***Michael's POV***
It's been crazy the past few months the mates and I had our meeting with the label to discuss our tour and it's going to be amazing! It's called Rock Out With Your Socks Out because why not and we start in Japan, which I'm hella excited to visit and then we'll tour Europe, then come back home to do shows across Australia and New Zealand and then tour the U.S. Performing our own music for our own shows is going to be so fucking awesome and I can't wait! We've been flying back and fourth to LA to work on writing and recording all the while working with some of our biggest idols in the music industry. It's an incredible journey and we're still in shock that this is happening to us. We have a growing fan base, we have our own album all the while we're working with our idols and becoming famous. I'm loving every minute of it.
Lauren and I have gone back to the way our friendship was and more. We spend so much time together, finding out we have a lot in common. The mates and I have been going to as many of Lauren's competitions as possible, she's doing a great job, she's won almost every one; she's really building up a name for herself here.
***
Sitting in the stands at a basketball arena that was set up with gymnastics equipment for the competition the mates and I along with Geordie sat with Lauren's family waiting for the start of Lauren's age group to start. Andrew was getting set up to record Lauren and the rest of us we're engaged in small chit chat. Watching all the other girls warming up, Lauren was talking to her coach, Brendan. Lauren told me that he's also a physical trainer so he was helping her stretch out and tapping her ankles and wrists. Her hair was tied back in its usual pony tail and she had a blue leotard on with gold detailing. When Brendan was done tapping her she loosely stated practicing dance moves while listening to her iPod.
Brendan walked over to the bleachers and called Lauren's Aunt and Uncle over to talk to him. I could see that it was a really serious conversation even though I couldn't hear them but their faces said otherwise. They kept looking back between each other and Lauren, making me concerned because they continued to talk even when the commentator announced the start of the competition and introduced every gymnast.
They finally sat back down because Brendan had to go meet with Lauren and the other girls from the gym. Everyone else had finally noticed the concern on their face making us all uneasy.
"Everything okay?" Emily asked.
"Yeah everything's fine." Mrs. Court lied.
"Come on Lauren's starting on vault." Mr. Court said nodding towards the equipment.
"So how does all this work? How do you win?" Geordie asked she still hasn't gotten the hang of understanding judging yet.
"Ok so gyms across Sydney who were invited to the meet send their top 5 gymnasts from every age group to compete in two rounds, Individual and All-Around." Emily started to explain. It wasn't Lauren's turn on vault yet so she had time to explain. "In the individual round, everyone, even people from the same gym as you, is your competition. You have to participate in every event and the person with the best score after two chances at each event wins either first, second or third place."
"Okay, got it." Geordie nodded waiting for further explanation.
"All-Around is when 3 girls from the same gym compete representing their own gym against other gyms." Emily continued explaining. "So the 3 girls who are representing Manly Warringah have one chance to participate at each event to give their best routine. After the three girls finish their scores are averaged together for that particular event and after completing at each station all the scores from each event are added together and the gym with the best score wins." Emily finished. "Got it?"
"So which round is this?" Geordie asked.
"Individual" I said and Geordie nodded her head in understanding.
"So what is Lauren best in?" Geordie questioned.
"Uneven bars and floor" Andrew said.
"And the worst?" She questioned again.
"Balance beam, she pretty good on vault but she does better on uneven and floor." He told her.
"Next on vault Lauren Jacobs." The commentator announced while Lauren stood on the mat getting ready to go, taking deep breaths to calm down.
Clapping and cheering was erupting all around the room for different events that was also going on as well, but there was a distinct roar from the crowd when Lauren was announced.
"Come on Lauren!" The nine of us cheered, she didn't notice us though, obviously, that would be bad because then we would be a distraction and she would mess up, instead she stayed 100% focused on the vault.
A small beep went off indicating the judges were ready and she could go at any time. Taking one last deep breath she took off down the long runway jumping on to the spring board, flipping over the vault and stuck the landing with a small hop forward. The crowd cheered at her routine and she made her way off the mat and waited for her score. Based on the level of difficulty and execution the judges made their deductions and Lauren eared and 13.496.
A light frown appeared on Lauren's face, disappointed that she could have done a better execution. She started talking to Brendan and he started doing different movements with his arms to what to improve on. Meanwhile, Mr. Court quickly scribbled down the score and took notes on her execution and routine.
"Wow you guys keep track of everything." Geordie remarked.
"Well she has to show improvement every time to see her progress and so she knows what she did wrong so she can fix it." Mr. Court replied. "We have too if she wants to compete on an international level."
