Training

Stacy, Kimberly and the rest of the team prepare for the uncoming Nationals

 

 

Training

 

 

 

Shannon put the girls through their paces as she had promised. Training was going to increase over the next three weeks to four hours a night. This would test Kimberly most of all, but the entire team was feeling the pressure. More than once tonight, one of the girls had showed mental errors which revealed the stress.

            “Keep focused” Shannon kept telling the team. “Regionals are right around the corner. This is your shot, the last chance you have until next year to make it to Nationals. This is it ladies, this is your moment.”

            Kimberly was feeling more pressure than the other girls. Her floor routine she had opened with in sub-regions did not have the difficulty level to help her make it in Regionals. Shannon had no choice but to start her fresh with a new, more difficult routine. 

            The choreographer was trying to help Kimberly with her set up moves and finding the farthest spot, deep in each corner and make it look fluid. She listened intently, but her body was everywhere. She could not force her body into the positions she needed to make the spins and twirls fluid.

            She twirled once and fell on her bottom. She pounded the mat and got up with a fierce look in her eyes. Kevin knew the look. It was that look of pure determination, guts and focus. The fall had embarrassed her enough to through her entire body into the next tumbling run. She landed a triple flip in pike position and nailed the landing. 

            Stacy’s jaw dropped and she almost choked on her water when she saw her sister nail that move. The triple and the attitude preceding it had not escaped Shannon either.  As she approached Kimberly, she was trying to find words to express how utterly stupid, dangerous and exquisite that triple was.

            Kimberly could tell she was not in for a pat on the back from the way Shannon walked. The triple flip was not in the routine and she had totally lost her focus on her training. She hung her head and expected to hear Shannon remove her from the team immediately.

            “What are you doing?” Shannon demanded. “What are you going to do next? Stick to your routine, stay focused to it. Let me decide where to put that triple!”

            “Bring it in team. That’s it for the night. Tomorrow night, 5:00 PM – 9:00 PM. Get plenty of sleep and ice anything that hurts.”

            “Including my butt?” Kimberly chirped. It was the right thing at the right time and completely melted the tension in the gym. 

            She strikes again Helen thought to herself. That little smile and sense of humor that routinely kept Kimberly out of deep trouble was still very active and still very effective. If any child had the gift of perfect timing, it was Kimberly.          

            The Wright family went home to a late dinner and a little down time in the spa. Both girls were still wound very tightly and the excitement was almost buzzing inside them. 

            “Think we can pull this off?” Helen asked.

            “It’s done, Mom. I’ve got my part down, so you grown ups have to do your parts now.”

After a few minutes of gentle persuasion and a couple of idle threats, Helen and Kevin were able to get their daughters to bed. 

“We both have early days tomorrow. The next 24 hours will be pretty tough without you here.”

“I would take off, but I think it best to keep our abnormal routine as close to normal as possible. The girls need to stay focused and changing things around them will disturb that focus.”

“I know” she sighed. “It will be hard to work with Marco for the next few days. I’ll be a trouper and work through it all.”

“Laura will be here for the girls as usual. They usually call both of us and you know they will watch you on the late news each night for your signal.”

“Think I could copyright that?” she joked.   With that line to lighten the mood, she and Kevin began to wrestle good naturedly on their king size bed. 

Kimberly tiptoed to her sister’s room. She was excited about all the events going on around her family, but now, she had something else to be excited about. Her parents were in the same room, the same bed and they were being playful with each other.

“Stacy” she whispered. “Stacy, are you awake?”

“Well, not now.” Stacy sat up sleepily in her bed and looked at a very wide eyed and wide awake Kimberly.

“We did it. We got them back together.”

“Did what? How? What are you talking about?”

“Listen to them. They are laughing and playing around with each other again. We did it!”

“Ugh”, Stacy sighed.

“That means Dad and Mom are going to stay together!” Kimberly insisted. “We did it, we kept them together.”

“It’s not over yet, Kim. Mom cheated and we both saw it. She may have confessed to Dad, but she still cheated on him. It’s not over until we see what Dad does after the Regionals. Now let me get some sleep!”

Stacy rolled over in her bed, but Kimberly did not leave. Stacy’s words stung and she wasn’t too happy with her. She grabbed Stacy’s comforter and yanked it from her bed. 

“Get up!” she demanded. “Get up come see for yourself!”

“Kim!” Stacy yelled. “What’s up with you?   Get some sleep and let me sleep.”      

            Stacy knew that Kimberly had seen their mother on the sofa with Marco that night as well. Kimberly was walking through the house on one of her midnight junk food raids or supposed sleepwalking episodes when her half naked mother ran into her bedroom. Kimberly had also seen Stacy hiding in the shadows and knew something was wrong. Her innocence would not allow her to think of another man in her mother’s life, but she did have enough of an imagination to fill in the missing pieces from that night.   

Kimberly had been biting her lip with her side of the story ever since Stacy had told Laura about that night. Kimberly could not help but think her father was the only man her mother had ever been with. It was other mom’s who cheated, not hers and she could not find it in her heart to admit that her mother was not the perfect person she always wanted her to be. All through her school life so far, she had been proud of her mother’s job and the fact that she was the face on TV. 

When they had career day, she always asked Mom, but it was usually Dad who would be the one to show up and he always stole the show from the other parents with the shiny ambulance and the flashing lights and siren. Many of his calls were high profile calls that landed her dad’s face on TV. His appearance on TV was much more dramatic and the kids all recognized him as a hero. 

“They have to stay together!” Kimberly cried. “We can’t stand by and let them get divorced. I don’t want to live that type of life!”

Kimberly’s raised voice stopped the playfulness between Helen and Kevin. They quickly made their way to Stacy’s room where they found a very upset Kimberly and a mildly confused and tired Stacy. 

“What’s the problem girls?”

“Kim’s going off the deep end again, Dad. She thinks you are going to divorce Mom because of Marco.”

“Honey, I don’t have any plans to leave your mother. You both need to calm down and get some rest.”

“Kimberly, I know I have not always been the best wife or mother, but if I push this man out of my life, I really don’t know what I would do.”

“Promise us? You have to promise us!”

“Promises made are debts unpaid, but, I promise that as of tonight, even with everything else that has happened, I’m not divorcing your mother.”

“Mom?” she pleaded.

“Yes, I promise to all of you.”

Kevin put Kimberly back to bed, and tucked her in tightly.