I stand up and bend over placing my hands behind my feet. My back cracks and I stay like that for a while until I feel someone lean on my stomach with their elbows. "OW! I'm a human not a table!" I say angrily. The person removes their elbows and I kick my feet over me so I'm in a handstand. I then follow the walks over through and stand on my feet, seeing it was Herb that had leaned on me. I look at him and he runs back to Sissy. I then crack my neck and watch as Ulrich takes Yumi down.
"You win. As always," Yumi says as she gets up.
"Ulrich you're amazing!" Sissy says like a fan girl. I smile and roll my eyes going back to stretching.
I close my eyes and do three cartwheels and two back handsprings in succession. When I open my eyes I see Ulrich looking at me. He walks over and says, "How can you do that?"
"Because I was trained to. A little flexibility goes a long way in our line of virtual work," I say.
"Well mind if I sit and watch?" he asks, putting his hands behind him.
"Nah, I don't. Just don't laugh if I fall on my face," I reply laughing.
"Cool and don't worry I won't," He responds blushing a bit. I look at Yumi who was catching her breath. I smile and wink at Ulrich and walk to Yumi.
"Hey, wanna take a few moments to breathe?" I ask her.
"Yeah, but I can breathe while we stretch. We are going to right?" She asks.
"Of course. I normally go through a routine cold and worry about possible injuries later," I say sarcastically. Yumi smiles and we start our stretching. I help her loosen up her legs by pushing the top of her foot towards her knees, extending the calf muscles. After we stretch I get her up and say, "How much do you know?"
"Only a bit. What you see on Lyoko is my knowledge and that's only there," she admits.
"Ok, then I'll get more mats," I say smiling. I walk over to the pile of mats stacked against the wall and grab two that were folded. I drag them over and place them in a square. I walk back to the pile and Ulrich helps me with a few more. I smile at him and we set them down. "Thanks Ulrich!" I say sweetly.
"No problem," He says, sitting back down.
"Ok Yumi. I want to see you do a bridge," I say.
"What?" She says. I sigh, step onto one of the mats and bend over like I did to crack my back. Once my hands hit the floor I arch my back and say, "This is a bridge. I want you to do this."
Yumi starts to bend over and falls on her back. "That's a start," I say, standing up.
"How is that a start? I fell!" she says.
"Put your hands up next to your ears, maybe a bit above them with your palms on the mat," I instruct. She does what I said and waits for the next instruction. "Bend your knees, bringing your feet close to you but keeping them about shoulder width apart." She does and says, "Now what?"
"Push your torso up, bend your back to give you the arch shape, and hang your head back," I say waiting for her. She pushes off the mat and does what she's told. "I can do it!"
"Yes you can. Now, I'm going to place a hand on your back and one on your stomach all right?"
"Sure," she replies. I place my hand where I said and say, "All right, now I want you to bring one leg up off the ground."
"What?" She asks surprised.
"Lift your foot off the mat and bring it up. I have you and I'm going to help you do a walk over," I say supportively. She sighs and does as I said first with one foot and then the other bringing her into a handstand. I remove my hands from her and leave her there for a second. "Now bring one foot down slowly then the other."
She sets her feet down and stands up. "That's cool!"
"It helps when you don't have much area, watch," I walk over to a line on the gym floor. "I'm going to stay on this line." I start doing my back-walkovers and stay on the line I indicated.
"That is handy," Yumi says.
"I found it very useful dodging your fans in Lyoko," I say laughing.
"Can you show me some other things?" Yumi asks.
"Well, what would you like to see?" I ask.
"The whole cartwheel handspring thing you did. That was impressive. I don't think I can do it until I've mastered the basics though. What were you doing before we walked in and saw you in the splits?"
"That was an old floor routine I did," I say looking down at the floor.
"Hey Ulrich? You want to see that routine we saw as she finished it? You said you'd like to," Yumi calls. I feel my face flush with color and I look to see Ulrich whose face was bright pink. "S-s-sure Yumi. I'd love to see it. If you don't mind Rose," He says smiling.
"All right. I hope you all don't mind the music I chose for it," I walk over to the speaker I had set up and start playing the last movement of Scheherazade. The music starts to play as I set up for my routine. "Floor exercises are only supposed to be ninety seconds but they tell us to prep an entire piece for the work out," I explain, hearing the part I wanted I start my routine, doing all the requirements of the routine. As the violin solo resounds through the gym, I work through the slower routine I had made for this specific section. And as the song ends I end in the splits, bent over with my forehead touching my shin.
