As soon as I get home I climb into the closet, barry my face in my hands and cry. I've had it. Lately, its been horrible. I was really happy with Jake, but then, now he's not being the same.

I have no idea how much more shitty my day could have gotten, but I'm starting to wonder if it has reached it's max. I got home, logged into facebook, and after a few minutes of scanning it, I just walked the the fridge, grabbed a container of ice cream, grabbed a spoon from the door and walked upstairs. I put on Jake's sweatshirt and my pajamas with the bears on them. I sit on my bed, with the ice cream, and the laptop and cry. I manage to shovel the entire container into my mouth in an hour. By 8:31 I've had three containers of ice cream, and cried my eyes out. I turn off the main light and sink down under the covers of my bed. I reach for my ipod, and, can't find it. Great. It takes energy for me to roll out of bed and find it. When I find it I just crawl back in bed and don't move. I have things I should do, but I'm in no mood to do any of them.

For a while I just lay there.

As soon as my alarm clock rings, I roll over and groan. I pick up the clock 2:35 am. Umph. I roll out of bed and walk into my closet. I find a pair of newport black stretch sweat pants, kind of like yoga pants, and a tank top. Then I zip up my Newport Drill jacket. It says Eleanor on it in curly red writing. I sigh and lean down to pull on a pair of ankle socks. I have two duffles and a bunch of paperwork, I better get going. I swing the duffles over my shoulder, and pick up the stack of papers from my desk. I pad down the stairs and pour myself a bowl of cereal. While I'm eating, I begin to clip the papers to the stack, and put my whistle around my neck. It is not 2:55 am. I need to get going if I want to make the bus. I slip my feet into my uggs and switch of the lights. With that, I shut the front door, lock it, and walk down the street.

It's pretty dimly lit with the street lamps, and I walk under a few little glows before I reach the gym. I'm the first one here- besides the bus. I shake hands with the driver, and put my bigger duffle in the under bus compartment. Then I walk onto the bus and put my bag in the over head, right above the very first seat in the bus. It's where I have to sit. Then I step off again and wait. Slowly everyone shows up groggily and puts their bags in the bus compartment, in turn. Once everyone is situated on the bus, the driver is seated, and the doors are closed, I stand up. Even though it's early, everyones pretty excited.

"Alright you guys, Im reading attendance. Let's hope everyone is here. I'm calling you off by rows. Staring with row of 22, Sandi, Lexington, Ali, Molly, Jax, Becks, Laura, Rachel, Harley, Serena, Darlene, Lynn, Hailey, Alison, Brooke, Erica, Jenna, Margo, Janie, Cassy, Kate, Alex. Row of 18, Bailey, Danielle, Marcy, Adrienne, Bonnie, Lady, Marlee, Taylor, Isabelle, Elizabeth, Jess, Georgia, Bex, Sierra, Jacie, Katie, Simone, Noelle. Row of 16, Kayla, Donna, Julia, Sarah, Lindsey, Catrina, Olivia, Bridget, Ella, Sasha, Anna, Tallie, Naomi, Delia, Angelica. Row of 14, Lacy, Hallie, Maren, Veronica, Samantha, Emma, Amelia, Claire, Dory, Ashley, Sofie, Amber, Amanda, Lucy. Row of 12, Cassidy, Brittanie, Alexis, Ronnie, Maggie, Celine, Terance, Brianna, Monica, Lea, Zoey, Michelle. Row of 10, Shelby, Denise, Emmy, Nikki, Jordan, Marlene, Vin, Margeret, Savannah, Gigi. Row 8, Lauren, Beatrice, Lizzie, Megan, Phoebe, Milly, Gwen, Eleanor. Five side, the first one, Marie, Mandy, Paris, Bella, Macy. Five side, the second, Miranda, Emily, Andrea, Alyssa, and Jackie. Is there anyone that I did NOT call?" "Nope." "Good, everyone is here. We are off. Good luck Newport!" The bus explodes in cheers.

I sit down into my seat and put in my headphones, we have a good seven hour drive ahead of us. I grab close my eyes and fall asleep until 8:15. When I wake up, pretty much everyone else is just waking up. I look out the window, it's raining. We aren't really on the coast yet, were in the woods on these winding roads. I take a few pictures and then shut my camera off. Better save the batteries for when we hit the coast. I play poker with Olivia for a while, listen to my ipod, read a book. Eventually we all settle back and watch 'Letters to Juliet' on the TV's in the bus. I love how we always get to see a new movie, that's just out in theaters. Soon we come up in a forest, its a big woods, with tall trees, and we are the only car- well... bus on the road. Maren makes a ghost noise. We giggle. Another ghost noise. Then someone shouts, "Let's tell scary stories!". So, everyone tells scary stories for a while. Most of them aren't scary... in fact, we end up laughing. For the rest of the ride, we snap pictures, munch on snacks, and talk.

The bus arrives at on schedule, or, almost, it's 12:13 when the bus pulls into the driveway. I stand up and adress the team. "Ok, grab your duffles, you can leave everything else here, the bus will be locked. Head inside, where we need to get checked in, and get going! Come on Newport, we can do this!" Everyone stands up, and I wait for all of them to get off the bus. Once everyone is off, I grab my basics, camera, phone, ipod, and pick up the paperwork from the seat next to me. I pull my duffles from under the bus and spring off after the rest of the team. It doesn't take me long to catch up with them, and we enter through the main entry way together.

