Flooring It - Taylor Broadway (tools of titans ebook .TXT) 📗

Chapter one: Brilliantly Dangerous

“Easy,” my coach yelled as I twisted around on the uneven bars.
Easy was not my favorite approach when it came to warming up like this. I was not just going to flip off the bar and land on my feet like a sissy. No way, that is not how daring Dylan rolls. I had something dangerous in mind and I was not sure what it was. So instead of flipping off the bar, I kept swinging around and around while I thought of something daring to do.
I decided to do a back giant while I was debating. I did the handstand on the bar and twisted around, perfect back giant if I was being judged. I thought some more, I wanted to do something dangerous, but I really did not want to get in trouble. I hate when Jerry, my coach, gets mad at me but I love to show off. Besides, I could see that after every turn more people were gathering. I needed to finish this with a bang and I needed to finish it quick because my arms were hurting.
Gymnastics isn’t always about quick decisions. Actually, everything is planned out so that you don’t get hurt. I don’t like planning things out though, so when I performed a blind change and I heard all the people below me gasp I smiled. I was the dangerous girl, the one everyone had to watch carefully because I did things how I wanted. That is why my very well known nickname was daring Dylan. The Dylan Carvers everyone knew was daring and spontaneous and now I figured out what to do that was over the top and very spontaneous.
A Jaegar, very dangerous, not to me, stunt that’s a D level skill. I pushed all my weight, swinging me around to start the stunt. I could swear that when Jerry saw me swing like I did he cursed under his breath knowing what I was about to do. I swung forward, release the bar, did a forward salto, and caught the bar in a regular grip. My hand slipped a little on the bar which slowed me down, which is really not good at all. I should’ve stopped then and restarted but I was way too proud. I tried to land laid out but I wasn’t moving as fast as I should and instead of landing I flipped right over the bar and landed flat on my back.
Everyone rushed to my side at once. My back was really soar, despite falling on a mat. Mats might be soft but when you fall from 228cm after swinging around and around with all the momentum, mats aren’t that soft.
“Dylan,” Jerry shook me, “I told you easy.”
I sat up and groaned, “Jerry you’ve known me since I was four, why did you even bother?”
All the girls around us laughed.
“Back to training,” Jerry snapped at all the girls, he had the most disapproving look on his face, a look I’ve seen more than a million times.
Jerry stood up and stuck his hand out for me. I was too proud to take it and that made him chuckle. I frowned at the chuckle but better a chuckle than that disapproving face. Even though I’d seen that face before a million times it doesn’t mean I like it. So to see his face change into a smile was good.
“Dylan you can’t do stuff like that in training, if you get hurt you can’t compete in Denver for nationals,” Jerry had a smile on his face but he was being serious.
“I didn’t get hurt Jerry, I was practicing a trick,” a trick that I really shouldn’t be doing with nationals being in two months.
“Right kiddo, practicing a Jaegar during warm ups.”
“Oh Jerry, Jaegars are warm ups for me,” I rolled my eyes.
“Go flip somewhere gold medalist,” Jerry pushed me towards the trampoline.
I walked onto the trampoline and did a few aerials and twists. Nothing over the top because 1) Jerry was watching and testing him might mean sit ups and 2) the only fun things to do on trampolines are aerials and they aren’t that fun. I jumped higher and higher on the trampoline, just bouncing out of boredom.
My daddy put me in gymnastics when I was four to help me burn energy off and he denies it but he also used it as a babysitter. The Scaggers gym is an elite training facility, which normally doesn’t take in younger girls unless you have the money to pay. My father being a CEO and all had the money. So after my mom left and my dad was left with an energized, high maintenance, little girl he had to find a place that would serve as a energy release and a babysitter. Ever since the day he first dropped me off here, I’ve spent 7-10 hours here 6 days a week.
Jerry knew, or so he said he did, that I was going to be something amazing and he’s glad he got me before I became unbearably stubborn. He has worked me hard for the past 11 years of my life, becoming more of a father than my actual father. He had me learning C level stunts when I was 6 because he had a lot of time with me, more than all the six year olds learning how to do back hand springs while I was learning how to vault. I was competing with the 11 year olds when I was eight because I had well passed the skill levels of just recitals. Jerry made me into this little machine, and I know you probably think that’s horrible but I’m glad he did that.
