Perfect Ninety

-10

It's always nice being late for important meets. Thanks mom and dad for letting me arrive at 7:15 AM (it would have been later if I didn't run through the parking lot like a maniac and inside the gym) and allowing me to receive rude glares from my other teammates. As soon as our car parked, I pulled up the latch to unlock my door and bolted out. I could hear my mom shouting at me to come back and that we needed to enter as a family and I wanted to tell her that we needed to enter on time in order to do that but what's the use? The only sound I paid attention to was my feet hitting the ground in a rhythm. A sloppy rhythm, but still a rhythm. I had to run in and go down a flight of stairs and try not to bump into people who were just standing there like they didn't know there was a big gymnastics meet today. When I saw an angry Coach Debra in the middle of several girls in blue, I knew I was there.

Savannah, whose long white blonde hair is put up in a neat braided bun, leans over and addressed to me that it was time to stretch. Part of me wanted to throw her on the mat so I could use her as a spring board during the meet. I wasn't that  confused and I kind of realized what I needed to do. I just groan and pray that Debra does is not in the mood for chastisement and nonetheless I begin to practice my splits and tumbling. Debra is eying me as I take off my team jacket and lay it on top of my bag. Please do not ask any questions about why I'm late. I'll do rope climbs, wall climbs, V-Ups, leg lifts--whatever. I start to feel uncomfortable with everybody looking in my direction, whispering so I try to look busy and find Ryan on the bleachers. It takes me a while but he's sitting next to my mom and dad...who apparently found a way to sit down before I could even got to speak with my coach.

"Anna, what do you think you're doing?" Debra asks me, a sudden twinge of anger coming out of her.

"Don't I have to warm up...practice my back handspring stepout on beam--" I breath out to her.

"Anna, there is no time to do any of that, you're so late, we don't even have much time to be having this conversation. Do a couple of sit-ups or something but after that we have to stand."

Should coaches even being  telling you to just do 'a couple of situps' and then perform at a meet where that determines the next step in your gymnastics career?

"Are you freaking serious? It won't take me long to go over my routines." This really isn't fair.

"Anna, stop arguing. It's your fault you weren't prepared like the rest of the team." Everybody looks so smug.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Maya laughing and walking away. I'm angry that I'm late and I couldn't control it and that I can't warmup and that I'm basically here for no reason. I'm only grateful because she's letting me compete after arriving so late--which rarely ever happens.

*

They call me up to vault and they talk about my other routines and some cameras take my picture and there's one recording this whole thing on some local channel that nobody watches or maybe some lame sports channel packed within other sports channels nobody watches. I can feel the intense stares of my team and especially my coach.

Then, I'm ready to compete, I'm a bit nervous and feel awkward, like I don't belong there but I run down the catwalk anyways. I have to do a yurchenko, which is like a roundoff back handspring and a twisting layout. I land and the crowd cheers and I smile.

Score: 9.754

I'm only focusing on my routines and not even looking up when Maya messes up on both tries or when Kimberly's feet touch the vault. I'm putting my grips on for bars and choking on the chalk cloud I just made. Chalk is a necessity so your hands cans stick to the bars and your grips are essential for the prevention of rips on your hands (biggest lie ever)

I do a kip on the low bar, and my routine goes from there. Filled with several thousand kips and about three hip circles and a flyaway dismount.

Score: 9.821

Then, it's time for beam, which is the one even I'm worried about. I might not land after I tumble on the beam. They ring the bell and it's time to go.

I mount on the beam, press to handstand and I hold it for a few seconds and do a handstand split then bring my legs back together to stand on the beam. Pivot turn--which I hate doing, I feel so dumb doing those, like when I do cat leaps or straight jumps--back handspring stepout (small mental block) layout stepout, my foot didn't slip off which is amazing so I smile and suddenly feel like the King of the World. I do a ridiculous pose before doing an arabesque, probably 95 degrees. Then I do a one and a half turn on releve (on "tippy-toe") and my other foot in passe (or to my knee). Then for jumps yay. A couple of sassy poses for amazing measure. I do a pike jump and when I land, I snap my legs back up to do a split jump. I do a aerial cartwheel (which is a lot easier than it looks, you just have to train your hands not to touch the ground because you're not going to fall). Then I do a scorpion (bring my foot behind my head and pull it up) and I slide my hands down even more until my leg is completely straight. Then I take a deep breath and do my dismount, roundoff, back tuck and one foot falls behind but at least I landed well.

Score: 9.632 

The crowd is cheering, I am beaming. I smile at Maya, who glares at me, it's not my fault my routine was a success--oh wait, yes it is. 

Last is floor. I do several roundoffs and leaps and layouts that give me a score of 9.802 and an all-around score of 39.009. 

I hear Maya groaning about how much of a showoff I am, as always, I can't have anything good without somebody thinking I've cheated. Debra is proud of how I've done, especially since I came so late. She just tells me to never pull anything like that again. Also, the Energy team wanted the gymnast with the highest all-around score, and that's me by about two-tenths of a point. I start to get a little headache from the lights and all of the flipping so I go and sit down. As soon as I put my things up, I see Julie walking with a girl with long, bleach blonde hair who looks about a foot taller than her. I smile and jump up.

"Hey, Julie! I didn't think you'd actually come!" I go and give her a massive hug.

"Yup, I'm here." She smiles at me and pulls out of the hug. "Oh, Anna, this is my girlfriend, Riley"

After Julie says this, Riley flips her long hair over her shoulder and purses her lips as if she's examining me.

I freeze. Up until just now, I thought she was straight...I don't know why I assume that as a default but she never told me before and when she said she wanted to invite somebody, I didn't think it'd be a girlfriend. 

As if Riley can tell how I feel she smiles and says, "and Julie's told me so much about you."

Is that why you're first date is at my gymnastics meet?

I laugh but I still feel uneasy. "How long have you two been dating?" I ask, extremely curious but oblivious to the random people patting me on my back or saying that my flips were "sick."

It's Julie's turn to answer and she grabs Riley's hand as she speaks. "Um, almost a week, about 5 days. She doesn't go to our school but she's a friend of my cousin. I went over to her house one day. Riley was there and told me she liked me, I told her I've never dated a girl before so why not?"

It sounds to me more like a dare than love. Why are you being so weird about this? What if Julie treated you like this when you and Ryan hang out? 

I smile and congratulate them on their not-yet anniversary and then I go to my coach to see what my next steps are.