Super Base (TNT Force Cheer Book 5)

by Burkey, Dana

  “You two didn’t talk at all?” Jade pressed.

  “Not really. We just worked on tumbling.” Once I answered her I thought through everything in case I missed something. “I guess we talked a little about Worlds on Friday. He told me I should be doing fulls, and then when I told him I got hurt he knew who I was. It was kind of weird, but then he had to go meet with TJ so I don’t even know if he was actually at Worlds last year or anything.”

  “I found him!” Whitney suddenly exclaimed, holding up her phone for emphasis. Before we could see what was on it, she pulled it close to her face again, her long chestnut hair making a wavy curtain that was impossible to see through. “His name is Jackson Bloom and he used to cheer at EAST. Oh, and he’s 16 and it looks like he went to Worlds last year but was an alternate maybe. Either that or his team didn’t make it to finals.”

  “What’s EAST?” I asked, trying to resist the urge to lean closer to Whitney to see his photos.

  “Elite All Stars of Texas,” Nick explained. “They’re near Abilene I think. It’s a really small gym. I want to say they were at NCA last year.”

  “Oh yeah,” Emma jumped in. “They had that really bad pyramid fall on day one and had to mark a lot of the skills on day two. I hate to say it, but a lot of the people on the team kind of looked like level 3 and 4 athletes.”

  “I think I remember them,” I nodded. “They had the grey and red uniforms, right?”

  “Yup,” Whitney nodded, then finally held her phone up for the rest of us to see the images on the screen.

  We all leaned closer immediately, staring at a photo of Jackson wearing the EAST uniform. Other than that, he looked the same as when I saw him earlier in the day. His hair was messy in an on purpose kind of way, and he looked tan without the use of a tanning bed or lotions that made your skin orange. What my eyes kept drifting to, however, was the fact that he was posing with a girl who was standing on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. I wanted to know who she was, while also not wanting to look at her at all. Thankfully, Whitney turned her phone around to click back to his whole Instagram page.

  As she was scrolling through, I saw most of his photos were of him at cheer. He was in the gym or on the performance mat, usually with a group of people. The girl that had been kissing him in the first photo was only in a few of the other images I saw. When I did see her it looked like she was usually holding hands with a boy on the team that looked nothing like Jackson. That made me a little more excited to see his other photos, especially when I saw a few of him playing basketball in what I assumed to be a uniform for a school team.

  “I hate to say it Nick,” Whitney began slowly. “But he’s really hot.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” Nick rolled his eyes in reply.

  Trying to make up for the comment Whitney snuggled closer to Nick and leaned her head on his shoulder. They exchanged a few words with one another, but I was more distracted by Emma. When I glanced at her I saw she was watching me, an odd look on her face. I raised an eyebrow in question, but before I could ask her what was wrong our waiter arrived with our food. We were all more than distracted with eating for a few minutes, no one bothering to talk much until they had a few good bites in their bellies. Not only that, but when we started talking again, I was happy to see we had found a new subject.

  “If I get sick during the run today, it’s totally going to be worth it,” Nick announced, his mouth filled with a massive bite of his burrito.

  “I’ll remind you of that when it happens,” Jade offered with a laugh. “So who else is already getting excited for camp?”

  “Me,” Emma said immediately. “I’ve been helping TJ with some of the planning and it’s going to be the best year ever I think.”

  “Helping plan what?” I asked, instantly eager for more information.

  “I can’t tell you that,” she grinned. “Only captains get to know that kind of stuff.”

  “Hold on,” Nick interjected. “I’m a captain. Why don’t I get to know stuff?”

  “Because you’re terrible at keeping secrets, and we all know it,” Whitney answered before Emma could.

  “That’s not….totally true….” Nick said, losing steam in his own argument quickly.

  “Can you give us a hint?” I asked Emma.

  “Just that we’re doing stuff a little different.”

