Shoot for the Team

Chapter 17: A little bit longer

I had a good Christmas. I went to my grandparents' house and saw my cousins. I got a bracelet and a new swimsuit and a cute sweater. But no new jump rope shoes. Darn it. Oh, well. Maybe for my birthday.
On the last day of school before break we had a Christmas party.
We had a holiday party at jump rope, too. Last year, Lexi and Cara made up a holiday called Jumpmaskah. It's a celebration of jump rope, Christmas and Hanukah. This year, we had the first ever Jumpmakah holiday party. Jumpmaskah is celebrated on December 9th.
I was happy all winter break, except that I didn't talk to Rosie. I was hoping that things will be different after break.
Oh, and I got my cast off! I hadn't jumped yet, but I'd see how it would feel at practice that day.
I got to practice excited to see my friends again. Even excited to see Rosie. And scared to see Rosie. I guess I don't really know what I felt.
"Julie!" Jenny called when I walked in the door. She ran up to me and gave me a hug. "How was your break? Did you go anywhere? Did you do anything fun?" she asked. We got into a big long conversation about vacation. Then I said hi to Emmie, Jake, McKenzie, Lilah, Lexi, Cara, Annie, Leia, Summer Sierra and Savanna.
If you haven't already noticed there are 14 people on my team. I don't say hello to myself, so that would be 13 people. But I had only said hello to 12 people.
Rosie. Rosie walked in late looking mad. "Hi Rosie!" I said and she went stomping past me up to Sierra. Oh, well. At least I had tried to be nice to her.
I know eves dropping isn't nice, but I couldn't resist. I had to know what they were talking about.
"I've given her three weeks," Rosie said. It was a whisper, but a loud, angry whisper.
"Just give her time," Sierra said. "I'm so done with this." Rosie replied, "I can't believe she hasn't come back to me yet."
At first I didn't know what she was talking about. Then I figured out. It was me. But Sierra would never talk behind my back! I knew that much.
I basically stayed away from Rosie that entire night.
My arm felt ok when I jumped. The moment of truth came when I did my power. Power is like gymnastics in a jump rope routine. I did a cartwheel. It was fine. I did a pushup. It was fine. Then I did a hand stand. It hurt a little, and started shaking, but I landed fine. I was better! Yay! I can compete now, I thought. But then I remembered we weren't competing. I sighed. Competition was so much fun. I don't understand what the point of jump rope is if you can't compete.
I took advantage of having my cast off. You know how some people are afraid after a sports injury that they'll hurt themselves again? Not me. I was so happy to be able to truly jump again.
I thought that thinks would be different after break between me and Rosie. I thought we'd be talking again. But things still seemed awkward.
I thought about the conversation I had heard between Rosie and Sierra. Sierra would never talk about me behind my back.
But that conversation was obviously about me. And it frustrated me. Oh, well. I guess that this feud between me and Rosie would last a little bit longer.
And now Sierra was involved.