History Literature / DyingWithHerCheerPantsOn

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When the team reads the name on the tag in the back of Steph's uniform, they note that it's really smudged and Stephanie is the best they can make out. Steph herself notes that Stephanie only sort of sounds right. [[spoiler: It's not Stephanie. It's Per''sephone''.]]

* AcademicAthlete: Amy (a member of the DecoyProtagonist squad in the first chapter) is the only cheerleader who can always land a perfect back handspring. She also helps her squadmates study for exams and is hinted to like classical literature.* BackFromTheDead: Heather, twice. The first time, [[spoiler: Kelly]] resurrects her as a zombie with dark magic--Heather retains her intelligence and free will because she was buried as a Pumpkin and keeps the protections accorded to the squad. [[spoiler: The second time, Steph/Persephone resurrects her properly as a goodbye present.]]

* BackFromTheDead: Heather, twice. The first time, [[spoiler: Kelly]] resurrects her as a zombie with dark magic--Heather retains her intelligence and free will because she was buried as a Pumpkin and keeps the protections accorded to the squad. [[spoiler: The second time, Steph/Persephone resurrects her properly as a goodbye present.]]

Despite its humble origins, there is no more challenging or physically dangerous teen sport in the world than cheerleading. Cheerleaders are seriously injured and even killed at a higher rate than other high school sports. Their stunts are performed in skimpy uniforms without the benefit of proper safety equipment…and yet they love them, glittery eyeshadow, spirit bows, and all.

And then there are the Fighting Pumpkins, who take that injury rate as a challenge. Students of Johnson’s Crossing High School, they answer to a higher calling than the pyramid and the basket toss, pursuing the pep rally that is rising up against mysteries and monsters, kicking gods with the pointed toes of professional athletes chasing a collegiate career.

Meet Jude, half-vampire squad leader; Laurie, who can compel anyone to do as she asks; Heather, occasionally recreationally dead; Marti, strong enough to provide a foundation for any stunt; Colleen, who knows the rule book so well she may as well have written it; and Steph, who may or may not be the goddess of the harvest. The rest of the squad is ready to support them, and braced for the chaos of the big game, which may have a big body count. Prepare to jump high, yell loud, and look pretty with the Fighting Pumpkins, those glorious girls in the orange and green, whose high kicks could still be enough to save the world.

!!Dying With Her Cheer Pants On contains examples of:

* SummonBiggerFish: In "Dying With Her Cheer Pants On", the Fighting Pumpkins, faced with an unstoppable alien invasion, summon Bloody Mary. [[spoiler: They add "I killed your son", which, according to UrbanLegend, will get Mary to kill everyone. Including them, but [[HeroicSacrifice they don't care]].]]

* HiddenDepths: Laurie, initially introduced as a DumbBlonde with mind control powers, proves to be a lot more insightful than some of her stupid questions would suggest.

* TheCheerleader: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Naturally.]] The trope is discussed, averted, and backflipped over all through the book. Heather mentions that she ''thought'' she was going to be a stereotypical AlphaBitch cheerleader when she transferred to Johnson's Crossing, but she was turned away from the first Pumpkins squad she tried out for because of exactly that attitude, and eventually she realized that she didn't actually like being an AlphaBitch anyway.

* BackFromTheDead: Heather, twice. The first time, [[spoiler: Kelly]] resurrected her as a zombie with dark magic--Heather retained her intelligence and free will because she was buried as a Pumpkin and kept the protections accorded to the squad. [[spoiler: The second time, Steph/Persephone resurrected her properly as a goodbye present.]]

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampirism is a symbiote that can be passed from parent to child. Because of her human father, Jude's symbiote is weak and underdeveloped, so she doesn't have most of her powers or weaknesses yet. (She's deliberately stunting it, because at full strength it will make her immortal, and looking like a high school student forever would be really inconvenient.) Vampires require blood and are allergic to UV light, but they can eat most food (except garlic) and are fine with going out in the day as long as they're ''really'' careful about sunscreen.

* SummonBiggerFish: In "Dying With Her Cheer Pants On", the Fighting Pumpkins, faced with an unstoppable alien invasion, summons Bloody Mary. [[spoiler: They add "I killed your son", which, according to UrbanLegend, will get Mary to kill everyone. Including them, but [[HeroicSacrifice they don't care]].]]

* HumanSacrifice: Jude strongly suspects that the Pumpkins' mortality rate is high not just because the job is so dangerous, but because in some way the bargain that created the Pumpkins trades their deaths for the town's safety.

* RetGone: After every apocalypse the Fighting Pumpkins avert, reality rearranges itself so that it never happened at all. If the squad happens to have died in the process, they get erased too; only the next squad will remember them, and then only if they can find the logbook. After the short story of the same title, there's no evidence of a massive alien invasion except for a few scorch marks and the fact cheer tryouts are open again.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampirism is a symbiote that can be passed from parent to child. Because of her human father, Jude's symbiote is weak and underdeveloped, so she doesn't have most of her powers or weaknesses yet. (She's deliberately stunting it, because at full strength it will make her immortal, and looking like a high school student forever would be really inconvenient.)