Revenge of the

Cheerleaders

Also by Janette Rallison

Playing the Field

All's Fair in Love, War, and High School

Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws

Fame, Glory, and Other Things on My To Do List

It's a Mall World After All

Revenge of the

Cheerleaders

Janette Rallison

Copyright © 2007 by Janette Rallison

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in the United States of America in 2007 by

Walker Publishing Company, Inc.

Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers

For information about permission to reproduce selections from

this book, write to Permissions, Walker & Company,

104 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rallison, Janette.

Revenge of the cheerleaders / by Janette Rallison.

p. cm.

Summary: High school cheerleader Chelsea seeks revenge against her younger sister's rock-and-roller boyfriend after he embarrasses her once too often, but when she falls for his older brother, things become really complicated.

eISBN: 978-0-802-72138-9

[1. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 2. High schools—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 5. Cheerleading—Fiction. 6. Washington (State)—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.R13455Re 2007[Fic]—dc222007002372

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Book design by Nicole Gastonguay

Typeset by Westchester Book Composition

Printed in the U.S.A. by Quebecor World Fairfield

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

All papers used by Walker & Company are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in well-managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

To everyone out there who knows

that reading can and should be fun.

You're the people who make

writing worthwhile.

Special thanks to Devon Felsted for not only answering my

Pullman questions, but for even knowing how many

stoplights there are in town. I miss the small-town life!

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 1

My wings and halo were too large. I looked more like a pale butterfly than an angel, but a person can't be picky when it comes to Halloween costumes, and it's not like I'd paid for it. My best friend, Samantha, dug it out of her old drama costumes for me.

I had spent the last hour transforming my long blonde hair into glittery curls, and now she used the curling iron to even up one of my ringlets. After she hairsprayed it into place, she took a step back from me. "You're gorgeous, Chelsea."

"You don't think the dress is too tight?"

She tilted her head. "Well, you don't want to look too much like an angel, do you?"

"Not if Mike and Naomi are going to be there." Mike is my ex-boyfriend and Naomi—newly crowned homecoming queen—is my ex-friend and the girl he dumped me for. This is why I have to look extra good whenever I go places where they might be. And because Pullman, Washington, is a small town, that's just about everywhere. Super models probably slack off more with their looks than I have over the last month.

Mike and Naomi would almost certainly be at Rachel's masquerade party. It's a standing rule: when any of us on the cheerleading squad have a party, we invite the whole football team. Mike is a running back. So he was sure to come.

Samantha gave her long green medieval princess dress one last look in the mirror and fastened a rhinestone tiara atop her bun. I'd already told her that medieval princesses didn't actually wear tiaras, but Samantha just shrugged, and said, "Well, they should have."

You can't argue with that kind of logic.

Besides, the tiara worked for Samantha. She's the type of girl who looks likes she's destined to become a beauty pageant queen. Perhaps I wasn't destined to ever be an angel though, because I kept knocking my wings into things as I walked through her house.

"How am I going to drive in this?" I asked, trying not to scrape the pictures off the hallway wall as I passed by. It had taken ten minutes to pin them on the dress. I wasn't about to unpin them for the car ride.

"Maybe you could lean forward," Samantha suggested. "Or roll down the window and drive sideways. The police wouldn't dare pull over an angel. That has to be some sort of sin."

Before we walked out the front door, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window and paused to straighten out my halo. It was really just a headband with a wire sticking straight up and a metallic silver garland that circled over my head. Only all those years of being shoved in Samantha's closet had bent it into an odd oval shape and it kept tilting down. "Why don't I just catch a ride with you?" I hesitated mid-step. "Although, if Mike and Naomi are especially obnoxious I might want to leave early . . ."

Samantha fished her car keys out of a small sequined purse, which also hadn't been around in the middle ages, but you know, should have been. "Don't let them bother you so much. The best way to show Mike that you don't care is to date someone else. Remember, there are more fish in the sea, and better yet, more players on the football team."

We walked out into the cold night air, and I wished I'd found a warmer costume. Something that involved a coat and scarf. "I'm not dating anyone else from the football team," I said. "Cheerleaders shouldn't. It's too hard to cheer for guys who've dumped you. Lately I've been tempted to clap every time he's tackled—and see, the crowd might notice that."

Samantha opened her car door and slid inside. "So find someone else. Football players won't be the only guys at the party."

I didn't answer her. The rest of the girls on the cheerleading squad always bounced back from breakups as though they were nothing. As though "breakup" wasn't synonymous with rejection, failure, and a bunch of other painful words. I couldn't forget that Mike had seen me from the inside, had seen everything I was, and then decided he didn't want me.

When he broke up with me he told me—and these are his exact words—that he was sorry he'd been seeing Naomi behind my back, but she understood him better. He didn't even take responsibility for shredding my heart. It was all somehow my fault because I hadn't understood him.