#oppatt

29.10.2022 - Roalden sett frå Sløgstad

The sudden realization that I threw them into my shoe closet, after tripping over them multiple times yesterday, left me baffled by my own stupidity. I laughed about myself and got them out of the closet. Making sure I hadn't forgot anything, I left my apartment, and headed down to the underground garage, where my car was parked. I threw my bag in the passenger seat, and turned some music on. I would be able to drive blindly to the studio, after driving almost the same way for three years now. The exact time was 23 minutes, and the parking lot was almost the same one every time. The door automatic doors swung open, and I entered the lobby and greeted the girl in the reception.”Congratulations Ana! I really hope you win something!”, she said when I turned to go to our locker rooms. “Thank you!”, I yelled in her direction, but as soon as I was turned around I muttered : ” Why can't it be The Secret Dance Cup?” I didn't really like the attention, but the little voice in the back of my head told me, that this was nothing against the last month before the Championship. I sighed and entered the locker room, heading over to my claimed spot in the corner between two rows of lockers. “Ana! Come here, let me hug you!”, and before I could react someones arms closed around me, and I was pressed against someone. “I'm soooo so so proud of you!”, now that I heard the voice, and the blonde hair was tickling my face, I knew it was Corinna. I freed myself out of her embrace and took a step back. “Well, I still need to train for six months and then maybe I'll have a chance.” She smiled at me and said: “What are you talking about? I know you will win at least in one category! I can't wait to see you on television!” Hold up. I was going to be on television? A part of me knew it was going to happen, but somebody actually saying it made me cringe a little. My whole squad said their congratulations and I received another 20 or so hugs. After changing into  my sports bra and wide jogging pants and getting my hair out of my face, I entered the hall. The mirrors on one side of the room were glistening against the black floor. The entire room was lit up through artificial light, there were no widows in the hall. I headed to the other side of the hall, to start stretching my muscles on the wooden bar that was installed just above my hips. Eventually everybody came in and was doing the same as me. Stretching was probably my favorite part of the whole training session. It gave me this feeling of freedom. After fifteen minutes Patricia, my coach came into the hall, clapping her hands, which was a sign for us all to gather at the middle. “Well, first of all.” Please don't mention the Championship, please. “I would like to congratulate our beautiful Ana and Lana from our classical dance department on the spot in the National Team!” Okay, good so I wasn't the only one from my company. I needed to find this Lana later on. “So, señoras y señores, now let's begin with the routine for the festival next week! Everybody take your places!” “Ana, your feet aren't placed right! And get your head higher, you look like you're about to cry!” I was about to do a flic-flac backwards, when Patricia shouted. I immediately stoped my movement and looked at her. She was looking at her watch, and then around the hall. “Alright, we're finished for today! Ana, you have to stay here just a little longer dear, we have to discuss the Championship and your meal plan.” “Sure”, I grunted and made my way over to her. “Can we listen, too?”, that was Corinna. Patricia looked at me, and I just shrugged. My squad took that as a yes and we all sat down in front of Patricia. She was a tall woman, her blonde hair was short. As long as I could remember, she had trained me with a strong but kind hand. She even was there for me, when my Dad left us. “Okay, Ana. The competition will last for 20 days. Starting on the 16th of March. You'll arrive on the 13th .” She had gotten a piece of paper out of her bag and read from it. “The first 6 days are gonna be strictly group dances with the whole squad, so we have to focus on getting you ready for the alternative routines.  The next four days, aren't really important, because these days are just centered around classical Ballet and native dances.” Okay, sounded good, 4 days off. “The next five days are yours. You need to focus and be prepared, mentally and physically. The modern dances are competing these five days. The next three days are also very important, because we can show your single dancing skills. And the last two days are 'Creative Dancing'.” Whatever the hell that means. So far I like this schedule. It turned out that 'Creative Dancing' was some sort of new discipline, where you could incooperate new and unusual stuff into your routine. Now I was excited for this Championship. The next six months were a blur in front of my eyes. My national trainer sent the routines he had planned for us to Patricia and I went into training. Instead of training one and a half hours a day, I had a three hour morning session, and a two hour session in the afternoon. My diet changed drastically, but I had no problem keeping up with it. What did annoy me though, was that I