Mini-Skirts and Pom-Poms (Carleigh)

[Carleigh Davidson]

"Most people here are super nice." Carleigh smiled, bending her hips to stretch out and touch her toes. It was a good warmup that made her feel ready and flexible. She didn't notice Charity's irritation or hesitation, completely oblivious to it. She watched the girl's technique, nodding to herself. "Good form." Carleigh complimented with a smile. "Don't want to pull or strain any muscles there." She stretched her hands up in the air, sighing contently.

"Me too. Except, my brother. And back before I came here." Carleigh chuckled, swallowing hard with a now bitter looking smile.

Memories from over the years flashed through her head. After a minute of being dazed, Carleigh's glassy eyes re-focused on reality instead of both happy and sad memories. She watched the girl, smiling genuinely again. One way to the girl's heart was through compliments and flattery. Her already inflated ego beamed. "Oh well thank you." she said, accepting the compliment. Carleigh already knew she was good looking but... it was nice that people still noticed. "But, really, you're so pretty and talented." she gushed, watching her flexibility. "Hopefully you don't mind me asking but is your power like, flexibility related?" She'd seen a couple of girls come and go with some sort of power like that. They were able to do incredibly routines. "That or you're just super talented at a young age." She ended with a small laugh.

[Deleted]

"Thank you," Charity said, still keeping up the courtesy, however annoying it might be becoming. "We have always learned how to properly stretch before any strenuous exercise. Since we were both young." They'd been in cheerleading since before they arrived at Hammel, even before Kocher. They'd find it offensive if anyone assumed they didn't know what they were doing, however innocent the assumption may be.

"You have a brother?" Charity inquired. Because it was customary and expected, not because she held any real interest.

The compliment on her appearance and ability would have left Temperance blushing and stuttering, but not Charity. She was far more collected, though she still allowed a tint of pink touch her cheeks. "Thank you…" she said again, hiding a smile. She shook her head at the question. "No, it's nothing like that." Now came the time where Charity had to decide: did she tell the truth or did she lie about their powers?

"We're gestalts," she said simply. It was a truth too easy to find through simple gossip and therefore, not worth lying about, Charity decided.

[Carleigh Davidson]

"That's important." Carleigh said with a nod. "You been involved with cheerleading before Hammel then? Sounds like it anyway." She reached down, placing her hands flat on the ground to stretch out her calves. Slowly, she brought herself upright, smiling at the one twin. Temperance? Charity? Carleigh still managed to muddle up the two even after talking one on one to the one girl.

Nodding, Carleigh smiled, bittersweet. "Yeah, older brother. Brody." She really did miss him. The past few weeks the blonde had been reliving their childhood memories, before manifestation.

Carleigh stretched out her arms, loosening them up. She decided that was a good warm up before practice. Maybe she could help the younger girl if she still required her aid. "Just telling the truth!" she beamed, eyes glancing across the gymnasium to make sure the other girls were doing alright. Her gaze landed on the other twin, who seemed to be doing alright without her sister.

Gestalts? Carleigh frowned, raising an eyebrow slightly. She tried to place the power... twins... oh! "Ohhh okay." She nodded, licking her lips. That wasn't fun. One mind in two bodies. No wonder the two girls were inseparable. "Sorry to force you guys apart then." She sheepishly apologized, blushing in return.

[Deleted]

"Yes," she said simply. Charity was subtly backing away from the topic of their home life. While both girls were more than willing to share their interests, one had to be careful in doing so since it could stimulate questions neither wished to answer. Not because there was some shameful secret about their life at home, but because those memories were ones they held sacred. The ignorance and comfort they held from before their manifestation was precious to them.

Charity smiled, and empty, meaningless gesture. "That sounds nice," she continued the charade. "I always wished to have a brother. Especially an older one." Lies. Charity and Temperance had always been content with each other's company.

Charity followed Carleigh's gaze to where Temperance was no doubt chatting up a storm with whomever was unlucky enough to be her partner. Charity mentally rolled her eyes. The only reason that girl was able to hold back at all when they were together was because Charity was constantly forcing her to. She needed to be put on a leash.

"It's no bother. It's nice to get away from someone who is always in your head," Charity said with a cold undertone. At least she was honest for once. Mostly. While she hated being together with her sister, she hated being apart from her as well, and that was only partly due to their gestaltism. Non-twins couldn't hope to understand so Charity wouldn't bother to explain it.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh nodded, pausing for a moment to tighten her ponytail. She realized the girl wasn't going to say anything else besides the yes, so she let the subject drop. Sometimes, it hurt to talk about home and since the twins were new, the homesickness was stronger. Carleigh blanked on a subject to talk about... anything that would help ease the silence. She couldn't stand dead silence.

Of course, other girls were chattering and cartwheeling away around them. It was near impossible for it to be completely silent during cheer practice. Finally, the girl spoke and Carleigh's face lit up again. She laughed, shaking her head. "Oh no, older brothers are a pain. They insist and assume they know best." Carleigh would have loved to have been an only child. Just her, spoiled by her parents. Then again, she couldn't imagine life, even as strained as their relationship was at this point, without Brody.

