Pep, Spirit and Facials Ch. 01

"NEXT!"

Eloise heard the terse dismissal as she peered through the fingerprint-smudged square foot of glass situated just high enough on the door to the gymnasium that she, an only-slightly-shorter-than-average young woman, had to arch up onto her tippy-toes in order to barely see what was on the other side. She blew sharply from between her lips to clear a strand of tangerine-colored hair from her eyes. What she had strained herself to see, however, made her wish that she hadn't spent the effort. The girl that Eloise watched wipe at the corners of her eyes and did a poor job restraining herself from half-running toward the locker rooms in an effort to hide her tears had done great. The tear-stricken reject was much better than she was, Eloise thought.

The way the performer had gotten shooed away from the judge's table was enough to make Eloise feel like turning tail and scampering back down the hallway. She had watched what she had assumed to be a prime candidate for callback auditions stick her landings, work the judges with the trademark cheerleader "I go to bed with a grin this wide" facials, and all the while never stop wiggling her hands in a nauseating onslaught of "pep." Now that she thought about it, Eloise could've sworn that the newly heartbroken occupant of the locker room was in her Wednesday Econ class and overheard that she used to cheer for State.

"What's the point.." Eloise said aloud in order to give voice to her discouragement. As with any time anyone has ever expressed themselves in this way in all of history, she hoped there was some wise, old counsel standing within earshot that would come from out from the wings to deliver a perspective-shifting pep talk to encourage her. It goes without saying that, riding on the back of this historic oration, Eloise would then go on to nail the audition and secure a spot on the squad.

"You're cute, honey, and I think the other girls are going to love you."

Eloise whirled around, with no small helping of bewilderment at the sheer unlikelihood of what was happening, to face the source of the voice. She didn't expect it to belong to a fair-skinned brunette dressed from top to tails in a curve-hugging Lancaster University cheerleading team uniform. Her 'wise, old counsel' looked about her age and had her hair wrapped into two, tightly-pulled pigtails that draped down from both sides of her head. Her face was caked in the signature exaggerated style of makeuppery that cheerleaders the world over had adopted in order so their work could be seen from the away bleachers. Eloise also couldn't help but take note of her toned body; she sported slender calves, tight arms, and a relatively flat chest. In spite of the moderate workout regimen she had adopted in preparation for these tryouts, the aspirant cheerleader hadn't quite reached the body fat percentage where she was that lacking in the endowment department. She had to silently scold herself so she didn't reflexively reach up and paw at her own chest.

".. you hear me, sweetie? I think you're up next, too," she watched the lips of her nameless coach say. Eloise snapped back into reality.

"-oh! Yeah, thanks!" she squeaked. "I hope I get on the squad. I've wanted to be a cheerleader since I was a little girl, and I'd do anything just to be a part of one."

"Sounds like me last year when I first tried out," the girl replied with a smile. "My name's Emily, by the way."

"Eloise."

"Glad to meet you, Eloise. I hope I see you tomorrow for callbacks!" Emily motioned toward the door. "I've got to get back in there. Job to do, and all." Without another word, Eloise watched Emily push on the brushed aluminum door bar until it clicked, opened the door, and scurry across the threshold onto the thickly varnished wood of the gym floor.

"Yeah, of course," Eloise acknowledged as she watched who she hoped would be her squadmate rush back to her post. Alone again, she breathed a sigh of relief. Emily was right. Eloise had trained for this moment for months, and, there and then in that hallway, she resolved to ace her audition. In a few weeks, she would be doing reverse backsprings down the sideline and take her place being mounted in the human pyramid. She had this, she thought. She followed suit behind her confidence-instilling conspirator by pushing her way through the creaking metal door into the gymnasium and the tryouts.

The distance from the threshold she crossed and the judge's table might as well have been a infinite. Every step propelled her an insignificant distance towards the austere-looking row of prettied-up prisses that were ready to oversee her audition to get on the cheerleading squad. As she scanned the expanse of blank faux-wood and undersprung gym floor, the first thing she noticed was that Emily wasn't anywhere to be seen. Eloise thought that was odd, and double-checked the panel one more time. She saw an assortment of perfectly-primped cheerleaders of every assortment of requisite color: blonde, or brunette, and caucasian. They were seated behind a long table dressed with a floor-length white tablecloth that cut off just above the floor. Emily was, still, completely absent, but Eloise didn't have time to worry about it. She was almost to her mark.

Another handful of footsteps later, and Eloise arrived with her feet planted at the masked-off 'X' denoting the blocking where she should stand to start her rendition of the tryout routine. While she stood there, she could feel the eyes of the five-deep row of cheer elites boring their eyes directly into her. They said nothing. They just stared. She watched one of them bite down onto the tip of their pen. Whispers were exchanged into the ears of juxtaposing panelists behind cupped hands. This was fine, Eloise thought to herself. Looks were a big part of how cheerleaders are judged, regardless of whether or not that was an overtly-presented criteria of being one or not. They had to judge her looks, right? She was meant to feel slightly like a piece of meat being judged for succulence.. right?

