"Dad- she's late for practice!" Alyassa screeched, tossing her father keys. Nicholas, who seemed unconcerned, caught the keys and tossed them to Liam.
"Liam, can you drop your sister off on your way to work?" He asked his son, who was busy in the kitchen.
"Uh- sure Dad, i just need to finish lunch- the littles must be hungry-" Alyassa stomped her foot on the ground, she was fuming and she handed Kayla her sports bag, and was brushing Kayla's hair.
"Liam. I'll do lunch- just get Kayla to practice!" She said, succeeding in getting Kayla's hair into a more organized state.
"Alright- geez Aly. Come on, Kay, let's go." Kayla followed her brother and waved goodbye to Alyassa, and gave her father a hug, which earned her a kiss on the forehead,
"Bye, Papa," she waved at her father and went through the door to the garage, going into the car as Liam started the engine of the car.

"Enjoy," Liam said, patting his little sister on the back, not really sure what to do. Liam and Kayla were quite close, but not close enough to the extent that Liam gave her hugs and kisses like he did with the littles, but Kayla liked Liam, he was a good brother. Old too, she had wondered why he didn't have his own apartment, since he was at that age, graduated from Hogwarts with pretty good grades.
"Li, I wish, I've seen gymanstics on tv, I am not wear a swimming costume. Those things are weird." she grinned and waved at her brother before going into the doors.

"Hi, Miss...?" Kayla started off awkwardly to the couch, who was in the middle of saying something to her gymnasts.
"And Miss Realma has chosen to arrive, at last. Girls, warm up drills. Miss Realma, we need to discuss how you'll enter this institute." the rest of the girls murmured things like, 'yes ma'am' or 'Okay, couch.' while they eyed Kayla curiously.

"Welcome, Miss Realma, to Somersault, gymnastics institute. I am Paris Franklin-Miller, but here, you know me only as couch Paris." Paris walked up and down, inspecting Kayla, and Kayla wasn't too sure how to respond to this behaviour.
"Thanks?"
"Back straight. Now, here we want dedicated gymnasts, we don't take nonesense or play. Have you ever done gymanstics, Miss Realma?" Paris asked Kayla. Kayla put her hand behind her neck nervously, which she always did when she started to tense up.
"No," Kayla responded bluntly, "I can do a handstand though- and I can cartwheel."
"A six year old can do as much," Paris said, making Kayla loose her thread. This couch was interesting.
"What are you waiting for?" Paris asked impatiently.
"Sorry?" Kayla was confused, she had to do something?
"Cartwheel. Show me."
Kayla, bewildered and confused, raised her arms, about to do a cartwheel, Paris let out a shrill, "stop!" kayla let down her arms, and looked expectidly at the couch.
"Am I doing something wrong, Couch Paris?" Kayla asked. She emphasized her last two words and raised an eyebrow at the couch.
"'Are you doing something wrong?!' Oh dear, we have to work on you. Go join the other girls. Tell them to start with stretches, then I'll get a girl to work with you." Kayla stayed on the stop until the count of five, becore turning swiftly on her heel to join the rest of the swimming-suit clad girls.

"Hey guys, I'm Kayla, er, Couch Paris said we need to start with stretches?" Kayla said, a bit awkwardly, not really knowing what to do or how to act in front of these guys.
"Guys- you heard the girl. Stretches, guys. Form a line! You don't want couch angry, guys! Line!" A taller girl, who looked about fifteen or so, who also wasn't wearing a leotard, was instructing the rest of the girls, who looked a bit glum, while Kayla still stood, with her bag in her hand.
"Hey kid, Kayla was it?" the girl asked. Kayla nodded to confirm, and was about to say she wasn't a kid, but the girl continued, "Alright, until France comes back, put your bag down and fit in somewhere. Everyone is friendly here." Kayla nodded again and left for a few moments and came back without the bag.
"Stand there, just next to the blonde one." The older girl pointed at a younger one, who looked about Kayla's age. Kayla moved over to where the older girl said she should move. The blonde girl who she was supposed to stand next to gave Kayla a friendly smile, which Kayla returned.
"Alright, guys, you know the drill. Kayla, just follow." the older girl added to Kayla. And then they started off with some basic stretches.

Ten minutes into the class, Kayla already decided when she got home she was going to convince her sister to let her quit. Busy thinking of an excuse, Paris entered, and Kayla was sure she heard the class groan. Guess no one liked this couch.
"Alright, great job everybody. Now, who here can volunteer to help Miss Realma in catching up?" Paris asked the class. Everyone stayed silent. No one said anything; but Kayla felt her pale face colour, she knew people were looking at her.
"No one? Alright, let's see. Daniela?" Paris addressed the girl that had led the class into doing stretches. Kayla thought Daniela was a Spanish name, but the girl didn't look much Spanish.
"Yes, couch?" Daniela responded, looking up. Daniela was the only girl who didn't pay any mind to Kayla, she seemed used to newbies.
"Take Miss Realma to the other side and start with level two routines," Paris instructed. Daniela shook her head slightly. She was clearly doubting Kayla's ability to start with level two.
"Couch, Kayla has just started, dont you think it will be best if we start from level one?" Daniela asked desperately, trying to reason with the couch. Kayla simply stayed silent as the rest of the class perked up, listening to the argument. Some drama between couch and student didn't happen often.
"No. She seems to know what she's doing. She can handle it. Everybody else, please pair up with your level partner, and I'd like you to practice routines. I dont care whether you do free dance or not. Just do your routines." Paris seemed to have decided that Kayla wasn't her problem anymore, and that annoyed Kayla a bit.
"Come on, kid," Daniela said, gesturing Kayla to follow her. "I'll get the apparatus, just wait a moment."
"Alright." Kayla didn't know how much she liked being addressed as 'kid', but she followed Daniela nonetheless. The older girl told Kayla to wait while she went to fetch the apparatus. Kayla's brain did a hard reset.
I thought we were gonna do flips?

