Reaching The Summit (TNT Force Cheer #2)

by Dana Burkey

  Watching Nitro was not the fun experience I assumed it was going to be. After seeing them almost hit on day one, then perform a flawless routine on day two I was certain they were easily going to grab a top spot in their division. I held my breath as Paul lifted Emily into the air, praying the stunt wouldn’t be bobbled like on day one. Thankfully it stayed in the air, and the routine kept going. Sadly, after the partner stunt was over and the tumbling passes were finished, the routine began to fall apart. Literally.

  The entire right side of the pyramid fell, not even getting through the first move before it crumbled. The five fliers that were in the pyramid went up for a heel stretch that would then start the sequence for the rest of that part of the routine, but something went wrong. Leanne, who always stayed in the air for every competition, lost her balance and starting falling to her left. The bases under her couldn’t correct it, so as she went down she fell on top of the next stunt team over. That was when Victoria also went down, and it looked like she kicked someone in the face pretty hard on her way to the blue mat. The other side of the pyramid kept going in hopes of getting some points, but it wouldn’t even begin to make up for the deductions caused by the stunt falls. The whole team seemed so confused and out of synch by the dance portion, there was no energy in their performance. When the music ended everyone just walked off the mat looking extremely dejected.

  Lexi was on her phone right away, calling her mom who was in the arena to see the performance live. I stared at my phone then, not sure what to do. At the thought of texting Connor, I realized I didn’t know what to say. Although he had been there for me time and time again when Blast didn’t come in first, in that moment I didn’t know the right words to express my feelings at all. It was partly because watching their performance had me thinking about more than just how Connor felt. I was thinking how I would feel if I was in his place on the Worlds stage. And also how upset I would be if that was me in just a few days on one or both of my Summit teams.

  I conveniently put my phone on silent and left it on the table with our new gear while I got ready for dinner. We were planning to spend a little time getting unpacked before we went to the pizza party for everyone who was already in Florida for Summit, as well as everyone who had just competed in Worlds. It was during that time we got the news that Bomb Squad came in third in their division and that despite a flawless routine Detonators ended up in fourth. Halley commented that the divisions were all full of great teams so the Worlds title was anyone's for the taking. Well, anyone that hit their routine. That was not the case for Nitro. I thought this, but of course didn’t say anything out loud.

  Once it was finally time to head to the pizza party I was getting more and more nervous about seeing Connor and what I could say to him to make him feel better. The truth was, I wasn’t good at things like that. I always wanted to win and hated when people tried to act like it was okay when I didn’t end up on top. So, when it came to encouraging other people for being less than the best, I didn’t know what to do. In fact, I was so distracted by it all, I walked out of our hotel room without my phone.

  “Let’s take a selfie!” Lexie announced as we rode the elevator down to the party. “Let me use your phone, Max, it has the best camera.”

  “I don't have it,” I told her after patting the pockets of my jean shorts. “I think I left it in the room.”

  “Should we go back?” Halley asked, reaching out to stop the elevator before it could reach the ground floor.

  “No,” I said with a quick shake of my head. “Anyone I want to talk to is going to be at the party.”

  My friends didn’t push the issue but instead stood on either side of me for a photo. They were both wearing their new black Summit tank tops with the shiny red stones. At their insistence, I was wearing the same tank top, but in purple. I tried to tell them we should all match, but they reminded me it would match my makeup. Not only that, it would also make for cool photos with me in the center in my different shirt and them on either side of me. Part of me thought it was a little odd, but I was used to weird ideas like that from them by that point of our friendship for sure.

  “Should I post it to Snapchat?” Halley asked after taking the photo.

  “No way,” Lexi told her before I could answer. “We can’t ruin the hair surprise now. Not when we’re so close to Connor finally seeing Max.”

  “You two are crazy,” I stated simply, just as the elevator door opened.

  We walked through the hotel lobby, outside the hotel, and then over to the picnic table area where balloons and banners announced the TNT Force Gym party. As we walked closer and closer to the party area, we were greeted by other athletes, giving them hugs and congratulations for a job well done at Worlds. I even heard Halley and Lexi compliment people from Nitro, despite their less than great final performance. As they did this, I tried my best to put on a smile and go along with it. I also said a “good job” here and there, but while I did that I was scanning the crowd. I knew Connor was somewhere, and as my best friend at the gym other than Halley and Lexi, I knew seeing him was the moment that mattered. I only hoped that when I did see him I would finally know what to say.

  “There he is,” Lexi said in my ear as if she knew what I had been thinking.

  I turned to where she was looking, and spotted Connor walking towards the three of us. But, when I made eye contact with him and attempted to smile, he froze. Glancing at Halley and Lexi I was certain they were waving or making a face or something. But they weren't looking at me or Connor at all. They were talking to a girl on Bomb Squad I didn’t know. Realizing that, I was instantly confused. Why did he just stop? I lifted up my hand and gave what instantly felt like a super awkward wave. Thankfully it got him moving again. As he got closer and closer I still didn’t know what to say, but I found myself actually smiling, excited to finally see him.

