Learning to Fly (TNT Force Cheer #1)

by Dana Burkey

  “We’re about to eat dinner,” I told him. After a pause I added, “I ordered extra egg rolls if you want to stay and have one.”

  “And if I keep asking about the cheer stuff?” he asked with a gleam in his eye.

  “Then I’ll throw the egg roll in the backyard and you can go fetch,” I laughed, walking past him and plopping down onto the couch while reaching for the remote.

  The TV had barely turned on when my dad entered the house carrying a bag full of takeout containers. The smell had my stomach growling right away. Peter looked my way at the sound, but I simply turned the TV back off and headed for the kitchen table. Peter followed, taking a seat where he often sat for meals and board games at my house. Some people might have found it weird that someone would stop over uninvited and stay for dinner, but my dad and I were super used to it. In fact, it was so normal that it would have been weird for him to not make that kind of appearance.

  “I should head home,” Peter said after eating two egg rolls and most of my fried rice. “I promised Kyle I would help find good sticks for marshmallows.”

  “I’ll be over in a little bit,” I told Peter as he put his dirty dish into the dishwasher and headed for the back patio doors.

  “Bonfire?” my dad asked around a mouthful of sweet and sour pork.

  “Yup,” I nodded.

  “We’ll bring you by a s'more later,” Peter assured him. “Thanks for dinner.”

  “Any time Peter,” my dad said with a wave. As soon as he was gone, however, my dad turned to me with a more serious look on his face. “You sure did put away all of your cheer clothing quickly.”

  “I guess,” I said without looking at my dad.

  “Did it have anything to do with Peter stopping by?”

  In response I just stared at my fork as I pushed a piece of broccoli around my plate. I wasn’t planning on keeping cheerleading from Peter, but for some reason it wasn’t something I thought he would understand. Part of that could have been that I didn’t quite understand all of it myself, but even still the emotions I felt when he saw the clothing was difficult to name. But another part of me was still trying to understand how I felt about the glitter and glam and cheer stuff. Everything about the idea of cheerleading felt so foreign. It seemed almost surreal that I was suddenly a part of that world; even if it was only for two weeks.

  “I don’t think I said it yet sweetie,” my dad began again once it was clear I wasn’t going to say anything in reply to his question. “But I’m really proud of you.”

  “Because of cheer?” I asked him, finally looking up from my plate.

  “Because you’re trying something new, something different than anything you have done before,” he explained. “I know some of the reason you’re trying it out is so you can get a cat. But hearing you talk about how the girls tonight threw you into the air, I can tell there is at least a part of you that is enjoying trying this out.”

  “The flying was cool,” I agreed. “But I don’t know if I can really do all the other things that go with it.”

  “Just take baby steps.”

  I smiled at him then, instantly thinking of all we had been through since my mom had died. When things got hard we always talked about taking baby steps. Baby steps didn’t get us far in a day, but when we looked back, it was easy to see how far we had come. I wasn't sure if the same would be true about cheer. I didn’t know in that moment if I would one day look back and be so happy I decided to try to be on a cheerleading team. There wasn’t even a guarantee that I was going to be on the team after the two weeks were over and I could pick out a cat. But I knew after my dad gave me the reminder, that I would be able to get through at least that much with baby steps. The first baby step, in fact, was sure to come when I had to put on the practice uniform that consisted of little shorts and lots of glitter. Or rather, that would be the first time where a baby step might help me make it through what I was already sure would be a terrible event.

  My bike ride to the gym on Thursday was the fastest pedaling I had ever managed in my life. I was determined to let as few people see me as possible, and going fast was the only option. The 19 blocks flew by in a matter of minutes, and, before I knew it, I was pulling up to the gym. There were others cars pulling in as I locked up from my bike, so I rushed inside in case anyone that was not a member of the team saw me. It was only once I was inside that I removed my basketball shorts to reveal the tighter red shorts that matched my glittery TNT tank top. If I hadn't been covering up the tight shorts on the way over, my speed of travel would have been even closer to teleportation!

