Memior: Final Draft

Olivia Schaub

National Champions

As we are waiting for the Flemington Pioneers to be announced onto the mat in Orlando, Florida, our hearts are beating so loud it’s as if they were plugged into a sound system and thumped for the whole stadium to hear. Like we are dressed like the middle of winter and standing in Costa Rica, our bodies are drenched in sweat. But our minds? Anywhere but in that stadium.

My mind continually wondered back to our last competition before Nationals, when we got second place and our rivals came in first. The feeling I got after they announced that they won is somewhat like when your heart is in your toes so far that if it exploded your toes would be painted red. When they came in bragging they won like a little kid would brag about getting the fresher baked cookie than his friend. After that competition our coaches doubted us as if we had just lost everything we ever accomplished. “Third place or fourth place would be exceptional!” They communicated to us on the plane ride down.

But these thoughts were cut off suddenly by a man speaking “And up next from Flemington, New Jersey is the Flemington Pioneers!” Any worries we had turned into a fake smile trying to cover it all. As we ran out on the mat it seemed as if we were dropped into a cave and the lights were just on us; everything else was pitch black. The music was so loud it sounded as if my own personal band was playing right on my ear drum. We performed each move so precisely that if you had taken a picture everyone would be in sync with one another. Our first pyramid had gone up so well and the crowds “oohs” and “aahs” came over us as if we all had just dropped dead and they were surprised. In our dance we all shook our hips as if were Latina and had the most extravagant faces on.  Our routine was flawless until the stunt we changed two hours before performing on the mat, somehow didn’t turn out. Everything went so fast that my other base didn’t have enough time to “catch the foot” and we fell. As the music came to a sudden stop we realized what had just happened, maybe our coaches were right. Maybe we were a third place team.

 The warm tears started falling down my face as if I had just broken my leg and was awaiting the arrival of the ambulance. As we got off the mat everyone was yelling, “why didn’t your group “catch the foot”? If we loose, it’s your entire fault.” Our name wouldn’t go down in history and we would be failures. My stunt group would be forever known as the ones that made your team loose Nationals all because of one silly mistake. And to make it even worse, they had our whole routine on replay after we had just performed so we could see how we fell and could have possibly taken away our first place prize. I was so upset, I couldn’t even watch. Instead I walked down to see my coaches, but suddenly a man came up to me out of no where and saw my tears and kindly said, “I know you guys fell, but I just wanted to say that you were one of the best teams up there and I wouldn’t be surprised if you took home those glistening white jackets.” That made me cry even harder. What is this guy thinking? I know he was trying to be nice and all, but thinking of those white jackets not being on my back made me want to crawl up in a ball and eat ice cream until years later.

As awards were being called we all had but a smile on our faces. Everyone kept on glancing over to see what my group’s facial expressions were. They expected us to be depressed and crying, because if we did loose it would be our entire fault. That charming mans voice just kept replaying through my head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you took home those glistening white jackets” Perhaps the man was right, one little fault doesn’t always have to change the rest of our performance because other than that we were magnificent. “Let’s get these awards underway!”  Fifth place, not us. Fourth place, not us. Third place, NOT US. This could not be happening! It was between us and our rivals that beat us the competition before. “Were down to the last two here!” After those words were spoken, all of our hand grips suddenly got tighter. We all shut our eyes and tried to take in what might be happening. “And our second place team from Washington, New Jersey, Rigel RidgeRams!”

It took us yet a second to realize that we had just won the National Championships in Orlando, Florida. We all jumped up and instead of crying because of sadness, this time we were crying for joy. Our name would go down in history and my group would no longer have to face the bullying of making our team loose. Those silky white jackets would be ours. As the man handed us the first place trophy, he looked like Zac Efron in our eyes, the god to us at the time. The satisfaction of lifting that trophy above our heads was greater than any other I have ever experienced. Later that night as we walked through the parks with our glistening white jackets, and everyone congratulated  us with that same fake smile we wore as we ran onto the mats. We were the Queens of that park and not to mention, National Champions.

Theme; mistakes are not always a contributing factor to the outcome of something