Mini-Skirts and Pom-Poms (Carleigh)

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At least this school had a cheerleading squad. They were going to need some way to get exercise since none of the other sports available were interesting. Seriously, why would these girls risk running around a dirt road for hours on end just to look ugly at the end. And they had no interest in joining a herd of people fighting over a stupid ball. At least the cheeleading squad allowed some sort of art and performance to be done. Practice made perfect and they could practice as much as they needed and they performed every single game. That was so much better than the dance team who didn't perform or weren't the center of the school's attention half as often as the cheer squad.

It was their kind of sport.

They both had their hair up in a high ponytail, this time with their ribbons being the standard of the school colors. While matched in identical grey shirts and black shorts, it was nearly impossible to tell them apart aside from the mole that was on Charity's left cheek. There were other members there already when they arrived. Practice hadn't yet started, so there was at least still time to stretch. The 14-year-old girls set their bags on the bleachers of the gymnasium and picked a spot on the floor to begin their exercises.

The problem was...who got to go first. This was always a battle between them, and while one would think that switching between the two every time they practiced would be a solution, they were both inherently stubborn and demanded that the other yield to their own comfort. They stood staring at each other with fierce expressions while they tried to make this decision. Finally, Temperance yielded to her sister, and Charity settled herself on the floor of the gym and lifted her legs to allow for her dear sister to help her with her stretches.

Temperance wasn't happy about this at all. Charity should have know what she would have done. Their eyes met, one set daring the other to move forward with her plan while the other seeped only resentment. Temperance pushed on Charity's legs. Further. Further. Too far.

"Tempy, you idiot! That hurts! Stop that right now!!"

"It's what you get for being a spoiled little princess," Temperance shot back with a catlike haughtiness. She pushed harder.

"Ow!! Tempy! You bitch! I hate you!" Charity bent her legs and tried to kick her sister.

Temperance wasn't much deterred from that though. "The feeling's mutual!" she shouted, giving her sister's legs one final push and storming off a total of three steps before she folded her arms and sat disgruntled on the floor.

What a way to start out this day of practice.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Two years ago, Carleigh had noticed a flyer advertising tryouts for the cheerleading squad. After adjusting to her new found powers and the move away from California, she figured why not? It was something to do and more productive than sitting around in her dorm and sulking. Ever since, Carleigh has been part of the squad. It was fun exercise! Plus, she had the perky attitude and confidence necessary to raise school spirit at sporting events.

Carleigh had her blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail, wearing a form fitting pink tank top and a pair of black shorts. She sat down on the gymnasium floor, stretching her legs out in front of her, stretching. After doing a few floor stretches, Carleigh bounced up off the floor and headed over towards her bag to get a drink from her water bottle.

Only, she noticed a problem. Her eyes narrowed in the direction of two girls who... well, she couldn't tell them apart. Had to be twins. She hated problems and arguments within the cheerleading squad. It was suppose to be a fun way to meet new girls.. or guys, no judgement.. and she'd seen so many petty fights ruin friendships. Even the girls were sisters, this had to be resolved. Carleigh glanced around the room and noticed a few of the other cheerleaders staring.

"Woah!" She jogged over to the girls, who were still sitting within range of each other. They looked younger, pretty but with a certain haughty air to them. "Is everything okay here? Need some help with the stretches or is it something between you two ladies?" Carleigh placed her hands on her hips, waiting for an answer.

[Deleted]

The girls were hardly paying attention to the response they were getting from other people right now. They had far more important things to concentrate on. Like figuring out how they were going to kill each other without killing themselves!

Charity was sitting facing away from her dear sister, rubbing her legs and wishing all the 2nd hand pain on Temperance. The rougher girl was actively ignoring anything and everything that had to do with Charity, even the strain in her own legs that totally didn't have her on the verge of tearing up. Nope, Temperance really didn't think that through and no doubt Charity hadn't either. But it was just so frustrating sometimes to never be able to have a moment alone with her thoughts because someone else was always listening in and trying to force her opinion on her.

It was an inward battle that was being fought at the moment, one of pure resistance and rejection of the other gestalt, when one of the other cheerleaders approached them and inquired about their dispute. Having a third party, however, opened the door to bring the conflict outwards again.

"It was her! She's always…!"
"Don't listen to a word she says! You saw what happened…!"
"Shut up and let me speak!"
"You've nothing of value to say. Nobody wants to hear it!"
"Who says!?"
"I say!"
"God, I hate you! Get out of my head!"
"You get out of mine! I'm sick of your whining!"
"Shut up!"
"You shut up!"
"No you!"

Unfortunately, the two girls were lost in their own little cat-fight once again, the bickering unlikely to stop unless more intervention was made.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh's eyes widened, as she looked from girl to girl. She kind of saw what had happened between the two. A stretching exercise gone wrong. Only, both girls were rubbing their legs and Carleigh was totally confused. "Uhm, okay well why are you both rubbing your legs? Are you both hurt?" She sounded confused, because.. well, she was. Carleigh had never seen or experienced anything like this. Not to mention they were constantly cutting each other off and talking about being in each other's head. Maybe it was a power thing.

