Chapter 3

WHEN DENNIS WALKED into the gym Wednesday afternoon, Janet had the cheerleaders focused on her. He observed them as he approached. He was impressed that there were ten people in workout clothes and two of them were guys. He’d read up on the cheerleading rules after he first met Janet in June. He thought most high school sports allowed only six cheerleaders in uniform at a game or in competition. Maybe Janet was putting together a JV squad as well.

“So, I’ve asked our department conditioning trainer to work with you for a while so we can get a conditioning program established that will strengthen you and improve your flexibility. Some of you may already know Dennis Enders. Dennis? Can you give us an introduction?” Janet motioned him up in front of the cheerleaders and he realized that was his introduction. The cheerleaders turned to look at him and there were a few gasps.

“No way,” Sara Steinbeck whispered. Sara’s best friend was Debbie Stackhouse. Or had been Debbie. Their little clique had started falling apart when Debbie went gaga over Dennis Enders after the big drug bust last January. Then she shocked the girls when she bleached out her hair and gave up her goth clothes to join the track team. They were still friends, but had definitely grown apart. Sara knew who Dennis was, of course. He was just the four-eyed runt of her class and she couldn’t understand why Debbie was so taken with him.

The vision that stepped in front of the cheerleaders was nothing at all like she remembered Dennis Enders. She started seriously reconsidering her reaction to Debbie’s infatuation.

“Hi. I’m Dennis. I’m working with several teams on conditioning. I’m happy to work with you. I won’t be able to work with you every day, but you might decide you want to join my general conditioning classes at six o’clock. That’s when I work with the cross country team and several members of the volleyball team.” It was the first time Dennis had worn the workout clothes his girlfriends had chosen for him on their shopping expedition the previous weekend. The singlet hugged his torso like a second skin and the matching spandex running shorts left little to the imagination.

He got the group up and onto the gym floor and started them with general stretching and loosening exercises. As he observed the eight women and two men, he was surprised to find there were so many good-looking kids at the high school. And it wasn’t that they were all classic beauties or had the same body types. Somehow, Janet had attracted kids that simply looked fresh and wholesome. He knew a few of them. Sara Steinbeck, Claudia Jones, and Fred Reichert were all in his class. Sara had been a member of Debbie’s clique. Her assessment that everyone in their class wanted to fuck Sara was pretty accurate. Her face wasn’t exactly pretty, with teeth that seemed a little too big for her mouth, but she had a killer body. Five-five with an hourglass figure and substantial breasts. Yes, he admitted to a fantasy or two about her.

Claudia had the exact personality you would want in a cheerleader. She absolutely bubbled with enthusiasm and school spirit—so much so, that you were likely to overlook her being a little pear-shaped. And Fred—the guy was acknowledged gay and had aspirations of becoming a GQ model. His short black hair was always perfect, clothing perfect, and teeth perfect. He had a five o’clock shadow that was always perfectly shaped. Girls went crazy for him when they first met and then quickly backed off when they discovered he was gay. He’d be a good cheerleader.

Once the team was stretched and warmed up, he started working on conditioning exercises.

“In gymnastics, tumbling, and cheerleading, your best conditioning is in core strength. So, I’m going to start you with some core exercises,” he said. “First, stand comfortably and relax. Not slouched! Feet slightly apart, back straight, shoulders back. Don’t exaggerate it. It should be a position you could comfortably hold for an hour. Now, I want you to flex your pelvic floor muscles. If you don’t know exactly where these are or how to flex them, imagine you are trying to hold in a fart.”

The cheerleaders all started laughing and had to get back in order.

“Are you serious?” one cutie asked.

“Yes. I’m sorry, I don’t know your name. What is it and what year are you?”

“I’m Donna Parsons, a freshman.”

“Donna, the very basis of your core is the pelvic floor. We’re going to work our way up and do exercises for the lower back, abdominals, and upper torso. But core work starts down here. You can also locate these muscles as the ones that help you cut off the stream of urine. I can’t exactly point to it and say it’s right here. You have to find it yourself and tighten and release.”

“I thought Kegels were sex muscles,” Rae Dean said. Dennis knew the blonde sophomore because she was a friend of Lana’s. She wasn’t quite as stacked as his girlfriend, but she seemed to have a permanent smile etched on her face.

