Prom Queen of Disaster (16 page)

“If you have to ask,” Char laughed, followed by the unease of Ava and Libby, watching in silence. “It’s always nerving watching the competition, I’ve been doing this since I was five, there’s nothing to worry about.”

I’d always loved gymnastics, but I’d never been
put
in any competitions. Least of all, the children’s beauty pageants Char had grown up competing in. I guess this was what happened when the cast of TODDLERS & TIARAS grew up, they had a thirst for competitions and being the best at everything—or trying to at least.

The voice over the speaker came through. “
Thank you, San Diego Dolphins for that out-of-water, and out-of-body experience, we’ll give the judges a moment before we bring on our next group. Are you ready for the Marin Pandas, all the way from Marin County High School?
”

Okay, Zoey Jensen, you can do this
. I told myself. We’d done it before, in practice, we’d done it in front of crowds at games, but nobody was judging or scoring us before, we were doing it for fun. That’s when I heard Mr. June’s voice in my head,
remember to have fun
.

“Everyone,” Char rounded us up again. “I know this is what we’ve been working for, and what those
bitches
on the student body have been trying to destroy, but we can do this, we’ve done this already, this isn’t a practice run, this is a game, we’re giving it all for our team. We are our
own
team.”

“
Give a warm welcome for the next competitors, the Marin Pandas!”
the voice came again.

We were cheered to the mats. I scanned the crowd for Dylan, and there he was, howling out and clapping. The small section in the stands we had were cheering. Mostly everyone else just clapped.

Moving into position, we stood in complete silence, our heads down as we’d planned for the routine to start. The music didn’t play. My heart raced, the thundering thud slamming hard in my ears, ringing out. I turned slightly to Char.

The silence became impatient. The creak of our feet on the mats sounded as we stood, growing aware we were about to lose.

Ding!
The sound of a battle in the center of the ring. It was the opening to our track. All nerves vanished, and the routine began.

I saw nerves on all their faces as we pushed into the routine; throwing ourselves across the mats with clean precision, tumbling and jumping, flying through the air. I stopped myself from shouting out ‘
go Pandas
’. We didn’t have pom-poms, it was basically a floor routine for sixteen people, and we pushed ourselves throughout with ease.

The music came to an end in quick succession with the routine. We stood, somewhat out of breath and glassy eyed as we looked out into the crowd and the judges. It wasn’t too bad, mainly because Alexa wasn’t watching, but she was watching the finals, and although I hoped we placed top three, the nerves of performing again for her were enough to want us not to place.

“
Thank you, Marin Pandas for a performance reaching above the bamboo sticks! Give another warm round of applause for the Marin Pandas of Marin County,”
the voice came again, ushering us from the mats.

We walked off, in the opposite direction we came.

I grabbed Char’s wrist. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack!”

“You’re telling me!” She puffed out her cheeks. “But we knew to wait for
it
.”

Mr. June stood, clapping to himself and grinning. We’d done well, all things considered, at least we weren’t puking in the bathroom waiting to perform. In the corner I noticed Hannah hold her hands to her mouth before throwing up in them.

“Ew, Han,” I heard everyone around her. It was mostly liquid, dripping between her fingers. Mr. June’s face dropped. Someone grabbed her a trashcan I
couldn’t
watch.

“Try not to do that out there,” Char said, bunching Hannah’s hair from around her neck into a ponytail. “Anyone have an elastic?”

Dylan watched behind Mr. June and I tripped over myself to jump in his arms.

“You were beautiful out there,” he said, squeezing my sides. “I never get to see you doing your thing,
but
I should probably stand by the sidelines more often.”

I squeezed him tight. “You’re their
star
player, wouldn’t want you being distracted.”

“Do
I
distract you?”

“No, I’m a professional.” I kissed him again.

The competition heat was almost finished, all the groups in our division had now competed. The judges had been making their decision for the past 30 minutes, thirty nail-biting minutes, each one as bad as the last.