Holding one hand up, Carleigh whistled with her other fingers to get the two to quiet down. "Okay, okay ladies, please." she emphasized with a pause. "Honestly, this is just ridiculous! What happened?" Carleigh soon realized the two would bicker and talk at the same time, and her eyes widened at the potential chaos. "Wait, wait... how about you go first?" She directed to the girl on the ground and kept her hand held up towards the girl who was standing. Already trying to resolve conflict before cheer practice begun?

Jeez, this was a nightmare.

[Deleted]

If Carleigh though this was a nightmare for her, she should imagine what it was like for the twins. They couldn't go anywhere without each other and always knew what the other was thinking and it had devolved into them chronically jabbing at each other both publicly and privately as a way of showing their disdain for this stupid gestalt power that neither of them asked for. They would have liked each other a whole lot better if they could just get some time apart…ever!

They ignored her initial question, but when it came to the "what happened" thing, both Charity and Temperance jumped on it just like she feared.

"She started it!" they said in unison.

Of course, like always, it seemed like Charity got the preferential treatment and was given the opportunity to speak first. Temperance glowered.

"We were just stretching and she was just pushing so hard, it really hurt! I don't know why she keeps doing this to me," the quieter girl whined all meek-like, as if she were about to burst into tears.

"Liar!" Temperance jumped on her words. "You were planning the exact same thing, don't you deny it!"

"You see how she is! She's so mean to me!" Charity plopped her face into her hands, seemingly distraught.

[Carleigh Davidson]

Carleigh looked between the twins, sighing. This was so confusing! The two girls were contradicting each other with their statements and Carleigh had no idea who to believe. "Well..." she began slowly. "Okay, well first off how about we introduce ourselves? I'd like to call you two by your actual respective name... I'm Carleigh." she introduced.

"You girls shouldn't take anger out on each other. You guys could get seriously hurt and not be able to cheer for a bit." Carleigh frowned. The two girls desperately needed to sort their shit out. Looking at the girl who was standing, she asked "Can you apologize to your sister?" in a pleasant voice. She was kind of falling for the other girl's ploy. "We don't want to push ourselves and hurt each other. Also, maybe you two girls should work with other people?" Carleigh suggested. "I can partner up with one of you two to go through the stretches and then another girl can work with someone else." It seemed like a simple fix to the problem, at least in her mind.

[Deleted]

This was just so aggravating! Temperance was quickly losing her temper over Charity's obscene behavior, she could only hope that she got angry enough to make Charity slip up on her composure and reveal just what a terrifying witch she was.

"I'm Temperance," Charity said without missing a beat.

Temperance shot her sister a look of bemusement then, with a sigh provided her "own" name. "I'm Charity," she grumbled.

They both listened to the lecture the older girl gave them. Of course they knew that, they weren't stupid! But there was only so much you could take before having to take action against the one who threatened to consume your mind. Temperance certainly didn't want to apologize to her sister, at least not vocally. If she did, Charity would know it was a lie anyway.

However, when the suggestion to work with other people came out, both girls replied fervently with a resounding, "No!"

They refused to work with any other than each other! At this point in their syncing, it would just be too confusing to be working with someone else, having to pay attention to two conversations at once. It was, however, Charity who relented first. "I suppose we could try. Couldn't we, my dear Charity?" She smiled over at her sister.

Finally, Temperance gave in. "Fine. Dear Temperance," she hissed.

[Carleigh Davidson]

"Alright, well it's nice to meet you two girls." Carleigh said with a beaming smile. Probably would have been nicer and more pleasant in a different context. The older blonde didn't want to leave a bad first impression, but sometimes, it was necessary to give off a strict impression.

"I mean, if you don't want to that's totally cool." Carleigh quickly said. "I can see you guys are twins, must work together all the time huh?" Probably difficult to work with other people. Also convenient to have someone always there. In a way, Carleigh was jealous. "But it might be nice to get away from each other for a bit, cool down, meet some new people." She listed several benefits.

[Deleted]

Charity smiled up at the girl who had "saved" her and offered the hand of friendship and understanding. With a feminine grunt, she got to her feet and dusted off her knees. "It's nice to meet you too. Thank you for your assistance," Charity said softly.

Temperance just kept her gaze away, sighing to herself about this little game that Charity was wanting to play. Fine, she'd do it, though Temperance herself didn't really have the patience for something that could potentially be drawn out for a while. Temperance shrugged, "You don't need to convince me, we've already agreed to it."

The harsher girl looked out to the others in the cheer squad. "Did you have someone in mind, or did you want me to find someone on my own?" She looked up at the older girl with dark, observing eyes. "Carleigh, yes?" she asked, checking to make sure she got the girl's name. [/i]

[Carleigh Davidson]

"No problem!" Carleigh beamed towards... Chairty? Temperance? Shit, she already forgot who was who. She decided to ignore the confusion for now and instead began to ramble. "Yeah I noticed you two girls looked newer around here. When did you join the squad?"

