You Were Always on My Mind

Gymnastics

Jacob's Perspective

"Hey Jake! Do you mind helping me with something?" Samantha called out into the house. I walked out of my room and headed to the living room where I heard her voice. 

"What do you need?" I asked.

"I need someone to spot me on my gymnastics flips so that I don't hurt myself. I have mats out here, but that won't be enough."

"I can try to help."

For twenty minutes, I attempted to spot Sammy, but I just couldn't figure out what to do with her body and how exactly to flip her. 

"Well, this isn't exactly working," I said laughing a bit as Sammy just laid on her back, "want me to just give you a ride to that little gymnastics place in Port Angeles?"

"That would be great," Sammy responded getting up. She put the mats back in the shed then we got into Henry's car and drove off to Port Angeles. Sammy sipped on her water the whole ride trying to rehydrate from our failed attempt at gymnastics. Once we reached the small gym, Sammy was greeted by all of the workers in the front office. 

"You're in luck Samantha, it's free open gym tonight," the front clerk informed Sammy with a grin.

"Thanks Robin. How have things been around here?" Sammy asked, giving Robin her full attention.

"We've been doing really well this year, thanks for asking. Are you going to volunteer here again this summer? The kids and parents all loved you. Ivan can retrain you and catch you up on all the kids names."

"I think I can make some time to do it again, but for tonight I need to get this guy to learn how to spot me. Jacob, this is Robin. Robin, this is Jacob."

"Pleased to meet you. Maybe if you're a quick learner, you could help out too. Obviously, you would work alongside Samantha so that you have someone who really knows the sport and routine," Robin suggested. 

"That sounds like fun. You wouldn't mind me joining, would you Samantha?" I asked.

"No, it would be great to have you helping me. You can hold more weight than I can so that would be a huge help plus all of the boys will love you," Sammy assured me. 

"Ivan or you can just tell me how he does," Robin said turning back to her computer. 

We walked into the gym and Sammy was greeted by even more people. I had been here a few times before to watch her practice and work last summer, but not enough to recognize many faces. 

"Hey Ivan! Do you have a class right now?" Sammy asked hugging a very muscular guy. I got slightly jealous before remembering that he was supposed to be here to help me.

"Not for another hour; what do you need?" Ivan asked.

"Well I need someone who can spot me at home and I was hoping that you could teach Jacob here. Plus, he may be my little assistant when I start working here again," Sammy informed him.

"I can definitely help out. Jacob seems to have a lot of potential strength wise," Ivan commented.

"Probably cause he's star quarterback," Sammy said, trying to show me off as usual. Ivan nodded with a look of approval.

Sammy made me start with the basics like spotting on cartwheels and somersaults. These were super easy to do since Sammy had perfected the moves a long time ago. Next, we worked on spotting back handsprings and back tucks which were pretty difficult. She did perfectly well on the back handsprings, but hand placement was a little awkward for me and she seemed to absolutely hate the back tucks although she did them perfectly. Randomly, we were interrupted by little kids or staff members greeting her.