"Grandma, do you like our new uniforms?" Alyson exclaimed as she bounced down the staircase and spun around at the midpoint landing. Expressing her zeal with a quick spin on one foot, she allowed her grandmother to see her granddaughter's new cheerleading outfit from all angles. The image was but a blur however, as the nineteen-year-old girl bounded down the remaining stairs, carrying her shoes and socks in one hand, and landed beside her on the sofa. As a small plume of household dust whiffed from the upholstery, her oldest granddaughter began to slip her bare feet into a pair of red and white slouch socks that matched her uniform. Her shoes came next, but as she placed them on the edge of the coffee table to tie the short, soft laces, Betsy could not help but chastise her.
"Alyson, get those shoes off the edge of the coffee table."
"Oh grandma, they're no worse than socks," she said in defense of the light canvas sneakers.
In reality, Betsy had to agree with the assessment and as the talkative youth began to rattle on about winning the championship football game that night, Betsy moved quietly to a hutch and removed her college yearbook without ceremony.
"I was a cheerleader once to you know," and sat down beside her as she opened the book on her lap. As it flipped open to a dog eared page, Alyson looked at the vintage black and white photograph of her grandmothers cheerleading squad, and then flipped it back to the cover.
"Nineteen sixty-two? That was the last time we won the State Championship!"
"Yes it was," Betsy said with obvious pride. Alyson again looked at the photograph, now with more detailing interest, and could not but help but note that in forty two years, the cheerleading outfits had changed very little. Granted her new outfit was made out of polyester and rayon, rather than cotton and nylon, but other than the materials, there was still the same tight fitting top, short pleated skirt and remarkably, even the same type of canvas shoes. Alyson would have continued to pour over the antique photographs of the old cheerleading squad and the pictures of the victorious football game, if a car horn had not blasted the serene suburban neighborhood with noise.
"Well wish me luck," Alyson stated as she bolted up to join her college friends, her youthful attention span now switching gears to the present. With no remorse for the spoiled moment, Betsy understood this stage of a teenager's life, and settled into the sofa to drift back in time nearly forty-two years to the day.
As the football stadium itself began to come into sharper focus from around the victorious football players, Betsy began to remember a much more sinister aspect of that win. In the far right corner of one particular photo, she could just make out the number thirty yard line written in chalk. As she did, fear began to grip her as she heard the final stake being driven into the ground. With every collision of the heavy hammer onto the stake, she jumped, hearing the report echo through the empty stadium and felt the rope around her right ankle being pulled tighter and tighter to the white chalk of the thirty-yard line.
"That ought to hold her," one of the football players quipped with a sinister laugh.
"Bitch," said another as she thrashed at the four ropes that pinned her to the ground. The thrashing only made her predicament that much more obvious, and of the eight guys that surrounded her, all were laughing at her helpless state.
Betsy wept in shame, realizing that only a few hours before her team's field goal kicker had booted the ball from this very spot to win the championship game against their arch rivals. It was not the Superbowl, but you would not have known that from the way the fans poured out onto the field and the exuberant festivities that erupted from the win.
Betsy too was consumed with pride, but as the Captain of the Cheerleading Squad, she had responsibilities. Someone on the squad would always leave a sock behind, or an arrant pompom in the locker room, and she was always the last to leave, picking up after her teammates like a doting mother. Stepping from the locker room that night, she never even had time to scream. A hand cupped her mouth and then she was carried kicking and screaming through the stifling hand of her abductor as she was carried to the football field.
From downtown the fans could be heard blaring their horns, screaming loudly and resounded the sound of a radio broadcasting the news of the great win. This was all to the chagrin of her captors, eight members of the opposing football team, and they looked at Betsy with sheer contempt.
"Please, don't do this," she begged, realizing since they could not score in the game, they were going to at least score with her. "It's just a game. It's just a game," she kept repeating.
"Tell that to the others," their wide receiver said thumbing his hand towards the whoops and hollers of the downtown crowd.
"This town, their football crazy, that's all," she started to say, but her words were ripped from her just as quickly as her red and white sweater was ripped off her chest. For a split second she could feel his thick fingers gripping the plunging v neckline of her sweater, and then felt its release as the strong football player easily ripped apart the cotton fibers, splitting it in two.
"No," she screamed, but it was already too late. He had clutched her white sports bra as well and flipped it off her breasts with quick agility. As the cool night air hit her bare chest, her nipples instantly hardened and the man looked delighted as he claimed credit for it.
"Look her nipples are hard. The bitch is getting turned on."
"No," she yelled again, tears streaming down her face as she was being stripped. She realized she was also being molested as his hands cupped the fleshy globes of her chest and flicked his finger nimbly across her nipple. In any other instance it would have felt pleasurable, but lying on the short-cropped grass of the football field, she only felt incensed as eight horny guys loomed over her.
"Move out of the way Moose, let me take off her skirt."
"Oh God no," Betsy sobbed as she felt her indignation continue as a new man's hands began to ply her body. With deftness, he slid his hands down the sides of her bare rib cage until they landed on the elastic waistband of her mini-skirt. As he tugged at the pleated skirt, Betsy squirmed, trying to defeat the man's efforts at taking her modesty. She gasped when the constriction of her cheerleading uniform released its tight grip around her slender waist and began to slide down her thighs. Betsy was equally horrified when she realized he had hooked his thumbs into the waistband of her panties and they were being pulled down my legs as well. In one well-orchestrated move, the light, airy fabric of her cheerleading uniform was hauled to her ankles. Betsy screamed from the defiling maneuver, a movement that abruptly stopped when she saw the athlete brandish a knife and look at her menacingly.
"Keep quiet," was all he needed to say as she watched the sharp edge being placed against the cotton fabric of her skirt. The fabric made a zipping sound as the fabric relented to the keen knife blade so that it could be removed from around her roped bonds. The tearing of the fabric and her own sobs were now the only sounds Betsy could hear as the throng of partying fans moved up main street and further and further from the stadium. As another football player pulled away her severed skirt, Betsy watched it tumble towards the end zone, floating on the gentle evening breeze.
"Whore," he whispered as he looked at her vagina. That was exactly what Betsy felt like as she lay there for the eight men, their eyes washing over her with hatred and lust all at the same time.
One football player stooped down to shed Betsy of her shoes and socks. The red canvas sneakers, and white and red slouch socks, matched her school colors and were now the only two articles of clothing Betsy was left wearing. The man had pulled the laces loose and was working on prying her right sneaker from her foot when the quarterback stopped him.
"Leave them on Billy. I think she looks cute wearing those shoes."
There was a murmur as the other football players on the team agreed, and Betsy felt her shoe being abandoned as the men turned their attention to more pressing issues.
"So who should go first," the Quarterback asked with a smirk? Betsy began to sob at the statement and again strained at her bonds. They held with just as much pressure as the word first, which resounded in her head. She could not imagine being ravished by even one football player, let alone eight men taking her in such a defiling way.
"You're the quarterback. You should."
"No, I think Moose should have the pleasure," the Quarterback said with a nod towards his wide receiver. "After all, he did get the only touch down in the game."