I’m a 15 year old elite gymnast, I’ve been on the cover of ESPN and Sports Illustrated eight times and right now I’m ranked number two in the nation, number six in the world! All the hard work I’ve put into my career and it’s really paid off, the endorsement deals and magazine articles, I’m passed perfection now.
“Dylan,” someone shouted from across the gym.
I looked across the gym to the vault where Amanda, the girl I mentor stood flailing her arms in the air. Amanda is eight and she aspires to be just like me, nothing I would want on any child because it means you want to be overly dangerous and stubborn beyond all limits and no one wants to deal with that. But I’m her gym mentor, lucky her, so I’m like her gym tutor. I help her with her stunts and I help her choreograph her floor and beam routines for gym meets.
I jogged over to the vault where she stood, her pig tails high on the top of her head and a Popsicle grin on her face. She wrapped her skinny arms around me and buried her face inside my stomach. Amanda is a little clingy when it comes to me. The sweat that had beaded up on her forehead now was smeared across my favorite orange leotard now.
“Hi Dylan, how are you, I saw what you did on the bars, are you ok,” she talked so fast.
“Amanda slow down,” I patted her blonde head, “why do you need me over here?”
“Well I’m trying to do a Yurchenko, but I keep getting scared,” she pouted.
I do not know what made her think she could pull off a Yurchenko when she can barely land a back tuck. A Yurchenko is a round off onto the springboard, a back handspring movement of the vault table and a back somersault.
“Amanda Yurchenkos are for higher skilled gymnasts, it takes a lot of practice and it’s not going to happen on the first try.”
Amanda pouted, she wasn’t taking anything I was saying in. See, she isn’t even half as stubborn as me and I don’ want to deal with her pouty face. I must put Jerry and everyone else through hell.
“Look Amanda why don’t we work on the bars, I can teach you how to perform a back giant,” I smiled widely at her, letting an evil glint creep into my eye.
She smiled widely at me, she was missing a tooth. Amanda grabbed my hand started skipping towards the bars, she was practically dragging me over there. I watched her put her grips on, she over chalked her hands which will burn when she gets blisters and then ran over to the bottom bar.
Teaching someone a trick on the bars is super difficult. Especially when you know that they really won’t be able to master the trick for another four years. But a back giant could really be done by an eight year old, I did it when I was seven. But of course I was a machine, Amanda is just a regular girl. For her learning right now would just be me pushing her legs and her trying to hold herself up in the handstand position. So now I am going to waste an hour watching her create blisters and wear herself out.
“OK,” Amanda said as she swayed on the bottom bar.
Amanda was somewhat advanced, she did know how to stand up on the bottom bar and jump to the top bar. Some girls don’t know how to do that until they’re like nine. But still she wasn’t advanced enough to swing herself to the top of the bar.
It took me 20 minutes to get her around the bar once. It took 45 minutes for her to do that herself. Amanda fell a total on 22 times, three times flat on her face, all three times it took everything I had not to start laughing. After an hour and five minutes, 22 falls, three face plants and two swings around the bar, Amanda quit. She ripped off her grips and cried at the sight of her badly blistered hands. The when the chalk hit her blisters and sunk in she started to ball.
I took Amanda to the nurse and I held her fingers, because her hands were bloody, while Amanda’s hands were wrapped with pre-wrap and iced. All in all, I spent one hour and 46 minutes with Amanda, Jerry wasn’t very happy.
“I know I assigned you to be her mentor but that doesn’t mean you waste and hour with her before nationals,” he nearly growled as he walked me to the beam.
“It actually was an hour and 46 minutes Jerry,” I winked.
Jerry had that look on his face and it didn’t look like he was going to change unless I did something spectacular on the beam. Lucky me, I had the perfect stunt to do.
“How open are you to new stunts?”
“Skill level,” Jerry raised an eyebrow as I pulled the springboard over to the beam.
“D, what else would I do Jerry,” I rolled my eyes.
He looked very doubtful but he waved a hand in the air, “Go ahead, maybe you can use it at nationals.”
I smiled widely at him, hoping for a smile back. All I got was a furrowed brow and a very worried look.
I smiled at him and then starred at the springboard. I gracefully jumped on the springboard and that lifted me onto the beam.
A balance beam is four inches wide. It is too wide for me to palm, but it isn’t wide