by Dana Burkey
“Nothing,” he replied. “I just want to see you open your bag already.”
“Got it,” I nodded. Then, with a deep breath, I pulled out the tissue paper and peered into the large black bag.
With just one glance, all my nerves were ancient history. Instead I was immediately bubbling over with excitement as I reached my arm into my bag. I noticed Halley and Lexi were now sitting quietly as I began pulling an item out, likely watching like Connor was. But their silence only lasted a few more seconds, and was then instantly replaced by more celebrating as they saw the teal bow that I pulled out of my bag.
“You’re on Nitro,” they both exclaimed. Or at least I assumed that was what they were saying. It was hard to be sure thanks to the super high pitch of their voices.
“Congrats Max,” Connor said. It looked like he was about to lean in for a hug when Lexi and Halley more or less tackled me in a big group hug.
Caught up in the moment, I hugged them in return, and found myself having to fight back tears. As much as everyone told me I was going to be on a level 5 team, I was always doubting it at least a little. Realizing I was on Nitro was only part of what struck me in that moment. I was also struck with the knowledge that I wasn’t on just any squad. The team bow proved I was on the same team as Connor. Fighting against my friends to sit up, I turned to look at Connor. I wasn’t really sure what I should say to him, but he spoke before I could, saying the best words I could imagine hearing in that moment.
“Welcome to the team.”
Ignoring the rest of my bag for the moment, I gave Connor a big hug before springing to my feet. My eyes quickly scanned the room, looking to find my dad. When I realized he was walking towards me, I skipped the last few steps between us and leapt into his arms. He caught me, spinning me around a few times before finally setting me back down on the mat.
“Congrats sweetie. I knew you could do it.”
“Thanks Dad,” I replied easily, my face already hurting from the smile that was still plastered to my face.
I talked to my dad for a moment longer, and of course got a photo with him when a mom nearby offered. Then, I walked over and sat back down with my friends, and decided to go through the rest of the black bag. I had just managed to pull out a pair of teal cheer shorts when Nicole began to quiet everyone down. She used a series of claps that was returned halfheartedly, since many people were still freaking out about their new team. Nicole tried again, and thankfully everyone seemed to catch on. Once the clapping died out she began talking and giving instruction.
“Congrats one and all,” Nicole announced. “This year is going to be a great season thanks to all of you, and of course thanks to all of your parents and their dedication to allowing you to cheer here at TNT. We have some more fun planned, but for now we need everyone to find their coach and get ready to take your first official team photo.”
Connor stood up, then offered a hand to help me get up as well. Once I was standing Connor kept one arm around my shoulder as we headed towards where TJ was standing near the gym entrance. By the time we reached him there was quite a crowd growing, and I found myself celebrating all over again. I tried to say hello to a few people, but then was picked up off the ground in a massive hug. It startled me at first, but then I saw it was Matthew. As Lexi’s older brother, and a member of my skills class with Greg, I was around him a lot. Until I saw him, I hadn’t really thought about the fact that I would be on the same team as so many of my friends, not just Connor.
“So, I’ll take it you didn’t know ahead of time,” Connor said me as Matthew finally sat me back on the ground.
“Nope,” I said with a shake of my head. “I kind of wish he would have told me. But at the same time, as long as I was on one of the level 5 teams I was going to be happy.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re on Nitro and not Bomb Squad or Detonators,” Connor explained with a smile. “We finally get to be on a squad together. And who knows, maybe we’ll even get paired up for partner stunts.”
“No way, I’m calling dibs,” Matthew chimed in.
They continued to go back and forth, their argument very much like their play fight during assessments. The only difference was that now they were fighting over stunt groups instead of team placements. Ignoring them, I looked around and was happy to see a few familiar faces also standing around me. I recognized a few people that had been on Nitro last season, but I was also happy to see two of my Fuze teammates standing with the Nitro group as well. Juleah, who had been in my stunt on Fuze, along with Taylor who I had met a few times while on the purple team were both a few steps away. I tried to see around people and find out who else might be new to the team, but struggled due to how short I was. All the tall athletes that were near me made it impossible to see past them. Thankfully TJ got my attention when he finally began speaking to the group.
“Welcome to Nitro everyone!” he exclaimed, eliciting a lot of clapping and cheering from all of us. “We just need to take a quick team photo, then we’re all heading outside for the game.”
Moving towards the front, where I was certain all the shortest athletes would need to stand, I turned and ran right into Leanne. Ever since I had met Leanna just after joining the gym, she always seemed to dislike me. She would find ways to give me back handed compliments, shoot me looks from across the room, or interrupt me while I was talking to Connor or anyone else she was also friends with. It was annoying, but in the past I could walk away and go back to practicing or hanging out with my teammates. As I stepped back and muttered an apology for bumping into her, I realized I no longer had that option. Being on Nitro meant I was now on the same squad as her, and would be more or less stuck with her all season.