  “Do you need some help with your bow?” someone asked, causing me to look up quickly from where I stood tucking my basketball shorts into the glittery red gym bag.

  “What?” I asked, then turned to see it was Halley. “Oh, maybe.”

  With a laugh Halley made me squat down so she could ‘fix’ my hair. She pulled it up into a super high and tight ponytail, wrapping the rubber band so many times I thought my brain was going to explode. Once she was done she added the bow, allowing it to stick up off my head at least a mile high.

  “Now you look the part,” she grinned. “Ready for some more flying today?”

  “I guess,” I shrugged as we walked over to where the other girls on the team were stretching. They were all wearing the same outfit that I now had on, only none of them seemed to be pulling at the hem of their shorts in hopes they would get longer. I couldn’t help tugging at them after every step I took or move I made.

  “Nicole mentioned earlier in my tumbling class that she wants to work with you and our stunt group on a twist up and down so you will be good to go on all the basics to get you into and out of the air. And once you get your balance a little more, we get to start on all the stunting poses,” Halley explained quickly. I tried to nod along to let her know I was listening, but listening and understanding weren't exactly the same thing.

  “Nicole teaches tumbling?” I asked, a little confused. “I thought Greg was the tumbling teacher.”

  “He is,” she said with a smile. “But he teaches a higher level class. I’m still not super great at some of the harder tumbling, so I still take Nicole’s class since it focuses more on level 2 and 3 skills. That was actually why I was at the trampoline park the day we met you. Lexi was helping me get in some extra practice before my tumbling class.”

  Thinking it over, I remembered that as we were working on the trampolines that day it was Lexi who did most of the moves when they were trying to teach me something. Halley did them as well, but not as often and when she did she sometimes looked a little less in control than Lexi. I didn’t think about it too much, instead trying to figure out what a twist up and down could be. After learning how to get lifted into the air, held at different levels, and then how to get down safely, I wasn’t sure what could be next. Trying to replay the videos my dad had shown me in my head, I sat down and began stretching with the other girls. It wasn’t long before Lexi came over to stretch with me.

  “So are you ready for tonight?” Lexi asked. “I heard we might start to teach you pyramid.”

  “Pyramid?” I asked. It seemed that 90% of the things I heard while in the cheer gym confused me. Part of me wondered if there was a “Cheer For Dummies” book somewhere I could read over a few times.

  “It’s a big stunt sequence in the end of our routine,” Lexi explained. “Since you’re replacing Heather you’ll be on the left side and do a few twist ups and then a tick tock lib. You’ll learn all that tonight and then the rest of the flying stunts.”

  I gave up trying to understand what she was talking about, and instead focused on the stretching. While we were all still getting stretched out, Nicole and TJ came around and encouraged certain girls to try different stretches. They never told me to change what I was doing, but this was likely since I was copying Lexi the whole time. Halley was doing her own stretches, often not as difficult as what we were trying. I wondered if not being thrown in the air mea
nt you didn’t have to stretch as much. That one, however, was the least of my questions at that moment.

  “Everyone stand on your lines, please. It’s time to go through warm ups,” TJ called once everyone had apparently stretched for long enough.

  Moving along with the other girls, I pulled my shorts down as much as I could before standing in the same line as last time. Anna gave me a smile, so I assumed I must have been right when I guessed to go to the same place. I smiled back and then began to kick and bend and move as we were all required to in order to get ready for the practice. The new motions for jumping jacks and other exercises still felt rigid and serious, but my body seemed to be a little more used to them the second time around.

  As the warm ups ended, we moved into tumbling. TJ encouraged everyone to do the same tumbling pass as last time, and when it was my turn I could see the girls around me stop what they were doing to watch. I could feel their eyes on me and tugged down my shorts as much as I could before running and flipping through the air. I landed the second back handspring and began to move to the end of the line right away as I once again tugged on my shorts. A few girls watched me, but since I didn’t do anything extra that time, they went back to what they were doing. I did the same things the remaining times I tried the pass, always stopping at the end of the required moves.

