World Cup weekend. Holy shit. It's a long story, I know.
First things first. I could barely sleep as I waited for my alarm to go off at 4:15 AM. We got to our bus at 5 in the morning, and saw that there weren't too many people on our bus. We thought that all the cheerleaders would be there, but it turned out that most of them got a ride with the team last night. There were ten people from our school, and seven-ish people in a band that was playing during the cup. Bridget, the girl who was in charge of booking everything, told us after we boarded that she actually would not be coming with us. She had all the info, though, as we later found out.
Our bus arrived at the hotel at 9:50. We were told that the shuttle to Randall's Island, where the cup was held, would be leaving at 10. When we went to check in, no one knew that we existed, because Bridget had done all the booking and didn't tell us what name it was under. Eventually we found out that we only had three rooms booked for about ten of us. Okay, whatever, we could deal with that. We put all our stuff down really quickly and ran to get the shuttle. That shuttle had actually decided to leave at 9:30 with the other teams, leaving the few of us stranded. Awesome. The hotel, luckily, offered to call us a few town cars, that would hold our group and the band. There were two that held seven and one that held four. I was in the small town car, with the three cheerleaders I knew pretty well. Unfortunately, we'd already missed Emerson's first game, which they won.
When we arrived, we realized that it was freezing, and we were on a group of fields with absolutely no place to get warm. There was a strong wind, and all of us in our cheerleader outfits had dressed warm-ish but not extremely warm. I had sweater tights, a skirt, my cheer t-shirt, and a jacket. Maria, one of the girls with that small group, had footless tights. I feel really bad for her, because after a few hours I couldn't feel my feet. Emerson won their second game, hooray! Time for lunch. The two food stations both had huge lines, and we hadn't eaten in forever. So we went to the huge line for burgers and turkey legs and stuff. They had veggie burgers, so that was good for me. Two hours later, we finally got to the top of the line, and I was pretty sure I couldn't move my toes. People's burgers were still mostly raw, and I was lucky that my only issue was when the veggie burgers took an extra half hour after I paid. Then, I had to deal with my feet. A vendor sold socks, which I happily paid for in order to keep my toes. I was really freaking out, though, from lack of sleep and the realization that I was stuck there.
We still had three more hours to kill until the third game, which would be the last for the cheerleaders responsible for cooking the team dinner at that one girl's house. We all huddled together for warmth, and none of us were hungry enough to wait for two hours again. When they won the third game, we were told, we could find a way to leave since some of us were so cold. Melanie and Kelsie, the other two who were with us, weren't as cold. At that point, I was so cold, tired, and stressed that I talked to my parents about coming home early. Since our hotel was right by the airport, they decided to get me a flight on the cheapest shuttle, and I'd be leaving at 10 when everyone else did. The flight was taking off at 11:30.
After the third game, we called a town car on Melanie's phone. I think it was 5:30 by this point. They told us it would be twenty minutes, and then we'd be on our way to the hotel. An hour later, as we stood by the pickup zone, nothing was going to happen. The company wouldn't even answer their phone. Melanie's phone died, so we left them Kelsie's number just in case. Melanie talked to her dad, and he said that the company had taken an $86 hold on her debit cardAfter walking back, we talked to our cheerleading captain again, and she tried to get ahold of the guy who was in charge of the shuttle. The shuttle was not going to be leaving any earlier than 9:30, unfortunately. I'd been in tears at that point, so we were promised a spot on the first shuttle. Also, instead of leaving at 10 the next morning, the shuttle was going to leave at 7:15, so our group was supposed to eat breakfast at 6:30. Maria was so cold that she could barely speak, let alone walk. I was staggering all over the place too, mostly out of tiredness and lack of feeling in one leg, so I couldn't really help them support her. We hobbled over to the last game at 7:40, miserable and angry. Theoretically, the game would be able to distract us for half an hour or so, but we won after just ten minutes. Crap.
Someone told us we just might be able to find a taxi if we went to the road where everyone was leaving in public transportation buses, so we stumbled over there and waited a while. When none came for half an hour, we just went along with the idea of waiting an extra hour and a half for the shuttle to come get us. When that shuttle finally came, we weren't let onto the first one. We stood out there for an extra ten minutes, just waiting.
All four of us had a lot of fun in the hotel afterwards, just hanging out and calming down a bit. At least tomorrow seemed to be okay. I'd already decided that I wouldn't be there with them, but at least we were all in better moods.
At 5:45 the next morning, their alarm went off. Again, I'd barely slept. They got their stuff together and headed out, and I couldn't fall back asleep. I think I gave up around 8 to get ready for breakfast. My phone got an email, and it was the airline saying that my flight was canceled. Immediately, I panicked. What if I was stuck in this crappy situation for the next few days? I didn't have anywhere to go. Luckily for me, there was a call saying they'd rebooked me for the 1:30 flight to Boston. I spent an extra few hours in the airport with absolutely nothing to do, but the chairs were comfy enough that I slept for a while. I'd been convinced that they would lose my luggage to top off all the bad things, but it actually worked out great from that point on. My dad got me at the airport, and took me to get real food with the rest of my family.
As for the other girls, they were at the field around 7:30, and Emerson didn't play until 3:45. Oh boy. We lost in the second round of semi-finals, sadly. Also, those who came on the fan bus had an estimated arrival time of 2 a.m., so they're still not here yet.
Like I said, my weekend was something out of a bad movie, where the guy gets stranded and has to do all kinds of crazy things to get back. I'm going to go sleep now...it's been a while.
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