The Pointe Of The Game

Chapter 13

Olivia Beckham

After school, Charlie drives me home and I go to my bed immediately. I get 3 more hours of sleep before having to wake up again and get ready to dance. When I dance, we have to put on a lot of makeup. But I'm so used to it, it doesn't bother me and I'm a pro and putting it on. After getting on my makeup, I start on my hair. Today my hair is supposed to be in two Dutch braids down my scalp and then into 2 messy buns on the bottom. We all plan our hair so we're all matching while we dance and we always make sure to do something different. It's just more fun and sometimes our outfits need certain hair styles that will look the best with our outfits. As I get to work on my hair, I get a group facetime. It's Rachel and Makenna, my two besties. I answer the call and they both start talking at once. The thing about our group is they have enough energy for a million me's so they could carry on a conversation for hours. They both have kinda the same energy as Charlie. Always happy-go-lucky people and have the amount of energy in one day that I have in a month. I zone out of their conversation focusing on my hair when suddenly they call my name, snapping me out of my concentration. I look at them and say, "yeah" while continuing my braids. "Do you have something to add to our conversation? You're being kinda quiet over there. Are you nervous about your dance tonight?" Rachel asks.

"No, I'm not nervous. I'm just tired. I went on a date with Charlie last night and it ended up going until 4am because there was an accident blocking the highway. I'm only functioning on not even 5 hours of sleep which isn't awesome especially when I'm supposed to go and dance my best at half time."
I've told them all about Charlie except our recent developments (AKA yesterday.)

Of course this news of a date makes them freak out. I may or may not have told them that I was going out.

Ok I totally forgot.

They immediately start screaming a mix of, "WE NEED DETAILS" and "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US." which leads to them squeezing the story out of me about what we did and the details of our date. After I finish my hair, I grab my dance duffel bag out of my closet and start putting the things that I need in it all while still telling the girls about my date with Charlie. I finish packing up my duffel bag and leave it on my bed while I grab a black zip up sweatshirt and put it on. Right now I'm wearing another pair of fleece leggings with a white long sleeve shirt and a red oversized tee with an Old Navy logo and an American flag on top of that. And of course I'm wearing my favorite UGGS mini boots. I look at the time and see that it's already 6:40.

I interrupt my friends' conversation and tell them I have to go. They both tell me good luck and I end the call and walk downstairs. I walk over to where my mom is sitting on the couch with her laptop in her lap and tell her that I'm leaving. She says, "Ok have fun." and then I'm off.

I arrive at the school by 6:47 and park my car next to Charlie's and walk inside. I go check in with one of my dance teachers, Mrs. Strata and she directs me to where our dressing room is. I walk into our dressing room to see only a few girls are here so far. I find a spot in the room and start taking stuff out of my duffel. Everyone starts to slowly trickle in and by the time everyone is in the dressing room, we're all in conversation with each other. A few minutes later, both coaches walk in with Mr. Strada carrying the clothes rack full of our costumes for tonight. Mr. Strada parks the rack on the side of the room and claps his hands to get our attention. We all form a semi circle around him and he starts to talk. "Tonight is the first basketball game of the semester. Even though we've already danced to numerous games last semester, tonight we are doing totally different choreography and we need to make sure we can work together as a team. Because our routine is jazz, you all need to be on your A game tonight. You all know that jazz is complicated and we don't need any of you getting hurt the first dance of the semester back."