Coach's Daughter

9.

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Chapter 9.

Today was the big day--my first time cheering at a game. I was nervous for a lot of reasons. I needed to impress Coach Green so she let me stay on varsity with Kelsey. I'd worked my butt off at practice every day this week. Then I'd gone home, eaten dinner, and practiced some more. But more importantly, I needed to do really well cheering at tonight's game so that my dad would have no choice but to let me keep doing cheer.

I still hadn't told him I had joined cheer. It was stupid, and probably not even that big a deal, but I was terrified he would say no. So I was feeling the pressure of tonight, because for better or worse, after tonight, the secret was out. I hoped Dad would understand and let me keep cheering, since it was already proving to be a lot of fun, and it meant I would be at all his games. But I worried that he would say no, it was too dangerous, and make me quit. If that happened, I wasn't sure what I would do.

I arrived at school at 6:45, since Dad always went in earlier on game days. I wondered how much a high school football coach could possibly have to work on, but I didn't ask.

Since it was gameday, all of the cheerleaders were wearing their uniforms to school. That had been tricky to hide from my dad, but I had thrown on some skinny jeans and a t-shirt for the morning and hid my cheer uniform in my bag. As soon as I got to school, I had gone into the bathroom to change. I was just heading back to my locker when I heard someone call my name.

"Lilly? Isn't it a little early for you to be here? Your uniform looks great by the way."

I turned to see Madison standing in front of my locker. She had her hair done up in a high ponytail with her cheer bow done perfectly. Her makeup was equally flawless.

"I could ask you the same thing," I responded with a small smile. "And thank you."

Madison gave me a half-hearted smile, but didn't respond to my comment. Instead, she frowned. "No makeup?"

I shook my head, looking down at the bracelet on my wrist. I knew the cheerleaders always wore makeup, but I didn't have any. "I don't have any, and I have no idea how to put it on."

"You don't have any makeup?" she asked, a glint of amusement flashing in her eyes. It made my stomach feel unsettled.

"No. My parents got divorced before I was old enough to really wear makeup, and my dad sure isn't going to buy me any." I paused, thinking back to online school. "Besides, I never needed makeup when I was staying home all day."

Madison grinned, tapping her fingers along the side of her phone. "Come on. I'll do your makeup."

"Really?"

This was nothing like how I had imagined Madison being. Kelsey made her seem like she was some kind of monster. Other than the second day of school when I saw her reject Luke's kiss, Madison had been nothing but nice. She had never given me a reason to hate her. Especially now.

She nodded. "Of course. I've gotta help out my teammates, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," I muttered, shutting my locker slowly.

It was only 6:50, and school didn't even start until 8:00, so no one was around yet. From what I could tell, it was just me and Madison. I wondered again why she was here so early.

"Come on, my makeup bag is in the locker room." Madison turned and gestured to me to follow her. I nodded, falling into step behind her. I wondered if Kelsey was wrong about Madison, or just being overprotective of her cousin. Madison seemed nice. If she was so awful, why had she offered to do my makeup for me?