by A. Destiny
“Cyborgs,” I whisper. “Definitely.”
Riley eyes the girls warily. “I’ve heard of them. They call themselves the Twisted Triplets. They’re contortionists. They went to nationals for gymnastics last year.”
“If they’re that good, what are they doing here?” I ask.
“Heck if I know,” she replies. “They should be, like, training for the Olympics or something.”
We don’t have time to ask any more questions, because at that moment the coach from earlier, Leena, steps up to the crowd.
“Hey, everyone!” she calls out. The campers quiet down immediately. Riley takes my arm again and Tyler sidles up to my left, blocking the Twisted Triplets from view. “I’m Leena,” she continues, “and I’m the lead aerial coach for this session. All of us coaches are really excited for this week—we can’t wait to meet and train each and every one of you. But since there are a lot of you and a lot of us, we thought the best way to do introductions was to put together a little show. So, first we’re going to show you what we do, and then you can show us what you do. If you want to, of course.” She grins. “There’s no pressure, and you’ll all get your chance to shine during the show at the end of the session. So, if you all want to have a seat over there, we’ll get started!”
She guides us over to a spot along the rolled-in bleachers and we sit down in rows. Tyler’s arm is brushing mine, and Riley’s knee is against my leg. Save for the butterflies fluttering around at Tyler’s touch, it feels like we’re all old friends—the closeness seems pretty natural.
Once we’re all seated, Leena jogs over to join the coaches lined up along the opposite wall. Then she claps her hands three times in a steady beat, and the show begins with a fanfare.
Music blares through the loudspeakers as the coaches jog toward us, some of them flipping and cartwheeling as they go. I start clapping immediately along to the music, and I’m not the only one. Tyler and Riley are clapping along too, and soon all the campers are joining the beat.
Long strips of fabric unroll from the ceiling, and a few girls and guys start climbing. Below them, five coaches are doing some crazy sort of acrobatics; they run toward and up one another, flipping and tossing themselves and their partners up and around in dizzying flips and crazy handstands. The people on the aerial fabric pose in backbends and drop into death-defying rolls as two guys pull out the large metal hoops along the wall and begin rolling around each other like coins in a dance that makes me wonder if they’ll crash. It’s chaos in its coolest form. People are juggling and flipping and doing handstands and dropping from the ceiling and then, after only a few minutes, they all do one final trick and line up, facing us. They give a bow and call out their names: “I’m Brad and I teach Cyr wheel!” “I’m Tori and I teach acrobatics!”
They all sound a little winded, but not nearly as bad as I would have been.
I’m only a little disappointed that there wasn’t any flying trapeze, but I guess I can’t expect them to set that up in the gym. A few of the coaches call out that they teach flying trap, but I think I saw them doing acrobatics on the ground. Clearly, they expect everyone to do a little bit of everything. I’m just hoping I can do even one thing that impressive.
One of the coaches steps forward. She looks a little older than the others, but she’s still built like a super gymnast and could probably outrun anyone in my school. Her hair is pulled back in a bun, and if I remember right, she was one of the aerialists. I don’t recognize her until she speaks—Olga Karamazov looks a lot different without all the stage makeup. I actually think she looks better without it.
“Greetings, campers!” she says. Her voice is laced with a thick Russian accent, but years under the American big top have washed some of it away. “And welcome to the first annual Karamazov Circus Camp. I know you’re all as excited as we are for this week; the days will be long and the work will be hard, but together we will create an amazing show and even more amazing memories. My name is Olga Karamazov, and my sister and I created this company ten years ago. Sadly, she is down in Florida training, but I am delighted to be working with such a fantastic group of coaches to teach you all. I can assure you that each member has been handpicked not only for their skills, but for their character. Although proper technique and safe training are our top priorities, we want to ensure that you have fun while performing! After this afternoon’s presentation, we will do a small series of team-building exercises so you can learn even more about one another. Then, tomorrow, you’ll have your auditions. I’m sure all of you have ideas of what you’d like to train in, and I want to let you know that we will do our best to give you your first choice. Coaches aren’t just looking for skill and aptitude, they’re looking for a willingness to learn. So if you’re new to this, don’t worry. Remember, fun is the name of the game—this is a circus, after all!”
