by Dana Burkey
“Are you excited, Max?” Nicole asked me as I stuffed my bag in a cubby closer to the mat we would be on for my practice with Fuze. She had also just come from Blast’s practice, although it was a lot less physically demanding for her.
“A little,” I said with my best attempt at a smile. I was feeling about as nervous as the first time I practiced with Blast. I only hoped I didn’t have to stand up and awkwardly talk about my family again.
“You’re going to do great,” she said to me, mirroring Lexi’s words exactly. “Let me introduce you to your stunt group.”
Following Nicole, I was taken over to meet three girls that were clearly excited to see me. I recognized them from seeing them around competitions and at the gym, but I didn’t know any of them by name until Nicole introduced them to me. Juleah was my back spot, and she was hard to miss with her long wavy red hair. Even up in a ponytail, it reached almost to her waist. Her hair was the reddest hair I had ever seen and looked amazing next to her pale skin and bright blue eyes. My side bases were Payten and Erin, both of whom were practically a foot taller than me. Or at least a good 8 inches. Payten had black micro-braided hair that featured tiny purple beads at the end of each strand that perfectly matched her Fuze tank top and shorts. She had dark skin and huge eyes that made her look more like a model standing on the mat then a cheerleader. Erin had hair about the same length as mine, but it had chunky blond highlights that went well with her thick eyeliner and dark hazel eyes. Her skin was super tan, and unlike some girls I saw at the gym, it didn’t look sprayed on or from a tanning bed.
After only a minute to learn their names and say hello, it was time to get started. We did some basic conditioning and warm-ups, including having my stunt team getting me in the air to try some basic baskets so they could get used to flying me. Only having three people holding me in the air was a little strange so soon after Blast practice. But the skills I was doing in the air were pretty much things I learned my first week at cheer, so that made it a little better. Once we were all warmed up I sat at the side and watched as the girls ran the routine with all the flying stunts, but only marking everything else. That meant the fliers were always in the air at the usual times, but all of the tumbling and even the dance was just walked through. It helped me see the more difficult portion of the routine from the other girls, and also get a feel for the flying I would be doing. Payten, Erin, and Juleah held their arms as if they were holding me up for each stunt, and based on the other fliers performing the skills I was able to pretty much see where I would be and what I would be doing.
“Let’s run it again with the dance included, but this time, I want Max and her stunt team to go over to mat 3 and start learning everything,” Nicole called out.
I followed her instructions and was happy to see Tonya waiting on the mat to work with us. She gave me a big smile as I joined her, squeezing me surprisingly tight for someone as tiny as I was.
“I’m so proud of you Max,” Tonya said once she finally let me go. “You filling in for Cassidy is going to be perfect.”
“Now I just have to learn everything,” I said with a nervous laugh.
“If anyone can do it, you can,” she assured me then launched into teaching me the various stunts and skills of the Fuze routine.
My fears and worries were gone instantly as I realized that working with the new stunt team was a lot like working with my stunt group on Blast. Not only did Juleah always give me encouragement right before I went into the air like Halley did, I was apparently a lot lighter than Cassidy so once they figured out the grips for my foot size, everything was smooth sailing.
“That was perfect,” Juleah told me with a massive smile after I was tossed up to do a kick single. Having girls that were a little taller and stronger than my stunt team on Blast made the move a lot easier to get enough height for the skill. In fact, if it was allowed on a level 4 team, I think I could have added a second rotation based on how high I was thrown.
“Let’s try that whole section in a row,” Tonya suggested after we had done all of the skills on their own. “We can slow it down if we need to, but I want to see it all laid out.”
“Including the basket?” I asked, going through the steps in my mind.
“If you’re okay with that,” she said with a smile. When I nodded we started at the beginning and started the second try.
