Reid and Luke Go To a Cheer Competition Chapter 1/5
Title: Luke and Reid Go to a Cheer Competition
Pairing: Luke and Reid
Other Characters include Natalie. (She is 11 years old in this story and is an all star cheerleader)
Setting is Chicago
Summary: Luke gets roped into taking Natalie and her friend Megan to Chicago for a Cheer competition. Luke and Reid are dating, but not yet living together.
Rating G
A/N This is not intended to slag cheer parent’s in any way. I was a cheer mom for 5 years. I just thought that it would be funny to put Luke and especially Reid in this situation. I have never been to Chicago, but I imagine that there would be cheer competitions there, but in Oakdale, not so much.
As always comments are appreciated and loved.
Disclaimer: These are not my characters.
All mistakes are mine.
“Hey Reid,” Luke said in his sweetest voice, “you know how we had planned to spend the weekend together, just the two of us?”
“Yes, I remember, it’s the first weekend that I’ve had off in months,” Reid responded, his eyes narrowing as he stood staring at his boyfriend, willing Luke to tell him that everything was set and they would have three glorious days, naked, together, without any interruptions.
“Well, uh… funny thing happened, my mom called and begged me to take Natalie and her friend Megan to Chicago for a cheer competition,” Luke hesitated, staring at Reid, making his eyes as wide as possible, hoping that Reid would forgive him and come with them to Chicago. “Well, I said yes, because otherwise the girls would have to miss the competition and risk losing their spots on the team,” Luke finished, a little breathlessly.
Reid was pissed, he wanted to yell at Luke, phone Lily and yell at her. Explain to her that Natalie was her responsibility, not Luke’s but Luke was looking at him, with those eyes, and Luke’s mouth was quivering ever so slightly and Reid knew that he was going to cave. It was those damn eyes; they did Reid in every time.
He had planned to tell Luke to go ahead and have a good time in Chicago with the girls but instead heard himself say “do you mind if I tag along?”
Luke immediately rewarded Reid with a huge smile and a warm, loving kiss. “You are the best boyfriend ever!!! Thank-you for coming with us, it’ll be fun, you’ll see. I promise,” Luke said kissing Reid once more.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Reid answered, with an evil grin.
“Promises, promises,” Luke smiled back. “Well I’d better go home and pack. We have to leave tomorrow afternoon at 3:00. Can you meet me at my house at say 2:30 to help pack up the car?”
“Sure, Luke. Do you want to get together for a late dinner tonight and then you can sleep over at my place tonight.”
A shadow crept over Luke’s face, “I’d love to, but I can’t. I have to help Natalie pack everything, and get last minute instructions from my mom for this trip.”
“Okay, well I guess that I will see you tomorrow afternoon then,” Reid responded, fully aware that this was likely going to be the longest weekend of his life.
The next day as Reid was packing for his latest Snyder adventure he had an epiphany, ‘if we were going to take Natalie’s friend with them to this thing then surely her mom or dad could take Natalie and then Luke and Reid could spend their weekend as originally planned. Homophobia will finally pay off for me,’ Reid smiled to himself as he imagined the look of horror on the stranger’s face. He wondered briefly if he should even bother to finish packing but decided he had better, for appearances sake.
Reid headed over to Luke’s a little early. He wanted to make sure that he was there while Natalie’s friend was dropped off. As he pulled up to Lily’s house he noticed an unfamiliar woman and deduced that this must be the other girl’s mother. He quickly spotted Luke and put his plan into action.
Reid quickly walked over to Luke grabbed him and kissed him long and hard, managing to slip his tongue between Luke’s luscious lips before pulling apart. He glanced up expecting to see a look of disgust on her face and was astonished to see a look of arousal instead.
“Wow,” the woman exclaimed, “that was hot!!! You’re a lucky, lucky man to get a greeting like that, Luke.”
“Yes I am,” Luke concurred.
‘Bloody hell,’ Reid thought to himself grumpily.
“Reid this is Christina, Megan’s mom,” Luke said staring pointedly at Reid.
Reid stuck out his hand as he heard Luke say, “Christina, this is my partner Reid.”
Reid stared at Luke at his use of the word ‘partner’ it was the first time he had been introduced as someone’s partner, ever. He would have to talk to Luke about that later, he decided.
Reid was brought out of his revelry as he felt a small warm hand shake his. He looked up to a bemused look on Christina’s face.
“Thank-you so much for taking Megan to the competition for me, I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”
“We’re happy to take her. It will be more fun for Natalie to have a friend to hang out with,” Luke answered quickly.
