Learning to Fly (TNT Force Cheer #1)

  Dana Burkey

  Copyright © 2016 Dana Burkey

  All rights reserved.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  A big thank you to my friends and family for supporting me on this amazing creative journey.

  Special thanks to Tabitha, Monique, and Emily for attending cheer comps with me as well as joining me to watch countless YouTube videos.

  Finally, thank you so much to the Etsy shop ArrowandBowss for creating the perfect bow for the book cover. You’re ability to bring my idea to live was truly a wonderful addition to this book!

  I gritted my teeth, squirt gun in hand. There was no way Peter was going to win yet again. Digging my bare toes into the soggy ground, I turned around the corner of the house and moved out into the open space of the backyard. Crouching low as I moved, I made my way to the willow tree that took up the center of the Morgan’s yard. Using the thick branches and trunk as a barrier, I watched as Peter looked around himself before sprinting towards the front yard that I had just left. Knowing it was the perfect chance to sneak up on him I followed automatically, giving my water gun a little shake to make sure it was full enough for a real strike. I had only used a little since filling it last, so I knew it was time to end our battle once and for all. Knowing only the element of surprise would win, I charged into the front yard, squirting the second I saw a flash of a familiar red shirt.

  “I’m already out!” Kyle squealed, holding his hands up to stop the stream of water I was sending into his face as he turned to face me.

  “Got you,” a laughing voice said behind me. I whirled around just in time to feel the jet of water make contact with my grey shirt. I scowled, realizing my mistake.

  After getting Kyle out, I assumed he went back to playing in the pool in my backyard, just feet from where we were standing. Instead, as usual, Peter used his younger brother to trick me and get the win. When his water gun was finally done firing, I glared at Peter and his dry shirt, knowing I was once again in second place.

  If it weren't for the fact that Peter was a solid foot taller and had eyes that were a darker green than his brothers, they could almost pass as twins. It didn’t help that both boys had the same brown curly hair and dark tan skin. They looked enough alike to trick me into losing another game of water guns!

  “Whatever, I’m going swimming,” I shrugged, tossing the weapon onto the ground and walking away before Peter could go on and on about still being the undefeated winner of our summer soak battles.

  “Don’t be a sore loser Maxine!” Peter called, jogging after me. “Besides, aren’t you sick of swimming today?”

  “Not even close!” I scowled back towards him, wishing I was close enough to punch him for calling me by my full name. I took the three steps up my back deck while pulling my now soaking shirt off of my body. Pausing just long enough to slip out of my basketball shorts, I stood for only a second in my dark green one-piece swimsuit before leaping into the deep end of our in-ground pool. Opening my eyes underwater, I looked up and saw Peter was preparing to jump in as well, although his entrance to the pool was much closer to the shallow end. He may have been better at water gun battles, but I was still the better swimmer.

  Kyle joined us before too long, the three of us swimming in circles and playing never ending games of Marco Polo. Peter hung close to the walls while I stayed in the center of the deep end, more or less out of reach. Only when the boys got really confident or brave would I even have to worry about being ‘it.’ That made both Kyle and Peter complain, but only a little. After all, they had to be nice when they were swimming in my pool. It beat going to the overcrowded public pool across town any day.

  Hours passed that way, swimming around the pool and enjoying the cooling water. I only left the pool to practice flipping off the newly installed diving board, otherwise staying out of the 93-degree weather. It was already my third summer in North Texas, but I was still convinced that without my pool I was going to melt any day I didn’t at least dip my feet in for a while. And, as I swam and played with Peter and Kyle, I was determined to stay neck deep all day. In fact, I was so distracted with my plan to stay cool that when the sudden boom of thunder began rolling in, it startled me into almost belly flopping instead of completing another dive.

  “Storm!” Kyle said, his eyes round like saucers. Kyle hung out with Peter and I all the time, but it was moments like that when I remembered he was still three years younger than me. And sure, at 12 I wasn’t afraid of storms anymore, but I know I was back when I was 9. It made me a little more empathetic than Peter, who was instantly taunting his little brother.

  “You better go hide under your bed I guess!” Peter teased, adding in a splash of water for emphasis.

  “Don’t be a jerk,” I told Peter, splashing him in return before swimming towards Kyle. He was starting to cry as he climbed out of the pool. “Want to help me find snacks Ky?”

  At his nod, I walked with him into my house, pausing only to grab our towels from the beach chairs sitting on the patio. Glancing at the clouds quickly filling the sky, I knew the thunder we heard was only the start of the storm. While Kyle and I pulled out chips and cookies and lemonade, Peter finally made his way inside to join us. He didn’t apologize to his brother, but he also didn’t taunt him anymore, so that was a small victory.

  “So,” I said turning to Kyle, hoping to make it clear to Peter that I was still annoyed by his antics. “What should we do now?”

