Still on a high from my math class, I drive to my second cheer practice with a smile that won't fall off of my face. I can feel the pieces of my life falling into place. I can't wait to tell my parents, and Viola, and Eli. I know they'll be proud.
As soon as I walk into the gym, I am right in Coach Turner's face. "I can do a backflip again now. And other things. Do you want to see?"
The coach just gapes at me. "Already? Well, that was fast." I nod and run over to the trampoline. "Avia?" My coach calls.
"I want to show you now." I say, and I do. My roundoff is cleaner and crisper than it was a short week ago. my back handspring is full, without me landing on my head. My backflip isn't the best I've ever done, but it will be eventually. I'm trying. My toe touch is an actual toe touch, and though my bow and arrow isn't completely there yet, it's there enough to look cool and be used in a performance. I do all of the cheer moves that I can remember, and soon the rest of the girls are crowded around the trampoline, trying to see what is going on.
I finally finish, with a racing heart and lungs quickly using up the air. I'm not in shape anymore. I see the girls, take a small bow, and hear clapping.
"Avia, that was incredible! I can see such an improvement!" Coach Turner practically screams. I laugh, but it's true. The work I had put in over the course of a week had paid off. I was becoming a cheerleader again, and I loved it.
"That was really good, Avia!" a girl I don't recognize says to me. I thank her and get into the formation for warm up. The rest of practice passes by quicker than any cheer practice ever has. With every move we learn, memories come flooding back. Winning state with the cheer squad freshman year. Teaching Emmi how to do a back handspring in the grass. The buses we would take to competitions, the bases that I've had, the friends I've made. Why did I ever give this up? Cheer is what I love, it's what I was meant to do. Cheer runs through my veins and pumps in my blood. And for the first time in two years, I can say that I've finally found myself. I was on the cheer mat the whole time.
"Wow, great practice guys!" Coach Turner says. "I'll see you all next Wednesday." The girls file out, and I am the last to leave. As I pass Coach Turner, I tell her thank you.
"For what?" She asks.
"For everything." I reply.
YOU ARE READING
Avia, Actually
Fanfictionavia was the butler family's golden girl, the one who everyone thought was going places- that is, until the day she threw it all away. when she realizes everything that she has lost, she starts a journey to change her life and bring it back to the b...
