Page 40 of Shifting Forms For Clumsy Felines

"I thought you were supposed to know about all of this sports stuff." She waves her hand towards the staging area.

"Within reason," I point out. "But I had no idea this is what Krissi meant when she talked about competitive cheering, this is the first time I've been to an event."

"Well that's no use," Michaela mutters.

"Especially because the only cheerleader we know that we can ask is biased. Krissi's never going to say that was a winning routine, even if it is," Essie adds.

"I should go find her," I say, getting to my feet and walking off before either of them can stop me. It may not be the best idea I've ever had, but we were about to have an important conversation before Grace dragged her away, I'd like to get back to that and find out if Krissi is going to say what I hope she will.

18

Krissi

The buzzof performing bounces around my system even though we've been off stage for twenty minutes and have fully been through our cool down routine. I'm not sure if the others feel it the same way I do, but it's almost more exhilarating than how it feels after a shift.

Without the embarrassment of nearly having fallen over. I don't need anyone to tell me that I executed all of my moves flawlessly, I'm aware that I did.

I scan the crowd for Jeremy before I even realise what I'm doing, and not just because we still have to talk. I want to see him and hear what he thinks about our performance. I didn't realise I cared as much as I do until this moment, but his support means a lot to me and I want more of it.

Grace is right, I'm completely distracted by Jeremy, even if I haven't wanted to admit it. All I have to do now is decide how to undo the damage I've already done by telling him I don't want to be anything more than friends.

Mickie waves to me from across the room, and relief fills me that they're still here, I take a step towards my flatmates, only for Grace to catch my arm.

I glance at her, but she shakes her head.

"Not yet," she says.

"But..."

"There are more important things than your love life going on right now."

"That's not what you've been saying for months," I mutter.

Grace chuckles. "And you've been ignoring me for months. Now you need to ignore me for a few more minutes while they announce the winners. It'll look bad if we're all on the stage and you're not."

"Are they ready to announce it already?"

She nods. "We were late in the running order. The last team ended their performance just before we came out of the cooldown room. Zara told us all this, were you paying any attention?"

I groan and rub my forehead. "I'm so distracted."

"Mmhmm. Ignoring the fact you have a monster-sized crush on Jeremy will do that."

"I can't wait for you to find someone and end up having to eat some of your own words."

Grace's lips twist into a small smile. "Not going to happen."

"Because you don't want to be distracted by romance?"

"Not at all. It isn't going to happen, because I'm not an idiot like you."

A small snort escapes me. "You're going to have to eat your words about that." I link my arm through hers and follow the others towards the backstage area.

"Pixies don't eat their words."

I raise an eyebrow, but don't argue with her. She's going to find out how hard it is to avoid situations like this at some point. I hope I'm around to point out how obvious she's being with whoever it is in retaliation to the way she's been making it obvious to me that I like Jeremy.

Zara paces up and down in front of us all, clearly nervous about the results. Maybe she knows something about how all of the other teams have performed. I can't say that I've been paying much attention, which I know isn't a good thing to admit.