Bring It On Read Free Page B

scowl.
    It’s like she hates me, Emerson thought.

    â€œAnd five, six, seven, eight!” Randall called. “Now we throw the pizza dough, throw the pizza dough.”
    Sophie put her hands up in the air and got her hips moving. She loved the way Randall described the moves in their routines. He was so goofy.
    â€œOkay, and surfer on a smooth wave.” Randall undulated his abdomen in an easy, fluid motion.
    Sophie let the smooth wave roll from her sternum down through her core to her hips. She felt her Ding Dongs dancing along inside her. She probably shouldn’t have eaten quite so close to class.
    Being a performer takes a certain look.
    Her father’s words jolted through her brain, and she fell out of rhythm with the rest of the group. Did Maddy see? Sophie cut a sideways glance at her. Didn’t seem like she had. And this was basically just the warm-up. She wasn’t going to pick who got in the Performance Group based on the warm-up, right?
    â€œRough waves, now. Rough wave, rough wave!” Randall instructed.
    Sophie let the rough wave shoot all the way through her body, jerking her muscles in order from her neck down to her feet. She tried to focus all her attention on dancing. But a little piece of her brain was busy checking out all the other bodies in the class. Categorizing. Plus size. Minus size. King. Queen. Regular. Supersize me. Kiddie meal. Papa bear. Mama bear. Baby bear.
    There are all thicknesses in here, Dad, she thought. Like her father was a mind reader and he’d get her message out in his cab wherever he was. She left out the fact that the only person in class who was actually bigger than her was a boy.
    Didn’t matter. There was a girl her size in the Performance Group. Sophie had seen her, and she owned the stage.
    â€œNext up, broncos,” Randall called. “Four of them.”
    Sophie dropped down on her hands and kicked her legs up behind her like a bucking bronc. What if one big girl is all Ms. Caulder wants in the group? she thought as she sprang back to her feet.
    Big girl . That was one of Sophie’s mother’s expressions. She actually hauled out such a pretty face , too. Those actual words.
    This is not the time to start listening to your parents, Sophie told herself.
    She decided to practice a little Jedi mind control on Ms. Caulder instead. See me. See Sophie. See my moves. Don’t just see my big booty. See Sophie .

CHAPTER 3
    â€œEveryone was looking at me,” Sammi told her family at the dinner table. She stabbed one green bean with her fork and ate it. “I never taught a cheerleading routine by myself, but since I’m head cheerleader when school starts up, I have to get used to it, so I volunteered. And it was actually pretty fun. Who knew I was such a control freak?”
    â€œUm, everyone?” Sophie joked.
    â€œSophie, that’s not nice,” her mother said. Nice was very big with their mom.
    â€œI didn’t mean it mean. Sammi knows that,” Sophie answered. “I just meant my lovely and talented older sister wouldn’t be able to do all the stuff she does if she wasn’t a little bit type A.”
    Her father snorted. “People say type A like it’s a bad thing. I call it type Ambition.” He glanced at his watch. “Speaking of—I have about five more minutes before I have to get myself and my cab back on the street.”
    â€œLet me get out the Tupperware and pack up some of your dinner,” Sophie’s mom said. Mom loved Tupperware almost as much as she loved nice . She sold it at parties, but Sophie suspected her mother would still have the parties even if she didn’t make any money just so she could show people how awesome Tupperware was. “You’ll get indigestion if you—”
    She was interrupted by the phone ringing. Sammi leapt for it. No one else even twitched. Sammi got more calls than Sophie, her mom, and her dad combined. Calls from