Father and Sevs rolled up to the gym less early this time, still a few minutes before the official warmups started. This time Markus was there before them. As they walked in, Hank waved to Sevs, and Sevs returned the greeting. Hank then immediately went back to running around with the other kids. Sevs scanned the room as he and Father walked towards the benches. It was similar to the first time they had come. Almost everyone there last time had returned, and there were a few new faces. The kids behaved just as they had before. As they were putting their stuff in the cubbies, Sevs sat on the newly installed bench to take off his shoes when Lily sat next to him.
“Hi!”
Sevs looked up and met Lily’s eyes; she smiled at him with just a hint of awkwardness. Sevs gave her a small, awkward wave. “Hey.”
With the abruptness of small children, she hopped up and ran out onto the mats. Sevs looked at Father, slightly puzzled. Father just smiled and inclined his head to the mats. Sevs went to warm up with the other children. Not really knowing what to do, he just jogged in a circle. Until Hank shoulder-checked him to the floor. Then he chased Hank until Susan called the class to order. From this perspective, the chasing seemed justified. However, Sevs thought it might be hard for parents to tell the difference between normal kids' stuff and this justified business.
They all grouped and sat through another demonstration before practicing the new move. This time the class learned it quickly. So Susan had some time to teach them a second move. Even with the additional technique they practiced, they still had about 15 minutes left in the class. Susan called them all to order. “We have some extra time, so I think I will let you all roll for a couple minutes. Do you all remember what that is?”
“Yes,” They chirped. Susan looked at the kids who were not there last time but had still answered in the affirmative. She sighed, then explained the rules again. She only had two groups go at a time for safety. Each person would get one or two two-minute rolls if they wanted. Asking for volunteers, Susan made space in the center of the mat. Lily dragged Sevs out before anyone else had a chance. One other group formed, and Susan set a timer before starting them all off. What followed was nothing like what Sevs would expect. They both kind of forgot everything. There was no side control or escapes. The roll was just a bunch of staring and rolling around like seeing a litter of puppies play.
After their third or fourth scramble to get on top, Sevs found himself under Lily in side-control. He tried the escape they had all learned, but Lily was just on too tight. It wasn’t until he tried one of the tricks he and Hank had developed that he was able to reverse the position. This time Sevs took mount. He rode out the remaining 30 seconds, trying to stay on and grab Lily’s arms to control them the way Susan had shown them. However, she was much too wiggly and just would not give up. Eventually, the roll ended. Sevs helped Lily to her feet, and they slumped against the wall and watched the next group thrash around on the ground. It took a couple rounds for them to catch their breath. Once they could talk, Lily asked, “What was that when you were sitting on me? That was too good.”
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“I learned it after the last class when I stayed at the open gym,” Sevs answered.
“That’s not fair!” Lily whined. “You can’t use moves I don’t know!”
“How would I know if you know?” Sevs asked. Lily didn’t respond. Sevs looked over, and it was clear that she was pouting.
That didn’t last very long. Almost everyone had a chance to go, and Susan asked if anyone wanted to go again. Lily started pushing Sevs to the center.
“This time, you can’t do anything I don’t know, understand?” Lily warned him.
Luckily for Sevs, Susan stopped her. “Try to go with a different partner this time. You don’t want to get used to only one person. Here you go with…” She split up the other group forming and mixed them. So Sevs rolled with a new kid.
Sevs had hoped to talk to Susan in between classes. However, like last time, she spoke with some of the mothers as they were leaving. The adult class got ready as the kids mostly filled out. Sevs could see Lily pleading something with her mother through the window as they walked by.
Like last time Hank stayed for the open class as well. Again they were the only two kids. Sevs went to stand next to Hank while the class began. They went over the new move the children had learned, as well as one more new one. Sevs and Hank practiced like before. However, by the time to roll was announced, they were both too tired to really give it a try. So they sat next to each other and watched the adults go at it.
After watching Father wipe the floor with Markus again, Sevs was starting to wonder how Father was doing it. He would have to ask when they were alone. Once the rolls were done, people started getting ready to leave. This was his chance. Sevs grabbed Father’s phone from their cubby. He had Father load up the site so Sevs could show Susan before getting to the gym.
In the rare second that Susan had some space. Sevs went up to her. “Hey… Susan. I made something I wanted to show you and thought you might find it useful.”
Once he had her attention, he turned the phone, so she could see it. As she looked down at the phone. “Awwww, did you make this? It’s soo…….. Wait, what? Is that a website? Wha…”
As it took Susan a second to get her bearings, Sevs started to look around. This wasn’t really what he was expecting. He may have gotten too used to Father and Markus. They were so easy to be around that he had mostly forgotten the normal reaction to him doing anything remotely competent.