Jill giggled a little bit, then waited anxiously as the little girl by the judges’ table took the papers the judges handed her and moved to put up Jill’s score.
“A 6.025?! Oh my gosh!” Jill buried her head in her hands. “That’s my worst score of the year!”
“That’s bullshit,” Lorylyn said angrily. “You only fell once! And the rest of your routine was awesome.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t get my tumbling pass, and I lost difficulty ‘cause I only did one back handspring, and I didn’t even land it.”
“Oh, look!”
Jill looked up hopefully. Maybe her score had been wrong; maybe it was really a 7.025. Even that would be lower than what she’d expected. But Lorylyn was pointing up to the bleachers. Jill followed her finger.
Todd and Hilton were standing up and holding a big sign that said GO JILLY BEAN!!! Jill’s mouth dropped open and she laughed a little, wiping at her eyes.
“That’s so cute!” Lorylyn said. “Brady didn’t make me a sign.”
“Yeah, but I still feel so stupid. Todd probably thinks I suck now.”
“Jill, he does not! How many of our meets did he come to when you nailed your beam routine? He knows how good you are. And it’s not like he’s never had a bad basketball game, or missed a dumb shot at practice. Remember that one time when we were walking into the gym and he shot the lay-up that came right back down at his face?”
Jill giggled. That had been hilarious. “I guess you’re right. I still wish I did better though. That score is such bullshit.” She glared at the judges.
“Well, just do what Coach Tanner said. Just think about floor and really focus on that. I’m sure you’ll do better. At least you only have one event left to worry about. I still have floor and vault.”
Jill did a lot better on floor. Logan Southeast had a spring floor, so it was way better than BC’s foam one, and as Jill was going into her last tumbling pass, she impulsively decided to throw a layout instead of her regular back tuck. She nailed it; she could tell her legs were straight and she was high off the ground, and her landing was rock solid. She beamed as she did her last dance combination, then saluted and ran off the floor energetically. All her teammates were waiting to hug her and congratulate her. She looked up at the crowd to see her parents standing and cheering loudly. Hilton and Todd were holding up their sign again, and Winnie was jumping up and down on the bleachers. Jill laughed happily and hugged her teammates again.
***
BC was the last team to vault in the very last rotation, and Jill was glad to be done and able to relax. She had to do one warm-up vault, because she was the alternate, but it was so nice to just throw it pretty carelessly, knowing it didn’t matter if it was good, because she wasn’t actually competing. As Lorylyn and Lindy and the two other girls who were vaulting stood at the back of the runway waiting to do their warm-ups and rubbed a little chalk on their hands, Jill threw on her sweatshirt, pulled down her leotard sleeves, and stretched out on the floor to watch. Hilton and Todd had left right after floor, so they’d gotten to see all her events. Her family was still here; they’d stay to hear the results. After two rotations, BC had been in fourth place. Jill wasn’t sure how they were doing now.
Lorylyn and Lindy both nailed their vaults. One of BC’s girls fell on her first one, but it didn’t matter because only the top three scores counted.
The team packed up their clothes, coloring books, crayons, and snacks as they waited for the results to be tallied. Finally all the teams were called to the floor, and all the BC girls grabbed their stuffed animals to carry with them. It was a team tradition for each girl to carry a stuffed animal around with her during meets.
They read the individual results first. The top six individuals in each event advanced. Jill had placed sixth on floor, so she’d go on to regional in that event even if the team didn’t make it. Lorylyn got fifth on vault, losing only to the four Logan Southeast girls. Rachel got fourth on bars and Lindy got fourth on beam and floor. Two senior girls also qualified – one tying for sixth on beam and one tying for sixth on vault. Then they announced the top six in the all-around. Lindy wasn’t sure what her final score had been, but she thought it was somewhere around thirty-three. The sixth place score was 32.95. Lindy looked at the girls nervously.
“In fifth place, with a score of 33.45, from Brinkley-Caldwell, Lindy Brooks!”
Lindy screamed, and everyone stood up to hug her. She was all smiles as she accepted her ribbon and stood up at the front.
