Mutiny

"One! Two! Stick it! Stick it! YES! Great job, Tamiko!" Ranko whooped loudly as her squadmate landed her double twist on the thick blue vinyl gymnastics mat. "That's how we do it!"Ranko clapped her hands enthusiastically, turning to the next cheerleader in line. "Okay, Ayame! Let's do this! Front handspring, back handspring, layout. Go!"Rolling her eyes, the blonde girl threw herself into a run, executing the stunts that Ranko prescribed. Ranko put up her hand for a high-five, but Ayame just jogged past her, returning to the back of the line.Ranko clapped her own hands instead. What's her problem? Shrugging it off, she turned back to the front of the line and tried to smile. "Chinatsu! C'mon, girl!"The diminutive brunette ran down the blue pathway to the mat, diving forward. She tucked into a ball, tumbling once before popping up with her shoulders and kicking with her legs, launching herself back to her feet."That's the way! You rock!" Ranko clapped, turning to the next girl in line. "Come on, Kotone! You got this!" Please.Ranko watched nervously as the cheerleader ran at top speed toward the large blue tumble mat. She sprung forward, landing on her hands, twisting as she did and flipping backward off of her hands. A third flip brought Kotone back to her feet, and she bounced up into a double twist. The form was good enough, but she didn't have nearly enough rotation, and she landed hard on her shoulder on the padded mat, sinking into the vinyl-covered cushion with a creaking noise and a yelp."Dammit!" Ranko sighed. "How many times do I gotta tell you?! You've gotta start your twist as soon as your feet leave the ground. You're waiting too long!"Kotone growled, crawling off the mat on her hands and knees. "You know, Ranko, you do an awful lot of barking orders for someone who never practices stunts out here at all!"Yori grumbled. "Yeah, you've told us all what you want us doing during the routine. What are you gonna do?"Ranko shrugged. "I thought you wanted me to sing. And I'm working on something for the end of the routine.""So, what," Kotone stomped away from the mat toward Ranko. "You're just gonna stand there the whole time with your microphone and look pretty while we're all falling on our heads all the time?""You wouldn't fall on your head if you took the time to practice!" Ranko sighed, picking up her water bottle from the grass and squirting some of its contents into her mouth.Tanda shook her head, rolling her eyes as she brushed her orange ponytail out of her eyes. "Like you do? I don't think I've seen you do a stunt at practice in a month."The redhead nodded. "I've been working out on my own so I can focus on coaching during group practices. You wanna see something? Alright. Watch out."Ranko stalked over to the beginning of the tumble track angrily. She took off running, moving at blinding speed as she flipped once… twice… three times, launching herself off the track and executing two mid-air twists, landing on her feet on the padded mat. As she did, she winced a bit, doubling over slightly as if her ribs were hurting her for some reason."There. See? I'm trying to teach you girls how to do this stuff. I know you can. But we've only got a few weeks until the competition. We're running out of time to get this stuff nailed!"Tanda scoffed. "Like you even give a shit. The Invitational doesn't mean a damn thing to you. It's just another opportunity for you to have people fawn over you. You're a friggin' diva, you know that, Tendo?! The thing about being a cheerleader is that you're not supposed to expect all the cheers to be for you.""Oh, please, Tanda. I want to win for you girls. I know how important it is to you." Ranko sighed.Tanda threw up her hands in exasperation. "Don't even start with that, Ranko. You're so full of shit, your eyes should be brown! You don't even give a damn when we perform at the games, other than when you're holding hands with Eiji Kanda like you're the friggin' queen of the world. And we're supposed to just follow you? Some of us have been doing this for six years, and you just show up and expect everybody to just bow down to you!"Yori growled. "Right? And like, what's with this you girls shit? Like, are you not even part of the squad? It's supposed to be us, right? Not you.""I just…" Tanda shook her head. "I just can't. I'm done." The orange-haired girl bent down, snatching up her gym bag from the ground and turned her back on Ranko, stomping back toward the school building."Tanda! Come on, be reasonable!" Ranko threw her hands in the air in frustration, letting them fall limply to her sides.Kotone shook her head, thrusting her palm up as Ranko opened her mouth to speak to her. "Just don't. I've heard enough out of you." She walked toward the bleachers, picking up her bag and following after Tanda."Girls, come on! We can do this! Come back!" Ranko watched in horror as, one by one, ten of the eleven other girls turned on her and walked away, until only one remained."I don't understand." Ranko sighed, plopping down onto her backside in the grass dejectedly. "Why won't they listen?"The team captain shrugged in frustration. "I'm sorry, Ranko. I tried to warn you." With that, Shiori turned and followed after her teammates, leaving Ranko on the rugby field alone.