The other teams tried everything they could to defeat the team.
They tried to take away the power source in their practice building so they couldn't practice with music or with lights. Luckily for them, there was a maintenance crew in the area to immediately get it back up and running. The dance team won the following competition.
They tried to trip and injure their dancers, but they were so graceful, they always landed on their feet.
The dance team won the next three competitions.
They tried to destroy their costumes, but many of their mothers were experienced tailors, and they fixed the costumes on the spot. They won that weekend's competition.
They even tried to sabotage their bus that transported them to the competitions. However, while it was in the shop, the local high school's bus driver offered to drive them.
The winning dance team
(Personal Photo, 2012)
Finally, the captain of one of the other teams devised a plan to take down the winning dance team's captain. She dressed up one of her team members in football gear and explained to her how she was to go about taking down the other team.
The following day, the dance team was practicing on the track by the football players, when the handsome stranger walked by. The stranger was tall, dark, handsome, and totally into her. The captain of the dance team was immediately enamored with 'him'.
Throughout practice, 'he' kept flirting with the captain, and distracting the whole team. At the end of practice, the captain left with the stranger. She didn't show up to the next practice. Or the next. Or the next.
Meanwhile, the other team celebrated. They were finally going to win a competition with that captain out of the way! They cancelled practice and danced and sang and celebrated the death of their rival team.
The team, however, was very worried, as it was highly unusual for their captain to skip practice. One of the members investigated, and found that the captain of the team had actually been kidnapped by the stranger. The team member freed the captain, and they immediately went back to work to ensure that they would win the competition that weekend.
So, to the rival's team surprise, the captain and the team showed up to the next competition and took first place. Even though the captain was totally bummed to find out that she wasn't being hit on by a handsome stranger.
All of the rival team members were convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Author's Note: I adapted this story from "The Pretty Stranger who Killed the King" from Folk Stories from Nigeria. In the original story, a witch turns herself beautiful and kills the king. However, in all the celebration of the dead king, a neighboring town's army came and killed all of them.
From Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI love that you took the old story and then applied its' morals in present day. I think that can be a great way to get people interested in a story that was written a long time ago while also being entertained by present day writing. And the story was still so dark! You did a good job here!
Hey Emily!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your story. I thought it was funny how the other team tried so hard to make them lose but it never worked. I also liked how you made this story more modern and wrote it to where something like this could happen. I’m glad that one of her teammates found her because it could have ended badly. Overall, great story!
Ha, wow, that definitely escalated quickly. I like how I went into this expecting a relatively low-stakes story about high school competitions, but it ended up mutating into something else along the way. Very nice twist!
ReplyDeleteAlso, as someone who went to a high school without a dance team, I found it interesting to learn a little more about the system through your experience. It’s always cool to be reading along and find that the pictures in a post are by the author, too.
It’s a little difficult which team is which, maybe naming them would help clarify that. If you’re looking for a way to connect it to the story you chose you can pick a specific animals and name each team one of those. There needs to be something distinguishable about what teams are involve specifically the team that always wins. Why do they always win? What do they have the others don’t? The modernization of your story was really fantastic, your completely made it modern and I thought that was wonderful! Great job! : )
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