The cheerleaders spent all Sunday training Chase. This wasn't a lot of time, but they managed to brief her on the basic arm motions, jumps, and tumbles. Fortunately, Chase seemed to be a sponge for it. Obviously very fit from her hunting lifestyle, she was also athletically minded and picked up everything quickly. She even threw in some of her own moves now and then, although these were a bit more combative in nature.

“Whoa, jeez! What was that?” asked Caitlin. Chase had just done a powerful kick, followed by a pounce and a thrusting motion with her fist as though she was holding an invisible knife.

“It... looked like some kind of finishing move,” said Lindsey nervously.

“Awesome!” Alicia praised. Chase's lesson was temporarily put on hold so she could show Alicia how she did it.

By the end of the day, they were all very satisfied with their progress. Chase was ready for tryouts. They said their 'bye's and 'see you at school's, and then Alicia and Chase went to bed early, hoping to be well rested for the big day.

Alicia woke at 7:00 to the sound of her alarm clock. She gave a yawning stretch, then looked down at Chase's sleeping bag. “Good morning, Chase! Ready for your first day of sch—”

It was empty. The zip was undone and the top flap was tossed aside. She was gone.

“Uh oh,” said Alicia.

She looked around the room. It was totally empty. “Chase?” she asked. The sun was about to rise, the lightening sky visible through Alicia's blinds. “Chase, are you here?”

She put on her slippers and snuck out into the upstairs hallway. “Chase!” she whispered. Strangely, her parents were still asleep. Usually, her mom woke up at 7:00 as well to start making breakfast before work. Not that Alicia was complaining, though... she had the funny feeling that whatever had happened to Chase, she didn't want her parents awake for it.

As she passed the staircase, she could see a light on below. There was a loud, metallic, kitchen-esque clatter.

The cheerleader cautiously descended the stairs. “...Chase?” she whispered again.

She approached the kitchen with trepidation. Slowly, she peeked inside.

“Aaaah!” she shouted. Lying on the floor was the body of a young man. Judging by his clothes, he'd been out jogging, and judging by the enormous makeshift spear sticking out of his chest, he'd picked the wrong house to jog past. Blood poured out of the wound and pooled under his back. Chase was crouching on the floor, surrounded by pots and pans. From the looks of things, they had spilled out of one of the cupboards. She was curiously rooting through them when she heard Alicia, and looked up.

“Leash!” she said happily. “You up!”

“Yeah, I'm up!” replied Alicia incredulously. “What the heck is this, Chase? Why'd you bring a dead body into my house? My parents are gonna freak out!”

“Chase make Leash b... br...” She concentrated on the word, intently.

“Breakfast?”

Chase nodded quickly. “Yes! Chase thank Leash, and Leash Ma and Leash Pa. Make strong with food.” She looked down at the scattered pots and pans, and the look of confusion returned to her. “But where large roast spit?”

“If by large you mean human-sized, we don't have one,” said Alicia. “Come on, we have to get this body out of here! My parents could wake up any second!”

Chase looked surprised. “No waste food, Leash! Need strong! Bek fuss most meal of the day.”

But Alicia didn't care if breakfast was the most meal of the day or not. She looked around for a place to get rid of the body. The garbage disposal? The trash compactor? No, that would never work!

She looked at the door. Outside? Maybe if they could cut the body up, put it in trash bags, and then put it in one of the cans on the curb... but there was no time for that!

Then, her eyes fell on the broom closet. “There! Put the body in there, Chase! All we can do is hide it until we have time to deal with it!”

Chase nodded, and hefted the corpse over one shoulder. Alicia opened the door for her, and she tossed it inside.

All that was left now was cleaning up the blood puddle. But Alicia knew they'd really have to hurry... her mom could be up any—

“Wow, you're down here early,” said Alicia's mom.

Alicia performed the highest jump of her cheerleading career. “Aaah!” she shouted. She whirled around and shoved her mom back out into the hallway. There was no door to close; the kitchen opened directly to the living room. All Alicia could do was lean on the threshold in an attempt to both block the woman's passage and look casual.

Alicia's mom laughed. “Whoa, what's going on?” she asked.

She hadn't seen anything. Alicia's heart rate dropped from Coronary Imminent to Increased Readiness. “Oh, n-nothing!” she laughed.

Her mom tried to dodge around her, but Alicia wasn't having it. “Then can I get in there to make us breakfast?”

“A-actually, I was thinking we could eat out today!” said Alicia suddenly.

That surprised her. “Eat out? For breakfast? On a school day? Are you kidding me?” her mom asked in disbelief. “Your father and I have work in an hour. And you have school, obviously.”

“No, no, I mean somewhere FAST!” insisted Alicia. “Taco Bell is on the way! We can hit the drive thru!”

Her mom looked like she wished she'd had another hour or so of sleep before entering this conversation. “Dear, don't you think you'd rather just have a normal breakfast?”

“Little late for that, Mom!” trembled Alicia. “They have a really good... a good... pancake. Burrito. Pancake burrito.”

Her mom wrinkled her nose. “Is... that an actual thing?”

“Yep! And they're delicious! Chase wants one too!” Alicia looked over her shoulder. “Isn't that right, Chase?”

Chase appeared behind Alicia, looking over her arm barrier. “Yes! Chase want what Leash said.”

The woman sighed and rubbed her forehead. “If you girls really want that, be my guest. Grab them yourselves on the way to school. I think I'm just going to make toast and eggs.” With that, she lifted Alicia's arm and ducked under it.

“No!” Alicia cried.

Her mom stopped dead in her tracks when she saw all the blood. “Oh my god! What happened here?!” she cried.