I check in at a desk, giving the lady our team code. "And you are Eleanor?" "That is correct." "Right, your team has room 276, here is the key, you know what time competition starts, have your music brought there ahead of time, and good luck." "Thank you." I smile and walk off. "Come on, 276." When we arrive at the red door with the number, 276 on it, we walk in getting in lines and start to get ready.

I slips off my stretch pants, and put on my red white and yellow skirt. The under shorts, say knights on them. Then I put on the uniform top, pull off my uggs, and put on my red striped knee high socks. I tie my clean white shoes on, and exit into the hair and glitter areas. We all agreed on pony tails, so I help pull peoples hair back in smooth perfect pony tails. Then we put in our glittered wreathes, and start putting the glitter on our faces. Our next few competitions are at a different gym on Gold Beach. We take a regular bus there, if we make next rounds that is.... This is sort of an evalutation. Then, we have full on blue makeup, and we also have our hair in french braids, a traddition that we've had forever. I have no idea how it happened, but it did.

Once we are all ready, we head to the back gym, where we do some stretches. People bring out good luck charms, eat sandwhiches, call their sweethearts, it's insane. I walk around and take pictures. After an hour, a man comes back stage, signaling that the competition is about to start. We are number three on the cast list, out of thirteen competetors. I scan the list of opposing teams. We've encountered some of them before, and all of them we've beaten in competiton. Still, for this, stakes are higher, and their routines will be really pumped up. The girls faces all go serious, as the first team takes its entrance. Im team captain, so I don't have to be backstage in the gym. I watch them do their routine. Flawless. Damnit. The teams scores are really low though, I wonder why they got such low division scores, when their routine was perfect. I watch the second team, and they also bite the dust in scores. Our team is next. I turn around face the team, and scream, at the top of my lungs, "NEWPORT DRILL TEAM HAS THE WINNERS!!!" Then they all scream, and we get into opening position. There is a small court side place, where we are wedged between the door to the gym, and the bleachers. I put my hands up and crossed. I begin to blow my whistle. We are in competition.

We march out, as soon as we get in regular position, the announcer comes on, "Good luck Newport, your music is on." And just like that, we are out in competition. It was perfect. I mean, not even one breath was off. When we end, and we begin to march off, both me and Sandi directing with whistles, I try to hear the scores the judges are giving. "8.0, 8.0, 8.0. 8.0, 7.8, 8.0, 7.9." My jaw drops. We literally almost got like, complete perfect scores. I mean, 8.0 is the highest score you can get, neither of the other teams even got one 8.0, and we got five!!!! When we get backstage I know the other girls heard too, because everyones faces are lit up like light bulbs. I run and hug Sandi.

It takes forever for all the other teams to go, but, we end up going to the next rounds. Only 5 teams get to go, out of the original 13. If you aren't part of the final five, your dismissed to go back to your bus, or whatever brought you here. If you are, then you head back to the dressing rooms to get ready. We have the same uniforms, but our hair and makeup is different. We quickly get into a braid line, and french braid each others hair. Once we finish that, we begin to get on the bright pink blush, and electric blue eye shadow. Were ready. We leave the building the same way we came in, only we leave our duffles in the building. The drivers have arranged for our duffles to be brought aboard the buses for us. The only thing we need, is the paperwork, because all our uniforms and makeup is already on. We board a normal bus, by team of course, and each take a seat. Its only a fifteen minute ride, but I take out my camera anyways. Aside from getting pictures of the team, we are really close to the beach, so I take a few pictures of the beach from the windows. When we arrive at the grounds, they tell us there are two more rounds and drill down. The first one is in a gym, the second one, is outside on the fields, and by that time it will probably be dark. We nod and begin to get ready. Drill downs is between all five teams, but, the second competition is only between two teams. The first competition really isn't hard at all to pass. It's not cold, its warm. We use our pom-poms and then we wip them out and begin our flips. We win and move on the the next round. There's a break in between them though, so we decide to get something to eat. After we finish eating, we walk down to the shores of Gold Beach.

Our team is famous for taking pictures of us jumping on the beach at sunset. Once we get at least seven photos of us, and I get some nice pictures of the beach, we just run around and laugh and talk to a while. It's time to head back. We refresh ourselves, our makeup, and put on our uniforms again. We didn't wear our uniforms to the beach of course, because, who would? We don't want them to get dirty. We are competing against Sherwood drill. We've beat them before, and they don't like us much. They go first, and when they are done, we take our places on the field. It's full on. Flips, springs, hops, jumps, lifts, peel offs, cartwheels, and everything else under the sun. As soon as we finish, I'm starting to wonder if we won. We huttle in our corners of the field, biting our lips. The pressure is on... Who won!? "This years, Splash at the Coast competition winners, are the proud team, who practiced long and hard, had flawless flips, and is nothing less then perfect, the one and only, Newport Drill team!" We scream so loud and run back out on the field, Im doing flips and dancing and running. I race up to the announcer and take the trophy from her, the girls all gather around, and lift me up, Im still holding the trophy, and its a perfect photo chance. We get the picture, and smile at each other.