As Erin, Payton, and Juleah lifted me up, I spun around once before standing in a liberty pose with my left leg bent while my right leg was being held up by the girls below me. Then, as the girls dipped me down and back up, I traded feet so I was standing on my left foot. Once I was standing for a few counts as I moved my arms in the choreography Tonya had taught me, I lifted my left leg up next to my head to hold it in place. I held the heel stretch while doing some additional sweeping arm motions as well as a few specific facial expressions. From there I twisted my body around so I was facing my right and made my arms into a ‘T’ while my left leg was straight out in the air behind me. As I held the arabesque, Tonya counted while the girls below me lowered their arms just to raise them right back up while I grabbed my left foot behind my head with both hands. The now familiar scorpion was easy to hold until I moved to hold my left leg out with my hand gripping my calf in a move called a scale. I even managed an over the top smile before returning to the arabesque then brought my legs together. Once the girls under me moved so I was once again facing where the crowd would be, I folded my body over and flipped forward while hugging my legs in a move known as a fortune cookie. As my feet hit the mat one at a time, I stood up with a smile before jumping back into their arms for the final basket toss which consisted of a basic toe touch. All in all, it only took a few eight counts to complete, but when it was done we all celebrated like it had been a full routine.
“How did you get those transitions that fast?” Payten asked, staring at me in shock once the sequence was over.
“I don't know,” I shrugged. “They just kind of happened.”
“I’m not happy Cassidy got hurt,” Juleah began slowly. “But if it means you’re filling her spot then I’m kind of okay with it.”
“Just don’t tell Cassidy that,” Erin warned her, although she had a smile on her face.
The rest of the evening was spent running the skills with my new stunt team while Tonya helped to make sure I was getting everything down properly. And for the most part, I really was. Between my extra skills class and my time on Blast, I was able to pick up everything pretty quickly. I knew learning the flying skills was just the first part of the equation, but it seemed to be the part everyone else was most concerned with. The dance was intimidating me a little, but before I left for the evening Tonya pulled me aside to set up a time to go over it with her.
“Can you get here a little early on Thursday?” She asked me, pulling out her phone to check her schedule. “I’ll be here helping Nitro clean up some changes, so I can walk you through everything a few times.”
“Yeah, I can stay,” I answered, knowing my schedule was wide open between the end of school and the start of my practice time for Blast.
“Try watching the routine a few times between now and then as well,” Tonya added, pulling up her YouTube app. “The most recent version of the routine was posted about a week ago on the gym's channel. Here it is.”
I watched over her shoulder for a few seconds, taking note of some of the motions I had seen performed live earlier. She stopped it part of the way in, then copied the link and texted it to my phone. I could hear my phone buzz from the pocket of my cheer bag almost instantly.
“Do you know what tumbling passes I’ll be doing?” I asked her, knowing it would be something I could work on before the next practice.
“Nope,” she said quickly. “But Nicole can write it all down for you I’m sure. I’m sure none of it will be all that hard for you to pick up.”
“Fingers crossed,” I managed before yawning.
“You did great tonight Max, now go home and get some
sleep.”
With a quick thank you, I turned and walked to my cubby to get my cheer bag. Pulling my phone out, I saw a series of missed messages from Lexi. I knew she was going to want full details about practice, but first I had to actually make it home without falling asleep. All the flying and tumbling of two teams’ worth of practices was catching up to me quickly.
“Awesome job tonight Max,” Nicole said to me then. She was walking my way holding a glittery purple gym bag. “You don’t need to use the bag if you don’t want to, but there are a few practice uniforms in there, your Fuze bow, and your new uniform. Let me know if you need anything else that we might have forgotten.”
“Thanks, Nicole,” I said with a smile, which was followed by yet another a yawn.
“Now get out of here before you fall asleep on the mat,” Nicole laughed.
Knowing she wasn’t too far from the truth, I turned and headed for the door. On the way out I said goodbye to a few of the girls from Fuze that were still in the gym, then made a beeline for my dad's car. I shoved the purple glitter bag into the back seat then flopped down into the upholstery as I typed a text to Lexi.
“Bad practice?” my dad asked, giving me a concerned look.
