Center Stage (TNT Force Cheer #3)

by Dana Burkey

  “I’m so sorry Max,” Lexi said, quickly wrapping her arms around me.

  My other friends moved from around the room to also envelope me in a group hug. Their arms around me felt nice in that moment, although it did little to make up for what I had just seen on Connor’s phone. But I tried to push those images from my mind and instead remind myself that I had real friends who were there for me in that moment. And, as I heard someone walking down the steps into the basement I knew someone else who cared about me needed to know what was going on as well.

  “Max, are you okay?” my dad asked once he reached the bottom of the stairs.

  Rather than answer, I untangled myself from my friends so I could stand up and move forward to hug my dad. It was just what I needed in that moment. Even more than my friends, I needed my dad to comfort me and let me know everything was going to be okay. Sure, I didn’t know how it was going to be okay, but I was somehow confident that my dad would find a way to get to the bottom of everything I had just learned about Leanne and the posts she had been making online.

  Relaying the whole story to my dad was hard, to say the least. I struggled to explain everything, but thankfully my friends took over. They went through the details, showing the posts as we went. I avoided looking at the photos and videos that time around, knowing it wouldn’t feel any better seeing them again. If anything, it would make it worse. Thankfully, they were easily avoided and before I knew it we sat waiting to hear what my dad was going to say about everything that had just been laid out before him.

  “I’m going to go give the gym a call,” he said simply, giving me a quick kiss on my forehead before standing up. He had an extremely serious look on his face and his fists were balled at his sides as he turned to address me and my friends. “Why don’t you kids go for a swim or something. Try to have some fun for a little bit. I’ll handle all of this.”

  Everyone seemed to agree with him, including myself. I took in a deep breath in hopes of it helping my overall mood but suddenly felt worse for a different reason altogether. My dad's comment about swimming made me remember the upcoming pool party. In just two days, all of the athletes and parents from Nitro would be over for a fun party. Without knowing the outcome of my dad’s call to the gym, I wasn’t sure if the get together was going to be such a good idea. Since I couldn’t do anything to change things at that moment, I tried to simply move past it and instead distract myself with other things.

  “I need to go do some tumbling,” I finally announced, hopping up off the couch. “Do you guys want to try out my air mat?”

  “Yes!” Matthew and Connor agreed instantly.

  “I love that we spend so much time cheerleading, but we still get excited to do even more,” Jade commented. “So Max, you think you can teach me to do a kick double?”

  “Maybe not today,” I said with a laugh. “But I don’t see why not!”

  As everyone began talking about different tumbling skills they wanted to work on, we headed outside and got the air mat all set up. When it wasn’t in use I stored it in my room along the back wall of my closet. I noticed as I grabbed it that my dad was on the phone in his room. For a second I thought about listening in to hear what he was saying, but knew it was better to let him handle things for the time being.

  “We should work on partner stunts,” Matthew mentioned, once we were outside. Clearly, he was not that interested in tumbling. It made sense since only one person could use the mat at a time, which made for a lot of standing around for everyone else.

  “Sure,” I replied, knowing it would be a fun change to try new skills. “Everyone needs to help spot though. I don’t feel like landing too hard on the grass today.”

  “I’ll spot you guys,” Connor quickly volunteered, followed by Jade, Halley, and Juleah. “What skill are you going to try?”

  That was the hard part. In partner stunting we hadn’t done a lot of difficult things on Nitro yet, since it was a developing skill for some of the partner pairs. Knowing we could try anything we wanted though, Matthew decided to go big or go home.

  “Let’s do a ball up to heel stretch,” Matthew finally suggested. “Then from there we could try an arabesque with a one hand grip.”

  “One hand?” Jade asked in shock. “Are you sure that’s even possible?”

  “Max is super light,” he shrugged. “As long as she can get her balance under control and I can get the grip right then I think it should be pretty easy.”

  “And you’re up for all of that Max?” Connor asked, although he had a smile on his face since he already knew my answer.

  “Of course,” I grinned.

  Moving to stand in front of Matthew, my back towards him, he placed his hands on my hips then waited until I had a good grip on his wrists. Then, I bent my legs low enough to get a big push off as he lifted me into the air. It didn’t go too well from there, since when I went for the heel stretch I started to lose my balance. Knowing I was going to fall, Mathew moved his hands out from under me and reached up to once again grab my waist and help me to the ground.

  “Again?” he asked, as soon as I had my feet planted firmly under me.

  “Again,” I agreed, then got ready to once again be lifted into the air.

  We continued like that for a solid hour, trying harder skills that often didn’t work. It was fun to really see how far we could push ourselves, and since it was in my backyard it took some of the pressure off. Much like when Leanne had been working on her full. Thinking of working with her earlier in the week was a bad idea, but I quickly pushed it aside in an effort to keep my stress level low.

  It was also fun to try out new combinations, although there was no guarantee what the partner stunt sequence of the routine would look like in the end. We had just started working on a string of skills, so everything we did was just to experiment. Not only that, but even if we did land the random things we were trying, there wasn’t a good chance a lot of the other pairs on the team could accomplish what we could. As the smallest flier with the strongest base, it was clear we had an overall big advantage.

