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 Posted: Wed May 07, 2025 6:38 pm
The thing about cheering for outdoor sports - football, baseball, lacrosse - was that the biggest environmental peril was the mud. Occasionally, maybe, rain. You could be as loud as you wanted; in fact, volume was highly encouraged, so that your team (or the rival team, in the case of what Mason referred to as Mean Cheers that targeted the rivals instead of supportive cheers for his own team) could actually hear you over whatever sport they were playing.
But indoors sports were a different game. Especially indoor sports that took place in a giant pool of water. The splashing had its own noise, and anyone who walked on the slick tile around the pool squeaked and slipped with every step. That meant there was absolutely zero opportunity for any physical acrobatics; tossing girls ten feet in the air was dangerous enough without the chance of slipping and cracking everybody's head open.
So that meant that they were doing just classic cheering for Meadowview's swim team. Mason whooped along with the rest of the cheer squad, clapping as the girls shook their pompoms. The meet was almost over, and the girls team was giving it everything they got, but Mason could tell the energy was beginning to flag.
"2, 4, 6 and a quarter, Meadowview's the best team in the water!" Mason shouted, then turned away from the swimming to face the audience instead. He and another male cheerleader gestured in unison to the audience (sparsely populated as it was), trying to get them to chant along with him.
"2, 4, 6 and a quarter, who's the best team in the water?" Mason called, then made an exaggerated gesture of holding his hand up to his ear, waiting for the response.
The swim team's energy might be flagging, but Mason's was not. Mason's energy never flagged - and that was why he was on the cheer squad and not in the sorts of clubs that required sitting still for longer than five minutes.
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2025 12:46 pm
Khaz stretched his arms as he exited the locker room, already dressed and ready to go, barring the waterproof sports jacket he was still wearing, which he would shed before he had to head for the starting blocks. The boys swim meet was due to start right after the girls swim meet. The advantage of being at an all-boys school at times like this was that there was absolutely no shame in rooting for the girls of a different high school. He hadn't been able to watch the whole meet, he'd had to miss the last couple heats due to a team meeting, but, fortunately, insofar as he knew, he hadn't missed any of Keesh's heats.
He grinned as he made his way toward the bleachers. Last meet of the academic year. The whole family had come out, barring his father (who never seemed able to make any time for his wife and children), and, while Khaz didn't have time before the boys meet started to go join his family in the bleachers, he could stand between the bleachers and the Meadowview cheerleaders and root for his cousin.
"GO FOR IT, KEESH!" he shouted and waved, as he spotted his cousin making her way up to her position on the starting blocks. For her part, she looked up and grinned, shooting a big thumbs up at her cousin and biggest supporter in the water. "YOU GOT THIS!" He was aware his actual words were probably getting drowned out by the cheerleaders next to him, but he knew she'd understand the sentiment, anyway.
Pausing, he turned to the cheerleaders, and stole a peek at them, before resuming cheering. They seemed to be in fine fettle, which was probably a good thing. Half the time, Azure Valley Academy didn't know what to do with any sports team they had, and the rest of the time, they were getting pulled along by enthusiastic athletes who accepted the fact that they got by without cheerleaders. He'd occasionally wondered what it would be like to get cheered on. Not that he needed it. It was just an idle passing fancy of getting cheered on by cute cheerleaders--regardless of gender. And some of the ones on the Meadowview High cheer squad looked awfully cute.Juliette06 Yes, he's already in dat skin-tight swim gear, and, yes, he looks very attractive. Have fun. 8>
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2025 7:07 am
Mason had turned back around after the audience's somewhat lack-luster response to his call, deciding to give his attention to the athletes that deserved it. As such, he would have missed in his entirety the boy behind him if he hadn't started cheering; Mason started slightly at the unexpected noise, much closer than it should've been.
He turned his head, ready to tell whatever over-eager father that he needed to return to the bleachers for his safety--and the rest of his body turned of its own accord as he realized from whom the noise had come.
Not some pudgy 50-something overly-competitive father reliving his glory days. Not a father at all, probably. No, it was a boy about Mason's age by the look of it - and Mason did look, he couldn't help himself, even though he quickly brought his eyes back up to the boy's face. He was sure he was blushing deep scarlet; he could only pray that it would be attributed to the warmth and humidity of the air.
"Hi," Mason said, because all of the other things he was going to say had fallen completely out of his head. Mason was used to seeing the Meadowview kids in their swim gear, at least in passing, but they mostly stuck to themselves. If they joked and messed around, it was with each other - Mason mostly only saw them in Serious Mode. They had long-since become background noise to him.
But this? This strange boy passionately yelling about quiche?
None of them had ever become impromptu cheerleaders for anyone else, as far as he knew.
No way was this kid from Meadowview. Mason would have recognized him.
