Learning Curve

Friday April 11th

Finn

My hair and T-shirt and jeans feel like they weigh a hundred pounds, and the vibe of the crowd is electric from the surprise rain shower that just moved through Daytona. Ace is bare-chested, swinging his wet T-shirt at Julia’s ass as she wrings out the bottom of her navy-blue and gold sundress, and several people wearing official NCA gear are on the stage, drying the mat with large towels.

Louisville, Butler, and Nesco College have already competed, all nailing their routines and putting the pressure on Dickson and the other six teams left to go. I never realized how elaborate and difficult cheerleading at a competitive level was until I started paying attention to Scottie, but I’d spend my last breath defending their athleticism to anyone now.

This shit is intense.

Blake flings water off his hair, shaking like a dog right in Ace’s face. Ace opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue like a goofball, and Julia rolls her eyes at me.

“Man, I bet all this waiting is making it ten times worse,” she says, turning back to the stage as yet another stack of dry towels gets passed around.

“Anticipation can make things better too,” I remark, thinking about making Scottie wait last night.

Blake smiles huge and waggles his eyebrows at me, and I swat him in the stomach when his gestures start to get out of control. “What?” he argues. “As your Daytona hotel roommate, I can’t help that I notice when you don’t come back to the room until the sun is rising.”

“Yo,” Ace calls, pointing to the stage. “I think they’re getting ready to start again.”

Focus renewed, I jump down off the metal rung of the bleachers and take my seat again. An MC steps onto the stage with a smile on his face and puts a black microphone to his mouth. “We apologize for that thirty-minute delay and appreciate your patience. I’m sure there’re quite a few of you who wish you would’ve brought some umbrellas, huh?” He jokes with the crowd, making Ace turn back to me and stick out his tongue.

I laugh and shove him forward, and he turns back around to pay attention.

“We’ll be getting started again here in the next little bit, after our team does a final check for safety, and I’m sure the teams waiting back there could use your encouragement. Let’s get loud for them, everybody!”

“Whoo!” I yell, shooting to my feet again. Ace, Julia, and Blake are a little slower, but when I pick Ace up under his armpits, the other two follow.

“Yeah! Come on, Dickson!” Julia yells, pumping her fist in the air.

“Dragons! Dragons! Dragons!” Blake starts to chant, encouraging the people around us to join in. Before we know it, half the crowd is calling out our mascot with us, and the MC’s smile is huge as he returns to the center of the stage and puts his mouth to the mic.

“That’s what I’m talking about! We’ve gotten final approval from the safety crew, and I’m thrilled to announce we’re ready to go! Please welcome to the stage…the Dickson Dragons!”

Scottie and her team run out onto the mat, the sound of their stomps deafening as they approach the front of the crowd, waving their arms in the air and pumping us up. The atmosphere is electric, and my fingers tingle with excitement. “Hell yeah! Let’s go, Scottie!”

Scottie’s dark hair is in a high ponytail on her head, and a big gold bow sits at the top, matching her Dickson navy-blue cheerleading uniform with gold detailing. Her lips are painted bright red, and her mouth is etched into a big smile as she takes her position in the front of her squad, the point of the triangle with Kayla smiling brightly just off her shoulder.

The crowd quiets as the cheerleaders bow their heads, waiting on their music to start.

“I’m so nervous for them,” Julia whispers to Ace, and he wraps an arm around her shoulders and tucks her close to his side.

“They got this, Jules.”

“Go Dickson!” Blake shouts from between cupped hands, cutting into the silence like a knife.

“You got this, Scottie!” I add at the top of my lungs. I don’t know if she can hear me from her spot on the stage, but I do see the slightest hint of a grin kiss her pretty mouth, so I choose to believe she can.

The opening notes of their competition song pound heavily through the speakers, and their heads snap up in unison.

It’s go time!

Scottie’s squad jumps into action, a synchronized unit of hips shaking and arm gestures. Each movement is perfectly timed to the beat of the song. The girls switch formation, and a path opens for three cheerleaders—Scottie included—to tumble toward the back of the mat.

