Time seemed to drag, and the competition felt like it was taking forever to get here. But soon I realized, In a few days I can say that my dream is accomplished.
If only it would come quicker! I wondered if I went to sleep for a while, whether the day would go by faster, so I tried it. I flopped on the living room couch and turned on the television because I fall asleep faster with the television on. It worked! I fell fast asleep. I slept through dinner and all through the night and still woke up later than everyone else the next day. So it’s true, I thought. The day does go by faster if you sleep.
Then it was finally time to pack for our week-long trip. I made a list of everything I needed and some little extras.
1) Eight t-shirts
2) Eight pairs of shorts
3) Three pairs of jeans
4) Three pairs of socks
5) New Moon (book)
6) Nintendo DS
7) All my riding gear
8) Money
9) Great-Grandma’s ring
My handwriting was messy, but only because I quickly jotted everything down.
That was everything I needed. Then I picked out all of my favorite clothes, got my zebra-print suitcase out of the closet, and plopped everything into it. In five to ten minutes, I had everything on my list scratched out and packed.
Finally, we were one day away from leaving for the state show. I was so pumped that I did a little hooray dance. I ran down the stairs and stopped at the third step, where I jumped off and yelled, “Yippee ki-yay!”
My mom told me to stop fooling around and just eat dinner. I did and then I sat in bed watching television all night. Well, really only until 10:00 p.m. Then I fell asleep and dreamt of the show.
As soon as I woke up, I ran to my parent’s room and said, “Get up! It’s time to go.” They shushed me and whispered for me to go get dressed and put my stuff in the car. I did exactly what they said.
Finally, the car roared out of the driveway. By the time we arrived at the hotel, the other girls had arrived too.
“Hey, girls! I am so glad to see you here. Let’s hope the show doesn’t get canceled again. Ha!” I giggled at my own humor.
We walked up to our room and unpacked all our stuff. Felicity, Sandra, and I wandered around the hotel. We knew where everything was because we had been there a few times before. We played arcade games with the other girls, but then my back started to ache, so I went back up to our room and laid down to rest. The day was over, but the competition was just beginning.
The next morning was our first practice day. I had the same pattern to memorize and perform, so all I had to do was practice it again and again and again. The next day was another practice day, and so were the two days after that.
The fifth day was different, because we had to clean our stalls and get our horses ready. I did a lot of work with my horse. To start off, I cleaned out her stall. Next, I washed Miracle, cleaned out her hooves, curried her, and braided her mane and tail. Then I went back to the hotel to get myself ready for the show. This time it was going to go on. I was sure of it. Because sleeping passes the time, I went to bed.
I woke up feeling like the greatest person in the world—like anything could happen at that moment. I was thinking, Today is the show and it isn’t going be canceled again. I am going down there right now to make sure of it.
So I ran down to the arena and asked, “It is still going on, right?”
The new judges nodded and smiled.
I got ready just in time. My number was 5667. The show started and there were two rounds—racing and jumping. The judges called number 5665, so I knew I was going to be on soon. Before I knew it, the judges announced numbers 5666 and 5667. That was me! I trotted through the wrought-iron gates and did my jumping pattern. It felt glorious!!
But as Miracle and I continued to do our pattern. I mixed the jumps up! Dang it! How could I make such a mistake after all my practice! So now I was ranked seventh, and I had to get up to fifth. Felicity was fifth, and Sandra was third. I still had one more round. Everyone did their jumping routine perfectly except for me. I was really bummed.
Now it was time for the racing. Five people at a time race each other. I raced Ava, Faith, Brooke, and Lola. I got fourth; I thought that might move me up.
Turns out, it moved me up to sixth place, but it wasn’t enough for me to proceed to the national show. After all my hard work, I wasn’t going to get my life-long dream! At first, I was really bummed, but then I looked on the bright side—Felicity and Sandra DID make it to the national show.