"Please state your name, and then start your routine," said an authoritative-sounding platinum blonde seated at the middle of the table.

"Oh, alright- well, my name is Eloise Handler," she replied, listening to the way her voice carried and reverberated across the cavernous space for a moment. She had rarely seen the gym as empty as this. She sunk her top teeth into her lower lip, chewing on it anxiously. Maybe she had spoken too fast, and seemed over-eager. She knew that they would be judging every second of her standing in front of the long, covered table. That was why they were there, after all.

The blonde cleared her throat, which made Eloise jump.

"Right! Right- sorry, okay, here I go.."

***

No more than a handful of minutes could've passed before she heard a voice cut through the sounds of her feet shuffling across the squeaking, bouncy gym floor.

"Alright, that's enough."

Eloise stopped short before making a leap into the air and cocked her head toward the table a couple of meters in front of her. Her arms were left outstretched awkwardly in a frozen pose of hesitation. She exhaled sharply through her nose and straightened up, closing her eyes for a moment to let the failure sink in. She had done terribly. Definitely worse than the girl she had seen get shunned from the auditions without so much as a word of comfort. Eloise straightened up and crossed her arms, shifting her weight onto one hip. She hadn't gotten a chance to finish the prescribed routine that all the hopefuls trying out were given to perform. Eloise felt the frustration welling up inside of her, and silently promised herself not to use the word 'like' too much when she spoke. She tended to do when she was upset.

"I'm done? I mean, I'm not-" Eloise stammered, ".. I'm not, like, done.. Y- you know, like, with the routine.."

"That's okay, honey, we've seen all we need to see. You made it. Welcome to the Lancaster University cheer squad."

That comment hit Eloise like a freight train.

"Wh- what?" she asked incredulously, her eyes popping wide and her heart rate spiking. She could feel her ticker hammering away in her chest. She probably let out a squeal of excitement, but she honestly couldn't say for certain.

"You made the squad, Eloise Handler. Show up for practice on Saturday morning. We normally start practice at seven in the morning, but go ahead and be here at five-thirty."

Eloise nodded with her mouth hanging open in her stupor.

"Five-thirty in the morning, Saturday. Got it. No problem. You won't regret this! I'm- I'm going to do so well! The next couple of parts in the routine are a lot better than the oth-"

"We'll see you then," she heard the blonde say, cutting her off firmly. Eloise nodded, and turned toward the door she came in through. She could barely contain herself, and did a better job exiting at a half-lope rather than walking out with reservation and poise. When she had finally met the door, she looked back over her shoulder slightly and shot her hand up in a wave goodbye. As she waved gingerly, she noticed one of the panel members run her hand down over her own chest that was blessed with quite a healthy curve and clearly mouth the word "flat" to the girl sitting next to her.

When the door slammed shut behind her, Eloise stood there in the silence and giggled to herself. She had done it, she internally exclaimed for her own benefit. She must've been better at cheerleading than she thought, and reflected on an article she knew she had read a few months ago that said something about how talented individuals often think they're the worst. Or, at least, it had said something like that. Eloise snatched up her bag from next to the door and slung it over her shoulder while she headed for the nearest bathroom at the end of the empty hallway. She really couldn't help passing up on the opportunity, since the bathroom would be completely empty until the basketball game that night brought droves of people back to the college campus. El would have it all to herself.

Eloise picked out a stall on the end. She always preferred the end stall when she did things like this outside of the comfort of her bedroom. With her heart still pummelling away at the inside of her rib cage, she knew that wasn't going to be able to keep herself contained until she got home. She figured she might've been able to pull over to the side of the road on the way back to her apartment, but she might as well get it out of her system now. Eloise pushed the swinging stall door open to inspect the decor of her hideaway. It seemed clean enough to her, so she slipped her way inside and closed the door behind her. The latch clicked shut with a metal-on-metal snap. The intrepid newly-minted cheerleader straddled the toilet lid, and slid her shoulder bag off to drop in between her ankles. After undoing a couple of hefty zips on the top of the bag, she was able to access a nondescript pouch buried under books and pens at the bottom of the rucksack. She removed the black, faux-leather parcel from the floor of the book bag and set it on her knees. Eloise breathed in with a trembling, shaky cadence. Doing this kind of thing in public was always slightly nerve-wracking, but that anxiety brought about a whole new flavor of excitement to the experience that she could honestly see herself getting addicted to. As such, she did her best to abstain whenever she could resist it. This occasion, though, as she rode the high of earning a spot on the Lancaster University cheer squad, this time she couldn't resist.

