"Members of the cheerleading team, please meet at the old hall now for a short meeting," our dear displinary master's voice sputtered out through the rusty old PA system. I groaned inwardly. Great, as if everyone didn't already know I was part of the most embarrasing act in AMC history since...
forever.
As Ashley and I stood and asked for permission to go out, my English teacher raised her eyebrows. "
You're in the cheerleading team, Cindy?" she asked in her nasal, hoity-toity voice. Just what I needed.
"Yes, Ms Tham," I replied meekly before she lost interest and waved us away.
I never did figure out why she hated my sister and I so much. Truly. If anyone of you know, please tell me. It's the bane of my existence, the question of how anyone could possibly find hard enough spot in their hearts to actually despise me, how anyone could deprive me from the Best English Award during my last year in high school, thus breaking my 2-years-in-a-row reign in that spot...
But sometimes I'm not so sure. She seems fine when I do bump into her in church. Hm.
Right right. Cheerleading. Then hor...
Aiyah long story cut short, we didn't quit in the end; we just stopped going to practices. SPM was coming, I finally got enough of my friends'
innocent teasings of being a rah-rah cheerleader, the end. And it was a seriously different experience, I'll give ya that.
It was the first time I encountered girls boasting about their crazy diet plans and gazillion trips to Marie France - before they even turned 16. Bitchy fights over the attentions of the three luckiest 'dance choreographers' in Ipoh (they weren't that cute; them gurls just wanted to compete), actual encounter with cheerleading captain from Hades - 'We're all here coz of we're the prettiest (pFFfftt) and best (dOuble PFfftTT) girls in AMC, so we gotta work hard and WIN WIN WIN!' *eVil CaCkLe* - I kid you not, she actually said that. In Cantonese, of course. The only time they spoke in English was when we shouted cheer chants copied from the internet.
Come to think of it, that was partly the reason I didn't click with any of them. Besides the fact that it was disproportionately frowned upon to speak in any language but English, Malay and Mandarin in school, I also happened to sound like Sean Paul in Dutty Rock while attempting to converse in Cantonese.
Heh. Gotta admit I still enjoy the reactions when my cheerleading past comes up though. Something akin to a horrific party story, y'know?