“It was great,” I said quickly, realizing how my entrance might have confused him. “I’m just totally ready for bed after all that.”
“Your wish is my command,” he said with a wave of his hand as he started the car and took off towards home. I knew it would be a miracle if I was awake for the whole drive, even if it was only a few short miles.
As much as I loved flying, tumbling was by far my favorite thing about cheerleading. It was something I did on my own without anyone helping or holding me up, and was something I was excelling at but still had room to learn new skills. Sure, on Blast I was limited to round offs, back handsprings, and back tucks. But, now that I was also on Fuze, I was getting harder tumbling passes to work on and bring to the mat.
“Let’s try that again but make sure you really push off strong going into that last back handspring before your layout,” Greg suggested as he worked with me on tumbling. Rather than try the passes alone at home in the backyard, I decided to come in and work on one of the open gym mats by myself for the evening. I was doing okay on my own, but Greg, of course, had to step in and see how much farther he could push me to get even more out of my tumbling.
Standing at the corner of the mat I ran and jumped hard before throwing my body into a simple round off. From there I did a back handspring then a whip before a back handspring and a final layout. The whip and layout were the same general motion as a back tuck, only I kept my legs straight. This made the move a little harder and also worth more on the raw score while performing. After all the flips and twists and turns I landed on the ground and took a few steps back thanks to the momentum, but stayed on the blue mat and also on my feet. It was a lot harder of a tumbling pass than anything I did with Blast, and if felt good to do it knowing I would be able to perform it at a competition and in front of a whole crowd of people.
“How was that?” I asked Greg, who was frozen in place.
“Are you kidding me right now?” he asked in reply, a smile growing on his face. “That was perfect Max. And your height on the whip at the end was amazing.”
“Thanks,” I grinned, glad to know I was doing well enough to impress Greg to that level. Thanks to my time in my skills classes he got to see me fall a lot as I tried new skills like kick fulls and even standing double fulls, but now I was able to show him the power I could put behind intermediate tumbling. I was itching for the day I could throw a full on the mats, but knew it would likely be a few years until I was on a level 5 squad and was finally allowed to, according to the score sheets. Which of course was only a maybe, considering I hadn’t made a decision about my cheerleading career after Summit just yet.
“So that’s your elite tumbling pass right before pyramid,” Greg said as he pulled out a half sheet of paper from his pocket that Nicole had given him. It listed all the tumbling passes I would do in the routine with Fuze. “You have a roundoff back handspring back tuck sequence with three other girls, but you will need to work with them on getting the timing just right. And then the other major one is the back handspring layout near the start of the routine. The standing jumps are almost identical as Blast, just with an extra toe touch before the back tuck.”
“That’s really it?” I asked as I took my cheer bow out so I could fix my ponytail that had gotten loose thanks to the tumbling. I was wearing my new purple Fuze practice wear complete with the purple ombre bow, but since the bow was new I was struggling to get the ponytail holder to stretch how I wanted it to. With a sigh as I wrestled with the frustrating hair situation, I muttered, “I’m about ready to cut all of my hair off.”
“Are you okay?” Greg asked, laughing as I finally got my hair and the bow to cooperate.
“My hair is just driving me crazy,” I explained. “I usually don’t have it this long, but I have to if I want it to look normal with my bow and everything.”
“Or just cut it and wear it half up for cheer,” he commented.
His words made me freeze instantly. I stared at Greg, trying to figure out why I hadn't thought of that on my own. When I first started at the gym Lexi had hair just barely long enough for a ponytail, so at practices she often wore it only half up. She was growing it for competition season, so I always assumed it was more or less a rule for all of us to have hair long enough for a high ponytail. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized there were a lot of girls at competitions that had shorter hair they still could put in a poof and half ponytail complete with bow and everything. Most of the time they would skip curling their hair, but even if they did add curls, it was sure to be a lot less work than trying to use a wand on a whole head of long hair. Although there weren’t any girls at the TNT Force gym that I could call to mind with shorter hair, it apparently wasn’t against the rules. Or at least I assumed as much after Greg suggested the haircut.
