Mr. Moogle: Happy One Year Anniversary DDR elite:throws confetti:
Aliasfan: I know not everyone has been R&Ring this since last year but thanks to everyone who has! Oh yah, and I don't own anything.
Chapter 17: The National CompetitionAfter talking with Shawn on the phone and changing her footwear, Kaeli was finally ready for the first round of the national competition. In order to move on to the worldwide competition, Kaeli had to win four rounds. Well, there were only four rounds, which meant she had to win every single one. This is gonna be tough, Kaeli thought, sprinting to the main dance room, but Shawn's rooting for me. I can't let him down.
When Kaeli entered the huge room she was hit with a blast of lights, sounds, and cameras. The regional and state competitions may not have been a big deal, but the national competition definitely was. Television stations were there ready to interview contestants and tape the competition.
"All DDR contestants must report to the front desk to obtain your dancing order and competitors." An announcer said. Kaeli walked through the crowd towards the front of the room, where contestants were lined up. After waiting briefly, Kaeli was finally up next.
"Name, please." Said a woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties.
"Kaeli Abson." She responded.
The woman coughed, filing through some papers and handing them to Kaeli. "Here is a schedule of the first rounds of DDR, and the name of who you'll be dancing against. We will call your name on the intercom. Come to the center of the floor where the DDR machines are. They're hard to miss, so I doubt you'll have a hard time finding them." The woman sipped some water from her glass and continued. "The national competition will be televised as you know, but you may be asked questions by reporters. Whether you win or not, always come back here after your dance. If you win, I give you the name of your next competitor. If not, you go home."
Kaeli nodded. "I understand." She walked away from the desk a little more nervous than before. Kaeli glanced down at the papers given to her. "Edwin Lavares…" she said out loud to herself, reading the name of her first competitor.
"Yes?" came a voice from behind her.
Kaeli spun around to find her face to face (more like chest to face) with a young boy. He had spiky, short brown hair and green eyes and was wearing a red polo shirt and white shorts. "Um…"
"You called me?" he said.
"Huh?" Kaeli thought a bit. "Oh! You, you're Edwin…Edwin…" Kaeli looked back down at her paper for his last name. "Lavares?"
"Hm…" the preteen said, glancing down at his own papers. "Then you must be Kaeli Abson." Kaeli nodded. "Nice to meet you." Edwin said, holding out his hand for Kaeli to shake.
Kaeli smiled and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you too, Edwin."
"It's Eddie." He said. "Mom always calls me Edwin when I do something bad, so just call me Eddie."
"Okay, Eddie." Kaeli giggled. "Uh, do you mind me asking how old you are?"
Eddie laughed. "No, I don't mind. I get asked all the time, seeing as most of the contestants here are older. I'm 12 years old."
"Wow," Kaeli said. "You're young! But you've gotten very far in the competition, so I'm sure you'll be a fierce competitor."
"And I'm sure you'll be just as fierce." Eddie responded.
Kaeli had almost forgotten about everyone around her and even began to drown out all the shouts and music. "You, you seem very mature for your age."
"Heh, why don't you tell that to my mom. She's always trying to treat me like a kid." He said, putting his hands in his pockets.
"Well, mothers know best. I mean, you may be very old for your age but that still doesn't mean you aren't young. Am I right?"
"I guess so." Eddie said, smiling. "And mom said when I come back from the competition she's going to let me eat all the ice cream I want!"
Kaeli laughed. "When I get home I'm gonna eat twenty bags of Doritos, maybe more!"
"Will Edwin Lavares and Kaeli Abson please report to the dance floor immediately." A heavy voice announced over the intercom. Both contestants looked at the dance floor, then back at each other.
"Well," Eddie said. "Are you ready to show me how fierce you can be?"
Kaeli nodded, and both of them walked to the center of the room. It's a shame…Kaeli thought to herself.
"You both know the rules. Just remember, the person with the highest grade at the end of the song wins." Joe Rogin explained.
Everything was so different from the state competition. There were more lights focused on Kaeli, more people watching her, more cameras catching her every move, and because of those things, more pressure.
Kaeli immediately remembered her promise. She turned around and faced the cameras, which seemed to loom over her, and gave a huge wink. I hope Shawn saw that…
Rogin pushed Random on the DDR machine. The songs spun round and round until suddenly it stopped and one song was highlighted. "Kaeli and Edwin-"
"Eddie!" Eddie yelled so he could be heard over all the other noises. "Call me Eddie! My mom always calls me Edwin when-"
"-will dance to Rhythm and Police! Kaeli, are you ready?" Rogin asked, followed by a nod from Kaeli. "Edwin are you ready?"
"Call me Eddie! My mom-"
"Okay! Now let's dance!" Rogin exclaimed, hitting the button to make the song start.
Kaeli glanced over at Eddie. It's a shame...that I have to beat such a nice kid…Kaeli looked back up at the screen. 170 bpm…I've had tougher…
The music started, and Kaeli got that feeling that she always got when she played DDR. That rush of adrenaline kicked in right away, seeing as the song got right into the heavy dance steps. Kaeli was used to doing crossovers, and Rhythm and Police was known for having heavy chains of them. Kaeli concentrated on the arrows, trying to block out the sounds around her and the words of the song that tried to flow into her ears.
One a piece, and doing my thing,
We're on the case, and we lack demands of the behavior
What you doing over there,
Come on, let's do this flip of the air
Kaeli could tell that she was doing pretty well. The steps were pretty much in sync with the beat of the music, so there weren't any tricks she had to watch out for. She kept moving to the beat, landing a good number of perfects and greats. Kaeli always told herself to concentrate on herself and herself alone, but it was hard not to want to glance over and see how her competitor was doing.
