The Unlikely Death of Stephanie Pink

It all started back in 1996.

It was around 8 PM, yet several of the lights in the school were on. Stephanie stumbled around the school campus. She was in no way passed curfew; in fact, she was definitely old enough to be out and about on her own. As doing such, she could swear that she heard (or was hearing) something. She could not tell or was not quite sure of what it was. This might have been due to her being in a specific area; or, likely so, walking near a different side of the school, a shadier side. Without a second thought, she went and walked further to the source of the sound. The closer she got to it, the more she came to realize that it was more than just a sound; it was the sound of cheering. She did not hurry over to it, except maybe a little bit; she walked quicker for only about ten seconds. Right then and there, while looking through the chain-link wire fence, she came to notice a small group of people sitting at the benches. The further she looked, however, the more she realized that it was not exactly a small group.

There looked to be about fifteen (if not, twenty) them. Not that there were not any females, but sitting on the benches were mostly male, as they appeared to be watching a performance of some-sort. The majority of females were, in fact, the ones doing the performing. You could probably guess what the reason was for this and the answer is simple: the group of females performing were, none other than, cheerleaders. Not one of them appeared to have on a uniform, but that was probably because it was unnecessary for the time. It was weird enough that they were doing (whatever kind they were) cheers during that specific time.

But Stephanie did not seem to wonder any further of it. As instead, she was blatantly enjoying the show herself. As such, she decided to get a better glimpse out of what was going on. That, however, did not turn out so well, as her glasses (and yes, she wore those) ended up getting tangled alongside the chain of the fence. Despite trying her best to get them out, it was just damn near impossible. Two which, she mumbled, “Dammit.”

Luckily though, her doing just that ended up garnering the attention of the slightly large group not too far away. In less than five seconds, the cheerleaders then called in a break (at least, that’s how it appeared), as one of them stood still and looked around. “Does anybody else hear something?”

“No,” a male sitting at the bench asked, acting quite unsure.

“Yeah,” another cheerleader spoke out, “I hear it too.”

Another male sitting at the bench then held up his left index finger. “It’s coming from over there.”

Finally, each and every person at that group spotted someone (that being Stephanie) standing not too far away from them all the way behind the gate.

Not one of them had the slightest clue of what she was doing, but that was until went and walked right over to said person. “You look like you could use a hand.”

Stephanie looked up at her. She could not really tell (either because of the fact she did not have her glasses on, or the fact that it was so dim that she could not make anything out of it), but the girl approaching her appeared to be African-American. She was not disinterested about it, thankfully, as much as she was re-leaved.

“Am I correct?” the cheerleader asked in addition.

“Yeah,” Stephanie hesitantly answered, “yes please.”

“What’re you looking for?”

Stephanie then told her. To which, the cheerleader responded by looking down herself. “What exactly do they look like?”

“Well, they’re glasses, what do you expect them to?”

Immediately then, the cheerleader rose back up. “I meant —” she then paused, giving Stephanie a stern look. “What shape are they? What color?”

Hesitantly, Stephanie gave her the best answers that she could think of, “Pink — with round lenses.”

Despite looking for them as hard as she could, the cheerleader just automatically gave up. She then firmly shrugged. “I can’t see shit,” she then began walking backwards, “So I’m gonna go get some help.”

Stephanie watched as the cheerleader walked right back over to her group. She began feeling somewhat left-out, obviously because she was continually standing behind the tall chain-linked fence. That did not seem to last long though, thankfully, as the cheerleader appeared to be coming right back, this time with someone else by her side.

“What’ve we got here?” the other person asked, it was already obvious that it was a male, as soon as he spoke in a deep huskey voice.

“She lost her glasses,” the cheerleader specified.

The husky-voiced male appeared stunned. “Well then, let me — fetch something,” by the look of it, he quickly dug his hand into his pocket. He then added, “and then I’ll — see what I can do.” After pulling it out from said pocket, the husky-voice male held what appeared to be a flashlight in his hand; Stephanie could not tell what specific kind/model it was, but did it really matter? In a matter of seconds, he clicked the flashlight on before pointing it right towards the ground. As doing such, he then quickly pointed it up towards Stephanie; specifically, her face. “What do they look like?”

While squinting, as if she was looking in direct sunlight (which was practically the case), Stephanie answered, “They’re glasses.” She then said to herself in her head (repeating what she had already said) ‘What do you think they look like.’

