Chapter 10: Cheer

WE RECEIVED A LETTER on Tuesday with an official invitation to honor the national team with an exhibition showing that injury need not always be the last step in an athlete’s life.

I didn’t practice with Madison at all that week and my practice time with Tara was limited. Saturday would be the State Cheerleading competition in St. Paul. We practiced after school every day and I had to be there, even though I was only competing in the Coed Group Tumbling division. We weren’t going three high in our pyramid, but we were doing something I understood was unique. While Lana and Melina would mount to the shoulders of the two bases each girl had next to us, Penny was going up on my hands and then on a single foot on my hand with the other raised in a needle split. It was pretty impressive and we had practiced it a lot.

Of course, that wasn’t the only skill we were showing. There were jumps and turns. I also caught Lana as she ran to me and placed one foot in my hands. Then I flipped her into the waiting basket of our other bases. The other six girls on our team did lesser tumbles, including cartwheels and flips, but mostly they served as spotters for the tops.

Of course, that was only for the tumbling competition. I wasn’t in any of the other events, for the same reason I didn’t cheer at ballgames. I was a guy and was only needed for my strength. On the 100-point judging sheet, ten of the twenty-five points for partner stunts were for ‘Difficulty: Level of Skill, Use of Coed Skills, Number of Stunts, Number of Bases, Creativity, Transitions, and Variety.’ That’s right. One mention of Coed Skills in a ten-point segment of the 100-point score sheet.

Coach Cook said that other than the stunts where I was lifting, throwing, or supporting a top, I should focus on not detracting from the girls. I don’t know how she could have made my importance any clearer.

There were eight schools in Division I and eight in Division II. We were in Division I, so our competition started at ten in the morning. We were on the bus at school at eight in the morning and at the Riverside Center thirty minutes later. We had to go through registration, music check-in, and warmups. Then the girls did the sideline routine, fight song, and spirit routine. All that happened before eleven-thirty when the group tumbling got started.

We were the fifth team to take the floor.

I thought we did a pretty good job. No one missed a running pass or any jumps. Throwing Lana was perfect, right into the basket. Then the other four bases and I rolled into our line. Our three tops mounted, supported by our spotters from behind. Lana and Melina got to the shoulders of two bases each. Penny was on my shoulders. There was a big round of applause when she stepped onto my hands and I lifted her straight up over my head. Then she shifted her weight and swung her left leg up in a catch-foot splits position.

And that’s where it fell apart. I could feel her wobble a little and shifted to support her, but she never stabilized.

“Spotters!” I called as I felt Penny’s weight leave my hand. I dropped my hand rapidly to make her descent as vertical as possible. If she’d done a nose dive, it would have been disastrous. Lana and Melina lost balance as the spotters rushed between us, but they both jumped into a dismount supported by their spotters and bases. I saw Penny coming down and reached out to grab her under the arms. She straightened with her hands on our two spotters and I got her to the floor almost gently.

That ended our routine. There was scattered applause, but everyone knew we’d failed our last stunt. Penny brushed my hands off her and stalked off the mats refusing to even look at the rest of us. Three more teams performed after us and there was a ten-minute pause as the judges compiled their scores. By some miracle, we still managed second place. I thought that was pretty good. The girls didn’t.

“You dropped me!” Penny screamed when she rounded on me at the bus.

“I didn’t drop you,” I said as calmly as I could. “You fell and I caught you.”

“I wouldn’t have fallen if you’d been steady. You dropped me.”

“I was steady. When I felt you teetering, I tried to stay under you.”

“You grabbed my boobs!” she screamed. That was really too much.

“How was I supposed to know that?” I spat back at her.

Not the nicest thing to say to a girl, I suppose, but she was really flat as a pancake. Next thing I knew my cheek was stinging from where she slapped me, Penny was crying on the bus, and every other girl on the cheer squad was scowling at me.

I stood outside the bus staring at the door.

“Better get on the bus so we can get home,” Coach Cook said. I balked.

“I’m going to ride home with my parents,” I said, backing away.

“Normally, I wouldn’t approve that. It’s technically against school rules,” she said, glancing back at the bus. “Maybe in this instance it’s better, though. They’re here and know to look for you?”

“Yeah. They’ll pull around in a minute or two,” I lied. They’d been at the competition, but I hadn’t even dug my cell phone out of my bag yet. I assumed they were still in St. Paul someplace.

“Okay. I’ll see you at school,” she said.

No. I didn’t think she would. I wouldn’t be going back to the cheer squad. There was no reason to. This was the last competition and I wasn’t interested in seeing any of the little bitches again.

