The mountain girl reopened her eyes sometime the following morning. She was lying in the neatest, cleanest bed she'd ever seen, in a similarly tidy room.

She quickly sat up and looked around, ready to fight. Cheerleading-themed decorations lined the walls: pennants, framed photos from camp, old uniforms, and other things whose purposes were completely foreign to her. A bright, cheery sun was shining in the window.

Alicia was lying on the floor in a sleeping bag. She sat up, clutching her head. “Oh man... I'm so hung over, you guys...”

Lindsey and Caitlin, both sleeping in chairs, also began to stir.

“Oh god... ow...” moaned Lindsey, putting her face in her hands. “Why are we all at Alicia's house?”

“Yeah, and who's that girl in my bed?” asked Alicia, looking at the daughter.

“You, uh, ran her over last night,” said Caitlin.

Alicia thought about it. “I did?”

“Everything after Kevin Branson is a blur,” winced Lindsey.

“We took the shortcut on the way home? You guys did dashboard shots?” reminded Caitlin.

This greased the cogs a little. “Oh yeeeeaah! Now I remember!” said Alicia brightly. She looked at the girl they hit. “Sorry for running you over. Are you okay?”

The girl growled in response. She jumped up, standing on the bed and ready to pounce.

She looked around apprehensively at the three cheerleaders (or, as she knew them, her abductors). Alicia, looking energized and brilliant despite what must have been an unimaginable hangover, her doe eyes an eager, sparkling green; Caitlin, her face soft and approachable, her straight black locks pulled to the left in a side ponytail; and Lindsey, the one hazel, almond-shaped eye her bangs left visible being more than coy and seductive enough for two. The mountain girl sized the cheerleaders up and tried to decide which one looked tastiest.

“Whoa! Hey, take it easy!” said Lindsey. “We said we were sorry!”

The mountain girl looked around at the room again. Her bow was nowhere to be seen. These girls must have taken it. There were no other potential weapons around. She would have to take them with only tooth and claw.

She grinned wildly. That was okay. She liked it that way.

Alicia saw her looking around and spoke up. “It's okay. It's okay,” she said, in a soothing voice. “You're obviously confused. This is my bedroom, we brought you here because we thought you might be hurt. We're your friends.”

Deciding Caitlin was the weak link, the daughter leapt at her. “Aaah!” Caitlin screamed.

“Jeez, she must have hit her head or something! What's the matter with her?” demanded Lindsey, as she and Alicia grabbed the girl by the arms and wrestled her back into bed.

“Put the TV on, Caitlin! Maybe that'll calm her down!” suggested Alicia.

Caitlin turned on Alicia's TV while her teammates tussled with the girl. As soon as it went on, the girl fell still. She sat up in bed and watched the glowing picture box, mystified. She had never seen anything like it before.

“Whew. That did it,” said Alicia, wiping her brow. They looked at the screen. The morning news was on, showing helicopter footage of firefighters attending to a burning cabin surrounded by thick forest on all sides.

“...entire team believed dead,” said a reporter, in voice over. “The purpose of the raid was to respond to a recent tip regarding the series of mysterious disappearances in the McGuff's Pass area, dating back to the 1920s, or perhaps even further. Previously believed to be due to some sort of carnivorous wildlife, the Sunnycrest Police Department now reports that the true culprit was something straight out of a horror movie.”

The image changed to photos of four burned bodies. “A grotesque family of inbred, cannibalistic hill people, isolated from the civilized world for untold generations, are believed to have used primitive traps and weapons to hunt humans in the McGuff's Pass area. All four were killed in either the raid or the ensuing fire. I must warn you that the images you are now seeing are extremely shocking, and all children should have probably left the room a few minutes ago.”

“Whoa,” said Lindsey, wrinkling her little nose at the deformed corpses. “And I thought Jake Miller was ugly.”

Alicia laughed. “Oh, Lindsey. You're terrible.”

The dirty girl didn't hear them. Something inside of her broke as she watched the glowing box relay its grim message. The place she called her home was reduced to ashes. The family she loved and hunted with had been killed. Forgetting her hunger, she jumped down off the bed and crept over to the TV on hands and knees, filled with sadness.

“Mama,” she said forlornly. “Papa.” She started to cry.

“Whoa. Whoa,” said Lindsey. “Did she just say what I think she said?”

The report continued. “The tip detailed five members of the family, but the young woman who provided it was reported to be in complete hysterics. In his press conference, Chief of Police Fred McBride assured the public that the entire family has been exterminated, and that the people of Sunnycrest County can sleep easy.”

