In a world where you grew up the only child to obscenely rich parents, avoiding the trap of becoming a pompous, bitchy, spoiled brat would be extremely difficult. When that child fully embraces the power of manipulation that comes with that upbringing, the opportunity to get any and everything one could want is basically there for the taking.
That was the charmed life that 18 year old high school senior Jessica Jennings had enjoyed ever since she could remember. Born to an upper class, old money family, Jessica had the daily double dreamed of by most girls in America. She had an unlimited access to money and on top of that, she was also extremely cute and curvaceous.
A sassy, innocent looking natural blonde with long straight hair and a trim athletic figure that was compacted snugly into a 5 foot 8 inch frame, Jessica's tanned skin and bright, albeit sometimes phony smile filled the dreams of the boys she attended private school with as well as most any man she encountered during her daily routine around the Cleveland suburbs.
Jessica's latest adventure in getting whatever she wanted from her Mom and Dad was breast enhancement surgery during the summer vacation between her junior and senior years of school. Although God had endowed Jessica with enough cleavage to make it through life without ever having to work a day, she had become a victim to the same pitfalls of peer pressure that all teenagers are subject to. Three of her fellow students at The Mercy Academy had gotten boob jobs the year before and now all three had easily passed Jessica in cup size. With money being no object, when Jessica started her senior year her B-cup and suddenly increased to a D-cup overnight.
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Mercy Catholic Prep was one of the most affluent and academically respected high schools in all of the Midwest. Along with the educational laurels it had garnered, the financial pull of Mercy's alumni and its wealthy student pool enabled the school to afford the extravagant facilities and coaching needed to make the athletic department a juggernaut in the Eastern Ohio amateur sports scene. The football, lacrosse, golf and swimming teams all had won state titles in recent years.
Mercy Prep's cheerleading program was also nationally respected. Being a senior and in her fourth year of cheering for the squad, Jessica Jennings loved the attention she received on the sidelines in the Fall with the football team and during the spring semester with the boys basketball team.
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There had long been dissention in the hierarchy of Mercy Prep's athletic department as to whether a quality prep school such as itself should play some of the top notch public high schools occasionally, especially in basketball.
Mercy's decision makers knew they could dominate the public schools in most sports but basketball was another story. No one batted an eye when Mercy would be highly ranked in the golf or lacrosse rankings but when the basketball polls came out every year, critics of Mercy Prep would always point to the fact that they never played any 'real' competition.
Tiring of the constant negative press and looking to silence their critics, Mercy finally agreed to play and home and home series against one of the top notch public high school teams. Mercy worked out an agreement with one of the inner city schools, Franklin High to play at Franklin in mid January and then at Mercy in February.
Franklin High was situated in one of Cleveland's poorest neighborhoods and there was much angst among the Mercy Prep parents and decision makers about whether it was a good idea to send a full compliment of cheerleaders and band members to the first game at Franklin.
Fearing it would appear that Mercy was 'scared', the public relations people in the school's hierarchy felt it necessary to send a full entourage to show a spirit of cooperation, thus the full cheerleading squad was allowed to accompany the team to the game.
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The whole week leading up to the game, Jessica was brought to the verge of sickness having to listen to her Mother harp on the school's decision to force the cheerleaders to be exposed to the kind of atmosphere they would be see inside Franklin High. Jessica knew that under no circumstances could she expect her Mom to accompany her to the game downtown, even though her Mom had hardly ever missed an opportunity to show up when they were cheering at a game against another one of their prep school rivals. There would be no one in the Franklin High stands that Ms. Jennings could brag to about how successful Jessica was. That, as well as the fact that Jessica's parents were also racist as Hell.
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Jessica had continuously brushed off her Mom and Dad's concerns about the trip but as the chartered bus carrying the Mercy Prep players, coaches, trainers and cheerleaders inched its way through the dilapidated Franklin school district and finally into the Franklin High lot, Jessica began feeling the not so subtle effects of her 18 years of being raised inside of a racist household. The butterflies fluttering in her belly felt as if they were bumper cars as she saw the assembled crowd flocking towards the Franklin gymnasium.
Being in that neighborhood for the first time in her life, Jessica nervously studied her watch, trying to determine just how long they would be trapped there.
Outwardly, she tried her best to smile but Jessica couldn't help but feel like her and her group stuck out like sore white thumbs on a black hand. Piling one by one off the bus, the entourage from Mercy felt strangely like the brave black students of the 60's felt when integration was forced onto American school districts. Disappearing briskly inside the school, the Mercy Prep cheerleaders found the room that would serve as their dressing room and changed for the game.
Stripping out of their sweats and hurriedly slipping into their uniforms, Jessica and her cheering mates lined up in the room, checking each other over to make sure the uniforms were on straight and that their make up and hair looked good.
Before they knew it, the girls were filling one by one out of the room and slowly weaving through the dense crowd down the smelly, sweat soaked hallway that led to the gym. Surrounded by so many of what Jessica perceived to be foulmouthed and catcalling black kids, Jessica privately admitted to herself that her Mother's concerns were probably warranted.
Chewing the stale wad of gum in her mouth like a nervous piston, Jessica dutifully kept her face pointed forward towards the shining lights inside the rowdy and racous gym. It was then Jessica realized this was the first time in her life she had been in a place where there were more black faces than white...in this case the discrepancy was about 50 to 1.
As she walked across the threshold separating the hallway to the gym and suddenly being inside the actual arena, Jessica did feel a definite jolt of excitement to her psyche when she felt the vibrations of sound and the bathing of light that the carnival like atmosphere provided. Slowly, the instinct that all athletes have when they approach game time hit. Surrounded by her teammates and coaches, Jessica watched as the Mercy Prep Basketball team finished their warm-ups. The butterflies she was feeling now were focused on the game itself. The best way to block out her discomfort with the location ,she reasoned, was to concentrate fully on the game itself.
Still, Jessica couldn't ignore how awkward she felt out there on the floor in her tight and revealing red and blue outfit. As her tanned legs carried her forward, dodging the various people milling around the court, she tried her best to block out the whistles and catcalls from the crowd, knowing full well they were aimed at her and her fellow cheerleaders. It was almost worse than being naked, Jessica imagined, because it seemed that the girls had especially dressed up in such revealing outfits, just for the approval of the leering young male audience.
