I Complete The Story By Adding The Next Chapter Or Section
Chapter 52 Part 2
What would I do if I didn’t make the squad I wondered… just go off to a corner and cry? I knew I would. She finished up with the speechmaking and asked the first three to line up to go into the gym. Once she had settled into her spot at the table she called them in and shut the door. I stood outside the door in silence.
From the outside all I could hear was the music when it started. I moved my hands and arms around in small movements practicing and reminding myself what I was supposed to do. I saw Amy doing the same thing. I heard three other songs and then those girls started coming out. I saw at least two of them crying.
That meant there was only one more group before me! I just tried to focus… If I stopped to think about everything, I knew I would start bawling. As it was I could feel my hands shaking - I held them in front of me just to verify. Yep, they were shaking. I wasn’t feeling even close to ready when those girls came out, We were lined up in the order we’d go in. Amy came over and gave me a hug and said, “Good luck Tiff,” to me before I went inside.
I lined up and went through the door with the other two girls. As I marched out I saw that my spot was dead centre in front of the table, and slightly ahead of the other two girls. Talk about putting the pressure on! I forced myself to smile though. I knew that there were points on the sheets for presentation - and that was part of it.
She called off a couple of things that she wanted to see right off the bat, including some jumps and splits. I just concentrated on each thing though forcing myself not to think about how good or bad I might be doing. Before I knew it we were already onto the cheers. During the cheers I made sure that all of my movements were right and that my voice was clear and loud. I didn’t care that there were two other girls in there - as far I was concerned I was the only one. My spot in front of them actually seemed to help out with that a lot.
Once we finished the cheers Coach Holt smiled at us and directed us to go to our starting poses for the dance. She started the music about thirty seconds after that and I just let myself go on autopilot like I had had this summer. I found myself frozen in the final pose waiting for her to say “Thank you,” sooner than I would have imagined.
“Thank you all,” she said and I jumped back up to the attention position before walking over to where we were supposed to sit to wait for our individual routine. I hadn’t noticed who the other two girls were until that moment. Danica was in that group - and she was the first one up from our group.
If she hadn’t been so completely and totally rude to me before I might have felt bad for her. Actually I still felt bad for her - I was human - as she did a terrible performance of a terrible routine. She seemed to never be able to get her movements synched to the beat of the music. I stopped focusing on her fairly quickly though since I didn’t have time to lose concentration. Each of our ‘solo’ routines were only one minutes long, so she was done quickly.
I stepped up and got into position for mine at that point. I listened for the opening couple counts to get the beat and immediately began the routine that Coach Clemens had given me. At the end of it I wasn’t forcing a smile anymore - I knew I had done my best I could do. I could only hope that it was good enough.
What would I do if I didn’t make the squad I wondered… just go off to a corner and cry? I knew I would. She finished up with the speechmaking and asked the first three to line up to go into the gym. Once she had settled into her spot at the table she called them in and shut the door. I stood outside the door in silence.
From the outside all I could hear was the music when it started. I moved my hands and arms around in small movements practicing and reminding myself what I was supposed to do. I saw Amy doing the same thing. I heard three other songs and then those girls started coming out. I saw at least two of them crying.
That meant there was only one more group before me! I just tried to focus… If I stopped to think about everything, I knew I would start bawling. As it was I could feel my hands shaking - I held them in front of me just to verify. Yep, they were shaking. I wasn’t feeling even close to ready when those girls came out, We were lined up in the order we’d go in. Amy came over and gave me a hug and said, “Good luck Tiff,” to me before I went inside.
I lined up and went through the door with the other two girls. As I marched out I saw that my spot was dead centre in front of the table, and slightly ahead of the other two girls. Talk about putting the pressure on! I forced myself to smile though. I knew that there were points on the sheets for presentation - and that was part of it.
She called off a couple of things that she wanted to see right off the bat, including some jumps and splits. I just concentrated on each thing though forcing myself not to think about how good or bad I might be doing. Before I knew it we were already onto the cheers. During the cheers I made sure that all of my movements were right and that my voice was clear and loud. I didn’t care that there were two other girls in there - as far I was concerned I was the only one. My spot in front of them actually seemed to help out with that a lot.
Once we finished the cheers Coach Holt smiled at us and directed us to go to our starting poses for the dance. She started the music about thirty seconds after that and I just let myself go on autopilot like I had had this summer. I found myself frozen in the final pose waiting for her to say “Thank you,” sooner than I would have imagined.
“Thank you all,” she said and I jumped back up to the attention position before walking over to where we were supposed to sit to wait for our individual routine. I hadn’t noticed who the other two girls were until that moment. Danica was in that group - and she was the first one up from our group.
If she hadn’t been so completely and totally rude to me before I might have felt bad for her. Actually I still felt bad for her - I was human - as she did a terrible performance of a terrible routine. She seemed to never be able to get her movements synched to the beat of the music. I stopped focusing on her fairly quickly though since I didn’t have time to lose concentration. Each of our ‘solo’ routines were only one minutes long, so she was done quickly.
I stepped up and got into position for mine at that point. I listened for the opening couple counts to get the beat and immediately began the routine that Coach Clemens had given me. At the end of it I wasn’t forcing a smile anymore - I knew I had done my best I could do. I could only hope that it was good enough.
By:
oldgrumpy
Age:
51-55
,
Male