“
If all divisions for the Golden State Cheer Championship could make their way back to the main hall, we’ll be revealing winners and runner-ups. Those who place top three will be moving onto the championship, and starting from two—in just 1 hour and 30 minutes! So, make your way to the main hall.”

They announced the winners of the middle grade division, I wasn’t paying attention. Just taking deep breaths, and hoping Hannah wouldn’t throw up through the nose again. Char pulled out a small compact make-up kit.

“You’re blotchy?” Char offered me her powder press. “Don’t want to let them see us sweat. And I’ve already thrown up twice today.”

I pressed the squishy foam into the foundation, dabbing it before pressing it on my face. Spreading evenly into the make-up already there, and mopping up the moisture on my forehead.

They called the high school teams on next. Alexa Bergdorf sat in the center seat, watching us as we all came through to the mats of the main hall. It was larger than the hall we’d been in, more seating behind the judging panel. I had the image of her coming up to us like Tyra Banks, telling us who was going through and those who didn’t make the cut.

“
Let’s welcome back the High School competitors, give them all a round of applause for being the best that California has to bring!”
Everyone out in the stands went semi-wild, not like they were this excited for a basketball match, but cheer moms got pretty heated.

They cut straight to the chase. “
Third place, we have The Oxford Blondes, all the way from Palm Springs!”

We weren’t third.

They collected their trophy as a team, holding it and posing for pictures with Alexa and the other judges. It was a lifetime of waiting. They were going to be performing again, they didn’t need to take so much time.

“
Second place, we have the Napa Sharks, all the way from Napa Valley!”

And second place was taken. We clapped for them. We were civil, they were close to us, but they cheered for football, otherwise we could’ve been bittersweet rivals, and cheer squads thrived on rivalries.

They took longer. Snapping pictures, flashes popping. Their parents, coaches, friends, screaming in the background.

“Headstrong,” I heard Char say over the noise.

“
And finally, for the first place winners, and the final group going through to the grand championship this afternoon, we have the Marin Pandas all the way from Marin County!”

The screams were deafening. We screamed,
some
of the crowd screamed, and we jumped to the first prize trophy. I was seconds away from crying, tears on the brink of my cheek, but one of the younger girls was already crying and I didn’t want the pictures of me with black panda eyes from mascara. Ironically, given we were the Marin Pandas.

Time blurred. I wanted to savor as much of it as I could, but it was fleeting. I wasn’t sure what I wanted the lasting moments of this memory to be. I didn’t know what I needed to remember.

Dylan stood and clapped, shouting out my name, or at least I let myself believe in the moment of temporary hearing loss.

“You guys did so well,” I heard Alexa say as she nestled in for the group pictures. “I look forward to seeing what you can bring to the final.”

I felt my soul escape in the excitement. We moved through to the waiting room, greeted by Mr. June and the rest of the
entourage
.

“Another group picture for the school website,” Mr. June said, keeping us huddled together with the trophy.

We had an hour and 15 minutes until the finals began. There was only first place up for grabs, but we’d already come first in our division, winning the $5,000 it came with.

Back in our greenroom we were given food to keep energy levels high and plenty of bottles of
branded
water, I hadn’t realized, but the entire competition had sponsors plastered everywhere.

“The party is
on
!” Benny shouted.

Dylan hi-fived him above my head.

For the final, we were allowed to perform the same routine, but if we had another, we were encouraged to do that. But we hadn’t thought so far, even though we believed we were amazing, we were just happy to place top three.

“Even though we’ll be celebrating our win tonight,” Char said, she turned and gestured to Quentin. “It’s Quentin’s birthday tomorrow, so we would’ve been celebrating anyway!”

Quentin blushed red in the corner of the room.

Bex squeezed herself into the line of sight beside Quentin. “And if we need any more alcohol, I have my sister’s ID, plus, it’s LA, they’re giving it away.”

Mr. June knocked before walking in. “You have 15 minutes. The schools are already lining up for the final routine.”

Char clapped her hands three times in the air. “Let’s get it moving!”

