by Dana Burkey
“You didn’t ruin anything,” I tried, but Nick kept going with his little speech.
“I totally ruined things. Again,” he plopped his burrito down on the tray table in front of himself for emphasis. “First Catherine falls. Whose fault was that? Mine. Then everyone gets sick. Whose fault was that? Mine. Now this. TJ is scrambling to find someone who can fill in literally days before we’re supposed to leave because I messed up again. It’s a good thing I’m off the team now, because if I was there at Worlds I bet we would end up dropping every stunt thanks to me. I’m like, cursed or something.”
We all immediately tried to tell Nick it wasn’t true, but that seemed to just get to him even more. He went from frustrated and even angry to almost crying in a second. It was clear his emotions had been building up, possibly made worse by the fact that he was on a lot of pain meds like Whitney had warned.
“As bad as this is, it’s better you got hurt now instead of in Florida,” Connor tried, thankfully catching Nick’s attention. “Maybe your knee was getting weaker and you didn’t know. So if you didn’t get hurt yesterday you would have been hurt on the mat when we had no one to fill your spot.”
“Yeah,” Nina agreed. “And getting the flu before we left for Florida was the best possible time too. A few more days and we would all be sick and not able to compete.”
“What about Catherine?” he asked, looking at least a little more calm.
“Flyers fall,” I offered. “It happens all the time. Sometimes we get hurt, sometimes we land and are okay. But you weren't the only person trying to keep her up, and you’re not the only person that I’m sure could share the blame for her falling. Things happen, and it sucks, but we wouldn’t have made it this far in the season without you. And I for one don’t plan on giving up just because of this.”
Thankfully my words seemed to get to Nick. He still looked emotional, and honestly even more exhausted then when we entered his room. But, as much as he was still a bit of a mess, it looked like our words had gotten to him. We stayed and chatted with him a little longer, but it was clear between the emotions and the meds he was fading fast. So, giving him final hugs and assurances that we would make him proud, we headed out of the hospital so we could make our way to the gym for our extra early Nitro practice.
“We really have our work cut out for ourselves,” Nina said as we walked to the parking lot.
“Yup,” Connor agreed. “I’m honestly a little worried about how hard we’re about to go during practice.”
“But we have to do it,” I reminded everyone. “After all of that we really need to do this for Nick. He needs it.”
“That’s true,” Emma replied. “Nick does, and so does Catherine.”
“Are you kidding?” Jackson laughed. “I think we all need it after how the last week has gone.”
Everyone agreed to that one easily enough, and I was glad for it. We were not saying it was going to be easy, but it was clear everyone knew we truly needed a win. Sure, a win at Worlds wasn’t looking like a probability, but a clean routine was a good place to start. Which meant we first needed to catch the second new athlete up to speed in less than a week, and fast.
“Is that Portia?” I asked as we walked into the gym not long after leaving the hospital.
“Yeah,” Nina confirmed, sounding confused. “I think that’s Ben and Chris K with her too.”
“Why though?” Neither Nina or Jackson had an answer for me, so we continued heading to the cubbies where we would store our stuff for the practice. “Do you think Portia’s replacing Lexi?”
“No way,” he assured me. “I bet we’ll find out soon though.”
I nodded, then kept an eye on the three athletes talking to our coach. They were all standing on the center of the mat at the far side of the gym. Based on the way the three of them were downing water and out of breath it looked like they had been hard at work for a while. Considering the only team in the gym was a junior level 1, I knew they had to be doing some kind of extra practice. I wasn’t sure if it was for Nitro or not, but I tried to stay patient while I waited for answers .
“Here, you can borrow mine,” Emma offered. She handed me a hair tie, clearly having seen my frantic search for one in my bag. “Your hair is almost long enough for a normal ponytail. Maybe a new look for next season?”
“I’ve been thinking about it, but I don’t know if I’ll have the patience for it to really grow all the way out,” I said with a bit of a laugh as I secured my hair up into a half ponytail. “Look, they’re done talking.”
Emma whipped around, watching with me as our coach left the mat. The three athletes stayed, talking casually to one another. Not wanting to look like we were just watching them, I took a seat with my friends on the mat. We began stretching like we always did before practice, although we didn’t carry on a conversation like usual. The only thing we wanted to talk about were the extra athletes in the gym. But, that wasn’t really an option with them so close. Instead, we sat in near silence until Emma started a playlist of cheer music on her phone.
Slowly other members of Nitro arrived, each of them eyeing the new arrivals who were still keeping their distance. The three of them stayed to the far corner of the mat talking, then finally left the open gym space to go into the office when our coach called for them. Their exit seemed to calm everyone down a little, but the fact that they had been there at all was still unnerving. Were they going to replace members of the team, like Lexi who had only just joined us? I could almost hear the athletes around me breathe a sigh of relief when TJ came out to finally start practice and hopefully give us some answers. Beside him were Portia, Ben, and Chris.
