by Dana Burkey
Our series of tumbling skills continued, taking us from one front corner of the mat to the other, where we again performed a full followed by a punch front to send us in the direction where we had just started. Pushing with all my strength, I willed my legs to keep going as we continued forward, flipping and flying side by side. Once we reached the center of the mat, both Connor and Jackson performed a kick double then stopped as I continued on. I had thrown a single full in place of their more impressive skills, then after a back handspring and a whip, I completed my final full and punch front of the series. Now, as planned, I was tumbling towards the boys who were waiting for me. Despite my body feeling beyond tired I pushed on, performing two back handsprings before simply hopping up and into their waiting arms. TJ had joined them in place of Juleah who wasn’t at our special practice, and together they launched me in the air for a toe touch basket. I landed back in their waiting arms, then was set down to stand on the mat, officially ending our elaborate last pass.
“Good job Max,” TJ said with a grin. In reply, I sat on the mat with my arms above my head to catch my breath. “You three have almost an hour until practice. Get some water.”
“Water? I just want air.”
As he spoke, Jackson dropped to the mat next to me, without bothering to grab our water bottles as usual. Thankfully, Connor walked to the cubbies and returned with all of ours before taking a seat as well.
“These upgrades are brutal,” I managed between long drinks of water.
“Yeah, but they look so good,” Connor said, as if I needed a reminder.
At our last comp of the season the tumbling pass wowed the crowd and was all over social media in a matter of minutes. Some people in the cheer community took the chance to remind others of our failure at NCA. But, almost to prove them wrong, TJ had added more difficulty to the pass since then. It helped to add performance value to our score, but also pushed the three of us to our limits. Between the actual tumbling skills and also the synchronicity needed for it to come together, it was the hardest part of the whole routine aside from maybe pyramid.
“Okay, this water isn’t doing it,” Jackson finally announced after sucking down most of the contents of his water bottle. “I need a smoothie or something.”
“Yes,” Connor stood up immediately, clearly his way of announcing he agreed and was ready for a trip to the Smoothie King a few blocks away.
“You in Max?” Jackson asked, slowly climbing to his feet.
Before I could answer I caught a glimpse of Halley out of the corner of my eye. She had just finished a private lesson and was walking to the tumbling track to no doubt get a little more work in. As good as a smoothie sounded, I also knew I didn’t want to miss a chance to spend time with my best friend. With all the extra practices getting ready for Worlds I was feeling like I hadn’t seen her in a long time.
“Actually, I think I want to go help Halley.” I took Jackson’s outstretched hand and hopped to my feet with his help.
“Is she making any progress?” he asked.
“Nope.”
Almost as if in answer to our conversation we all watched as Halley took a few running steps then performed a round off. Once her feet hit the ground she started what looked like a back handspring, then quickly lost control of her body and kind of flopped down onto her butt. She had been struggling with tumbling for the past few weeks, going head to head with a mental block that kept her from doing even the most basic of skills that she had been capable of performing for years.
“I’m sure she could use you right now,” he nodded, giving my hand a squeeze before finally dropping it. “Want me to pick you up something?”
“That would be awesome. Something with chocolate.”
“As if we would get you anything else,” Connor laughed.
While both of them grabbed their shirts from their bags I took a few more drinks of water before heading over to Halley. She was trying the round off another time, but again balked the pass and ended up on the ground. I reached her just in time to see her pound a fist on the track in frustration. She was a few inches taller than me, and a little more filled out. Not what anyone would call chubby or fat, but not as skinny as me all the same. As a member of Fuze, she wore purple practice wear that went perfectly with the makeup she had on despite the hard work out. She had clearly done her makeup well too, since it was in place despite the fact she was sweating enough for her light blond hair to be sticking to her face and neck.
“How’s it going?” I asked, taking a seat next to her.
“Oh you know,” she shrugged. “Just practicing all my amazing level 2 skills.”
“How was the private?”
“Bad,” she frowned. “It’s like I can’t do even a back tuck unless I’m being spotted all of a sudden. Which isn’t fair. I mean, I almost had my full two months ago.”
When I didn’t reply Halley continued, complaining about her lack of tumbling skills and the fact that she felt like she was letting everyone down. She was on Fuze, the gym's senior level 4 team, but wasn’t able to tumble in the routine at all anymore. Instead, she stood in the back while everyone else performed without her during a large part of the routine. But that wasn’t it. Before I could get a word in edgewise, Halley also mentioned that she was afraid she wasn’t going to get onto a good team next season if she didn’t have her tumbling. For her, going back down to a level 3 team wasn’t an option, but she knew she needed to get her level 4 tumbling back to make her spot on Fuze a guarantee.
“I’m sorry, Max,” she finally sighed. “I just unloaded all of that on you.”
“It’s okay, really,” I assured her. “What kind of a best friend would I be if I didn’t listen when you needed someone to talk to?”
“Good point.” She took a long breath, likely to clear her head of her current tumbling problems, before continuing. “I saw you working with Jackson and Connor. It’s looking really good.”
“Thanks, but TJ was killer today,” I explained. “I don’t know how I’m going to get through Nitro’s practice tonight in one piece.”
