Fang

Nudge and Iggy were my alarm clocks the next morning. Ig and I had made the mutual decision the night before to push off today's surfing until the late hour of noon, so needless to say I was a little surprised when they came squealing into my room and I glanced over at my clock to see that it was just past seven in the morning.

"What the hell are you two doing?" I groaned, rubbing one hand over my tired eyes.

"Shut up." For once, Nudge was nearly speechless. Her big brown eyes became even bigger and her mouth dropped open. "Do not tell me you forgot. Cheer Worlds? Max? Performance today? Get up, get up, get up, let's go!"

"How did she loop you into this?" was all I asked as I looked at Iggy. He shrugged, looking guilty, and finally I realized what was going on. "You and Lissa…," I teased with a grin.

"No," he immediately objected, but as soon as Nudge's attention was diverted he lifted his brows and mouthed, "not yet."

So after throwing on some athletic shorts and a cutoff T-shirt from some old surfing competition, we all piled into Iggy's car and set out for Disney World. Normally I wouldn't trust Iggy to drive, but I was tired enough that I let it slip.

Nudge had a new CD by some band – Direction One or something like that – that she bribed Iggy into playing for the entire hour long drive, and so I couldn't have been happier when we were coming up on the parking lot to the huge theme park. Normally, being Disney World, the place was packed, but it was even more so today. Not to mention the gazillion girls in spandex and big bows we had to dodge looking for a parking space.

Nudge insisted on paying our entrance with her life savings, but of course Iggy and I (or just me) refused to let her.

Inside we wandered aimlessly, looking for Max and Lissa's team. Having grown up so close to the amusement park, and spending multiple family vacations here, all of us, even Nudge, didn't get distracted by the rides or the persistent Mickey and Minnie characters wandering around. That one really outgoing Peter Pan wouldn't leave us alone for the first fifteen minutes.

Finally we found a bunch of teams gathered in a huge circle around the small team performing. In a clump of black spandex and glittery white sports bras I found Max, standing on her toes and leaning slightly into Lissa to see over the girl in front of her to watch the team that was performing. I slowly moved closer and finally reached her, tugging lightly on her ponytail while still being careful to avoid the big green bow in her hair.

"Oh, hi," she said when she turned around. On a day as sunny as today, her big brown eyes seemed even darker and more enticing than usual.

"I thought you guys were performing," I questioned as I stuck my hands in my pockets and watched the team in the center of the circle. They were good, of course, but no competitors with a chance of a gold medal.

"We are." She bit her lip as one of the other team's stunts fell, but relaxed when the bottom girls caught the one who fell. "It's actually not as official as I made it sound. Just a bunch of teams get together for an outdoor practice. It kind of becomes a performance, though, as you can see." She nodded to the huge crowd of spectators that included little kids, old grandparents and, to my dismay, teenage boys in awe of the girls in front of them.

If they looked at Max like that they could welcome my fist with their jaw.

Whoa, where'd that come from? It's not like Max was my girlfriend or anything. Not that I'd mind, but… She didn't seem like the kind of girl who went for jealous guys. Maybe I'd have to tone that down a little bit.

Eventually the crowd died down enough that Max and I sat cross-legged in the grass and could still see what was going on. I glanced around and saw Iggy watching with a subtle smile as Lissa spotted Nudge on some of the tumbling she'd been working on for a long time. Oh, yeah. He was definitely whipped.

Max started pulling at blades of grass and kept looking around. "Nervous?" I asked slowly. Her head whipped around towards me and she almost jumped.

"What? Oh, yeah. I get more nervous that I can even explain. I'll be terribly jumpy until I get out there. As soon as the music starts I'll be good to go, so don't worry about it." She went back to biting her lip and pulling at blades of grass.

"Hey." I slowly grabbed her hands and pulled them from the grass, and intertwined my fingers with hers. After that she wasn't quite as fidgety, for which I was thankful.

"Thanks," she told me.

"Glad to help."

Max

After the Stingrays finished (tough team to follow, trust me), a few of the girls on my team got up and claimed the center of the circle. I sent a smile to Fang, removed my hand from his, and stood and hurried after them.

"Full out minus tumbling," Andrea called loudly, and we all got in our places. Our coach was ready with a stereo handy. The music began, and the butterflies in my stomach settled immediately.

You know this routine, Max. This is nothing. You could do this in your sleep.

And I could. As a matter of fact, I'd already dreamed of performing a perfect routine and receiving the gold medal four times.

The routine was great. As point flyer (the one front and center of stunts, and usually the most flexible), I managed to hit all of my stunts. On one sequence I heard a collective groan from the audience, so I assumed somebody behind me had fallen, but it wasn't something I could dawn on. All I could do was count on them to get the stunt back up ASAP and gather themselves in time for the rest of the routine.

In the ending pose I put a confident grin on my face and my eyes conveniently met Fang's. He looked impressed.

Now that he'd seen me in action, I couldn't wait to see him surf.

But for now all of my focus had to be on tomorrow, which would be the first day of competition.