mother remarked.

"What we need to worry about is how we gon get the money for all that," Nicki said through chuckling at Eda's horrified face. "A hotel suite can hold up to twelve people, so we need about two. That's like 2000 dollars."

"2000?" Farah questioned, catching a small heart attack.

"For a hotel in Houston?" Eda questioned, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Yeah, girl, suites ain't cheap. We would have to have a fundraiser every two weeks to get rooms in Houston. Not counting a bus or bus driver and not countin' food," Nicki informed.

"Damn," Eda, Farah, and Farah's mother said.

Nicki couldn't wait to get home and tell her parents all that she learned at Cheer Camp. Farah's mother pulled up to Nicki's house and helped get Nicki's stuff out of the trunk. She pulled her keys out of her purse, opened the door, and waved to goodbye to Farah and her mother. Nicki pulled her suitcases inside, closed the door, and looked in the house to see...nothing. Everything was gone! The pictures on the wall, the trophies on the shelves, the dishes, the couch, everything was gone!

"Mama, daddy, I'm home. Ma? What happened to our stuff?"

"Nicki!"

"Courtney!" Nicki called, getting excited for the moment.

Courtney was Nicki's baby cousin. Courtney's mother was Nicki's aunt on her mother's side of the family. She gave birth to Nicki's dancing "apprentice," Courtney, who was taking dancing lessons at Nicki's old studio. Nicki scooped little Courtney in her arms, embraced her tightly, and swung her around to make the little girl laugh and smile. A man came down the stairs, hearing voices downstairs, and suddenly became nervous. The man was Nicki's father, and he a very "special" surprise for his eldest and only daughter.

"Jenny, Nicki back from camp."

"Alright, I'm comin' down."

"Hey, daddy," Nicki greeted, smiling.

"Hey, baby, how was camp?" the man asked, trying to find the right words to tell his daughter.

"Camp was fun! We learned routines from some other squads and helped change 'em up, and some squads from Florida, Georgia, Los Angeles, and Texas came to teach us the rules for regionals and nationals since they go every year. We were voted as the squad with the most potential to enter regionals and/or nationals."

"That's great, baby," the man complimented.

"I practiced my dance, Nicki," Courtney said, distracting Nicki for a moment.

"You did? Lemme see it," Nicki said, putting Courtney down to watch her dance.

"Shake your bodyline, shake it all the time," Courtney sang, shimmying as best as she could. "Shake, shake, shake, senora, shake it all the time. Ta-da!"

"Ah, you know the steps!" Nicki shouted, hugging Courtney. "That's my girl!"

"So, where's regionals gonna be?" Nicki's father decided to ask to find a way to break the news to Nicki.

"They moved regionals to Houston this year," Nicki answered.

"What about nationals?"

"Nationals are in California this year. Last year, they were in New Mexico."

"Mark, you told Nicki the news?" a woman asked, walking down the stairs with another woman trailing behind her.

"Hey, mommy! Hey, Tee Willow! What news?"

"You get to see nationals this year in California," Mark said.

This is it... he thought. There won't be an easier way to break this to her.

"We're going to Los Angeles tomorrow morning," Mark continued, smiling nervously.

"Oh my god! We're going to see nationals! Oh my god, I'm a call Trelli, Daryl, Eda and Farah and tell 'em we goin' to nationals this year," Nicki said, hopping around and about to run to her room until she remembered nothing was left in the house. She looked at her father curiously then said, "Well, wait, nationals aren't until spring. That's months from now. It's August. Why we leavin' so early?"

"I got a promotion at work, and I have to relocate to the base in Los Angeles by Friday, which is tomorrow, at two in the afternoon. We have to be at the airport by ten o'clock in the morning. The company's taking us to our new house."

"Baby," Nicki's mother said, "we are all moving toooooooo Llllooooooossssss Aaannnggeeleeeeeesss..."

Everyone watched Nicki completely malfunction and freeze as she processed the words. Now, she wasn't a slow thinker like most cheerleaders; she was just about two seconds away from fainting. Nicki's aunt took Courtney away from Nicki, waved her hand in front of Nicki's face, and watched Nicki hit the ground and pass out. No one moved until Courtney said...

"Did she just die, mama?"