Shoot for the Team

Chapter 13: The first episode

Our season premiere was that Thursday night. I had called Hope to make sure that she was watching it, which she was, and I had told my whole school, even my teachers! We decided to make a party out of it. Coach Melissa said that we weren't gonna do any jumping, and that we could wear our normal clothes.
When we got to practice, it was funny to see everyone in their normal clothes instead of seeing them all sweaty in their jump rope clothes. I was wearing a pink shirt, jeans, a jean jacket, and white converse.
"Julie!" Rosie ran up to me. "Your hair!" I guess I didn't think about my hair. I had left it down, like I usually do, but not for jump rope. It was pretty and wavy today instead of being up and frizzy, the way Rosie usually saw it. "I've never seen you with your hair down!" she said. "Come to think of it, I've never seen you with your hair down either!" I said, complementing her long, strait black hair.
"Common! There's popcorn and pizza and pretzels and soda over there!" she said, pointing at a table set up at the end of the room. "Let's eat!!!"
We sat on the floor and found McKenzie and Lilah to sit with us. We ate our pizza first. I had a slice of pepperoni and a slice of cheese. As I took a bite into my pizza, Rosie said,"Mmm, pepperoni is my favorite!" "I like cheese," Mckenzie said, "I'm vegetarian." "I am too," said Lilah. "Cool," I said. "So, are you guys excited about the show?" "Yesss!" answered Rosie. "I'm not in the first episode because I just joined the team, but I'll be in the second one," McKenzie remarked. "Cute hat!" I told her. "Thanks, I always wear beanies, except to jump rope," she replied.
Coach Melissa set up a big projector on to a sheet in the wall, and we turned out the lights. A few seconds later, the show started.
It started with a big picture of all of us and a voice said, "Up next we have our brand new series, Shoot for the Stars!" We all screamed. We were so happy. Then the voice came on again. "Meet the San Diego Speed Skippers, a competitive jump rope team that performs at different events and competes at national jump rope competitions. They shoot for the starts, and they're in it to win it."
Then it showed A video of Then it showed a clip of Lexi, Annie and Cara doing double dutch speed. Then they talked some more, and introduced each of us. They showed us jumping, talking, and playing around. And then I saw me.
Our double dutch. They had our whole routine. They zoomed in on my face, and then out on my whole body. Then they showed Jenny and Emmie's parts, too. And they had an interview of Emmie afterwards.
"I'm just so proud of my teammates. And myself. It took us forever to get a routine that hard without a miss. We're not only teammates. We're friends. We help each other and support each other. That was the first we ever got our routine without a miss. I can't believe we did it. We've practiced so hard. I hope we do this well at competition. In fact, I know we'll do this well. I'm so, so happy." She was crying a little bit. I looked over at Emmie on the other side of the room, and she was crying in real life. And so was I. And Jenny. We went over and hugged. And then it showed us hugging on the screen. It was perfect.
The show was over before I knew it. It just flew by. We all hugged when it was over, and then we went to frozen yogurt. I got my usual, chocolate with rainbow sprinkles. And I was so happy. I was famous now. And I had wonderful friends.