“You’ll do great,” she said simply. “Sometimes I feel like you couldn’t be bad at something if you tried.”
Her comment made me immediately think of my first year at the gym. After meeting her and our other best friend Lexi at a trampoline park, I joined the gym and found myself on the Blast team with both girls. I learned everything quickly enough, or rather, everything but dance. Getting my body to understand choreography wasn’t easy then, and honestly still didn’t come naturally to me all these years later. But, when I broke down at the gym after an emotional day of dancing just a week into being a part of Blast, Halley and Lexi were there for me when I needed them most. So, I was glad to be on the other side of it this time around. Although, I realized, there was another thing I apparently wasn’t a natural at either.
“Okay, that is so not true,” I finally said in response to her comment. “It happened with Jackson again today.”
“What happe--” She stopped when it dawned on her. “You diss-kissed him again.”
“Don’t call it that!” I whined, hating the term her and Lexi had come up with to describe when I dismissed Jackson instead of actually kissing him.
“Fine,” she laughed. “But you better give me all the details. I need something to take my mind off my tumbling right now.”
Retelling the story of my not so romantic moment with Jackson to Halley turned out to be just what I needed after the long tumbling practice. It got my mind off my sore muscles, and also got me laughing as she gave me lots of advice on how I needed to just run up to Jackson without any notice and kiss him just to get it over with. I didn’t agree with her on that one, but I had to admit it seemed like I was building everything up in my head a little more than was altogether necessary.
“Is that how you got your first kiss?” I challenged her.
“No, but it wasn’t that far off,” she admitted. “Granted, I was 11.”
&nbs
p; “Maybe that’s my problem,” I decided out loud. “Now that I’m already 15 it’s like I’ve built it up so much that the idea of kissing someone feels weird to all of a sudden just do. Or even want to do for that matter.”
“So you do want to kiss him then?” Halley said, obviously trying not to laugh, but I could tell it was still partially a serious question.
“I think so,” I shrugged. “I like Jackson a lot. Like a whole lot. And I’m really glad he’s my boyfriend and we get to spend so much time together and that we can talk about literally everything. But until him I’ve never even had a crush on a guy. So now all of a sudden I’m supposed to just be a normal girlfriend like everyone else and kiss him like it’s no big deal when before I met him I had never even thought about kissing anyone at all?”
“Honestly,” Halley began slowly. “Hearing that makes it kind of cute you haven’t kissed him yet. I take back my idea to just run up and plant one on him. It should be special, and you shouldn’t feel like you’re being rushed into it at all.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but was quickly cut off when Halley let me know Jackson and Connor were back. It meant no more girl talk, and instead just casual cheer conversations as we all enjoyed our smoothies. Even Halley got one since the boys were smart enough to know after her tumbling troubles she would need a treat as well. Unfortunately, just as I was really starting to enjoy my chocolate sugar rush, we had to head back to the mat to get ready for Nitro practice. I gave Halley a big hug, then chugged the rest of my smoothie before starting my prepractice stretching. I knew we would have our shortened warm up time again, so stretching was super important especially after all the tumbling practice I had already been through.
“How’s Halley’s tumbling?” Emma asked as I took a seat next to her on the mat. She spoke as she got her cheer bow in place around her naturally curly blond hair that was held high up in a ponytail. Then, she got to work stretching. As a flyer like myself, Emma was shorter than a lot of athletes on the team, and also a lot more petite than many as well. All of which made her perfect to throw and flip through the air, much like I did while on the cheer floor. She was also one of the team captains, and dating Matthew, Lexi’s older brother. Both combined to make her like an older sister to me, as well as one of my best friends on the team.
“Still not good,” I said simply in regards to Halley.
“Bummer. I know Tonya had an eye on her for Bomb Squad.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah,” she assured me. “Halley’s a great base. They just really need tumbling if they’re going to start keeping the team extra small.” When I just stared at Emma in shock she got the hint and kept talking. “Seriously, you didn’t know?”
“No.” It took me a few more seconds to recover and speak again. “Does everyone know?”
“I guess not everyone,” she shrugged. “But I was hanging out with Gwen and Cass the other day and they were telling me everything. Tonya has been talking about making Bomb Squad extra small ever since NCA, and Scott has been thinking about making Detonators large coed since the end of last season.”
“I’m so out of the loop,” I said, more to myself than anyone else.
“Well, no matter what Nitro is staying small coed,” she continued. “TJ said it’s the only division he wants to coach, but really I think he just wants to win before he throws in the towel. Not to say if we win then we change divisions. I think he just wants to make a name in the division finally.”
“Doesn’t it make you wish you could stay for a super senior year?”
“Don’t start on that one again.” Emma waved her hand at me for emphasis. “I’ve already committed to college cheer at UT with Matthew. Besides, we can’t talk about this being my last season until it’s over. Or I’ll cry too much and won’t be able to function at Worlds.”
“Facts,” I said in the best serious tone I could muster.
“Just wait,” she warned me. “One day you will be too old for TNT Force and you’ll be a mess too.”
“Nah, I’ll convince TJ we need an open team before then.”
