Chapter Fifty Four Bring It

It was finally here and even though it was early in the morning, I was wide awake in the car. We were heading to the airport. Nationals was in Florida this year instead of California.

We arrived and went through the process before we could board the plane. Hailey, Cassidy and I sat in the same row in the middle of the plane. Cass fell asleep once we were in the air and I was thinking about sleeping but Hailey was still up.

"Hailey, stop overthinking. The routine is great."

She nodded. "Great enough to get out of prelims. But is it great enough to win it all?"

"I know it is. You just wait and see." I told her. "All your hard work will pay off."

She didn't say anything and I rested my head against the back of my seat, closing my eyes. Hours later and we finally arrived in Florida. We got off the plane thirty minutes later. I grabbed my bag and Coach separated us into two groups so we could get into the vans.

We got dropped off at the hotel we would be staying at for two days whether we lose or win.

We received our keys and before we went to our rooms, Coach spoke to us.

"Y'all have a few hours to rest before y'all have to get ready. Today is the day to show everyone why we are the best, okay?"

We all nodded our head.

"Alright go rest." He dismissed us.

We piled into the elevator and headed to our room. I placed on the floor, against the wall so it wasn't in the way and laid on the white covered bed, relaxing my body.

I texted Mom letting her know we were at the hotel already. They wouldn't be here until later when the competition started at ten.

A few hours later, it was time to get ready. Since there was four of us, we took turns getting ready in the bathroom. I finished my make up and walked out the bathroom so Arianna could start hers.

I went to the mirror in the bedroom and began on my hair. I did the way Hailey wanted us to wear it to show we were a team. I finished with the big white bow and all that was left was my cheer outfit.

I slid the red skirt over my black bloomers and put the shirt on after, carefully so I wouldn't mess anything up. I put my white shoes on and in two hours everyone was finished and we were ready to go.

We loaded into the vans and drove over to the competition center. It was a hot day and it was barely morning. Everyone was wearing shorts and tank tops of their swimsuits.

The competition center was held an amusement park and there were so many teams here. I never seen so many teams before at one place.

Coach checked us in and he informed us what are number was when we were going to performed in front of the judges. We were someone in the middle. At least we weren't first or last.

"Be ready in a hour." He told us. "That's when we go up there. Stay hydrated and if you're hungry, eat something light."

"We're at an amusement park. What can we eat that's not deep fried or coated in sugar?" Cassidy said as we walked away.

"Nothing." Hailey said.

My phone vibrated and I glanced at it.

"My mom said almost here. I can ask her to stop by the store and get us some fruits."

"Yes, please do that!" Cassidy told me.

I sent Mom the text and twenty minutes later, she sent me another text saying she was here. We went to go meet them at entrance. She handed us our fruit and we ate them.

"When do y'all perform?" Mom asked.

"In about forty minutes." I replied, eating my watermelon.

She nodded. "I'm going to find a seat for us."

She and Dad walked away, leaving us with our boyfriends. Cassidy talked to Nolan while Hailey went beside Levi. Jayce looked at Arianna for a second before looking at me.

"Hi, Jayce." Arianna greeted him with a small smile.

When I told Jayce, Arianna send her condolences, he didn't say much about it. In fact he pretty much ignored it and switched the topic to the competition. I didn't tell him about Arianna wanting us to be friends again. Which explained why he looked her.

"Hey." He mumbled.

"Can..can I speak with you real quick?" She asked.

If I knew Jayce as well I thought I did, I knew he would say no. So before he could answer, I did it for him.

"Of course you can speak to him."

He glared at me and I smiled. Rolling his blue eyes, he followed Arianna off to the side.

"What does she want? And why is she hanging out with y'all?" Levi asked.

"I don't know and she's trying to be our friend again." I told him.

"Not our, your friend." Cass corrected me.

"Just give her a chance, babe." Nolan said.

"Not happening. I'm already tolerating being with her." Cass replied, putting her hands on her hips.

As I watched Jayce and Arianna, I noticed she was the one doing all the talking. Jayce looked like he wanted to be anywhere else than standing with her and that probably was the case. Five minutes later, they went their separate ways.

I didn't ask Jayce what the talk was about because I didn't need to. Whatever she told him, was for him and only him. I didn't need to know. Jayce placed his hand into mine and we all decided to walk around until we found a nice shady area to relax before we had to perform.

I ate my fruit and stayed hydrated like Coach told us and the in the ten minutes we had to spare before we had to head to the stage, we tried to calm Hailey down.

"Relax." Cass said.

"Hailey, there's no need to be nervous." Levi told her.

"Exactly what he said." I said. "You said so yourself, we're going to make it out of prelims."

She nodded to herself. "Yeah, you're right. We can do this."

"Go up there and make us proud." Jayce said.

Before we left, Hailey just had to remind the boys what they had to do at the end.

"We got it." Nolan assured her. "Go."

We ran to the stage and prepared ourselves. They announced our college and we made a grand entrance with a combination of tumbling, spirit and cheering.

We got into our position and the music came on. We went straight into our two minute routine that felt way longer than two minutes.

At the end, the boys didn't disappoint us and yelled what they had to. Our routine ended and we posed and stayed there for a few seconds before we moved and did our exit.

The good thing was the crowd loved us but was that enough to get through to the second round? We wouldn't find out until later when all the teams competed. Until then, all we could do was wait and I guess have fun while we were at it.