“You know about that? Oh, gee!” Dennis said in mock horror. They laughed. “Think about it. Flexing these muscles works the whole pelvic floor. For women, that includes vaginal muscles. For men, it’s the same muscles that cause the twitch in your penis. These are all the pelvic floor. Don’t confuse it with squeezing your buttocks together or tensing your quads. Just work on tensing and releasing those pelvic floor muscles. Now I’m giving you this exercise because you can do it anytime and all the time. You can be sitting in class and do a hundred pulses, flexing and relaxing the pelvic floor muscles. You’ll be surprised at how much learning to use those muscles helps your posture, your bladder control, and yes, Rae, your sex life.”

Dennis taught the group five more exercises that focused on the core, balance, and stability. Without going into any of his usual conditioning exercises, the ten cheerleaders were all lying on the floor panting by the time they’d finished the stationary flying exercise.

“Well, I’m going to turn this back to Coach Mills,” Dennis said. “Don’t worry about her giving you exercises you can’t do, because she’s been doing every exercise I’ve led you in, so she knows exactly how you feel. It’s really great that you set an example like that, Coach. Thank you for inviting me to work with your team. Remember, I lead a full routine of conditioning exercises at six-thirty out on the track. Cheer is a sport just like any of our other athletic endeavors. You’ll be the best cheerleaders when you’re in the best condition.”

“Thank you, Dennis,” Janet said.

“Thank you, Coach!” the cheerleaders all chorused. That was the second time he’d been called ‘Coach.’ Weird.

“I’ll see you all here on Monday,” he said. “I’m afraid I’ve got commitments the next two days. Good luck, everybody!”

As soon as Dennis was out of sight, the cheerleaders clustered together.

“My god! Did you see the body on that guy?” Rae asked. “My heart, my heart!”

“I’d do him in a heartbeat,” Fred said. “Where’s he been all my life?”

“Lana says she’s one of his girlfriends. He has, like, a dozen of them,” Rae said.

“That is not the same Dennis Enders we’ve been in school with for ten years!” Sara said. “Where are his Coke-bottle glasses? When did he get so tall?”

“When did he get hung like that?” Claudia asked. “Or have such command in his voice. I never once considered not doing what he told us to do.”

“All right, team. I think you’ve spent enough of our time discussing our trainer. Now it’s time to start working on the basic footwork for cheer. Cheer is more than just bouncing up and down so your boobs bounce or your junk flops around,” Janet said, calling them together. “When Dennis comes back to work with us on Monday, I want to be able to show him how far you’ve come as a team. Ready? Line up.”

It was only three o’clock and Dennis saw the football team filing into the locker room when he reached the coaches’ locker room. He quickly pulled on his outdoor shoes, shorts, and a T-shirt instead of his singlet and went out to the mower. He figured he could get a full pass done on the football field and it would be better for their practice. He drove the lawn tractor out to the field and began mowing it down. The full field, bounded by the 400-meter track, was about two acres. The grass on the field was too long to cut to proper length in one pass, but he could cover the full field in about an hour and get a second pass done Saturday.

He could get that done before his meeting with all the team managers. He’d gone over the schedule with Coach Byers, and the team managers were a little late in getting started. His responsibility was to get all the managers up to speed on their duties and then all the managers would work together on unpacking the new sports equipment and uniforms. Bartley hadn’t had a football team in at least a decade, so their equipment was in pretty bad shape and most had to be replaced. They’d never had a volleyball team, so uniforms and equipment had all been ordered new. And finally, he had new cross country uniforms that needed to be assigned. Saturday would be a busy work day for the team managers.

He finished up the mowing, cleaned and stored the tractor, and ran home for dinner. He grabbed a quick shower and returned to the track for 6:30 conditioning exercises.

Fifty people were on the track when Dennis arrived to begin conditioning. Surprising him even more, several were guys he recognized from the basketball teams. Dennis stopped for a moment to talk to Rick Probst, the center and captain of the varsity basketball squad.

“Hey, Rick. What brings you and the guys out this evening?” Dennis asked.

“Geez, Dennis. Coach Byers called a bunch of us to introduce us to Coach Griffith. They told us we couldn’t start any official practice until November, but if we wanted to have a better chance at getting a slot on the team, we should show up for cross country training, even if we never race. I’m guessing you’re the reason,” Rick said.