Anyway, Cara is the squad’s smallest and highest-flying member, which means she can get away with pretty much anything. If she were remotely capable of organizing a damn thing, I’d be worried about her as competition for captain, but Cara readily admits she’d be a disaster at the job, if her parents would even let her do it. (Spoiler: Pastor and Mrs. Whelan absolutely would not let her do it.)

We pile into the gym, and though most of us have been seeing one another all summer between cheer camp, shrimp boils, and road trips to the beach and Wakulla Springs, we fall on top of one another like it’s been centuries. “Your hair looks amazing!” I tell Ella Chow, who apparently chopped off about six inches since having us over for a barbecue last week. “I can’t believe you didn’t post a pic immediately.”

“The surprise is so much better,” she says with a grin, twirling around while her cousin Virany whistles. “Of course, I just did it yesterday, since there was no way I was keeping it from y’all for more than twenty-four hours.”

“Speaking of keeping things quiet,” Claire Marlow says with a pointed look at Taylor Broussard, who immediately blushes while everyone else laughs. Taylor and her boyfriend, Matt Devlin, captain of the Alligators, weren’t exactly private about hooking up at Diana Rivera’s pool party a few days ago.

“Ahem.” It isn’t even that loud, but at the sound of Coach Armstrong clearing her throat, we snap to attention. “Welcome back, girls. Sounds like y’all had a fun summer. But I hope everyone watched the videos I emailed and y’all kept up your conditioning around all that partying. You made me proud at camp, and now it’s time to outperform yourselves. As y’all may have heard, there’s some big news today. Miller asked to be the one to tell y’all, and I think she’s earned it.” She gestures at Crystal, who flashes a bright white smile as she faces us.

“Just please tell me we’re gonna get outside today,” Diana begs. “It’s actually halfway nice out.”

I’d been hoping for the same thing, so I’m glad one of the seniors speaks up. While the Panhandle isn’t nearly as gross as South Florida during the rest of the year, August is like living in a sweaty gym sock. If we have to come in before school to practice today, the least we can do is take advantage of the fact that we’re only at about 80 percent humidity.