Chapter 338 - Welcome Home

Chapter 338: Chapter 338 - Welcome Home

Roxie woke up when the bus turned and her head slipped from Zac’s shoulder.

She groaned and sat properly, blinking against the light coming through the window. Her neck hurt from sleeping like that, her back was sore, and her ankle had been throbbing since they left the airport. She stretched her good leg as much as the cramped seat allowed and looked around the bus.

Everyone looked dead.

Karen was asleep against the window with Angela leaning on her shoulder. Some of the cheerleaders were still wearing their Nationals jackets, their hair tied badly and their faces completely bare after the flight.

Bags were stuffed under seats and piled anywhere there was space, while the championship trophy had its own seat near Coach Miller, strapped in like it deserved better treatment than the rest of them.

Roxie looked at it and almost laughed.

Even the trophy was sleeping better than they were.

She dropped her head back onto Zac’s shoulder.

"I want my bed. My butt hurts."

Zac opened one eye. "We’re almost there." Then a grin slowly appeared on his face. "I’ll massage you later."

Roxie rolled her eyes and pouted.

She was sore everywhere, and Zac’s massages were actually good. That was the problem. They always seemed to lead somewhere else.

She bit her lip when she remembered the last time.

It had been good though.

More than good.

Basically heaven.

Roxie pushed the thought away before her body decided that sitting on a bus surrounded by half their friends was a good place to remember details.

She looked outside instead, then lifted her head from Zac’s shoulder.

There were cars everywhere.

At first, she thought another school event might be happening. Briarwick always seemed to have something going on. But as the bus turned toward the main entrance, she started seeing students outside.

A lot of students.

"Why are people outside?"

Zac leaned past her to look through the window.

Roxie moved closer to the glass.

Then she saw the banner stretched across the entrance.

WELCOME HOME, NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

She stared at it.

Karen looked outside and sat up so quickly Angela almost fell off her shoulder.

"Oh my God."

Angela blinked herself awake. "What happened?"

"They’re waiting for us."

That was enough to wake everyone.

Girls started leaning across seats and crowding near the windows. Tori screamed the second she saw the banner and immediately started fixing her hair with both hands. Ava pulled out her phone, turned on the camera and groaned at her reflection.

"I look horrible."

"You just came from an airport," Marissa said before checking herself too. "Oh my God. My face is puffy."

Coach Miller stood near the front and told everyone to settle down, but nobody listened. The bus was already full of girls checking their hair, fixing jackets and waking up people who still had no idea what was happening.

The closer they got to the school, the louder the cheering outside became.

Roxie slowly sank lower in her seat.

Zac was still smiling.

She looked at him. "What are you laughing at?"

"You."

"Why?"

"You’re about to get off that bus with crutches in front of the whole school."

Roxie stared at him.

His grin widened. "Unless you want a human wheelchair."

"Shut up. I’d rather walk out naked."

There was absolutely no way she was letting Zac carry her off the bus. Aside from how ridiculous that would look, this was the team’s homecoming. She wasn’t about to have half the attention turn toward her and Zac because he decided to carry her like some injured princess.

Zac shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

He was still grinning.

The bus finally stopped.

Everyone started moving almost immediately. Jackets were fixed, bags were grabbed, and Karen dug through hers until she found her lip balm. Her lips looked a little fuller than usual, almost like she had eaten a bowl of chili and irritated them, but when she checked herself using her phone camera, there was barely anything noticeable.

Karen looked toward Roxie’s messy hair, the brace around her ankle and the crutches beside her.

"Want help?"

Roxie nodded. "Falling on my face would be humiliating, yes."

Coach Miller started letting them out.

The trophy went first.

The moment he stepped off the bus carrying it, the students outside screamed.

Roxie’s stomach dropped.

Tori and Ava went next, followed by Marissa and several of the other girls. Every time another group stepped out, the cheering picked up again. Some students shouted names while others kept yelling Briarwick and Champions loud enough that Roxie could hear everything clearly through the open bus doors.

Karen and Angela moved toward the front with her while Zac opened the crutches and handed them over.

Roxie pushed herself upright carefully and adjusted them beneath her arms. Karen moved one bag out of her way while Angela kicked another strap aside.

The aisle was a mess of bags and loose straps that kept catching against the crutches, and by the time they reached the front Roxie was already irritated.

Then she reached the bus door and saw the school properly.

Students lined both sides of the walkway leading toward the entrance. Phones were raised everywhere. Some people had handmade signs while others were holding printed pictures from Nationals. Teachers stood farther back watching the chaos, and the huge banner stretched above all of them.

WELCOME HOME, NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

Someone near the front shouted, "CAPTAIN ROXIE!"

