“Won’t you please change your mind?” Angela pleaded while standing in the living room wearing her blue cheerleader uniform.
“I’m sorry,” Andrew shook his head and crossed his arms. “You know how I feel about this.”
“It would mean a lot to me if you would just come and watch me. It’s the State Championship. I could really use your support.”
“I don’t think cheerleading is appropriate. The uniforms are immodest, and the songs and dance moves are very provocative. I need to guard my eyes, ears and heart. I don’t want to ever fall back to the way I was. Just because I confessed my sins and am working on my faults, it doesn’t mean I still don’t have struggles. I am trying to be blunt with you to help you understand. Guys really struggle with sexual temptations. I can’t support something that goes against purity.”
“It’s just dancing,” Angela protested. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
Andrew frowned. “I hope and pray that someday you will.”
Angela stormed outside and slammed the door behind her. While she marched down the stairs and to the curb, she waited impatiently for Jessica to arrive.
Why can’t he see that cheerleading is innocent fun? I love to dance. I need to dance. I need cheerleading. Angela mused.
As the thought had formed, so had the doubt inside of her. She recalled the halftime show and what her brother had said right after the game ended. She then reflected on Carson watching the other cheerleaders at the prom dancing to the song Spotlight. The look in his eyes was not innocent, not pure.
If the song and dancing was so innocent, why then would it provoke such behavior?
Angela shrugged off the question as Jessica’s car pulled up and she got inside. While the car drove down the street, she almost asked Jessica why Melissa was not in the car too. Then she remembered that Melissa’s parents had taken her off the cheerleading squad.
Jessica distracted Angela from those thoughts too as she turned on the CD player and blasted pop music at a nearly ear-piercing volume. The song was from the same album as Spotlight, and the singer’s lyrics were just as provocative. The drive to the high school felt long as Angela listened intently to the words, many of which made the singer seem like she wanted to be an object of sexual desire.
Even though Angela had heard many controversial songs since joining the cheerleading squad, with everything on her mind and weighing heavy in her heart, the song’s lyrics tore at her conscience. She almost asked Jessica to turn the music off, but the song ended, and Angela just tried to forget about it. When they reached their school, they parked and joined the other cheerleaders on the bus.
The girls were definitely excited for the State Competition, but while some of them talked about how great it would be to win it all, Angela still struggled with conflicting views about cheerleading. Even as the bus reached its destination and the girls all walked into the large auditorium, Angela could not shake the issue.
Peering at the opposing squads, she looked at their uniforms and realized just how much skin the girls had exposed. Bare arms, shoulders, nearly their full legs too, and some uniforms had low-cut necklines to highlight their features, but what bothered Angela the most was that her uniform was just as immodest as the rest of them.
The chairs overlooking the vast stage were filled with parents and students from various schools, as well as children and young girls and boys. The place was packed, and everyone was there to watch the cheerleaders give their all to win. The noise level was nearly as high as the pop music that was setting the mood.
The Grove High cheerleaders assembled beside the stage where they could see all the action, yet still be able to stretch and get ready to perform. The announcer called forth the first squad, and they soon began their routine. The R&B music was very hip-hop in nature, fast-paced and accompanied by a lot of body movements that would be deemed inappropriate in any other setting.
Angela saw how the crowd reacted, with teenage boys cheering the girls on as they danced provocatively. The cheerleaders were all smiles as they did their final body thrusts and movements. The last of the song was replaced by a standing ovation and clapping that drowned out everything else.
The next team took the stage and started their performance to rap music.
“We are up next,” Coach Swanson informed the squad before returning to her seat.
The cheerleaders stretched while still observing their competition on the stage. Jessica raised a hand to get her teammates attention. “Everything we have done this season has prepared us for this moment. We know the moves, but we really need to bring it this one last time. Half of the judges are men, so let’s rile them up for their votes. Catch their attention with your smiles but win them over with your bodies.”
