Me, The Cheerleading Captain, Refusing To Be The Football Captain’s Mate Chapter 03

Me, The Cheerleading Captain, Refusing To Be The Football Captain’s Mate Chapter 03

The next day, I arrived at the equipment room with my head still heavy and foggy.

When I opened the door, I found Rafe standing inside with a dark expression. The track team and the football team were there too. Coach Aurelian looked furious.

The moment I walked in, everyone turned to stare at me.

I frowned and stepped closer, confused. “Coach, what happened?”

He turned to me. “Willa, after yesterday’s game, some of our athletes’ clothes and water bottles went missing. Then someone found all of them in the cheer squad’s supply bins.”

I said in confusion, “Maybe everyone was too excited last night and someone put them in the wrong place?”

“No,” Coach Aurelian said. “Everyone remembers putting their clothes and water bottles in the locker room yesterday, and no one touched them after that. So whoever did this snuck into the locker room and took the athletes’ clothes and bottles.”

One athlete muttered, “That’s seriously creepy.”

My face went pale. I suddenly understood what Coach Aurelian was implying. Someone had taken the athletes’ belongings so they could smell the scents left on them, and now they thought that creepy thief was me.

“Coach, I would never do something like that,” I denied at once, pulling out my practice schedule. “Yesterday’s game ended at noon, and I had cheer practice starting at twelve thirty. It takes at least forty minutes to run from the locker room to the practice field. I didn’t have time to steal anything.”

Then I flipped open the access log beside me and pointed to the last person who had entered the equipment room last night.

“The people who came in between noon and this morning are much more suspicious. For example, Isolde—”

“That’s enough, Willa!” Ronan stepped forward and cut me off. “Even now, you’re still trying to frame someone else?”

“I’m trying to find the truth!” I snapped.

“The things were found in the cheer squad’s storage locker. You’re the only one with the code. Are you really going to claim Isolde opened the cheer locker too?”

“Why is that impossible?” I found the whole thing absurd. “Have you already decided I’m the thief?”

A member of the track team said, “Come on, Willa. Isolde just joined the track team. She barely knows the codes to our own lockers, so how would she know the code to the cheer squad’s storage locker? Don’t tell me you got jealous because Ronan looks after Isolde, so you pulled this stunt with everyone’s clothes to get her kicked off the track team.”

Isolde kept her head lowered, clutching the hem of her shirt and looking deeply uneasy.

Whispers immediately spread through the equipment room.

Some people frowned, as if they truly believed I was capable of anything because of Ronan, and they began accusing me one after another.

“That was a violation of everyone’s privacy, Willa. How could you do that?”

“You chased Ronan for so long and he never accepted you. Are you so desperate that you have to ruin everyone else before you’ll stop?”

“It was bad enough that you kept trailing Ronan around campus like a lovesick shadow. Now you’re dragging the rest of us into it too?”

It had been four years.

I had been cheer captain for four years.

I had always kept a bright, dazzling smile on my face and shown the crowd the healthy, energetic side of myself on the field.

But so many people ignored the fact that I trained harder than anyone else on the squad. I could land twenty back handsprings, lead the team through high-level stunts, and keep everyone steady when the entire field fell into chaos.

My knees were always taped. My wrists carried old injuries. My voice was often hoarse from shouting chants. More than once, I hid my injuries and performed anyway so I would not affect the team. Everyone took it for granted that I was the backbone of the squad on the sidelines.

My squad had won regionals, qualified for nationals, and become the first cheer team in school history to reach the finals.

And now, because I had pursued Ronan, they believed I was some shameless thief?

At that moment, someone shoved me from behind. I fell hard, and my head struck the corner of a table.

The pain made my vision go black, but I still shouted, “I told you I didn’t do it!”

The equipment room finally went quiet for a few seconds.

Someone seemed to snap back to their senses and took half a step forward with a worried look. “Willa, are you okay? Everyone was just upset for a moment, and you—”

My eyes met Ronan’s. His lips parted, and there seemed to be a trace of guilt in his eyes.

Something warm trickled down from my temple. I reached up and touched it, only to realize I was bleeding.

I slowly looked around at everyone in the room. Even Rafe, who had always been strict, had not stepped in to stop this farce.

At last, my gaze landed on Ronan again.

The corner of my mouth twitched, and the whole thing felt ridiculous. “Coach, you could just check the camera at the entrance to the equipment room. Then we’d know right away who touched the locker, wouldn’t we?”