A few minutes earlier
After a moment, Amber Levine decided to stand up from the cafeteria table. "I think I'll go check on Jonnie. Just to make sure, y'know, that she's all right." she told the other cheerleaders present. "And see if Sarah's calmed down."
Amber really didn't like seeing her friends and teammates fighting each other. She knew Sarah hadn't taken Jonnie's replacing her as head cheerleader very well, but she hoped the two of them would be able to move past this and get along. They were cheerleaders, after all, and aren't cheerleaders supposed be, you know, cheery?
That was the way Amber saw it, anyway. People said she wasn't the brightest of the squad, but even she knew that cheer squads were at their best when everyone got along with each other and didn't let drama get in the way of their teamwork.
She found herself in the hall just in time to see Jonnie enter the ladies' room near the cafeteria. Amber briefly saw Sarah and Nicole through a window to the outside field before they moved out of view.
Amber wasn't sure what to do for a moment. But she trusted Nicole to calm Sarah down. Nicole was smart, and knew the right things to say. Sure, some called Amber naive, but she thought given enough time, Sarah would see reason.
Amber was more concerned about Jonnie, who had stormed to the bathroom covered in spaghetti mess all alone. Sure, Jonnie had said she didn't need help, but Amber wouldn't be that good a friend to her if she didn't at least check in to be sure she was all right.
So Amber approached the door to the restroom, and listened in carefully. For a moment, there was silence. Then Jonnie's voice spoke up, loudly. "I wish Sarah McMillan and Nicole Tiller were boys!"
Amber couldn't help noticing the tone. It wasn't a tone of anger or sadness. No, it was ... what was the word Amber was looking for?
Joyful? Triumphant? Gleeful?
Yes, that was it. Gleeful. As if Jonnie had just had an idea that she found to be very amusing. Jonnie seemed happy, and ready to laugh.
'I guess she's feeling better, then.', Amber thought to herself. There was no need to disturb Jonnie after all, as clearly if she was in that good a mood, she'd already gotten over the incident in the cafeteria. Apparently imagining that Sarah and Nicole were boys was funny enough to cheer her up.
So Amber quickly rushed back to the cafeteria before Jonnie spotted her. She soon sat down with Tiffany Sanders, Melissa Smith, Allison Wright, Lauren O'Brien, and Lucy Corinth. "I just checked on Jonnie. She's feeling better now."
"Oh?" Lucy asked. "Is she sick?"
"No." Amber said. "But I thought after Sarah threw all that food on her..."
"Sarah did what?" Melissa asked.
"Amber, Sarah hasn't left her table." Allison said. "She hasn't thrown food on anyone."
"What are you talking about? You were right there! You held Jonnie back when she was ready to beat the crap out of her!" Amber exclaimed.
"Beat the crap out of who?" Lauren asked.
"Sarah!" Amber exclaimed.
"Sarah hasn't done anything!" Tiffany said. "Look, she's at her table with her sister and their drama friends." Tiffany pointed to the table elsewhere in the cafeteria where Sarah Taylor was seated with her sister Jennifer Taylor, drama club critic Starla Stanfield, and some others in the drama club.
"No, silly. Not THAT Sarah." Amber said, trying to be as gentle as possible despite her confusion. "Sarah McMillan!"
"Who?" Tiffany asked.
Melissa turned to the other cheerleaders with a confused expression. "Does Seth have a sister?" she asked.
"Not that I know of." Allison replied.
"If he does, she doesn't go to this school." Lauren added.
Amber was now really confused. "Who's Seth?"
"Seth McMillan, remember?" Tiffany said. "One of the only two boy cheerleaders at Lake Point High? Are you sure you're all right, Amber?"
"What are you talking about?" Amber said, now completely confused. Why were her friends and teammates acting so strangely? Why didn't they know Sarah? Why did they expect her to know this Seth guy, whoever he was?
And boy cheerleaders? Lake Point didn't have any boys on the squad. Their rival Forestville High School had four of them, though still an overwhelming majority of girls, and some of the other schools Lake Point High School's sports teams played against had a few, but Lake Point hadn't had any during the time Amber had been there.
Lauren O'Brien then interrupted. "Jonnie's back! And so are Seth and Nick!"
Amber then turned to the entrance to the cafeteria, where she got her next big shock. There stood their cheerleader captain Jonnie Gibson, strutting triumphantly and confidently toward the cheerleader table. There was no sign of any spaghetti mess on her. Her hair, face, and clothes were as clean as if the food tray incident never happened.
And alongside her were two boys Amber didn't recognize. One was blond haired, and the other brown haired, but both looked athletic and the sort who excelled in gymnastics. "Is everything all right?" Melissa asked.
"Everything's just perfect!" the blond boy said. "The weather's good, and Jonnie said that it's going to be sunny for the rest of the school year. Just perfect for cheer practice."
"I hope she knows what she's talking about." the brown-haired boy said. "The weather forecasters were still kind of iffy last I checked."
"What are you talking about, Nick?" Allison replied. "Today's weather said it's going to be sunny all week!"
Jonnie, meanwhile, smiled the sort of smile that said 'I know something you don't know', and patted her purse.
Amber took a close look at the boys. With a shock, she realized the blond boy looked like how Sarah McMillan's brother would look if he had a brother, and the brown-haired boy looked like he could have been Nicole Tiller's brother. An absurd, ridiculous idea came to her.
Oh no, Oh no, oh no oh no. This is just too ridiculous. Amber thought. That silly wish Jonnie made didn't come true, did it?
Of course it didn't. Wishes didn't come true like that in real life. What a silly idea.
But on the other hand, where did Seth and Nick come from? Why were they now sitting with the cheerleaders as if they belonged there and were chatting with everyone as if they'd known each other for at least the whole school year (or even longer)?
Amber was afraid she was going to have a major headache. What was going on here?
