The dancer life

Chapter 16: Shannon's POV

I immediately hopped out of bed and headed to the bathroom. After I took a quick shower and changed into a sports bra, tank top, shorts, and my team jacket my mom did my wig. I wear a blonde full wig with curled hair at the front with a tiara and a red flower to match my dress. My current dress is a pretty bright red and white with a hint of black and gold. It's my absolute favorite one yet. After my mom finished my wig, she did my makeup. I normally do my makeup for small feises but for majors my mom does it.
After 30 minutes of makeup, I did some little stretches and ate a banana and yogurt. After my mom was ready, I grabbed my dress bag and my shoe bag and we were out the door.
When we got down to the venue we went into ballroom A where the U14 girls were dancing(my group). We met up with some people at our studio. I said hi to Grace, Kaitlyn, Michael and other people.
"Did you see Cara?" Grace asked me.
"No, why?"
"She texted me. She's dancing today." Kaitlyn said.
"Oh jeez." I said.
Cara wont dance her best with everything going on. She probably won't even recall.
After chatting with them, I decided to be independent and stretch by myself. I love my friends, don't get me wrong but I need to be alone on competition day. It helps me focus more.
As I listened to some high energy rap songs to pump me up, I stretched and kept going in my head my corrections and giving myself a pep talk.
You've waited so long for this day. This is your shot, Shannon. You can do this. You've worked hard, all the work is done. Just sell yourself to the judges and perform like you're Beyoncé.
Once I was stretched and warmed up, I went back into ballroom A to see Grace and Cara and Kaitlyn dance. Grace was up now. Grace looked stunning on stage! Her dress was pink and white and it complimented her dark wig perfectly. She began her hornpipe. She looked really strong during the 1st step, but in the 2nd step, I could tell something was wrong. By the half step, she looked like she was dying. That's what I thought. I'm her best friend, I have to be honest! As she walked off stage, I saw tears in her eyes form.
I ran up to meet her at the side of the ballroom.
She ran up to me and cried on my shoulder.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"My foot. Remember I I t-told you it was hurting again?" She said in between sniffles.
"Yeah..." I said.
"Well it still hurts. And my hornpipe was a disaster because it hurt so badly." Tears rolled down her face.
I hugged her tightly. "Let's take this dress off and ice that foot. You can still make I through 2 more rounds. You can do it." I told her.
"That's only if I recall, and by the looks of it, I won't." She said.
"Don't be silly, and don't have that attitude." I told her.

After stretching and warming up some more, and eating a protein bar, the side stage monitor announced "Can we have competitors 145-181lined up sidestage."
That was my signal. My number is 174. I got my dress zipped and I hugged people from my dance school.
"Go out and kill it. I'm rooting for you." Michael said as he gave me a sweet hug.
"Knock em' dead. You got this." My mom said.
I hugged Grace and Kaitlyn.
I also had a last minute talk with my TC before I went on.
"This is your time Shannon. I believe in you. Go out there and put on a show for those judges. Make them want to give the 1st place spot to you. Convince them."
As I was standing and warming up sidestage those words stuck with me. I repeated them over and over in my head. I did some hops and clicks to keep warm. I stretched out and felt confident in myself. As my spot in line got closer and closer to the stage, I didn't feel nervous. I felt ready to kill it. This was my time.
The two girls I was dancing with and I figured out where who goes where in their hornpipe so there's no bumps onstage. Soon enough, it was my time to go on.