  Her answer wasn’t really saying much, especially since I knew every year at camp was different than the ones before. The camp we were referring to was the annual TNT Force Camp, a weekend long gym event to get everyone ready for the competition season. Everyone slept at the gym all weekend and did a bunch of different activities with their teams. My first year at camp was all about team bonding at an outdoor adventure course. I had been knee deep in mud with Blast most of the afternoon on Saturday, then we enjoyed a carnival all night to make up for the hard work all the teams put in. My second year at camp we had a morning carnival on Saturday that included a lot of inflatables with water so we got to cool down while still having fun outside. It made for a lot of practice Friday evening and Sunday morning to get ready for the showcase performance Sunday afternoon, but it was worth it to have the whole morning of fun. Even thinking about what could come next had me excited to say the least.

  “Only two weeks to wait thankfully,” Jade said with a sigh, also clearly wanting more details.

  “Well, get ready,” Emma offered, as if it was somehow going to make us feel better about being in the dark. “This year is going to be the best camp in TNT Force’s history. Mark my words.”

  Leaving plenty of time to digest lunch before practice, we finished eating then headed back to the gym. Knowing there wouldn’t be another team on the mat we would be using for Nitro practice, we all put our stuff away and sat down to get some rest on the spring-loaded floor. Nick, who had eaten a burrito about the size of his head, laid on his back just trying to “sort out his life” as he said. The rest of us made somewhat better food decisions so we sat and chatted as people began to slowly trickle in for practice. While we hung out, I looked around a few times and didn’t manage to spot Jackson anywhere. He said he was going to be at practice, so I tried not to give in to the weird stress I was feeling at not seeing him in the room.

  “How was lunch?” Connor asked, walking up to Nick and giving him a rather hard pat on the stomach.

  “Dude!” Nick groaned, curling up into a ball and rolling away from Connor. We all laughed, even Whitney, who had warned him to save some of his lunch for after practice. She’d said that was a better idea than finishing it all at the restaurant.

  “So, whose bright idea was it to do Mexican food before practice?” Connor asked, taking a seat between Jade and I.

  “That would be Nick,” I said with another laugh. “You think he would have learned after last time.”

  “Yeah, you would think,” he replied. “So, any sign of the new kid?”

  “What? Where?” I instantly sat up a little straighter and looked around the gym for Jackson.

  “I asked if you’ve seen him,” Connor reiterated.

  “Oh, right.” I tried to casually sit back, but could see both Jade and Connor giving me a strange look. “Sorry, all the tumbling this morning made my brain a bit fried.”

  “That’s right, I forgot you came in early to tumble,” Connor commented. “How did it go?”

  I instantly felt weird talking about the morning practice since I knew Jackson would likely come up as well. But Connor wanted an answer, so I started telling him about the tumbling pass I had been trying and how I was getting more overall height off the mat. He seemed to only be interested in my progress, and before I knew it I had managed to relay the whole story without mentioning who I had been tumbling with. It wasn’t that I thought Connor would care if I had a different tumbling partner this morning, I was just doing anything I could to avoid the way I felt when I thought too much about the potential new addition to the gym.

  “Even hearing you talk about that much t
umbling makes me want to take a nap right now,” Jade commented, having overheard my update.

  “No time for that,” I reminded her. “Practice starts in a few minutes.”

  “Fine,” she said with a sigh. “But I’m still tired.”

  “Would it help if I said everyone can come over for swimming after practice?” I offered.

  “No,” she frowned. “I have my little sister’s birthday party. How about Wednesday?”

  “That works for me,” Nick called out from his spot still laying on the mat.

  “Me too actually,” Connor added.

  “So Wednesday it is,” I shrugged. “I’ll double check with my dad but we should be good to go. And by then maybe I can even try throwing some fulls on my air mat.”

  “Only you Max,” Whitney laughed. “All we care about is swimming. Then there’s you, only caring about getting to do even more cheerleading.”