Eloise reached into the slender bag-within-a-bag and procured from it the 8-inch silicone-rubber faux cock that was nestled inside. She eyed it up for a moment, admiring her own taste in sex toys. It was preposterously veiny - that made for a more stimulating trip as it pushed up into her wanting tunnel - and bore a believable color resembling the flesh tone bras that she wore. Just real enough. It also sported a suction cup for the lusty pleasure-fiend looking to add a new angle into their escapades. With a wriggle, she was able to slip her spandex workout shorts out from underneath her. After a pause and a think, Eloise raised up her perky pair of butt cheeks up off of the seat so she could lay her shorts back down to sit on. After scooting up close enough to the edge of the seat, Eloise eased the bulbous tip of the fake fuckstick down, starting from her neatly-trimmed patch of pubic hair. She dragged the tip of the toy back and forth across her sensitive clit, drawing tight circles around and around. Keeping in mind where she was, she knew she would have to get real friendly with her bottom lip to keep any unbecoming noises from escaping that might give away her choice of venue in tactical masturbation.

Eloise had known she was wet from the moment she heard the metal gymnasium doors clang shut behind her. Being on an emotional high, cloud-nine, high-on-life sort of feeling always got her that way. She definitely didn't expect, however, to be this wet. She felt the head of the larger-than-life stand-in schlong press into her slippery opening and, with next to no resistance thanks to her arousal, plunge right in. Eloise let a little squeal of ecstasy squeak out from the corners of her pursed lips, unable to keep it in when she surprised herself with how much of the dildo she drove into herself. Gradually, she began a back-and-forth motion with her wrist, doing her best to simulate what she assumed a real cock would be doing to her in this situation as it fucked her in a college building bathroom stall. She worked up the courage to push more and more into her at a time, all the while maintaining the rhythmic pistoning motion that kept her struggling to repress any kind of moan. Eloise relaxed her back, and rested it against the flat tile bathroom wall and fanned out her legs, spreading her slender thighs wide while they bucked back against the thick tool working its way in and out of her. Growing comfortable in the space, Eloise allowed herself to close her eyes while she pleasured herself.

All of the sudden, she wasn't alone in the bathroom stall. While her eyes were closed, some opportunistic individual had discovered Eloise flexing her raunchy tendencies in the bathroom stall and opted to take charge of the situation. His 8-inch, thickly-veined and girthy cock was pounding away at her aching snatch. He was holding onto her left thigh, digging his fingertips into the supple, sensitive flesh. That hand started to travel off of her thigh, slipping across her belly and up underneath her skin-tight workout gear tank top. It darted underneath her sports bra and began tugging gently at her firm nipple. Eloise felt herself let a moan escape from her lips when she became utterly unable to maintain control of her mouth. She left her mouth open. That became a problem when the hand playing with her perky, flat chest slipped back down her svelte, toned body and started using a pair of fingers to rub furiously at the sensitive nub. Moans streamed out of Eloise's gaping mouth, one after the other, like water.

As the anonymous man born from the blackness of her closed eyes made skillful use of his cock to pleasure her, Eloise only barely noticed the sound of the hinge on the bathroom door squeak. It was enough to make her hold back a shriek, straighten up suddenly, snap her legs closed, and pull the gooey dildo out of her pussy.

" - yeah, I mean, she what was she thinking? I liked the other chick a lot better."

"No way, I think the one we ended up getting is a much better choice. I bet she's going to be loads more eager to please after we sort of .. you know, break her down a bit."

Eloise listened to both of the feminine voices break into a fit of giggles.

"Maybe you're right. I just liked the other one's body more."

"Yeah, well, that's you, hoe. I'm a fan of the 'redhead n' pigtails' look. They always look so innocent!"

"Everyone on the fucking squad likes pigtails, especially on new meat. Don't get me wrong, I do too."

"Yeah," she heard one of the voices trail off. "So, bright and early Saturday? I'm excited to.. 'get to know' our new squadmate."

Eloise listened to a pair of footsteps head back toward the door on the opposite end of the echoing, cavernous, tiled room.

"Don't be late, either, or Tierney will have your ass instead. You know that," said the voice still situated closer to her.

"I know!" said the cheerleader making her way toward the door. Soon after, Eloise listened to the door opening and shutting to mark the girl's departure. Within the next moment or two, the door opened and shut again ostensibly to indicate that the other girl had left.

Eloise couldn't be certain that she was alone, but she hoped she was. Taking extreme care to not make a sound, she straightened her back up off of the seat and dropped the sticky implement back into the discrete black zip bag. She hurriedly pulled her shorts out from under her and squirmed her legs back and forth so she could cram her way into the stretchy material. After she reburied the toy back into her school bag, she stood up. Her knees nearly buckled. She snapped a hand up against the door in front of her, which rattled loudly on its moorings. After recuperating for a moment and staying as quiet, she arched up onto the balls her feet so she could peer up over the stall door to see if she was alone. To her undying relief, she was.

Eloise crept out from the last stall nearest to the wall and paused for a moment to look herself in the mirror. Her bookbag resting on its shoulder strap, she used either hand to pull both halves of her shoulder-length red hair into mock pigtails on both sides of her head. She breathed a heavy sigh.

This was going to be quite the hazing, she decided.