“You have the hair and make-up instruction sheets, don’t you?”
‘Hair and make-up?? What fresh hell was this’ Reid wondered, gaping at Luke.
“Yes, I did a trial run through with Nat last night. I’m not the greatest at it, but she and my mom said that it was definitely passable,” Luke answered studiously avoiding meeting Reid’s eyes.
“You might find Megan’s hair a little more tricky than Natalie’s because it’s thinner. Just be prepared to use a little more product and you should be fine.” Christina instructed.
“Thanks for the tip!”
“How much time are you going to allow for each girl? Are you going to do both or are you going to get Reid to get one of them ready?”
Reid looked appalled, Luke just laughed. “I think it’s safe to say that I will be in charge of both girls.”
“You are absolutely right about that, Mr. Snyder,” Reid responded quickly.
“I would allow an hour for each girl. You should do Natalie’s hair first, feed her then do Megan’s hair when Natalie is eating, then feed Megan and do Natalie’s make-up and then finish up with Meg’s make-up. Oh and they need to be in their uniforms before you start the hair, otherwise you might have to start again.”
“I’m sure Luke will figure it all out,” Reid interrupted the onslaught of information as his head began to throb.
Christina just smirked at them.
Just then Natalie and Megan came out of the house. Each of them was carrying a garment bag. Reid had been planning on driving his car, and was surprised to see the two girls heading towards Lily’s MDX.
“Why are the girls putting their bags in Lily’s car?”
“Oh… didn’t I tell you? We need the suv for the luggage,” Luke answered with a shrug, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“How much luggage are we taking? We’re coming back on Sunday, right?” Reid felt in necessary to inquire, as he saw Lily packing more bags into the trunk.
“They’re cheerleaders,” Christina said patiently, as though that explained everything.
“Yes, we’re coming back on Sunday. You had better grab your bag and see if there’s room for it in the trunk,” Luke advised.
“Oh my God, what alternate universe have I fallen into now?” Reid muttered to himself as he walked over to his car to retrieve his bag.
Reid was shocked when he went to put his bag in the car. Luke had been right the trunk was almost full. There were two garment bags, two matching black duffel bags with the words Oakdale Allstars emblazoned on them in sky blue, then there were two matching green bags with the girl’s names embroidered on them, finally there were two large square bags, similar but not matching. He couldn’t imagine that all of these bags were necessary, but he was afraid to find out, so he put his own bag in the trunk as far away from the melee as possible. Luke walked over and put his similarly sized bag next to Reid’s.
Just then Lily walked over to the vehicle and decided that she and Christina needed to do a final check to make sure that the girls had everything that they needed. Reid watched as Luke nodded patiently at his mother.
“Did Natalie leave any of her belongings in the house?” Reid muttered to Luke.
Luke just shook his head and gave Reid a mock stern look.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be on our way soon, and Grandma Emma sent some of her famous oatmeal raison cookies to make the journey a little less taxing for you,” Luke smirked.
“Cookies,” Reid replied with a dreamy look on his face.
Fifteen minutes the later the mother’s had declared that everything was in fact in the trunk; the girls were in the car having been hugged and kissed good-bye by said mothers. Reid was happily munching on his third cookie, looking completely blissed out and Luke was desperately trying to drive away from his mother’s last minute instructions.
“Mom, I’ve got everything under control, I’ll call you if I have any questions,” Lily still looked uncertain until Luke stated that if they didn’t leave now they might miss the cheer meeting at the hotel. Those were the magic words that released Luke and sent them on their way.
The drive was pretty uneventful, the girls watched “Bring it On” on the DVD player, while Reid ate cookies until Luke was sure any normal human being would have thrown up and then Reid promptly went to sleep and napped until they arrived at the hotel.
Once they arrived at the hotel, Luke checked them in without incident. “So where are the girls staying? Is there room close to ours?” Reid asked curiously.
Luke stared at him and then started to laugh, “They’ll be close to us alright, because we’re all in the same room.”
“We’re sharing a room with them?” Reid asked, appalled.
“Yup, where did you think they were going to stay?”
“With their teammates, of course, it never occurred to me that they would be staying in our room,” sadly thinking about all the sex he wouldn’t be having this weekend with Luke.
“Ah… yeah, not so much, they ‘re too young to stay by themselves in a hotel room, hence the need for parents, or in this case a big brother.”
Reid just nodded his head glumly as Luke dragged the girls away from their teammates and took them to their room.
