LOGINAvery's POVThe interview was in a small office on the second floor of the athletics building. A woman named Denise was behind the desk with a laptop open and a folder with my application printed inside it. The room smelled faintly of coffee, and a framed photo of a football championship team from some year before mine hung on the wall behind her."Tell me about your captain position," she said, once we had gotten through the basics. "What does a typical week actually look like for you?""Practice four times a week," I said. "Competition prep, choreography, managing squad dynamics, which is its own job on top of the physical one. I also handle a lot of the communication between the squad and the coaching staff, scheduling, that kind of thing, keeping twenty people pointed in the same direction.""Communication," Denise said, writing something down. "That is most of what this role actually is. Social media for the athletics programme, some copywriting for the newsletter, coordinating
Avery's POVVega caught me after practice. She waited until the rest of the squad had cleared out before she said anything, the gym quiet around us except for the hum of the lights overhead and the distant sound of someone's trainers squeaking on the far end of the court."You are still struggling with your hours," she said."Always," I said. "Why?""The athletics department has an opening," she said. "They are looking for a marketing assistant, part time. It came up in a board meeting a few days ago, and I thought of you the moment I heard it, given how long you have been trying to make your finances work on scraps this whole semester."I put down the water bottle I had been holding."What kind of hours.""Ten a week, maybe twelve," Vega said. "The pay is decent. And it is on campus, which removes a lot of the distance problem you have been dealing with.""And the scholarship review," I said."Your scholarship wants something the university recognises directly, on their own books," s
Avery's POVCarrie submitted her statement three days later, and by the end of that week two other squad members had come forward as well, quietly, one after another, the way one honest thing sometimes gave other people permission to stop feeling like their voice did not matter. I heard about it through Vega rather than through the squad gossip, which felt right somehow, like this was finally moving through the proper channels.I did not know exactly what either of them said. I had not asked, and I did not think I was owed an answer even if I had. This was not mine to sort out anymore.My plan was to let it be someone else's problem to deal with, instead of another thing I had to carry on top of everything else this year had already asked me to carry.Vega told me later that the board had opened a separate misconduct review into Brianna specifically, distinct from the original hearing, built around the sabotage allegation and the statements now supporting it."How long will that take?
Avery's POVThe board took four days to reconvene.Four days where I went through the ordinary motions of lectures and practice and tried not to check my phone every hour for a message that was not coming any faster. Mia and Priya kept telling me not to spiral. I kept telling them I was not spiraling, and we all knew that was not entirely true.The message came on Tuesday morning. Vega wanted me back in the same meeting room at eleven. I read the text three times before I put my phone down, my hands unsteady and shaking a bit.I sat in the same chair, and the same three board members sat behind the same long table, and the woman in the middle spoke first this time, without any preamble she had used before."We have reached a decision," she said. "Miss Nash will retain her position as captain. In reaching that decision, the board reviewed statements from members of the cheer squad, coaching staff, and support personnel. What those interviews confirmed, consistently and without a single
Avery's POVFriday came soon enough.The meeting room was smaller than I expected, a rectangle of a space with a long table at one end and a scatter of chairs at the other, the kind of room built for budget meetings rather than anything that felt like it should decide whether I kept the thing I had worked three years for. The chair was cold under my hands when I sat down.Three board members sat behind the table, a woman in the middle who seemed to be leading things and two men flanking her, all three with folders in front of them and pens ready.Coach Vega sat to one side, present but silent, a witness rather than a judge, though her presence alone felt like something steady in a room otherwise full of strangers deciding my future.Brianna went first.She stood at the front of the room with a printed statement in her hand and read from it in the same composed, careful voice she used for everything, precise the way she was about her landings."The role of captain carries responsibilit
Avery's POVDean's things were gone from the spare room by the time I came down the next morning, boxed up and left by the door the way my mom had promised. She had not said much about it since, and neither had I.Liam had stayed on the step until well past midnight, and there had not been anything else to say once he finally left, just the quiet of two people who had said enough for one evening and knew it.The house felt different this week. Lighter, in the way after something heavy had finally been carried out of it.Vega called me into her office on Tuesday."The hearing is set," she said, before I had even sat down. "Friday, two o'clock. The board wants this resolved before the season moves any further, and honestly, so do I.""What does the format look like.""You give a statement first," Vega said. "Brianna gives hers after. The board can call up to three squad members to speak if they think it is relevant to either side. It will not take longer than an hour, but I want you pre
Avery's POVI did not move for a while.I was standing at the sink with my back against it and my eyes closed and the two tests sitting on the porcelain beside me, and the word negative was doing something to my body that I had not been prepared for. It was not a clean relief. It was not joy. It wa
Avery's POVI got into my car without looking back at the pharmacy door.My hand was not steady on the key at all and I tried several times before I got it turned on. I turned the engine over on the second try and pulled out before I had even checked my mirror. I took the back road out of the carpa
Avery's POVI looked at the message on my phone for a long time before I did anything with it.'Are you home? I have been trying to reach you all afternoon.'He had sent it forty minutes ago, and my phone had been on silent in my pocket since the lecture hall that morning, which meant there were pr
Avery's POVI sat in the campus carpark with the engine off and tried to talk myself into going inside.It was Tuesday. Eleven in the morning. Business Management was at half past in lecture hall three. I had not been to class in two weeks. I had told myself last friday that I would go this week. I







