Event: First gymnastics class
JASON: EIGHT YEARS OLD.
Dick pulls up to the large building in downtown Gotham with a smile. The rain pouring outside isn't even enough to bring him down as he turns of the car and reaches over to unbuckle Jason.
"Ready for this?" Dick asks with a bright smile.
Jason only sighs and nods weakly.
"Oh come on Jason, you just have to try it. If you don't like it-"
"Then can I sign up to play football like Dad said?" Jason is quick to cut in and widen his eyes slightly, hoping that his papa would say yes.
"Yeah." Dick sighs, he himself praying that Jason will enjoy gymnastics and not force him to sign his son up for the horrid game called football.
Dick didn't enjoy watching it when Conner was the star quarterback for the Smallville crows and he definitely wouldn't enjoy watching it now, even if it were his son out there playing.
Dick and Jason rush over into the building through the thick downpour and walk over to the front desk.
"Jason Grayson." Dick tells the short woman sitting behind the large piece of furniture.
The sound of clicking keys fills the small place between the Graysons and the woman for a second before she nods.
"His instructor will be Jamie Bindel. He's a high school sophmore at the moment; he's been coming here since he was four. He'll be sure to give Jason the best possible experience." The woman says before moving over to the phone on her right.
She pushes a button and speaks in a foreign language for a bit before Dick hears a door open behind them.
Jason turns to find a bleach blond boy in a leotard walking towards them.
He forces down a laugh and turns back to his father.
"Jaime, this is your new student, Joseph." The woman mutters.
"Jason." Dick corrects and turns to the teenager.
"I'm guessing Jason is the kid?" Jaime says with a smile.
Jason waves slightly before he's pushed in front of Dick.
"Yes." Dick says proudly.
"Nice to meet you. Will you be joining us?" Jaime turns his attention to Jason's father and Jason is quick to respond.
"No." He says quickly.
"Jason?" Dick asks with a frown.
"I want to see if this is worth it. You can't be here." Jason pleads.
"Alright." Dick mumbles with a small pout.
Jaime leads Jason through the door he'd come through and Jason is met with the sight of multiple guys and girls like Jaime working and speaking with kids around Jason's age.
"We'll start you off on the balance beam." Jaime says over the loud sound of bodies hitting mats and of springs bouncing.
Jason only nods and follows Jaime over to a high beam.
Jaime explains how Jason's supposed to get up onto the beam and Jason only follows directions with a frown.
The spring board is easy enough to use, but once Jason it on top of the beam…he gets dizzy.
The world around his sways and everything goes blurry for a second before he starts falling.
Jason hits the mat below hard and he groans before huffing.
"Guess heights aren't your thing." Jaime mumbles softly and helps the kid up.
"I want to go again." Jason forces out, refusing to believe that a…stick…made him fall down.
"You sure? You took a really hard hit."
"Yeah." Jason makes his way over to the spring board and makes his way up onto the beam.
Once there, Jason looks straight ahead and keeps his arms out to his sides.
"Okay, step forward slowly." Jaime instructs.
Jason obliges and takes a step forward. He has to fight for his balance but he eventually makes it half way.
That's when he risks a look down and looses all of his courage.
The world goes blurry again and he topples to the floor.
"Why don't we move on?" Jaime says cautiously.
Jason only nods as he stands.
The next event was the Vault.
It…was a disaster to say the least.
Jason ended up with the wind knocked out of him while laying in a gasping mess on a mat.
Jaime immediately picked him up with a firm shake of his head.
"We'll…come back to that one." He mumbles and he wraps an arm around Jason's shoulder and tugs him over towards a set of rings.
"What's this?" Jason asks as he takes the rings into his hands.
"Try to pull yourself until your fists are by your chin." Jaime explains and watches in shock as the kid easily lifts himself off the floor.
"Now what?" Jason asks and looks over at the blonde teen.
"Try to push yourself."
Jason understands and pushes his arms into a perfect position.
"Is this it?" Jason asks with a frown.
"Jason…try to lift your legs into a straight sitting position." Jaime demonstrates by sitting on the floor and Jason nods before lifting his legs and moving his arms.
"Alright, now what?"
"Kid! You're…you just did that without any struggle! What are you some kid of super human?" Jaime says in shock.
Jason only rolls his eyes and legs himself drop into his feet.
"That was a Stuck Landing. Do you know how hard it is to do that?" Jaime asks with wide eyes.
"So what's next?" Jason asks.
"Um…Parallel bars." Jaime mumbles and leads Jason over to the wooden death machine.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Jaime explains and Jason attempts to try.
The results end with Jason on his back and pained groan leaving his lips.
"Okay so the bars aren't your forte. No biggie; the high bar might be better." Jaime chuckles softly.
They spend what feels like forever to Jaime trying to get Jason to be able to do a single turn on the high bar.
Eventually, Jason is turning and spinning with ease, leaving Jaime and a few others in shock.
"Are you sure you've never done any of this before?" Jaime asks as they make their way overt o their last event.
"Positive." Jason says in a bored tone.
"Alright…this is the Pommel Horse. Your objective is to spin in circles from one side of the horse to the other without getting your feet touch the ground or the horse." Jaime explains before walking over and placing his hands on the horse.
"Show me." Jason says softly, not sure what Jaime was talking about.
Jaime complies and jumps up.
The teen moves fluently around the horse, his face a perfect mask of concentration.
Jason can only watch in awe as the other male moves.
"I want to try." He blurts as soon as Jaime gets down.
"Go ahead." Jaime smiles, out of breath and very sweaty.
Jason places his hands on the horse and follows Jaime's moves as he jumps up and presses onto the horse.
It takes him quite a while but soon he's making three or four turns easily before falling.
"What do you think?" Jaime asks as Jason gets down for the last time.
"That was…fun." Jason chuckles and smiles up at Jaime.
"Great. So do you think you'll be staying?"
"Definitely." Jason nods.
When Dick sees his son walk back into the front office, totally drenched in sweat and with a wide smile on his face, he knows that he's won this argument.
"How'd it go?" He asks after they get into the car.
"I liked it. I want to stay." Jason smiles widely.
Later that month, Dick gets word that his son is the best gymnast in his age group.
Pride swells in his chest and when he's told that Jason will be performing in a competition…Dick all but dies of pride.
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