I've put all my clothes back on, and wiped off the makeup that was caked on my face. We each got sweatshirts that say "Newport wins, Splash at the coast". I pull mine over my head and clamber back to the bus. It's only five oc'lock but I'm exhausted. While we were here, we ordered a couple thousand pizza's for the ride back. When I get on the bus, I suddenly realize how hungry I am. We finish off the pizza's pretty quickly and everyone is full. As soon as we are done, I curl up and pick up my laptop. I begin to upload, my photos. I add captions, and soon I realize, that we passed Florence on the way here. It's far back, but, that's where Jake was today with band. I sigh, he gets back at nine, I get back at either eleven or twelve. I know he won't be logged in, he may not even be logged in at all today, but I can't help checking every single minute too see if he's seen the pictures. I take more pictures on the way back, of everything. The girls are laughing so hard. We've had sugar obviously.

Finally he logs in. We talk for a while and then he doesn't answer for like ever. I sigh sleepily. I might got to go on him... He's not being sweet, actually he's being sort of annoying!

Dance, is a full on commitment. I sniffle in the sent of body sprays as I shove through the girls locker room. I'm looking for Shelby. Shelby, is almost impossible to miss. She has shiny black hair, and these big blue eyes. Although it sounds weird, Shelby is gorgeous. I cough as some glitter powder falls in my face and I hear a muffled, "Sorry Eleanor." from somewhere in the corner. At this point I've made it all the way to the back of the lockers, and am standing in front of Shelby's locker. I'm trying to take role, this is our big practice, but, Shelby seems to be no where in site. I let out an exasperated sigh, which comes out more like a groan. I lean against one of the freshly painted blue lockers for a moment, thinking. I suddenly snap back to reality, sigh again, and clap my hands together."Everyone out in the gym! Warm ups now. We can practice entering later." A mess of girls begin to cram towards the door, and I glance into the mirror. I pull my brown hair into a high pony tail, and pick up a glitter stick. This is a dress rehearsal, but, I've been looking for Shelby. I wipe the glitter stick on my face, leaving a sparkling trail across my flushed cheeks. Then I head for the gym.
I blow my whistle and immediately, everyone stops what their doing, and faces me in a line. All one hundred and nine faces turn towards me. Well, make that, one hundred in eight, because, as I do my head check, and count offs, Shelby isn't here. I count three times to make sure. This is bothering me, this isn't like Shelby, I mean, Shelby is always here. She's always wanted to take co captain away from Sandi. The day before a huge competition, she's at practice. So where is she now?
"Does anyone know, where Shelby is?" Murmuring takes up and they shake there heads. "Nope" and, "Nada" ring through the air. "Well, I'm going to wait a little for her, and while she's not here, I ought to take up something with you."
"Let's see now girls. We obviously, are here to practice our routine. But, we also, need to do a better dress rehearsal. You were doing ok, but usually, we are full on coordinated. I know its early, well..... 6:15 am, but, still. Now, we've got to practice entering, so, what I want you to do, is go towards the back. There are folders I've put together with information. Grab them and read through them, I'm going to call Shelby." The girls walk towards the table, and I trot towards the lockers. When I walk in I nearly choke, it smells like vanilla, and really strong. I open one of the windows before unlocking my small office, that Sandi and I share, to get my phone. Shelby is in my contacts, and it only takes me a few minutes to get her on the line, I memorized her number too.
"Hello?" A groggy voice from the other end asks. "Shelby?" "Yes, this is she." I blink. She's fine, she's already waking up. "Oh no. Ohhhh no. It's, what time is it?! Its, 6:17 am?!!?!??!? I HAVE TO GET TO PRACTICE!!!!" "Its me Shel, chill. I was wondering where you were." "Oh my god, I am soooo sorry. I really am, I-" "Just come on," I let out a little laugh, Shelby is so uptight about things. "I was just making sure that you were ok." "Well, I will be once I'm at the gym!" She says perkily. "Chaoo!!"

