Chapter 10

The soothing, tuneless drone that Emily could hear in her blinking earphones managed to calm her down completely by the time she reached next class. By the time school was over, and she'd gotten to the girl's locker room next to the gym, she barely remembered her conversation with Mr. Hill, or how mean he'd been to her.

Surprisingly, Emily was barely thinking about her brother Jack as well.

At her locker, Emily slipped off her slutty outfit in exchange for the standard school-issue cheerleader outfit she'd given for tryouts. She also reluctantly pulled on a pair of panties – not one of the pairs of the wispy, barely-there thong panties that Jack had given her, but an ordinary pair of plain white cotton panties. Part of Emily thought that it'd be incredibly kinky to go commando during her tryouts, especially when she did some of her splits and high kicks ... but a calm voice inside her head tempered those lovely, naughty thoughts.

Charlotte's friends are going to look for any excuse not to put you on the cheerleading squad, the calm voice inside her head said. You can show your pretty pussy to them – and to everyone else – later. But first, make the team. Make no mistakes, and dazzle them all. Be as perfect as you can be. Be brilliant. Be perfect for me.

"Of course," Emily murmured dreamily, as she took off her heels and put on her sneakers. It was funny, how much the voice inside her head sounded like Jack. "I'll be perfect."

Taking a deep breath, Emily put her headphones in her locker, and then closed it up and headed to the gym. There were a couple of girls there already, also in their cheerleader uniforms, some chatting nervously with each other, some stretching out on the wooden gym floor. There were a few students in the gym as well, standing by the entrance.

Two of the three captains of the cheerleading squad – Dawn and Samantha, Charlotte's best friends – sat at a table under one of scoreboards. Both looked nervous and upset. There was a dark, ugly tension in the gym that Emily could feel the moment she walked in from the locker room, which struck her as odd. She'd tried out for the squad her freshman and sophomore years, and there'd been a nervous sort of energy in the gym then too ... but this was different. Before, it had been the ambitious wanna-be cheerleaders trying out for the squad who were anxious and uneasy. The older cheerleading captains, judging the new girls and already guaranteed a place on the squad, were cool and calm ... and usually incredibly arrogant. Today, though, it seemed that Dawn and Samantha were far more flustered and nervous than the new girls wanting to make the squad, and Charlotte...

"Hmm," Emily said wonderingly. She saw her best friends Michelle and Donna at the side of the bleachers. Donna was stretching, and had a hard, determined look on her pretty face – far different than the confused, lost look she'd had just the day before at their last informal practice. Michelle, on the other hand, was her usual scatterbrained self, madly checking her texts with almost a wild glee. Emily went over to them.

"Good afternoon, ladies," Emily said to them. "So what's the story?"

"You don't know?" Michelle said. The petite brunette's hands were clasped together excitedly, and she was practically bouncing up and down with glee. Emily idly watched Michelle's perky, jiggling tits and wondered what it'd be like to suck on them. "Ohmigod, ohmigodohMIGOD, it's such a scandal!"

"Well?" Donna said impatiently. "Tell us! Don't keep us waiting!"

Michelle looked around the gym, glancing up at the bleachers before turning her attention back to Donna and Emily. "Charlotte's not here," she whispered. A naughty smile crossed Michelle's pale, pretty face. "No one knows where she is ... she didn't come to school yesterday or today, she's not at home, and she isn't answering her phone or her texts."

Donna shrugged. "So?" she said. "The bitch isn't here. Good."

Emily's eyes grew wide ... and a wicked smile crossed her face as well. "Cheerleading captains don't have to try out for the team, once they're elected captains," Emily murmured, her voice filled with wonder. "But they have to be present at the tryouts... have to be, until they have a formal excuse. If they aren't here, and they don't have an excuse..."

" ... they're off the team," finished Michelle. The girl giggled nervously. "And whoever scores highest at the tryouts takes their place."

Donna's mouth opened in shock ... and then she clapped one slender hand over it, shaking with excitement. "Holy shit," she blurted out, "that means that bitch Charlotte is gone ... and ... shit ... maybe one of us..."

"Yes," Emily said. The smirk on her face was unmistakable. "Don't think about it, though. Let's just get through tryouts first. I think things might fall in place nicely after that."

Michelle craned her neck, looking all around the gym. The bleachers were starting to fill with students curious to watch the tryouts. "Where do you think Charlotte is, though?" she asked. "Hope nothing bad happened to her."

"Charlotte's a mean, stupid cunt who deserves whatever happens to her," Emily said coldly. She casually examined her nails. "The whore probably went up to one of those mid-week frat parties at Western State and passed out in some football player's bed. Who cares?"

Michelle's eyes went wide in shock. She looked as though she was about to say something, but Emily's stern, frigid gaze quickly silenced that. Donna, meanwhile, merely nodded in silent approval at what Emily had said. Good girl, Emily thought, as she noticed Donna's agreement. Looks like she's finally getting her shit together. Deep down, though, even Emily was slightly troubled by what she'd said – it was more than a bit harsh, even though she hated Charlotte – and in a weird way, it seemed like the words weren't hers, but someone else's.

Then she shrugged, and the thought passed.

"Enough about Charlotte," Emily said confidently. "Let's do this."