“Sh-sh-she just called those dead monsters 'Mama' and 'Papa!'” stammered Caitlin, backing away from her. “And we were driving through McG-G-G-Guff's pass last night! Y-y-you guys, this girl is one of the cannibals!”

“Holy cow,” said Alicia.

The teenage girl weep into her unwashed hands. The cheerleaders watched, guardedly at first, but with slowly increasing sympathy. Though they knew she was dangerous... at that moment, she looked too weak to hurt a fly.

“The... the cheerleader in me cannot bear to see such sadness! Such lack of spirit!” Alicia finally professed. She she dropped to her knees and gave the girl a hug.

“Ack! What are you doing?” panicked Caitlin.

“Shhh... shhh... it's okay. It's okay, sweetheart,” said Alicia warmly, giving the girl a hug. In a normal situation, this would have been the perfect opportunity for the daughter to bite her nose off, but she was too possessed with grief to do so. She awkwardly hugged the redhead back and cried into her shoulder.

Alicia tried to think of something more meaningful she could do to help, a way she could alleviate the pain of someone who had just lost their entire family—someone whose every tie to their known world had just been severed.

Then, it came to her. “Of course! Cheerleading!” Still hugging her, she looked up at Caitlin and Lindsey over the cannibal's shoulder. “Lindsey, I have some tapes from practice on top of the VCR! Put one on! Our infectious energy, exuberance and school spirit can brighten anyone's cloudy day!”

“Hey, yeah!” concurred Lindsey, grabbing one off the stack. She checked to make sure it was rewound, then stuck it in. Some footage of Sunnycrest High's cheer squad started rolling.

The tape was from Monday's practice, and showed the squad repeatedly running through one of their more complex routines. The mountain girl broke off the hug, then slowly turned back to the glowing box. She watched the onscreen acrobatics in curious silence.

Girls were forming pyramids and tossing each other up in the air, skirts and pom poms flying wildly. She found it absolutely engrossing. Of course, they looked delicious, but somehow... there was more to it than that. She was... genuinely interested in the strange ritual they were performing.

She grabbed Lindsey's arm fiercely. “Aaah!” the blonde yelped.

The girl pointed at the screen and nodded, giving an intimidating grunt.

“What?” asked Lindsey. “You want to know what that is?”

She nodded vigorously, giving a few more grunts. So Lindsey told her. “Cheerleading.”

The mountain girl watched the screen for a little longer, hypnotized. “Ch,” she parroted. “Cheer.”

“Oooh!” complimented Alicia. The three of them clapped, impressed.

“Why are we clapping?” asked Caitlin.

“I don't know,” answered Lindsey. She looked at their guest. “What's your name, anyway?”

The girl tilted her head to the side curiously.

“I don't think she can understand us,” said Caitlin. She rested her hand on her chest. “Caitlin,” she said in a clear voice. “My NAME is CAITLIN.”

“C... Cait.” said the girl.

“That's right!” said Lindsey. She put a hand on her own chest. “My NAME is LINDSEY.”

“Lin.”

Alicia was last. “My NAME is ALICIA.”

“Leash.”

She then pointed at the girl. “What's YOUR NAME?”

The girl looked confused for a moment, then slowly understood. She put a hand on her chest. “Name... Chase.”

“Chase,” repeated Lindsey skeptically. “Isn't that a dude's name?”

The girl repeated it, keeping her hand on her heart. “Chase.”

She looked around Alicia's room, then saw a pom pom sitting on top of the bookshelf. She pounced up onto the bed, then onto the shelf, trapping the pom pom in her hands and mouth as though it was a fleeing rodent. She looked up in a demonstrative way. “Chase.”

“Oh. Chase,” realized Caitlin. She shook her head. “Her family named her that because she was good at chasing down people to eat. How charming.”

Chase continued watching the TV from her perch up on the bookshelf. After a moment, she jumped down, bringing the pom poms with her. Keeping her eyes glued to the screen, the mysterious girl closely absorbed the cheerleaders' arm movements, and began imitating them.

“Hey, I think she likes it!” Lindsey remarked.

Chase stood, a bit shakily at first. Continuing to watch the routine, she began mimicking some of the kicks.

“Geez louise, she's a natural!” observed Caitlin, as the mountain girl jumped up and did a very impressive-looking toe touch.

Alicia stroked her chin, looking thoughtful. “Hmm... I wonder.”

“What do you wonder?” asked Caitlin, not liking the sound of this.

Alicia looked at her excitedly. “We've needed a new flier to replace Melissa C. for a while now, and Chase here seems to be serious cheerleading material! I think we should sign her up, you guys!”

Caitlin shook her head fearfully. “Oh no. No no no! Alicia, you're crazy! We can't let a cannibal on the cheerleading team!”