She flashes a big smile. It’s hard to calm the nerves doing backflips in my stomach, though. I’ve been daydreaming about trying out on the flying trapeze for months—heck, for years—but now that it’s here, I’m kind of terrified. Suddenly the idea of being that high up makes my head reel with vertigo.
“Speaking of fun, I think it’s time for you to take the stage! You’re welcome to come up and show off a few tricks or a routine if you have one. Our coaches will be watching and spotting from the sidelines, but please—no tricks you aren’t entirely comfortable with. We don’t want any injuries before the training even begins!”
At that, all the coaches save for Leena walk to the sides of the auditorium. Olga asks us to come up one by one—“But again, only if you want!”—and tell our name and a bit about ourselves, including what we’re planning on auditioning for and how long we’ve been doing circus arts.
In that moment, I promise myself that I will not, under any circumstances, go up there. I mean, what would I do? Try to juggle? Do a cartwheel?
I’m not at all surprised that the Twisted Triplets are the first to stand. They stride to the center of the auditorium and position themselves on the panel mat. When they face us, they’re so poised, I feel like I’m watching a professional show—even if they are just wearing hoodies and shorts. One of them sets an MP3 player and speakers down. Of course they have a routine prepared. And of course they always carry the equipment to show it off.
Even though I haven’t even spoken to them yet, I don’t like these girls. And I’m about 80 percent certain it’s not out of jealousy, either.
“We’re the Twisted Triplets,” the shortest blond-haired girl says. Oddly enough, she has a really thick Southern accent. Something about her appearance made me think she’d be Ukrainian or something exotic like that. She could be my neighbor, for all I know. “We’ve each been trained in contortion and rhythmic gymnastics since we were three. We’re hoping your coaches will be able to teach us something new, ’cause we’re getting bored of our old routine. Which is what we’re going to show y’all now.”
She nods to her other sisters, and the tallest one, who looks older, hits play on the MP3 player, then runs to line up with the rest—they are definitely not triplets, by the way. Seconds later the gym is flooded with bass and synths as some strange mashup of techno and pop music bursts through the room. But the music is nothing compared to what starts happening onstage.
“Are they . . . stripping?” Tyler whispers incredulously in my ear.
“I think so,” I say. Because as one, the girls start sashaying around and undoing the zippers of their hoodies. I almost close my eyes out of embarrassment for them, but then I catch the sparkle of unitards underneath. In one quick swish, they peel out of their hoodies to reveal spangled pink spandex. From the corner of my eye I can see Leena, who’s watching the girls like she might stop them at any moment. Like the rest of us, I don’t think she quite believes what she’s seeing.
Thankfully, after the introduction, the awkwardness shifts into something that looks a little more like an award-winning gymnastics routine. Two of the sisters do back walkov
ers and pause in handstands, flattening their backs until they were parallel to the ground. The shortest then steps on the backs of her sisters, reaches down, and does a handstand on their necks, balancing between them like the Eiffel Tower. No one applauds. Not because it isn’t good, but because it’s just so . . . unexpected.
I don’t have any idea how long their routine is, but after a few minutes they do some complicated backbend-headstand thing. They pose and the music stops. A beat of silence follows their dismount and bow. Then the coaches start to clap, and the rest of us join in with only a slight hesitation. The sisters have fixed, plastic grins on their faces, and their chests heave a bit with exertion.
Leena steps forward, still clapping, though she’s having a hard time keeping that confused/concerned look off her face.
“That was . . . very entertaining,” she says. It sounds like a question. “It’s clear you’ve practiced that one quite a bit; I’m sure our coaches are going to have a great time working with you.” I don’t miss the glance she casts back to two of the coaches in the corner—one a burly man and one a short old woman—and their shared expression of disbelief.
