It was a cold, dark morning when the phone rang. It was very noisy and the clock said six o'clock. The deafening noise shook us again, and there was only one way to stop it. Chris picked up the phone and in a tired, sleepy voice, replied, “Hello.” “Wake up,” I heard Coach on the other end of the line. “Wake everyone in the room and the bus will leave at seven.” “Okay,” and with that, Chris hung up the phone. I could hear him burying his head in his pillow trying to get a few more minutes of sleep before the big day. "Come on, Chris, take the shower first," Taylor ordered from the other bed. “You’re already up.” Chris conceded and headed towards the shower. Everyone in the room knew it too, from his grunts and groans under his breath. Soon he got out of the shower, as did Taylor, Anders and me. We had breakfast with the rest of the team downstairs in silence. It was too early to talk or argue. Everyone knew that one thing was on their mind: winning. It wasn't worth discussing either. Everyone knew that our varsity eight team was probably the strongest McCallie had ever had and that we had a good chance of winning gold medals that day, even a great chance. We boarded the bus like ants, entering noiselessly into a small opening. The bus ride was also silent the whole way. Everyone's heads, looking intently forward, jostled slightly over the bumps in the road. Some tried to sleep, but the tension and excitement were too much for most of them to succeed. Finally, we arrived at the racetrack. Getting off the bus, the elation was exhilarating as we watched the sunrise...... middle of paper ...... there are fifty boats in our race, and we finished third, now this isn't too bad for "I don't know about y'all, but after this it just makes me want to bust my butt in the offseason to come back here in the spring and kill 'em all!" Slowly, but surely, everyone looked up. I realized that this wasn't the end at all. We made a pact to work our hardest to come back in the spring and win as "As the commotion died down, Chris calmed us down: "Okay, come on guys. » He put his hand in the middle of the circle. “We will not let an unfortunate accident overwhelm us. path! We won't settle for third place!" With that, we all raised our hands in the air. I looked around and felt the breeze. Suddenly, it was the best feeling in the world..