by Dana Burkey
“I’m so proud of you honey,” my dad announced the second I made my way to where he and the other parents were waiting. He once again picked me up and spun me around, clearly still pumped up from watching me perform.
“Thanks, Dad,” I managed when he finally set me down.
“You need to go change,” he said then, handing me my purple uniform.
“What? Now?” I asked, looking around me as if someone else was going to pop out and announce that it was a joke.
“Fuze went to warm-ups a few minutes ago.”
Immediately, the excitement from performing with Blast turned into panic at getting changed and backstage once again. I said a quick goodbye to my friends, then all but sprinted to the bathroom to change. I found Fuze backstage just as they were about to start running skills and pyramid.
“Max,” Nicole called out to me and motioned me over to her.
“Yeah?” I asked walking towards her while still fixing my crooked uniform sleeve.
“Breathe,” she said simply. “Take a breath, and give yourself a minute. You were perfect out there with Blast, and you can do it again with Fuze. But you need to relax.”
I nodded, then turned and walked towards stunt team. Before I reached them though, I made sure to do what Nicole said. I actually stopped, closed my eyes and took a big breath. I held it for a few second before slowly let it out. Surprisingly I felt a lot less stress instantly. Once I was in place, Nicole gave me a thumbs up before counting us into the stunts. I was still a little nervous about getting back on the stage so soon but tried my best to not let it affect my performance. After all, I was only two and a half minutes away from possibly winning it all.
When Blast performed, my energy was over the top. I felt every move and motion and skill the entire way through. When I performed with Fuze just moments later, it was a completely different experience. I found myself not just doing the motions and being aware of my body, but actually trying as hard as I could to get height on my back handsprings, to keep my legs straight while flying, and to make every arm motion sharp and clean. I didn’t just do things, I overdid things, making sure they were the best I could make them.
My two performances of the day were different in that way, but not in much else. We hit everything clean and perfect from start and finish. When we finally walked off stage we were met with cheering and screaming and lots of happy hugs, all congratulating us for a perfect routine. I knew there was a while until we would get the results and find out who won at the awards ceremonies, but after hitting two flawless routines I was feeling pretty great. I took some time to snack on some trail mix, and then sent out replies to all of the texts I got about my two performances. Finally, knowing we had a while to wait, I walked with Halley and Lexi to look at bows.
“If we buy a bow now is that like saying we won’t win?” I asked, not sure on the rules of that particular tradition.
“No,” Lexi said immediately. “Today we just get to buy bows to buy them. Even if we don’t get first we did our absolute best. This bow is simply about filling my need for something new and sparkly.”
“You mean like a first place Summit ring?” I offered, having a hard time not thinking about the awards I knew were approaching quickly.
“Well, hopefully I’ll get that too,” Lexi grinned. “But I also want a new cheer bow to wear to tryouts. Something that will make me really stand out.”
“You’re not wearing a TNT bow?” I asked her, idly looking around at a few bows on the table in front of us.
“No way,” Lexi replied.
“Tryouts are one of the only times we don’t have to wear team bows,” Halley added. “Well, and open gyms, but most people still wear team bows to open gyms. So tryouts are the best time to show off the awesome bows you own.”
As we looked through another table of bows I noticed a set of three with ‘BEST FRIENDS FOREVER’ split across them. It was the same kind we had purchased a few weeks prior, only in different colors. Seeing it made me think how much had changed since then. When I bought that bow I was feeling less and less like a part of something great. I was all but ready to quit cheer since my team wasn’t doing well. Now, just a short time later I was on not one but two teams that were in the finals at Summit. It was a little crazy to think about for sure.
“How about this one?” Halley asked, holding up a bow with cheetah print in a few bright colors.
“It’s very you,” I nodded, knowing I would never choose the bow for myself.
“I really want to get a chevron patterned one,” Lexi commented while looking at the bows on the table. “But in a color I don’t have. I think I already have red, pink, gold, and black.”
“And you need another one?” I challenged her with a bit of a laugh.
“Well yeah,” she replied while still looking. “I just got a new green chevron tank so I kind of need a bow to match it.”
With a shake of my head, I went back to looking at more bows. A lot of them featured bright colors and were covered in sparkles and glitter. Nothing was really catching my eye, though. Lexi and Halley were debating between two bows so I made my way to another table. The second I walked up to that vendor a bow caught my eye. It wasn’t sparkly or shiny at all, but rather was a tick tock bow without a single rhinestone attached. One half of the bow had “CHEERLEADER” split between the top and bottom strip of ribbon. The words were white, printed on a dark blue fabric that made them really pop. On the other half of the bow were a mix of blues, purples, pinks, and blacks combined to form a beautiful scene of outer space. Picking up the bow I saw that it was actually a printed on image of galaxies and stars, although I couldn’t identify any of them. As beautiful as the space scene had been from far away it was even more perfect up close. I only had to think about it for a second, then handed my money to the woman behind the table.