“This is why you’re my favorite Greg,” I said as the enormity of it set in. “I wonder if my barber will know how to cut it cute and short and everything.”
“Hold on,” Greg said, holding up a hand to stop me. “Your barber? As in a barber shop?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I go with my dad when he gets his hair done. The guy does fine.”
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t just hear that,” Greg said with the shake of his head. “I have five sisters, and if they heard that they would die of shock. I’ll be right back.”
As Greg walked away I shrugged off his rather dramatic response and went back to trying the tumbling pass. I already had it down, but it was still good to run it a few more times. After the third time I landed it, Greg still hadn’t returned. So, I simply walked over and began packing up my gym bag, finally ready to end my practice time. I slipped a pair of gray basketball shorts over my uniform automatically. I didn’t always wear them while biking home lately, but after the reaction Cate had to the news of me being on cheerleading squad, I felt a little more self-conscious. Walking towards the office to find Greg, I paused to watch Nitro finish a full out. I thought it might be nice to say hi to Connor before I left the gym, but sadly he wasn’t the only person who noticed I was watching practice.
“So it’s true,” Leanne said, pointing at my purple bow. “You’re filling Cassidy’s spot.”
“Yup,” I said with a polite smile. Connor was talking to TJ so I didn’t feel like I could walk away to go talk to him to get away from Leanne like I wanted to.
“They were totally going to give the spot to me, but it’s not really fair to have a level Summit5 athlete fill a spot on a level 4 team,” she said with a dramatic flip of her curly blonde hair. “It would be like sending in a professional to do the job of an amateur. So you’re a much better fit. As long as you can actually land the skills.”
I opened my mouth to respond but was distracted when Greg called my n
ame. Without so much as a goodbye to Leanne, I turned and walked towards the office where Greg was waiting with Tonya.
“You really get your hair cut by a barber?” Tonya asked, a shocked look on her face.
“Ummm yeah,” I said, suddenly feeling embarrassed by the fact.
“Okay, what are you doing Saturday morning?” she asked, a seriously stressed look on her face.
“Nothing, I think,” I shrugged, confused by her question.
“Good, I’m making you a hair appointment.” Tonya pulled out her phone and began flipping through her contacts. “My cousin is a hairdresser and has a studio in town. I’ll see when she can fit you in and text you tonight.”
“Can’t I just call her?” I asked, feeling like me getting my hair done shouldn’t be such a production.
“Probably,” Tonya nodded. “But this is a big deal. Your first proper haircut. You need someone there with you to help celebrate. We can even go get our nails painted after. Trust me, girls need this kind of thing sometimes.”
I stared at her, feeling a little overwhelmed. But, part of me was happy to have her help. After all, I was just getting to the age of fun days around town with mom when she started getting sick. And as much as I loved my dad, there were some girl things he didn’t understand. The first time I told him I needed to go buy a sports bra for cheerleading he had to call Peter and Kyle’s mom for backup. Now, thankfully, he just gives me money and a ride to the mall if I need anything of that nature.
“Thanks, Tonya,” I finally said. I still wasn’t totally convinced my barber couldn’t manage to cut my hair shorter, but it was nice to know I was going to get a fancy haircut like the other girls at the gym.
“You’re welcome,” Tonya replied with a big smile. “We can’t let you hit the mat looking anything less than your best at Summit. Especially since you’re going to be up there twice representing TNT.”
The reminder of everything the next two weeks would hold popped back into my mind and I instantly had the urge to go back and practice my tumbling a little more. I fought the feeling, knowing that I was going to need to save energy for Blast’s practice Thursday night. Saying thanks to Greg and Tonya once more I headed for the door. As I slipped on my bike helmet and clipped the chin strap, I was a bit surprised when I looked up and saw Connor exiting the gym and coming my way.