Flooring It by Taylor Broadway (the little red hen ebook TXT) 📖

because he was a distraction.
In gymnastics, a distraction is as bad as having a sore ankle. Gymnastics is and is not a team sport. In a way you are working together, your score combining with your teammates add up for a team score but it’s more a sport catered towards one person. In gymnastics, your mind and body work as a team.
If you are distracted with something, such as a boyfriend, than you might be thinking about him in mid air instead of landing on your feet, and that’s just if you’re distracted because you have one. If you and your boyfriend just broke up imagine the distractions. You let go of the bar and instead of remembering to grab onto it again, you start remembering all the fun you had with your new ex. So every time I kissed Mitchell, I was endangering myself because maybe one day I would remember this kiss instead of remembering to place my hands in the L position.
“Dylan,” Mitchell said as I gently pulled away.
“Yea,” I tucked some loose hair behind my ear.
“Can I ask you something?”
“You just did Mitchell,” I giggled.
“Seriously Dylan,” I winked at his serious face.
“Go ahead Mitchell.”
“Is your dad leaving this weekend?”
“Uhm,” I had to remember the schedule he put on the fridge, “yea, he won’t be back ‘til Tuesday.”
“Are you coming over?”
“No, I’ll be at the gym until eight at night everyday and my dad says I can make it four nights alone.”
“Are you sure you can go alone,” Mitchell had the mischievous look in his eye again.
“Well I don’t know, everyone knows how I hate being in the dark alone,” I teased.
“Maybe I should come over and protect you?”
I knew what he was getting at. I had four nights in my house completely alone. That never has happened before, normally my dad ships me over to Jerry’s and I stay there. But my dad says that I’m 15 now and we have a good security system, no need to burden the Scaggers when I’m perfectly capable of handling myself for 12 hours every night.
“Yes you can come over, as long as you don’t get caught,” I kissed his forehead.
He spun me around, “This will be fun babe!”
“Put me down Mitchell,” I kissed him, “I have a Yurchenko double back to practice.”
Mitchell kissed me and then put me down. He picked up and towel and a water bottle from his locker that I didn’t even know we were close to.
“Mitchell,” I said looking in his locker.
“Yea Dylan?”
“Do you still have my, you know?”
“Oh yea, they’re still there,” he winked.
“Give them back,” I whispered loudly as I reached towards his locker.
“Uh no,” he laughed and shut the door.
I turned on my heels and folded my arms across my chest. I started to walk out, debating whether to add a swing in my step when something hit my butt hard. I looked back at Mitchell, my hand was balled up into a fist. He was laughing softly but he was too far to have hit me. Then he looked at the floor where the towel he had in his hand lay.
“Oh I ought a,” I said swinging my fist.
“Go flip somewhere.”
I laughed as I walked out of the locker room but my laugh faded quickly when I saw who was standing 30 feet away from me talking to Jerry.
My dad is a scary man. He stands at 6 foot 4 and is always in a trench coat. Just seeing him from the back, his height, the trench coat and his baldhead is scary enough for most people. I didn’t want him to turn around and me have to look him in those big but threatening brown eyes. I love my dad and I know he loves me too but that does not mean he doesn’t scare me.
I turned around and walked straight back into the locker room. Mitchell was still there and he whistled while I walked passed him and headed to the bathroom. When I walked into the bathroom I interrupted two little girls in the process of tying bows and when they saw me they stared in awe. I tried not to laugh at one of the girl’s missing front teeth while I stood in front of the full body mirror. I looked so, I was going to regret saying this, preppy.
In the mirror I saw top gymnastics magazine cover girl Dylan Carvers. The tight, dirty blonde pony tail with an orange ribbon tied tightly around it. The bright orange headband didn’t keep back the straggly hairs that had made it out of the tight pony tail. I saw the Tennessee tan that really stood out against the neon orange, shiny leotard. The seriously muscled thighs which I tend to dislike because they are huge. Big, light brown eyes looked back at me and two large dimples appeared on my cheeks. I looked totally preppy right now.
“Uhm, Dylan,” a little girl said as she touched my arm.
“Hmm,” I pulled away from the mirror.
“Can you tie my ribbon like yours?”
I looked down at her, she was the girl with the missing front teeth. She had her purple ribbon outstretched towards me.
“Sure, but I’m going to have to redo your ponytail,” I smiled down at the little girl.
“Really,” the girl smiled, revealing the empty, gummy gap in her mouth.
“Yea, come on,” I walked towards the bench in corner of the bathroom.
I redid the girl’s very messy ponytail and then I neatly tied the bow around it. When I was done, the little girl jumped up and hugged me. I was getting ready to stand up and leave, hopefully my dad would’ve leaved by then, but the other little girl had a sad look in her eye.
“Do you want yours done too?”
The other little girl nearly ran over to the bench. Her hair was already in a neat ponytail but I thought she would want the same thing done. So I redid her ponytail and I wrapped her red ribbon into a neat bow just like the last girl. She didn’t jump up and hug me like the last girl, she seemed too shy. So I put my hand in the air for a high five and she jumped at that and slapped her palm against mine.
After they walked out, I stood up and crept out, not wanting to move to quick in case my dad was there. I didn’t see my dad on the floor when I walked out of the locker room, so I kept walking across the floor. I was going towards the cheese pits to practice my twists when I saw my dad.
The Scaggers gym has a viewing area, actually it has two. You can sit and watch the girls practice from the lobby, there is a viewing area in the coaches office and then there is a large viewing area for the parents to sit and watch. I’ve only seen my dad there twice, the first time when we were going on the tour of the gym and right now. My dad stood with his hands clasped together in his black trench coat and he stared across the floor.
I tried to ignore him and start practicing my twists but it was difficult. I would run, hit the springboard and twist into the foam pieces all why knowing my dad was watching. That’s very hard to do because like I said my dad is a very scary man and having a scary man watch you flip is distracting. Remember what I said about distractions?
“Dylan,” Jerry shouted from by the lobby.
I looked over towards him and he was trying to wave me over. I jogged over there to where he stood. Instead of talking, he just pointed to the parents viewing area where my dad was. He smiled at me, the smile was because either something good happened or he was trying to give me some good luck. I walked into the lobby and towards the stairs that lead to my dad.