Kaeli heard Eddie's steps as he hit the arrows, and she knew they were in sync with hers. Occasionally though she heard some missteps, so she stopped being so tense and relaxed just a little bit.
You'll all feel this way, this groove
And then just don't know what to do
Hey, man - what you got in your hand
Man, that's amazing, put it away,
It's gonna - go bang, and blow my brains high
I'm gonna have so many stains - with the S.D.X, so...
Other than not concentrating on her competitor, Kaeli's other rule was to just have fun. When she blocked Eddie out and just took it as a friendly game at the arcades, it took a lot of pressure off her back, though the cameras stayed there.
Kaeli continued to dance, feeling her legs tighten up slightly. She did some left-down and up-right combos and a few more crossovers, then finished up as the words of the song rang loudly through out the room.
Let's leave them a little bit of change,
The tramps - can feel no pain,
Boarded up in their special cave
Just how far are we gonna take things
Cut the drugs - huh!
Kaeli and Eddie both ended synchronized, and when they were done they had to lean back and catch their breaths.
"I see…" Eddie said between breaths, "that you came to win…"
Kaeli smiled, wiping some sweat of her brow. "I…intend to…"
"Alright!" Rogin said. "The scores are in! Edwin-"
"It's Eddie! My mom-"
"-received an A! And Kaeli received…an A as well!" Rogin announced. The crowd went wild, clapping and cheering, but silence came just as quickly, the anticipation of finding out who won was rising. "Now, it comes down to their numeric score…"
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"C'mon, Kaeli, you can do it!" Shawn yelled at the top of his lungs. Even though Shawn was in Kaeli's living room, he felt like he was by the DDR machine, right there with her. He wished he was there, there to give Kaeli a hug whether she won or lost.
Singa, along with Mr. and Mrs. Abson, were also watching the competition, which, of course, they were taping. "This is so exciting!" Singa exclaimed. "I hope Kaeli beat out that little kid."
"I know she did." Shawn said. "She had to…" Shawn fell back on the couch. She remembered…to wink. Shawn said to himself. She remembered…me…Even though she had a million things to think about…she remembered…
"She won!" Mrs. Abson bursted out.
"What!" Shawn said, shaking off his spaced out moment. "She did!"
"Are you looking at the same t.v., boy? She won!" Mr. Abson exclaimed, pulling his wife in for a hug.
"Alright!" Singa yelled, jumping up and down on the couch.
"Shh…shh…be quiet! They're about to talk to her!" Shawn said. Everyone huddled together in awed silence and listened to the t.v.
"Kaeli Abson, what do you think of your first round in the competition?"
"Oh, it was great. I was kinda nervous, which isn't unusual for me, but I just remembered everything my friends and family have told me, and I just tried to make it as normal a dance as possible."
"What's the one thing you think about the most while dancing?"
"Well, the fact is, I don't really think. I just do. I connect the arrows on the screen to the arrows on the floor, and somehow everything just comes together. If I think about anything, my mind gets distracted, and that's where the missteps come in. It's hard to not worry about what your competitor is doing, and especially about all the cameras and staring faces around you, but I did the best I could."
"And apparently your best was enough! Congratulations again on winning your first round, and we look forward to seeing your second dance off later on in the day."
"Thank you."
Singa continued to jump on the couch. "This is the coolest thing ever!"
"Singa, don't jump on the couch." Mr. Abson said.
"But, Kaeli just won her first dance. She only has to win three more to win. I think that deserves a jumping-on-the-couch-celebration!" Singa giggled.
Mr. Abson though a moment. "Yes, it does." He smiled, joining in on the jumping.
Mrs. Abson squealed, clasping her hands together. "Oh, that's my little girl!"
Shawn smiled to himself, folding his arms. That's my girl…
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Alrighty then, an end to another exciting chappie! I tried to make the dancing part more descriptive, but it's hard to write without making it boring. Seriously, who wants to read: Left, right, up/down combo, crossover, down, right, etc, etc, etc? I wouldn't! Well, so hopefully I did better on that. Again, I appreciate all my reviewers and I thank you for your comments (even though half of them are talking about killing Jake). Lol
Oh yah, and I'm not the best artist, but I'm pretty decent, so I'm gonna try to post drawings of Kaeli, Jake, and Shawn on Fanart Central. They won't be up right now, but when they are, I'll let you know in an author's note or in my profile.
Reviews (16):
Blue Eyed Angel101: I see you changed your name! I like it. Thanks, and sorry I put the cliffie at the end of that chappie, but at least this one doesn't have a cliffie, right?
SukiLovesAnime: Thanks for the nice review. You're a sweetie! huggles
Zanisha: I know, I hate that when I'm hyper and feel awake but it's really late. Ah, hope you liked the non-mushiness chappie. XP
Titanium Gold: Yikes, I know I never meet the deadlines I put up for myself. ; :beats myself: Yes, that is a very interesting love triange. XD
KrystalGamer: Yep, killing Jake would just solve everything, wouldn't it? Lol
Samantha: Oh, it's all good. Thanks, I liked the ending as well.
KriKitt: Will do! (hopefully…)
ZimXGir: Thanks. I thought it was a cute chappie too, but apparently it was a little too mushy for some people. .
Suits92: Because I'm a freakazoid. XP
Raven's Wolf: lol I feel like that too, like I don't even care about the competition, just Kaeli and Shawn. A lot of people wonder if I died or abandoned fics. But don't worry, I'd never abandon my fics, and if I died, my sister would post on my profile saying I did. o.O
XXX: Okie dokie!
Chibi Shawn: Thanks. I'm used to demanding people wanting me to update. XP
John Cena's Basketball Star: Interesting name. Of course, they'd make a better couple. But, does Kaeli realize that? You'll find out soon enough!
Lonelyracer: You want it, I got it.
Thanks again everyone:huggles all: