My hand gripped harder on my coffee.
“What? I snapped at Tristan’s friend, Erin.
“Where’s Mandy?”
“Where’s your coach?” I asked instead. The coach could say whatever she chose to say, I was only telling my message to those who were necessary. And sadly, I felt her coach was one of those people.
Erin pointed to a woman in her thirties, and you could tell she was athletic. She could’ve been a personal trainer. She was wearing crisp khaki shorts and a white polo t-shirt. I was relieved to see that she was not wearing glitter.
“What’s her name?” I asked Erin.
“Coach Hailey.”
I crossed over to her, overhearing her conversation with one of the girls, “We need you to be stronger in our pyramid. You’re the flyer, Sasha.”
Hearing who was in front of me, I couldn’t control an eye-roll.
“I know, Hails. I’ll tuck it in, I promise.” Sasha actually sounded earnest. Imagine my shock at her attitude. I almost keeled over right there in the parking lot.
Sasha turned around and braked, just before she ran me over, saw who I was and then sneered at me. Ah, that’s better.
“Move,” I ordered.
“Listen, you little—”
“Sasha,” her coach said, and I actually stumbled back a few steps when Sasha shut up and left.
“Cheerleading does have a goddess, and you are her,” I stated matter-of-factly as I moved forward.
“Can I help you?” she asked, glancing back to her clipboard.
“Uh, yeah. I’m Mandy’s sister.”
“Adopted sister!” Sasha yelled from behind me.
“Sasha. Bus. Now,” Coach Hailey commanded.
I was more than impressed. If this woman was anything other than a cheerleading coach, I’d sign up to be her protégé.
“Uh, yeah,” I murmured, “look, Mandy won’t be at the game.”
That got the coach’s attention. Her head snapped up and she asked, “What?”
“She…she had a family emergency and is going to gone for a while.”
“Define a while? And please have your definition include ‘she’ll make be here in five minutes’ or ‘she’ll be meeting us later in time for the championship games’,” she barked.
Whoa.
“Uh…the family emergency is not here and she’s going to be gone for at least a month.”
“No,” she stated.
“Excuse me?”
“No.”
“I’m not a genie. I can’t say ‘poof’ and Mandy appear magically,” I explain, rocking back on my heels, clutching my coffee for strength.