"That was amazing!" Ulrich says quietly. I sit up and move myself into a handstand and then place my feet on the floor. Standing up I see Ulrich walking towards me. "That was really impressive. How do you do that?"
"Training, and minimal amounts of fear and nerves while actually performing. Before and afterwards though, we can shake like leaves," I say holding out my hands which were shaking profusely. Ulrich takes them and says, "There's no need for you to be nervous around us. We're your friends, except Sissy and her followers. But Yumi and I, we'll be here."
"Thanks Ulrich. It's not the people around me and watching I worry about. It's the fact that if I had done one thing wrong, I may not be able to move again," I reply somberly.
"And that will never happen. You seem like the person to always think things through," He states.
"I am. And thanks for the vote of confidence. I don't know what I'd do without it," I say quietly.
"Don't mention it."
"Well I should probably clean up a bit before we do anything else," I state as I pack up my music things and replace the mats.
"I'll come with you," Yumi says, helping me clean up. "And you can explain to me how you can do all of that."
I laugh and shake my head as we walk into the locker room. I spray a bit of body mist on me and change back into my normal clothes. "You know, Ulrich was trying to impress you in there," Yumi says quietly.
"Huh?" I say hearing it but not really believing I had heard what I thought I heard.
"Ulrich, back when he and I were practicing, he was trying to impress you," Yumi says again looking at me.
"Why on Earth would you think that?" I say blushing the smallest bit.
"Because, he kept watching you to see you were looking and did some things he doesn't do normally," Yumi explains.
"Oh," I reply in a whisper.
"Hey, I'd love to have a guy try to impress me. And I would be flattered if it was Ulrich. Why do you seem a little upset?"
"I'm not used to having someone's attention like that," I reply quietly.
"Oh, you're really shy I get it! But hey, there's no reason for you to be shy around us. Especially Ulrich for that matter. He and I really fought to get you out. Aelita started as well and when it was finally three against two, Jeremy came over to our side and Odd lost out," Yumi explains smiling.
"Thanks Yumi. It means a lot to hear that form you," I say quietly.
"Well I should be going. I think you should go and find Angel she seems to be a little edgy here. I'll see you later ok?"
"All right. See you around Yumi!" I say as we both walk out of the locker room. Not paying attention to where I was going I bump into Ulrich. We start to fall but Ulrich steadies himself and wraps his arms around me, holding me steady.
"You all right?" He asks me.
"I'm fine, thank you for helping me," I reply looking up into his eyes. I couldn't believe that I was feeling things after all these years of living in the virtual world.
"Hey, you wanna come to my soccer game tomorrow?" He asks nervously.
"Of course I would! I'll definitely be there," I say just as nervously.
"Great!" he replies a little over enthusiastically. I smile and blush the slightest bit.
"Stern, Sterling!" We hear Jim call us. We step away from one another and look to him.
"Yes Jim?" We say together.
"You two practicing or something?" Jim asks as he walks towards us.
"No, we were just talking. Rose got a bit dizzy and I helped her steady herself," Ulrich lies.
"All right then Stern. Be careful Sterling. We wouldn't want you or your sister getting hurt," Jim says as he walks away.
"That was odd," I say quietly.
"Yeah, but anyway, we should probably get going," He replies, placing his hand on the back of his head. I could tell that's what he did when he's nervous. Just like I would twist my hair or mess with any jewelry I had on. We turn and walk out of the building and out onto the grounds of the school. There I see Angel and Odd talking about something and looking quite happy together. I walk back to my room and put my things away from the gym. I then walk to the bathroom to take a shower and I smile thinking about what Ulrich had asked. He wanted me specifically to come to the game. I wonder if the others will be there?
I step into the shower and clean the dirt and grime from my body. After that, I finish my day and sleep waiting until morning comes and I could show my support for Ulrich.
~Author's Note~ Thank you to May Ewing who has reviewed this story so much! Thank you all for reading!
~SPOILER ALERT!~ (Since I can't message her myself) Now... In answer to her(May Ewing) query about Angel... She's not going to be in much. She was a character I had written in on request from a friend of mine from the original site this is on.