CHAPTER 34
Palmer
“All righty, everyone! Who’s ready to practice our routine?” I call out.
Sixteen hands shoot up in the air, and a smile so big it makes my cheeks hurt splits my face.
Bailey stands in the back of the group next to Ethan and Molly, hand in the air with theirs.
Ethan nudges Bailey with his elbow, showing him how he’s supposed to be standing, and Bailey quickly matches Ethan’s posture.
Seeing him not only watching something that I love but actively wanting to be a part of it makes me heart swell with affection for him.
If I hadn’t known I was falling him before, there’s no doubt about it now.
Bailey catches me staring at him and flashes me a crooked grin that has me fit to be tied.
“Bailey, can you hit the music for me?”
“With pleasure, Coach.” He jogs over to the boombox and hits play, then goes quickly back to his spot.
The music begins, and we all begin to move. The athletes mirror my movements at the front. “Big smiles, everyone!”
When Bailey had seen Ethan struggling to catch on to the dance moves and stunts at previous practices, he had asked me if he could help. I figured he just meant he would tell Ethan what to do and stand next to him.
I hadn’t realized that he had learned the whole routine.
Quite frankly, it might be one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for me, even though I keep telling myself he didn’t do it for me.
He did it for Ethan. The two of them hit it off from the very first practice and have been buddies ever since.
It doesn’t escape me that I’m not sure how things will look once this little thing we’ve got going comes to an end, whatever that means. Bailey has told me before that the nature of his job doesn’t really allow for relationships, and I don’t see that changing.
But what about when he starts sleeping with someone else?
Will she be okay with him continuing to attend practices with someone he slept with being the coach? Or will he even tell her? Probably not. Because there’s nothing to tell. Just some stellar hook-ups between friends.
The group begins to move in unison, their hands curled into fists as if they’re holding poms. Bailey is looking at Ethan and counting out loud for him as they move together.
Their arm movements are crisp, and everyone begins their first of three stunts.
The athletes shift and create three miniature pyramids by having their flyers shift into a thigh stand.
The stunts go perfectly, and everyone shifts back to their positions to continue their routine.
“Let’s go, Hijinks!” they shout together.
For three more eight counts, they move their bodies then shift into their second stunt.
In the center, one group lifts an athlete into a thigh stand.
On the sides, the athletes line up shoulder-to-shoulder, picking up one of the more flexible athletes on each side so they’re positioned on their bellies and lifting one leg into the air to create a scorpion shape.
One of the athletes forgets to pick his leg up, but otherwise, the stunt is perfect.
We spent a lot of time working on not just dropping the people we’re holding, so seeing them following what we’ve practiced makes me happy.
As they shift into their final stunt, Ronnie stands front and center, waving her fist down at her hip, a big smile on her face. She may not be able to stunt anymore, but the girl always had a knack for performing. Seeing that smile on her face always makes the work we put in so worth it.
In the back, Bailey preps Ethan. They’ve been working on his somersault for a while, and he was pretty close to having it mastered last practice.
The athletes position themselves to create a big H with their hands, and the four doing the somersaults roll forward into a kneeling position, arms diagonal.
Ethan chooses to barrel roll instead, but the finishing pose is exactly what we’ve practiced.
The music fades out, and I squeal, jumping up and down. “Guys! You did it! That was amazing!”
Everyone mimics my celebration, parents included. We all do a big kiss your brain gesture and yell, “Hijinks!”
“Now, who’s ready to try it with poms?”
“Me!” the group shrieks.
I hand two poms out to every athlete and review the expectations. “We do not throw or kick poms. If we set them down, we drop them.”
We practice as a group. The shiny green makes it hard for people not to be distracted, so we set a timer for two minutes to get our pompom play out of our system. Together, we shake them high and low, then we roll them out like dough. We turn to a partner and play pompom pattycake.
Bailey finds his way up to me. “Ethan ditched me.” He motions with his head to Ethan, who is playing with Samuel. “Want to be my partner?”
Something about the juxtaposition of the shiny material against the black of his tattoos makes me giggle.
I shake my head, unable to stop smiling. “Nothing. I’m just really happy.” Looking into his eyes, I see that Bailey’s smile matches mine. It’s everything I can do not to kiss him right now.
“Me, too. Did you ever figure out how to pay for the uniforms?”
The question sours my mood momentarily, but I choose to believe the best will happen instead of wallowing in self-pity about the school yanking the funding again.
I’ve been doing it long enough, and so far, it hasn’t changed anything.
“I put in for a few grants. I should hear back from them soon, so hopefully that’ll take care of that.
If not, I’ll figure something out. I always do. ”
The timer goes off, and everyone drops their poms at their feet, hands at their sides. Bailey makes his way back to Ethan and gets in position.
“Okay, friends! Now we’re going to do the routine again with our pompoms. Are we ready?”
Cheers go up.
“That’s what I like to hear!” I jog over to the music and hit play. “5-6-7-8!”