  “Do you want me to film anything to send to TJ?” Emma offered from where she was sitting in the grass.

  “I don’t think I’m quite ready for any more videos of me going around,” I said with a shake of my head. “But if you want to just film and not send or upload them anywhere, that’s okay I guess.”

  Emma completely understood, knowing the situation I was in. So, in the end, she filmed a little but mostly just watched. We tried some really hard skills a few times and also some that were more than likely going to be in the Nitro routine since they were pretty common for competition. It was a good workout either way, and by the time we were done all I could feel were my sore abs from holding my body so stiff and locked while high above Matthew.

  “I think I might want to take a break and just do some tumbling,” I finally told Matthew.

  “Only you would think tumbling is taking a break,” Lexi said from her seat on the air mat. “So, can you really do an Arabian and a kick double in the same tumbling pass?”

  “Kind of,” I shrugged. “I did it once, but I don’t know if I can really land it all the time.”

  “Yet,” Connor interjected. “If you simplify your pass to end with a kick single we can work on timing for a bit. Lenny helped me on my Arabian yesterday when I was at the gym.”

  “Was it for a class?” I asked, trying to remember if there was a higher level tumbling class offered on Thursdays during the summer.

  “No,” he shrugged. “Just getting some extra practice in while I can. I mean, I can’t let you be the only good tumbler on Nitro.”

  “What about me?” Matthew asked, hopping up from his spot sitting in the grass next to Emma.

  “I mean, you’re okay at tumbling I guess,” Connor shrugged, trying hard to keep a grin off his face.

  “Oh, it’s on now,” Matthew said simply, causing a chorus of “Ooohs,” from all of us girls.

  For the next
few minutes the boys went back and forth competing to see who was the best at tumbling. They tried their hardest passes on both the air mat as well as the grass. Both of them were throwing complicated series of skills, often ending in double fulls or kick singles. The competition was fun, but after a while I knew I needed to end it once and for all.

  “Okay, okay,” I announced, standing up and moving towards the boys. “Why don’t you sit down and let a real cheerleader show you how it’s done.”

  My friends once again let out an “Oooh,” before cheering me on. Connor and Matthew both took a seat as I stepped onto the air mat, with the determination to try something I had only worked on once before. I took off, performing a round off and two back handsprings before ending with a full. Then, as soon as my feet hit the ground I performed a punch front, so I could continue the tumbling pass traveling towards where the entire sequence of skills had started from. After the punch front I could tell I was slowing down a little so I did a round off, followed by two back handsprings before I launched my body into the air for a kick double. As soon as my feet hit the ground everyone was celebrating, including both of the boys.

  “Since when have you been working on a pass like that?” Matthew asked after giving me a high five.

  “I tried earlier this week while I was waiting for Leanne to come over,” I said simply. “I’m still not that good at it though.”

  “You never cease to amaze me,” Connor laughed, then pulled me in for a hug.

  I returned the hug, then was glad to get back to more tumbling and stunting. Once I worked on tumbling a little more, I decided to rest and sit out for a bit. It was an entertaining break to say the least, since I got to watch as Jade, Matthew, and Connor tossed Emma high in the air to work on some flying. Then, Halley and Emma sat with me as the same group based for Lexi as well. Sitting there watching my friends all work together to try different skills, I was glad they were there for me. I knew eventually I would learn more about what was going on with Leanne from my dad. But, for the time being, the chance to hang out and just have fun with so many of my friends from the gym was exactly what I needed. Although I didn’t answer the question when I was asked earlier in the day, I knew even with what I had been shown on Instagram I wasn’t going to leave the TNT Force gym. As bad as everything appeared to be with Leanne, my friends more than made up for it. So, if being around them meant I had to also be around people less than kind, it was worth it every time.

  “You ready for this?” my dad asked, after finding a parking spot at the gym Saturday afternoon.

  “I don’t think so,” I said with a sigh. “But I know we still need to go in there.” My dad leaned over to give me a hug, then we both got out of the car and headed towards the gym entrance.

  After quite a bit of time tumbling and stunting in the backyard the night before, my dad ordered dinner for everyone. I had a feeling at least part of it was as a thank you to my friends for being by my side when I needed them the most. Between the long day of practice for everyone on Nitro and the additional work afterwards we were excited for food, and lots of it!

  Once we had enjoyed all the taco truck food we could manage to eat, my friends slowly began to head home. Lexi and Halley left with Matthew so they could get stuff and come back over to spend the night. While they were gone my dad explained that he spoke with TJ, Nicole, and Tonya and let them know what was going on. After giving them the information, they made it clear that what was going on was not okay, and they would be taking care of it. The first step in taking care of it involved talking to Leanne and some other athletes in the morning. After that they told my dad they would call us to give an update. The call from the gym came at 2pm, and without giving us much information, they asked us to head the gym. We were in the car within minutes, thankfully not giving me too much time to stress or worry.