And they did.

The tryouts were scheduled to begin at three in the afternoon. They started slightly late, as Dawn and Samantha vainly tried to delay things until Charlotte arrived. At quarter past the hour, though, when it was painfully apparent that Charlotte was nowhere to be found and wouldn't be arriving anytime soon, Samantha glumly announced that the tryouts would being, and began calling the names of the girls auditioning for the squad. Dawn – a gorgeous, willowy Asian girl with long, dark hair – looked like she was about to cry. She kept brushing her long, straight, jet-black hair out of her face as her hands absently kept rubbing at her eyes. For some reason, that brought a smile to Emily's face.

Each girl trying out for the cheerleading squad was required to perform two routines. The first was a standard routine, choreographed by the cheerleading captains and given to all prospective cheerleaders when they'd signed up for tryouts a few weeks before. Everyone had to do the same routine, to the same music, one after the other. Once everyone had gone, all the girls had to perform an original routine for the judges – Dawn and Samantha, the two cheerleading captains, and Mrs. Winter, who also happened to be the cheerleading coach as well as Emily's American History teacher. For their second routine, all of the girls were judged on their creativity as well as the technical aspects of their performance.

A few nervous freshmen and sophomore girls went first. Some were okay, some weren't – one girl fell painfully flat on her face after messing up a cartwheel, which drew a mix of laughs and shocked gasps from all the student spectators sitting up in the bleachers – but none were particularly good. Michelle was up next in the order, and did respectably well, although she stumbled through the landing of her last back flip.

Donna went right after Michelle, and burned in a spectacular routine – Emily couldn't help but smile in admiration as her friend nailed every choreographed move. It was a far, far cry from the previous day, when they'd been practicing like mad, and Donna looked lost and confused and couldn't do anything right. The watching crowd of students gave Donna a round of rousing applause as she finished, and as Emily watched Donna politely bow to the judges, she felt confident that her friend was a lock to make the squad.

And then it was Emily's turn.

When the music started, Emily's world went gray. She couldn't hear the music for the routine, but it didn't matter. She heard something better. The tuneless, grinding static that she'd been listening to through Jack's special headphones for the past several days filled her head, drowning out the rest of Emily's senses. She felt herself doing the spins and jumps and cheers of her routine as though she was some sort of puppet, guided by invisible strings. She felt curiously detached from her performance, watching her body move about as though someone else was controlling her.

As Emily finished, she heard an approving roar of applause and cheers from the bleachers. Wave at them. Smile, said the voice in her head that sounded like Jack. So Emily beamed her prettiest smile and waved at the spectators, who roared again, and then bowed to the judges before heading back to her friends. She was lost in her wonderful fog again, vaguely aware of the things that Donna and Michelle and the other girls were saying to her, but not really paying attention to them.

After the rest of the prospective cheerleaders finished their standard routines, there was a short break, and then the second round began. It went much the same way as the first – Michelle did well but not great, Donna did great ... and Emily blew everyone away with another outstanding performance. When she finished her routine by doing a back flip that smoothly led into a slow, full split, half of the students watching from the bleachers got up and gave Emily a raucous standing ovation ... and the other half sat dumbfounded in stunned disbelief. The other girls trying out from the squad actually ran out onto the gym floor to congratulate Emily before she could smile or wave or say anything – and the strange thing to Emily was how numb and indifferent she was to it all. She knew she was smiling and laughing and thanking everyone as she got up and walked away ... but it was the puppet version of herself doing that, dancing on strings. Somewhere deep inside, she was merely watching what happened to herself.

One thing did make Emily very happy, though.

Jack was right, Emily thought dreamily, as she watched the remaining girls finish their second routines. I should've known ... he's always right. I did great. I was perfect. Just like he told me to be. Just like he promised. She let out a happy sigh. Maybe, since I did good, we can celebrate ... maybe tonight can be extra special...

Emily felt a lovely heat begin to smolder between her legs. It was all she could do to sit still and keep her hands at her sides, and not run off to one of the bathrooms and finger-fuck herself to an earth-shattering orgasm. Instead, she bit her lip and fidgeted ... and waiting through the rest of the tryouts became an excruciating torture.

And even after the tryouts officially ended, as much as Emily wanted to just race home, rip off all her clothes, and fuck her brother – to her dismay, she found that she couldn't. Everyone wanted to come congratulate her. The results of the tryouts weren't scheduled to be officially posted until the next day, but there was no doubt that Emily, for sure, was a lock to be on the squad ... and probably would take Charlotte's place as captain. Michelle and Donna hugged her and congratulated her, of course, but so did all the other girls trying out, and even random kids who Emily barely knew came down from the bleachers to tell her that she'd been amazing to watch.

To Emily's surprise, Dawn and Samantha offered their congratulations as well. They did so reluctantly, through gritted teeth – Samantha in particular looked like she'd rather be drinking paint thinner than telling Emily what a great job she'd done – but it was obvious that Emily would make the team. Though the tuneless buzzing in Emily's head kept growing louder and louder, and she kept thinking about Jack, and it was hard to hear what the two girls were saying ... but seeing their usual smug, arrogant expressions wiped off their faces made Emily feel wonderful.