After the Amber Alert

Florida

We are here!!!!! Its gorgeous, and we go to school on Monday, today is Sunday. I wake Maddie up and she smiles. Today, we are going to a cheer gym. Mom says,"JoJo, get something nice on, we'll be leaving in 10 minutes." She hands me a dress code and its like dance except you have to wear white sneakers. I reach for my cheer shoes, put them on, and look in my suitcase. I haven't unpacked yet. I grab a hot pink dance crop top and matching bottoms. I throw on a ank top over them just in case and a light jacket. As for my hair, I grab one of my favorite bows. Its all hot pink and my name is in glitter. "I'm ready!" I shout and we leave. Once we arrive, the lady tells my mom that they just lost a flyer and asked if I could fly. My mom told her that I will try. I think to myself that this is crazy. How can people "fly?" As I walk in to the gym, I see athletes throwing girls up so very high. After they bring her down, I walk over and ask what she was doing. She replies," Oh that's stunting, I'm the flyer. Once you get the hang of it, stunting becomes life." We introduce and talk until my team is called. I look around and see there is at least 25 girls. Doing the math, that's 5 stunt groups. I stand to the side, kinda nervous. The coach walks in and says," Girls, this is JoJo. She will hopefully be our new flyer to replace Victoria. Please give her a warm welcome and let's get stretching!" Stretching. That's easy. It goes by quick and a lot of people tell me that I'm really flexible. First day here and I'm loving it. Coach Leah tells us to get in stunt groups and she walks me over to my group. She says," Your bases are Marissa and Courtney" they both raise their hands,she continues, " the backspot is Jennifer and frontspot is Kate." She walks back and tells us to warm up. The girls teach me the stunts and its really fun. Right now, I've got some level 2 stunts. We have plenty of time to practice before competition. They ask me to do a straight ride basket and we do so. This is so much fun. Next, tumbling. Yay! Something I know. I'm incorporated into the routine, which is only 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I wonder how they do jumps, tumbling, dance, cheer, and stunting in so little time. Soon enough, practice is over and I find myself begging my mom to schedule me for some stunting and tumbling classes. What can I say? Cheer has won me over. Dance is nothing compared to cheer. And we get bows!!!! All the girls have my contact info and we are such great friends! At least I can be loud here!