Senior Narrative

Sara Merkle

White Satin Memories

“Pinkies, girls!” someone- I can’t remember who- said from the other side of the team. It was tradition at every competition that we link pinkies with the girls next to us and cross our fingers, praying for the best.

Just an hour before, the lights blinded us as we took the mat for the second to last time as a team. The crowd roared, and the all-too-familiar music began. To me, it was like hearing a broken record. I thought to myself “ding ding Southern, Lehigh, five, six, seven, eight.” As the backspot, it was usually my job to let everyone else in the stunt group know if anything fell. To my dismay, I had to report the falls to my left and my right. Morgan, as per usual, hit her stunts to a tee, but she was the only one left in the air.

Panting, we ran off stage. We all knew what had happened and all were disappointed in the way we preformed. Tears began to fall, fingers started to point.

I snapped back to reality, what we were doing in that moment. I didn’t want to remember the tears. I didn’t want to remember the hostility. I looked to my right and reached for Bailey’s hand, latching on to her pinky finger with mine. The lights shone so bright that the crowd was nonexistent, a silhouette of a sea of people. I looked around at the teams with whom we were competing, and I could tell that everyone had wanted it as much as we did.

The announcer, as always, started with third place. To our surprise, our name wasn’t called. Second place, and still not us. In that moment, we all knew. Our grips grew stronger, our legs began to shake, everyone stood up.

“And now,” the man in the suit began, “your two thousand and fourteen World Champions…” he paused. The anticipation grew. “Southern Lehigh High School, from Center Valley, Pennsylvania!”

I will never forget that moment. Time moved so slowly in that instant. I looked around at all my teammates, screaming, crying, hugging each other. I urged my body to move, and I...