Roxie froze on the top step.

Another voice shouted Tori’s name.

Then someone called Kendall.

More students started yelling for the whole team until the names blurred beneath another chant.

"BRIARWICK! BRIARWICK! BRIARWICK!"

Roxie stared at them.

It was bizarre.

When they had left for Nationals, support had barely existed. Fundraising announcements had been pushed by teachers, and half the students acted like donating a few dollars was some huge favor.

Now the whole entrance looked like everyone had been their biggest supporter from day one.

Maybe that should have pissed her off.

Instead, Roxie looked toward the girls already outside. They were laughing while waving toward the crowd. They all looked exhausted, hair messy, faces bare, bodies sore, but they had still brought that trophy home.

Roxie smiled.

She suddenly didn’t care whether these people had believed in them before. They were here now, standing outside Briarwick waiting for the cheer team to come home because Briarwick Cheer had done something nobody from the school had done before.

They had won Nationals.

Karen looked back at her. "You planning to stay on the bus?"

Roxie adjusted the crutches. "I’m considering it."

Angela laughed. "Move."

When Roxie finally reached the ground, another cheer went through the crowd, but it disappeared almost immediately into the noise surrounding everyone else.

That felt better.

Girls were being called from every direction. Students reached toward the team for high fives. Someone started another Briarwick chant. Coach Miller lifted the trophy once, and the whole front of the school erupted.

Coach Miller eventually managed to get everyone moving toward the entrance, though it took longer than it should have because students kept stopping the girls for pictures.

Roxie tried to move with Karen and Angela while using the crutches, but she barely made it halfway through the entrance before three girls from sophomore year crowded around them asking for a picture.

Roxie looked at Karen helplessly. "This is embarrassing."

Karen grinned. "I’m enjoying it."

By the time Coach Miller finally got everyone inside, the entire team had become scattered between students, teachers and phones. He clapped his hands loudly enough to get their attention.

"Gym. Now. Before all of you decide you’re celebrities."

Tori laughed. "Too late."

Coach Miller pointed toward the gym.

"Move."

That got them going.

Roxie expected maybe a few more pictures and some kind of announcement.

Then the gym doors opened.

She stopped.

The bleachers were full.

Students were packed across the seats, teachers stood along the sides of the court, and a huge image of the cheer team holding the Nationals trophy filled the projector screen near the front. Someone had hung another WELCOME HOME, NATIONAL CHAMPIONS banner behind the podium, and the second the team entered, the whole gym erupted again.

Roxie stared.

Karen bumped her shoulder lightly.

"You okay?"

"This is insane."

Coach Miller directed them toward a row of chairs set up near the front. Roxie sat between Karen and Angela and carefully stretched her injured leg before resting the crutches beside her. The rest of the team settled in while everyone around them kept talking and waving.

Principal Gonzalez stood near the microphone waiting for the noise to settle.

It took a while.

Finally, she lifted one hand.

"Briarwick."

The gym quieted a little.

She waited.

The noise dropped further.

Principal Gonzalez smiled. "I know all of you are excited, and judging by the volume outside this morning, I think the entire town probably knows that too."

Students laughed.

She glanced toward the cheer team.

"But this is worth being loud about."

Another cheer immediately started.

Roxie laughed and leaned toward Karen. "She brought that on herself."

Karen nodded. "Definitely."

Principal Gonzalez waited again before continuing. "A few days ago, these young women left Briarwick representing our school at the National Cheer Championship in Orlando. They competed against some of the strongest teams in the country, performed under pressure most of us will never fully understand, and they came home this morning carrying something Briarwick has never had before."

Coach Miller lifted the trophy.

The gym exploded.

Roxie laughed again when several of the girls stood and started waving toward the crowd.

Principal Gonzalez shook her head but smiled through it. "A National Championship."

The cheering continued long enough that Coach Miller eventually lowered the trophy and looked toward the team with dazed eyes.

Roxie caught his expression and grinned.

They hadn’t only brought honor to Briarwick. This was Coach Miller’s win too.

When the gym finally settled again, Principal Gonzalez congratulated Coach Miller first. She talked about the months of training, the competitions leading up to Nationals, and the hours the team spent practicing long after school ended.

The girls listened with fondness in their eyes.

Roxie felt a pang in her chest.

It was ending.

Years of her life were ending with something none of them had ever dreamed they would actually achieve.

She looked around at the team.

God, they had fought more times than Roxie could count. There had been arguments, bad practices, injuries, tears and days when half of them probably wanted to walk out of the gym and never come back. But every girl sitting here had sacrificed something for this team.

Now here it was.

A National Championship.

The end of their journey together.

