Chapter 336 - Who?

Chapter 336: Chapter 336 - Who?

The first school was announced, and the section across the floor erupted.

Roxie watched the girls jump into each other’s arms before moving toward their assigned place. Another school followed, then another. Each name made Karen’s grip tighter and Angela’s breathing quieter beside her.

Roxie had stopped feeling her ankle.

She knew it was still throbbing because every few seconds the wrap seemed to tighten around the swelling, but her attention had moved completely to the announcer. There were fewer teams sitting on the floor now, and Briarwick was still one of them.

Fourth place was called.

It was not Briarwick.

Roxie stared toward the stage.

Her heart gave one hard beat.

Briarwick’s best finish at Nationals had been fourth.

They had already beaten it.

She turned toward Karen, but Karen was already looking at her with wide eyes.

Angela’s fingers closed around Roxie’s hand. "Oh my God."

Roxie swallowed.

Third place.

That was enough.

God, third place was more than enough.

They had come here wanting to prove they belonged among the best teams in the country. A medal would mean they had done it. Coach Miller would finally have something higher than that old fourth place everyone at Briarwick still talked about. The girls would go home knowing they had moved the program forward.

Roxie felt her nose sting.

Angela was crying already.

"Roxie," she whispered. "We’re top three."

"Don’t jinx it," Karen muttered, although her eyes had gone red too.

The announcer dragged out the pause until Roxie wanted to throw something at him.

Then he called another school.

For a moment, nobody in Briarwick reacted.

Roxie heard the name. She understood the words. Her brain simply refused to put them together fast enough.

Tori screamed behind them.

That did it.

Marissa grabbed Ava. Someone shouted Coach Miller’s name. Karen crushed Roxie’s hand so hard that Roxie finally looked at her.

"Top two," Karen said.

Roxie’s mouth opened.

Nothing came out.

Angela had both hands over her face now, crying openly.

Top two.

Roxie looked toward the front again, and suddenly the arena felt enormous. Thousands of people surrounded them, the giant screens glowing above the floor while cameras moved along the edge of the awards area.

Yet the only thing that mattered was the fact that two teams remained.

Briarwick.

And one other school.

Roxie’s chest tightened until taking a full breath became difficult.

She had spent years telling herself she only needed to keep going. During freshman year, it had meant surviving one more practice. Later it became making varsity, keeping her position, becoming captain, getting through Regionals, then State, then earning the right to stand on this floor.

There had always been another thing ahead of her.

Now there was one name left between Briarwick and something the school had never achieved.

The announcer waited until the screaming around the arena settled.

"And your 2026 National Championship runner up..."

Karen’s nails pressed into Roxie’s palm.

Angela leaned forward.

Kendall sat completely still near the front, her shoulders rigid.

Roxie stared at the stage and thought about the girl behind the gym again.

Fifteen years old.

Crying alone.

Terrified that maybe everyone had been right about her.

If somebody had gone around that corner and told that girl where she would be three years later, Roxie knew exactly what she would have done.

She would have laughed in their face.

National finalist would have sounded impossible.

Captain would have sounded impossible.

Sitting here with Briarwick guaranteed second place in the entire country would have sounded completely fucking insane.

Roxie felt tears gather before the final name was even called.

Maybe second was enough.

It had to be.

She had already gotten farther than she knew how to dream back then.

But she looked at Karen and Angela beside her, at Coach Miller standing behind the team, at the girls who had trained until their bodies hurt, and then at Kendall sitting at the front after spending years fighting Roxie over practically everything.

Roxie wanted more.

She wanted all of them to have it.

She wanted to go home with something nobody in Briarwick cheer history had ever brought back.

For once, she wanted the impossible thing to actually belong to them.

The announcer called the other school.

Roxie stared ahead.

The team across the floor erupted.

For one strange moment, Roxie thought she should clap for them. Runner up at Nationals was huge. Her brain had already started forming the thought when Karen suddenly screamed directly beside her.

Roxie flinched.

Angela threw both arms around her.

Behind them, Briarwick exploded.

Roxie looked at Karen.

Karen was crying so hard she could barely speak.

"We won!"

Roxie stared at her.

Then it reached her.

The other school was runner up.

Briarwick was still sitting there.

There was nowhere else to place them.

They had won.

Roxie tried to get up with everyone else and completely forgot about her ankle until her left foot touched the mat. Pain shot through the joint and her leg immediately gave enough that Karen had to catch her under one arm.

"Easy!"

Angela grabbed the other side, but Roxie was already laughing.

"We won."

"I know!" Angela shouted.

"We fucking won!"

That made Roxie cry harder.

Everywhere she looked, Briarwick had fallen apart. Tori was sobbing into Marissa. Ava was jumping while holding someone around the shoulders. Several girls had already surrounded Coach Miller, who looked like he was trying to speak and had completely given up.

Then the announcer’s voice carried across the arena.

"And your 2026 National Champions, representing Virginia, Briarwick High School!"

The words hit differently when she heard the school name.

Roxie covered her mouth.

National Champions.

Briarwick.

Them.

Her.

She laughed through the tears because none of it seemed real enough to belong to the same girl who had once stood outside the gym trying to convince herself to walk through the doors.

