Kata tugged on sweatpants over her shorts and threw a water bottle into her drawstring backpack.
The sun was just starting to peek through the trees, the first signs of dawn starting to crack. Kata headed out of her house and began running. She started at a slow pace, letting herself enjoy the early morning. It was November after all, and fall in Dripping Springs was gorgeous. The town had lots of trees, and not too much of anything else, so when all the leaves changed colors it was really an amazing sight. As her feet pounded the sidewalk, leaves of all different colors crunched under Kata's feet, and the cool autumn air whipped at her face. Her cheeks began going numb, but she was smiling.
Kata loved getting up early in the mornings to run. Well, she told her mom she was running, saying that it was part of her "log" for strength and conditioning when in reality she only ran as far as her gazebo so that she could dance, and this so-called "log" didn't really exist.
It was the day of opening night for High School Musical and Kata hadn't slept well last night because of a combination of nerves and excitement. When her alarm had gone off at five, she was already well awake and had no problem dragging herself out of bed and putting on clothes so she could get an early start on the day. Really, whenever she was feeling stressed or pretty much any emotion that kept her up at night, she liked to get up and work out before school. She actually quite enjoyed her workouts, whether they were dance, running, or conditioning. She tended to listen to music while doing them and it helped her get her mind off of everything. Plus it made her feel strong and gave her the little encouragement she needed to get through the day. Pushing herself farther than she thought she could go to the point where she was on the edge of breaking made her feel unstoppable. Invincible.
Kata arrived at the old gazebo in about fifteen minutes and dropped her drawstring bag on the floor. Even though it was cool outside, Kata found herself quite warm from her light jacket and pants. She took off her jacket and sweatpants, revealing a thin white t-shirt and gym shorts underneath. She took off her shoes and, having already stretched before running started doing some more vigorous stretching to get her ready to dance, starting by going into the splits.
As she lowered herself to the ground, she began setting up her Bluetooth earbuds and music. She sat comfortably in the splits, so she moved over to the railing to go into an oversplit, hoping to challenge herself a bit. She reminded herself how far she had come, just by this simple fact. When she first started dancing, even attempting to do this stretch hurt her terribly, but she kept working at it, and like every other thing with the sport that she put her mind to, she eventually got it.
Once Kata completed her stretching, she perched herself upon the railing of the gazebo, one leg dangling freely and the other one crossing over it. She had decided to focus on the first verse and bridge of the song she was dancing to, to workshop them. Kata pressed play on her phone and sound began to fill her ears. She looked forward, uncrossed her legs, and made a graceful descent to the floor. She took three steps in a diagonal pattern and went into a full leg extension. She lowered herself into a graceful cartwheel from the position she was in. This step alone took incredible core power, but Kata did it without too much pain because of all the strengthening she had done. Now into a back walkover. To the ground, now back up- back handspring step out. Too hard on the landing. Never mind that, keep going. Large turn to a back sissone step out and turn. Now into the front handspring.
Kata had been workshopping her front handspring for a while, but she still couldn't seem to land it past a crouching position. She could do it just fine with a lead up because the lead up gave her power, but she was attempting it from a standing position. Granted, it was almost a front walkover, but she needed at least some spring in order to make it over.
"Well, I guess I know what I'm working on this morning," Kata muttered as she stepped into the grass in order to work the trick more easily.
For the next fifteen minutes, Kata worked her front-handspring over and over again, landing it a few times but not consistently by any means. She then started focusing on her lead into the handspring trying to get better timing and power. By 6:00 Kata was landing her front handspring about 50% of the time which was a major improvement from what was happening before. She was also extremely tired so she decided she would just work on her split leap for about 10 minutes before going back to her house.
Kata padded up to the gazebo and sat her phone up on the railing so that she could see how her leap was looking. She pressed record and went to the other side of the gazebo. Kata took a deep breath then took two sashays into her leap. She landed gracefully on one foot in an arabesque then stopped her recording and watched it back. In her leap, her legs definitely didn't come to a 180-degree angle yet, but it sure was getting there. Kata hoped that by the end of the school year her split leap would be at that 180-degree angle. After all, she could do oversplits on both her legs with both her front and her back leg in both cases at crazy angles.
Kata began her jog back to her house when she heard a soft ping from her phone.
It was the High School Musical group chat that the company had created a few weeks ago so they could stay in touch and stay on the same page. Alex had sent the message.
Alex <3: Hi guys! Sorry, I know it's super early but I couldn't sleep and I wanted to tell you that you're all going to do amazing tonight. It's been amazing working with you guys and you've made me feel right at home. I couldn't be more grateful. You guys are the best and I'll c u all at school :)
Kata couldn't help but smile. Alex was so sweet. Her thumbs began flying over the keyboard.
Kata: It's been amazing being your stage manager and even tho you've all gotten on my nerves I wouldn't trade this experience for anything else, nor would I have wanted to experience it with anyone else. I'm so excited for tonight and everyone should be so proud of the work we've done. I know I am <3
***
A/N: Thank you so much for reading this chapter! If you liked it, please consider leaving a comment/vote before moving onto the next part!
I want to say that I don't know choreography haha...I was in gymnastics for most of my childhood so I know all the moves I'm talking about and the techniques needed in order to do them well because I've done all of them myself. I say I know the techniques to do them well and not actually how to do them well because I sucked... I mapped out this choreography before writing it down but again I'm not a choreographer and I was in gymnastics not dance so if any of you know anything about dance and choreography and think Kata's dance could be improved please tell me!
-Sunny <3
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Dear Ocean Sky
Ficción General[first draft - this story will be edited later on] "I just worry about people. Especially my friends." "Friends?" Alex looked over at Kata with kindness in her eyes. "Of course."...