Roxie felt her eyes sting.

Principal Gonzalez began recognizing the team, calling each girl by name.

One by one, they stood and joined her at the front, every smile wide despite how exhausted they looked. The gym cheered for every name.

Then Principal Gonzalez looked down at the list.

"And now, our two captains."

Roxie’s heart thumped.

Kendall smiled as Principal Gonzalez called her first.

"Kendall Whitlock."

The cheering became louder.

Kendall stood, straightened her jacket and walked toward the front like she had actually slept eight hours and had not spent half the previous night traveling. Roxie watched her reach Coach Miller and stand beside the trophy.

Then Principal Gonzalez spoke again.

"And Roxxane Jones."

The gym got even louder.

Roxie closed her eyes briefly and bit her lip before positioning both crutches beneath her arms and pushing herself up.

The moment students noticed the brace around her ankle, several people started shouting even louder.

Someone yelled, "CAPTAIN ROXIE!"

Roxie stopped.

Suddenly it felt like her entire high school life was standing right there in front of her.

She looked around the gym at everyone cheering.

Would the younger Roxie, whose knees had shaken the first time she walked into Briarwick, ever have believed this was possible?

Would that girl have ever imagined bringing home a National Championship?

Probably not.

Back then, Roxie had wanted to survive.

Now she stood in front of the entire school with her friends beside her, a National Championship trophy only a few feet away and hundreds of people cheering for something she had helped earn.

She was here.

Her nose burned.

One tear escaped before Roxie could stop it.

Karen noticed immediately.

So did Angela.

Both came closer and wrapped their arms around her. Angela was already crying while Karen’s eyes had turned red even though she was clearly trying to keep herself together.

"Don’t cry," Angela sniffed. "You’re making me cry too."

Roxie laughed through the tears.

Principal Gonzalez smiled at them.

"Congratulations to Briarwick Cheer for bringing home the National Championship."

The gym erupted again.

Roxie held Karen and Angela while they smiled through their tears, and for a few seconds she didn’t care that everyone could see her crying.

Principal Gonzalez eventually waited for the gym to settle.

"Thank you for coming to welcome our champions home. Everyone else, back to your classrooms."

Students groaned immediately, but they started filing out of the bleachers anyway.

Principal Gonzalez looked toward the cheer team.

"You came straight here after traveling from Orlando, and judging by how some of you look right now, keeping you in class would probably be more punishment for your teachers than for you."

Several girls laughed.

Principal Gonzalez smiled. "So the team will be excused from classes for the rest of today."

For half a second, nobody reacted.

Then the cheer team screamed.

Karen grabbed Angela’s arm and nearly pulled her out of the chair.

"Yes!"

Tori jumped up.

Ava immediately started celebrating like they had just won something again.

Roxie laughed so hard she had to grab the edge of her chair.

Principal Gonzalez continued over the noise. "Go home. Sleep. Rest. Recover. You earned one day."

Roxie sat for a while after that and watched everything around her.

It felt good.

That was almost strange by itself.

A few weeks ago, she had been terrified of what would happen if people at Briarwick found out the truth about her life. She had spent years carefully building the version of Roxie Jones everyone here knew, and then everything she had tried to hide came out anyway.

People knew about Claire.

They knew Roxie was a scholarship student.

They knew she didn’t come from money like half the people walking through these hallways.

By Briarwick standards, she was basically homeless.

And somehow nothing had really changed.

Maybe it would have been too much to expect everything in her life to stay exactly the same forever.

Some things had changed already, and more would eventually. Graduation was coming. College would come after that.

But she didn’t want to think about any of that right now.

Right now, everything was good.

She had her friends.

She had Zac.

She had just won Nationals.

The entire school had spent the morning cheering for the team, and somehow, after all the things Roxie had been terrified of losing, she was still here.

She felt good.

Actually good.

Happy.

For once, she didn’t want to search for whatever might ruin it next.

She just wanted to be happy.

Roxie was still smiling when Zac finally reached her.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing."

He looked suspicious. "That’s a big smile for nothing."

"Maybe I’m happy."

Zac smiled back. "Good."

Roxie reached for her crutches, but before she could get both beneath her arms, Zac took them from her.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Zac."

He handed them toward Dylan.

"Oh, hell no."

Before Roxie could argue further, Zac bent down and swept her into his arms.

Roxie squealed and grabbed around his neck.

"Zac!"

He laughed as he adjusted her against his chest.

"Let’s go home."

Roxie narrowed her eyes at the way he said it.

His grin widened.

"I’ll treat my princess real good."

Roxie stared at him for a second before rolling her eyes, but the smile came anyway.

"Just walk, Prescott."

"Gladly."