This was not background noise. This was new, and this was - this was making Mason's entire brain turn into alphabet soup.
"What are you--what--" Mason jumped again as the next cheer started up and he came in late with it, which only made him more embarrassed, because now there was a boy, and he was messing up. Why had he even bothered getting out of bed this morning?
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2025 5:49 pm
Khaz caught one of the Meadowview High cheerleaders staring at him, looking red in the face. Was he okay? It didn't seem that warm in here, but Khaz wasn't exactly that well-covered, either, so maybe Khaz was just more comfortably dressed for the summery weather. Regardless of what was going on, he looked cute, dark hair and almost luminously pale skin, with eyes like a stormy sea, with a shifting quality that matched the sea, too.
Honestly, if Khaz was ready to come out of the closet and risk any consequences, he'd try flirting with the boy--no, he looked around Khaz's own age--guy--after the girls' match was over. Unfortunately, he wasn't ready to risk putting himself out there like that, no matter how sweet the other guy looked.
Besides, once the girls' match was over, he'd have to finalize preparation for the boys' match. There wasn't really going to be a lot of time for this until the end of the full match, and, even then, Khaz had never really thought about how to even approach another guy, whether casually or seriously. Girls, sure, because he knew he was attracted to both genders, and crushing on a girl would beg fewer questions than bringing home a guy. He shoved those thoughts aside with a slight shake.
Smiling slightly, he nodded and waved at the cute cheerleader before returning his attention to the swimmers. He thought he heard the boy say something as the swimmers mounted their blocks and got into position, but it was virtually immediately lost in the roar of the crowd and the cries of the other cheerleaders.
Keesh leapt off her starting block at the whistle, and Khaz was drawn back into cheering for his cousin.
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2025 7:49 pm
There was eye contact.
Eye contact.
Mason tried to give his full attention back to cheering. He really did. But Madeline was all the way on the other side of the cheer line, absolutely unable to stop him, and she was pretty much 98% of his impulse control, and that meant that when his feet hit the ground, they found their way - inch by inch - closer to the Speedo-clad boy, until Mason was fully separated from the rest of the cheerleaders and all but next to the boy.
"Know someone on the team?" Mason asked, doing his best to keep clapping along with the rest of the cheerleaders, even if he wasn't verbalizing the chants like he was supposed to. He had maybe two or three minutes before Madeline noticed, and he wanted to get the most out of those minutes as he could.
What made it difficult was that there was a boy, who was evidently a swimmer, who had made eye contact with him.
And he had very pretty eyes.
"I don't remember seeing you around Meadowview," he added. So far so good. All the words were coming out in the right order and everything.
If only his heart could stop hammering, clawing its way up his throat from nerves. The clock was ticking, and not just on the swimming heat.
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2025 7:49 am
Khaz blinked at the voice next to him, and turned with a start to see who was talking to him. Of all the people it could have been, it was the cute cheerleader. Flushing ever so slightly, he turned back to the match and pointed toward his cousin. "Yup! That's my cousin, Keisha Lyons, over there, dark skin, blonde hair. Dunno if you know her, she's a junior at Meadowview."
Keesh was just reaching the first turn, and rolled smoothly and quickly to start speeding her way back the other way, clearly focusing on the match. She wasn't in the lead, but Khaz had worked hard coaching Keesh to not let that fact get the better of her, so she could save her strength for a final burst at the end.
"Nope, I'm not from Meadowview. I'm a sophomore at Azure Valley," he explained, tapping the ice blue stripes on the thigh of his skin-tight swimsuit, trying not to focus too much on the cute guy talking to him, wondering what he would look like in a swimsuit. No. Bad idea. Not right now. Not when he needed to be getting his head in the game.
Besides, wasn't he supposed to be cheering on his cousin? Keesh would probably understand, but Khaz still wanted to be there for her, anyway.Juliette06 I have a terribly wonderful idea of what Khaz will do to cap this RP, and I think it's going to be a surprise for him, too. 8D
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2025 8:53 pm
Mason followed the other boy's finger, watching the figure push effortlessly through the water. He knew it wasn't actually effortless - swimming was hard, it took so much energy and focus and Mason honestly didn't know how all of them didn't knock into the wall every single time they got in the pool - but it looked smooth and perfect anyway.
Mason also followed the boy's fingers when they tapped swimsuit, which meant that Mason spent just a second too long staring at the exposed skin of the other boy's thigh, which made his ears start ringing, which almost made him miss what the boy actually said.
"Mason," Mason blurted, blushing bright crimson when he realized he'd left out a few key words. Most of the words, actually, that that sentence was supposed to contain. "Me. I mean." Mason felt himself turning possibly a hitherto-undiscovered shade of red. "I mean, my name's Mason. I'm Mason. Hi, I'm Mason, what's your name?"
