SAU Cheerleading Team

## SAU's cheerleading team

Each cheerleader, such as Robynne here, has a brief biography and set of photos displayed on the team's website.

### Function

* Cheerleading
* Promotion

### Notable members

* Cammy DeCroix (captain)
* Jodi Ryder (officer)
* Tanya Tell (officer)
* Angela Warrant (formerly)
* Stacy Ambrose
* Robert Dreese/Robynne Darling
* Vivian Feliz
* See Known members for more

**Schuyler Adamson University's cheerleading team** is an organization in *Magical Girl Policy*. It also makes appearances in several MGP Vignettes. As the name suggests, it is made up of SAU's cheerleaders, though the group is also responsible for promotion of on-campus events. Several major characters join the team, and its unusual structure grants it considerable power over Student Association votes, which is readily abused by captain Cammy DeCroix.

## Description

SAU's cheer team was originally like any other, but two years before the start of the series, the size of the team and the scope of its functions were heavily increased. All student organizations are made to be rely on the team to advertise themselves, so it receives a cut of their dues.

Prospective members are expected to try out for the team over the summer, though recruitment during the school year has also occurred for special cases. The uniform is green, black, and white, consisting of a tight, midriff-baring top, a short skirt, white tube socks, and white sneakers. Sock length is the only notable variation among members; shorter cheerleaders are typically given thigh-high socks.

### Divisions

The Pep Squad is open only to students in their sophomore year or higher. Members of this squad are nicknamed "peppers". The Pep Squad performs the typical cheerleading activities of appearing at sporting events and rallies. During particularly busy periods, peppers are assigned to assist the Promotion Squad.

The Promotion Squad is the only branch of the team available to freshmen. Members of this squad are called promoters. The Promotion Squad serves as the sole promotion arm of campus organizations, primarily through handing out fliers in a designated area. Promoters are typically assigned a single day of the week for their duties and are exempt from SAU's dress code on such days, as they are expected to appear in their cheerleader uniform. Promoters also practice cheerleading stunts with the rest of the team, as their performance nominally affects their likelihood being chosen for the Pep Squad next year. In reality, good performance at cheer practice and promotion duty are not the only qualifications, as those moved up are arbitrarily chosen by the officers. Successfully becoming an officer as well as getting recruited in the first place involve similar practices. Cammy is said to prefer girls who are rich, well-connected, and/or particularly attractive.

The team's officers are Cammy DeCroix, Jodi Ryder, and Tanya Tell. Cammy is the captain and makes executive decisions, though it is usually Jodi who relays orders and assignments to the rest of the team. Tanya uses her connections and social media prowess to keep an eye on campus events, gossip, and persons of interest.

## History

### Background

Robert's mother was on the cheerleading team in her youth, which is how she met football player Ellis Dreese, who would become her husband.

Two years prior to the start of the series, Cammy DeCroix joined the cheerleading team. Though she was a freshman, Cammy had power over the current captain, and managed to convince the Student Association to reorganize the structure of campus organizations: the cheer team was split into the Promotion Squad and Pep Squad, with the former being the sole official promotion arm of clubs and thus receiving a cut of their dues.

Cammy became captain of the cheer team, with her best friend Jodi as a fellow officer, during her sophomore year, abusing the Promotion Squad's power to limit growth to only clubs she could control. She finds that the nerd club SFEERS is growing so rapidly that it threatens her current majority of controlled Student Association votes. She sends two cheerleaders, Rita and Fiona, to the club's opening social in hopes of integrating into it, but their feigned interest failed to fool its members. Cammy attempts to curb SFEERS's growth by blocking the club's attempts at receiving promotion.

New recruit Angela Warrant became the captain's go-to promoter, as she was enthralled by her aura and assumed it was a mark of a future Spirit Guard. Cammy would even, on occasion, give Angela special permission to cheer alongside the Pep Squad at games. Angela, normally a strict rule follower, was eventually convinced to start skipping schoolwork in favor of promotion duties, as Cammy could call in favors to have assignments done for her.

In "Black Cats", Angela and three other cheerleaders visit Poltergeist Halloween for costumes. Two of the unnamed cheerleaders match the respective descriptions of Tanya and Sanvi. Before entering, Angela senses something from the store attempt to drain her Investiture, so she uses the excuse of forgetting something in the car to split off from her friends and transform. Valor makes her entrance by ripping off the emergency door and confronts Tricky Streetcat, who revealed herself in response to Angela's unusual Investiture. The cheerleaders flee at Valor's command, and Valor repels the monster's attempt to capture the stunned employee Lauren. Valor convinces Lauren to run, then fights Tricky Streetcat and defeats her.