"Y'all did great!" Mom complimented us.

"You think so?" Hailey asked.

Mom nodded. "Of course! Y'all are definitely going to finals."

"You haven't even seen the other teams." I said before taking a drink of my water.

"She doesn't need to." Dad replied. "There's no doubt about it."

"I wish I was that confident." Cassidy said.

"Don't worry about it." Mom told us. "Go have fun before they announce who's moving on."

"Yes ma'am." Cassidy answered, grabbing Nolan.

We followed behind them to the rollercoaster and as we waited, Jayce spoke to me.

"I'm surprised you haven't asked me about what Arianna said earlier."

I looked at him. "I just don't need to know." I said, shrugging.

"You're not even slightest bit curious?"

I shook my head. "Nope." I pointed ahead of us. "Look, we're next."

I moved forward and got into the seat in the middle. Jayce sat beside I pulled the bar down around my chest and buckled up. The worker came to check us to make sure we were strapped in, correctly and once he was done, checking everyone, the ride started.

Our feet were left dangling in the air and I was glad I didn't wear scandals.

We got on a few more rides before we decided to get food, other than fruit. We grouped up with Mom and Dad as we ate. Mom informed me that Hunter would be here tomorrow morning. He had a lot of faith in us if he was planning to come tomorrow rather than today.

Before we knew it, it was time to find out if we made to the final round. We gathered around the stages as the hostess walked into the stage, holding the envelope with the top six teams moving on to tomorrow.

She announced the teams and Hailey gripped my hand, tighter when are team wasn't the first two to be announced and it got tighter as the spots were getting filled.

"And our last team moving on to final is..."

I hated long dramatic pauses.

"Texas Tech!"

We cheered, loudly and excitedly. We were advancing on and it was all thanks to Hailey. After our little celebration, Coach had a few words to say.

"Congratulations. I knew y'all could do it. We're gonna head to the hotel now so y'all can be well rested for tomorrow. I'm not having practice because I don't think y'all need it. But don't forget the energy y'all had out there today. Carry it to tomorrow and show out."

We grabbed our bags and headed for the vans. We arrived at the hotel and went to our rooms. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I saw the bed and I wanted to crash out. We took our showers and went straight to sleep without another word being spoken.

The next morning, we did the same thing we did the day before. Once we were ready, we headed for the park again. Instead of walking around like we did yesterday, we sat as a group and watched the other teams perform. They were actually really good and I had to admit, they might be better than us.

As the second to last team was performing, Coach gave us one last prep talk.

"Look here, I know y'all think you won't win but get that thought out your head, right now. Y'all didn't work your asses off to lose today. Go out there and show them why we are the best of the best."

His words kind of made me feel better. He was right. We did work very hard in the short amount of time we had. Hailey worked us like dogs for this very moment and I wasn't about to let that all go to waste. It was her last year and it was going to be her very best one.

"Give it everything you got." Cassidy said.

"We can't let Hailey down." I told them. "Y'all don't know how many hours she put in this routine. So, bring it on."

The hostess announced us and we made our entrance and got into the same spot as before. We carried the same energy throughout the whole routine, possibly even more than yesterday. We were determined to win.

And at the end the boys yelled.

"Three! Five! Seven! And one!"

They yelled that repeatedly and our moves matched the numbers they were shouting out. The routine ended and I wasn't going to lie, I was breathing kind of hard. Our fans cheered for us as we exited and the hostess walked into the stage.

"That concludes the finals and our judges will have our winner shortly."

I went to my family and noticed a girl standing next to Hunter, holding his hand. That shouldn't be the first thing that caught my attention. The first thing should've been her stomach. She was pregnant and she was going to have it any day now.

I frowned and Hunter came to stand in front of me.

"Before you get mad, I know I should've told y'all sooner." He said. "Her name is Alexandria and she goes to college with you. She wanted to meet y'all way earlier than now but I didn't know why I was so hesitant to introduce her to y'all. The day you lost your baby, she was with me but I didn't think it would've been a good idea for y'all to meet in the state of mind you were in."

Alexandria?

She was the girl Hunter was talking to at mine and Levi's first football game. She was also the girl Hunter spoke with on the phone during Christmas break. She was telling him the big news of her pregnancy.

I crossed my arms. "Damn right you should've told me sooner. Why would you keep something like this from you're family?"

He rolled his eyes. "Look Mom already gave me a lecture. I don't need another one."

Right then, they announced for the teams to gather back on the stage to announce to places.

"Get ready for another." I warned. "As soon as this is over with, I'm coming for you."

I went into the stage and the hostess started with sixth place and so on. She hadn't announced us yet and that was a good thing. That means we either got first or second. I didn't want second because they got second last year and it was Hailey last year and she wanted to end in a good note.

"And the winners of 2017 is..."

Another dramatic pause. Did I already say how much I hated waiting? If I hadn't, I hated waiting.

"Texas Tech!"

I didn't think I could scream as loud as I did. But I did and I hugged Hailey, tightly. We did it.

I wish I could say, Jayce found me in the swarm of people and pulled me into a romantic kiss but let's be real, that didn't happen. And I was okay with that. I was with two of my favorite people and we shared this incredible group hug, savoring the moment because this was the last time we were ever cheer together.

We were all going in different directions but we knew, we would always be there for one another. There wasn't a doubt in my mind, they wouldn't be there in my future.