Daniela brought back a hoop, rope, ball, ribbon looking thing and clubs. Kayla only knew they were clubs because she had watched gymnastics on her brother's computer.
"Alright, so, first things first. Let's get to know the stuff you use before you use them," Daniela started off. After learning what each apparatus was used for, Kayla nodded stiffly. She wasn't listening.

"Great, which one do you want to start with?" Daniela asked Kayla. Kayla stirred. They were starting already?
"I dunno," Kayla muttered stiffly, "I don't care. Any." Kayla felt rather ashamed of her quiet and horrible attitude, as she was usually the brightest and most talkitive person ever. But this gymnastics institute wasn't bringing out that brightness, as a matter of fact, it didn't have much brightness to it at all. But all the girls seemed so comfortable and happy. Maybe gymnastics just wasn't her thing.

Daniela seemed to sense Kayla's low mood and smiled at the younger students.
"How about we learn something basic? Lets do free dance, it'll be easy. Promise."
Kayla felt rather strange at the girl's promise, she put her hand on the back on her neck again and muttered, "okay."

The next hour of gymnastics was rather strange.

Kayla learnt free dance was fancy dancing. She thought it was like a peacock dancing but she kept her opinions to herself.
There were a bunch of fancy jumps and rolls, it was all very confusing. Kayla thought the worst part was when Daniel was attempting to teach the girl how to split. Kayla was rather flexible, sure, but she rather stay away from that for a while.

"You've got potential, kid," Daniela said at the end of their private practice.
"I don't like it much," Kayla confessed, "I don't like this much."
Daniel looked at Kayla with pity, she gave Kayla a look that said I've been there before.
"A lot of girls have left because of couch. She's horrible, no doubt. But she's a great teacher. And she has formed a great team, just try and get used to it."Kayla didn't say anything to this, but Daniela wasn't expecting an answer.
"Get your bag, kid. Practice is over, I expect your mum will be here any moment."
As soon as she said that, Kayla felt a pang in her heart. Madeline.
She hadn't thought about her since the early morning of her birthday, Kayla almost wanted to scream at Daniela. Why was she thinking so aggressively? No. Stop it. Kayla took a deep breath.
"Yeah, she might be," Kayla said shortly and walked away. She didn't need Daniela to see the sadness in her eyes.
"See you next week?" Paris called after her. Kayla didn't answer.
"Maybe," she responded, without looking at the couch. Kayla quickly picked up her bag and made her way out of the institute. Kayla saw her father's car parked in the driveway, Kayla smiled. She ran to the car and opened the passengers seat and hopped inside, swinging her bag between her legs.

"Hey, small one, how was practice?" Liam asked, looking over at his younger sister.
"I will be taller than you soon," Kayla protested to being called 'small one'. She was about to say something else when Alyssa put her hands on her (Kaylas) shoulders.

"BOO!"

Kayla screamed. An ear piercing scream. Kayla looked behind her and Alyassa was snickering. Howling actually.
"Aly!" Kayla scolded. Alyassa was still howling when Kayla whacked her sister playfully. Alyassa and Kayla looked a like in many ways. They were both built lean and tall, they both had blue eyes, and they both had really pale skin. One of the only differneces between the two was their hair. Alyassa favoured her father; she had long dark hair. While Kayla was more on her mothers side, short brunette hair. Well, at the moment it was short and red, but all the other times it was a light brunette colour.
"Oh my gods, you gave me a heart attack," Kayka grumbled, "I don't hate you, but my heart disagrees."
"How was practice?" Alyassa repeated Liams question.
"Okay. Can I quit?" Kayla said this very straight forward. She didn't want to do gymnastics. The smile faded from Alyassa's face.
"No!" Alyassa shrieked, "why? Are the others making fun of you? Gods, talk to me, Kayla."
Kayla regarded her sister quietly, not saying anything. Liam nudged Kayla and she looked at him, silently asking him to convince Alyassa to let her stop.
"Kayla." He said her name like it was an answer.
"Its not my thing, Issa," Kayla sighed and Alyassa shook her head.
"I didn't like kick-boxing in the beginning and look at where I am now. Give it a chance, Kay," Alyassa pleaded. Kayla bit her lip, she wanted to put the matter to a rest.
"Okay. Can we go home now?" Liam started the car as Kayla sakd this. Alyassa relaxed and leaned back in the backseat. Kayla was glad that was over.

The ride back home wasn't eventful. Liam put on the radio and was singing silently and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as they drove. Alyassa was on her phone and Kayla simply stared forward. It was a fifteen minute drive but it felt longer. Curse awkward silences.

When they reached home Kayla greeted her family with her usual sunshiney attitude and gave the littles hugs. Michaela was badgering Kayla with questions about gymnastics until Kayla waved her (Michaela) off as she announced that practice had drained her.
Kayla wasn't surprised when she found Aiden in their room- they shared it after all. The room looked as disorganised as usual and Kayla lunged on her bed, next to her brother who wore headphones.
"Wasn't good?" Aiden asked, not looking at his older sister. Aiden knew how to read Kayla, so he knew. Kayla sighed and positioned herself on her back, looking up at the wood that supported the top bunk.
"Honestly? It wasn't nice, but Alyassa likes it, so I'll keep going." Aiden looked at Kayla for a few minutes before shaking his head and busying himself back on his phone.
"Typical Kayla."