That had only taken...three tries? Four tries? This was...awful. This was the worst anyone had ever done it. No wonder Madeline never let him talk to other people - because he was, apparently, terrible at it.
He was just going to drown himself, real quick. Could he get a do-over?
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2025 5:23 pm
Khaz had returned his attention to his cousin and started cheering her on again when he heard the cheerleader speak again. He blinked, and turned around, to find the other guy redder than ever before, and stammering. Oh, Allah, was he blushing?
Suddenly, that explained so much. Khaz felt himself flushing slightly in response.
"Khazran," he replied with a suddenly shy duck of his head. "Mine's Khazran."
The cheering around them intensified, and Khaz tore his gaze back to the match, where Keesh had made her move, making a last-minute burst of speed, slamming her hand into the signal to end the heat.
She'd come in first.
The people cheering for Meadowview, and for Keisha Lyons, erupted in cheers.
Flushing again, Khaz turned his attention back to Mason. "Look, I need to congratulate my cousin, and then get ready for my own match." Impulsively, he reached forward to take the cheerleader's hand, raising it to his lips before releasing it.
"Come find me after the match if you want my number," he shouted as he turned and hurried off.
Well. That was embarrassing. And could have gone wrong in so many different ways. And could still go wrong in so many different ways. Oh, well. He'd just have to hope that Mason would come find him for his number, later, and not a sucker punch. Assuming he didn't take other drastic measures.
Khaz shook his head, trying to put anxious thoughts out of his head. Now wasn't the time for those. He had people to hug, heats to win, and then he could panic about having destroyed his social and/or love life. Hopefully not both.
It felt like too much to hope for that he actually had a shot with that cute cheerleader. Who probably couldn't in good conscience cheer for him. Oh, well. Problem for future Khaz. In the meantime, family and the chlorinated waters of the pool called him.Juliette06 Sorry to wrap things up this fast, it just narratively felt like the right time. Also, excuse me, but I have to mute Khaz, who is now screaming at me for having potentially ruined his life by clumsily (but suavely) outing himself as bi.
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Posted: Wed May 14, 2025 12:41 pm
Khazran. Khazran. What a beautiful name. Had Mason ever heard a more beautiful name? He didn't think so - but then again he couldn't remember anything in the whole world, his own name included, because Khazran lifted his hand and kissed his knuckles like some kind of literal Disney prince.
Mason could've died. Literally he could've dropped dead and ascended then and there, a happy man.
And then Khazran was leaving. Leaving??? Why was he leaving? Mason's entire full heart broke into a gazillion pieces as Khazran left and took most of Mason's little bisexual heart with him.
"...What?" Mason said, mostly to the empty air. He was sure Khazran had said something, something important, but he was so dazed that it had bounced off his skull and not made it close to processing. "Wait, what?"
Had he said something about meeting him after? Mason couldn't do that. Madeline wouldn't let him. They always went right home after games. There was absolutely no way that Mason could manage to escape to go meet anyone, least of all a boy.
Mason's eyes landed on the girl that was chattering with the rest of the Meadowview girl's team. Technically the cheering they had to do was overwith, but the squad hadn't broken up yet. Mason glanced over and saw Madeline talking with another girl, Maya, and he knew he only had one chance. It was now or never.
Mason ran (in a swimming area, no less!) over to Keisha, only barely managing not to crash directly into her and the other swimmers like a cheerleader-shaped bowling ball into swimmer-shaped pins.
"Hi," Mason said, breathless. "This is going to be super weird, but it's really really important. I have a message for your cousin--"
And then he gave the girl his phone number, made her (confusedly) repeat it back to him two or three times, trying to help her memorize it, until a nearby swimmer rolled their eyes, went to their backpack nearby, and wrote it down for Mason, evidently taking pity on his slightly frantic desperation. Once Mason saw the number written down correctly and in Keisha's slightly-damp hand, Mason thanked her, and ran back to the cheer squad. None of them noticed he'd gone...
Except for Madeline. Madeline noticed everything, and she was staring at him like lasers might shoot out of her eyes and turn him to ash where he stood.
But Mason didn't care. He didn't care even a little bit.
Because he had just given a boy his number. He'd done it in a roundabout, convoluted fashion, but--but he'd done it. A boy had his number. Mason's knuckles were still tingling, because a boy had kissed his hand.
Mason didn't care what Madeline said about anything anymore, because a boy had kissed his hand, and then he'd given that boy his phone number.
Mason couldn't stop smiling the whole way home, and indeed, the whole rest of the night. He didn't explain to Madeline, much to her frustration, but Mason didn't care. There was a special secret now, a special bright spot in his chest - a special bright spot named Khazran, and suddenly, that meant everything.
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