Dawn Gibson didn't think anything of her new game-day afternoon routine. To her, it wasn't new. Of course she and her family would come to support her older sister cheering on the sidelines. As far as Dawn knew, that's what they'd been doing ever since Zoe had become a cheerleader.
And, in truth, that was an accurate belief. Dawn was simply unaware that Zoe had only been a cheerleader for a single day.
So, as her memory told her that she had always done, Dawn hung out with Athena until Karyn came by so that the two sisters could walk home together. And then Dawn would wait maybe 15 or 20 minutes in the school parking lot for her mother to drive up with Mikey in tow. Then the three of them would get out to the football field before most families had shown up, and find their seats across the field from the home bench, just behind where the home team cheerleaders performed, saving an extra seat for Dawn's father, who usually arrived just before kickoff. For Dawn, this was a comforting routine.
Zoe, on the other hand, was panicked. Where was she supposed to go? What was she supposed to do? Was she going to screw up? Sure, she had a voice in the back of her head somewhere telling her that this was normal, but she also had three other voices in the back of her head telling her that it was not. And until a thing happened, Zoe wasn't sure which of those voices she should trust.
Fortunately, Zoe had Sarah. If she could just manage to ignore her internal voices and listen to Sarah's external voice, trust that Sarah knew what she was doing, and would steer Zoe in the right direction, then probably everything would be fine. And by now, Zoe was pretty used to following Sarah's instructions and trusting that things would work out.
And, despite herself, Zoe started feeling the excitement of adrenaline build up within her as she joined the rest of the cheerleaders in a locker room huddle. This feeling, this anticipation just before the cheerleaders all ran out onto the field as one cohesive unit, one of Zoe's head-voices was telling her that it was the best part of being a cheerleader. And after a moment, despite what else they may have thought about being a cheerleader, the other voices in her head began to agree. This was the best part.