started loosing my figure. I loved my curves here and there, but now I had built up so much muscles I looked kinda weird. Sara wasn't too happy about all these changes,either. Having absolutely no time for her, just because I was just too exhausted, she slowly wandered off. I tried everything to keep her close, but I couldn't. The Championship left a bitter taste on my tongue, yet again. As the day of my departure came closer, I became more nervous. I had a variety of photoshots and interviews. I even got a trainer for how to handle the press. I liked getting dolled up for the press appointments, but actually doing them was another thing. My face was on the frontpage of our local newspaper, and going out, to shop for example, was practically impossible. All of a sudden a dance hype was going around Spain. But I had to face it: I was going to dance for Spain in this Championship, and it made me proud I was able to say that. A week before I had to leave, my mum threw a party for me, with some relatives. It was lovely, but they just increased the pressure on me, telling me how proud they were and all that fun stuff. Then I actually boarded the plane to Madrid... The cool air of Madrid welcomed me as soon as I stepped out of the plane. The flight wasn't long, but long enough to get to know my teammates and my coach. When I arrived at the airport in Malaga, I instantly bonded with Lana, who was competing in the Ballet categories. I knew the national coach, because I feverishly followed the last World Dance Cups. His name was Alexander Shostakovitch. His roots were, obviously, Russian, but after he moved to Spain as a kid, he made himself a name, and soon was considered one of the best dancers in the world. He had been my idol, ever since he came to our studio when I was a kid. Paparazzi were already waiting for us when we arrived in Madrid. My hands started to get sweaty again, and my heart was beating so hard, I could feel the rhythm in my throat. My luggage had been already brought to the bungalows we would stay in, so I had to step out in front of all these people with nothing to hold on. As soon as I got off the stairs, a storm of flashes broke loose. By now, I was used to it, and I smiled and waved but tried to make my way into the airport as quickly as I could. Lana did the same as me, and when she appeared at my side, she whispered: “It's still weird, huh? All those people wanting to know everything about you.” I nodded, and was gestured out of the airport, into a cab. Lana slumped down beside me and breathe out loudly. As I learned on the flight, we would stay in a kind of village. This was starting to look like the Olympics to me, but I didn't protest against the fact that we each had our own little bungalows close to the Santiago Bernabeu. The ride was magnificent, we rode through the old parts of Madrid and my nose was pressed against the window of the cab most of the time. After arriving in the village, I entered a circle of houses, with lounge sofas in the middle and a fire place. Some of my teammates had already arrived and so their heads turned when we both came trough the metal door. Alexander sat on one of the lounge sofas, and talked to two boys. I thought about my line up and remembered the names on the paper. We were five girls and three boys. Lana was part of the Classical squad, which consisted of nine girls and four boys. Then we had three all-rounders, that were skilled in both categories. After Alexander had noticed us, he excused himself from the boys and came over to us. He smiled at us and gave us both very tight and unexpected hugs. “How was your flight ladies?”, he asked looking at me, then at Lana. “Uh....g-good.”, I said, because I could feel Lana was way too overwhelmed by Alexander. He was tall and slender, and his black hair was combed back, revealing some gray hair here and there. He gestured us to our bungalows, introducing us to our other teammates. Apparently the classical dancers were almost complete, while the modern dancers were missing all of their male contestants. They would arrive later I was told. A blonde boy was smiling at me, while Alexander handed me the keycard for my bungalow, and I casually smiled back. He was about to stand up, when one of the other male dancers grabbed his arm, to tell him something very exciting. I walked towards the tiny house, which had a staircase leading up to my front door. When I came closer I could see that my name was written on a plank of wood over the front door. I stopped abruptly, turned around, and searched for Lana. I saw the wave of her dark hair just befor she closed the door on the opposite side of the circle. The lock made a small beep when my keycard slid through it. Alexander had told us to meet outside  in about 3 hours, for a surprise he said. I entered the bungalow and saw my luggage in the middle of the room. To my left was a door which led to the bathroom. I slid my hand across the wall to make sure this wasn't just a dream and I woke up the next moment. I turned my head to my right and saw a big closet with a mirror in the middle of it. Taking slow steps forward, and making sure I soaked up every little detail of my home for 20 days, I entered the living/sleeping area. I slowly turned around and