All that time she had spent wondering whether she belonged at Briarwick, and now her school’s name was being announced as National Champions while she sat in the middle of the team that had brought it there.

Karen hugged her from one side.

Angela practically climbed over her from the other.

Roxie held both of them as tightly as she could.

She remembered the three of them during practices when nobody wanted to run the routine again, lying exhausted on the mat while Coach Miller yelled at them to get up. She remembered stupid arguments, locker room gossip, crying after competitions, Karen making everyone laugh when they were miserable, and Angela quietly appearing beside Roxie whenever she somehow knew Roxie needed someone.

They were seniors.

This was their last competition together.

That thought broke whatever control Roxie had left.

She buried her face against Angela’s shoulder and cried.

Angela was crying harder now too, while Karen kept laughing between sobs.

"We actually did it," Angela said.

Roxie nodded against her.

Coach Miller eventually managed to get through the girls surrounding him. His eyes were red when he looked at Roxie, but he was smiling so widely that she had never seen him look like that before.

Roxie laughed. "Are you crying?"

"Shut up."

That only made Karen laugh harder.

The announcer began calling Briarwick forward, and the team slowly started pulling itself together.

Then came the request for the captains.

Roxie’s smile disappeared.

She looked down at her wrapped ankle.

"Oh, fuck."

Karen wiped her face. "Forgot about that?"

"For a minute."

"Good luck."

Roxie looked toward the front.

Kendall had already stood.

She took a few steps toward the awards area before turning and realizing Roxie was still sitting between Karen and Angela.

Their eyes met.

Kendall looked down at Roxie’s ankle.

Then she walked back.

She stopped in front of Roxie and held out her hand.

Roxie stared at it for a moment.

Kendall Whitlock.

The girl she had disliked almost immediately.

The girl who had challenged practically every decision Roxie made, competed with her for years and somehow ended up sharing the captain position with her.

The girl who had also been there more times than Roxie liked acknowledging.

For some reason, Roxie remembered the uniform that had appeared in her closet when she needed one. Nobody had ever claimed it. Nobody had ever admitted anything.

But there had only been so many girls with an extra uniform.

Roxie looked up at Kendall.

"Thank you."

Kendall’s face immediately twisted. "Don’t."

Roxie laughed.

"I’m serious."

"Then stop being serious. It’s disgusting."

"You’re still a bitch."

"Good."

Roxie took her hand.

Kendall pulled her carefully upright, and the moment Roxie shifted her weight, pain ran through the ankle again. Kendall noticed without saying anything and moved closer, letting Roxie hook an arm over her shoulders.

"Shut up," Kendall said before Roxie could speak.

"I didn’t say anything."

"You were going to."

Roxie chuckled.

Kendall adjusted her arm around Roxie’s waist, and together they started toward the front.

That was probably the friendliest they were ever going to get.

It was enough.

The crowd grew louder as they crossed the floor. Roxie could hear Briarwick screaming behind them, Karen and Angela louder than everyone else.

Each step hurt, but Kendall kept enough of Roxie’s weight off the injured side that they made it without stopping.

The championship trophy waited at the front.

Seeing it made Roxie’s chest tighten again.

Until now, winning had been words.

Then the trophy was placed in front of them.

Real metal.

Real engraving.

Real proof.

Kendall reached for one side.

Roxie took the other.

For several seconds, neither of them lifted it.

They simply held it together while cameras flashed from the edge of the floor.

Roxie looked down.

National Champions.

She had spent freshman year wondering whether she deserved to wear the uniform.

Now she was holding the National Championship trophy as one of Briarwick’s captains.

A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

Kendall glanced over.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Kendall gave her a suspicious look but left it alone.

The rest of Briarwick was called forward for the official picture.

The girls rushed toward them.

Karen reached Roxie first and immediately wrapped an arm around her waist to help support her. Angela squeezed in on the other side, still crying, while Tori, Ava and Marissa crowded around Kendall. Coach Miller came in behind them, trying to arrange everyone while nobody listened.

"Guys, look at the camera."

Nobody did.

"Briarwick!"

That only made everyone laugh.

A photographer shouted for the trophy to go higher.

Roxie looked at Kendall.

Kendall tightened her grip.

Together, they lifted it.

The team screamed.

Roxie looked around at them while the cameras started flashing.

She saw faces she had spent years seeing inside Briarwick’s gym. Girls she had fought with, laughed with, trained with and sometimes wanted to strangle. Coach Miller stood behind them after years of making them repeat routines until their bodies hurt. Karen had one arm securely around Roxie’s waist. Angela was pressed against her other side. Kendall held the trophy beside her.

For a brief moment, Roxie thought about freshman year again.

She wished she could go back to that afternoon behind the gym for thirty seconds.

She would sit beside that fifteen year old girl against the wall.

She would let her cry.

Then she would tell her to keep going.

Because one day she was going to walk back into that same gym as captain.

One day girls were going to trust her to lead them.

One day she would stand on the biggest competition floor of her life with an injured ankle, ruined makeup and her entire team crowded around her.

And one day Briarwick was going to win Nationals with her holding one side of the trophy.

Roxie smiled harder as tears blurred the camera again.

Maybe fifteen year old Roxie would not believe her.

That was fine.

She had lived long enough to see it herself.

The camera flashed.

Briarwick had won Nationals.