Jill was so happy for her she felt like crying. Lindy deserved it after everything with Andy. Well, she deserves it anyway, Jill thought, ‘cause she’s awesome.
Then it was time for the team results.
“In third place, with a score of 96.75, the Logan North Barons!”
The Logan North girls cheered and hugged each other, then a few of them ran up to get their plaque.
The BC girls looked at each other in disappointment. Logan North had been just ahead of them after two rotations and must have edged them out.
“In second place, with a score of 96.775, the Brinkley-Caldwell Chargers!”
Jill and Lorylyn looked at each other, wide-eyed. Then they squealed and jumped to their feet, hugging each other and bouncing around in a circle. When they pulled apart, Jill had tears in her eyes.
“I can’t believe it! We got second!”
“By, like, point oh-two-five!” Amy squealed. “That’s freakin’ awesome!”
All the seniors went up to accept the plaque. The rest of the team couldn’t stop screaming and hugging one another.
“And your winner of the 1999 IHSAA Logan Southeast Gymnastics Sectional, with a score of 108.925, the Logan Southeast Warriors!”
As the Southeast team screamed and ran up to get their trophy, Jill and Lorylyn looked at each other and laughed.
“Yay, I’m so excited! I really didn’t think we’d win! It was so close!” Lorylyn said in a high-pitched voice, making fun of Southeast’s team.
Jill giggled, then she and Lorylyn jumped up and down and hugged each other again.
***
Jill barely had time to shower and change before leaving for Eastwood that night. She and Brady and Lorylyn stopped at McDonald’s on the way, and she and Lorylyn couldn’t stop giggling the whole drive. They were still hyper from advancing to regional.
The basketball team won easily, as expected, and Hilton flew up the bleachers to Jill and Lorylyn after the game.
“Party at Landon’s!” she cried excitedly. “He said it’ll take the team like an hour and a half to get back, then he’ll have to shower and stuff, so come in like two hours.” She hurried back down to join the other cheerleaders.
Jill was pumped. This was an awesome day. She glanced at the clock on the gym wall. It was already ten. That meant Landon’s didn’t start till twelve...she’d definitely have to tell her parents she was going to Hilton’s or something. She felt really bad lying to them after they’d come to her meet, and she knew they were so proud of her...but she had to go to Landon’s. She decided maybe she only had to partially lie. She could say Landon had invited her and Hilton and Todd over. And maybe Hillary and Dirk and Lorylyn and Brady too. She’d beg to go, and they’d probably let her do that. She’d say she was just staying till two, and then they were going to Hilton’s.
***
She ended up staying at Landon’s all night. Hilton had said she was staying at Jill’s, so there was no place else they could go. Hillary and Lorylyn both stayed too. Jill was so thankful she and Hilton had their licenses now; this never would’ve worked if they’d needed rides home.
It was the craziest party she’d ever been to at Landon’s; everybody was hyped up and out of control. The whole varsity basketball team was there. Jill drank four beers, her most ever, and was feeling pretty buzzed herself. The alcohol made her more confident than normal, and she flirted a lot with Todd. He was wasted and being really flirty back, and Jill was having a blast.
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They played spin the bottle for what seemed like forever, and Jill had to kiss Reed. She was laughing so hard she could barely stand up straight, and she was drunk enough that she didn’t even care if he thought she was making fun of him.
“It’s okay,” Hilton whispered later in the living room. “He probably just thought you were drunk. But he could use someone making fun of him a little. Maybe he’d realize he needs to work on his skills.”
After that comment, Jill and Hilton – who was drunk too – rolled on the ground for a long time, laughing hysterically.
Jill ended up sleeping on Landon’s couch, and Todd slept on the floor right beside her. Nothing happened, but Jill didn’t even care. Even though she still winced a little to think of the beam incident earlier, today had been one of the most exciting days she could remember.
***
The following Friday night was the gymnastics regional, once again at Logan Southeast.