Alicia's heart rate ramped up again. “I! It!” she shouted. “I-I-I-It was a nosebleed!”

“Good lord!” remarked Alicia's mom, looking down at a pool of blood the size of a Twister mat. “That must have been quite a nosebleed! Are you okay?! How are you even alive?!”

The redhead laughed uncertainly. “Well, uh, it's been a long time since my last one! I was probably pretty backed up!”

Alicia's mom cocked her eyebrow. “Is that seriously how it works?”

….

The answer, of course, was no, but the 'well, clearly it is, because I'm still alive' defense worked decently for Alicia.

She felt exhausted by the time she and Chase met up with Lindsey and Caitlin in the school parking lot.

“Wow.” remarked Lindsey, surveying her captain up and down as she and Chase got out of her car. “You look...” She paused, then looked to Caitlin for a more delicate way to express what they were both thinking.

“Natural,” said Caitlin.

“Yes, very natural,” agreed Lindsey.

“I like it,” Caitlin added, in case Alicia was offended.

Alicia sighed. “Yeah. We didn't have time to do our hair and makeup and stuff this morning. We had to guard the broom closet until my parents left for work.”

“Why did you have to do that?” asked Lindsey.

“Because there was a dead body in it. It's a long story.”

“Did Chase kill somebody, forcing you to hide the body in the broom closet because you didn't have time to properly dispose of it?” asked Caitlin.

“Yes.”

“That wasn't that long,” said Lindsey.

“It felt long at the time.”

All three were dressed in their cheerleading uniforms in preparation for tryouts. Alicia had managed to find time to change out of her pajamas, at least. Chase wanted a uniform, too, so Alicia explained to her that she had to make the team first.

While the girls started chatting as they turned and walked towards the school, Chase tuned them out, her full attention captured by the huge, red brick building. It wasn't very tall, only two stories, but it was very long and wide. She couldn't imagine how many delicious teenagers a place like this could hold.

Caitlin watched her drool for a moment, then shook her head. “I dunno, you guys. I'm having second thoughts about this.”

“How can you have second thoughts about something you thought was a bad idea from the beginning?” Lindsey reminded her.

Caitlin thought about this, then corrected herself. “I guess I meant YOU'RE having second thoughts about this.”

“We are?” asked Alicia.

“Don't be silly, Cait. We're sticking with this to the end!” promised Lindsey. “We won't rest until Chase becomes the best cheerleader Sunnycrest has ever seen!”

“Even if it means somebody's life?”

Lindsey waved her hand and gave a dismissive 'psssh'. “I don't know why you always think she's gonna kill somebody. She was very well behaved when we took her to the mall.”

“She killed somebody there!”

This seemed to confuse Lindsey. She scratched her head. “Huh? But she didn't get caught.”

“That doesn't matter!”

They climbed up the school's front steps, but stopped at the large double doors. “Okay,” breathed Alicia. She put her hand on the door handle, then looked at Chase and smiled. “You ready?”

Chase nodded eagerly. She trembled with excitement. “Chase want school!” she confirmed.

With almost ceremonious reverence, Alicia pushed open the door, and the group walked inside.

The halls were filled with students hanging around and catching up with their friends before first period. As always, it was quite a din of laughter and shouting. When the cheerleaders passed by, however, the volume decreased slightly, as every head in the vicinity turned to look at them.

Chase was intimidated. “Why they look?” she asked, cowering slightly behind Caitlin. “Them... them want fight?”

“Oh, no! Far from it, Chase!” said Alicia, walking with confidence. “These are good looks!”

“You see, we're the most popular girls in school,” Caitlin explained. “We're at the top of Sunnycrest's social hierarchy.”

Lindsey winked and blew a kiss to some lucky boy. “We're just so super hot and cool they can't help themselves,” she strutted.

Now, not every look was a full-on ogle. There were some passing glances, some indifferent acknowledgments, some jealous glowers.

But everyone looked. That was what counted.

“When you become a cheerleader, you'll have this kind of attention too,” said Lindsey comfortably. She spread out her arms and closed her eyes. “Ahhh, I could just bask in it all day.”

“I'm sure we will,” Caitlin added. She tried to sound like it was a great bother to her, but even she couldn't hide an air of satisfaction.

The first thing they needed to do was get Chase checked in. On the way to the office, they gave her a quick tour.

“That's the Freshman wing, and over that way is the cafeteria,” explained Caitlin, pointing in different directions as they navigated the busy hallways. “Your math classes will be down here. And if you take science, those rooms are in the next hall over.”

Chase looked perplexed. “Class?”

Alicia slapped her forehead. “Oh, right! We didn't tell you about that part!” she realized. “I guess technically there is more to school than cheerleading and being admired. You also have to take classes. To learn.”

“Learn,” repeated Chase. “Like book?”

“Yeah, like book,” explained Lindsey. “It's going to be pretty hard for you, since you've never been to a day of school in your life and you can't even read. But a lot of your classes will have guy teachers and I find that if you sleep with enough of those you can maintain a good enough average to stay on the squad.”

“Lindsey!” gasped Caitlin, horrified. “That is NOT the kind of example we need to be setting for Chase!”

“Yeah! Just flirting is enough for all but the most extreme cases!” agreed Alicia.

“That isn't the right example, either!” scolded Caitlin. “Chase, studying hard is the only way to really get ahead. I'll help tutor you if you need it.”

Alicia and Lindsey stopped, with expressions of shock.

“What?” asked Caitlin.

“I'm surprised you'd volunteer to help her.” said Alicia. “I thought you didn't want Chase here.”

Caitlin realized what she'd done, and blushed. “I, I don't!” she shot back. “But... if she's going to be here, she should be here right!”