The triplets leave the stage, grabbing their speakers as they go, and Leena calls for the next performer.
A few different campers go up. One girl does stunt-bike-style tricks on a unicycle. A boy juggles a half-dozen bowler hats. Then Tyler stands up and grabs a wooden chair from along the wall, dragging it toward the center of the room.
“I think he likes you,” Riley whispers when Tyler’s out of earshot.
“I think you’re crazy,” I reply. Because I saw how he was watching the boy doing flips and break-dance moves: the exact same way that I was. I’m pretty certain Tyler plays for the other team.
Tyler sets the chair down and stands on top of it, right before grasping the edge of the chair. Seconds later, he folds up into a perfect handstand. He twists and turns and poses, even doing some tricks on one hand. When he finally stands upright, the room explodes into applause. A lot of people release breath they didn’t realize they were holding. I’m definitely one of them.
“That was amazing,” I tell him when he sits back down. There’s a light sheen of sweat on his face, but he’s beaming in spite of—or because of—the exertion.
“Thanks,” he says. “I’ve been training for a long time. Normally I do them on special chairs stacked on top of each other. My current limit is eight high, but I’m shooting for ten by the end of camp.”
I can only stare at him. The idea of doing handstands on the back of eight chairs makes my heart hammer with fear. Crap. If the idea of a few stacked chairs makes me cringe, how the heck am I going to be able to climb the trapeze ladder? I force myself to take deep, calming breaths. I tell myself it will all be okay—I’m going to be a trapeze star. I know it. Otherwise, why am I here in the first place?
“Wow,” Riley whispers. I glance over, thinking maybe she’s talking about what Tyler just said about the chairs. But no, she’s staring at the boy who’s walking to the center of the mat.
“I’m Branden,” he tells the group. “I’ve been training in flying trapeze for about three years, but I also do some ground work. So I figured I’d show what I’ve been working on, if I can borrow a Cyr wheel?”
I melt the moment I look at him. He’s got short brown hair spiked up at the front and is wearing plaid shorts and a tank top. His biceps are probably the size of my neck. Like Tyler, though, he looks built for a purpose, rather than just muscular to show off.
And he does flying trapeze, which means we’ll be working together.
“I think I’m in love,” I whisper, not really meaning to say it aloud. Tyler snorts with barely contained laughter.
One of the burly coaches I saw spinning around in the large steel hoops steps forward, rolling a hoop—I’m guessing that’s a Cyr wheel—beside him. Branden thanks him and takes the wheel in his hands, rolls it back and forth a few times like he’s testing its weight or diameter or something. Then, without even pausing to collect himself, he spins on his heel and brings the hoop with him, hopping onto the bottom rung and twisting like a penny.
Branden rotates fast and slow, alternating between the two with a dancer’s grace. At one point, he lifts both legs up in the air and spins like Superman from the top of the hoop, the entire thing flashing silver under the lights of the gym. That’s the only big trick—a few spins later, he stops with a slight stumble and grins. The camp applauds with the same enthusiasm as they did for Tyler’s routine.
“Thanks,” he says and walks the wheel over to the wall.
“Someone’s crushing,” Riley says.
I nudge her in the ribs; Branden’s walking back over, and the last thing I need is for him to overhear something like that. I’m already bad at being smooth around guys: I don’t need Riley or Tyler making it worse. When I cast a quick glance at him, my heart leaps to see that he’s looking at me, too. He catches my eye, and maybe it’s my imagination, but it looks like he blushes as he grins and sits down. I quickly look away.
“And it looks like you’re not the only one,” Tyler taunts. I glare at him.
I don’t know how I’ve only known these two for barely an afternoon, but they’re already settling into the familiar friend routine. I grin in spite of myself; I kind of expected I’d be the outcast here. The fact that I’ve already found these two makes me think it’s going to be an even better camp than I expected.