She nails her tricks perfectly, and so do her other two teammates, and I unleash a yell I swear the captain of a ship off the coast can probably hear.

The squad moves into another formation that has the entire team doing a perfectly timed backflip and some kind of jump-leg thing where the feet of every single girl on the squad land at the same time. They hit every move with precision, and the hype running between Ace, Blake, Julia, and me makes us bob back and forth and bump into each other so much, we look like we’re in a rugby scrum.

Dickson cheerleaders switch up their positions, and Scottie and two other cheerleaders are tossed into the air by their teammates who serve as their bases below. She stands on one foot, keeps her body perfectly straight, and holds one leg high in the air. The other two flyers mimic the same movements, and all three hit their marks without any issues. They all do two twists down into their bases’ arms, but pop back up onto the top of their woven hands before their feet can touch the ground. Scottie and two other cheerleaders fly through the air in a full twisting flip, doing what she taught me last week is a basket toss.

I watch as Scottie completes her spinning backflip perfectly, my eyes so focused on her that I don’t notice her bases are in shambles until Ace yells, “Shit!” when Tonya goes down to the ground, her ankle in her hands.

I feel like I’m watching in slow motion as Scottie drops like a rock toward a group of people who are in no way prepared to catch her from no less than twenty feet in the air. She hits with a sickening thud, her head and neck impacting the mat at a terrifying angle.

The entire crowd gasps, and I jump down between Ace and Julia, Ace holding me by my shirt to keep me from trampling the people in front of us. “Scottie!” My throat shakes and my voice is raw as the music stops, and silence descends around us. Scottie’s teammates huddle around her and wave frantically for the medical staff.

“Oh my God!” Julia cries.

“Fuck, is she okay?” Ace questions, audible terror in his normally jovial voice.

Blake shoves his hands into his hair in distress, and I push forward again, not caring if I fucking have to step directly on the people in front of us at this point.

I haven’t seen her move at all.

Medical staff slides Scottie’s body onto a backboarded stretcher as I arrive at the front of the stage, but there are too many people in the way to make out anything else.

“Scottie!” I yell, jumping up onto the platform and shoving through cheerleaders carefully but quickly.

“Sir, you need to stay back,” a security guard says as he tries to stop my progress when I finally get close, but he’s no match for the adrenaline that’s now rushing through my body. I move him out of the way and shove forward again, not stopping until I bump into a crying Kayla, who’s holding Scottie’s hand.

Guys in red jackets secure her waist, legs, and chest to the backboard, and a neck collar is in place right below her scared face. I step around Kayla until Scottie can see me.

When her eyes lock with mine, I’m immediately overwhelmed by the pure terror on her face. I seek out her hand desperately, taking her fingers in mine, and squeeze, wanting her to know I’m there.

“I’m here, Scottie. I’m here.”

“Finn,” she whispers. “I can’t feel my legs. I can’t feel anything.” A sob bubbles up from her throat, and I squeeze her hand even harder with my fingers, willing her to take every ounce of my strength if she needs.

“It’s okay.” A tear trails down her cheek, and I reach out to swipe it off with my thumb. “I’m here, Scottie.”

“Sir, you need to get off the stage,” someone says to me, a hand gripping my shoulder and pulling me out of the way. “We need to get her into the ambulance.”

“Finn!” Scottie yells, panic overwhelming her voice.

“I need to go with her,” I challenge as they shove me out of the way again with a hand to my chest.

“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t. We have to go.”

I lunge toward her as they carry her by and press my lips to hers quickly but gently. “I’m here, okay? I’m going to follow you to the hospital.”

I grip her hand once more until her fingers slip from my own as they carry her away and load her into the back of the ambulance at the side of the stage.

She’s been through so much already, and now this?

I know they say God doesn’t give you more than you can handle, but the universe just told God to eat shit.

I don’t know if it’ll help or not, but hoping to swing the pendulum in our favor, I do something I’ve never done before.

I pray.