“What did you get?” Lexi asked walking towards me. She was carrying two bows, both different colors of a glittery chevron pattern. When I showed her my bow, however, her jaw all but dropped. “That’s so cool!”
“Let me see.” The words were barely out of Halley’s mouth when she gasped at the bow I picked. “It’s perfect.”
“I really like it,” I said with a big grin. “I figure if I walk away from here with a nice new ring to wear, people are going to start figuring out I’m a cheerleader. So, I might as well beat them to the punch and have a bow that says it too.”
“You mean you would wear something like that around your softball team?” Lexi asked as we turned and started walking to look at other bow tables. She had a look on her face that made it clear she assumed the bow would be hung up in my closed along with the others I bought all season at competitions.
“Maybe,” I shrugged.
“Even if you get on a really good team?” Halley asked, obviously doubting me as well.
“I don’t know if there’s even a chance for me to get on a really good team,” I finally admitted. “I had to miss a softball clinic on Tuesday since I was already here for Summit.”
“Really?” Halley asked in shock. “Why didn’t you just come late?”
“I thought about,” I said honestly. “But then I thought about letting down not just one, but two teams. Not to mention missing the time in the park and the fun on the flight, and seeing the Worlds teams, and just everything. So now I have to really impress the coaches at the normal tryouts if I want to make a decent team. But, I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Lexi asked. We had stopped walking and were standing a few feet from any of the vendor tables.
“If what my dad said is true and I might be on Nitro or Detonators, then maybe I need to decide between cheer and softball,” I finally explained. “Being on a top softball team and being on a top cheer team just sounds like a lot. But if I don’t get on a good softball team then who knows what I’ll do.”
“Well, what if you don’t get on a really good softball team?” Lexi tried again. “I mean, do you r
eally have to win all the time for softball to be fun?”
I paused then and looked at my friends while thinking it over. The question was a simple one and was almost the same exact thing Peter had asked me about cheerleading not long ago. Cheer felt less fun when my team wasn’t winning, but what kept me going through the season was really my coaches and friends. Especially my friends. Without Halley and Lexi there to help me and support me I would have quit cheer before I even got started. But, thinking about softball, I realized I didn’t have a lot of friends there. The girls on my past teams didn’t hang out with me and get to know me. They already had their friendships formed from past seasons. Aside from Hillary and maybe one or two other girls I was friends with on social media, I wasn’t walking into a group of girls that I felt connected with. Sure, the new age division could mean new friends, but it could also mean more of the responses I got at the pitching clinic when Cate told everyone I was a cheerleader.
I think that was the moment, standing there with my friends, that it finally clicked in my head. As much as I loved softball, there weren’t a lot of people that were making it more than just a lot of hard work and growing as an athlete. Sure, that stuff was fun and great and all. At cheer, however, I was getting pushed and worked hard and also had the benefit of being surrounded by people that were really my friends. Not only were Lexi and Halley always there for me, but I loved working with all the girls on Blast. Everyone on Fuze was really nice too, even after the short time I had spent getting to know them. Connor, Gwen, Michael, and Reid from my stunting class were super amazing, not to mention I loved spending time with Greg, Tonya, and Nicole. TNT Force was like a family for me, and as much as I didn’t like losing competitions, it was still better than winning and not having people to really celebrate with.
“Kind of,” I finally said in reply to Lexi’s question. “I don’t have people like you guys at softball to make it worth it even if the team isn’t winning.”
“You mean not winning like Blast was for part of the season?” Halley asked, raising one eyebrow at me.
“No, I didn't mean-” I started to say, only to be cut off by Halley.
“I’m kidding!” she laughed. “Although it was clear you were bummed for a while there.
“Yeah,” Lexi added after seeing the shocked look on my face. “It’s hard to do something new and be so good at it and not get to win all the time. I get it for sure. But I’m really glad you decided not to quit the team early or anything.”
“I didn’t know you guys could tell,” I said with a frown. “I’m a little worried for next season though, to be honest. You two are the best thing about cheer, and the idea of not being on the same team is kind of weird. I don’t know if I can make new friends like you guys to make up for any competition we don’t win.”
“Then just win all the time,” Halley said with a smile. “Nitro or Detonators could really win it all if you’re there to help. No joke.”
“And we’re still friends too, remember?” Lexi added with a grin. “I don’t care what team you’re on, or what classes you take. We’re still going to be friends. We’ve been through too much this season to just move on like it was all no big deal.”
I nodded, thinking immediately of the first time I really opened up to Lexi and Halley. They sat with me as I told Tonya that I didn’t feel like I would ever fit in at the gym. I also told them that night that the reason I didn’t like people calling me Maxine was because only my mom called me that, all the way up until she died. I actually cried that night, opening up to Tonya and my new friends, something I never did around anyone but my dad. Sure, I hadn’t cried around them after that day, but it was something that made our friendship really strong. Being a tomboy, I never thought I would end up with friends like Lexi and Halley, but now that they were a part of my life I knew I wanted them there forever.