She noticed the iciness in Charity's voice, swallowing hard in response. Did she accidentally strike a nerve? Something too close? Carleigh figured that the younger girl didn't want to talk about being Gestalts. She raised an eyebrow. "Always? That must be sucky at times." she offered sympathetically. Some distance must help a little, even if the other person was always there. No. No matter how hard Carleigh thought about it, she couldn't understand what it was like to have someone else in her head, 24/7.

"So, you want to try a routine or something if you're warmed up?" Carleigh asked, happy to change the subject from their awkward conversations.

[Deleted]

Perhaps it was homesickness, just a little. They didn't like having to be forced away from their fathers just because of this stupid power that they didn't like anyway. This power that had caused them problems. They both would have been much happier not knowing the secrets of the other sister and could have honestly pretended to love each other. Knowing what the other sister thought of you, what their intentions were, both good and bad, made it difficult to even pretend.

No, that wasn't true…they did love each other. That was why it hurt more to know some of the things they found out.

"Really? I suppose I can imagine. Our cousin is sort of like that. He's a lot older than us and so is always trying to tell us what's best for us." When in reality, Oliver didn't know his left from his right. Heck, he couldn't even see straight(though arguably that was because of his eye injury). They did love making trouble for him though. Having Nolls around made being away from home a touch more bearable.

The sympathy Carleigh offered was dismissed. Neither Charity nor Temperance wanted that kind of pity, especially for something that non-gestalts couldn't hope to understand. It wasn't even just about being in each other's head. It was about becoming one person. What would happen to the Charity she was now? Would each girl simply cease to exist only to be replaced by this new entity that happened to have two bodies? It was frightening.

She'd rather not think about it. But still offered an empty smile to her warm-up partner. "Alright." Charity nodded, her ponytail swaying with her movement. "Let's get started." She took a position, ready to start at the older girl's signal.

[Carleigh Davidson]

"I think older people are like that, regardless. Think they know best cause they've been around longer." Carleigh shrugged towards the girl, unsure. She'd never been like that towards anyone. She sure wasn't acting that way towards the younger twins. Or maybe she was earlier. The blonde wasn't too sure.

"It's... it's hard adjusting to life here." Carleigh changed the subject, keeping the same theme. She nodded to herself before continuing on. "One day, you're a normal teenager and the next you're being sent off to a state you've barely heard of with a bunch of other kids like you." Well, kind of. Carleigh had yet to meet someone with the same ability as her. "And life... just goes on." She frowned a little, realizing that she wasn't being all too sympathetic or positive with her rambles. "Not that it's terrible here." She added quickly. "You'll meet new people that can relate."

Carleigh decided to stop playing psychiatrist and continue on with cheerleading practice. It's why the girls were here, afterall. Carleigh nodded towards the girl as they begun the routine. Hand signals, cartwheels, high kicks. All that stuff. They continued the learned routine for a few minutes.

"Good, good." She mumbled, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. "That was really fluid."

(It's like 3 am and I have no experience with cheerleading so excuse my bullshit. If it's really bad I can edit it later haha)

[Deleted]

"I don't think he really knows what he's doing to be honest." Charity didn't think a lot of adults knew what they were doing, especially when so many of them so often couldn't even match wits with a pair of 13(now 14!) year-old girls. They were so easily tricked. "Though, I do suppose he does mean well." As grumpy and gloomy as Oliver always was.

Though the longer Charity talked to this girl, the more she was thinking that Carleigh wasn't half the dumb blonde she looked. "Precisely. With how quickly these changes happen when the children are as impressionable as they are, it's little wonder we have some who just can't cope." Not that the twins had that problem, nope. But they had heard stories of other students acting out and having traumatic-like manifestations only to be taken away from home. They were the weak ones, in Charity's opinion, but it was still true that they mightn't have snapped were they not thrown so mercilessly into the deep end, as it were, and expected to swim. Some could, some couldn't, it was that simple.

They didn't need to relate to others, the girls had themselves to depend on.

Charity followed the older girl through the routine, matching her move for move and putting on her "game face" of smiles and bounce. Putting on a performance was easy enough, so cheerleading really was right up their alley. It was one of the few things the twins enjoyed. "Thank you," Charity accepted the compliment graciously, but dreaded having to come up with one of her own for the sake of cordiality. "You're a great leader. I think you could be center someday." Basically, the lead cheerleader whom the depended on to follow in a uniform routine.

[Carleigh Davidson]

"Most people do mean well." agreed Carleigh. With the girl's next sentence, she sounded incredibly wise and beyond her young age. She sounded like an adult, and even then, some failed to see how traumatizing and life changing a move can be. "Exactly. And all of these youth become the 'problem children' we see around the school and it's like, maybe they just wanted someone to sympathize with them and give a hug." She rambled, running a hand through her ponytail. It was a hard change, but Carleigh had done well due to her extroverted personality. Otherwise, it could have been a completely different story.

"How are you adjusting?" Carleigh asked, out of curiosity. She considered asking about Charity's twin, but the girl probably had enough of everyone lumping them as one entity rather than two.

Carleigh let her exuberant smile falter a little, so it didn't feel as plastic. The routine was really coming together. Soon, the entire squad would rehearse and fix out all the minor details. She nodded enthusiastically, seeing great potential in Charity. She felt... protective, almost, of the younger girl. Her jaw nearly dropped at her next compliment, as Carleigh beamed. "You really think so? Maybe I'll get to senior year."