Chapter 51

"Damn dance!"

I looked over at Kelly, who was muttering under her breath as she chalked her hands for the bars.

"Did you say something?" I asked.

"I said, oh never mind." She clapped her hands to get rid of excess chalk and stepped in front of the bars.

I looked around the gym. Miss Calloway was spotting some girls on the vault, Tami was helping Traci make up a beam routine, everybody was working. I looked back at the bars and watched Kelly's routine.

"So how was it?" she asked after she'd landed her dismount.

"Depends?"

"On what?"

"Do you want the spectator answer or the coach answer?"

"The spectator answer."

"It was awesome. I can't believe the way you jump from bar to bar and then the flip off the bar at the end. Incredible. Shannon Miller better start worrying."

"She's retired," Kelly informed me dryly. "What's the coach answer?"

"Well, one leg was higher than the other on that swing beneath the bar."

"It's called a glide."

"Thanks," I said, and meant it. I was still learning the lingo. "It looked like you struggled a little with your kip." I cocked my head at her and she nodded that I'd used the right word. "Legs were apart when you jumped to the high bar." She nodded again. I think she was agreeing with my assessment. "And your dismount did look incredible to me, but I've seen you go higher."

Kelly smiled. "Not bad, coach."

"Can I ask you something?"

She nodded.

"Why are you mad at the dance?"

Kelly looked surprised, then embarrassed. "I'm not mad at the dance. Well, not really. It's just that everybody else is going, and they all want to get ready, so we're cutting practice short. And it's our last one."

I nodded. I knew that all the girls were going to the dance except Kelly, but that was Kelly's choice. Traci said at least half-a-dozen guys asked her. And I knew that we were only practicing until four-thirty tonight, instead of five-thirty. And since tomorrow was only a half-day of school, there was no practice tomorrow or during Christmas, excuse me, Winter vacation.

"Will you watch me again in a little while?"

I nodded, then went over to the beam to help Traci with her cartwheels.

I wished I knew what was bothering Kelly. At least today she wasn't biting my head off. But she didn't seem to be having any fun. Life is supposed to be fun. Especially when you're twelve.

Then I had an idea.

I told Tami about it as we stood together while Traci showed me the routine she and Tami had put together. Routines for beam and floor are a combination of dance and gymnastics. Traci's was mostly dance, but the fact that she did it four feet in the air on a four-foot-wide strip of wood impressed me. I sure wasn't getting up there.

"Ready to show me your bars again?" I asked Kelly almost an hour later.

"Practice is almost over."

"We've got time."

Kelly shrugged and walked to the chalk bucket by the bars. Most of the girls were already putting stuff away. Since it was a short practice, Miss Calloway wasn't going to do conditioning drills.

Kelly clapped her hands and stepped in front of the bars. She saluted me as if I were a judge, then started her routine. Tami and Miss Calloway came up beside me as Kelly jumped toward the high bar. We watched together as she finished her routine and landed her dismount.

"Your, uh, glide looked a lot better. Your kip too. But your legs were still apart on your jump to the high bar, and I know you can make that dismount higher. Do it again."

Kelly looked around the gym, all the girls were gone. "But practice is over."

"Don't argue with your coach," Miss Calloway said.

"Yeah," Tami agreed. The two of them turned and walked toward the locker room.

"But..."

"Do it again."

"But..."

I smiled at her confused face. "Kelly, is there something you'd rather be doing?"

"Uh..."

"Do it again."

"But my mom will be waiting."

"Your mom knows that my mom is picking us up at six. I called her."

"But Miss Calloway?"

"Miss Calloway said that we could stay until six. The school is open for the dance anyway. Are you going to do it again, or just stand there all night?"

Kelly re-chalked her hands. "You did this for me?"

"Nope, for the team. If you don't learn to keep those legs together, we're gonna lose points. Besides, I had nothing better to do tonight." Which was true. The high school dance was tomorrow night. Why they decided to have the middle school dance on Tuesday and the high school on Wednesday, I didn't understand.

Kelly blinked, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. "You're a nice guy." She wiped her eye with her wrist, not wanting to use her chalky hands.

I was tempted to tell her to remember that the next time she snapped at me, but decided that it'd ruin the moment. I just nodded, then folded my arms across my chest and tapped my foot as if impatient.

Kelly smiled. "I'm going already," she said.

"How was that?" she asked a minute later after she'd landed.

"Speaking as a spectator, awesome. Speaking as a coach, awesome. That was incredible."

Kelly beamed.

"I was thinking."

"Robbie says that's a bad sign."

Sigh.

Kelly giggled, a sound I hadn't heard in awhile. Then she put on an exaggerated straight face. "Sorry. What were you thinking coach?"

"That dismount would look even better if you did it with a straight body."

"You mean lay-out my flyaway?"

"I guess that's what I mean." Note to self, look up a gymnastics terminology site on the internet. "Do you think you could?"

"Maybe. I've never tried. I'd need a spot."