“You’re right,” I nodded. “We’ll always be best friends. Even if I make other good friends on Fuze or Nitro or whatever. The gym is awesome like that. I can have lots of friends. But at softball, I think I would only ever have teammates.”
“Wait, are you not even trying out then?” Lexi asked.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “For now, I’m just focusing on the rest of Summit.”
“Speaking of which, I think awards are soon,” Halley announced, checking the time on her phone. Sneaking a peek over her shoulder I saw we had just over 15 minutes.
“We should head back,” I decided for us, turning to walk that way immediately.
Lexi and Halley fell into step on either side of me, linking their arms with mine. In only a few more minutes I would find out if Blast were the Summit champions we were all hoping to become. And then, not long after that, I would find out if Fuze landed in the top spot as well. It was going to be a long afternoon, but as we walked back to where the athletes and parents from TNT Force were waiting, all I could think about was how lucky I was.
Not just lucky that I was about to possibly win not one, but two Summit rings. And not just lucky that I was able to compete in a cool place like Disney World. In that moment I felt lucky that my friends were by my side, my dad was there to cheer me on, and I had even more friends cheering me on at home. I knew when I checked my phone it would show missed texts and snapchat messages from people letting me know they were excited and waiting for awards, just as much as I was. That was something no one ever did for me when I played any other sport or did any other kind of school activity. So, as we waited impatiently until we were invited to take the stage to find out the results for Blast, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Ring or no ring, in that moment, with people I cared about all around me, I felt like I had already won. And that feeling was better than any banner, medal, or ring any day.
Dana Burkey is a self-published author living in Washington State. Although she is from Ohio, she has been enjoying life in the Pacific Northwest for the last 7 years. Before moving to Washington, Burkey attended college in Ohio where she majored in theater with a minor in creative writing. Burkey works full time in camping, spending her days with K-5th graders. She began self-publishing her YA romance novels in August of 2014, hoping to write stories that can be enjoyed by YA readers of any age. Her books feature a lack of swearing, drinking, and sex, in an effort to allow younger readers to connect with her stories without bad influences. Burkey is currently working on a few projects, which she is looking forward to sharing with readers soon!
Rock your very own Best Friends Forever cheer bows, as seen on the back cover!
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Many options available, including custom orders!
Continue reading for a sneak peek at Dana Burkey’s Middle grade Romance, The Kiss Dare! For more information about this book and others, or to rate the book you just read, be sure to check out Dana on Goodreads or Amazon.
Chapter 1
“See you at lunch,” I called to Penny, only half paying attention to my hands as I fumbled with my locker combination. I had long since memorized the twists and turns to open it, pulling at just the right moment and causing the metal door to swing open.
With a flurry of activity, I watched as a small black envelope fell from the top slots of my locker. It floated to my feet where I stared at it, wishing it would vanish. Knowing it was only a matter of time before someone else noticed it as well, I slammed my foot over it, blocking it from any prying eyes. I glanced around me to make sure no one was watching as I loaded my book into my messenger bag. Then, leaning down to pretend to tie my shoes, I slipped the envelope out from where it was concealed and tucked it into the bottom of my locker. Slamming the door as I stood up, I raced to first period despite there still being several minutes until the first bell would ring.
It was not until well after I slid into my desk that I felt my breathing return
to normal. My heart was still racing faster than usual, but I no longer felt like I might throw up. Slipping the hair tie off of my wrist, I pulled my hair into a low ponytail. The short blond locks barely stayed in place, but having them out of my face helped me to cool off a little more. I wiped the sheen of sweat from my forehead, then pulled out my notebook as Mr. Forrester began talking to the class.
I took notes absentmindedly, my thoughts fixated on the small black envelope in my locker. No one I was friends with had ever gotten one, so why was I suddenly being pulled into this game? Maybe game is the wrong word for it. When you’re a beautiful cheerleader and get a note daring you to kiss a football player or even kiss a freshman, it’s a game. When you’re a popular guy on student council and you’re dared to kiss someone that rides the same bus as you, or kiss a girl that’s in your third-period class, it’s a game. But when someone like me gets a black envelope, it’s no longer a game.
Knowing I couldn’t change anything at that point, I became determined to not let it get to me. Instead, I focused as hard as I could on history class. I followed along in the book and wrote down each and every word Mr. Forrester wrote on the board. Next, in math, I did extra problems on my worksheets to keep my mind from wondering. Making up extremely difficult equations to go along with the work we were already doing gave me something to focus on. Then, in choir I tried to hear each and every note of the piano as I sang along with Mrs. Kellerman. I usually just floated by in that class, but anyone sitting near me that day would have thought singing was my favorite thing in the world. I tried and retried to hit every single note each time we went through the song.
