The Life of a Gymnast

Chapter 36: Merry Christmas

36:
We walk into the team room as a group and I grab my water bottle and sit down with a thud on the gold bench.
"I'm exhausted". Most of the girls grunt in agreement.
There's a rapid knock on the door, and we all kinda look at each other - since when do people knock?
Catt gets up to get the door and we open it to see Lizzy standing awkwardly in the doorway, holding a crying Maggie in her arms.
"So, uh, girls..." she begins awkwardly. She looks at each of us, not speaking, then down at the floor. She begins to bounce the baby on her hip to quiet her.
"Well, as you know your first meet is on Saturday..."
I start choking on the orange I was eating. What? Our first meet is Saturday? Why didn't I know about this? But I kept quiet so as not to create more of a commotion. When I finally contained myself, she continued.
"So, I will not be here the rest of the week so I wanted to wish you good luck." She looks at us expectantly. "So...uh...good luck". Then she turns and walks back out the the gym. I probably took a lot out of her to be nice for once, so I admire her for trying so hard.
We all look at each other and burst out laughing. We all may have our differences, but things like this we can certainly agree on.

Break is over, so we go back out and move to beam.
Lizzy gives us our assignment and we get started warming up, with just an hour to work. Today we have to make 3 of everything, so I naturally start with the hardest skill. I do my dismounts first, onto the competition mat. My dismount is a double front, or two front flips in a row. I make all 3 in a row with just a step out on each, so I move on to series quickly. I warmup my handspring two feet layout two feet quickly on the floor, then do a timer on the beam. I stand at the end of the beam and lean forwards on my toes, my feet side by side on the four inch beam. I grip my toes to the beam and take a deep breath before swinging my arms down to my side. I jump backwards and watch my hands, then my feet, then my feet again and stick it. I let out a nervous breath and wipe my sweaty hands on my legs before moving to my next one. I've been doing this series for weeks, but it still scares the shit out of me.
I completely wipe out on the third one so I have to do it again, but the one after that was without a wobble, so my confidence rose again. All I had left was my leaps, jumps, and turn.
My leap is a switch leap, split half, back tuck, and they're fairly easy for me. Sometimes I fall, but they're not particularly scary. My jump series is almost as scary as my series. It's a standing front into a sheep jump, gaining me bonus. It's also an elite series, just like my hand layout, so I can use it at the next level. My turn is a simple full turn with my leg perpendicular to my body, which is easy but adds some flair to my routine. I finish these quickly as well, not falling on any, then ask Lizzy for my next assignment.
She told me to work on a new leap series, so I pulled out the mats on the low beam. I'm going to work on switch leap, step, torgeté half, standing layout. It's a high level leap, and that will gain me a great deal of experience. I do a few on the floor beam before practice is over, and Coach Bart gave me a nod of approval from bars.
~
The warning bell rang, meaning I had a minute to get to class. Period 1 was bio, and I was rushing to get there on time. I walk in with 10 seconds to spare, and breath out deeply. I hear Cassidy laughing next to me. I look at her and start laughing too. I'm always late to this class, because my homeroom is on the other side of the room.
On my right is Cassidy, and to my left is Ryan. Cassidy is an ice hockey player, and she's really good at it. I've never seen her play, though, so I'm really just taking her word for it.
Ryan is a gymnast at one of our rival gyms, and he's alright. I think he said he's level 7 or 8, but I'm not sure. He has dirty blonde hair and green eyes, good grades and an even better body. He's so sweet too, which is quite uncommon for boys at my school. I've been flirting with him all year, but I don't think it's going anywhere.
Our teacher, Mrs. Ludwick, starts teaching our class about how cells become cancerous. Today we have a half day, just 15 minute periods, yet she feels the need to teach us anyway. It's quite a shame, really.
The day goes by quickly; we were done at 12. It was a lot of fun watching christmas movies over and over and just talking with my friends. I won't see most of them until after break.
I grab whatever books I'll need and get out to the car to go to gym. On the way there, my mother tells me about all of our plans for Christmas.
"Your grandparents are coming down, and your dad got the tree today, and we're going to finish decorating today!" She was so excited.
"Yes mom, I'm excited too", I laugh as I get out of the car. "See ya at 7!"
I walk into the gym 2 minutes before practice starts and meet everybody on the floor. Halli walks in after me.
"Damn, it's cold in here", she says.
"Too bad you're not". My reply was quick and her reaction was absolutely fantastic.
"Excuse me? What was that?" Her face was red and she was helpless without her sidekick Kristy.
"Oh nothing", I giggle. I hear Catt and Alex laughing next to me.
"What's going on in here ladies?" Lizzy asks, holding Maggie.
By this time, we were on the floor crying.
"No-o-othing", I manage to choke out. That sends us into a fit of laughter once again. Pretty much everybody was laughing now, even Lizzy managed laugh.
"Well, I guess since you're in such a silly mood...I'll let you play a Christmas game today".
We cheer - anything is better than strength. Merry Christmas Lizzy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!