A New World (Book 7 of the Ava and Mia Series)

Chapter 9

We get to the hotel at 9 and Sadie and the babies are fast asleep. We wake up Sadie and I carry Erin and Mia carries Finn. We get one of those luggage things to bring out stuff up as mom checks in. We hang up our dresses in the closets and set up their beds and put them in there. We all quietly change for bed then fall asleep.

We wake up at 7 to help Sadie get ready. I do her wig so mom doesn't have to. We both do our wigs and makeup and grab Sadie's dress and Zuca bag to head downstairs to the Feis. The schedule is really weird because she dances at 7:45 but we don't dance until 10... The schedule said that there's 36 girls in their competition so it's gonna be super hard to place and get top 5. Ours has 32 girls!

We bring her into the practice room and we run through her jig and set. This isn't our usual region so there are a bunch of girls we don't recognize but a few from our region that we do. Finally her group is called to line up so we help her put on her dress and number, 261, and she heads side stage. Her jig is actually flawless... She has such good rhythm and understanding that you can throw any crazy combination and she can do it. Her reel is also like perfect... She zips around the floor, leaping and kicking... You can tell she's a national and Oireachtas champion... Her set, Jockey, is also basically flawless. I think she defiantly will make the top 5... She was at the end of her group so they announce that awards are gonna happen in 20 minutes for them. We take off her dress and go over to where they're doing awards. We wait and the areas starts to fill up with her competitors. Finally a lady comes out with a folder of sheets which is marked "open U9" so we put her back into her dress.

"I have the results for Open Championship under 9. The first round was judged by Tracy Walsh. In 18th place competitor 890 Lily Miller..."

She's gotten a lot more patient at awards.

"In 2nd place competitor 1094 Sierra Stacey and in first place competitor 261 Sadie Peterson." Sadie walks up to get her medal. No surprise there...

"Now for the second round judged by Dylan Young. In 18th place..."

We aren't sure if she'll win this one... We've had him as a judge before and he doesn't like Sadie or Mia...

"In 2nd place competitor 679, Emily Adams and in 1st place competitor 261 Sadie Peterson. Now for our overalls, could these competitors please step forward. 105, 138, 207, 261, 340, 439, 582, 608, 646, 679, 758, 771, 805, 890, 946, 971, 1094 and 1180."

Sadie steps forward and now we wait to see what she gets. The podium is top 5 and there's sashes for the podium!

"In 18th place, competitor 771, Taylor Greene from the Becket Academy..."

They call out the places and then they get to 6th...

"In 6th place, competitor 1180, Abbey Greene from the Becket Academy! Let's hear it for your top 5!"

Yay Sadie made the top 5! Then she's in the top 2... This is the moment of truth...

"In 2nd place competitor 105 Cheyenne Myers from the Behan School and in 1st place competitor 261, Sadie Peterson from the O'Hannagan Academy!"

Sadie steps forward and gets the blue sash and a perpetual trophy. I push through the crowd to get a picture of her and then we go back to the hotel room to drop off her stuff and get ours. We're supposed to dance in 45 minutes! We head into the ballroom to stretch but they're already starting to line us up! We help each other zip up our dresses then tape on our shoes and put on our numbers. I'm 890 and Mia is 479. I'm 12th in the rotation and Mia is 26th.

Most girls are still doing Hornpipe and reel from worlds so that's good. I walk onstage behind the 2 other girls and the musician plays a really bouncy Hornpipe. I may not have Sadie's rhythm or Mias grace but I do have energy... Lots of it... Because of Instagram and stuff worlds results are spread quickly. I see a lot of people turn to their friends and whisper when I walk onstage. Even the judges sit up a bit straighter... I dance my Hornpipe like I'm back onstage at worlds! The best day of my life! 3 judges are a lot different than 7 and the stage is smaller though. I finish and go back to Sadie and mom (who came down right before I went on) and she says it was even better than the one at worlds! Mia walks onstage and her Hornpipe is really amazing too! We both change our shoes quickly because they're almost through the heavy round!

I go up for my reel but they're dancing us 2 at a time this time. Everyone says it was really good! So was Mia's! Now we have to put back our hardshoes on for our sets. This is gonna be my last time doing Drunken Gauger at a feis so I better make it count! I make it through both of the steps then I go into the set and I'm jumping up into a birdie and then I'm falling back down on my foot. The music stops and the judge rings the bell. I see mom coming up to get me then I black out from the pain.