The greatest excitement of my sophomore year in college at Albert-Preston State University was making the cheerleading squad. Well, in actual fact, it was the second team cheerleading squad since I did not make the cut for the varsity "Blue" cheer team. But I was walking on air when I received the email saying I had made the "Orange" or "O" team (after not making the cut at all as a freshman last year).
It was a lot of work and the training was much more difficult than I had ever undergone as a high school cheerleader. But, finally, we were ready to run onto the court of the big fieldhouse for the women's basketball team's home opener. As we stood waiting in the wings for our cue, my teammate Ellen grabbed my arm and looked at me with eyes as big as saucers, and screamed, "Haley, we're going out!"
With her excited voice ringing in my ears, the band started playing and we began to run out onto the hardwood, performing multiple somersaults and flips and quickly scooped up our pom-poms to launch into the school spirit anthem as the crowd (not that many people, really, for girls basketball, after all) came to life at our urging and their own excitement.
We took our position seated on the floor behind the home basket when the game started. During time-outs, we ran through our cheer routines at center court. It was one huge rush for me.
It was sometime during the second half when I finally settled down emotionally and was able to watch more of the game. We were playing against our upstate rival and it was a closely fought battle of our Lady Wildcats against the hated Lady Hornets from Roane State, just 45 miles north of our own campus. I was intently watching and yelling encouragement as one of our small guards stole the ball and began a mad, dribbling dash towards our basket. One of the visiting team's bigger forwards made a mad dash after her opponent and as she almost dove to swipe the ball away on the final dribble, she lost her footing and went spilling into our group of cheerleaders arrayed along the baseline.
As luck would have it, she fell onto me and skittered across my flattened body to land prostrate on the floor behind me and the stanchion of the basket support. The action stopped as the referee whistled a foul on another player who was also in pursuit of our player. The player from Roane got to her feet slowly and looked down at me where I lay as she made her way back to the court and lined up for our free throw.
Some of my teammates asked me if I was OK and I said that I was and resumed my seated position on the baseline. I looked up and found the opposing player who had fallen on me as she stood in the lane blocks assuming the position to rebound after a missed free throw. I was a little shaken by the unexpected physical action. As I looked at the player who had run me over, I saw her glance down at me while she waited for our guard to make her warm-up motions before the free throw. We exchanged a very quick eye-to-eye look. Then the action was back on again as the free throw floated through the net with a soft rustle and play picked up again.
I found myself following the Roane girl who had fallen on me. She was quick and fast and played tough defense against us. During one of the Roane possesions, she made a quick cut to the basket and bounced a soft layup off the glass for two points. I hate to admit it but I was...glad for her. A couple of times during the rest of the game I noticed her looking in my direction and we exchanged eye contact. During one such moment - a fleeting moment to be sure - I thought she gave me a smirking smile. Even though this was my first game cheering for my team, I felt a begrudging admiration for how well this Roane girl played against us.
When the game finished and we had eked out a five point win over our rival, the cheer squad retreated to our locker room and amidst all the hubbub of victory and my first game as a college cheerleader, I found my mind wondering who was that Roane player who had flattened me and with whom I had shared a few stolen moments of eye contact.
Back in my dorm room, I flipped open my laptop and went immediately to the Roane State women's basketball website. I scoured through the online roster and finally found her. Jennifer Nickles, a 6'1" junior forward from Claysburgh. There was a small headshot of Jennifer showing a smiling face in front of a pulled-back length of brown hair - exactly as she wore it during the game this evening.
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After the game, I commiserated with my teammates and listened to Coach Dewey tell us everything we had done wrong that night to let victory slip away against our closest rivals, Albert-Preston State. Coach was especially hard on me for not scoring more when I had the open shot and for all of us about our lack of defense on the perimeter when their three-pointers killed us.
As I listened to the usual harangue - and did feel bad about missing some open shots and drive opportunities - I found myself thinking absent-mindedly about the cute cheerleader from A-P whom I had fallen across. It was funny, I thought, how we locked eyes a few times after that brief contact.
