Chapter 17: Acceptance and Rejection

I WORKED WITH SYDNIE, Lena, and Eva for four hours, took a two-hour break for lunch, and then went back at it for another four hours. We were really having fun.

That seemed strange. I tried to remember when I last just had fun in the gym.

I was still depressed about being 3,000 miles from Tara with no real hope of ever getting back together again. She was the only woman outside my family and Jennifer who ever treated me nicely. I don’t mean just having sex, though I sure missed that, too. I mean ... Like the cheerleaders did their best to ignore me and only recognized me to tell me what position they needed me in for them to climb on. Madison, I decided, was full-on psychotic. She wanted to control everything I did.

These three girls were actively working to see how good they could make me look. They were working hard with me. For those hours we were working, we were having fun. Some other students stopped by during the day and a few gave us tips or suggested poses before they went to their own training sessions.

I guess ... Well, the students here didn’t just train together, most of them lived together. Several stopped to say, “Welcome to GAC! Hope you like it here.”

I was going to like it just fine—if they liked me enough to offer me a place. And if I could afford it.

I talked to Dad Saturday night after we’d finished dinner and he said there were some funds set aside for my education that they didn’t figure I’d ever use. He also said he’d cosign a loan if I needed more. I almost cried when he told me that. I didn’t particularly want to go in debt for the expense of a college education and just get gymnastics training. But knowing the resources were available for me to follow my dream was important.

On Sunday, we worked on putting our elements together to some music the girls had. They said the academy had a library of pieces and when I was ready for music for my own performances, the librarian would help select and cut the piece of music of my choice. I hadn’t really considered where music came from before. When I was working with Tara, our choreographer brought the music which set the theme for our performance. Madison had all her own music and never asked me about it at all.

After another hard day’s work, we felt we had something we could show with pride. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would show what we could do. And we had an attentive Lena and Eva there to act as our spotters, just in case.

We didn’t have time to really coordinate our costumes. When you compete, the rules say the costumes should be essentially the same or at least coordinated. They asked me what I had available and I said my best was a black unitard with gold braid and piping.

Sydnie said she had a black and gold leotard and that would work fine. Eva and Lena would wear white, indicating they weren’t part of the act.

When they walked into the gym on Monday morning, though, they stopped as though they’d only seen me for the first time.

“Hey. You guys ready?” I asked.

“You’re him!” Sydnie said.

“What?”

“It never occurred to me that it could even possibly be you! You performed at Nationals with Tara White!”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“Why aren’t you with her? What happened?”

That led to me having to explain that Tara couldn’t really perform to the standards of national competition and she’d taken a teaching job in San Jose. I wanted to find a place where I could get back into my gymnastic apparatuses and possibly compete in the 2028 Olympics.

“I should have known just based on how strong you are,” Eva declared. “You’re right. Tara probably weighs twenty pounds more than Sydnie now. But you supported her through everything. There was no question in anyone’s mind that while Tara was beautiful and wonderful, she wouldn’t have been able to do any of that without you. You kept her stable.”

“Thanks. I didn’t think I should talk about what Tara and I did. I guess I’m glad you noticed.”

“I got hours of lectures from Coach Li about what I could learn from you as a base. No wonder she wanted us to work with you over the weekend. And she was right. I’ve learned a ton.”

“Well, let’s get warmed up and show them what we can do,” I laughed. We got started.

“There are a lot more people here than I expected,” I said when we went to the performance mat.

“The coaches and your committee all have classes this morning, so they brought their classes with them. Just like I did,” Coach Li said. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I answered. “You gave me great partners.”

“Let’s see what you’ve done with them.”

She took our tariff sheet with her and shared it with the committee as we waited at the edge of the mat for our signal to begin.

“You may proceed,” Coach Li said into the speakers.

We walked out onto the mat and assumed our opening pose. A few seconds later, we heard the chime a beat before our music started, so we were able to start our first pass cleanly with the music. This involved a couple of dancelike moves where Sydnie spun under my arm and our spotters turned a somersault to pose with their hands raised toward us. Then we were in action.

I did a cannonball launch for Sydnie and she did a pike position flip with a twist and landed with her feet in my hands. From there I threw her into a forward flip and caught her as she landed in front of me. I did a dead lift of her as she held her arms rigid with her hands in mine. Once she was over my head, she continued up into a handstand with a Mexican arch.

At one point, I heard some polite applause from the stands, but I just blocked everything out from my consciousness except our music and my partner. It came time for our tumbling pass and people were surprised to see our spotters go first across the mat. Then I went with my double layback with a twist. When I landed, I dropped to one knee. Sydnie was right behind me. She did a double tuck position salto and came down perfectly on my shoulders. I held up my left hand and she grasped it in both of hers, elevating herself into a splits.

