Perfect

A normal day at the beach (almost)

I'm not used to having days off. When I step out of the gym with my bag over my shoulder, a wave of heat hits me in the face like a metal rod. I'm walking towards the bike rack when I hear the door slam behind me and someone calling out my name. "Gracie! Hey, Gracie!" I turn around and shield my eyes from the sun. Samantha, a level 8 who's been one of my best friends since I started competitive gymnastics, is waving outside the door of the gym. I jog over to her. "Hey, Sam. What's up?" Samantha, Alexandria, and Madison have all been with me for a while. We're all really good friends. We call ourselves the Fabulous fearless four. They're basically my best gym friends. "Actually, what's up with you? Why were you with the 9's, oh and are you okay?" I tell Samantha everything. She's quiet for a moment. "Are you going to do it?" "Do what?" "Level 9?" "Oh." I don't answer. I don't need to. Sam knows my answer. Instead. She gives me a big hug. "I'm so happy for you. You'll do amazing." "I don't want to do anything without you guys." I say. We pull out of our hug. "Can I tell Madi and Alex?" Sam asks. I twist my lips. "I-" "You'd rather tell them. That's good. You should tell them." We stand together silently for a few minutes. Sam jumps. "Shoot, I gotta get back to practice! I guess I'll see you around, Grace." I stand there in shock for a second. I haven't heard Sam call me Grace in forever. Is she mad at me? Is this her way of silently disconnecting?

Everything's happened so soon and so fast, and my brain hasn't had time to fully digest it all. When I hop on my bike, I let my legs take me where I should go without giving it a second thought. Instead of going straight home, I wind up at the beach. There are a lot of kids my age there. Kids with lives. It's always tempting when I see them, without a care in the world. It's obvious that they don't spend half their lives training things that could kill you just for that one moment. And if, in that one moment, you don't succeed, giving up your life is worthless. That's why Sarah left and that's why Sam wants to leave. To them, it isn't worth it. But I can't imagine throwing away my entire life for something else. I would be a totally different person. That's what I don't understand. 

I climb off my bike and drop it to the sand. I'm not worried about anyone stealing my stuff. Who would want a beat up red bike? Nobody steals stuff around here anyways. I walk into the bathroom and change into my white swimsuit with blue polka dots. Then I throw on an old 2014 WESTERN NATIONALS t-shirt and some under armor shorts and walk out the door. When I get to the beach, I feel pretty lonely. Usually, I'm here with some gym friends, but right now they're all in gym. I wander over to my bike and set out a towel, and pretend to be really, really interested in some threads hanging off my shirt. 

"Bored?" I jump up, because, after all, I am here all alone and no one in their right mind would randomly come up to a kid sitting by herself in the sand. "Mind if I join you?" It's a boys voice. It sounds familiar, but I don't think I've ever heard it before. "Go for it." I say, making room on my towel. "What's your name?" I ask him, realizing how weird it is that I am talking to a random boy on the beach. OMG! I am talking to a BOY on the beach, DURING practice time! My life has seriously turned upside down!  "Liam. How about you?" I look up at him. WOAH. He. Is. Gorgeous. Liam has sandy blonde hair that falls into his beautiful eyes. I pause for a second, and he gives me a crooked smile. I smile and look down. "Grace. Nice to meet you." "You too." I don't know what to say. I have literally never talked to a boy before... well, not since I was like 8 and it didn't matter. "Sorry if I sort of just... you know..." "Randomly came over and started talking to me?" He blushes and looks down. He is SO cute. I giggle. "It's fine. In case you couldn't tell, I wasn't super busy or anything." Liam lets out a short laugh. "Yeah, me either. My mom and I just moved here a few days ago, and I figured I should get to know some people before school started." "Why'd you guys move here?" His smile vanishes. "My parents got a divorce. It's been pretty rough." I'm instantly sorry I asked. My mouth must be dangling open or something, because he says quickly "It's fine. My mom is a lot happier now, which is better for both of us." "That's nice." "Yeah." Our conversation drops again. I'm not a people's person. I'm a gymnast. I can't be both. "So... what do you like to do other than come up and sit on random people's towels?" I ask. This time he laughs. His laugh is SO cute. I start to laugh myself. "Actually, I play soccer. That's part of why we moved out here. It worked with soccer and my mom's job." If there were little circles of emotion in my brain that grew or shrunk based on what I was feeling, the little excitement and happiness circles would be ginormous. "Cool! Do you play for a team?" He laughs a little. "Yeah. I was actually in the top 60 in Washington state, which means I have the potential to do really, really well here." "That's awesome!""I know! What about you? Do you do anything?" Inside my head, I laugh. Do I do anything? Well. There's 8 hours of gymnastics a day, if that counts. "I do gymnastics." He raises his eyebrows. I can't tell if he's impressed or annoyed. "Can you do a backflip?" I laugh. "Sure.""Right here right now?" "Sure." I stand in the sand in front of him, and  throw the highest, floatiest, most beautiful back tuck in the history of the world. Well, maybe it wasn't THAT good. I was tumbling on sand, after all. But Liam seemed impressed and that's all that mattered. 

"You know, I can do a backflip too." It's my turn to raise my eyebrows. "Oh yeah?" "Yeah. I'll show you. Do you have a bathing suit on?" I nod. "Come on!" I take off my shirt and shorts and follow Liam to the water. I wade in at first, but he dives under. When he pops up, he's smiling his cute, crooked smile. I notice that he has one dimple. How much more perfect could it get than that? "Is it cold?" I ask. "Perfect." He says. I raise one eyebrow. "Feel it for yourself! He says, splashing me. It's FREEZING. My mouth falls open. Then, without warning, I dive under water, find his ankle, and gently pull him under, then swim away. "Looking for trouble, Grace!" He says. I laugh, and bounce away from his as he bobs towards me. We splash and dive for a while, dunking each other. Liam shows me his best "backflip". "It needs work," I laugh. Liam pretends to be offended. "You, future olympic gymnast, say that I, the best back flipper in the history of the world, needs work? How dare you!" I shrug innocently. "We can work on it. Maybe it will be almost as good as mine!" A smile plays on his lips. "That means we'll work on it in the future?" He asks hopefully. "Well it won't get much better if we don't!" Then the splashing and dunking continues, until the water gets cold, and we walk back to my towel. "I probably should be going." I tell him, even though I want to stay longer. His smile drops. Just a little, but noticeably. "I guess me too. Should I count on seeing you here again?" "Well... actually, I have gymnastics from 9 to 4." "What if we met here tomorrow, same place, at 5?" I tap my chin. He looks nervous. "I don't know..." I say. "4:30 might work better." He smiles. "Great. See you tomorrow!" "See ya!" I say, as he walks off. I dry myself off, then flop in the sand happily and let out a big, happy sigh. I think that I, Grace Olivia Clark, just flirted with a boy. Successfully.