“Nitro, gather up. Take a seat and get quiet. We have a lot to get through tonight.” TJ waited until he had everyone’s attention before he continued. “As I’m sure everyone knows, Nick got injured and is out for the season. We leave for Worlds in two days, so unless we want all of our hard work this last year to go to waste, we have a lot of work ahead of ourselves. The first step is filling Nick’s spot. We have Ben and Chris both from Glow here tonight. Hopefully by the end of practice we will be able to figure out who is the better match in his stunt group and they will fill his spot for good. Any questions?”
“Is Portia here to fill a spot too?” someone asked.
“No, not yet,” TJ said slowly. “We’ve had too many things go wrong in such a short time span, and I for one don’t plan on walking into Worlds unprepared. We’re bringing alternates with us to Orlando, starting with Portia and whoever doesn’t get chosen to fill in for Nick. I am also looking for another base to fill in as needed if one of you ladies get hurt or anything. Call me paranoid, but I’ve never had this kind of thing happen so close to Worlds and I don’t want us to get caught off guard any more.”
“So they’re not going to replace any of us?” another voice called out.
“Not replace, just fill in if something else crazy happens,” he explained again. “The goal is for them to just learn the routine for now. Ideally, we’ll only need one of them.”
His words were followed by silence. I glanced next to me and saw Jackson was watching me intensely. He raised his eyebrows in question, then reached over to take my hand. Giving my best attempt at a smile, I squeezed his fingers then turned my attention back to our coach. TJ was looking around the group of us sitting on the mat, the expression on his face hard to read. Not only that, but he looked tired, like he hadn’t slept all night. Which was a real possibility considering everything that had happened in the last 24 hours.
“Okay, I need to see every stunt group run your partner stunts and elites 20 times,” he finally instructed. “If after 20 you haven’t hit at least 10 times, then you get to do it another 20.”
Groans rose up around the mat, but we slowly made it to our feet and got to work. The 20 reps of the stunts were the start of a long and grueling practice. One of the worst I can ever remember, even despite the fact that my group was hitting most of the time. A fe
w groups were not doing quite as well, including Lexi’s thanks to having a new base in their stunt. TJ didn’t yell like most rough practices though. Instead, he just kept us working while he continued to look more and more exhausted.
“Who do you think is doing better?” I asked Jackson as we took a water break.
“Chris,” he said between long drinks from his water bottle. “He’s better at the partner stunts, and he’s keeping the elite up more often than Ben.”
“But Chris only has a full, not a double,” Jade pointed out. “That’s not exactly something he is going to get in the next two days.”
“No, but we have enough good tumbling to make up for it,” Jackson shrugged. “The real test will be pyramid. It’s not exactly an easy part of the routine.”
“I don’t even want to think about how many times we’re about to run it,” Anna frowned.
“I bet you a chocolate sundae it isn’t more than 25,” I challenged.
“My guess is more than 30,” Jackson added.
“TJ wouldn’t do that to us,” Jade said with a shake of her head. “I bet it’s under 10. We’ll just do a few run throughs after we mark it out once or twice for timing.”
“Well, I bet it’s only somewhere between 10 and 20,” Anna finally decided. “Furthest one from the real number buys everyone else a sundae?”
“Deal.” I set my water bottle down with a frown. “Okay, time to get back to work.”
Walking back towards the mat I looked around at the other stunt groups still running the elites. It was looking good, but something was off. Maybe it was the fact that we were all tired from the long practice that was still going on. Or maybe it was because Ben and Chris were being swapped out non-stop making their group’s progress slower. Either way, it was like I could feel Worlds slipping away. I could already imagine what people would post on social media not knowing what we were facing as a team. Pushing my worries aside, I let out a long breath and got ready to run our stunt once again. It wasn’t much compared to what I wanted to do, but I was going to do anything I could to help do my part for the team.
In the end, we only ran the pyramid 12 times, although we decided to take a rain check on the sundaes since we were all too tired to do anything after practice besides head home and sleep. TJ put Ben and Chris in the stunt group with Abby and had Connor move over to help with the part of pyramid Lexi was in. It helped us make a lot faster progress, and before we knew it we were running a few full outs then heading home. As Jackson guessed, Chris was chosen to fill Nick’s position in the routine. The practice was still almost two hours longer than it was supposed to be, but no one complained. We all knew it was needed if we wanted any shot at even making it to the finals in Florida. So, as practice started Tuesday night we knew it would be another long one as well.
“Breathe M, you can do this,” Jade said to me, seconds before I was tossed up into the air for a kick double basket.
As soon as I was caught I had to set back up for the next part of our stunt. Counting in my head while singing along to the music I was lifted in the air and performed the skills I had long since perfected. But, then, once I was standing with my leg held close behind my back in my needle I got ready for the new addition to the routine. As we had practiced Sunday morning, I held my body as steady as I could while I was spun around not just once, but twice. I exhaled as I spun, doing my best to keep my body from wobbling, tipping, or especially falling. Once it was done I did a quarter turn to face the audience and swept my left arm up high above my head in time to the music. With a dramatic snap of my fingers, I folded my body forward and down so my bases could catch me before lowering my feet to the mat, ready to continue with the routine, only to be stopped as TJ cut the music.