spent a ridiculous amount of time just looking at everything. I brushed my hand along the backside of the big “L”-shaped sofa which stood in the left corner of the room with a big TV hanging in front of it. I slowly made my way over to the bed, which was hidden behind the wall of the bathroom when you entered the bungalow. It was nice and big, with skyblue sheets on it. I spotted an envelope with my name on it, laying on the square shaped table standing by the couch. Excited for what would be inside, I literally ripped it open and fished out a champange colored sheet . Dear señora Campillo, we are pleased to welcome you to the dancing circle of Spain. On the back of this paper you will find your training schedule for the next three days. If you need anything, just dial the number two on the phone beside your bed. A 24 hour room service will try to come after your needs as good as possible. Your training sessions will take place in the Santiago Bernabeu, your coach will inform you about details. We would also like to tell you that the Football club of Madrid is proud to welcome you into it's family. They kindly offered the National Team of Spain to train amongst their facilities. Your breakfast, lunch, and dinner is being held in the cafeteria of the Santiago Bernabeu. We wish you the best of luck for this big event, and we are always at your service. Best Wishes, The World Dance Program After I read the letter another two times, I knew I had arrived. This was going to be my year. I would give everything I had and work my ass off to achieve something. I put the letter down on the table again, and started unpacking my suitcase. I had brought another pairs of kicks, just in case. After putting everything away, I took a shower and washed all the fear off of me and scrubbed my whole body. After I was finished with my whole ritual, I looked on the clock and realized I had another 30 minutes until our meeting outside. I figured I could just sit outside and talk to my new teammates. It felt good, wearing jeans and a simple tanktop, instead of the clothing I had to wear on the flight. I left my dark brown hair down, letting it flow over my back, and framed my light hazel eyes with a bit of mascara, just in case. I stepped outside and made my way to the middle, where I saw Lana already chatting with someone. “Can I join you?”, I asked and Lana made some place for me. She instantly started bombarding me with words. “Dios mio, don't you just love the little bungalows? The letter was so awesome! Can you believe, we're actually training in the Santiago Bernabeu? I mean, hello? Real Madrid plays there!”, I took my time to answer all her questions, and got in touch with my fellow team members. As it turned out, the girl who Lana was chatting with earlier was actually an all-round dancer from Barcelona. After a while of talking about our homes, companies and the upcoming routines, Alexander stepped out of his bungalow, and came towards us. It was getting darker, and the moment he sat down, warm orange lights lit up our circle. “We sure could put this to use.”, he said, pointing to the fire place. Then he looked around the circle of dancers that had formed on the lounge sofas. “Welcome to the Spanish dance circle. This will be your home for the next 20 days, but you won't be home that much. There are a few rules you should know though. You are allowed to visit other players, I actually encourage you to, because the stronger our bond id, the better.”. He cleared his throat and continued: “ However, I do not want to see you strolling outside after midnight. You should be sleeping by then. You are not allowed to drink alcohol around here, but I think everybody knows that.” He told us some more stuff, about our schedules and the Santiago Bernabeu. It was now completely dark, and a employee had stopped by and incinerated the fire place. “And as you all know, we are close to the stadium of Los Blancos.”, the name sounded kind of wonky with his accent. “They kindly invited us to make use of their stadium and fitness rooms. Now, I would like to welcome some of the worlds greatest football players and their coach, José Mourinho, also called Mister, Sergio Ramos and Gonzalo Higuain!” My head shot up and turned around, to where I thought the metal gate must have been, and I saw three silhouettes coming towards us. Lana’s hand gripped my arm, and I could hear her whispering something behind me. Now, I was able to make out their faces, and to my big surprise, Ramos was coming towards me, looking directly into my eyes. Not being able to handle his gaze, I turned my head to Gonzalo, who was walking beside him. The three man came to a halt before our circle, and Sergio stood right behind me. I could hear my blood rushing through my ears, bit my lower lip, a stupid habit of mine whenever I was stressed out and slowly looked up at the tall man behind me. When he saw me staring, he beamed a huge smile at me, just as I remembered it from my TV from six months ago. It felt like a lightning bold had struck me, and was swirling around in my stomach. José Mourinho raised his voice: “Welcome to the Santiago Bernabeu, home to our Football club Real Madrid. We hope you enjoy your stay here and bring home some titles for Spain!”