“What did I hear about an open team?” Whitney asked, sitting down to stretch as well.
“Oh you know, just finding ways to never leave the gym,” I grinned.
“Max, if you were here any more then you already are they would start charging you rent.”
I knew Whitney was right, and couldn’t help but laugh. As one of Emma’s best friends, I had gotten super close with her over the last two years on Nitro as well. Whitney was like a model with her tan skin, long wavy chestnut colored hair, and rich hazel eyes. It helped that she was super into makeup, and managed to always have the right shades and colors applied on her eyelids and face to look glamorous even when we were all feeling exhausted. I once wondered if it was to look nice for Nick, her boyfriend who was also on the team. But, as she explained to me once during a sleepover, she just loved makeup and hoped to one day even be a professional makeup artist. I was incredibly glad for that one, since she was my go to any time I needed help with eyeliner, fake lashes, or even my hair.
“Okay, warm ups start now,” TJ called out, instantly ending our conversation.
Around me, the other 22 athletes on Nitro got into place to start warming up the different parts of the routine. We only had 12 minutes, much like the night before, and also like we would at Worlds. It meant every moment mattered, so the joking from just minutes ago was long-forgotten. Instead, we all knew we needed to focus, hit the routine, and hopefully show TJ we didn’t need yet another late practice night. Sadly, that dream was short-lived. After two perfect full outs we started running our stunt sequences, when everything started going wrong.
“Set back up and run it again,” TJ yelled out as we finished the series of skills for the second time. “I’m seeing some sloppy work from some bases that I shouldn’t. We’ve run this too many times for you all to start making these kinds of mistakes now. Here we go. 5-6-7-8.”
With the help of my bases below me I stood up in their arms, twisting two full rotations before I was being held high above their heads. They had a hold of my left foot while I held my right up next to my head in a move called a heel stretch. Taking only enough time for a quick hair flip as choreographed, I let go of my grip on my right foot and snapped it down, while also bringing up my left leg to hold instead. After the simple tick-tock, I reached over to hold my left foot with my right arm, putting my left arm instead out to the side of my body. It was a bow and arrow like the one I did in pyramid, only this time I wasn’t holding onto anyone else for extra support.
In time with TJ’s counting, I changed my body position again so both of my feet were now being held by Jackson, Juleah, and Anna below me. They walked in a slight circle so I was turned just enough to face stage left. Then, kicking my right leg forward I pushed it back with the added momentum, catching my leg with both of my hands when it was as flat against my back as possible. Holding a needle was hard enough, but TJ wanted more. He wanted us to be spun around once while holding our bodies in position, and after weeks of practice I was finally able to hit it without too much effort. Knowing I still needed to focus enough to really control my body during the skill, I took a deep breath in, only to be suddenly lowered to the mat. Jackson held on to me extra tight as I reached the ground to ensure I wouldn’t get hurt by the quick change.
“What happened?”
Still in Jackson’s arms I looked around the mat for an answer. It didn’t take long for me to spot someone on the ground, surrounded by TJ and other athletes. Nicole also ran over to join the mass to help, leaving her team Blast. With that many people it was hard to be sure what happened, but I started checking off who I could see standing up. Narrowing it down little by little, even without being able to see everyone around me, I had a feeling I knew who was on the ground before too long.
“Was it Catherine?” I asked Jackson in little more than a whisper. The gym felt eerily quiet as we waited for an update, and d
isrupting it felt wrong in that moment.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “It looked really bad. I saw it out of the corner of my eye.”
Both his tone and the look on his face told me all I needed to know. Catherine was a flyer like myself, so it meant she was high in the air like I was before she fell towards her waiting stunt team. That happened often enough in cheer that it wasn’t a big deal. Or at least it wasn’t when the person flying was caught. Without even asking I had a feeling that Nick, Addison, or Jade didn’t catch her as planned. It was the only reason for the worried faces of the athletes around me, as well as the sound of sobbing that was finally rising from where Catherine lay on the ground.
The real kicker came when Nicole rushed off the mat and returned with Catherine’s mom. Parents didn’t just come out of the viewing room when someone got hurt unless it was serious. In fact, it was usually only when a hospital trip was clearly needed. Watching as a few athletes helped TJ pick up Catherine and help walk her to the car, I could finally get some idea of what happened. She was holding her arm at an odd angle, tears streaming down her face at even the slightest movement. Turning my body around, Jackson’s arms still circling me, I rested my forehead on his chest, not wanting to see my teammate in pain any longer.
The rest of practice was a little anticlimactic. After Catherine left, TJ had us run some stunts, but it was clear he was a little more cautious about everything we did. We stopped all progress on the single around needles, and it wasn’t clear if we would work them into the routine in the end or not. We had only done a half rotation at the last comp of the season, so it wasn’t certain if the full spin would be added officially. Since one injury was enough for the night, we actually got out a little early after doing some extra stretching and conditioning. Within minutes of getting home the group chat messages began, everyone guessing and sharing what they thought they saw happen to Catherine. And when I woke up for school in the morning I had even more messages waiting for me to clear it all up. More than a dozen in fact, having all arrived to my phone without waking me up through the night.