  “Okay, everyone needs to work on their stunts for the next few minutes,” Nicole called out after the tumbling time ended. “I need to see Maxine and her group over here.”

  “Max,” I mumbled, knowing no one was listening.

  “Max,” TJ said, grabbing my arm as he caught up to me. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

  I glanced over at Nicole and saw that she was looking at TJ and I with curiosity, but she gave him a slight head nod as if to tell him she could wait. TJ returned the nod to Nicole and looked down at me.

  “Are you okay tonight?” he asked me, letting go of my arm.

  “Yeah,” I shrugged. “I guess.”

  “And yet you keep doing that,” TJ said, gesturing to my hands. Without even thinking about it I was tugging on the hem of my shorts. “You don’t like the practice gear, do you?”

  “They're really short,” I explained with a sigh, feeling embarrassed instantly. “I don’t wear things tight like this ever, so it just feels really weird.”

  “But they also allow the other girls to hold you,” TJ began. “When you’re doing some of the stunts later, like during pyramid, having skin to grip instead of fabric is really important. I know they might not feel great if you’re not used to wearing them, but I wanted to let you know we would never make you do something unless we felt it was really necessary. I know you’re new here, and still learning things, but we care about you and want to make sure you’re as comfortable as you can be.”

  “That makes sense,” I said with a nod. “Kind of like the shoes help when I’m tumbling and flying.”

  “Exactly,” he smiled. “And I know the glitter and the bows and the shorts can be a lot to take in. But we see something in you that is really important. In just a few days you’ve picked up some pretty hard tumbling and stunts. You have a natural gift for cheerleading. So, if you can look past the things that are a bit new like tight shorts and weird shoes, then I know you’re going to be unstoppable.”

  I was shocked at what he was saying. I mean, I knew I was pretty good at most of the cheerleading stuff. Nothing that I had tried or learned was particularly ‘hard,’ but at the same time I was still on basic moves. There was a chance when I started trying harder moves it would no longer be easy. Until then, however, if I could focus on the cheerleading and not the outfit that I had to wear while doing the cheerleading, then maybe I really could be unstoppable like TJ had said. Then again, I wasn’t sure if I would ever try to cheer once my time ran out and I got to choose a cat.

  “You ready Maxine?” Nicole called to me, where I stood silently with TJ.

  “Max,” I said to myself, then turned and walked over to find out what a twist up could be, and to see if it would be another thing that came naturally.

  “I’m so glad you made it, Maxine,” Nicole waved to me as she rushed past me Saturday morning at the gym.

  Fighting the urge to correct her, mostly since I knew she couldn’t hear me as she was speeding to the other side of the room, I put my glittery red bag into a cubby and walked over to Connor. He was sitting on the mat stretching with a guy and two girls I didn’t recognize. As I approached, Connor turned to smile at me. It was then that I noticed everyone sitting down was wearing the same outfit. Their outfits were the same as the practice wear I had on, but instead of red, the letters on their tanks, their shorts, and the girl’s cheer bows were all teal.

  “Are you excited?” Connor asked as I sat down and began stretching with the group.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I didn’t really get any info about why I’m even here right now. All Nicole said on the phone was that she wanted me to show up today ready to cheer.”

  “Oh this is going to be fun then,” a girl with curly blond hair said drily.

  “Shut up Leanne,” the girl next to her retorted with a dramatic eye roll. “I’m Kelsee.”

  “I’m Max,” I replied, not sure if I should shake her hand or anything. When she didn’t offer her hand to me, I assumed just trading names was okay.

  “And I’m Matthew,” the boy sitting next to Connor added. “You’re new on Blast, right?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “My first team practice was this past Tuesday. But I’m in Greg's tumbling class too.”