  “Hey,” he said, stopping a few feet from me. It was odd, but in that moment I was a little hurt he didn’t hug me right away. “Max, you look...just...wow.”

  “Uh, thanks,” I replied with a nervous laugh. “It’s good to see you.”

  Instead of waiting for him to act first, I stepped closer to Connor and gave him a hug. I had hugged him many times by that point, but rarely, if ever, was I the one who initiated them. The fact that I did in that moment clearly confused him for a second or two. He froze, then finally hugged me back. The hug lingered a lot longer than usual, Connor’s arms still wrapped tightly around me. When I finally stepped back he was giving me a look that I had recently seen a lot of from Peter. Unlike Peter, however, he seemed to shake it off pretty quickly.

  “Your hair looks great,” Connor said, actually reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. The action was odd, but it happened so quickly I didn’t really respond. “I’m glad you’re finally here.”

  “Me too,” I said easily. “Your stunts looked great all weekend.”

  The compliment was the best I could manage off the top of my head. I figured it was okay to mention his stunts in particular, since he wasn’t on the side of the pyramid that went down, and he also didn’t have any bobbles or falls in any of his partner stunts or baskets. Sure, his team as a whole didn’t do their best, but I felt like bringing that up would be rubbing salt into the wound. Sitting through awards was likely not an easy time for him and the others on Nitro.

  “Thanks, Max,” he said. “Only 363 days until Worlds next year. Lots of time for improvement.”

  I was a little shocked at his optimism, but I couldn’t help but smile along with him in that moment as well. I didn’t know if I would have felt the same way in his shoes. And I was hoping I wouldn’t get to find out before Summit was over. But, for the time being, it was kind of nice to make light of what I’m sure was a hard blow for him and his team.

  “Okay, we need pizza,” Halley said to me, startling me for a second. I had been so focused on Connor I almost forget her and Lexi were standing next to me. “You guys coming?”

 
“Yeah,” I nodded, my stomach growing at the thought of food.

  “Right behind you,” Connor added. Then, as if to make up for not hugging me first, he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and walked with me as we headed to a picnic table covered in pizza and other assorted treats.

  Monday night proved to be the kick off to Summit we all needed. Having time to hang out with all the Worlds athletes was so much fun. The fact that Leanne didn’t stay for much of the volleyball and bonfire time was an added bonus! Feeling her glare on me all night would have made it a lot less fun for sure. But, at the same time, I felt a little bad knowing part of the reason she left the party early was due to the emotions of dropping her stunts. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn’t have wanted to stay and hang out with everyone all night either. And realizing that I for once had sympathy for Leanne was a bit of a shock, to say the least.

  Tuesday morning was a little sad when we had to say goodbye to Connor and the other athletes that were heading home. We headed to Downtown Disney afterward, so that helped us not think about it too much. A few of the athletes from Worlds were staying for Summit, but they enjoyed a nice sleep in before joining us at the parks. Matthew, Lexi’s brother, as well as Gwen, were just some of the athletes that stayed. I didn’t think much about it ahead of time, but it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone outside of the gym and just enjoy Disney!

  While we were in the park we spotted a lot of other people wearing cheer bows and their gym clothing. I noticed them all in passing, but my entire focus was the rides. We rode every ride we could, getting fast passes as often as possible so we could really take advantage of getting to Florida a day early. The constant rushing to the next ride was fun, but also made it an exhausting day. When we finally made it to the hotel that night, I went right to bed, knowing there was going to be a lot of practice once I woke up. After all, I was practicing with two teams and knew it would be extra hard work running full outs in the Florida heat.

  As expected, Wednesday and Thursday were all about practice. Sure, we got to go to the parks for part of the day. But, that wasn’t until after we made it through hours of hard work. And, also as expected, my friends were all dismissed well before me to go get showered and changed for the day each time. Halley and Lexi offered to wait for me, but I always told them to go ahead. It was easy enough to find them once I was done sweating and flipping and flying with Fuze.

  “You can skip this full out,” Nicole told me Thursday morning as we were setting up for yet another run through with Fuze. “I don’t want you to get overheated.”

  “I’ll be okay,” I said with a shrug, then moved to get set up to run the routine once again.

  It was hot out, to say the least, but I knew that running the routine was going to keep me from making any sort of mistakes. Not only that, but it also didn’t seem fair for me to get to skip a run through just because I had already been practicing for a while with Blast. If no one else on Fuze got to skip the run through, then I needed to also work hard and push through, no matter how hot it got. Hot actually might have been an understatement. We were practicing outside during Summit, so if felt like I was a lobster baking in the sunshine while also getting overheated from running the routines.

  “Great job ladies,” Nicole said as we all gathered around after we were finally done practicing. “Everyone but Max needs to be out here tomorrow morning for our final team practice before we begin performance Friday. It’s just for an hour, and then everyone will be heading over to watch and cheer on Blast. You don’t need to do full hair and makeup when we go to watch them, but everyone needs to wear a gym shirt and bow. Remember you are always representing TNT this week, even if you're not up there on the stage. Now go have some fun, and remember to wear lots of sunscreen. Cheering this weekend is going to be no fun if you have a sunburn.”

