"Penny! come on. Mama said you were gonna get me to school on time, we need to leave now!" Sofia was stood by the door, shoes on and backpack in hand. "For goodness sake Sofia I'm coming. We need to be there by 8.15 right?"
"Yes! So hurry up!" Sofia said frustrated.
"Don't take that tone with me. I said I'm coming." Penny rolled her eyes. She'd never wanted this. She understood Callie had a child, but when she'd invited Callie to New York the invite was never extended to Sofia. Callie however; just assumed that it was, and Penny knew if she said anything Callie would stay in Seattle. Sofia was fine when she had been living mostly with Arizona and she slept over at Callie's a couple of times a week and Penny could just take her for ice cream or milkshakes. But that was entirely different than actually living full time with a seven year old. Penny wasn't sure if she ever wanted kids, but she sure as hell didn't want one that wasn't even hers. It seemed however that she couldn't have Callie without Sofia, and she loved Callie so she had to put up with the kid.
Miss Erika Carlson rolled her eyes as she came out into the schoolyard to invite the students in to start their day. Sofia was there at least. But rather than being in the schoolyard watching her. Penny was stood outside the fence leaning on her car with her phone a few inches from her face, paying absolutely no attention whatsoever to Sofia, but at least the girl was at school before the bell, so that had to count for something, right?
"Good Morning Sofia." Miss Carlson smiled. She made it a point to say hello or good morning or something similar to each of her students as they entered the classroom before officially taking the register. "Good morning Miss Carlson." Sofia smiled back. Miss Carlson loved being a second grade teacher and making such a difference to the kids and getting to know them and their situations. For example if Annie came in with her face washed and uniform clean then she would have been with her dad and stepmom the night before, but if she came in looking messy then she would have spent the morning with her mom. Erika Carlson always kept some breakfast bars and snacks in her classroom in case Andrew had stayed with his dad, who sometimes forgot about breakfast or to pack his lunch. When Jessica had plenty of cake and treats in her lunchbox then grandma had packed it for sure. And as for Sofia. If she seemed happy and her hair was done neatly then Mama had brought her to school but more often than not she was a little quieter and her hair was done, but a little messy then she'd spent the morning with Penny, her mothers girlfriend. She wished she could do more for the kids but for the 6 hours a day, five days a week she could make sure they were safe and happy. Sofia was very intelligent and did well in every subject usually within the top 3 students, other than Spanish of course where she excelled, being fluent in the language she even corrected Miss Carlson from time to time who didn't mind at all. She was very much aware than Sofia knew better so during Spanish class Sofia was allowed to do one of her favourite activities, reading, so long as the book was in Spanish.
Sofia had a good day at school but was excited to leave. It was Wednesday. And Wednesday meant gymnastics. Sofia was one of the last children in the classroom as normal as Penny would refuse to come pick her up in the schoolyard. "You're 7 years old Sofia. I'll park by the fence. You can see me the whole time it's less than 30 seconds walk. I'm not standing out in the rain if I don't have to." She'd told her a few days previously. "I'm sorry Miss Carlson. But Penny is parked by the fence. She doesn't like to stand out in the rain. May I leave?" Sofia asked and the teacher sighed. "It's against protocol. Please tell Penny that. Perhaps she could bring an umbrella if it's raining tomorrow. But yes you may go. Please give me a wave before you get in the car so I know that you're okay. Have a good evening Sofia." The teacher smiled. It wasn't the girls fault that her guardian refused to follow the school rules. She would have accompanied Sofia but there were 3 children in the class who hadn't been picked up yet and she couldn't leave them unattended. "I will Miss. I have gymnastics."