In a blog post, Taralynn Andrews shows art depicting Cammy, Tanya, and Angela at a Halloween party and describes the circumstances behind it. Cammy and Tanya are dressed as Spirit Guards Valor and Tenacity, respectively, while Angela has run late from promotion duty and is unable to change out of her cheerleader uniform. Angela is shocked at the provocative interpretations of the Spirit Guard costumes and put off by the pair's attempt to have her drink alcohol with them.

At a later date, Angela is told by her friend Mallory Drake that Cammy has been a bad influence on her. With info obtained from Tanya's snooping, Angela discovers Cammy's scheme of controlling Student Association votes and confronts her about it. Cammy later reveals to university staff that Angela had papers written by her tutors, and made sure to remotely delete the evidence on the phone she had gifted Angela in order to cover her tracks. Angela lost her place on the team, her scholarship, and all of her friends except Mallory. Cammy, in order to shut out Angela's social life and halt further snooping, spread rumors of Angela's papers being written in return for sexual favors and warned the cheer team about her. Angela would resume interfering with Cammy's schemes, but now from the shadows. Tanya would go on to enter Cammy's inner social circle and become a cheer team officer.

"Cheer Itself" depicts the following summer, right as tryouts for the cheer team are wrapping up. One candidate, Stacy Ambrose has been eager to become an SAU cheerleader for some time now. She has befriended several of her fellows like Lilly, and works hard to demonstrate distinctive cooperative skills to Cammy, as from the start she realized the captain's opinions command considerable authority. Stacy, as instructed, enters a gym one morning to see who made the team, and finds that no one else is present despite it only being a few minutes early. Tanya enters and posts the list of new cheerleaders before leaving. Stacy is devastated to find she didn't make the cut, as cheerleading has been a major part of her life for a long time. Cammy finds her crying in the bathroom, and tells her the list Stacy saw is incorrect because Stacy has in fact made the team, and even predicts that Stacy will be the team's best promoter. It is implied that the entire morning's events were a setup by Cammy to make Stacy emotionally vulnerable to the captain.

### Week 1

In the present day, the upcoming Club Week has left the Promotion Squad overwhelmed, so the Pep Squad assists on promotion duties. Jodi orders the team to try recruiting any attractive nerds they find, as Cammy wants a cheerleader that can naturally join SFEERS and manipulate the massive club's Student Association votes. While Stacy and Lilly are promoting, they are startled when Robert absentmindedly kicks a rock in their direction. He helps Lilly retrieve her dropped fliers, and the pair recommends Club Week to him. Stacy and Lilly finish their assignment and report to Cammy and Jodi. Cammy praises the pair for their hard work, but once they leave, she expresses her frustrations at the team's failure to find any hot nerds.

### Weeks 2-4

The Pep Squad continues to assist the Promotion Squad during Club Week. Cammy had rigged the Club Week floor plans so the SFEERS booth is just outside of the circle, allowing for easy surveillance of girls interested in the nerds' club. Jodi sees Kara and Vivian exit the SFEERS booth and considers trying to recruit them, but is unable to approach them or learn their names, only getting a photo to show Cammy.

The next day, Jodi and Cammy are promoting in the Club Week area and are shocked to see a particularly hot girl walk out of the SFEERS booth. Cammy calls Stacy over, who tells them she's friends with this Robynne, but adds that Robynne already turned down joining the team earlier that day. Cammy assures Stacy that Robynne simply lacks self-confidence, which friends like Stacy can remedy. She convinces Stacy to treat Robynne to lunch on Thursday so she can show up to personally recruit the girl. Cammy has Jodi ask Tanya to figure out as much about Robynne as possible.

Tanya calls Jodi in a panic as there was almost no info to be found on Robynne, who has zero social media presence and scant few records. They do, however, find out the names of Kara and Vivian, who turn out to be Robynne's roommates. The next day, Jodi reports to Cammy with the news. They conclude Robynne must be a recluse that checked out the SFEERS booth at the suggestion of her roommates. Later, Cammy asks Stacy for Robynne's approximate measurements, then orders an extremely expensive tailored dress to serve as a bribe, thinking someone who dresses as unfashionably as Robynne will be ecstatic to receive such a gift.

Cammy joins in the middle of Stacy and Robynne's lunch as planned. Robynne sees through Cammy's casual act and demands to know what the captain wants so badly that she'd make Stacy arrange this meeting. Robynne turns down joining cheer again, and when she correctly guesses Cammy wants her for her SFEERS membership, Cammy sends Stacy away so the negotiations can be one-on-one. Cammy admits she thought Robynne would be simple to convince, so she adds that being a member of both cheer and SFEERS would elevate the club in the "game" of control in the university. Cammy is shocked when Robynne refuses and leaves.