  With that, we were all dismissed to have the rest of the day to ourselves. The extra practice had me super hungry, and food was all I could think about as I walked towards my room to shower. So, when my dad asked me if I wanted to get lunch with him before heading off to find Lexi and Halley, I agreed easily. After I took a nice long shower to wash off all the sweat from practice, my dad and I found a seafood restaurant near our hotel. I was excited to eat, and it was basically all I could think about. But, once we got our meals and started eating, I was shocked at the conversation my dad started.

  “I sent an e-mail to Coach Varlee last night,” he said between bites of his lunch.

  “Really?” I asked, having almost completely forgotten about the softball clinic. Being nonstop busy with cheer practice and having fun in the park left me with no time to think about softball or anything relating to it.

  “I figured we should let him know why you missed the clinic,” he explained. “It would be one thing if you were just being lazy or weren’t interested. But to miss it for being dedicated to not just one but two all star cheer teams is different.”

  “Wait, what?” I wasn’t sure I knew what my dad was trying to say. After the way Cate and Ella and the other girls acted when they found out I was a cheerleader, I worried that telling Coach Varlee about it was a bad idea. Sure, the stunts after I got hurt helped with everything at least a little, but I was worried all the same.

  “I just told him why you missed,” my dad began again. “I let him know we were in Florida for Summit, and you couldn’t leave later since you committed to the teams. I kind of figured that he didn’t know what Summit was, so I also explained that a little.”

  “I don’t think he cared much about cheerleading,” I mumbled, already imagining him laughing at me for missing softball for cheer.

  “He was actually really impressed.” My dad's words caught me off guard and had my full attention instantly. “His niece used to cheer at TNT Force, so he knows the type of dedication and talent it takes to do cheerleading. In fact, he wrote me back and told me that you being so involved with cheer was another point in your favor. He was kind of bummed you couldn’t be there for the clinic to catch for his daughter, but said he was looking forward to seeing how you do at tryouts.”

  “He said that?” I asked him.

  “Yes.” My dad was trying to keep a straight face, but I could tell he was also extremely proud of me. “It doesn't mean you definitely have a spot on his team this year, but he has his eye on you. I think if he saw you catching with his daughter it would have sealed the deal, but you still have a good chance.”

  Nothing was certain yet, but the idea that I had a good coach keeping an eye on me at the upcoming tryouts was really cool. Well, it was mostly exciting, I should say. In that moment, something dawned on me that made my mood settle down a bit. Being on a top team like Varlee’s Construction meant I would be extra busy with practice and even tournaments all spring and summer. Part of me had known that all along, but until it was so close to actually happening it was like I had been ignoring the commitment time.

  I knew if I made that good of a softball team it would mean I would be doing a lot of extra practices and have next to no time with my friends all summer. And not just my friends. I would possibly also have to miss things like cheerleading conditioning, open gyms, and even my stunt class. So, as I sat there thinking it over, for the first time I was actually thinking about whether or not I even wanted to do softball. The thought was insane, especially after missing the basketball season already for cheer. I attributed my line of thinking to too much time in the sun. I assumed I was merely just caught up in the fun of Summit and not thinking clearly.

  “Do you think the gym will mind if I have to miss things for softball all summer?” I asked, not totally able to drop the idea of juggling two sports.

  “We can talk to your cheer coach and see what they think when the time comes,” he suggested.

  “I don’t think Nicole will be too happy about that,” I mumbled, trying to imagine how she would react to a summer schedule involving a lot of missed cheer practices for softball.

  “Nicole might not
be your coach next year,” my dad pointed out, stopping me dead in my tracks yet again.

  “Why wouldn’t she be?” I asked him, genuinely confused.

  “Your skills aren’t just level 3 or even level 4 anymore sweetie,” he explained. “Not to be a part of all the gossip or anything, but a few parents told me they heard the coaches mention the idea of putting you on Nitro or Detonators next year.”

  “But those are level 5 teams,” I reminded him.

  “Exactly,” he nodded. “You have your full, and can do all the flying easily. Nitro has three athletes aging out this year, and a few more might be leaving for Detonators or Bomb Squad. That means they will be looking for some new talent to add to the team, and your name has been coming up. And if you can’t stunt with the guys there, then you could easily get a position on Detonators. I think I heard at least seven people age out this year, including their center flier.”

  I started at my dad, not sure what I was more shocked about. On one hand, hearing my dad dish out all the inside info from the parents at TNT was strange. But, on the other hand, the idea that people really thought I could move up to level 5 team was a bit much to take in. I had all of the skills and everything, but moving up to Nitro or Detonators would mean a lot of changes. Not only would I possibly be on the same team as Connor, I would be going up against some really hard teams. And I would also have a shot at going to Worlds. It wasn’t like anything was written in stone, but even the idea of it was a lot to take in.

  “If I really did make it onto a level 5 team do you think missing practice for softball would be okay still?” I ask my dad, despite knowing it was information he likely didn’t have.

  “I guess that’s something you will have to deal with when the time comes,” he finally said.