After the silent bus ride back to Roane, I walked back to my apartment and before I fell into bed, exhausted, I turned on my laptop to check on the Albert-Preston College website and found their cheerleading squad link. Clicking through, I found a team picture of their second-string cheer team and found the face for which I was searching - the cute little blonde girl I had fallen over. Haley Goggins, a sophomore, from Pyattstown. Wow, what a sweet little doll, I thought to myself, turning the laptop off and getting into bed for tomorrow's classes.
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On the way to my first class, I used my iPhone to search Facebook for Jennifer Nickles' page - if she had one. Bingo. Her page came up and I scrolled through her timeline and then her photos as I absent-mindedly walked through campus in the chill November morning air. I studied her photos where she was candidly posed with friends and groups of friends and some of her action shots from the basketball team.
I stopped in my tracks when I reached one of Jennie's (I was already calling her Jennie in my mind) that showed her full-length leaning against a tree in a crop top, short-shorts and flip flops. She was all bare arms and long legs and her long brown hair was down across her shoulders. She graced the camera with a wide, white-toothed smile that made her look like....(Oh, goodness, I found myself thinking) a Goddess.
"Dare I send her a friend request?" I wondered, as fellow students brushed past me on the walkway to the Life Sciences Building. I stared hard at Jennie's photo and had a flash of memory as she fell over me in last night's game. I hit the friend request button and threw my head back in simultaneous excitement and embarrassment.
I spent the rest of the day trying to pay attention in classes, checking my Facebook for a response from Jennie, going for a cheer team meeting in the late afternoon, checking my Facebook, meeting friends for a cafeteria dinner, checking my Facebook. Well, you get the idea.
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I had an early morning practice with the team, showered, changed, then headed off to my first class. I checked my phone in mid-morning and flipped onto Facebook. I was going to check if Haley Goggins had a page. To my surprise, I found a friend request from the cute little cheerleader waiting for me. "Ha." I thought to myself as I checked her page. I read some of her page stuff and then clicked onto her photos. Yes, there she was in her Albert-Preston cheerleading togs. Some more photos of her with girlfriends and some guys, some older pics of her from high school cheerleading and graduation, family...the usual stuff.
I scrolled back to one photo of Haley that captured my attention. It was a simple headshot with her pretty face framed by her blonde hair, smiling sweetly for the camera. "A selfie?" I wondered. "Girl, you are sweet." I said to myself as I re-scrolled through the photo album, looking for a boyfriend. I saw some guys in her high school pictures and more in recent photos but they were all in group shots. "Was she unattached?" I asked myself as I clicked off the phone and stared into space re-imagining the way she looked last night when we exchanged those glances during the game.
Back in my apartment in mid-evening, cracking the Econ textbook that I dreaded, I opened my laptop to check for class assignments and browsed a bit and got onto Facebook. I accepted Haley's friend request.
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"Yes!" I screamed inside my head as I saw my friend request accepted by Jennie Nickles. "Now what?" I wondered to myself as I stared at Jennie's headshot page photo. "Jeez, she's pretty." I thought to myself. I began typing a message to her. "Too bad about last night's game but Wildcats always beat Hornets." I typed. I read and re-read the message. It seemed to need something more personal and I sat there trying to compose a short postscript to the Facebook message. "You played well." I added to my note. I thought about it for a minute or two and then hit the "Send" key.
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I saw Haley's Facebook message to me as I puzzled through my Intro Calculus text. "You little cutie, you." I said to myself in my empty room as I looked at the cheerleader's smiling page photo. I tried to ignore the message and her cute smile as I dove into the Calculus problem. But I found myself composing a response in the back of my head as I worked out the derivative problem on my scratch pad. In a quick moment of indiscretion I typed out my phone number and simply hit send as my reply to Haley's message.
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I dialed Jennie's number as soon as I saw her simple numerical Facebook response. "Don't go to voicemail, don't go to voicemail." I mumbled to myself as I held the phone to my ear listening to the third, then fourth ring.
