Shoot for the Team

Chapter 16: a friend at practice

I was dreading practices. The only thing that kept me going was double dutch. I hated pairs, and pairs double dutch was just a flop. We tried to make up our routine, but it was hard because Rosie and I weren't speaking. Leia and Jake tried to talk to each other for us, but it wasn't going well.
But our double dutch was great. We kept adding harder tricks, and getting them. And I wasn't having any personality problems with Emmie and Jenny. They were nice and easy to get along with, and we were friends.
But practice was still terrible. All we did was practice and film, practice for filming, and that was about it.
I still wasn't talking to Rosie. Ugh. It was like our whole team had changed when we started this show. But it was fun. I was popular. And I was a movie star.
I was kinda bored at practice, so one day, I decided to bring Hope with me. I knew she couldn't join the team or anything, but it would be cool to have a friend there.
Hope had heard about Rosie. Rosie had heard about Hope. They were two of my closest friends. I had dreamed of the day they would meet. I thought that they would get along great. But now I couldn't introduce them.
Oh well, I thought to myself. I'd just play it cool, and introduce Hope to my other friends at practice.
"Hope," I said when we got there, "This is my friend Emmie." "Hi Emmie!" Hope said. Hope is really friendly. "Hi Hope!" Emmie replied. Then we all started talking about school and what we wanted for Christmas and stuff.
Then I introduced Hope to my other friends, and we started jumping. But not Rosie. There was no way I would introduce her to Rosie. Hope was actually pretty good at double dutch, in meanings that she could jump in and turn. I tried to teach her single rope tricks, too. Some she got, and some she didn't, but it was fine.
I wish every practice was fun like this one. This was the first fun practice I had had in a long time. Jump rope is more fun with your best friend. I wish Hope was interested in joining the team. Then I'd have a partner I wouldn't mind working with. Hope didn't mind getting tired and sweaty like most people did when I tried to teach them how to jump rope. Hope doesn't complain a lot. We were laughing and goofing around and just having fun.
Before practice was over Hope asked the question that I had been dreading she would ask. "Where's Rosie? Aren't you going to introduce me to her? I've heard so much about her and I want to meet her." I froze. I didn't have an answer. But then I got lucky and the answer came to me. "Rosie isn't hear today. I think she's sick. But I'll introduce you to her next time!" I said.
"Oh, ok," Hope replied.
I thought about going to frozen yogurt. But Rosie would be there. I had skipped it last week, too. So Hope and I went to ice cream after practice. Because ice cream is a thousand times better than frozen yogurt.