I expected a rude remark for the run in but she simply shrugged in reply. Although the gesture wasn’t super nice, it was much better than anything she had done or said to me in the past. It made me think that maybe being on the same team would be a good thing. Sure, I knew we didn't have much in common aside from our abilities in cheerleading, but teamwork had to help at least a little bit. Or at least I could hope. Right?
Despite being only a few inches taller than me with a similar small but muscular frame, Leanne I looked nothing alike. Her hair was bleached a white blonde that was always teased and curled and styled high around her cheer bow. As if her hair wasn’t over the top enough, she also always wore a thick layer of makeup, even while at the gym for practice. In fact, between her hair, makeup, and dark orange-ish tan I knew came from a tanning bed, she often looked more like a cartoon character than a real person.
Standing next to her for the photo, I was a little shocked when she put her arm around me. It was strange, but I tried to remind myself to not show it too much. There was a small, although it was a small chance, that maybe she had a change of heart after Worlds. I mean, there were a lot of posts online about the fact that her side of the pyramid fell during the final performance. And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, there were athletes and parents at the gym that pretty much felt the loss was her fault. Maybe everything she went through was helping her turn over a new leaf. One where she was actually nice to me for a change.
I assumed it would be one quick photo and then we would move on. Instead a whole mass of parents also took out phones and camera and snapped pictures as well, including my dad who was still beaming at me. Their photo taking was followed by a few TNT athletes taking pictures, as well as Nicole. She told us the photo was going up on the gyms’ Instagram page, so we had to smile “extra pretty.” Thankfully, as the last flash went off we were dismissed to head outside and find our team trash can. The instructions were strange, but as I walked out into the Texas sun, I saw that the field next to the gym was dotted with large trashcans, all labeled with thick stripes of colored duct tape. I walked with the rest of Nitro to the can with teal tape on it, and waited for instructions.
“Listen up everyone,” Nicole began after getting everyone quiet. She was standing on top of the same scaffolding from a
ssessments, and was once again surrounded by cameras. “Although you will all be representing the gym, working alongside each other in classes and cheering each other on at competitions, today is all about seeing what team is the best.”
Nicole went on to explain that inside each trashcan was colored powder. It was our goal to cover ourselves and everyone around us with as much of our team color as possible. This was of course going to be hard since everyone had that same goal, but all the teams looked up for the challenge. We would have 10 minutes to work at getting the color spread over every athlete in the field, and then a winner would be chosen based on what color covered the most of the athletes and their white gym wear.
“Make sure we have some color left right at the end so we can cover ourselves,” a boy I didn’t know said after the rules were explained.
“Yeah, and don’t use too much powder all at the start,” a girl standing next to me added. “The more we save to use later on the better.”
I barely had time to register their comments when an air horn went off announcing the start of the 10 minutes. Immediately there were clouds of bright color flying around the field as teams began removing the trash can lids and coating themselves and other people around them in as much as their team color as possible. Within seconds I could feel the powder inside my nose and even in my mouth, but did my best to ignore it as I picked up handfuls of teal and raced after other athletes. Not stopping to even see who I was covering in powder, I threw the color I was holding then raced back for more over and over again. Around me everyone was doing the same thing, making it all but impossible to see in the haze of rainbow powder floating through the air.
I was only vaguely aware of other athletes playing the game, unable to tell my own teammates from members of other squads unless we were at the trash can. The trash can that became more and more difficult to find as time ticked away. Everything around me was so bright and colorful it was hard to tell just what was going on, or if my team was winning. Trying to just focus on spreading the teal everywhere I could, I threw handful after handful, the color also landing on me as I worked.
“Two minutes,” Nicole called out much to my surprise. It felt like only seconds had passed, but clearly the cloud of colors was effecting my sense of time.
I squinted to find my way back to the teal trash can, then began spreading the color onto my face and legs. As I was doing so I realized just how much of the other colors were on my body as well. Apparently, I had been so focused on covering others in teal, that I didn’t do a good job of avoiding other colors. There were large pink and yellow patches all over my arms and legs, which I quickly tried to cover with powder from my teams’ trash cans.
“Here, get my back,” a voice said to me between coughs.
I quickly rubbed teal onto the shirt that was almost completely red before turning around for them to return to favor. When they turned, it looked like the person might have been Matthew, but I had no way to be sure. What I did notice, however, was that the air was getting even thicker with the swirling cloud that was turning a greyish brown thanks to each team’s powder mixing together.
“Five…. Four…. Three…. Two...One! All color down!”
At Nicole’s final words I dropped the last handful of teal I had been holding over my head and waited. Everyone seemed to be looking around in silence, waiting to see the results of our work. The wind eventually carried enough of the colors out of the air for us to see again, and when I did I was shocked. Not only was there a lot of color on each of the athletes, the ground also appeared to be tie-dyed. It was everywhere, even on some of the parents who had been standing a safe distance away to film and take pictures.
“Did we win?” Connor asked, walking over and giving me a smile. His teeth were lime green and purple thanks to the other teams’ handy work.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, seeing that some teams were covered in teal, while other looks like they didn’t have a drop of our color on them at all.