  “What’s with the lazy people everywhere?” TJ suddenly called out, startling all of us sitting on the mat. “I should be seeing a lot more stretching. Running starts in five minutes.”

  Without looking at TJ, I shifted to work on some of the stretches that would be the most beneficial in such a short time period. Connor assisted in a few, making sure I was nice and limber for the coming practice. I didn’t really need the help since I stretched for at least an hour every day on my own, but it was always nice to get the deeper stretch just before practice all the same. This time though, I was so distracted that I didn’t notice we had a visitor on the mat until I finished the last stretch and moved to get a sip of water before the run.

  “So you’re super flexible and a great tumbler? That doesn't seem fair.”

  “Sorry,” I said, although I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to apologize to Jackson. “If it makes you feel any better I’m not that good at dancing.”

  “So Superwoman has a kryptonite after all?”

  His words were a little shocking, but I didn’t have a chance to reply. TJ called myself and the other members of Nitro to take a seat at the center of the mat, something that usually didn’t happen before we began our pre-conditioning run. Once he had everyone’s attention, he gave the announcement I figured was coming.

  “I want everyone to welcome Jackson and Nina,” TJ announced, only then drawing my attention to the girl standing on the mat. “They’re joining us from EAST, and are going to give Nitro a try over the next few practices to see if they’re a good fit for this year’s team. Be sure to welcome them, and help out as you can. Now everyone get moving. You all have three miles today.”

  Having not expected to also meet a female athlete along with Jackson, I found myself more distracted that I anticipated at first. But then, as Sara came over to stand next to me I understood the full extent of what TJ meant when he spoke to the group. He said everyone had miles to run, including me. I was going to be doing three miles for the first time all season. Sara coming to find me made it clear that I was still going at her pace, but it was another step TJ was finally trusting me to do.

  “You ready for the extra distance?” Sara asked me, a bit of a grimace on her face.

  “Totally,” I nodded, then took in the look on her face. “You’re going to do great. In fact, if we get going now I bet we can beat a few people without even trying hard.”

  As we turned to leave the gym, I saw that Jackson had taken off, and appeared to be running near the front of the pack. Nina was somewhere in between the other athletes, her blond hair a little hard to pick out despite wearing a red tank top unlike the other athletes in teal. Seeing Jackson so far ahead made me want to pick up my pace and really show off what I could do. But, I realized as I kept pace with Sara, maybe part of the reason I was paired with one of the team’s slower runners was so I could help her work on her running as well. Everyone knew I could lead the pack and come in first, but now I was getting a chance to help her just by running alongside of her and giving encouragement. Not to mention it let me run without pushing myself past the limit. Or at least that was how I saw it, mostly in hopes that it would keep Jackson out of my head as I began the laps around the block.

  Once practice started I had a lot more to focus on, so the fact that we had new athletes on the mat didn’t seem to affect me anymore. This was mostly because TJ was letting me do more of the flying skills. While everyone worked on cleaning different areas up, I could try them full out for the first time. By the end of the night my ankle was tired from the work, but didn’t really cause me any pain or show any signs of swelling. I didn’t even mention the overworked feeling to TJ though, worried it would halt my progress on rejoining the team. He was thankfully distracted enough by Nina and Jackson that he didn’t even check in with me before I left the gym.

  Both Nina and Jackson did a great job during the long afternoon with Nitro, although getting through conditioning wasn’t easy for them. Nina looked exhausted by the time we got to running through skills, and as a result didn’t seem to perform as well as she wanted to. But, to her credit, she always tried and did her best to correct even the tiny things TJ noticed that she was doing wrong. That was the kind of athlete that I knew all of the coaches at TNT Force liked the most. Jackson also worked hard during practice from what I noticed, but he was really struggling with stunting both with a group and one-on-one with a flier. He was paired up with the same stunt team Aaron was with before he left, so he had Catherine as his flier. I wasn’t sure if it was just because he was tired, or maybe because Catherine was the tallest flier, but he struggled to land the grips needed to keep her in the air. This was what I saw while working with my stunt group though, so I wasn’t sure if it was enough to make a decision about his permanence on the squad one way or the other.

