Walking down the road, Damian noted the change from simple homes to large industrial buildings. Spotting the large industrial warehouse in the distance, he glanced up at the familiar red and blue log. It read, Take Flight Gymnastics Academy.
Damian thought back to the first time he had seen it.
That was ages ago, just after we moved to Sydney. I was so excited to find a place that taught parkour. It was the only good thing about the move down here.
He entered straight underneath the sign, and walked into the waiting area. His class was just starting, so he threw his bag and shoes in their place, and ran over to his squad. His coach, Olga, had just started the warm-up, and he joined in without missing a beat.
He snuck a look to the side and saw Alya’s stunning hazel eyes, smooth brown hair, and olive skin tone. One strand of hair had slipped from her bun and hung across her face, framing it perfectly. He turned his head away, his face slightly red. She was beautiful, and everyone said she was really friendly and nice. Damian wouldn’t know though, he hadn’t been able work up enough courage to speak a word to her since he joined the squad six months ago. It wasn’t for lack of trying, but whenever he tried to speak to her, his tongue gave up on him.
She seemed to look more and more breathtaking every time he saw her. Since that first time, Damian had been obsessed. He had missed a class and had come in to do a class on a different day, and was partway through his warmup when he noticed her. She was balancing in a handstand. There were three of them, the first one was in a squat, the next one was standing on her knees arms reaching to the roof, and Ayla was on top in a handstand. on top of someone who was standing on someone else’s thighs. Damian was blown away, but not just by her skill. She landed perfectly on the floor and he leaned forward to get a closer look at her face, and he toppled over onto the floor. His coach saw him fall out of the corner of his eye, and came over to ask if he was alright. Damian’s eyes were glazed over as he asked what the class over there was. His coach explained that it was acrobatic gymnastics and that while it looked really fun, with people flying through the air and balancing on towers of people meters above the ground, but it really hurts to train it, and it difficult because if one person make a tiny error people can get injured.
Damian decided that he wanted to join that class for obvious reasons. So he pulled together just enough courage to ask the gym manager if he could try acrobatic gymnastics. She said that if he could balance in a handstand for thirty seconds and do a standing backsault on floor he could. Damian had already learned to do a backflip, but he had never balanced for that long in a handstand before, but he went up into a handstand and fought it so hard, that he didn’t come down until the thirty seconds was up. The gym manager chuckled to herself and told him to come in at 4:30pm tomorrow and he could try it out and see how he went. He did, and he found that it was more fun that he’d expected. The flexibility part was easier than he thought it would be, and they got these two guys, Kye and Yousef, to launch him meters into the air, it felt like flying. He also discovered that Alya was even more beautiful up close, so he’d stayed in the squad.
Returning to the present day, he glanced around and noticed a new guy warming up with the squad, he looked about 17 with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a sculpted body. His smiling face made him look pretty friendly, and it reminded Damian of the way his Dad used to smile.
He asked Kye, “who’s that.”
Kye replied, “he’s new.”
“I can see he’s new, but who is he?”
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Kye continued the warmup paying no attention whatsoever to Damian.
After a couple of minutes Yousef spoke, “His name’s Jackson, I think he’s training with us.”
As they finished their stretching and handstand training, their coach, Olga, lined them up and and introduced Jackson. Her hair putted back tightly into a bun matched her voice and her personality, “This is Jackson, He’s 22, he will be training with Ky, Yousef, and Damian, to make a men’s group. Hopefully they will make it to nationals. Hey everyone this is Jackson, He's 22 and he's done acrobatic gymnastics for years. He's going to be working with Ky, Yousef, and Damian. Now they'll be able to be a full men's group, so hopefully we can get them competing at nationals this year. I’ll let you guys introduce yourselves, and I’ll be with you in a minute. Let’s break."
Great, Introductions, I hope words come out of my mouth in the right order, but He looks like he knows what he's doing, thought Damian as he recalled the way Jackson moved effortlessly through the warmup and conditioning.
As Jackson walked over, Damian noticed that he was really small, under a foot bigger that him. He was definitely smaller than Kye or Yousef. Jackson carried himself with almost like an aura around him. it wasn’t intimidating, but you could tell he wasn’t scared of anything. He introduced himself to them all, his eye’s carrying his authenticity and told them his name was Jackson, but that you could call him Jack, or Jacky. It didn’t bother him.
Jackson said “Hi” to Kye and Yousef then he nodded at Damian, ”What's up little man,” He said.
Damian visibly flinched.
Jackson noticed and spoke again, “I’m sorry, Dame, I shouldn't of said that. I know exactly what it feels like to be called little all the time.”
Damian thought for a second, Dame… the only person who ever called me that was Dad, and said “Actually, its alright I don’t mind.”
Jackson waited for a couple of seconds then said, “how are you?”
“I’m going okay” said Damian, his nervousness getting the better of him as he tried to think of something to say, Howwho are you? Kye sniggered and Jackson gave him a look.
“Who am I? I just told you, I’m Jackson.” His perfectly straight face not giving away the slightest hint of emotion.
Finally getting the right words, Damian spoke, “I mean how are you?”
I’m feeling incredible,” replied Jackson. “I’m really excited to be here and to train with you guys today.”
Just then Olga walked back over, interrupting the awkward introductions. She explained what to start with, and they got underway.
The first challenge of the night was balancing on his right arm in a handstand on top of Jackson’s head, while holding Jackson’s left hand for support. Jackson sat on the floor in a straddle to make it a little less scary for Damian, as he toppled off the first two times he tried, eventually he started to get the hang of it, keeping his legs split out to the corners of the gym to help him balance.
1…2…3…” Jackson counted and then Damian folded in half and swung his legs down through the gap between his arms to land on the floor in front of Jackson.
Olga walked over, “Really solid technique Jackson, Damian you need to be tighter in your tummy. Tense your abs. Again.”
They practiced these balances over and over, then Damian went over to Kye and Yousef and got launched up into the air. He did a single straight backflip and landed on his feet on the floor.
They finished with a heap of strength work and Yousef got tired and tried to cheat so the coach made the whole group do it again. Damian was slightly annoyed, but Kye was showing how annoyed he was to Yousef. Yousef was just ready to go home, and Jackson was smiling as he did the whole conditioning set all over again. Damian couldn’t get why in the world Jackson was happy about extra work so he asked him.
Jackson replied, “What’s your aim, to avoid pain, or to get stronger? I know my aim so it really doesn’t bother me.”
Damian didn’t even have a reply to that question, that sure was an interesting was of thinking about it.
The stretch at the end of the session felt great as his tired and sore muscles began to relax and the tension between Kye and Yousef started to die down.
Even with double strength, Damian really enjoyed the night, he got to try so many new things, and Jackson was really encouraging making the whole group come together and work as a team.
Damian was absolutely exhausted as he walked back home, but he was really happy. He was excited to grow and improve as an acrobat, and was interested to see how good they could get. He wandered into his room, and got ready for bed his mind still thinking about training.
In Jackson’s words, tonight was incredible, he laughed as he drifted off to sleep.