After this I feel so much better. I hope out to practice and find the girls leafing through the packets. "All of that sound good?" "Course, we can totally swing these times, now can we get practicing?!" I laugh at the overly excited team, and watch as the gym door busts open, and a fair, black haired, blue eyes, domestic beauty bounds through, letting in little bursts of sunlight. "Hi!!!" "Shelby!!!" Sandi runs towards her and hugs her and the rest of the team begins to smile even more then before. "Well, now that every ones here, lets get to practice. Sandi, will you treat drill offs? "Course."
Sandi gathers in main position and puts the shiny silver whistle into her mouth. The drill sounds and we gather into the lines. "Right face, left face, about face, half face..." Her voice drowns on and on, girls dropping out after a while I'm the last one standing. "Absolutely perfect. Eleanor, of course. You'll be competing in the drill downs tomorrow?" "Didn't you READ the packet? Yes. And so are you miss fancy pants so you better suck it up and do it perfectly." I smile as I say it. Ok I'm leading, you got drill downs until 9, so get this down to the very last finger twitch." I lead drill downs until 10, and then log into facebookr
I talk to Jake, online, and smile like an idiot. As everyone else skips around, going out a little to get starbucks, or, talking, laughing, doing flips off of things, I'm sitting in the bleachers talking to Jake. He sounds good. I can't wait until Monday. I just love the feeling of his arms around me. There's no where else I'd rather be, in this entire world. If I had only one choice of where to be, it would be his arms. No competition. I smile to myself as I sip the strawberry swirl Jamba juice Shelby brought back for me. 11:11. I make a wish, and there's nothing more in the world, that I want, then for it to come true. I feel a warm glow come over me. Just as I'm about to tell him I have to go, because, seriously I do, we need to start our back flips and spring offs, he tells me he's got to go. Talk about fate. I get up and take the ice pack I've been putting on my ankle because, after just a little practice my leg is throbbing. I put it back in the fridge and I consider bracing my leg for the rest of practice, but I don't. I skip back out.
"Ok people, we have a lot of work to do. First we need to start peel offs, you've gotten really good all of you, but I had to reconfigure the lines a little bit, there are seven lines, starting from the back, its, 22, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, and 8. On both sides there are groups of five. Four behind, and the fifth person standing in the back. This means that getting into the peel offs is harder, and, were gonna have to do them a little differently."
I walk them through the steps, and basically all the way until 2:50 practice entering, and peel offs. We haven't even got into drop catches, flips, one foot twice offs, back hand triple left springs, or double loop flips. I blink and show them the video. "You guys, hit, thee nail, right on the head. I mean, amazing, skills. I have never seen it this perfect. We got some serious flips, so pump it, cause we aren't even running into the full routine." With that, I grab some pop them in and bump the volume up. I step back, clap my hands and jump up a good foot and a half off the ground I flip backwards, spring back on one hand and spring back up. I continue doing air splits, triple flips, and once I'm done, I walk over to people, and begin to help perfect their routines. By the time I get a chance to rest, it's because, I've got a meeting. Sandi is taking over for maybe an hour or so while I go.

I leave the gym at around 6:33. When I get home, its, 6:44. I left the gym and it wasn't raining so I didn't get soaked thank god. When I get home, I glance at myself in the mirror. Not Donna friendly. I grab a bigger bag, no matter what Angela or Donna says about my looking like a mommy with a diaper bag, and put my dance clothes in it. I'm going to need them afterwards. Then, I put on a red dress with one huge tie sleeve. When I'm done I inspect my work. I've also put on, a large Diamond collier. I role my eyes and look for a pair of decent shoes. This is really when I hit the low point. I manage to find a pair of shiny red heels, with black soles and heals, that look stunning with the black bag and the dress. I decide, sense time allows it, to log into my facebook and see if anything may be different with the world. After a few minutes of being logged in, Jake logs in and my heart speeds up a little. He was a little busy and less... well sweet this time, but I'm not worried. I'm just as happy. He had to leave for the play, and I wonder if this time he's going to have to ride his bike like earlier today. It was pouring, it stopped now, but if it should start again I don't want him to get too wet. After he logs out, being on the Internet seems sort of pointless. I can log back in when he might be on, but for now he'll be at the play, so I don't have good reason.

I take one last look at myself in the mirror before stepping out of the front door. What ever possessed me to walk, was stupid, because almost as soon as I get into the hills of Portland heights, it starts pouring. Not really pouring, I should say, a monsoon came down. I was getting soaked. I darted under a tree and roll my eyes. It offers the dry. In fact, I'm hardly getting wet at all. I look fine.... I wait for it to slow up a little. I need to get to the pearl district, but I have no way of doing this in this rain.... I begin to walk, because really, what other choices do I have?

On my way to the restaurant, where I know, I will be chastised by Angela for being so wet, I spy Anthropology. Suddenly, I get an idea. I walk into the store, dripping wet and begin to head straight for the back of the store. That's when I see it, and I know that this plan, will definitely work. On the mannequin, I see, a dark blue, strapless, dress. The skirt is full, and it hits right above the knees. It has a huge satin blue bow tying off at the waist. Without a moments hesitation I a dress from the hanger. I know what size I am. A small. And that's all they have left. Maybe skipping butter on my bread is a benefit after all. Now all I've got to do, is find the hotel I'm supposed to meet at.

I walk four more blocks before I find the hotel. The saleswomen did a good job of placing the dress in a sealed off plastic dry cleaning bag. It was hard to haul it up the streets, in pouring rain, and heels, but I managed. Somehow. When I get to the hotel I make a mad dash for the bathroom before anyone sees me. I take off the soaking wet red dress, and put on the blue one. My hair is soaking wet, but when I take it down from its bun and shake it out, I actually look ok. The necklace really pulls the entire thing together. After I'm done, I look down, and I see the shoes. Oh no. I cannot wear these shoes with this dress... I pull off the heels and manage to stuff them in my purse. I walk to the front desk, and wait in line a moment.

"Can I help you?" "Could I check this dress here please?" "That will be fine ma'am, may I have your name?" "Eleanor Huntington, E-L-E-A-N-O-R H-U-N-T-I-N-G-T-O-N." "Can I have a phone number please?" I recite the number, and thank her. She hands me a checking card and I pad over to the gift shop. I'm not wearing any shoes. I checked the other ones, because, there's no way I would have gotten past Angela wearing them. Then, I remember something. I open my purse, and find a pair of shoes from the other night, when I crammed them in here. They are navy blue satin, with jeweled heels.

