beyond the monotonous city

twenty four

Four other schools performed and Lauren admitted that she was getting rather impatient. When it seemed like all the schools have competed besides theirs, the announcer called them.

"And now let's give a hand to the Miami Pelicans!"

Lauren cheered alongside her friends, clapping her hands loudly.

The girls came out in their red and white uniforms carrying pompoms, hair in pigtails as their mascot, a pelican wearing a red jersey came out. Lauren squinted her eyes to get a better glimpse of Camila, but it seemed hard to pick her apart at that point. They started to do their routines, a couple of throws. When they did a big routine in the middle, Lauren found Ariana who was at the very top due to her small height, doing a split. Shawn cheered loudly, standing up.

They broke their formation and formed two lines at the side. Then they did cartwheels. They separated once more as two small groups did a pyramid on both sides. There were around four girls who weren't part of it as they stood in the very end then started to do cartwheels forward. The smallest of the four went to the very end, diagonally then walked back for momentum before running, doing a cartwheel then many flips. Lauren counted, one, two, three, four. She landed on her feet, arms in the air and smiled and that's when Lauren realized it was none other than Camila.

Lauren cheered louder as cheers erupted. She was in shock that she was able to do that.

Camila and the other four went to the side and ran and did a flip until they ended up being tossed to the top of the pyramid. Camila ended up on top of the pyramid on the right, Ariana on the left. They held hands as they held their split, the final move in the routine. The audience clapped.

Lauren stood up alongside Shawn who gave them a standing ovation, very proud of his girl.

They let down Camila, Ariana and the two other girls in the pyramid as the judges started to deliberate.

Lauren turned to Dinah. "Wow, Camila's really good."

Dinah nodded in agreement. "She is, you should have seen her when she won the regionals. She was the best in her age bracket. That was before we even were freshmen."

"I can't believe she's like that, and she doesn't compete in everything. Imagine if she did." Lauren was still awestruck.

"Ariana gets the bag if Camila's not competing, though she can't do kind of flips Camila does." Dinah said reminding Lauren of being one of those sports analysts from her tone. "They were always competition, it did surprise me that they became friends."

Lauren's supposed reply was silenced as they were about to announce the winners. Second runner-up went to a school she didn't know. The first runner-up went to the host school, met with lots of loud applause. Lauren didn't expect anything so it was to her surprise when their school was announced as the champion. The three of them got to their feet and shouted, in surprise. The cheerleading team went up to the podium and accepted the award, screaming in happiness.

"Now we'll be announcing the special awards." the announcer said.

"Watch Camila bag it." Dinah said as if she already knew. Lauren looked at her amusingly, unsure whether the girl was bluffing.

Some awards were announced and the girls who won it came and accepted. Some were about being the most improved, cleanest routine, best cheer and the likes.

"Now we will announce the most distinguished cheerleader of the competition." There was a silence that spread in the auditorium.

"Watch it," Dinah said once more.

"The award goes to," Lauren held her breath. "Camila Cabello from the Miami Pelicans!"

Dinah smirked at her, a big grin on her face, clapping. "Told you."