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“Thank you so much, Kiri.” The journalist, Megan, got to her feet and turned off the recorder on her phone. I was still trying not to stare at her tits in the white button-up that was barely holding together under her blazer.
“Thank you,” I said, shaking her hand. Her fingers were slim and soft and I couldn’t meet her eyes. I was such a sucker for pretty women, and all women were pretty. It was a dilemma.
The minute I stepped away from Megan and put my coach hat on, I forgot about her boobs. It was time to work, and not think about boobs or Echo Rosenthal.
At the thought of her name, a memory brushed a finger along my spine. I closed my eyes and took a breath and focused on what was in front of me. Clearing my throat, I projected my voice so anyone near the gym would hear me.
“Okay, everyone, let’s get this started. We’re going to go through the first half, up until the pyramid, making little fixes and tweaks. I swear, if you don’t count your music, I am going to make you run laps and do push-ups. Full out, plus stunts. You drop anyone, you’re doing laps and push-ups. No flyers hit the ground, you hear me? Graham, are you good to tumble?”
My senior co-captain with the floppy hair and goofy smile gave me a reluctant thumbs up. I needed his tumbling skills more than I would admit to anyone. Graham had busted one of his toes a few weeks ago and had been off it ever since, but I’d gotten a note from his doctor that he was good to go last week, so it was time to get back on the mat.
“Okay, everyone in the opening formation.” I realized that since it was just me coaching today, I was in charge of the music. “Hold that thought.” I scrambled to hook my phone up to the portable speakers.
“Ready!” I yelled, before I hit play. I stopped it after about three seconds.
“What was that?” I stood at the front of the mat. No one wanted to make eye contact with me. “That was like a two out of ten on the energy scale. I know you’re tired, but suck it up.” In the corner of my eye, I saw the photographer taking pictures of me. I definitely looked like a bitch now. Oops? I glanced at Camille, the athletic director, but she was busy on her phone and wasn’t paying attention. As long as she didn’t give me a look to shut up, I figured I could go about my normal coaching business. If they thought this was bad, they should check out the wrestling team. Those coaches were on a whole other level, and our wrestling team still sucked.
“Can we try that again with a bit more enthusiasm?” I stepped in front of MacKynzie, my tiny little flyer and tumbler. “Show me energy eleven.” That was our code phrase to give me the brightest smile she could possibly find with the most energy, lighting up from the inside. It was a phrase to flip that switch and turn it on.
Mack delivered and I moved on to Ciana, Graham, Kevin, Elizabeth, and then to each member of the squad until they gave it to me.
“Okay, everyone at the same time. Energy eleven.” I clapped my hands and they all smiled as if they’d been shot in the ass with a sunshine dart.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” I said. “That’s what I want to see, every time. I want you to perform at eleven every time. Go all out, every time. Because if you’re used to being at eleven? It feels easy, and then you can push it even more when you’re ready. So let’s go.”
The photographer snapped and snapped and I hoped I looked good. Megan stood watching me and making more notes.
I started the music again and let them go beyond the first few seconds of the routine. We got all the way to the second stunt sequence before one flyer came down and I had to stop them and talk through what had gone wrong and how to fix it for next time.
I’d recently made a change and jacked up the difficulty of the second stunt, adding in a tick tock, where the flyers are being held in the air switched from one standing foot to another and back. They also did a heel stretch in between, pulling one foot up into their hand, which was the newer part.
I missed Dom so much right now. Running practice by myself was kind of like corralling a bunch of overgrown, sassy toddlers, many of whom were taller than me.
We got through the rest of practice without any major mishaps, and I ended up calling it early. Nationals were still a month away, so we hadn’t started two-a-day practices yet. That would come soon and then they werereallygoing to hate me. I also had more plans to tweak the pyramid, but I needed to run it by Dom first and see what he thought, or if it would be too much for them.
“Be good, don’t hesitate to call me if you get stuck anywhere,” I said, making eye contact with each and every one of them. I was a coach, but my job could be much more than that, and I wanted them to know that they could trust me with anything, whether they were drunk and needed a ride home, or they had a problem with a teacher, or they had a problem with a friend. I was here for all of it.
Megan and the photographer left, letting me know that they’d see me at the dress rehearsal on Saturday. I waved goodbye and breathed a sigh of relief that I wasn’t under the spotlight anymore. Camille had disappeared, probably to her office to deal with some athletic crisis (there was always one), so it was on me to make sure the gym was clean and to lock up.
I waited until every single one of the kid’s cars had pulled out, or they had been picked up, before I locked the gym, got in my own car, and blasted the radio. On came an old pop song that I knew all the words to and I sang along at the top of my lungs as I drove back to my place, just a few minutes from the school.
“I’m home,” I said, walking through the door and bracing myself. Three cats came running and meowing to greet me, as they did every day. Well, two came running. The third took her sweet time, as if she was in no rush. I was lucky to be graced with her presence.
“Hello my babies,” I said, leaning down to pet them. Spaghetti, my Maine Coon cat rubbed his head into my leg; Meatball, his sister, leaped up on her hind legs to bump my hand; and Cupcake, my pure white princess, sat and waited for the others to calm down before she pranced over and sat at my feet.
“Oh, am I allowed to pet you?” She blinked at me and I scratched her behind her left ear, her favorite place.
“Come on, my darlings, let’s eat.” They followed me into the kitchen, all screaming at my feet for their bowls, as if they hadn’t been fed in a thousand years. I set their bowls down and they chomped down on the wet food like tiny wolves.
I sighed and turned on the television, putting on a movie I’d seen a million times as some background noise as I made myself a dinner of steak and broccoli and a microwaved potato that I ate while I sat on the couch and kept the plate out of the reach of kitty paws. I flipped through my movie options, but dealing with the cats was entertainment enough.
After dinner, I put the dishes in the dishwasher and rubbed my tired eyes. I should probably start diagraming the changes to the pyramid and work out the counts, but my brain was completely overloaded.
I should also do some more work for my full-time job, but that wasn’t going to happen either. Coaching couldn’t pay all my bills, so I did work as a freelance writer for different websites, some cheer-related, some not, and I also did some social media management, graphic design, and marketing. My mortgage was cheap, and my only indulgences were travel in the off-season, and collecting scary vintage jewelry that looked like it was probably cursed.
I lay my head back on the couch and closed my eyes. It was way too early for me to go to bed, but way too late to think of starting anything but a book that I’d already read before.
I picked a book off my shelves that called to me and sat on the couch with a blanket and all three kitties. I was sweating within moments, but I wouldn’t dare move them.