As soon as I slip my feet in them, I know, I'm a vision. I can tell because, when I walk into the lobby, heads turn. For a twelve year old kid, I look really good. I spy Angela, wearing a shimmering aqua colored dress and standing in 7 inch heels. I swear that women could walk on stilts and still not trip. She turns around to face me and her eyes widen. I know I've done good this time. "Stunning. Now lets go." She takes my arm, but before walking anywhere she glares at my purse and shakes her head. "Pierre!" She yells in a shrill voice. A bellhop comes rushing towards us. It amazes me how little time it takes Angela to find the staff, and work them like they were her slaves. It always has. "Check this. You know the name and the number." She thrusts my purse towards him, and before I can protest he is gone and Angela is dragging me towards a golden colored double door.

As soon as we reach the door she says, "I'm entering first, I want you to wander in. You look magnificent for once darling, so we can go with the right entrance." With that she spins on her heel and trots into the room. I wait a few minutes before entering. The men that handle the doors don't seem to mind, but it's awkward to stand there and just wait in front of the door. I nod when I'm ready, and they swing open the double doors. I take a few steps and realize that i feel like royalty. For twelve, I feel really good. The room is buzzing. Women in gowns, and such. I'm very glad that red dress didn't work, because, it would have ruined me for sure. Even this dress feels a little off balance, but with the heels and the huge diamond collier, I manage to pull it off.

I have to be back to the gym by 8:30. I'm pretty tired but I keep walking around. I've met so many people, each of them wanting to know, if I'll sign on with them. Angela hastily steps in to handle and I wince slightly as they all father around her and give her names and numbers. (God knows how Angela remembers, but trust me, she remembers everything). When it's time for me to take my leave, Angela shoves me towards stage. "You have an award first." When I get to the huge glass blocks they are using for stairs, I walk up carefully. The room falls silent. "And there she is, will you please raise your glasses to the queen of dance, 2010." I blink. This is a big award. A man comes and hands my a glass trophy type thing, and a women comes, kisses me on both cheeks, and hands me a bouquet of flowers.
I change out of the blue dress, put it back in the bag, and change into a t-shirt, shorts, and running shoes I stuffed in the bag earlier for dance. I leave the hotel with one bag and my purse. Now I've got to run back. The jog back really isn't that bad. I don't fall, its just wet. When I burst into the gym my friends are practicing. I tiptoe to the back leaving small puddles and get to the lockers. I hang the dry cleaning bag in the shower bar, and peel off my wet clothes. I toss them aside and grab a towel from my locker. I dry off, change into my dance uniform, pull my hair into a pony tail, and put the glitter on my face. ready. I walk back out into the gym and wink at Sandi. "They've got it. Nailed. I mean, stunning." She's right. We do seventeen more run , but I can't find a thing wrong. After flipping about all over the place, I tell them to all go sit on the bleachers. "Alright. We have it. Bus leaves at 3 am tomorrow. Do NOT, be late. Bring all your bags, if there's something you want with you for the ride, take it. If not, bags go in overhead, and under the bus storage. There are TV's. Bring DVD's if you want. You can bring headphones. Our weird bus has wire-less internet, so if you wanna bring a laptop thats dandy. Phones Ipods, pillows, whatever. The latest we will be back is 11:30 pm, so if you need to take a medication or whatever bring it with you. Read through routines, we get ready when we get there, but wear something appropriete from practicing because as soon as the bus arrives we get out, go to the gym practice for an hour, and then we are on. Get ready girls. Now head to the lockers." They get up and head for the lockers as well as Sandi.
Once it clears out a bit, I grab my stuff, lock the office, and head to my house to finalize tomorrows trip. When I get home, I take a shower. I put on a pair of sweats and a hoodie before standing in the middle of my room. Time to finalize. First, I check my packing. I have too duffles, and my purse. I got all the paper work together, double checked the bus situation. It's all ready. I roll my eyes, Im exausted, and I reallly mean it. I could colapse. I sink back into the couch and switch on my ipod hoping something good will come on. It does it turns out. Blue Monday comes on and I try to relax, I fail miserably. I desperately want to be able to sit still, but between thinking about kissing Jake, and the huge competition tomorrow, I'm no where close to having an evening in peace. I shift positions and put my feet up. So instead, I decide to just go ahead and do absolute final details that I wasn't gonna do until late. First I make a bus diagram. I'm not assigning seats, but, I need to know how many in each seat. I manage to work something out, thats reasonable- you don't even have to share a seat. I smile at my work and grab my dance plans. Let's see... forward hop... I switch some things around and begin to get people's regular information together. They each sort of have a page and a profile. Shelby helped me with them. I love my team, Im friends with everyone of them. After getting everything written down, I try to work out how the afternoon is going to play out. I figure as soon as the bus arrives, we can get our bags and head to the gym. We get an hour practice, because the competition starts at 1. But, we also need to finalize. Getting into our uniforms, and getting glitter on, and, we do need to eat at some point, unless we eat on the bus.... this part wasn't that greatly planned. I finally figure that we can work eating out when we get hungry. Basically, we can't run through our routine, the gym there is too small, but we can do it in sections for basic stuff. Besides, I want to get checked in, and I have to get some really good pictures of the coast for Jake. He's never really been down that way. Im super phsyched to be going, and I love pictures! I wonder if Nolan can bring his phone and text. That would be cool, I may be able to text Jake!!! My heart starts to flutter when I think of his hugs and his one cheek kiss.
Ok. Headcheck here. I've got to make sure everything is ready. And I mean 100%. Im looking through my bag, my papers... Im pretty sure that's it.. Im just worried! I mean, this is huge, and Im really gonna have to plan it perfect. I wince slightly at myself. I smashed my finger in a door today and it's killing me! I look at my finger.... neh.. it's not purple or swollen or anything... Its just.. IT HURTS, I can feel it pulsing, and I smashed it a few hours ago. I snuggle back down into the cushions of the couch and wish I had Jake's sweatshirt. My aunt insisted upon washing it. I look around the living room and switch on the TV. The parent trap comes on, and I lower the volume a little. I smile a little when 'There she goes' comes on in the movie. I love this song. So much! I also love L-O-V-E. Its a song that I can sing over and over and never get tired of. L is for the way you look at me....and just like that, I drift off, thinking about Jacob. <3