Angela shook her head as Jessica finished the pep talk. She had been trying to convince herself the whole season that cheerleading was just another form of dancing, with nothing to be ashamed of. However, as much as she could tell herself that what her team was doing, how they dressed and the sexual moves they displayed in their routine was innocent, Jessica’s words said everything.
Win them over with your bodies, Angela heard in her thoughts over and over again.
As her squad looked ready to show the crowd and judges how dirty they could dance in order to win the State Cheerleading Competition, Angela’s stomach churned. Her nausea was accompanied by sweaty palms and shaky hands.
“Oh my gosh,” Kayla said while holding her smartphone out for Jessica to see it. “Have you seen this video yet?”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Jessica replied as the internet video played.
Julia looked at the video too and snorted. “A testimony?”
“Yeah.” Kayla shook her head in disbelief, “and it went viral.”
“So he really thought that this would inspire people? After how he talked to us at the football game? He’s such a joke.”
A wave of fear swept over Angela as she walked over to glance at the video that they were laughing at, but those feelings were replaced by confusion when she saw that it was of her brother.
“What?” Angela muttered as a mix of emotions swept through her. “Is this real?”
A grin crossed Kayla’s face. “You mean you didn’t even know your joker of a brother started this club?”
Angela shook her head slowly. “What club?”
“The Purity Club,” Kayla stated. “Someone posted this video on the internet and I bet Andrew doesn’t even know it.”
The Purity Club? Angela pondered in awe.
She vaguely recalled spotting a few posters up in the hallways at school about it, but she never would have imagined that her brother would have ever gone to such a club, let alone had created it.
“Well.” Angela felt overwhelmed. She had never been so proud of her brother before. “I think the club sounds interesting.”
“A Purity Club in a public high school.” Jessica rolled her eyes as she continued sardonically, “Your brother’s going to be the laughing stock of the entire school.”
Andrew’s standing up for purity, Angela thought, while we’re about to dance dirty for judges to win a competition. And he’s the one who would get ridiculed and shunned by his peers?
Clapping echoed all around them as the cheerleaders on the stage bowed for the audience and judges. As Jessica and the other squad members lined up to take the stage, Angela remained off to the side deep in thought.
We should value purity, Angela thought, not try to justify our bad actions.
“I’m proud of him,” Angela said loud enough for her whole team to hear.
“Who cares?” Jessica nearly shouted. “We’re about to perform.”
Angela suddenly felt tired of cheerleading, tired of Jessica, tired of all the drama in her life that started because of her involvement with them. “I care. You shouldn’t talk bad about him for trying to inspire people.”
Some of her teammat
es looked at her with confused expressions, while Jessica seemed highly irritated by her newfound attitude. “You are so much better than him; I just wish you could see that. He belongs in Bottom Grove, but you have the talent, the moves, and the body to reach heights he never will. It’s bad enough that you sit with him at lunch in front of everyone, but if you hang out with him now that he’s started the Purity Club, you can kiss your social life goodbye.”
“Yeah!” Kayla called out, “you want the school to remember you as a State Cheerleading Champion, not the sister of some Christian purist telling us to embrace our faith and live for God.”
“I quit,” Angela declared before she even fully realized the thought that had escaped her lips.
“Please welcome the cheerleaders of Grove High,” the announcer stated.
Jessica stepped out of the line of girls to walk up to Angela and stare her down. “Don’t even think about abandoning us now. Grove Girls stick together.”
“As you pointed out after the prom,” Angela retorted through stiff lips, “I’m not one of you guys. I’ve known that for a while and I can’t keep acting like someone I’m not.”
Kayla walked over and spitefully said, “You traitor. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Embracing my faith,” Angela said, “and living for God.”
Angela turned from them and she heard Jessica grind her teeth and Kayla mutter curses. As the cheerleaders took the stage without her, Angela walked out of the auditorium. When she reached the fresh air outside, she saw a small group of people near a bench and approached them.
“Hello,” Angela said. “Does anyone have a cell phone I can use to make a quick call?”
A girl nodded, handed her a phone and Angela thanked her.
37