Borrowed Time

Chapter Twenty Six

There was something off about her squad today, Juliette could sense it from the moment she'd gotten to practice but she couldn't tell what it was... There was no cooperation, no communication... It was like they were afraid to even touch each other. She squinted, resting her chin on her hand as she looked across them... Becky. They were all refusing to touch Becky, who looked like she was gonna be sick. What the hell?

"I don't think I've seen you this focused on practice since... Well... No, I just don't think I've seen you this focused on practice ever." Juliette clenched her teeth, taking a deep breath before she looked over at Ingrid and gave her the best fake smile she could muster, which she was certain wasn't convincing, but she didn't care. She just wanted Ingrid to fuck off for a bit, she'd torment her mentally later... Right now she was keeping an eye on Becky... She'd seemed suspiciously fine since their conversation on Thursday, but today she seemed to be down. Juliette could feel in the very pit of her stomach that something was wrong, but she didn't know what.

"Well, we all have our hobbies... Figured I could start taking mine more seriously." She mumbled, looking back at Becky, at the way that the girls were refusing to let her support them... It was like they were purposefully fucking everything up so they could keep a distance. What the hell was going on?

Ingrid didn't seem to notice as she elbowed Juliette's ribs with a chuckle. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, but did her best to ignore it. This wasn't the time to get angry, she still had bide her time until it was perfect and she could destroy Ingrid internally before beating the shit out of her.

"You picked a hell of a time to do it. Near the end of our final season, what a show stopping time to be serious about this." God, did she have to make every interaction so fucking painful? Did she think she was funny? Because she wasn't, she was just annoying... How had Juliette only seen how annoying she was half the time before, it was something so constant now that there was no hiding from it. She looked over at Ingrid, narrowing her eyes.

"Do you have a problem with me starting to take cheerleading seriously, Ingrid? Why is that bothering you?" She asked, knowing that there was some venom in her tone from the way that Ingrid blinked and seemed to shrink down to her normal size, as opposed to somehow always looking down on her like she normally did.

"It's not, I just think it's funny is all... You look bitchy." So? Maybe she was, why did that matter either way? There was something going on, and she needed to figure out what it was, maybe this was just the face she made while making a major discovery.

"I can be bitchy, that's not news." Juliette sighed, looking back at the formation... It'd gotten worse, now Becky was standing completely alone and the rest of them were huddled in a circle. Juliette felt her stomach drop... Shit, what if someone had found out? How would they find out, she was the only other person to know.

"Okay, what the hell is going on with you right now?" Nothing, there was nothing going on with her aside from watching the practice... She was gonna go critique them any minute now, once she could figure out exactly why the issue was happening... She had her suspicions, but she was hoping to prove them wrong.

"Hm? What are you talking about?"  Ingrid narrowed her eyes before gesturing over to Becky.  Yeah, she'd found the source of stress, but Juliette was 90% sure that she had no idea why she was a source of stress.

"I'm talking about the way that you're glaring at Becky like she's your worst enemy... What happened?" She asked, and Juliette shook her head. That wasn't what she was intending to look like, but she could see how Ingrid feasibly made the leap into her being upset... No, she was just worried.