The practice zone.

Dance, is a full on commitment. I sniffle in the sent of body sprays as I shove through the girls locker room. I'm looking for Shelby. Shelby, is almost impossible to miss. She has shiny black hair, and these big blue eyes. Although it sounds weird, Shelby is gorgeous. I cough as some glitter powder falls in my face and I hear a muffled, "Sorry Eleanor." from somewhere in the corner. At this point I've made it all the way to the back of the lockers, and am standing in front of Shelby's locker. I'm trying to take role, this is our big practice, but, Shelby seems to be no where in site. I let out an exasperated sigh, which comes out more like a groan. I lean against one of the freshly painted blue lockers for a moment, thinking. I suddenly snap back to reality, sigh again, and clap my hands together.

"Everyone out in the gym! Warm ups now. We can practice entering later." A mess of girls begin to cram towards the door, and I glance into the mirror. I pull my brown hair into a high pony tail, and pick up a glitter stick. This is a dress rehearsal, but, I've been looking for Shelby. I wipe the glitter stick on my face, leaving s sparkling trail across my flushed cheeks. Then I head for the gym.

I blow my whistle and immediately, everyone stops what their doing, and faces me in a line. All one hundred and nine faces turn towards me. Well, make that, one hundred in eight, because, as I do my head check, and count offs, Shelby isn't here. I count three times to make sure. This is bothering me, this isn't like Shelby, I mean, Shelby is always here. She's always wanted to take co captain away from Sandi. The day before a huge competition, she's at practice. So where is she now? "Does anyone know, where Shelby is?" Murmuring takes up and they shake there heads. "Nope" and, "Nada" ring through the air. "Well, Im going to wait a little for her, and while she's not here, I ought to take up something with you."

"Let's see now girls. We obviously, are here to practice our routine. But, we also, need to do a better dress rehearsal. You were doing ok, but usually, we are full on coordinated. I know its early, well..... 6:15 am, but, still. Now, we've got to practice entering, so, what I want you to do, is go towards the back. There are folders I've put together with information. Grab them and read through them, Im going to call Shelby." The girls walk towards the table, and I trot towards the lockers. When I walk in I nearly choke, it smells like vanilla, and really strong. I open one of the windows before unlocking my small office, that Sandi and I share, to get my phone. Shelby is in my contacts, and it only takes me a few minutes to get her on the line, I memorized her number too.

"Hello?" A groggy voice from the other end asks. "Shelby?" "Yes, this is she." I blink. She's fine, she's already waking up. "Oh no. Ohhh no. It's, what time is it?! Its, 6:17 am?!!?!??!? I HAVE TO GET TO PRACTICE!!!!" "Its me Shel, chill. I was wondering where you were." "Oh my god, Im soooo sorry. I really am, I-" "Just come on," I let out a little laugh, Shelby is so uptight about things. "I was just making sure that you were ok." "Well, I will be once Im at the gym!" She says perkily. "Ok, Ill see you Shelb, don't get hurt on the way over!" "Chaoo!!"

After this I feel so much better. I hope out to practice and find the girls leafing through the packets. "All of that sound good?" "Course, we can totally swing these times, now can we get practicing?!" I laugh at the overly excited team, and watch as the gym door busts open, and a fair, black haired, blue eyes, domestic beauty bounds through, letting in little bursts of sunlight.

"Hi!!!" "Shelby!!!" Sandi runs towards her and hugs her and the rest of the team begins to smile even more then before. "Well, now that everyones here, lets get to practice. Sandi, will you treat drill offs? "Course." Sandi gathers in main position and puts the shiny silver whistle into her mouth. The drill sounds and we gather into the lines. "Right face, left face, about face, half face..." Her voice drawns on and on, girls dropping out after a while. Im the last one standing. "Absolutely perfect. Eleanor, of course. You'll be competing in the drill downs tomorrow?" "Didn't you READ the packet? Yes. And so are you miss fancy pants so you better suck it up and do it perfectly." I smile as I say it. "Ok, Im leading, you got drill downs until 9, so get this down to the very last finger twitch." I lead drill downs until 10, and then log into facebook for break.

