Pippa's niece Christina, who was eight-and-a-half, was a cheerleader. Pippa, her husband Gordon, and their children, Zoe and Kieran, who were five-and-a-half and just-turned-four respectively, were visiting Pippa's family for a few days and had decided to go along to watch.

They arrived at the venue and made their way to the entrance. They had arranged to meet outside the venue.
"Aunt Pippa! Uncle Gordon! Zoe! Kieran!" Christina called, running to them. She was in her uniform, hair in two French braids and make-up done.
"Don't you look amazing" Pippa greeted her niece, hugging her. After Christina had greeted the others, they followed her back to where the rest of the family were waiting. Pippa greeted her brother Charlie, sister-in-law Daisy, and Betty, Christina's ten-year-old sister. Daisy handed them their wristbands and they went inside to where the others from Christina's program had assembled
They watched from their seats as other teams, including those from Christina's program, performed. There were dance teams as well as cheer teams performing. There were a couple of minor injuries, where the injured party was able to walk off the mat. No major ones luckily.

x-x

Soon, Christina was heading off with her teammates to warm up. A little while later, they were following the others there to support Christina's team to a waiting area. They would be allowed to go to the front of the mat when Christina's team were performing.

Christina's team were announced and they cheered as the girls ran onto the mat. The music started and the next two-and-a-half minutes were a whirlwind of stunts, tumble, jumps and dance. They had a few major bobbles, but no actual falls. Christina was a flyer, one of the ones who went up in the air. She tumbled as well. As they left the mat, one of the girls was limping. Christina was helping her off the mat. Gordon went to help but Pippa reminded him there were already Medics on site.

When Christina joined them after watching the playback, she explained that Annika, the one she had helped off the mat and was also a flyer, had landed hard coming out the pyramid. She still did her dance though.

x-x

Now it was time for the awards. Christina was sitting on the mat with her teammates. There were five in their division. Fifth place was not them, neither were fourth or third. They got second. They were thrilled with that.

There were photos taken on the mat with the trophy and they were then allowed to go. Christina said goodbye to her friends and they all headed out to get dinner to celebrate. It had been a great day.

AN - I am a cheerleader. I was at a competition when I started to write this. I love the atmosphere at competitions. My team came 2nd out of 4. Pleased with that as it wasn't a clean routine. I have three more competitions this season. Our competition hair is two French braids tied off into pigtails.