Shoot for the Team

Chapter 1: The Announcement

Another beautiful fall day. The wonderful breeze flew through my hair. It wasn't much of a fall day though. In San Diego, it's basically spring all year. I mean, of course, the temperatures vary, but not much here. No rain, no sleet, no snow, no hail. Just another beautiful spring-like day.
I felt especially happy on this day. It was a Thursday, which meant I had jump rope. I loved Thursdays, they were my favorite day of the week. Every Thursday after practice, me and my friends would go get frozen yogurt. It was kinda our thing.
I was the youngest on the team. I liked having all of my teammates older than me, though. I'm the oldest of four, so I love hanging out with the girls on the team. They were like my older sisters. They taught me new jump rope tricks and how to do cute new hairstyles and stuff like that. It was cool.
My mom brought me home to do my homework, and I did it quickly, trying to get to practice as soon as I could. I knew that getting my homework done faster wouldn't make practice come any sooner, but I was an anxious little girl who wanted to get to jump rope. I played with my brother, Matt, and my sisters, Adelaide and Katie. I changed, ate dinner, and before I knew it, it was time to go to jump rope.
I got in the car and my mom drove me away. I didn't know why, but it seemed like something special was going to happen today. As soon as we got to the kindergarten building where we had practice, I jumped out of the car, gave my mom a hug, and ran in the door.
"Hi Julie!" my friend Rosie called. Rosie was 11, the next youngest on the team, and we were really close friends. We started showing each other our routines, until it was time to stretch and warm up. We had a great practice, working on speed, our routines, and double dutch.
Right before practice was over, Melissa, our coach, told us all to have a seat in the center of the room.
"Guys," she said, "I have something to tell you." We all waited for a minute, in dead silence. I don't really know why. We just sit there to build suspense or something. It does add to the excitement, if you know what I mean. After a minute, Melissa said, "TLC wants to have a jump rope reality show on our team!!!"
"Ahh!!!" screamed a girl named Summer, who was our team captain. "Ahh!!!" screamed her triplet sisters, Sierra and Savannah. Then came all they ya-ing and yelling and screaming and applauding and crying with tears of joy. I couldn't believe this.
I was going to be on a reality TV show. I got teased quite a lot at school for being the jump rope girl. I ignored it usually, but it bothered me deep inside. Who's gonna be laughing now? I thought to myself. I'm gonna be on a jump rope TV show while they're gonna be in soccer or dance or something.
I'm one of those kids who is not shy. Anywhere. Ever. I LOVE to be the center of attention. Coach Melissa said the show was gonna be about the whole team, but I was secretly wishing I would be the star. And I knew I probably would be. I was the youngest and the cutest. I was kinda petite for my age, and had cute curly blonde hair and light blue eyes. I was kinda short and really skinny, and when I was a baby my dad signed me up for one of those baby model things, and I actually got the part, but he didn't talk it through with my mom, and she turned it down at the last second. Darn it. I would have been perfect, too. I've had my center of attention attitude since I was born. O well. I could be a star on this show now. I was 10, but I looked 8, like a cute 8 year old.
I knew I could be the star of this show also because I was good. Of course I wasn't as good as most of my other teammates, but that was because the majority of them were 13+ and I was still 10. But I won 1st place for my single rope routine at the National jump rope competition last year for all 10-under girls. That's right. I'm the best girl jump roper in the country under age 11. I put a lot of work into that routine, and it really payed off.
"Julie! Common! Time for Fro-Yo!" It was Rosie calling my name. I must have sat there for 10 minutes fantasizing about the show. Everyone had already packed up they're bags and were about to leave for frozen yogurt.
I walked out the door with Rosie, Summer, Sierra, Savannah, and a few other girls named Lexi, Cara, Annie, Leia, Jenny and Emmie. We walked down the street to frozen yogurt. We all got tons of yogurt to celebrate our new show. I got chocolate with rainbow sprinkles (my favorite, which I get every time). Then my mom pulled up in the car.
"Bye Rosie!!!" I called. "See you on Tuesday!" "Bye Julie!!!" She answered.
"Mom!" I said as soon as I got in the car. Your never gonna believe what Melissa told us today!!!"