“Now now, Caitlin, that's not very nice. Our squad does not practice discrimination,” said Alicia sternly. “Race, creed, diet, it doesn't matter. If you're good, you can join, end of story.”

“And pretty,” added Lindsey.

“Right. Good and pretty,” agreed Alicia.

“You're missing the point!” argued Caitlin.

Lindsey walked around in front of the hopping savage, and closely scrutinized her face. “Hmm... I didn't notice at first, but if you look past the dirt and grime and super uncool clothes she's actually really beautiful. If we clean her up a little she'll fit right in!”

Alicia looked for herself, and was able to confirm this. “Let's see, it's Saturday, and tryouts are on Monday... So that means we have all weekend to get her looking cheer-ready!”

Lindsey knew what that meant. She flipped her hair and grinned. “Did somebody say... makeover?”

“We can take her shopping, and get her hair done...” planned Alicia. She grabbed Lindsey's hands and gave them a spastic wiggle. “Eeee, this is gonna be FUN!”

“No it isn't!” replied Caitlin, already not having fun. “What if she eats somebody?!”

Alicia laughed. “That's your problem, Cait. You're such a pessimist!”

“How about, 'What if she DOESN'T eat somebody, and we all have a great time?' Isn't that a much nicer frame of mind?” Lindsey agreed.

.....

“Alright, we're here!” announced Alicia happily, stepping out of her car and into the mall parking lot. Lindsey and Caitlin followed suit, but Chase seemed a bit more reluctant.

“It's okay, you can come out,” said Lindsey, opening her door.

Chase looked around suspiciously at the mysterious field of metal vehicles before skulking out, hands first.

“Whoa, hold on,” said Alicia. “Do it like we told you, remember? Two legs. You'll draw tons of attention if you're running around on all fours.”

“Despite what you may have heard, there IS such a thing as bad attention.” agreed Lindsey, repeating something she'd heard from the school counselor.

Chase looked up at them. She seemed to understand. Holding onto the car for support, she rose to her feet. Her posture remained slightly stooped, as though she was ready to get down on all fours and break into a run at any second, if necessary.

They had managed to give her a shower and wash her dress, which revealed itself to be a sort of murky green color once all the dirt was removed. She at least looked clean now, with her shaggy blonde hair shining in the morning sunlight, and with newly-visible freckles underlining her bold green eyes. Of course, there was still plenty more work to do.

“I really don't like this, you guys,” worried Caitlin, as they crossed the parking lot to the mall. “This is a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Isn't that a bit dramatic, Caitlin?” asked Alicia sternly. “Sure, she may be a cannibal, but DISASTER? That implies a level of property damage I can't picture even in a worst case scenario.”

“Yeah, how's that supposed to make Chase feel?” agreed Lindsey.

“Fine then. Massacre waiting to happen,” said Caitlin.

Alicia nodded. “There we go, that's much better!”

The automatic doors spooked Chase a little, and she was reluctant to go inside. Once she saw what was in the mall though, all her doubts left her.

People. Tons and tons of people, all over the place. Hanging out, walking around, browsing through stores. To her, it was an all-you-can-eat buffet. She started drooling a little.

“Um, Chase? Ew?” asked Lindsey snobbily. “Popular girls do not drool.”

“Here, I'll get that,” said Alicia helpfully. She took a kleenex out of her purse and wiped the girl's mouth.

“Eek! Don't put your hand so close to her mouth!” squeaked Caitlin.

“What is she, a snapping turtle?” replied Lindsey, amused.

“Theeere we go,” said Alicia, finishing up. There was a trashcan nearby, so she threw the kleenex away. “Now then, what's first? Hair or wardrobe?”

“We're doing makeup and a mani-pedi too, right?” asked Lindsey.

“Oh, absolutely,” nodded Alicia. She tried to think of a delicate way of putting what she was about to say. “I'm just looking at hair and wardrobe as the, erm, biggest priorities. We can save the rest for last.”

“I see what you mean,” said Lindsey. “I think if it's about biggest priorities first, we'd have to start with clothes... but then we'd be carrying around shopping bags all day. What do you think, Chase?”

They looked over at her. She was gone.

“Aaah!” shouted Caitlin.

“Uh oh! Where'd she go?” asked Alicia.

They quickly looked around, eyes picking through the mass of people.

Caitlin suddenly pointed. “There she is!”

Chase appeared to be stalking some girl. Oblivious to her pursuer, the girl entered 18 Eternal. Chase followed her.

“Oh, boy! Looks like it'll be wardrobe first, then!” cheered Alicia. “Come on girls, after her!”