  My question had Kyle lighting up right away. As the youngest, Peter often made him just go along with whatever we were doing. And honestly, I likely did it to him a lot as well. But, unlike Peter, the idea of Kyle as a little brother was fun to me. Being an only child got boring fast during summer when my dad was at work. Sure, Kyle and Peter weren't my real brothers, but after living next door to them for three years they felt like family. I couldn’t help but grin as Kyle suggested a few options for us to fill our time with until the storm was over.

  “We could play video games,” Kyle said with a grin.

  “Boring,” Peter quickly sighed.

  “Or we could play foosball,” he tried again, his grin slipping.

  “You always lose,” Peter pointed out.

  “We-,” Kyle started, his eyes filling with tears. “We could-”

  I saw Peter about to open to mouth to say something mean but I punched his arm before he could get a word out. It sent him flying sideways, which he tried to pass off as an attempt to sit on one of the kitchen stools. He would never admit it, but I could punch just as hard as any of the boys he knew, and was only getting better every time I had to hit Peter for being rude.

  “We could go to the air park,” Kyle smiled, clearly entertained by me hurting his brother.

  “Perfect!” I said, shooting Peter a glare so he knew anything but agreement would be met with another punch.

  “I’ll see if mom can take us,” Peter offered. He stood up and quickly left out the back patio doors. When he was almost out of sight, I saw him rubbing his arm, no doubt still feeling the sting of my punch. It felt good to know I had stood up for Kyle, even if my dad wouldn’t approve of my action. He didn’t like when I got too rough with Kyle or Peter. A
fter all, they were told never to hit girls. And sure, I was a tomboy through and through, but the no hitting rule still applied. I used it to my advantage every now and then, but only when my dad wasn’t there to give me a warning.

  “Thanks Max,” Kyle said, catching my attention. He was stuffing chips into his mouth while rubbing the tears out of his eyes.

  “It was a good idea,” I assured him. “I’m going to get changed. Don’t eat all the chips without me!”

  “And we win again!” I laughed, giving Peter and Kyle both high fives.

  “I need a break,” the boy across from us said before dropping his dodgeball and bounding out of the trampoline pit. After losing the third game in a row, him and his friends were clearly not interested in getting beat yet again.

  “Water?” Peter asked, hopping up and down on one of the small trampolines.

  “Good idea,” I nodded, leaping over the center barrier and out of the dodgeball arena. It was my favorite part of the indoor trampoline park, but was also the most tiring. Jumping up and down while dodging and throwing was exhausting on most days, but after a morning of swimming and running around in the backyard, I was more tired than usual. I pulled my hair out of its low ponytail and tried to put it back in a messy bun that would hopefully keep it out of my face a little more. I made a mental note to tell my dad that I needed a haircut soon. The light brown locks were growing well past my shoulder and becoming an annoyance.

  “That was a good catch,” Peter said to Kyle as we walked to the water fountain. He had been a lot nicer to his brother since I punched him, something I would be sure to remember if he started to change his ways again.

  I was going to agree with Peter about the catch Kyle had made early in the game-it helped us come back for a win against boys that were all at least a few years older than me, but I was instantly distracted. Across the trampoline park I watched in shock as a girl not much taller than me ran on the trampoline track and launched herself into the air doing at least three flips before she fell into the foam pit. Once she climbed out of the foam another girl went after her, doing an elaborate flip and twist motion in the air before landing into the foam. I took a drink from the water fountain quickly, then walked towards them to get a better look.

  “Try it with a kick this time,” one of the girls suggested as I got closer to them.

  Nodding at the suggestion, the other girl took off jumping and running before flying into the air to perform the modified trick. She ran forward and did a roundoff. While high above the ground she kicked her leg up above her head before twisting around and landing into the foam pit feet first. As the girl climbed out I saw that she looked about my age, although her bright pink wardrobe was much different than my white shirt and green basketball shorts.

  In fact, I realized as I got closer, both girls looked a lot different than I did. One girl stood before me in tight pink shorts, a white tank top with pink glitter stars on the front of it, and white shoes with pink laces. She had short cropped white-blond hair and bright blue eyes. Her entire face was lit up and animated as she spoke to the other girl, her arms flying while she spoke to emphasize how pleased she was about the flip move into the foam. The girl she spoke to was wearing red shorts and a black shirt with something scrawled across the front in a combination of glitter and sequins. Her hair was a darker blond than the other girls’, and she had it pulled up into a super high ponytail that made her brown eyes and thin face look even more angular. It also looked like she had makeup on, but I wasn’t entirely sure in the trampoline party lighting.

  “What was that you just did into the pit?” I said to the girls, breaking their conversation instantly.

  When the two girls turned to me, I was suddenly worried they would think I was weird for talking to them, but instead they simply launched into telling me about the move I had just seen. They both spoke at the same time, but after giggling about the confusion the girl in pink tried again.

  “It’s called a kick full,” she said with a smile that seemed to take up her whole face. “You do a roundoff and then start to do a normal back flip, but then you kick your leg up and twist your body around before you land.”