I can barely pay attention to the rest of the kids who go on to perform. There are jugglers and acrobats, a girl who hulas twelve hoops, and even a couple of guys doing a clown act. I try to watch them. Really. But I keep glancing over at the back of Branden’s head and feeling the butterflies swarm.
Yes. This camp is going to be much better than expected. But first, I need to survive tomorrow’s auditions.
Chapter Three
After the showcase, we’re given a little more time to unpack our stuff and settle in. Riley and I stick together the entire time—back in the room, she shows me all her juggling equipment, including the purple clubs and poi (these balls-on-strings things that are swung around in intricate patterns) she said she had to special order from New England. Her bed is completely covered with clubs and scarves and balls and rings, a rainbow of different juggling equipment, and she has me try all of them out in turn. I’m still only able to do the three-ball pass she taught me earlier, but she assures me that it’s really good for my first time.
“Keep this up,” she says, “and you’ll be better than me soon.” She grins. “But then I’d have to kill you, so maybe pretend to be stupid at auditions tomorrow.”
Auditions. The word sends a small jolt through me again, and I fumble the pass I was just attempting. According to the sheet that had been taped to our door, we’ll be trying out for ground skills and aerial skills at different times. I first figured I’d skip trying out for a ground skill, but now that I’m seriously thinking about this flying trapeze thing, I’m wondering if it might be best to have a backup.
“You’ll be okay,” Riley says, catching my mood. “You’re totally a natural. If you have half the skill you’re showing at juggling, you’ll be a master of the flying trap in no time.”
Her smile is so confident, so assuring, that I don’t have the heart to tell her that they’re completely different skill sets, that I can’t do a pull-up in gym and definitely don’t do gymnastics or any number of things all the other campers seem to have in their back pockets. I keep my mouth shut, and she goes back to folding her myriad of skirts. I force myself back to juggling.
When there’s a knock at the door a few minutes later, I nearly jump. But it’s just Leena.
She smiles approvingly at all the juggling equipment splayed on the bed when she steps in.
“Looks like you both are settling in quite nicely,” she says. Her smile is so perfect, so practiced, it’s kind of hard to tell if she means it. But she honestly does look pleased by the fact that we’re both p
racticing so early on in the game. “I didn’t know you juggled as well, Jennifer.”
I shrug and set the balls down. I’m surprised she actually remembered my name; there have to be at least thirty other kids here, and I know I sure wouldn’t have remembered them all. “Riley just taught me,” I say. “She’s a really good teacher.”
“I’m impressed. See? You really are a natural.” Another grin, this one I’m pretty certain is real. “Anyway, I just wanted to drop in and see if you ladies needed anything. Tanya and I will be your hall counselors. Our room’s at the end of the hall.”
“We’re okay,” I say. “I don’t think I’ve met Tanya, though.”
“Oh, she’s fantastic,” Leena says. “She’s actually one of the flying trapeze coaches, so you’ll get along just fine. I’m sure you’ll see her during the games tonight.” The schedule had said something about team-building games, but it wasn’t any more specific than that. I’m not about to ask, either. “Anyway, I’m gonna keep making introductions. I’ll see you at dinner!”
“She seems nice,” Riley says when the door shuts behind Leena.
“Yeah,” I say. “I hope they’re all like that.”
Riley laughs. “Probably not—I hear the contortion coaches are really tough. But hey, we’re only here a few days.” There’s a pause. “Speaking of, you’re going to have to act fast if you want to grab that Branden kid.”
Just like when I think about the flying trap, my heart skips a beat. Probably for very different reasons, though.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lie.
“Right,” she says with a laugh. “You were just drooling because you were thinking of dinner.” She flops down on the bed beside me. “C’mon, he’s really cute and really talented. I bet he’s a really good kisser, too. You’d be stupid not to fall for him.”
I blush.
“Unless you have a boyfriend already?” she asks.
I shake my head. Stupidly, I’m finding I can’t actually speak. I’m still stuck on the idea of kissing Branden. More somersaults in my chest. My face flushes even hotter.
