Take One for the Team

Chapter 4: Jumpmaskah

Before I knew it, it was Christmas break.
After a long hard week of dreading the thought of Coach Melissa leaving, it was finally our last week of school.
Monday was a pretty normal day at school. I had to skip practice on Tuesday, because I had a Christmas pageant at school.
Wednesday was another pretty ordinary day.
But Thursday was the best day of the week. It was our last day of school before Christmas break, and we had a party at school. We had a party at jump rope, too.
Two years ago, Lexi and Cara on the jump rope team started their own new holiday. Its called Jumpmaskah. Jumpmaskah is a combination of celebrating Christmas, Hanukah and jump rope. Last year we had the first ever Jumpmaskah party. Jumpmaskah is celebrated on December 9th.
Our party was during the time when practice would normally be, but we didn't have to wear our jump rope clothes because we wouldn't be jumping.
I wore a white T-shirt and blue jeans. When I got to the party, it was funny to see everyone in their normal clothes. And really funny to see all the girls with their hair down.
We ate first, because what's a party without the food??? We ate salad, pizza, watermelon, pineapple and strawberries! Oh, and the desserts! There were brownies, Christmas cookies, ice cream, chocolate, candy and soda. After we ate I felt like I was about to burst.
We played a bunch of games too. We first played doge ball. Then we had a gift exchange. Everyone brought in a gift (I brought a necklace) and wrapped it up. Then we all sat in a big circle with our own gifts in front of us. Lexi and Cara said that they were going to read us a story. Every time they said the word right we would pass the present to the right. Every time they said the word left we would pass the present to the left.
Lexi read aloud a funny story about Melissa and Collin in the future. We all laughed and passed our presents around. At the end of the story, I ended up with with a small green present with a big red bow. When it was time, I opened up my gift. I got a wallet that turns into a speaker! It was really cool.
When everyone had opened up their gifts, Coach Melissa said, "Wasn't that an awesome story? I had never even read it before and Lexi and Cara wrote it. I was kinda nervous when I saw my name on the paper, but it was really good, though." We all started laughing.
There was a bunch of wrapping paper on the floor, but Coach Melissa said not to pick it up so we could use it for our next game. Then she exclaimed the game. We would have two lucky people who got to be the captains. There teams would have a relay to collect wrapping paper, and then use it to decorate the captains like Christmas trees. Then Coach Melissa would judge and choose the best Christmas tree to be the winning team. The captains were Zoey and Joey. They picked teams, and I was on Zoey's team. First we had the relay to collect the wrapping paper, and then we started decorating Zoey. We attached wrapping paper and tissue paper all around her. Then we put a big bow on her head. Pretty soon Coach Melissa called, "Times up!" And we all stepped away from our human Christmas trees.
Coach Melissa and a few parents judged, and our team won for the best Christmas tree!!!
Then Coach Melissa showed us the design for the new uniforms. They were so awesome! They were blue tank tops with a white stripe and black on top, and black shorts. We pined the logo that McKenzie designed on the shirt, and it looked perfect.
She also had the uniform sizing kits at the party, so I tried on different sizes until I found the one that was fit perfectly. Actually it was kinda big because my mom wanted it to fit for the next two years so she didn't have to buy another one for a while. I ordered my uniform that night.
They also had the sizes for warmups, but my mom thought that they were too expensive. So I didn't even end up trying them on. Darn it.
We sort of ran out of ideas of what to do for our party, and there was still an hour left, and we had already done all the games that we had planed, so we started dancing. Then someone suggested freeze dance, so freeze dance it was! We danced for a couple seconds, and then the music stopped. We all stood still, but poor little Zoey fell. We kept playing, and people kept getting out until it was just me, Ashlyn, McKenzie and Jake.
But then I slipped. Oh, well. I am very competitive, but there would be another chance to win freeze dance later.
At the end of the party, Coach Melissa said the best thing that I had heard all week. "The Regionals paperwork and groups aren't done yet, so I'm not leaving till January 15." Ya!!! Another two weeks with Coach Melissa after break! We would really need it.
That was the best part of my fun night.