Carleigh also decided to ignore the other girl's comment. Fighting fire with fire would not help in this case. Pursing her lips, Carleigh looked at each girl. Hmm, good question. "Well, ultimately, I'll leave the decision up to you but one of our senior members is over there doing floor routines. Her name is Johanna and she's a total sweetheart. Just ask her to partner up and she'll help get you warmed up... without being pushed too far." Carleigh nodded towards the girl. "Yes... and... you're Charity?" She probably messed that up. "I'm sorry if I mix up your names."

[Deleted]

"We only joined a few months ago, back in October." The couple had just manifested shortly before then, first going to Kocher, then transferring out here to be with their cousin, Oliver.

Temperance turned her head to Carleigh's suggestion. "Alright. I will do that then." Given a few minutes, Temperance had calmed down a little bit at least, though she was still unhappy with being separated from her sister. She would just have to deal with the discomfort for the time being. "Yes," she confirmed the lie. "I am Charity." She shook her head. "It's alright. Everyone does it. Even our parents."

With that, Temperance left to go warm up with the other senior, leaving Carleigh and Charity alone. Charity smiled at the girl. "Thank you again for your help. It's hard being sisters sometimes."

[Carleigh Davidson]

"Oh, okay." October was a month after recruits were usually accepted but the cheerleading squad wasn't exactly bustling with students anymore. Carleigh nodded thoughtfully. "Huh, feel bad for not noticing or saying anything to you two beforehand."

Jeez, even their parents? Carleigh felt for these girls, moreso than before. There had to be one aspect between the girls that differentiated them. "Alright, thanks again Charity!" she called out after the one twin.

Now she could focus on the one girl, giving her some one on one time without her sister. "It's my pleasure, really Temperance. I can only imagine, I don't have any sisters." Carleigh frowned, as she always wanted a little sister to go shopping with and talk about cute boys. "Must make it worse being twins." She added as a second thought.

[Deleted]

"It's quite alright," Charity reassured her with a smile. "Believe it or not, we're both actually quite shy." Kind of a lie, kind of not. Not so much shy but more they didn't like letting people into their world. The Quinns had each other and that was often good enough for them. Even if they did irritate each other just as much.

Given enough time, one might be able to distinguish the difference between the girls. At the moment and to the observant, the only one was the small mole Charity bore on the left side of her face. They often coordinated clothing to differentiate between themselves, but that was unreliable as the girls also had the habit of switching color schemes, names, and even personalities for the express purpose of confusing others. Like they had just done with Carleigh.

Charity giggled in understanding at Carleigh's admission. "I've only ever had my sister, really. It's hard to picture life without her." She closed her eyes gently in a slight shrug. "That's just the way it is, I suppose."

As they spoke, Charity started getting into position for the warm-up exercises. Hopefully, Carleigh didn't need any prompting. Otherwise, polite, casual conversation seemed expected. "How long have you been at this school, Carleigh?"

[Carleigh Davidson]

Shy? Carleigh had always been outgoing and never really understood how people could be shy. Still, the girl nodded with a cheerful smile. "Oh, well maybe now that you're adjusted and know the squad you girlies will be able to feel a little more social. And if not, that's cool too." she rambled.

"I've always wanted a sister, I'm kind of jealous to tell the truth." She added with a laugh, getting ready to help Temperance with any of the warm up exercises that required the duo. "So it's always just been you two as each other's best friends sort of thing?"

Carleigh smiled at the young girl, pausing for a moment to think back. She used her fingers. "Let's see... manifested in March of 2010... so almost four years now." Damn, four years of her life in these walls. Time sure flew by. She still had one more year before graduation. "Makes me feel kind of old now." she said with a laugh, stretching out her own legs on the gym floor.

[Deleted]

"Perhaps," Charity mused with a slight smile. They had each other so why should they reach out to anyone else? Besides, it was always the same conversations anyway. "Oh you're twins! What's that like?" "You two are so alike!" "I wish I had a sister that close." It got tiresome after a while.

This girl, Carleigh, didn't seem to be any different. Trying to find something to admire about the girls was fine, but they always went for the part that they had the biggest problems with. Of course, the ever composed Charity would never let on to her irritation. "Yes," she agreed in a small voice. "I don't know what I'd do without my sister." Probably a lot of things.

Four years already? That was one thing that amazed both Charity and Temperance, was how long so many other students had been here and working on their abilities. And they wondered if it had been any easier for them. Carleigh seemed like a well-balance(albeit airheaded) girl. She probably didn't have to go through any sort of identity crisis like what came with gestaltism. And it made Charity silently resent her, for being so pretty and happy and outspoken. "You can't be that old. You're so young and pretty looking." Charity followed her lead and spreading her legs out and arching over with exceptional flexibility.