  “Hey Max,” Lenny welcomed me as we walked inside. It was clear he had been standing there to greet us in place of the other coaches. “If you guys can just wait out here for a little bit Tonya will come get you once they’re ready.”

  While Dakota headed across the gym towards where he was working with a few athletes on the tumbling tracks, I glanced at the offices and saw the blinds were all closed. I could hear people talking inside, but it was impossible to tell what was being said. I also didn’t know who exactly was in the office with the three gym owners, but assumed at least one person was Leanne. Although, if everything we thought we found out was wrong, then maybe it wasn’t Leanne at all. Maybe someone else was behind everything. I held onto that hope, refusing to accept the idea that all of Leanne’s niceness over the past few weeks was fake.

  While my dad looked at a cork board with upcoming gym events plastered all over it, I sat down on the mat closest to me and started stretching. It was second nature for me when I was in the gym, so I just allowed my body to do what it was already wanting to do. Sure, I wasn’t in cheer clothes, instead wearing grey basketball shorts and a faded red shirt, but it gave me something to do while we waited.

  “Max?” I looked up when I heard TJ’s voice. “Come on in.”

  In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to just run and hide in the bathroom like I had done so many months before during the TNT Cheer Camp. But instead, I stood right next to my dad and followed TJ as we walked into the office and took a seat on two chairs that were open for us. Once I sat down I saw that Leanne and her mom were sitting across the room, neither of them looking our way. There were a few other athletes in the room as well, sitting together in chairs near the window. It took me a second to realize they were Kennedy and Amber-Lynn, both of whom had at least some knowledge of the CheerDramaLlama account based on what Jade had shown me.

  “Thanks for coming today Max,” Nicole said once my dad and I were sitting down. She was behind her desk and had a very serious look on her face. Her curly red hair was pulled into a tight braid that made her already thin and angular face look even more so. “Thank you, Brian, for calling us last night and letting us know about everything that has been going on. As we were just discussing, TNT Force has a zero-tolerance policy for bullying.”

  “It wasn’t bullying!” Leanne’s mom all but shouted, and I instantly got the feeling it was not the first time she had said the statement. “Some photos showed up online and Max got her feelings hurt. Big deal. My daughter has had videos and photos of last years’ Worlds performance posted everywhere and no one seemed to care at all!”

  There was a silence that hung in the room after her statement. Looking around, I saw that Leanne was staring at the ground, her jaw set in what I could only assume was anger. I had a feeling that the silence was going to go on forever. Thankfully my dad finally spoke up and ended the silence once and for all.

  “Am I correct to assume that we have found the guilty parties responsible for the posts in question?” he asked, sounding every bit like the doctor he was.

  “Yes,” Tonya nodded simply. She was sitting on a chair in the corner with a pen and notebook resting on her lap. I had a feeling she was likely making notes of things. It was something I saw people do in courtroom scenes on TV, and had a feeling that recording what was going on was a good idea.

  “No one has admitted anything,” Leanne’s mom reminded everyone in the room. Her tone was still very much on edge.

  “I admitted things,” Amber-Lynn said in reply. “So did Kennedy.”

  “Yeah,” Kenny nodded. “And Max, we’re really sorry. Sometimes not doing anything to stop bullying is just as bad as being a bully yourself.”

  “Oh,” I just barely managed, her statement catching me off guard. “I appreciate you saying that. And I forgive you.”

  My dad also thanked the girls for their apologies, then Nicole told them that they were free to go. Even though I didn’t know for sure, I had a feeling this meant that they pretty much backed up what my friends had discovered. Especially Jade. This meant that Leanne really was responsible for the posts made about me, even if she wasn’t s
aying it out loud. As the thought sunk in, I was just as shocked as when Jade first suggested Leanne was behind everything.

  “Leanne, do you have anything you would like to say?” Nicole asked after Kennedy and Amber-Lynn were out of the room. Her eyes were all but drilling holes into Leanne.

  “No.”

  “Nothing at all?” Nicole tried again.

  “No.”

  The awkward silence was back once again, only this time it was combined with a stare down. The coaches were all looking at Leanne and her mom, who were looking back with such determination and annoyance that I was almost wondering if maybe they really had nothing to do with the Instagram posts at all. But, after what Kennedy and Amber-Lynn said before they left, I knew it couldn’t be true. Leanne was to blame, and seeing her have this showdown with the coaches just made it more upsetting. Clearly, she wasn’t sorry in the least.

  “Max, Dr. Turner, why don’t I walk you two out,” Tonya finally said.

  Everyone else still sat frozen in their staring match as we got up and left the office. As we stepped out into the gym it was as if we walked into a different world. Athletes were going on with practices like nothing was happening beyond the office door. Then again, I didn’t know how many of the athletes at the gym knew what was really going on. My friends of course knew all about it, but did other people know already too?

  “I’m really sorry about everything,” Tonya said, grabbing my attention. “We wanted you here for her to apologize, but it’s clear she’s not ready to do that just yet.”

  “It was nice to hear the other girls apologize if nothing else,” my dad replied, and I nodded in agreement.