"Face it, guys, this is never gonna work," I said, sighing, "We'll never get their attention just by screaming and waving, everyone's doing that."
"Yeah," Carolyn agreed, "Let's just give up, relax, and enjoy the music."
Maybe I should explain a little. Me and my 3 best friends, Jemila, Diana, and Carolyn, were at a My Chemical Romance concert. They were our favorite band and we'd been to numerous concerts before. We'd made it kind of a tradition to always try to get the guys' attention. So far, we'd never succeeded. Today, we were maybe 20 rows away from the stage, dead center. Pretty good place. There weren't really any set rows, though, because it was an outdoor concert.
Anyways, I was pretty tired of giving it my all only to get nothing in return except a sore throat from screaming, so I was ready to give up. "How can you say that?" Diana asked, shocked, "We can't give up now! We're so close!"
"Not really," I said.
"Well we have to keep trying. But we need a different approach," she continued.
"If you have an idea, I'd love to hear it!" Carolyn said, a bit sarcastically.
"Actually, I do have an idea," Diana replied, "There's no way they won't notice it.
"Let's hear it, then," I said, a bit skeptical.
"We should do a basket toss!" she exclaimed. I'm the only one of my friends who is a cheerleader, but I talk about it so much that they all know as much about it as I do. I thought for a second. It actually wasn't a bad idea, we'd done it before (though not at a concert!) and there was really no way they wouldn't see it. Even if they didn't acknowledge it, they would definitely be impressed.
"Alright," I agreed.
"Great! I'll main," she said.
"I'll side," Carolyn said.
"I'll back," said Jemila.
"I guess I'll fly," I said. It really wasn't a problem, I was a flyer on my team anyway. "But wait, a regular old basket toss might not impress them. We have to do something cool... I've got it! A back tuck!"
"You sure you can?" Carolyn asked me.
"Yeah," I replied, "It was in our competition routine last year."
"Alright then, let's do it!" Diana said excitedly.
"Let's wait until the end of this song, though," Carolyn replied, "They'll be much more likely to notice if they're not absorbed in music-making." The rest of us agreed. We were excited now. The song ended soon and Gerard started talking about random stuff while the guys tuned their guitars and checked the set list. It was our golden opportunity. Diana and Carolyn intertwined their arms, I stepped in, and Jemila counted off from 5. Then I was flying through the air.
I pulled for a back tuck, getting around with perfect timing. It was a damn high basket toss, probably fueled by adrenaline. They caught me with accuracy. It was only then that I noticed Gerard had stopped speaking and was now gawking... at us. "Whoa! Who the fuck just went flying in the air?" he exclaimed. The crowd, now completely silent, all turned to look at me and my friends. I stood on my tiptoes and raised my hand.
"That was me!" I yelled.
"You," he said, pointing at me, "Small one. Come here." I looked at my friends, as if asking for approval.
"What the hell are you waiting for?" Carolyn asked, "Go!" I smiled and began my journey over to the edge of the stage. He silently watched me the whole time, smiling. I finally reached the edge of the stage and he bent down so our faces were at the same level.
He held the mic as far away as possible as he asked me, "What was that?"
"It's called a basket toss," I said, smiling.
"How did you even do that?" he asked, still impressed, "I swear, that was the most interesting thing I've ever seen at a concert."
I blushed and replied, "It would take kind of a long time to explain and there's a lot of cheerleading terminology involved..." He nodded.
"I see..." he began, "How about you and your friends stop by after the show and explain?"
"I think that can be arranged," I replied, smiling.
"Cool," he said, "See ya then." After that, he got up and resumed talking into the mic. I started walking back to where my friends were. As I was doing so, he was saying, "Can I get a round of applause for those awesome chicks over there?" I smiled, and I knew my friends were, too. The audience started wildly cheering, which made me smile even more. I looked back at Gerard and noticed that he, as well as the rest of the band, was clapping. I thought my face was going to split in half from smiling so much.
When I finally got back over to where my friends were, I told them what Gerard had said, provoking squeals from them. "See, you guys? I knew it would work! If we had given up when you wanted to, we wouldn't be meeting our favorite band," Diana gloated.
"Yeah, yeah," I said, trying to sound like I was brushing it off when in reality I was grateful that she had pushed us to keep trying. That day, I learned something. Persistence and patience always win in the end. (Corny, I know...)