Survival Of The Fittest

((Inessa Highman-Roberts continued from 静けさ))

Inessa had made her way over to the entrance of the Stadium with her camera in-hand. It was already a few minutes after school, and most of the other students were gone. She would be at home to catch up reading Sasaki and Miyano, but instead, she stayed behind to help with the School Yearbook. If she remembered correctly, they were mostly done with getting the picture of all the school's events, even with a few student quotes here and there.

But it wasn't until the teacher had actually reviewed some of the photos themselves and noticed how horrible they were. It turned out one of the Junior students had got lazy with their pictures and tried to hide it through photoshop, with poor results. Not only did the club receive an earful, but were forced to fix their mistakes. Thankfully, only the group photos of some of the clubs and teams were affected, so it wasn't much of a hassle to fix.

As she finally approached the stadium, she looked over the football field to find a few other students practicing. There were a few athletic teams that she already gotten pictures of, such as the Track and Field practicing their long distance running. However, there was one other team she needed to focus on.

The Cheerleaders.

"ONE, TWO, THREE! ONE, TWO, THREE!

Cheerleading is serious stuff.

[Sylvie Rattray-Aubert continued from Touch of Crate]

You think, when you're watching all those pretty girls motivate the current given sports team at the big game™ it's simple, right? They're just flipping around and doing kicks and lifting each other up. You don't particularly think about the physical connotations of the literal acrobatic miracles they teach these girls to contort their bodies to perform on this field. Heel stretch. Toe touch. Scale cupie torch arabesque. Not to mention just getting thrown into the air to do a bunch of flips and get caught by your friends, all expending that precious lung capacity to belt out a few of the corniest chants known to man. However, these girls are doing it. All to rally the team and preserve the spirit. That, you had to admit, was pretty incredible. Sylvie thought so at least.

Skirts ruffling, hair whipping, pom poms shaking all around, Sylvie at around the centre of the formation. Among her people. They'd been practicing this routine for a few sessions; a new one of Ms. Harper's design, and it was impressive. The girls had already become proficient despite the skilful movement it required. Sneakers beating against the grass. All thrill, no stress. Varsity means something around here, y'know. She smiles broadly as she moves left, right, juts and jives in perfect sync with her friends. Nowhere else she'd rather be at the moment.

Finishing the routine off, she and a few others on the team jump, are lifted, and fly. It's their job, after all. Doesn't even have to be actual flying (though Sylvie gets quite excited when it is), just the height of it gets her all cheery (hah). She's got all the right allocations for it. Been her specialty since freshman year. And there, on top of the world, high enough to see everything:

"GOOOOOO RATTLERS!"

Followed by that iconic hissing. What a cool mascot, Sylvie thought. Cheer had a way of lifting her up physically and emotionally. She took a small moment to appreciate this as she was let off the cheer pyramid's wild ride. Landing with grace. Nailed it, smiles and encouragement all around. Lost in a world little enough she didn't notice the photographer over at the stadium entrance.