After a quick dinner of mac and cheese and changing into her purple leotard Sofia was ready for gymnastics. When she'd first said she'd wanted to do gymnastics Callie had refused straight away, she'd seen far too many injuries from gymnasts, falling, overtraining, even a few girls who had given themselves osteoporosis by not eating enough to be thin for gymnastics. but after lots of begging from Sofia and encouraging from Arizona she agreed to look into it. She called lots of gyms in the city but when she'd spoken to Valentina and Anna at High Flyers Gymnastics Academy she had a good feeling. She took Sofia for a trial and was surprised how good Sofia was, considering the closest thing she done gymnastics before was jumping around a trampoline park. "Sofia has a lot of potential" coach Anna had told Callie. "Like a lot a lot for a kid who's never done gymnastics before. She's pretty short too which always helps. If it's okay with you and Sofia I'd like to put her in our youth elite group for now. See how she does. We train 3 hours on a Monday. 2 on a Wednesday and 2 on a Thursday. Our Thursday training is a little different though, it's usually a mix of dance and Pilates to make sure their bodies are strong and flexible. Really helps with injury prevention And recovery. We don't really work gymnastics skills and progressions on Thursday. If it's competition season they might go through their routines once but it's more about bodywork and conditioning. We also train on Saturdays, but that's not mandatory for these little ones. I know that for a lot of families Saturdays is their only day off from school or church so if you need family time we don't need the younger gymnasts to be there but if they want to be of course, they're welcome." Anna spoke about making sure her gymnasts were safe and happy. "I basically just want to make sure the girls have a good time. I was a gymnast myself, I was on the US national team. I never made the Olympics or anything though. I love gymnastics, but I didn't love all the experiences I had. I'm sure you saw a lot on the news quite a few years back about some of what we went through. Also I would never weigh a gymnast, if I had any concerns, I would talk to their parents, obviously a lot of weight gain or weight loss could be attributed to a medical condition so I would tell them to consult a doctor. If a child isn't feeling well or has any niggle or injury we would not force them to train hard. The last thing I want to do is overtrain my gymnasts or exacerbate any injuries. Of course I have to push them to get the best out of them but I always try to be safe and ask any gymnast or parent that has any concerns to come straight to me." Callie had liked Anna after that conversation and now gymnastics was the bright spot in Sofias life. Penny, however, wasn't quite so happy. High Flyers gymnastics was definitely not the closest gym to their apartment. She would drive Sofia there griping all the way about why Callie should have chosen a closer club "it's still gymnastics. I don't know what's so special about coach Anna anyways?" Sofia didn't answer. It was a rhetorical question. Sofia had recently learned what a rhetorical question was at school. A question that didn't need an answer but was for effect. So she kept quiet and tuned out Penny's complaints by visualising her gymnastics routines.
"Sofia. Your hair." Coach Anna smiles at the little girls wonky, haphazardly tied up hair. "Penny was being slow so I tried to do my own hair. It turns out I'm not so good at braids"
"I didn't learn to do braids until I was at least 12. Can I re do it for you, then at some point maybe one Saturday training I'll teach you to French braid. Sound good?" Anna asked.
"Thanks Coach!" The girl replied as her coach grabbed a hairbrush out of her bag and brushed through the little girls thick waves. Sofia smiled a little as she felt her hair being tugged slightly as Anna gave her Dutch braids. It reminded her of her mommy doing her hair. She's going to teach me to braid, was another reason Sofia could add to the page entitled 'why coach Anna is awesome' in her book of lists later. Mommy was so good at hair, she could give her a different hairstyle every day for two weeks whereas Mama and Penny just did ponytails, pig tails or standard braids. Sofia missed her mommy so much. She wished mommy could watch her do gymnastics for real. Not just through her phone screen.
Soon Sofia was stuck in to her gymnastics. Anna's mother Valentina might have been the head coach but the lil-ites as they were nicknamed- the 8 and unders on the elite pathway-little elites were all Anna's girls. Gabby, Sarah, Maddy, Orla, Lin and Sofia. Sofia liked them all. They were sweet and supportive. She'd been working so hard on her beam skills. She finally stuck her back handspring as well as her side ariel on the beam. At gymnastics she was happy focusing on her skills and mot how much she hated her life in New York.