To which, the husky-voice male scoffed, “That’s helpful.” Pointing the flashlight back onto the ground, he then added “not.”

Thankfully enough, the glasses were finally found, as they were sitting at least an inch away from Stephanie’s right foot.

“Well,” the husky-voice male said, “look what I found.”

Despite this, Stephanie still seemed confused. “Where are they?”

The cheerleader began glaring at her. “Look down,” she firmly said to her, “and over to your right.”

“Yeah,” the husky-voice male added, “I mean, I’m pointing the light right at them.”

As soon as she looked down, Stephanie felt, not just relieved, but stunned as well. Making no hesitation, she stuck her left hand through the lowest hole of the gate and finally picket the pair up off of the dark grassy ground. Doing that was not easy for her. But, compared to those last few minutes, it was still easy.

“And vuala,” the cheerleader spoke out, just as the husky-voice male switched the flashlight back off.

Despite not bothering to put them back on, Stephanie held her glasses within her index finger and thumb from both hands. She began taking the time to look at the cheerleader as well as the husky-voice male (who had the flashlight to begin with) standing right next to her. “Thank you,” she finally responded, “so much.”

The cheerleader then shrugged. “No problem.” She cocked her head and faced the husky-voice male. “Right?”

He shrugged as well. “Yeah, no problem at all.”

Right then and there, another female (quite obviously, another cheerleader) began approaching. “What the hell is taking so long?”

The cheerleader (more specifically, the first female) turned around and looked at her. “Chill out, Melanie.”

“Yeah,” the husky-voice male added, “we were just helping this girl find her eye-sight.”

The first cheerleader looked right back over to him. “Darwin.”

“Wha —”

“He means glasses,” the first cheerleader corrected as she was speaking to the second one.

She, to which, shrugged. “Okay — are you two coming back or what?”

“We are,” the first one responded, immediately before holding up her right hand, “just give us a few minutes.”

The second cheerleader began sighing, “Jesus Christ.”

Stephanie, on that note, gave that cheerleader a stern look. It was not exactly a glare, as much as it was a look of aggravation.

As soon as the second cheerleader began leaving the spot, the first one walked forth and right up to Stephanie. “Why don’t you come with us.”

The look on Stephanie’s face turned from a stern one, to a confused one. “What for?”

“So you can meet everyone.”

Stephanie hesitated. “I ... don’t ... know about ... th —”

“Come on, don’t be like that.”

“Yeah, stick-in-the-mud.”

“Darwin,” the first cheerleader yelled at him, “shut — up!”

He then began to gawk at her.

“Just come around and then we’ll introduce you to everybody.

After hearing that sentence, Stephanie finally put her glasses back on. “How am I supposed to do that?”

Hearing her ask that, the first cheerleader slowly looked around. About seven seconds later, she started to realize that there was no possible way of doing so. “I’m not ... entirely sure, actually.”

“You could climb,” the husky-voice male suggested.

The first cheerleader, on the other hand, held an angry look. “Don’t listen to him, okay?” She then turned her attention to him, carrying the same exact look. ”Darwin, either shut the fuck up, or go. Your choice.”

As he began taking her request, the husky-voice male immediately shrugged, loudly wondering to himself, “What the fuck did I say?”

“I don’t suppose you can think of a way?” Stephanie was asked.

Said person shrugged, despite the fact that she was hesitant. “I’ve never climbed anything before ...”

The cheerleader looked at her in disbelief.

“But I could try.”

Watching her lay her left hand up onto the gate, the cheerleader quickly spoke up, “That really isn’t necessary.”

Stephanie shrugged again. “Okay, I won’t then.”

“You know what, it’s getting late anyway. So why don’t we worry about it another time.”

“Worry about what?”

Again, the cheerleader stared at her in disbelief. She then quickly specified, “You meeting everybody.”

“You mean over there?” Stephanie asked her, pointing her finger at the group of people, whom were, in fact, getting ready to leave as well.

The cheerleader continued staring at her for the next four seconds. She then nodded to her firmly. “Duh.” While turning around, she continued to face her. “See ya.” But before walking away any further, she spoke out one last time, “I don’t think I ever got your name.” Stephanie then told her. To which, she responded, “Rhonda.”

Watching all of them leave, Stephanie finally did the same.