Once they got to their room the girls carefully hung up their uniforms, checking again to make sure that they had all of the required pieces. They used one vanity table to hold the two large square cases, which Reid now saw was actually four- two for make-up and two for hair supplies. Reid felt like he was going to pass out from the excessive girliness of it all.
Noting the horror on Reid’s face, Luke suggested that the four of them go out for pizza after the cheer meeting. Reid was uncertain about attending the meeting, but was sure that he wanted pizza. The four headed downstairs to the lobby and found a sea of parents and cheerleaders listening to one of the girl’s coaches. Natalie glared at Luke for making them late and then quickly focused on Jane, her coach.
Reid rolled his eyes when he heard there was 10:00PM curfew complete with bed checks. He perked up a bit when he heard there was a breakfast buffet the next morning at the hotel. The rest of the meeting consisted of instructions about when to meet in the lobby in their uniforms with full hair and make-up done.
Finally the foursome headed out for pizza. Luke took them to this great Italian deep dish pizza place. Reid almost fainted from the glorious smells that assaulted his nose as they entered the establishment. Luke smiled in relief at the look on Reid’s face. Natalie and Megan just rolled their eyes at the ridiculousness of adults.
They sat together in a cozy booth with a red chequered tablecloth. As soon as they ordered drinks, soda for Luke and the girls, beer for Reid, a basket of garlic bread appeared. Reid immediately helped himself to three pieces of the warm, buttery, chewy goodness.
Megan just stared at Reid, “you’ll ruin your appetite if you keep eating before your dinner arrives,” she warned.
Reid smirked while Luke and Natalie laughed out loud.
“Don’t worry about him, worry about not getting enough to eat while he’s at the table with us,” Natalie advised.
The waiter arrived to take their order, Natalie and Megan ordered a small cheese pizza to share as well as two side salads. Reid ordered a large pizza with everything on it, to reluctantly share with Luke. Luke ordered a large salad for himself, knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to eat very much pizza.
As they waited for their dinner, Reid asked the girls who they were cheering for.
“The Oakdale Allstars Junior Level 4 team,” Natalie answered.
Reid looked confused, “what sport do they play?”
“What sport does who play?” Megan asked.
“The team that you’re cheering for, is it football?” Reid asked hopefully, he loved football.
Megan and Natalie just stared at him with utter disgust, like he was an idiot. This was not a look that Reid was familiar with, so he turned to Luke for support. Luke was smirking at him.
“What???” Reid demanded.
“They’re all star cheerleaders. They don’t cheer for anyone else, they are the team,” Luke explained patiently.
“What do you mean? They don’t cheer for anyone else? What do they do?” Reid asked, gaping at his table mates.
“Cheer is a combination of gymnastics, dance and stunting. We are an all girls team and we are level 4 and that means that we can throw level 4 and lower tricks and stunts. We can’t throw anything that is ranked higher than level 4 without major deductions,” Natalie explained.
“Why would you get deducted for that?”
“Safety and fairness reasons, the coaches determine what level their team should be judged at based on the skill level of their cheerleaders. You want to have a balanced team rather than a team with a few high level cheerleaders carrying the team. You also want your team to be judged at the right level. If you have a level 5 team competing against a level 2 team the level 5 team would always win, without the deductions.
In terms of safety, you don’t want teams throwing stunts that are too hard for the cheerleaders just to try for a higher score. It is better to compete clean and safely at a lower level than risk injury.”
“What kind of injuries do cheerleaders get?” Reid asked.
“Have you never had a cheerleader as a patient?” Natalie asked in surprise.
“No, why would I?”
“Well, people who get tossed in the air and then dropped often end up with brain or spinal cord injuries.”
“What do you mean tossed in the air?”
“The flyer gets tossed in the air, or flips in the air, or poses in the air, and sometimes accidents happen and the flyer comes down, hard and injuries happen?”
“Are either of you a flyer?” Reid asked, his voice tinged with horror.
“We both are,” Megan said proudly.
“Are your parents aware of this fact?” Reid asked accusingly.
“Of course they are, everyone wants to be a flyer, our parents are proud of us,” Megan answered, shocked that Reid did not grasp that immediately.
Just then the food came, thankfully.
Reid mulled over what he had just heard, and Luke rubbed his thigh in order to calm him down.
“Neither of you are to get hurt this weekend, do you understand?” Reid said and gave them the most withering glare he could manage.
Megan and Natalie just giggled and ate their pizza.