I kissed Dylan on the side of his neck, it was the only place my head could reach from craning up at him. He kissed my forehead. “I was going to buy a foam finger,” he laughed. “So you could see me.”

“You’re a distraction,” I said, grinning. “But a cute one.”

A roll call of the finalists sounded over the speaker. We waited, again, with all the other schools. The middle school kids were vicious, like they could violently kill you with their easy reach to your legs. The college kids were
above
it, sitting in silence together, like a prayer circle.

Char created a circle around her. “You’re all my favourite people.” With a hand on her heart, it was warming sentiment. “We came in first, and even if we don’t place, that’s fine, we’re still winners. Only one group can come first, and usually I would tell you all we
needed
to win, but we’ve already won today.”

“We’re always winners inside,” Bex added. As vice-captain, she liked to say something, anything, once in a while, usually repeating Char.

“And who are we?” Char asked.

“Marin Pandas,” we said, at once.

“Who? Because I know they didn’t hear you.”

“Marin Pandas,” we went again, raising our voices.

“I don’t think the group at the back heard.”

“Marin Pandas!”

Other groups watched, disturbing their silence and down time.

We were second up. All groups placing first were going in order, followed by second place and then third. Our time came once again, the nerves had fled, the tension in my stomach was now from laughter.

Dylan waved the large blue foam finger. He’d written my name in all caps with black marker pen. Almost like he’d planned it from the start, and after telling me he didn’t have one.

The routine went off without a hitch. We didn’t change it or do anything different, but when it came to an end, we wanted to keep going. We stayed on the mats for a moment to catch our breaths and wave at the crowd.

Mrs. Jennings stood in the waiting room for us. Her smile beamed, the first that didn’t seem forced, but revealed far too many of the deep wrinkles on her face. “Whoa! You guys did a fantastic job out there! You’ve got this in the bag!”

Mr. June appeared through the door behind her. “You can say that again!” He laughed. “I’ve already told Principal Sanders about your win. He’s made some room in the trophy case for it.”

“Think he’ll need to make more room for a second?” Mrs. Jennings laughed.

“Probably not,” Char said. “We won ours, but competing against college groups we’re not on a level with isn’t really fair. But we won our group.”

“Did you see Dylan?” Libby tugged my arm. “So cute!”

“I didn’t think he would,” I laughed.

“You’re perfect for each other.”

“I wish Kaleb would’ve done something like that,” Ava said. “He probably would, but with an arm still in a sling, it’s probably difficult.”

“Could you imagine?” I laughed.

“I was being serious, Zo.”

“Yeah, me too,
like
, could you imagine him doing it?” I said. “Because, you know, he can’t raise his hands above his head.”

“He’s still hurting.”

All the groups had now performed. We stood in a group huddle as they called us back to the mats. The judges pulled out all the theatrics. I watched as they positioned confetti cannon
s
a
nd the judges passed along a golden envelope to Alexa. A microphone was pushed into her hands.

My mouth ran dry. I butted my lips. We squeezed each other, even Char, who hated physical contact with anyone she wasn’t hooking up with. I could hear her, heavy breathing beside me.

“Good luck,” I whispered.

Alexa readied herself on a spot marked on the floor. Cameras poised on both her and all nine of the competing groups. “The winner of the spread in SPIRIT magazine and the $5,000 of the 2015 Golden State Cheer Championship are…” she said, followed by a lifetime of silence. I looked up to see a net holding balloons in place. “College group, the Indigo Tigers from right here in Los Angeles!”

Confetti canons blasted above our heads and balloons rained down. We were all winners, all nine groups, even though
they
were the best of the best, we’d all won something.

“At least it wasn’t one of the middle school groups,” Char said over the noise and excitement from the screaming Indigo Tigers.

If this was a romance, Dylan would’ve jumped through the crowd and swam to me in the sea of confetti, but this was a cheer competition and spectators weren’t allowed on the competition floor.

He waved the foam finger around.

“Love you.” I watched his lips move.