“Run it again,” he called out, his voice a mix of anger and frustration. “Max and Emma are the only ones hitting right now, and come this weekend that’s not going to be good enough.”
“What’s the count again for the dip?” I heard Chris ask from the next stunt group over.
“Dip on 4,” Lexi told him, adjusting her ponytail that had been knocked around when she came down on the last run.
“I want everyone counting this time,” TJ all but shouted, having overheard their conversation. “Loud and proud and like you mean it. Now let’s go. Set back up.”
Sucking in a few deep breaths, I stood between my bases and got ready. Then, as TJ counted us in we ran everything once again. I counted along, the music not even on as a distraction thankfully. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lexi staying in the air much better, even if she did look a little shaky. She was the only other flyer I could see without turning my head, so I looked at my coach instead. He had a smile on his face that looked a little forced. I knew that look well. It meant we were doing better, but still not great. Meaning another run through. Then another. Then another.
“Lexi and Emma you’re doing better but Abby and Trish it’s not improving,” he said. I noticed he didn’t mention me, likely since I had hit the skill during the Sunday practice enough times to have it down already. “I want everyone to run it through three times.”
TJ turned and asked Coach Jamie, who was helping us after her team's practice had ended, to count us in. Then, he walked over to talk to Tonya who was standing near the office. Realizing he wasn’t even watching made me pause a second on the timing of jumping into the stunt sequence. Thankfully my bases were able to land their grips even a count behind so we were back on track in no time. Trying not to worry about TJ or the other athletes around me, I focused on each body position I was pulling so I could hit everything three times in a row. Even without my coach watching, hitting perfect was important to not just me but also my whole stunt group.
“Should we, like, run it again?” Jade asked, looking towards where TJ was still talking to Tonya.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “Do you think he’s going to swap anyone out of the air?”
“Maybe,” Jackson guessed. “It’s going to be hard for anyone to just jump into the stunts and land everything. I’m starting to feel like we’re going to be a laughing stock at Worlds.”
Letting out a sigh, I looked around the mat only to see just how much the other stunt groups were struggling. Emma was only getting one rotation in her needle before she tipped during the second turn, while Lexi and Abby weren’t landing things at all now that there was an extra rotation to complete. It was enough to make me feel a little defeated. Sensing that, Jackson reached over and placed a hand on my back. I gave him a half hearted smile just as TJ clapped to get our attention once again.
“Listen up,” he called out, sounding less angry and more determined than I expected. “We need to make some changes. I don’t know if it’s nerves or what, but if we keep things as they are we’re going to end up spending the next three days trying to hit the same skills when we need to actually be working on technique and small things.” He paused, running a hand through his hair while letting out a sigh. “Max, you’re going to be the only one to still do the double around needle. Emma and Abby, we’re going to have you just do it single around, and everyone else is going to skip the rotation all together.”
“How is that going to affect our score sheet?” a voice called out.
“Tonya assured me it won’t,” he explained. “But it does mean changing some counts and adding a bit in between to get everything to land right. That means we need to start running things little by little. Everyone gather up around Emma and Abby to start so we have extra people to spot until they feel comfortable with the different skills.”
With that, we got to work. It was slow going at first, but since the stunts were getting simplified a good bit, everything started to click quickly enough. But, like TJ warned, getting things to not fall and getting things to be perfect was a different story. Not falling or not bobbling was good and all, but being able to really perform and with perfect technique was even more important. That was the area where we were struggling the most. The small det
ails weren’t falling in place like they should be so close to leaving for Florida, but other than running things over and over there wasn’t much else we could do.
Knowing we had to be at the airport in the morning to head to Worlds, TJ gathered us up for the usual “get sleep, double check your packing list, bring sunscreen” chat I remembered from the previous season. During it, I sat next to Lexi who was icing her shoulder. She was doing fine, but had landed hard during pyramid on the last run through. Surprisingly it was the only real injury of the evening, if it even qualified as one. Which for Nitro, was a step in the right direction.
“This blanket fort sure isn’t working,” I laughed to my friends that night after practice was over.
“I mean, we could see if Jackson or Connor want to come help,” Lexi laughed. “Or we can just skip it for now.”
“Skip it,” Halley and I both said at the same time. As we did, I dropped the blanket I was still holding while she took a seat on the couch.
We were in my basement, settling in for a rare midweek sleepover. My friends and I almost always did a slumber party the night before big comps like NCA or Worlds. But, with everything going on with Nick and Nitro almost everyone canceled. Everyone but Lexi that was. She was too excited for her first Worlds to skip the fun girls night. So, after a good bit of convincing, we got Halley’s mom to agree to let her sleep over on a school night. Since, after all, it was a pretty big occasion.
“Okay, so what movie do we want to watch?” Halley asked, grabbing the remote to flip through the menu pulled up on the TV.
“I don’t know if I can sit through a movie,” Lex admitted. “Not to mention I might not be able to sleep at all tonight.”
“I bet,” Halley laughed. “I wish I was going with you.”
“Next season, right?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged in response to my question. “If I can’t tumble then I don’t think I have a chance for even a level 4 team again.”