The Journey to Worlds

Cayleigh Romanovicz   F Block

“ Top Gun OO4!”, the announcer shouted. We step out on the mat, lights flashing and the crowd screaming for us. Lexi and I do our handshake and set up to begin the routine. The music starts and my heart starts racing, but I know we can do this. We load in for our basket tosses and we hit our kick doubles and the crowd screams for us. We hit our partner stunts and our pyramids, and our tumblings great. Finally the music ends and I hold my finishing pose until I can’t hold in my excitement any longer, so I jumped up and ran over to Lexi and gave her the biggest hug. “ We did it!”, I said. The whole team knows we did an amazing job, but was it good enough? Waiting for awards was so nerve racking. We all just wanted to know if we made it to Worlds. After an hour of waiting it was finally time for awards to start. He started with the lower level teams which seemed to take forever. Our level 3 and 4 team took first place in their division. “And finally for division 5.” the announcer said. We all grabbed each others hands and waited to be called up. That’s if we placed. “In 3rd place, the... Cheer Athletics Panthers. In second place, Senior Elite.” he said. We all grabbed each others hands tighter than they were. “ Our 1st place winners with a full paid bid to Worlds... Top Gun OO4!” I fell over on Lexi and wrapped my arms around her. “We did it Lexi! We finally did it!”, I said. I started crying tears of happiness and so was Lexi. Lexi and I went and grabbed the trophy and walked back over to our team. We held it up and said,” Girls we finally did it. We are so proud of you and we’ve come so far. We love you all!” I think we were all in shock, winning 1st place was such an amazing feeling. We all took our turns taking pictures with the trophy and we took a team photo. The competition was over so we all headed back to our hotels to pack our stuff and leave the next day. Nobody wanted to leave, we were all so happy and had so much fun.

“Beep, beep.”, i slapped my alarm and sat up in bed. “Lexi, it’s time to get up and leave.”, i said sleepy. She responded with,” Okay...” We grabbed our stuff and headed out to meet our parents. As we pulled up to the airport, i looked out of the window and said,” Goodbye Texas, until next year.” Lexi said the same thing. It seemed like forever waiting for our flight but finally it was called and we walked on. On our flight home Lexi and could not stop talking about how amazing we did. “Our pyramid was solid and our partner stunts were solid, we did so good words can’t even describe how happy I am!” Lexi said to me with excitement in her voice. “I know it was perfect! But we need to up our difficulty a little bit so we know that we will win Worlds!”, I replied. “Yeah you’re probably right. We can do it.”, she said back to me. Lexi and I put our headphones in and fell asleep.Before I knew it my dad was waking me up telling me we had landed. We got off the plane and waited for our bags to come. After we got our bags, Lexi and I said goodbye and see you at practice tomorrow.

It was a long day of school but i made it through. All day I talked about that weekend, and how winning 1st place felt. I’m pretty sure every non cheerleader didn’t understand anything, but I don’t care i was excited. Lexi told me she couldn’t stop thinking about it and that she was talking about it non stop all day. At lunch Lexi and I couldn’t stop talking about how great practice is going to be. It’ll be tough as usual but it’s going to be worth it when we win Worlds! Later that day at practice everybody had a smile on their face, and was still super excited. Our coaches told us what we would do, condition, work new stunts, condition, tumble, then run the routine. Sounds crazy right? It pays off, a lot. The new stunts were hitting and our tumbling seemed stronger than ever. When we ran the routine it didn’t go well the first time, but with new stunts it never does. The second time was perfect. Everything hit, everyones tumbling pass went and our facials were out of this world. Almost literally. We had such a good practice I couldn’t wait for tomorrows.

It was Wednesday morning, 24 more days until Worlds. That is all I have been thinking about. That’s all Lexi has been thinking about. Worlds has been the number one thing on my mind since we won NCA. Friday evening,  22 days left until Worlds. We had practice that night and everybody was excited, still! The first thing we did at practice was conditioning and stretching. We then ran the routine, 5 times. Only one time out of the 5 times we did the routine full out did a stunt fall. We were hitting like we never had before and it felt amazing. Our coaches were so proud of us and we were all proud of each other.

Finally it was the last week until Worlds. Lexi told me she couldn’t sleep because she was so excited for Worlds. That week went by so slow. It was Friday, Lexi had stayed over because we were leaving at 4:30am to go to the airport. We were both so tired but so excited at the same time. At 6:30am they called our flight and we got on the plane and I started getting butterflies. I asked Lexi if she was getting any already and she said,” I’ve had butterflies since we won NCA!”. I laughed. We boarded the plane and took our seats. Lexi and I both fell asleep right away, and i’m pretty sure our parents did too! After three hours on the plane we landed in Florida! Lexi grabbed my arm and shrieked because she was so excited. All we wanted to do was get off the plane and walk around. It seemed like forever until we got off the plane and got our bags but we eventually got off and headed to our hotels. Florida was so nice and I said to Lexi,” We made it, we finally made it!” and we hugged each other. Our parents took our bags to the hotel and we walked around Florida for a little while. It felt so amazing to be here. We’d walked around for about 2 hours and decided to go back to our hotel and relax for the rest of the day.

I couldn’t sleep the night before and I know Lexi couldn’t either because we were talking during the night. We got up, grabbed our cheer stuff, and we were on our way to the arena. It was amazing. I grabbed Lexi’s hand tighter than I already was. The team headed to the room we would be in and we did our hair, and makeup. Before we knew it, we were on deck. Lexi and I were holding hands behind the curtains jumping and trying every possible thing to not be nervous. Finally they called our teams name and we went out on the mat. Everybody was cheering for us and there were lights everywhere, except this meant so much more than NCA. The music started and we were off. The routine was amazing. Hitting everything like we did at practice. We all knew we’d be in the top 3 for day 1. Day 2 was where we really needed to push.

It was day 2 of Worlds, and today is what counts the most. Time seemed to be going by so slow but then we were up. “No excuses girls! We can do this!”, Lexi and I shouted just before our music started. Our kick double tosses higher than ever, our bow and arrows better than ever. Every stunt solid. Tumbling pushed past beyond what we thought. “Top Gun”, the music whispered. The music stopped and we all crowded in a big circle crying tears of joy knowing how amazing we did. Our coaches were crying, we knew then that it was the best we’ve done. Awards were in 30 minutes, but it seemed to be forever. “Level 5, third place winners of the 2013 Worlds, Brandon Allstars!”, the announcer said. The team gripped each others hands tighter. “Second place, Cheer Athletic Panthers! And finally the moment you’ve all been waiting for our 2013 Worlds champions are... Top Gun OO4!” Lexi and I dropped to the ground, crying because we were so happy. Finally being able to stand up we hugged each other and said,” Look, look what we did. Finally winning what we’ve always wanted.” I told her i couldn’t have done it without her support and encouragement. We celebrated for so long, and took so many pictures. We finally finished our dream of winning Worlds.