  “It looked really cool,” I told her plainly, already trying to play through the move in my head once more.

  “Do you want me to show you again?” the girl offered. “I just started trying it here a few days ago so I need the practice anyways.”

  When I nodded she took off on the little trampolines that led to the foam pit, once again kicking her leg in the air before twisting around and landing feet first into the foam. I paid special attention to the movements that time, even rotating my torso as I tried to think through how I could try it myself. As the girl in pink climbed out of the foam the other girl turned to me.

  “If you want to try it we can help you,” she offered. “It’s really safe with the foam, so even if you don’t get it right away it should be okay.”

  “Cool,” I nodded, already focusing on how I could get my body to move and twist the way I had just seen.

  The first few attempts were laughable. But, with the help of the girls, I was quickly catching on. Lexi, the girl in all pink, had me learn how to do a back flip first, telling me that once I had that I could add in the twist, and then after that the kick. Both her and Halley, the girl in the black shirt, walked me through doing a flip complete with a twist of my body. Halley gave me a lot of tips while Lexi tried the move over and over again so I could understand it. Lexi was a few inches shorter than me, and was even skinnier and scrawnier than I was. I was surprised how much height she could get off the trampoline each time despite her tiny frame.

  I noticed how she bent her knees while she was jumping and copied the technique exactly. It made a difference and I popped up off the trampoline even more after the roundoff, making the tricks into the foam pit that much more easy. By the time Peter and Kyle came over to find me, I was able to do the full with little effort, and was about ready to try adding the kick into the move as well.

  “What are you doing?” Kyle asked as I climbed out of the foam pit with a massive smile on my face. He had just watched me complete the full more or less successfully.

  “Oh, um, these girls showed me some cool tricks,” I said with a shrug. Seeing Peter’s unimpressed expression, I added, “They’re a lot better than me.”

  “Let’s go play more dodgeball,” Peter said, clearly unimpressed by the trampoline tricks.

  “In a little,” I said, turning back to Halley and Lexi. “I think I’m almost ready to add in the kick part. I feel like I might be going up off the trampoline enough to add it now.”

  “We need you to play if we’re going to keep beating those guys,” Peter tried again, Kyle nodding along with him.

  “I said I’ll play in a little.” I didn’t even bother to wait for a reply, instead bounding forward and again trying the roundoff into the full to make sure I had it down before adding more to it.

  By the time I climbed out of the foam pit, I saw Peter and Kyle were finding someone else to play on their dodgeball team. I didn’t worry too much about whether or not they would win without me, instead celebrating that I was finally really good at the new trick. Lexi and Halley both gave me a high five, then laughed as I asked them to show me how to add the kick motion in to make the move even more awesome.

  An hour later, I was able to almost get the kick and twist without looking like I was just flailing in the air. It was a lot harder than the full, but I was getting a hold of it pretty fast. I knew without the trampolines there was no way I could do it at all, but it was fun to try into the foam pit for a while. Seeing that I was picking everything up without too much trouble, Lexi suggested that I try running tumbling. I didn’t know what she meant, but when we went over to a long stretch of trampolines in another part of the room, I watched as she took off running then flipped around again and again on the trampoline’s surface. She flipped from her hands to her feet over and over before ending in what
I recognized as a full. When her feet hit the ground after the full she pitched forward and landed on her knees before popping up. Even with the slightly botched ending, I was still super impressed.

  “That was crazy!” I said to Halley, my mouth hanging open as Lexi jogged back to where we were standing.

  “If you can do a cartwheel or roundoff then it’s pretty easy from there,” Halley said with a grin. “And if you already know how to do a back tuck then it’s not hard at all.”

  Before I could even ask, Halley began explaining what she meant, complete with examples. Her and Lexi showed me easy ways to do the flips with the extra bouncy support of the trampolines. After only a few falls, I was able to do a roundoff into a back handspring without too much trouble. Landing on my feet was hard, but they were both impressed at how good I did on my first real try. Even when I told them I used to have a trampoline at my old house in Oregon, they assured me I was still a super-fast learner.

  “I think I want to try that kick full thing again,” I said, standing up after scraping my knees while trying a roundoff back handspring back tuck. The trampoline was giving my knee a rug burn kind of feel, and I was definitely not loving it.

  “Halley, time to go!” a woman called out before either girl could reply. “You can see Lexi and your friend at the gym later.”

  “The gym?” I asked.

  “She’s not from the gym,” Halley explained simply as we all began walking towards Halley’s mom and the shoe rack near the door.

  “You don’t cheer at TNT?” Not understanding anything she had asked me, I stared at her blankly until Lexi came to the rescue.

  “This is Max,” she said with a smile. “She saw us working on our fulls and stuff and wanted to try. She can already basically land a kick full into the foam pit.”

  “Yeah, I was watching,” Halley’s mom said slowly. Her green eyes were looking me over, as if trying to decide what to make of me. “You’ve never done any tumbling like that before today?”