“I know this sounds horrible,” Jill said to Lorylyn as they chilled out between rotations, “but I’m glad we have like no chance in hell of making it to state, ‘cause we’d have to miss part of spring break.”
“Oh, I totally agree.” Lorylyn giggled. “But, hey, what if the basketball team wins tomorrow? What are you gonna do? ‘Cause semi-state and state would both be during spring break.”
“I know.” Jill frowned. “Well, Hilton and Hillary would both have to go to the games, ‘cause of cheerleading, and I’d really wanna go to them too...so I guess I’d have my parents try to change all our plane tickets.”
“Would your family still leave for Florida on Friday?”
“Yeah, probably. I don’t know though. They were saying they’d be pissed if they stayed for semi-state and then we lost. So they don’t know what to do. Plus, if we won semi-state, they’d have to change our plane tickets back too...we’d have to fly back on Friday to go to the state game.”
“Yeah. Well I’m bummed ‘cause my parents obviously can’t change our cruise, and they said I have to go. So if we win tomorrow I won’t be able to go to semi-state at all.”
“That sucks!”
“I know. I still want us to win though.”
“Oh, yeah, me too.”
***
The regional game was at Logan Central. They were a city team and way bigger than BC’s guys. They played a much faster, nastier game, and the refs didn’t call anything. Jill was pissed off and screaming the whole game. Logan Central’s players were cocky, and Jill could tell they were trash-talking BC’s team really badly. At one point Landon shoved a guy down after the guy had fouled him and the whistle had already been blown, and he got called for a technical.
Jill laughed and screamed for Landon along with everyone else when he shoved the guy, then booed and yelled, “BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT!” when the technical was called. Landon looked furious. Jill looked down at Hilton, and she didn’t look happy either. When Landon had shoved the guy down, Hilton had jumped out of her seat in the front row cheering and clapping and screaming, but Jill knew she was unhappy with the way the game was going in general. As the Logan Central player shot his free throws, BC’s student section screamed, “You suck dick! You suck dick!” It was the nastiest they had ever been, but it made Jill feel better to yell it.
Logan Central had a slight lead the whole game, and it was one of those games that was definitely within reach, but you knew the whole time you were going to lose because nothing was going your way. Then at the end, BC had to start fouling, and they ended up losing 78-64.
It was horrible. Jill hated losing. She felt deflated and like she was going to cry. The only bright spot to the whole night was that she wouldn’t have to worry about Florida now, and she’d get to go for the whole week. But even that wasn’t much of a consolation.
chapter 13) spring break
By Monday, Jill felt better. She couldn’t wait to leave for Florida. She and Hillary and Hilton were all missing school Friday because they had to leave for the airport by one, since they were flying out of Indy instead of Logan.
Todd, Landon, and Dirk didn’t seem too upset either. They’d wanted to win, but now that it was over, they were ready to move on to baseball season. Todd and Dirk had stopped practicing with the basketball team after the last JV game and had been going to baseball practice for a while now, even though they’d still had to dress up and sit behind the varsity team during the sectional and regional games. That’s how Todd had been able to go to the gymnastics sectional and miss the basketball walk-through on the day of the sectional championship. But since Landon was on varsity, he’d had to keep practicing with the basketball team.
Hilton was relieved to be done with cheerleading too, because she’d been trying to go to both cheerleading practice and tennis conditioning, plus she’d been taking two hours of tennis lessons at the Logan Academy on Sunday afternoons, one hour of individual and one hour with Lindy, so she’d been super busy.
“We should all get our belly buttons pierced over spring break!” Hillary said in French on Tuesday.
“Oh, yeah!” Hilton said excitedly. “Good idea! I’ve been wanting to get mine.”
And then basketball was completely forgotten, and Florida was all Jill could think about.
***
“No way,” Jill’s mom said at dinner that night when Jill asked.
“Why not?!”
“Jill, you know how mad Coach Tanner was when Amanda got hers pierced.”
