It was a cold, brisk morning. I had woken up at 5:10 am. I
was straightening my hair with my stunt group girls right by my side. We were
getting ready for the big day- the Eastern Maine cheerleading championships. I
swiped on my eye shadow primer and started on my makeup. Glitter, lots of it.
Glitter is like war paint to a cheerleader. It runs in our veins, it coats our
eyes and our uniform. It gives us an alter ego that no one can understand until
they’re in that situation. I put in my bow and headed for the car. We boarded
that big yellow bus and headed out for a day full of cheering, The way down was
quiet. Everyone was still tired and nervous. The nerves were flooding my veins
and stomach as we neared the entrance to the auditorium. We all walked in
through the double doors into a room full of hundreds of cheerleaders. The
battle had officially begun.
We took our usual spot in the bleachers as we had every year and started to suit up. We laced up our Nike Cheer shoes and set off to the big blue mat in the middle of the floor. I started to stretch out with my stunt group and we talked about what our goals for the day were. "Hit your shit. I don't care if Whitney feels like she's coming down. You keep her ass in the air!" I told them.
"Agreed, you guys, we can do this. We have so much potential to be great and we're going to do it. If we hit our stunts and our passes we can win this."
"I love you guys no matter what happens."
"Don't talk like that! The only thing that's going to happen is we're going to HIT!" We all got up and started to warm up our baskets. We threw some straight rides then some toe touches and our pike baskets. We were feeling great in warm ups.
Eventually the time came for us to sit and watch the others compete their routines. Our biggest rival, Central went first. We all sat there holding hands, praying they had mistakes. One girl, missed a jump and we all started to cheer (in our heads of course) "Did you see that girl? She missed a jump they're going to get a zero in that category!"
"Yes I saw it sh- Oh my god! They just had a tumbling collision! Yes!"
"You guys don't cheer so loud we'll get jinxed!" My coach said. After Central stammered off the mat in tears, Orono was up next. They were hitting a pretty solid routine until their pyramid. They were doing a basic shoulder sit- this is something a 5 year old can do and they dropped her right on the ground. "YES!!!!!" We all screamed in unison. All we had to do was hit and we'd be crowned the Eastern Maine Champions. It was our time on the mat. We were all so nervous but we stuck it out. It came time to our hardest stunt. We were up and completed most of the stunt when my flyer came down- about 5 counts early. It was a fall. I was heartbroken. We finished the routine with no mistakes but we knew we had blown our chances of a victory.
It was time for awards and all of the teams gathered on the mat. The announcer called the top 6 teams who would advance to the state final. 6th was Bucksport, 5th was Orono we all laughed hysterically because they were a bunch of cocky bitches who deserved that 5th place embarrassment. 4th was Houlton, and then it came down to top 3. We had made it this far. We knew that it was us, Central and Sumner left. Tears were filling my eyes as I anticipated the 3rd place team to be called. "In third place... the Sumner Tigers!" I immediately burst into tears. We had medaled. We were second place and that was okay for me. We were coming into this competition with the hopes of simply advancing to the state final. "You guys, Central had a collision and jump issues, there is no way they beat us" I heard a girl on my team say. As we waited for the announcer I got a little tinge of hope in my heart that we had won. "In second place..." It seemed as though he waited an eternity to say it. "The Central Red Devils!" The room burst into explosive cheering. My teammates hugged each other and were all crying and I sat there in utter shock at what had just happened. My hands flew to my face and I began to sob like a baby. We were Eastern Maine Champions. After Central received their award the announcer finally called us up as the 1st place champions. I had never been so happy in my entire life time. The hard work paid off and we won.
We took our usual spot in the bleachers as we had every year and started to suit up. We laced up our Nike Cheer shoes and set off to the big blue mat in the middle of the floor. I started to stretch out with my stunt group and we talked about what our goals for the day were. "Hit your shit. I don't care if Whitney feels like she's coming down. You keep her ass in the air!" I told them.
"Agreed, you guys, we can do this. We have so much potential to be great and we're going to do it. If we hit our stunts and our passes we can win this."
"I love you guys no matter what happens."
"Don't talk like that! The only thing that's going to happen is we're going to HIT!" We all got up and started to warm up our baskets. We threw some straight rides then some toe touches and our pike baskets. We were feeling great in warm ups.
Eventually the time came for us to sit and watch the others compete their routines. Our biggest rival, Central went first. We all sat there holding hands, praying they had mistakes. One girl, missed a jump and we all started to cheer (in our heads of course) "Did you see that girl? She missed a jump they're going to get a zero in that category!"
"Yes I saw it sh- Oh my god! They just had a tumbling collision! Yes!"
"You guys don't cheer so loud we'll get jinxed!" My coach said. After Central stammered off the mat in tears, Orono was up next. They were hitting a pretty solid routine until their pyramid. They were doing a basic shoulder sit- this is something a 5 year old can do and they dropped her right on the ground. "YES!!!!!" We all screamed in unison. All we had to do was hit and we'd be crowned the Eastern Maine Champions. It was our time on the mat. We were all so nervous but we stuck it out. It came time to our hardest stunt. We were up and completed most of the stunt when my flyer came down- about 5 counts early. It was a fall. I was heartbroken. We finished the routine with no mistakes but we knew we had blown our chances of a victory.
It was time for awards and all of the teams gathered on the mat. The announcer called the top 6 teams who would advance to the state final. 6th was Bucksport, 5th was Orono we all laughed hysterically because they were a bunch of cocky bitches who deserved that 5th place embarrassment. 4th was Houlton, and then it came down to top 3. We had made it this far. We knew that it was us, Central and Sumner left. Tears were filling my eyes as I anticipated the 3rd place team to be called. "In third place... the Sumner Tigers!" I immediately burst into tears. We had medaled. We were second place and that was okay for me. We were coming into this competition with the hopes of simply advancing to the state final. "You guys, Central had a collision and jump issues, there is no way they beat us" I heard a girl on my team say. As we waited for the announcer I got a little tinge of hope in my heart that we had won. "In second place..." It seemed as though he waited an eternity to say it. "The Central Red Devils!" The room burst into explosive cheering. My teammates hugged each other and were all crying and I sat there in utter shock at what had just happened. My hands flew to my face and I began to sob like a baby. We were Eastern Maine Champions. After Central received their award the announcer finally called us up as the 1st place champions. I had never been so happy in my entire life time. The hard work paid off and we won.
That's a fine set-up, but two-thirds of the tale is missing! Where's the battle, the triumph, the tragedy, the bonding, the rotten judging, the screwed-up routine, the bitches from your rival high school, etc?
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Hey, yeah! That's the story, that's the juice, that's the dialogue, that's the thrills and spills, that's the suspense, that's the good the bad and the ugly--plus that happy photo!
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