I talk to Jake, online, and smile like an idiot. As everyone else skips around, going out a little to get starbucks, or, talking, laughing, doing flips off of things, Im sitting in the bleachers talking to Jake. He sounds good. I can't wait until monday. I just love the feeling of his arms around me. There's no where else I'd rather be, in this entire world. If I had only one choice of where to be, it would be his arms. No competition. I smile to myself as I sip the strawberry swirl Jamba juice Shelby brought back for me. 11:11. I make a wish, and there's nothing more in the world, that I want, then for it to come true. I feel a warm glow come over me. Just as I'm about to tell him I have to go, because, seriously I do, we need to start our back flips and spring offs, he tells me he's got to go. Talk about fate. I get up and take the ice pack I've been putting on my ankle because, after just a little practice my leg is throbbing. I put it back in the fridge and conside rsports bracing my leg for the rest of practice, but I don't. I skip back out.

"Ok people, we have a lot of work to do. First we need to start peel offs, you've gotten really good all of you, but I had to reconfigure the lines a little bit, there are seven lines, starting from the back, its, 22, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, and 8. On both sides there are groups of five. Four behind, and the fifth person standing in the back. This means that getting into the peel offs is harder, and, were gonna have to do them a little differently."

I walk them through the steps, and basically all the way until 2:50 practice entering, and peel offs. We haven't even got into drop catches, flips, one foot twice offs, back hand triple left springs, or double loop flips. I blink and show them the video. "You guys, hit, thee nail, right on the head. I mean, amazing, skills. I have never seen it this perfect. We got some serious flips, so pump it, cause we aren't even running into the full routine." With that, I grab some CD's pop them in and bump the volume up. I step back, clap my hands and jump up a good foot and a half off the ground I flip backwards, spring back on one hand and spring back up. I continue doing air splits, triple flips, and once Im done, I walk over to people, and begin to help the perfect their routines.

I have never seen so many girls, glitter, or cell phones in my life, as I have seen on Newport Drill team buses, but I know this trip will set a new record. Im sitting here, staring at my packing list. I think its pretty decent, I mean... I did write it didn't I?! Only, I never thought about the fact, that I have to pack most of the stuff. I get off my bed with a sigh and walk to my closet. My closet is, well... organized. I work my way to the back, where all my suitcases, duffles, and trunks are. I tug at a Newport drill duffle and walk back out, laying it on the bed. First thing's first. Clothes, that are regular. Jeans, and Jax's tee-shirt. Socks... Now, Newport shorts, and.... lemme see. Im gonna need pajamas....

By the time I finish packing my bag, its fat, I mean, its a really big bag now. My total items include;

Jeans- (2)

Shirts- (4, you never know with those girls)

Newport shorts, and shirt

Practice clothes- (like, stuff you can do flips in)

Socks- (18 pairs)

Towels- (2)

My uniform.

And of course, my over night bag.

I also have, a deck of cards, my ipod, my laptop, my phone, snacks, my water bottle, the whistle, the megaphone, the role list, pillow, blanket, two pairs of shoes one for routines one regular, the CD, our lesson plan, and a few DVD's. I have to sit on the bag to get it to zip, and once it does, I realize, that I need to get all the paperwork together. I stride over to my desk and grab my clipboard. I clip a pile of papers to it. Role sheet, instructions, registration, basic plan, contact info, and just about every other piece of paperwork floating around. I grab two pens, one goes in the metal part at the top, the other goes on the side. If I lose my pen again, I will be royaly pissed off.

I lay the clipboard down neatly on the desk, and place my bulging red duffle next to the desk. Then I remember, the whistle. I grab it and put it down on he clipboard. I cannot forget that. I shake my head and pull my hair into a bun, flopping down on my bed and popping my earbuds in. I grab another routine plan I've been working on for a while and begin to try and work it out as Michael Jacksons 'Thriller' blares from my ipod. I begin to sketch it out trying to think how to form our lines differently, but so that all 110 people fit nicely. This took me forever to figure out in the first place, and I hate to go through it every time we have a routine, but I dont have a choice. Im team captain.

After an hour and a half of working on my routine between bites of chocolate cake (yes chocolate cake, Im a size zero, and Im eating chocolate cake, its a crime), I set it down and grab my camp packing list. I sink back into my orange and red tie dyed pillow and scan the list. I have no idea, how many bags Im going to need for this list, but it's definetly going to be over three. I bite my lip. I should probably email people and ask what they are planning on bringing so we can coordinate. I log into my email and find a new message from Thomas. I fight the urge to roll my eyes, but I role them anyway. Delete. I am not talking to him. He's a jerk. Hmm... Lets see, an email from Donna.... Nope nothing interesting. I click on my adress book, and find the camp friends list. The email reads something incredibly dorky, because Im sending it to all of them. Im trying to make it sound original, but I don't have time. The best I manage to spin up is something cheesy, but they are my best of friends, so I know they'll understand.

