Cheerleading: A Short Story

I remember my first day of cheerleading practice staring at one of the older girls, mesmerized. She had short brown hair, she was tall, and she had a face identical to mine. That night I ran home to my mother and told her about the girl I saw that day. She paused briefly with a puzzled look on her face, but it went right over my head. At first I thought nothing of it, I just thought the girl looked liked me; I was indeed a naïve thirteen year old.

As practices went on, I found myself drawn to this girl. I don’t know why, but I felt the need to know more about her. I found out her name was Chanel, like the clothing company. I recall thinking; “I wish I had a name that would stop people in their tracks when they hear it, like Chanel.” I was

My father invited both me and Josh out to dinner because he had some news that he would like to share with us. I remember his words like it was yesterday. “Well kids, you have an older sister her name is Chanel and we are having a welcome to the family party for her this weekend.” I remember so many things were going through my mind. In a sense I felt betrayed, down right mad, and somewhat satisfied all at the same time. I recall thinking, “What the hell is a welcome to the family party, the thought sounded ludicrous.” I was mad and felt betrayed because I was supposed to be the oldest child. I was the only girl and even though my father and I weren’t close, the oldest daughter is always the princess. I know it sounds silly, but to an emotional sixteen year old, I felt like my world was going to end. I hated change and I knew that people were going to talk about us. “Hey did you know Kayla and Chanel are sisters, their dad must have been a dog,” and I was mortified by the idea. Yet, I did feel a sense of satisfaction. They say there is no bond like a bond between siblings, and being older and wiser I think my thirteen-year-old self was trying to tell me what I didn’t know the whole time. I always felt a connection between us, but I would never have imagined that we had the same blood running through our veins.

I would be lying if I said our new “sister” relationship wasn’t weird in the beginning. Suddenly, my grandparents were also her grandparents, my brother was her brother, and I learned very quickly, that I did not like to share. But what I failed to realize, was that this was just as new for her as it was for me. We were both in the same boat sailing in the same