“To help figure out which team won we’re going to take team photos again, so stay where you are and wait for your coach to come over for the photo.” Nicole explained before climbing off her platform to join her teams for the second round of photos.
TJ joined myself and the other athletes on Nitro, instructing us to stand in the same positions that we had for the first photo we took as a team. We all listened, then stood frozen in our spots while everyone snapped pictures. Standing all together like that it was clear that we were covered mostly in teal thanks to our last-minute strategies. It was also clear that we had other colors on our skin and clothing to show we hadn’t gone without attack from the other squads.
As we finished the last of the photos, Nicole stepped back up onto the platform and got everyone’s attention with the same claps from earlier. We all clapped in reply, then had to wait as the laughter died down. The act of clapping made more clouds of colors waft into the air.
“Okay everyone, it’s time to announce the winner,” Nicole called out to us. “After taking a look at all the teams our judges have determined that the winning team is…. Bomb Squad!”
As the pink team cheered and hugged one another, causing a cloud of color to once again explode around them, I found myself smiling. Sure, Nitro didn’t win the challenge, but I was still proud of my team all the same. Within just a few minutes after finding out I was on Nitro, I was becoming more and more excited for every part of the season to follow. Before the season could begin, however, I knew it was going to take a lot of soap and shampoo to remove the rainbow of colors from my body. Thankfully the game had been enough fun that it was all worth it.
“How does it look?” I asked walking into the living room Saturday night before bed.
I was wearing the new Nitro team practice uniform that was in the black bag I had received at the team reveal. Not wanting the items to be covered in the colored powder, I didn’t bother going through the bag until after I got home and showered. Or rather showered twice since it took that long to get some of the orange and pink out of my hair. Once it looked like I had all the color off my body I went through the bag finally, deciding right away I needed to show my dad the new outfit.
Much like the Blast and Fuze uniforms I had been given when I was on the red and purple team, my basic practice wear was made up of short teal shorts and a black tank top with the TNT Force logo in white and teal glitter in the center. I also had two short sleeve shirts that matched the tank top, all given to me in a teal glitter backpack. There was, of course, also the black and teal tick tock bow that had first alerted me to my place on Nitro. It had “MAX” written in rhinestones, something I didn’t notice when I first removed it from my bag. The only other items in my bag were two sports bras, both made of teal fabric covered in sparkles and the TNT Force logo.
When I pulled the sports bras out of the bag I was really confused at first. I expected them to just be teal and black so we could wear them under our uniforms later in the season. But, when I noticed the logo, I had a feeling they were a part of the practice wear just as much as the tank tops. Not quite ready to parade around my house in one of them, I went for the shorts and tank top, my newest pair of cheer shoes and my bow, which was placed haphazardly onto my head.
“You look like a World champion to me!” my dad said snapping a photo before I could stop him. “I need to get online and order a new shirt to match. Can’t wear last year’s cheer dad shirt in red now that you’re on the teal team.”
“Right after you delete that photo,” I suggested, moving towards him.
“It’s just a squeak going on my tweety,” he assured me, pushing send before I could stop him.
“It’s called a tweet, and it’s going on Twitter,” I quickly corrected him with an eye roll as I plopped down onto the couch.
“That’s what I meant,” he grinned, thankfully setting down his phone before he could do any more damage. “So, what are we doing for dinner?”
“Pizza?” I suggested, pulling
out my phone to post a selfie to Snapchat wearing my new bow and practice gear.
“Mushrooms and sausage this time?”
“Of course,” I nodded. “I’m gonna go change.”
“Already?” my dad asked as I got up and started walking out of the room. “Shouldn’t you start getting used to wearing your Nitro gear?”
“I have all season for that,” I shrugged.
Walking into my room and put on a pair of black basketball shorts and a red t-shirt that announced TNT Force Blast were “Summit Champions, 2016.” I had another one in my closet in purple that was for Fuze, but usually chose to wear the red version since it was the team I was on the longest. Although, I realized in that moment, starting the year off on Nitro meant I would end up on it longer than I was even on Blast the season before. Even though I was on Blast for the whole season, since I didn’t join the team until August it made my season shorter than it was for other athletes. It meant I joined the team before competition season, but still managed to miss the summer conditioning I heard so much about.
The thought of conditioning in the heat of summer made me instantly want to go for a swim. Knowing it would be a while before the pizza was delivered, I took a second to slip on my one piece green bathing suit. Then, I grabbed a towel from the linen closet in the hallway before making a beeline for the backyard.
“Swimming?” my dad asked, although the answer was pretty clear.
“Yeah, just for a little while. I’ll get out when dinner is ready.”
My dad nodded then went back to whatever he was doing on his phone, likely posting something random on Twitter. It was his favorite way to stay up to date on the cheer world, and he felt the need to post a few dozen time a day now that he had over 100 followers. I hoped the new post wasn’t about me, but didn’t worry too much. Especially once I stepped outside and dropped my towel onto one of the deck chairs before jumping into the shallow end of our in-ground pool. I quickly swam to the center of the pool and rolled onto my back to float in the cool water.