"If she still can." Mrs. Court commented under her breath, so no one could hear her, but I did. What does she mean if she still can? I didn't want to get fully into it right now considering it's not much of my business so I turned my attention back to the competition.
***
The individual round was finally over and the scoring for places was set, however they weren't going to be awarded till later at the end of the competition. Lauren successfully managed to win third place on balance beam which was awesome considering it's not her best event and first place on uneven bars and floor. Now Lauren's age group had a break so they could eat while other age groups came in for their time. All of us waited near the entrance to the locker room, waiting for Lauren to come out. When she did she was still wearing her leotard but was also wearing joggers and had her backpack over shoulders too.
"Hey" we all said greeting her.
"Hi" she replied.
"Lauren you did awesome!" Geordie said.
"Thanks, not some of my best work but those were some new routines I've been working on." She said. "How does it look on paper?" She asked her uncle nodding her head towards the record book her uncle noted her scores and execution in.
"Alright, I agree not your best individual round, you've done better." He said handing her the book.
"Are you kidding this would be one of the worse ones!" she said checking past scores.
"What are you talking about you got third and two first places!" Geordie said shocked to how this could be one of her worst competitions.
"It's all about execution and level of difficulty Geordie, if I want to make the Olympic team I have to clean up my performance." She told her.
"Well we'll talk about that later you need to eat." Mrs. Court said. "What do you want?" she asked Lauren.
"I have some granola bars and peanut butter sandwich, but could you get me a Gatorade?" she asked.
"Yeah sure." And they all started walking towards the food court.
"Aren't you coming?" Calum asked me.
"Nah I just had nachos." I told him.
"Oh right." He said and caught up with everyone else, leaving Lauren and myself.
"You rocked your floor exercise." I told her as we went to get a table to eat at.
"Thanks"
"What song are you going to use for the All-around?" I asked her.
"I'm either going to choose-" she was starting to tell me but was cut off by three overly excited little girls who came running over to her dragging their parents behind them; they were no older than 7 or 8 years old.
"Oh my god you're the American Reject!" one of the girls shouted.
"Can we get a picture with you?" another yelled.
"And your autograph!" the third one screamed.
"Um sure." Lauren said confused and overwhelmed with the three girls ambushing her with questions.
"Why?" Lauren asked.
"Because you're amazing at gymnastics, we watch your YouTube channel all the time!" one girl explained.
"Oh okay." Lauren said relaxing a little but still on edge about this while taking the girls note pad to sign.
"Could you write it from the American Reject?" the girl asked.
"Why?" Lauren asked her obeying the girl's request.
"Because that's the name of your YouTube channel, everyone calls you that!" the girl explained.
"Really?" Lauren asked shocked that that was her nickname as she signed the other two girls note pads and their parents took a picture of each of them with Lauren.
"Watching you channel made me want to start taking gymnastics lessons." One girl told Lauren.
"And dye her hair blue." The girl's parents huffed under their breath and Lauren smiled at the comment.
"Well I have to go eat and get ready for the next round." Lauren told them.
"Okay thank you." The three girls said and walked away with their parents.
"Sorry about that." Lauren laughed turning her attention back to me as we took a seat at a big enough table for everyone to sit at.
"Its fine" I laughed.
"Is it always like that?" she asked.
"Basically, just imagine it with girls your age." I told her.
"I'm never going to get use to that." She laughed.
"Do you not notice the amount of cheering you get from the crowd?" I asked her.
"No I'm always busy focusing on the event."
"Well they go crazy whenever it's your turn." I laughed.
"Really?" she asked surprised not realizing people actually cheer and routed for her.
"Yeah, you're creating a name for yourself and you're not even in the Olympics yet!" I reassured her.
"Wow."
"How did you not know you're channel was called the American Reject?" I asked.
"I don't know I never looked at it because I'm always busy practicing and Andrew always took care of it." She said while everyone came back from getting food, taking a seat at the table.
"So Andrew, the American Reject, huh?" she said to Andrew and he looked at her with a confused expression on his face. "You heard me, why did you name my channel the American Reject?" she asked him.
"Oh, well because you're American, obviously, and you're a 'reject' because you were like an outcast I guess, you always did your own thing and never meet the normal standards people held you too and that you were rejected from having a normal life like other people after mom died." Andrew explained a little worried that Lauren would be upset over the name. "Why do you not like it?"
"I never said that." Lauren said after a minute. "But yeah I like it."
"Well it seems like everybody else does too." Ashton said nodding to a small group of people walking towards us and asking for Lauren's picture when they reached the table.
"Yeah I am never going to get use to this." Lauren laughed.