I started digging in my bag for my cell phone. If I lost that, I’d be taking a city bus home for the next couple of hours.

Not two minutes after the bus left, while I was still digging in my bag for my phone, Tara pulled up and asked if I wanted a ride. Hell, yeah!

“I didn’t see you in your usual seat when the bus left,” she said. “Not to worry. You did great and they’ll figure that out eventually.”

“Who cares? I don’t have to work with them again,” I said. I was thinking uncharitable thoughts about Penny. I bet if I saw her stark naked, I wouldn’t know which side was up. Yeah, that was nasty and I’d never say a thing like that, but if I hadn’t caught her...

“Hey. You caught her,” Tara said, reaching over to touch my hand. “That’s what I taught you. And the rest of the routine was beautiful.”

“Not that it gains me anything,” I sighed. “They’re all mad at me and blame me for messing up the end of their program.”

“They got second place for the event. That’s higher than they placed in any of the other events. They’ll figure it out eventually.”

“You know, the only one who matters is sitting beside me,” I said. “If you think I did okay, then I’m happy.”

“Well, I think you did better than okay. If you hadn’t caught her, she’d have been injured. Ankle if nothing else. Because of you, she hit the mat like a feather.”

“She’s light as a feather.”

“She’d have discovered how heavy she is,” Tara laughed. “Believe me, I know. Hey. Let’s pick up a pizza and go to your house to watch TV.”

“Sounds good to me.”

We ate the pizza and turned on the TV, but don’t ask me what was on. My focus was all on Tara.

“You know I’ll never drop you, Tara. I promise,” I said.

“I take you at your word. I’m going to try to never test that. But I saw what you did today, Paul. I trust you more than ever.”

“You know, I’m in love with you, Tara. I don’t know how to say it in any other way. Maybe I have no idea what love is, but I’m sure what I feel for you is love,” I said.

“Oh, Paul. I hope one day we get to explore that in all its ramifications. Kiss me.”

We kissed. In fact, we made out like we hadn’t done since New Year’s. We were humping against each other on the sofa in the TV room—still mostly dressed, but our clothes were loose. I was thinking it might be time to lose some of them completely. That’s when we heard Mom and Dad get home.

“Mmm. We need ... to put...”

“Mmmhmm. Let me help you.”

“That’s not helping.”

“Sorry.”

“Zip. Zip.”

“Oh, yeah.”

We were mostly back together when Mom called down to see if we were there.

“Just watching a movie,” I called back.

“Okay. Good performance today. Will Tara be here for dinner?”

“We had a pizza. There’s still some in the fridge.”

“Well, if you get hungry, let me know. We’re going to have those shrimp skewers you like so well.”

I consulted with Tara and told her what they were. We agreed.

“We’ll join you!”

“I thought so.”

Joining Mom and Dad for dinner got us out of the basement and away from temptation. After dinner, Tara excused herself and said she needed to get home—even though it was only about seven-thirty. She said she’d see me early in the morning at the gym.

I went to my room, exhausted from the emotional roller coaster of the day. I opened my Kindle and continued reading American Gods.

I was enjoying this story, which was saying something. I didn’t enjoy reading all that much. It took me too long to process the letters on the page into words and the words into sentences. But with the screen reader reciting the words as the yellow highlight moved down the page, I was able to keep up with the thoughts being expressed.

I found it odd that the main character, Shadow, didn’t really seem to do anything. He just let things happen to him, maybe acknowledging the beings around him were gods and maybe just humoring them. Regardless, he just let life happen to him.

When I was young and weak, I just wanted to be strong. I was a lot like Shadow in prison. He had big plans for when he got out, but everything he planned turned to shit. His wife died. He found out at her funeral she’d been giving his best friend a blowjob when he crashed his car and killed them both. Shadow found himself traveling the country with one of the old ones. Like me, he just did what he was told to.

Maybe I was going to figure out what was missing in my life. I wanted to say no one picked on me, but Penny had laid a really good slap on my face today. Coach Daniels was constantly ragging on me and berating my level of commitment and my skills. It wasn’t like everyone stopped picking on me just because they couldn’t slam me into a locker anymore.

And all the girls I thought would flock around me because I was strong—wasn’t that what happened in the movies? Girls went gaga over the muscular guys on Muscle Beach or wherever. Girls seemed to avoid me unless they thought they could get something from me. Penny just wanted a base for her cheering. Madison just wanted a base who could lift her now that she was taller and heavier. Even Tara just wanted a base who could support her crippled body in an exhibition.