Chapter three: Dangerous Decisions

“Dylan,” my dad said as I walked in from the stairs.
“Hi daddy,” I walked over to hug him.
“How are you,” he didn’t hug me back, he just patted my head.
“Good, I did a Phillips on beam today,” I said even though he probably didn’t know what that was.
“That’s good, I’m proud.”
He didn’t look very proud though, he had a stern face on right now. He put his arm around my shoulders and turned me towards the glass so that I was looking across the floor as he did earlier.
“What’s wrong daddy,” I looked up at his stern face.
“Nothing, I just came to tell you that I’m leaving today instead of Friday,” he gently squeezed my shoulders.
“Dad it’s Monday, why are you leaving so soon?”
“Because it’s important and they want me there soon, that’s how it is in the business world Dylan. Don’t ask questions,” he looked down at me and shook his head.
I was being scolded for asking my dad why he had to leave four days earlier than scheduled!
“Sorry,” I muttered.
“Look, Jerry and Danielle said that they wouldn’t mind checking in on you this week and Jerry will pick you up for practices,” my dad removed his arm and turned towards the door, “I don’t want to hear about anything Dylan.”
He opened the door, “I’ll see you Monday night.”
Great, I can spend the week alone at the house. It’s not like me and my dad spend quality time together when he is home, but it’s better when he is there. I hate being in that huge house alone and now I get to spend the whole week there.
I stormed down the stairs and to the floor. I’m going to do a few double Arabians to calm me down. Hopefully that and a long ice bath will calm me down because I could feel my muscles tightening because of the anger.
“Dylan, “Jerry said as I stormed down onto the floor.
“What Jerry,” I growled.
I do not know why I was seriously upset, my dad has done this time and time before. He normally gives me more of a heads up when he does but today was different. I think it was different because he didn’t even seem to care. My dad may look scary but looks can sometimes be deceiving. He can be caring, like when I won my first competition or when I signed an endorsement deal with Scribbles Athletics and when he leaves he usually cares that he is leaving his only child alone, or at least he pretends he does. But today he looked as if he was dropping me off at the gym. Like it did not matter what was happening, I was going to be at one place for 10 hours and then I would be done. (See, my dad treats the gym like my babysitter.) That is how he looked as he told me that he was leaving me alone for practically a week, he looked at me unworried, as if it was no big deal.
“Dylan come and take the anger out on the bars,” Jerry grabbed my wrists and dragged me to my stress reliever.
In gymnastics, you can constantly feel like you are flying. I mean you are doing multiple flips at least 9 feet in the air. Gymnastics can be a stress reliever because flying peacefully