Bow Pride

CHAPTER I

Focus. Mind over matter. Get your head on the game. This is it. Do or die.

The music plays. The battle begins.

"What's up Rizz?
What up Kyle let's get 'em go
Here we go
DJ Rizz put your thirst like this,
CEA don't stop just sip..."

Standing full. Toe touch back handspring series to full twist layout.

"Popping up, there's a breath
I know you want a drink,
Still thirsty for some Cheer Extreme, You can't even blink... "

I hit my stunts with pride. Then jumps. Hit, hit, hit, pull.

"Gotta put your neck into it,
Pick it up just do it, do it... "

Baskets. Running tumbling.

"My teal and my black,
You ain't ever touching that... "

Pyramid. Dance. Applause.

Hit zero. Yes! Waving to the crowd, we walked off the mat.

The next thing I knew, we were gathered again into the field house arena for the final awards.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen...  Your 2016 Cheerleading Worlds Gold Champion"-the host announced, my heart pounding-"in Small Senior Level 5 division..." I crossed fingers.

"We have the--" Baam!!! Everything was cut off. I woke up.

I heard mom's voice from below. "Candice honey what's that noise up there?" She asked.

Realizing that I fell from my bed, I felt my head in pain. "Oww!" I stood up and sat on the edge. "Nothing I just woke up and fell on the floor!" I yelled.

"Okay, you should come downstairs soon, breakfast is ready in five minutes!" She said.

I looked at the time. 7:57 am. It was Saturday. I took a picture under my pillow and looked at it. It was a team photo the SSX took after winning their gold from Worlds 2015. I printed it out when I saw it on the Cheer Extreme Raleigh website.

Suddenly, my sister busted into my room. "I got Cougars practice in two hours and my Nike pros are all in the laundry. Can I borrow yours?" She asked.

"Fine, but don't wear the teal," I said.

Although Kiara is my elder sister, I'm quite bigger than her. She's only 5'0 in height, and weighs almost a hundred pounds, and I'm pretty much taller and got bigger body build than her. She can wear my clothes but hers doesn't fit on me. I'm a base in my team, Small Junior X, a Summit team, and she's only a flyer on Cougars, one of the three of CEA Raleigh's Worlds teams; and so I work twice as much as she does since I lift girls in the air who weigh a hundred or more pounds. People often mistook me for an elder sibling and she as the younger one.

"This will do," she said, holding out a black Nike pro with the CEA logo on the bottom right. "Hey, do you want to come see me at practice today?" She asked.

Worlds competition is like two weeks away, so all the worlds teams in our gym are holding practices as often as possible.

I thought for a second before I could finally decide. "Will SSX be there and practice their routine too?" I am extremely a die hard fan of SSX.

Kiara smiled and was about to leave my room. "Most probably yes; in fact, Sutton and I are going to the gym together".

Sutton Hodges is on SSX. She's my sister's best friend and lives right across the street.