What next. I've finalized the packing list for this weekend, sort of at least. I have called ahead and booked a hotel in case anything falls through Sunday. My skating finals don't take place for like, another week. And camp... well thats forever from now, no need to worry about something thats going to be that far in the future, even though I sort of am. I have to take practically my entire house. With hardly any energy, I find the easiest thing to do on my list; alphabatize my magazines. Blah, I hate doing it, but I can't not. Too perfect a person I guess. I sit down on my huge black shag carpet and begin to flip through magazines. Times, Fitness, Sports Illustrated, Vogue... Who ordered all these? I hardly read anything that isn't like.... well, informational. Although, Ill admit the Vogue was mine... whatever, everyone reads that stuff at some point. I start to think about the competition Sunday, and get so lost in my thought, that pretty soon, I have a stack of magazines almost a mile high next to me. I raise my brow, that was fast... thirty minutes for 55 magazines. Not only are they alphabetical, but each different magazine, has the issues in order by date. Sometimes, I even impress myself. I pick up the glossy magazines and put them on various polished wooden tables in my room that I use for my magazines. After fanning all of them out, I realize, that was like, the thing on the list that was the least important thing I had to do. Naturals not in it suddenly comes on, and I realize, Im late as hell.

I run up the stairs and throw on my back dress. Its a strapless black cocktail dress thats pretty form fitting. I pull my hair down from the bun, and tie it back again, this time in a sloppy bun, that makes it look like i may have spent some time on my hair. On goes Chanel number 19 perfume, and rasberry flood lip gloss. Now... where are.... THE SHOES! I find the pair of four inch glittered red heels. I shove my feet in them and race down the stairs grabbing for my purse and throwing open the front door, practically panting. If I don't make it on time, Donna will murder me this time. I swore I wouldn't be late... And hey, it only took three minutes for me to get ready. Thats my record. I have no choice but to walk, or rather, teeter downtown. I make a face, and run back in the house. I grab the first pair of runners I find, a pair of Nike's. I jam my sock-less feet into them, pick up the heels, cram them into my purse, and begin to run down the street.

After ten miles of running, Im still not there. I bet people are wondering why Im going flying down the sidewalks of downtown Portland, but I don't have time to stop and think about the people staring at me. As I get closer to where Im meeting Donna, I kick off one runner, still slightly running, or hopping at this point, and shove it in my purse. Then, I pull out one of the heels and put my foot in it, pulling it over my heel. I do the same with the other side, having to wrench the heal out of the bag, because its stuck. I realize when I pull my hand out of the purse, as Im running down NW 23rd street, in a black cocktail dress, and four inch red heals, that there's something sticky on my hand. Of course. My lotion cap got loose and blew over the inside of the bag. I glare down at the purse and ignore it, I have no more time left. I come up on the side and slow down, stopping in front of Donna, who's wearing a snakeskin kind of dress... or... something that was supposed to be a dress, but looks about the size of a hankershief.

"Finally, god, I've been waiting for ever. Darling, what are you wearing? You actually look... presentable. Your.. vexing, fabulous." A sly look spreads across her face as she purrs, "This way, and if your smart you'll get rid of that bag, I've told you before, bags make you look like a mommether." I can tell she's had something to drink, because, she slurs the words a little bit. I follow her into the restaraunt, an expensive looking, dimly lit place, with food that looks well... untouched. Doesn't anyone eat anymore? She leads me towards a table with a bunch of editors that I recognize. Not again. Really.... I know Im good at skating, I know, I do, but, I hate these dinners. Whatever, at least its not a club. I smile at them all, and take the glass the waiter offers me. What I don't realize of course, is that, the waiter handed me wine. What kind of waiter hands a minor wine? I take a sip, without thinking, and almost chock. Blech. Revolting taste. I cough a little bit. What is in this... mouse poop? Donna looks over at me and rolls her eyes, from her icy cold stare I can tell shes trying to communicate a, "What the fuck Eleanor, can you try for once, I know your 12, but, you don't know what your doing, now Im going to have to save your ass now aren't I?" message. I put the glass down. "Can you excuse me a moment please? I just came from Marquees, and I need to freshen up a little." I give a sort of flirty smile, Donna will be pleased. Marquees is impossible to get into, and, no, I didn't just come from there, but I was there last night.

I find the bathrooms and walk in, wishing I hadn't ditched my purse per Donna's request. I blink at myself in the mirror. Wow. For three minutes, its really not that bad this time.. I turn and catch something in the corner of my eye. What is on the heel of my shoe? Oh my god. I look down at the heel, and there it is. A glob of lotion, and Im talking, huge. I blink and lean down wiping it off. No way, these are 300$ shoes. No, I am not letting them get ruined, even if they do kill my feet. Once I fix them I roll my eyes. I hope they didn't see that.

By the end of dinner, Im so stuffed. And Im not talking about food either. Oh no. Not with Donna around. I mean with questions and bookings. Skate here this day, dance here this day, do an add for, go on this show, you should enter this competition. As we exit the restaraunt Donna saunters towards her black car. She opens the door and slides in. No goodbyes included. I walk back up the hill and to my house. This night is not even near being over.