Shoot for the Team

Chapter 9: The big day

The big day finally came. The day for us to start filming.
We usually only have practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but today we had practice on a Saturday. It was so we could get a lot of filming in for the theme song, first episode, and possibly part of the second episode. Most of the episodes we would mainly just jump, but since this was the first one, we would have a lot of acting and interviewing too. We didn't have a script, that's what made it a reality show. We just be who we naturally are and maybe show off a little for the camera and they pick the best parts and turn it into an episode. We weren't exactly sure how the first episode would go, but we knew that we would all have fun.
We got to practice at 7am. Yes, it was early, but it was worth it. I had Annie braid my hair. At jump rope competitions and shows, we always have our hair in two French braids. Annie was really good at doing hair, so that's why I had her do my hair.
We were all wearing our team uniforms, our red jump rope shirts that said San Diego Speed Skippers in bright red letters, and our black jump rope shorts. There are a lot of blonde girls on my team, and with all of our hair pulled back, my mom said that it was hard to tell which girl was me.
When we first got to practice there were a lot of people who were already there. I sat down and had Annie braid my hair, and pretty soon Rosie popped in front of me and asked me to do her hair. Then Emmie plopped down in front of her and Rosie started doing her hair. We had a pretty nice hair train going.
After we did our hair we started stretching and warming up. Then Coach Melissa started talking to us. She told us that we would all start with speed, then go on to our pairs double dutch, then double dutch routines, then our pairs, then singles. She said to do as many cool looking things as possible, no matter hard they were, because they would be video taping the whole time, and they could crop out the missed. She told us to smile and be polite and be extremely careful about what we say, because they could put it on film.
Miss Menville got there around 8 with her team of cameramen trailing behind her. At first I felt a little frightened by all the people. But then I remembered why they were here. They were here to make me famous.
The camera man took forever to set up. I started joking around with Jake. He was actually kinda funny. I was starting to get used to him. But just starting. He still bugged me. A lot. He was just funny.
Once the camera men were set up, we got our speed ropes. We all started doing speed jump rope (where you alternate feet and go as fast as you can) for thirty seconds. Then we did it again for another thirty seconds. It was kind hard not to get distracted with all of those big cameras following us around, but I stayed focused and went my fastest the whole time. I was sweating by the end, but I didn't care. We did thirty second speed one more time, and I didn't go as fast this time because I was tired, but I kept going and trying my hardest.
After speed, we moved on to pairs double dutch. This is like double dutch but with four people, two jumping in the ropes and two turning. My group was Me, Rosie, Jake and Leia. Sometimes it bugged me to have to work with Jake (well a lot actually) but it was ok. We worked through it, and Rosie helped me keep my temper down.
Our routine was good, until we got to power, which me and Jake jumped. Jake was always messing up on tricks, and I got really frustrated when we missed. We had improvised our power temporarily because of my broken wrists so I could do it too, but Jake was doing our old combo. I was about to start yelling at him when I saw a big camera pass by us. If I yelled at Jake, the whole world would see it. So I just smiled and did my best to help him.
After pairs double dutch, we went on to our three person double dutch. My double dutch group was me, Emmie and Jenny. It's fun to work with Jenny and Emmie. Our routine is really good, because Jenny's so organized and we each have our own part. My part is dance. I like to dance in jump rope. Sometimes if people ask me what sport I do, and I don't feel like saying that I'm a jump roper, I say that I'm a dancer. It's not that I'm embarrassed by jump rope. Not at all. It just frustrates me when people tease me about jump rope.
Anyways, Coach Melissa decided to do something a little different for double dutch, since it's one of the more impressive events. All of us sat on the stage and the back of the room (I loved that stage, but sadly, we weren't allowed to jump on it). Then we had one group at a time go up and do there routine, so that the camera could get all of it. I liked the idea of the camera focused on me. The triplets went first. Their double dutch was amazing. I just don't know how they do it. They did such hard tricks, and they always kept their head up and smiled.
Smiling is a very important part of jump rope. At jump rope competitions, you get judged on your smiling and presentation as much as on your content of your routine.
After the triplets was Lexi, Cara and Annie. Their routine was also great. They were such great friends, and Lexi told me that they had slumber parties where they would practice double dutch. You could tell that they had worked really hard on this routine.
We went third. We started out with our begging pose. I had a huge smile on my face, and so did Emmie and Jenny.
Jenny's part was first. She did double unders. Jenny was such a clean jumper, and she nailed her part every time. It looked great.
Then it was my turn. I tried to look up and smile, but I was focused on my dancing feet the whole time. I made sure that I didn't miss, and I didn't.
Last was Emmie's part. Emmie's part was the hardest. She did power and gymnastics. We turned really slow as she went through her handstands, pushups, splits and cartwheel out.
And then it was done. We had done the whole thing without a miss. I was so happy. We yelled and screened and hugged. I don't think that we'd ever gotten our routine without a miss before.
Rosie, Leia and Jake went next. I thought that their routine was good, but I wasn't really paying attention because I was just so happy that we did our routine perfectly. I hadn't expected that. I really hoped that every bit of our routine would be on the show.
After double dutch, we took a break to go outside and eat lunch in the shade of the trees. We weren't exactly ready to start jumping right away, so Ms. Menville suggested that we go on to interviews.
I was actually a little nervous. This is where the viewers would see the real me, not just the jump rope me. Before I knew it, it was my turn.
Ms. Menville had me sit in a big chair. She sat in a chair directly across from me. There were 2 cameras facing me. Then someone yelled, "3, 2, 1, ACTION!"
"So, what's your name, sweetie, how old are you, and how long have you been jump roping?" Miss Menville asked. I instantly realized that these were the same questions as last week, but I didn't hesitate a second.
"I'm Julie," I said in my grown-up, confident voice. "I'm 10 years old, and I've been jump roping for almost two years."
"It seems that you have a little injury there. Does this affect your jumping?" "Not really," I answered. "I just can't do any gymnastics tricks for a while."
"Do you play any other sports?" she asked. "No," I replied. "Jump rope is my life."
"I saw you jumping with that other little girl over there," she said, pointing to Rosie. "Are you two good friends?" "Yes, very good friends." It was true. We were.
"Is she your best friend?" she asked? "No," I replied, thinking about Hope, "but she's my best jump rope friend."
"Do you get along with everyone on your team?" she asked me. I almost started laughing, thinking about the stupid little scuffles I got into over with Jake, but I stopped myself. "Yes," I lied.
"Thank you, Julie. And good job out there." "Thank you," I said in my kind voice.
After the interview, I waited for everyone else to finish their interviews, and then we started working on pairs.
For pairs we had four groups go at a time, so we only had two groups, and each group got to go two times. Rosie and I were in the front both times. We smiled and made sure that the cameras were on us most of the time. We did pretty well, too. We had barely any misses, and we made sure that we were jumping on beat.
After pairs was singles. We were all pretty tired by then, but we pushed through it anyways, because our single rope routines are our pride and beauty. We all did our routines at the same time a couple of times, until Ms. Menville said she had everything she needed.
When I walked outside I realized that it was 8 o'clock at night and pitch black out. I had jumped the whole day without even realizing it. I had had fun, and now I couldn't wait to see the first episode.

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