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all together? Being the rock was my job.
    I picked up a little sand and threw it below their waists. With black girls, you couldn’t put sand in their hair because it wasn’t like we were tryna get in the water. It would take a lot of effort to get out the sand. Plus my parents already said we were taking the boat out, and we were going to hang with other families who had vacationed with us for years.
    â€œWatch the sand,” Eva said. “We have enough to worry about. I don’t want to add our hair to the list.”
    â€œThat’s right,” Hallie said to her.
    â€œWe all need to relax and enjoy,” I said. “We got each other, and we’re going into the eleventh grade. We’re cheerleaders—varsity cheerleaders. We got a chance to win state on a competition squad. Forget boys. Forget problems. For the next couple of days, let’s just have a real vacation.”
    That’s exactly what we did. We rode bicycles. We went putt-putting. We took long walks on the beach. We slept in late, and we laughed ourselves silly. Looking out on that beautiful blue water, I wished things could just stay this way. I was just so happy. Blake was texting me, telling me how much he missed me. I had come up with some new moves that I knew were really going to make us competitive. My parents were really enjoying each other. Life was great. I was on cloud nine.

CHAPTER 3
Big Head
    O h so you can’t come and swoop me up after all the rides I’ve been giving you?” Blake asked, trying to make me feel guilty.
    â€œHoney, it’s not like I don’t want to see you. Of course I’m going to give you a ride in the car, but I got to get to practice early. You’ve been captain for a while. Your dad gives you all the extras you need to make sure your team is on and popping, but me, I’m new at this. I want to get with Coach Woods, get her expectations, and be an example for my squad. Leadership starts at the top. So I can’t pick you up today.”
    â€œDang, give a girl some power and she loses her mind,” Blake uttered. “I needed to talk to you.”
    As I sat on my bed putting on some lotion, I put the phone down and hit the speaker button. “See, you’re tripping. Nothing about me has changed. Just because I’m taking my job seriously, you’ve got an issue with that. I didn’t say anything when you had to go to the gym in the morning, watch film after that, lift weights in the afternoon, run around the track in the evening, and eat your food and mine because you’re trying to gain all this weight so you can pass some eyeball test for scouts. Plus, you’re there early on days you want to, so why can’t I have my guy’s support, huh?”
    â€œI’m just playing. We can rap later. Dang, when you put it like that, go to practice. But take it from me, you don’t want to be too hard on your girls, or they’ll resent you.”
    â€œI hear you. But I can’t be too soft on them either, or they’ll think I’m a pushover. I got this.”
    Driving to practice, all I could think about was how happy I was that everything in my life was right. While I appreciated Blake giving me his advice on how to be a captain and not alienating my team, I did have to realize that girls and boys were different. I truly felt in my gut that if I was too soft, we wouldn’t accomplish anything. All they would want to do is chat and text and do everything but get us ready to win the state competition this December. This practice started the countdown, and while cheerleading might not mean the world to most people, it meant everything to me. I was not going to allow one girl on my team to be a slacker.
    â€œOkay, so where is Coach Woods?” I uttered to myself when I pulled up to the gym an hour before practice and saw no cars in the parking lot.
    We had already corresponded through email. She knew I was planning to