  “Wait,” Leanne said holding out a perfectly manicured hand to get everyone's attention. “You’re the one who was here at the open gym?”

  I nodded, not sure what to say. Leanne looked me over then, and I had to fight the urge to tug down the hem of my shorts. The way she seemed to examine me made me self-conscious of everything, especially the fact that even after three tries my cheer bow didn’t look anything like it did when Lexi helped me get it in place.

  “I heard you landed a full at practice,” Kelsee quickly said, after shooting Leanne a glare. “And you’re only 12?”

  “She turns 13 in January,” Connor spoke before I could. I smiled at him, glad I didn’t have to be the only one talking and answering questions.

  “So do you guys have a team practice now?” I asked, trying to get to the bottom of exactly why I was at the gym.

  “Not for another hour,” Matthew explained. “Nicole wanted us to come in early to work with you and Tonya.”

  I was about to ask who Tonya was when a shorter woman I remembered seeing at the open gym came over and sat down with us. She asked Connor something about his shoulder, apparently talking about an injury he was working through. Their conversation gave me a minute to look Tonya over. It was clear she was older than me, despite the fact she wasn’t a lot taller or heavier than I was. She had brown hair that was cropped to her chin and had a pretty wave to it. And speaking of pretty, she had on makeup that made her look more like a runway model than someone working out in a gym. But, the tight black shorts, cheer shoes and black TNT shirt complete with STAFF glittered on the back showed she was in the gym to get some work done. Work, on this occasion, that included me.

  “I’m Tonya,” she finally said to me once Connor and her were done talking. She offered me her hand to shake. As I took it, I could feel the strength behind her small frame. “I’m one of the owners here, and also the main stunt and dance coach.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I smiled. “I’m Max.”

  “It’s nice to finally meet you too,” Tonya replied. “I’ve heard a lot about you and I’m really excited to finally work with you.”

  “What exactly are we doing today?” I asked, hoping to finally get a reply.

  “Nicole didn’t tell you?” she asked, eliciting a small shake of my head. “That sounds like her. Well, after hearing about your tumbling skills and your flexibility I wanted to see if you can really fly. N
ot just the twist ups and basic cradles. I wanted you to come here today and try some of the harder stunts so you can see what you’re really capable of. And I wanted these guys to all help since they have the experience to make sure you don’t come falling down easily.”

  With that, the group of us got to our feet and I quickly realized the obvious. Connor and Matthew were clearly there to help with all the stunts and since Kelsee was taller, she was likely there to help with the stunts as well. She had bigger muscles than some of the guys I knew at school, including Peter. Leanne, on the other hand, was only a few inches taller than me. Standing next to each other, Kelsee and Leanne were polar opposites. Kelsee had lightly tanned skin, dark eyes, and straight black hair in a sleek ponytail. Leanne, on the other hand, had skin that was obviously tanned with sprays and tanning beads, brilliant blue eyes, and hair so blond it was almost white. Unlike Kelsee’s simple hairstyle, Leanne’s hair was curled and teased in a way that made her look a good bit taller, especially with the edition of her bow.

  Once I took in the size and physical difference in the two girls, I turned my attention to Tonya. She was relaying information to the four athletes in matching outfits, then counted off as they lifted Leanne in the air, spinning her around twice on the way up before she stood on one foot. I felt my mouth begin to drop open as she held her right leg up by her head one second, and then switched in a flash so that her other leg was being held and she was holding her left leg up instead. Then, they popped her up and she spun two times before being caught by the three supporting her below.

  “That was amazing,” I said in shock. After my last team practice I knew how to stand on one leg while my stunt group held me, but that was about it. The idea of holding my leg up and still being balanced, let alone switching legs the way Leanne did, seemed impossible at that moment.

  “We want to work on that with you,” Tonya said with a smile after seeing the look on my face. “Obviously not all today, but if we get started on some of the basics that make it up, I have a feeling you can get it down in no time.”