All I could feel is the pain going through my leg. Everyone was cheering. I could see everyone hit the stunt, but I was on the floor in excruciating pain.

It all started when I walked on the blue mat it smelled like it always did - stinky feet. All I saw was a bunch of cheer mom’s and dad's wearing team shirts. I already had fear because I hurt my ankle in the previous round. I thought to myself How am I going to be able to do this. I have to make this the best performance this seasons because it might be my last. What if I can’t make it through and give up on the mat. I didn’t know how to handle the pressure but I did what I do best which is performing as if that was the last thing I was going to do.

I could hear Anna yell ready set; it meant go time. So, I put my head up and did a standing backflip: I felt a little pain but the adrenaline was blocking it.  I went on not knowing at that moment something has torn in my foot. I did a roundoff back handspring back flip and I felt my ankle pop and slide that’s when I knew it was bad I couldn’t stop now we weren’t even through half of the routine. But, I knew I played it off and everyone hit the stunt because people were yelling YESSS! All I saw was the mat I didn’t really even knew what was happening. I went through the rest of the routine crying inside. I thought  how am I going to keep pushing through. I don’t know if I can keep going. Come on body you can do one more back tuck. I could feel the pain rushing through my leg and spreading through my body.

When we got off the mat I was bawling I couldn’t stop the tears. The trainer came over and didn’t want to make me more sad so he told coach.

“I am sorry to tell you this but it looks like her ankle could have a slight brake, or could be popped out.”

“How could that happen?”

“ Well I need you to answer a few questions before I can tell you for sure,” said the trainer.

“Ok, well she told me everything that happened during the rounds and in the middle so I can tell you there is no need to bring her over here.”

“ Ok, first is did she hurt it before the competition? Then did she hurt it during round 2? Lastly has she had problems with her ankle before?”

“She hurt her ankle before round 2 she said it popped but she said it felt better. And she has had problems but a long time ago and when to therapy,” said coach.

So, they talked about it and decided to tell my mom to bring me to the specialist. My mom told me that we have to leave after the competition. And I told her that I want to find out what we got and I was fine.

After I found out we got 2nd place my mom rushed me to the orthopedics. We called them when we were on the way; so they already had a wheel chair for me and the x-ray room ready. All my mom had to do was check me in while I was getting x-rays. On the way to the x-rays the nurse was talking to me about St. Joe and how pretty it was because I told her last weekend we had a competition there. After the x-rays got seen by the doctor he came and told me it was a fracture. So I got an air cast and I had to be on crutches. After that I got a boot because it was doing worse.

This is obviously not how I was planning on spending the rest of the season. I was so mad that I wasn’t able to do two competitions. This changed me because I would be farther than I am in cheer right now. I would never get to my goal this year because of my injury last year.