  “Are you allowed to be doing that yet?” Kyle asked me Tuesday morning as I worked on a new tumbling pass on my air mat. I had just thrown a medium difficulty pass, ending it with a full.

  “Kind of,” I said with a shrug. “TJ said by next week I can do fulls on the blue mats, so I figured as long as I’m just doing them on air mats or trampolines every now and then, then I should be fine.”

  My neighbor nodded, then went back to swimming under the water in the shallow end of my pool for the diving rings he had tossed in moments earlier. Deciding I had done enough tumbling for the day, I walked over the pool and did a front flip off the diving board. I could hear Peter complaining about the splash I made thanks to not pulling my arms close enough to my body but didn’t care too much. Instead I broke the surface and quickly spat a stream of water at him.

  “Real funny Max,” he frowned, sending a little kick of water my way from where he was sitting with his feet in the pool. “If my phone gets wet you’re going to be dead.”

  “Your case is waterproof, remember?”

  Peter looked like he was going to argue with me, but instead tossed his phone onto the deck chair with his towel before hopping into the pool. He swam at me, clearly planning to dunk me under the water. Thankfully, I had learned to swim a long time before Peter, despite the fact he was two years older than me, and managed to get to the ladder and climb out before he got close enough to grab me. Just barely though. Even though Peter was new to the deep end thanks to swim lessons last summer, he was a lot taller than me and could cover ground much faster than me. But his muscles were built for football, not swimming.

  “I win again,” I laughed at him, then jumped over him to dive into the pool once again.

  “Just wait for next time,” Peter challenged, a devious smile on his face. Between the water dripping out of his curly black faux hawk and the lines on his tan skin from where his goggles had been earlier, he looked more funny than serious, making me laugh instantly.

  “You should try diving in the deep end Ky,” I said to Kyle, turning away from Peter before he splashed water at me for not taking him seriously.

  “I’m still not that good at going that deep,” he reminded me. Since he was almost as tall as Peter, he could reach and grab the r
ings without going under water for more than a few seconds while in the shallow end. But, much like Peter, he was still only a beginner swimmer. So the deep end was a little out of his comfort zone.

  “I can help,” I offered easily.

  Swimming down to grab the rings in one quick lap of the shallow end, I tossed them toward the deep end before coming up for air. They scattered through the deep end and also in the sloping part of the pool floor that was a little easier to reach for Kyle. Seeing this, he gave me a smile then slipped his goggles over his eyes and went under. With his goggles on, he looked like Peter’s twin. In fact, the only way for someone who didn’t know them to really tell them apart was their size. Peter had a few inches on Kyle, and his muscles were a little more defined. Not that Kyle wasn’t working hard to correct that. Soon enough they were going to pass as identical to anyone but me. After living next door and hanging out with them practically every day for the past six years, they were more like brothers than just neighbors.

  “Do you want to go see a movie tomorrow night?” Peter asked me suddenly as Kyle dipped under the water after coming up for air.

  “What?” I asked, not sure if I had heard him right over the splashing made by Kyle’s kicking feet.

  “I asked if you want to see a movie tomorrow,” Peter tried again. “Jeff and Rachel invited me but I thought it would be more fun if you came too.”

  “Sorry, I already have plans,” I said with a bit of a frown.

  “Cheer people?” When I nodded he clenched his jaw a bit. “Let me guess, hanging out with Connor?”

  “Not this time,” I explained quickly, sensing his frustration. I had been busy ever since I got my cast off with extra practices with Connor and the rest of my stunt team. As a result, hanging out with Peter had taken a back seat a lot. “I’m having people from Nitro over for the evening.”