Determination

A Gymnast's Symbiote

UCLA Lawn. 4 PM.

As the sky darken, Chelsea walked out of her last class of the day and towards the gymnastics locker room to change for practice. It was unusually cool for Fall in LA and wore a red and black flannel shirt with slightly-ripped denim jeans and brown suede booties.

As she walked towards the Wooden center, she clutched her workout bag with a change in clothes for her typical 4 hour practice sessions with the team. She was still reeling from her upset performance over the weekend and was still beating herself up about it.

When she entered the empty locker room, Chelsea darted towards her locker and started to change. ping her bag, she pulled out a workout top, a Camelback water bottle, a bag of toiletries, and a pair of Adidas leggings that she thought she put in her hamper the day before. She continued to dig inside her bag to find something that wasn't used, but after a few minutes she gave up. She reluctantly changed into her blue top and soft textured leggings, she knotted her hair into a ponytail and walked towards the mats.

"Late again Chelse?" Brittany teased while stretching near the beam. The rest of the gymnastics team giggled.

"Late but not out," Chelsea rose her hands in the air and gave her friend a high five.

"Ok girls," coach Montez whistled, "let's get in line for the beam. It seems like we need more practice after last weekend..."

Chelsea's face redden in embarrassment while the team of a dozen ladies headed towards a series of empty beams, one per gymnast, and got into position.

"Ok. And go!" Coach Montez.

And with that, the group of athletes, one-by-one, all got into a handstand with their legs clasped tightly together. Chelsea, with concentrated determination, flattened her palms into a diamond and flipped herself upside down on the beam.

But this time, something felt different. She not only felt her leg kick up with a stronger force but she also felt her entire body float lighter than usual. Now in a handstand position on the beam, she felt blood rushing towards her head; revving up her adrenaline and fueled by her slick leggings. She then did a split in mid-air and eventually turned right-side up, with her hands still in the air, for the next drill.

After an hour of drills, their coach allowed a small break and each glowing teammate hopped off the beam and sauntered towards a counter of water bottles. Just then, a group of boys strolled into the gym looking for trouble.

"Ah , it's the volleyball team," Monica whispered to Brittany and Chelsea.

"Hey girls~" Rafael, the school's number one male volleyball player, hollered towards the group of ladies.

The girls just looked away and tried to ignore him, until...

"Ah what's the matter? Still upset about getting second place?" He continued while the rest of the volleyball team oohed.

Chelsea gave Rafael the side-eye while feeling the anger bubble inside her. Monica, seeing her friend's ever tightening fist, put her hands on Chelsea's shoulder.

"They're just being boys, come on let's just enjoy the break before bars," Monica said calmly.

Chelsea snapped out of her trance and unclenched her fist. The two got up and turned their backs when all of a sudden a volleyball whipped through the air towards Chelsea.

Chelsea, in a split second, a dime and caught the ball in her left hand while the force of the ball's wind blew threw her ponytail. The rest of the gymnasts, now staring at her, stood up in awe as Chelsea dropped the ball onto the mat and gave the ball a good kick.

The volleyball team, also stunned, took a step back as Chelsea kicked back their ball with a tremendous amount of force that whipped past the gym equipment and hit Rafael square in the chest; knocking him backwards onto the mat below him.

With their star player knocked out, the volleyball team quickly picked up Rafael and ran out of the gymnasium while the group of ladies laughed and rallied around Chelsea.

Chelsea snapped out of her rage-induced trance and realized she was circled-in by her teammate's. She blushed as she absorbed the praise from her teammates and calmly cooled off. Meanwhile, her leggings gave its host an approving squeeze that further pronounced her .

As the afternoon went on, Chelsea went through her drills with even more ease than usual. On the bars, she counted an extra three swings, up from her normal seven, and then a dismount that flung her into a gentle cartwheel before ending her momentum. While practicing her tumbling, Chelsea found herself up higher in the air than usual and even lightly landed on her feet with each flip.

At the end of practice, the invigorated girl got a towel from the counter and wiped herself off.

"You were awesome today Chelse!" Brittany said as she hopped towards the fatigued asian. Chelsea nodded approvingly.

"You know what... when Coach is gone let's have a little challenge. Front handsprings anyone?" The group of dozen ladies nodded in determination. "Most consecutive handsprings gets to use my car for the weekend!"

The group of gymnasts cleared the floor of equipment; opening it up to stretch of clear mats; wall-to-wall. One-by-one each gymnast went until it was only Chelsea and Brittany left.

"Go ahead hot stuff. You first," Brittany teased.

Chelsea nodded; the current score was 20 and the all time UCLA score was 30. She backed herself against a wall and started to sprint and enter into a consecutive number of handsprings. Even though she felt fatigued from practice, it was almost like her legs were moving on their own while keeping her in balance. When she reached the other end of the gym, she turned towards her teammates and asked, "so how'd I do?"

Monica, with a clicker, looked down and flipped it towards Chelsea; 51.

Monica and the rest of the team dropped their jaw. Brittany walked over and saw the number, " it, Chelse wins!" Chelsea smiled and sauntered towards the locker room.

"Talk about being filled with determination..." She giggled to herself.


Chelsea's dorm. 11 PM.

After getting back to the dorms and finishing her nightly routine, Chelsea found herself on her bed using her phone. From the corner of her eye, she spotted the very same leggings that she wore during practice on the back of her chair. She got out of bed and took him and hung them up to dry for tomorrow.

"Maybe I found a pair of lucky pants~" she thought to herself.

She turned off the lights, got into bed with a sleep mask over her head and fell asleep.

Meanwhile, her leggings began to liquify and quickly crept towards her bed in the darkness of her dorm room.


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