The shadow looks kinda mangled

Hey, was she dressed differently before? And about other letters in artwork - white spot on the right looks exactly as cyrillic letter "Ц".

looks better. About the shadow, try doing a skewed 'K' for the shadow instead of a realistic shadow.

Any better?  I struggle with the shoes and the smile at this size, but I do like the blue.  Thanks.

get rid of the speech bubble it is a bit of a cop out. do cheerleaders have skirts and shoes? could the uniform be different olor to make it stand out more (eg. blue). she could be smiling. u could take more artistic license with the shadow make it mroe of a K.

I thought about that too after the fact.  Maybe one of the mods will chime in on it.  I do recall something like that in another challenge as well. 

 plus if this is for the challenge you're not supposed to have other letters in it, so no words :(

EDIT:

ok maybe not. where the hell did i pull that notion from? must have read it in another challenge. sorry!

Its a great idea but its not obvious enough