It's What Makes Me, Me

Charlie escorted me to the large gymnasium, an unknown fear in his eyes. I hadn’t wanted to question him about his past even if he knew mine, I would find out when he was ready.
Entering through the double doors I left Charlie, I had asked him if he could get me after my ‘tryouts’, thankfully he had agreed and I wouldn’t have to walk miles home alone. The inside of the building was bare with a few mats, a springboard and two benches. The benches held all the cheerleaders a squad of ten skinny girls staring at me, what was I doing here? Then Ellie spoke ‘she’s new and is trying out’ in a way that almost dared you to disagree.
With their eyes on me I stood not knowing what to do, don’t they usually give you a routine to do? ‘Have you even ever done tumbling?’ the blonde behind Ellie questioned me, did I seem that much of an idiot? ‘I know some’ I mumbled in return. ‘Show us a front flip off of the springboard, followed by a whipback (a no-handed back handspring), back handspring, triple twist, whipback, back handspring, triple twist. Then a round-off right into a double layout, whipback, back handspring double layout, whipback, whipback, double back with a full twist’ all the others stared at her in disbelief. A wave of whispers met my ear ‘that’s too hard’ ’she’ll never do it’ ‘this is going to go badly’, thing is I wasn’t scared.
I changed into a uniform, luckily I was skinny those uniforms aren’t made for larger people. To be honest it can barely be called a uniform, the skirt was so short the bottom of my bum was showing and my top just about covered my chest.
Making my way nervously to the end of the mats, I began by taking a short run up then into my routine. Landing every move perfectly on my way to the final move the double back with a full twist, I finished perfectly, mouths gaped as I held my arms high hiding my gasps for breath. ‘Sorry I’m a little rusty’ I stated proudly.
I had performed that routine before; I used to be on the tumbling team in England before my mum had died. In fact I was in many after school clubs to avoid being at home with George and his abuse. Performing I had never done, it was just the love of it that kept me going I hated being the centre of attention, so why had I just showed them how good I was? Tumbling was an amazing release for anger and stress; I had become better than most at it, learning to perform my routines on a balance beam.
‘You can keep the uniform; you’re on the squad’ Ellie was still shocked but not as much as the others who remained silent, ‘uhmm ok’ I muttered hesitantly, glancing at my watch I realized Charlie would be outside, mumbled byes and left.
Climbing into Charlie’s car my skirt rose, his eyes flicked to glance at my uncovered legs. ‘We’re going back to mine’ a wicked glint in his eyes, I had started to like his dominant side.