As soon as our spotters were certain they were no longer needed, they went into their own handstand with the splits as I stood, holding Sydnie above my head with my left hand. I launched her into the air and she did a half flip to land on one foot in my right hand. From there she did a needle stand, which is a kind of vertical splits with her other foot vertical in the air and her extended hands above her head catching her foot.

That was the position she held as I returned to the floor and held her above my head as I put the other hand down on the floor and elevated myself into a table. That’s the move I call a right triangle because my floor hand is supposed to be vertical and my body extending as the hypotenuse of a triangle to my feet. The hand supporting my partner is supposed to create a continuous line from my lower arm straight into the air and on into her position in the needle stand.

We hadn’t done many throws at this point and Sydnie flipped from my hand onto the floor with her spotters watching carefully, but not needing to rescue her. From there, we went into a number of throws, each landing and going straight to another. At that point, Sydnie and I separated, spinning in opposite directions. Eva and Lena stopped our spin and sent us directly back into each other to collapse to the floor in our final pose.

There was considerable applause at that point. Without the music and concentrating on our moves, my hearing seemed to open up to the sounds around us.

“It’s too bad there is no ‘mixed group’ category in AG,” Coach Li said. “Well done. I especially liked the way you integrated your spotters into the action. It was obviously a pair, but the presence of two others on the mat did not detract from focus at all. Again, well done.”

“That was certainly impressive,” Dr. Davis, the director of the academy, said. “Paul, obviously we were gauging your strength and ability to work with others. Coaches Li, DiCello, Devault, Pleshenko, and Desmond all had good reports on your work Friday. The committee has all handed their decisions to me and I am happy to welcome you to the Tampa Gymnastics Acrobatics and Circus Academy. Congratulations, Paul.”

The girls quickly gathered around me and Sydnie gave me one of her ‘friendly’ kisses. Wow!

Everyone in the gym had their own classes and routines to work on. I was escorted to the administration office and filled out a bundle of forms and enrollment documents. I had a high school transcript (which was not particularly impressive), my certification as a massage therapist, a letter of reference from the coach of the basketball team, and even a letter of reference from Coach Dawson at the Hennepin Gym. It was signed with his regrets that I’d chosen to leave Hennepin Gym and good wishes for my future as a gymnast. It was nice that he had come around that far.

When we got to the point of paying for my tuition, room, and board, I was stunned by the amount. I was pretty sure I’d need that loan Dad had promised.

“Paul, a resident gymnastics program is not cheap, as I’m sure you are aware,” Dr. Davis said to me as we met with the bursar. “I don’t believe anyone here can afford it. We are not a college or university, so state grants and academic scholarships are not available to us. We do, however, have sponsors. These are often companies associated with athletics who want to be associated with the US National Team and Olympic Team. They understand there is a risk involved in taking on an athlete. But the amount we are prepared to offer toward your time here will make a significant dent in what you owe.”

He showed me a paper that held a promise of 80% of my tuition and board for my first year at GAC. I was stunned. Signing it held a promise that I would pursue a berth on the 2025 Team USA and the 2028 Olympic team with everything I could do. I signed the paper.

“I don’t know what you were prepared to pay when you got here,” the bursar said. “Will you be able to advance the remainder of the funds within ten days?”

“Yes, ma’am. I will arrange a wire transfer,” I said. The remaining amount was within the limit of what Dad said was set aside for my education.

“I’m also told you are a certified massage therapist,” Dr. Davis said. “You presented your certificate this morning. We’ll sponsor you for licensing, but when you are employed internally, we don’t need to wait for the license to get you started. We’ll have a couple of tests from both students and coaches to assure ourselves that you are capable, then we’ll approve you for specific massage hours. That will be worked out with your counselor for your schedule. The coaches will have input in your schedule as you will need to work into their schedules as well as a couple of general classes we want you to participate in. For now, head off to dinner and celebrate. I think everyone wants to meet and greet you.”

I was exhausted, but the party atmosphere in the cafeteria was far more exciting than it had any right to be on a Monday evening. Sydnie, Eva, and Lena met me in the cafeteria and exercised their right to introduce me to as many people as possible.

I just hoped I’d be able to progress as well in the classes as I did in my physical development. I could see already that there was speculation as to whether I would be a gymnast or an acrobat. Well, I guess there were worse possibilities.

When I was in Minneapolis, school, work, massage, basketball, all seemed like an interruption to the one thing I wanted to be doing—gymnastics. Suddenly, I was in an environment in which getting better at gymnastics was my primary task: To get stronger, more artistic, and more able to compete.

But you really can’t work out twelve hours a day every day and expect to make progress. My training day was basically three hours early in the morning and three late in the afternoon. Wednesdays and Saturdays I had only morning sessions, and I had Sunday as a rest day.

I had to take a couple of classes in order to get my massage license. They were on Florida laws and regulations, but the licensing board recognized my education under Jennifer because she was widely known as a member of the certification board.