The Spirit Guard and Noriko discuss Robynne's conversation with Cammy as well as Angela's history with her. With Angela's theory of Cammy being reincarnated from the Empress, the gang decides they need a way to find out how big of a threat the captain is, figuring the best option is to have Robynne accept the invitation onto the cheer team and act as a spy. Robynne finds herself wanting to take Cammy down regardless of the Empress theory due to being reminded of Evelyn ruining Robert's high school life. They decide to send Robynne in to return the dress she was bribed with and present a list of demands, such as letting Vivian join the team as well so she won't be alone.

Robynne explains her plan to Cory and Eli, with the three failing to come up with a better one. The Hush Corps remove traces of Robynne and Vivian's friendship with Angela from social media so Cammy won't suspect the two of knowing her nemesis, and Rob is given an alternative email address for cheer matters that the Hush Corps can monitor.

Cammy, Jodi, and Tanya meet for promotion planning, with the captain's confidence in Robynne changing her mind on not joining the team confusing her officers. Robynne and Vivian approach, though Vivian is sent away, with the officers following to look into her. Robynne tells Cammy she's reconsidered the offer to play Cammy's "game" of manipulating clubs for Student Council votes, wanting to be the cheerleader that gets SFEERS involved so she can protect the club. Robynne sets several conditions for her joining the team: let Vivian join as well, don't manipulate people like Stacy to ask Robynne for things, and let Robynne ditch any promotion job she's given. She also demands the dress she was bribed with be returned in favor of shipping computer parts to "Bluster" at Cory, Eli, and Dale's dorm, as she'll need to run high-end games in order to get close to the SFEERS officers. Cammy is furious at being ordered around but agrees.

Robynne and Vivian fill out their bios and have their photos taken by Tanya for use on the cheer team's website. Stacy had been assigned to sort through and edit the photos, but since they won't be checked until the next day, she puts it off and takes up Vivian's offer of going to the SFEERS opening social. Robynne and Vivian show up to the social in uniform per Cammy's orders, but change in the restrooms once they get there. Appearing in uniform makes quite an impression on the club, with Robynne learning of Cammy's similar attempt to insert cheerleader moles last year. Stacy overhears club president Fretribution mention the Promotion Squad ignoring the club, so she offers herself, Robynne, and Vivian to help with promotion.

Cammy spites Robynne for her demands by ordering computer parts in a completely different style than what was asked. The components arrive at Cory, Eli, and Dale's dorm. Sanvi spies on the delivery for Cammy, then promotes at the door herself to check on who Robynne entrusted with this shady dealing. Sanvi assumes the more attractive Dale is Bluster and also Robynne's confidant, with her thought process detailed further in "Missing Pieces". After Sanvi reports this, a rumor forms that Robynne and Dale are dating.

Robynne is paired with Lilly for promotion duty, but makes it clear it can be safely skipped. Robynne's looks, late arrival to the team, refusal to socialize with the other cheerleaders, and Stacy's eagerness to talk about her new friend has led to several rumors about her that she shuts down. Robynne decides she has to be more proactive about her reputation going forward. Jodi continues to pair Robynne and Lilly in skippable assignments, as the two share a distaste for the job.

### Week 5

Tanya gives a surprise promotion assignment to Robynne, Vivian, Stacy, and Lilly: handing out fliers for SFEERS's *Mega Mash Family Battle* tournament being held tonight. It would appear that the timing is deliberate, as SFEERS was suddenly approved for promotion last night, with Stacy having to create the fliers herself in the rush. The Spirit Guard believes that Cammy blatantly breaching her contract with Rob is a way to see how loyal Rob will be after novelty of the extorted computer has wore off, so this job will be key to advancing as a spy. Robynne is paired with Stacy and Vivian with Lilly. Lilly had let her skipping promotion with Robynne slip to the team sometime beforehand. During the assignment, Rob has a surprising encounter with NightKnight, who looks noticeably different, has a new textured aura, and reveals he is a member of the ConSpiriters. Once the job is over, the four cheerleaders have lunch and part ways.

## Trivia

* In the August 2016 Q&A, Taralynn Andrews says the cheer team having a powerful promotion arm to exert control over the school stemmed from two things: the thought of cheerleaders "leading" things beyond sports rallies and popular cliques, and a time in college when Andrews was given a flier for a track and field event by the event's participants rather than a dedicated booster.