“That was in the middle of the season!” Jill said, wishing she’d never told her mom that story. Amanda was a senior on the team. At the time, it had been hilarious, and Jill hadn’t wanted to get her own belly button pierced. “She was just mad ‘cause Amanda couldn’t do bars for like a week. It’s almost a year till gymnastics starts again.”
“You have lessons at Twisters starting right after spring break.”
“Well, I don’t really wanna start till the summer anyway. Can’t we just change that? I’m gymnastics’d out.”
“Well, we might, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you’re not getting your belly button pierced,” her dad said.
“That’s so unfair! Hilton and Hillary are doing it!”
“Do you know that? Have they asked their parents? We won’t let them unless their parents tell us it’s okay.”
“Whatever, they could do it one day when we go walking, and what would you be able to do about it?”
“Jill Elizabeth! I do not want to hear that kind of talk. If you want to even be allowed to go walking, or ever take a friend to Florida again, that’s enough.”
“Whatever,” Jill mumbled angrily, throwing some food to Sunny, their dog who was under the table, because she knew that annoyed her parents. Then she stabbed angrily at her green beans.
***
Later that night, Jill’s mom came and knocked on the door of her room, where she’d been sulking since dinner.
“I was thinking,” Mrs. Sherer said, “and I still don’t want you getting your belly button pierced, but how about if I let you get your cartilage pierced? I know you’ve wanted to do that for a while.”
“Well, that’d be cool, I guess.” Jill shrugged, still mad about dinner. Then she felt bad. Her mom was trying to make a compromise. “I just talked to Hilton on the phone, and she said she’ll wait for me so we can get our belly buttons pierced together. So that’s cool. Thanks, Mom.”
***
Florida was wonderful. They flew in Friday night around ten, stopped at McDonald’s, then checked into their motel and crashed. Saturday morning they drove over the Sky Bridge onto the island, and Jill felt like she was returning to a home she’d been away from for a long time. Times Square was bustling with the usual weekend crowd, and the public beach looked packed.
“This is amazing!” Hilton gushed as they drove down Estero Boulevard to their condo. “I love it! I can’t believe you come here every year!”
They dumped their bags in the condo, and Jill, Hilton, and Hil
lary hit the beach right away, walking down to the pier and back to show Hilton around and scope out the scene before laying out for a while.
That night the whole family ate at Pete’s Time Out, right off the beach, and people-watched. Then the girls went shopping and got ice cream before heading back to the condo.
On Monday Hillary was ready to get her belly button pierced. She, Jill, and Hilton walked down the beach after lunch, then walked up near the pier to drop their sandals and put them on since the rest of the way they had to walk on cement.
The night before when they’d been shopping, Jill and Hillary had checked to make sure the body-piercing shop was where they thought it was.
“I’m kinda nervous,” Hillary said as they approached. “It looks kinda scary.”
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Hilton said.
“Are you getting your cartilage pierced here, Jill?”
“No, I’m gonna get it at like, an earring store.” Jill didn’t want anything to do with this place; she’d rather have it done with a gun. Her mom had warned her that a body-piercing place like this would probably use a needle.
“Hilton?” Hillary asked.
Hilton pushed back her hair to show Hillary the hoop at the top of her left ear. “Already have it.”
Hillary took a deep breath, then led the way inside. It wasn’t busy, and she got waited on right away. They were only there for about half an hour.
“It didn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would,” Hillary said proudly as they left. “Doesn’t it look awesome?”
“Yeah, I’m so jealous!” Jill said, staring at the sparkling beads. “I so want one!”
“We’ll get ours senior year,” Hilton said. “Once you’re done with gymnastics.”
“I feel so bad you have to wait,” Jill said. “You can do it if you want.”
“No, it’s fine. My parents weren’t thrilled about it either. I don’t mind waiting.”
Jill sighed enviously as she turned back to Hillary. “It’s so cute, Hill. Dirk’s gonna love it!”
***
Hillary wasn’t near as annoying about talking to Dirk on the phone this year. Jill’s parents had limited everyone to ten minutes on the phone each day since both Hillary and Hilton had boyfriends back home. Jill’s parents had been annoyed with Hillary last year too.