I stopped the rehearsal. “Kristen? You can play?”
“Since I was five,” Kristen answered, her face turning sullen when she looked at me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You didn’t ask.”
Kristen then turned away from me, and started talking to Amy, apparently about the improv that she had just played. She effectively dismissed me.
That attitude of Kristen’s finally ticked me off. It was one thing for her to be angry with me, if that was how she was feeling. It was still another thing to disrupt the class and destroy the kind of discipline that I tried to maintain with the band while keeping the rehearsals fun and entertaining.
I called an early end to the rehearsal, and found Kristen outside, heading for her car. Apparently, she wasn’t even going to offer me a ride home. I ran to catch up with her.
“Kristen, wait!”
Kristen turned around, a cold look on her face. “What?”
“I don’t want you to ever do something like that again during rehearsal! If you’re mad at me, fine, but I can’t have you distracting Amy and being rude to me in front of the entire band.”
“Are you saying that I’m distracting Amy?” asked Kristen incredulously.
“Yes, like when the two of you are gossiping about whatever it is you to discuss with one another. Amy is missing important lessons that she could be learning from the other band members and me. She’s in there to perform, not just to gossip with you.”
Kristen turned red. “Gossip? She’s having trouble with doing solos. You know that, and you haven’t done much to help her. She asked me for help, and I’m helping her. She doesn’t have the nerve to ask anything of the great Maestro Crittenhouse.”
“Kristen, if you continue with that attitude and determination to disrupt rehearsal, I will bar you from the music room!”
Kristen looked at me, anger flashing through her eyes. She knew that I did have the power to do just what I said, although I didn’t know if I could actually go through with my threat. I still loved Kristen very much, and didn’t really want to make her not see Amy. I still needed to enforce discipline.
After a few moments, Kristen said, “Fine. I won’t attend your goddamned rehearsals. Good luck with Amy.”
Kristen turned away and entered her car. There was absolutely no invitation from her for me to come in.
I stood there, stunned, as Kristen drove away, leaving tire tracks on the high school parking lot as she squealed away.
Well, I now needed a ride. I knew that Camille would be either on the football field or in the girls’ locker room. Glancing at the empty field, I hoped she was in the locker room and hadn’t left already.
I went as close to the door of the girls’ locker room as was proper for a male, and could hear muffled voices of the girls.
After about ten minutes of waiting, the door opened and a few older girls came out. In the second stream of girls was Sherry, who was smiling and talking to another girl. She saw me and smiled. “Jim! Thanks for telling Cammy about me!”
“No problem, Sherry. Is she in the locker room?”
“She should be right out,” Sherry giggled.
Camille did come out next. She saw me, and said, “Didn’t expect to see you here. Was rehearsal canceled?”
“No. We just had a short one today.” I was still seething inside at Kristen’s actions, but didn’t really want to discuss it.
“Where’s Kristen?” Camille asked.
I stiffened in response.
Camille must have noticed my reaction. “Um, do you need a ride home?”
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“I’m taking Sherry as well. Meet me in the parking lot in five minutes. I need to talk with the other cheerleaders for a few minutes.”
I nodded.
Camille leaned up toward me and whispered, “Sherry is a shoo-in. She’s very talented and she can flip better than most of the other girls.”
“Cool.”
“Don’t tell her, though. We’ll make the announcements on Monday.”
“Sherry is going to be very happy,” I answered. “She thanked me for helping to set this up.”
Camille smiled and walked over to where some of the other cheerleaders were waiting. I knew better than to eavesdrop, which was unnecessary anyway due to Camille’s assurances that Sherry would be on the team.
I walked out to the parking lot and found Sherry. She was sitting on a bench with a good view of Camille’s car. I approached the bench and asked, “Mind if I sit down?”
“Don’t mind at all. Cammy is giving me a ride home.”
“She told me. I’m going home with her, also.”
“Oh. I thought you’d be going with…” Sherry cut herself off.
“Kristen already left,” I said, avoiding the subject. “I’m riding with Camille today, also.”
Sherry nodded.
“So, how did it go?” I asked, knowing already what Camille had told me.
“Well,” Sherry said. “When I got there, they warned me that generally speaking, sophomores usually go into junior varsity cheerleaders, but they are a joke. They’re usually just the girlfriends of the jocks playing junior varsity football. I was the only sophomore at the auditions today.”
I nodded, but was ignorant of the specifics of the sporting program at the school.
“Anyway, during the last couple of years, the varsity cheerleaders decided to hold real auditions for the team, and they opened it up to all high school students. The routine is more difficult, apparently, and they teach it to us once, and have us do it repeatedly for about forty-five minutes. Then they requested us each to do some more advanced moves, like flips, such as the ones we do on the floor exercises in gymnastics. A lot of girls had difficulty with that.”
“So, how do you find out if you make it?”
“They tally points. You get two points if a current cheerleader sponsors you. You get up to five points for the routine, and three points for the more difficult stuff. Ten points and you’re on. They need to fill four spots, so it will really be the top four marks.”
“Only two points to be sponsored by Camille?” I asked.
“Yeah. I think it’s to prevent the team from just being popular students.”
I nodded. That mirrored what Camille had said the previous week.
“Think you’ll make it?”
“If I do, it will be a coup. The last sophomore to make it was Camille.”
I hadn’t known that. “That might explain why she took an interest in you.”
Sherry smiled. “I think it’s also because she’s your friend, Jim.”
I blushed, but didn’t answer.
Camille drove Sherry to her house, and we waved as she got in her front door.
As she pulled out, Camille did not head for my house. Instead, she pulled into Lake Shore Point. There was still sunlight, so the parking lot wasn’t very crowded.
Camille parked the car and then turned to me. “All right, out with it. What’s up between you and Kristen?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Kristen and you have both been moody all week. Patty tried talking to both of you and you have both stonewalled her. I am keeping you here until you tell me.”
Camille had a serious look in her eyes. I knew that Camille was a very strong willed person, maybe not as stubborn as Kristen was, but I knew better than to trifle with her.
I sighed. “I think the two of us had an argument on Sunday.”