Alex swallowed hard and braced herself. It was Thursday afternoon, at practice, and Annelise, the flier, stood above Alex’s head. One of her feet was in Lindsey’s intertwined hands, the other foot was in Rosa’s. Her arms were up in a high V. Alex was the back spotter. Emily was the front spotter.
Coach Jen was counting them through the high stunt called an extension prep. “. . . Five, six, seven, eight!”
Lindsey and Rosa hoisted Annelise up into the air. She twirled once around, her body taut, her arms clasped to her chest, and then bounced down into the girls’ waiting arms. Alex caught her from behind, and together they lowered her feetfirst to the floor.
“Nice, girls,” said Coach Jen. “Let’s do it one more time.”
Alex reapplied her lip balm from the tube Ava had loaned her. As Coach Jen began the count, she hastily shoved it into the tiny pocket of her shorts and braced herself to spot Annelise again.
“. . . Five, six, seven, eight!” The two bases and two spotters clapped, turned, and hoisted Annelise.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!”
Up she went in a high V, and then dipped down.
“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!”
Up she went, spun, and—
“Eeee!” shrieked Rosa, as all of a sudden she toppled to the ground.
In slow motion, Alex saw Annelise spin once in the air, and wobble lopsidedly where Rosa was no longer standing.
Alex lunged to the side and threw her body underneath the spinning girl, who fell down to the floor on top of her. Alex’s chin hit the ground hard and Annelise landed mostly on Alex’s back and upper thighs. She felt a sharp pain radiate from her chin to all her nerve endings.
Alex saw spots in front of her eyes. The pain in her chin was considerable, but she couldn’t reach up to feel for damage because her arms were pinned underneath Annelise, who was still lying on top of her.
There was a great deal of commotion as Annelise was lifted off her, and Alex was helped to her feet. She could see a small crimson smear on the floor where her chin had been.
“Oh my gosh, she’s bleeding!” Alex heard Emily say with a gasp.
Rosa was on the floor, wailing. “I slipped! I’m sorry! My foot just flew out from under me!”
Alex glanced down at the floor, hoping against hope that she wasn’t going to see it. But there it was. The tube of lip balm. She must have dropped it in her haste to recap it, and Rosa must have slipped on it.
People were crowding around her, but she managed to kick the tube out of the way. It bounced and rolled behind the heavy gym curtain divider.
“Is Alex okay?” Alex heard Annelise ask through the crowd.
“She cut her chin,” said Lindsey.
“Are you okay?” she heard Emily ask.
“I’m fine!” said Annelise. “I landed completely on Alex, though! What about Rosa?”
“She’s okay,” Alex heard Sam say, as though through a fog.
Coach Jen pushed her way through the group and gently cocked Alex’s head back a little bit so she could look at her chin. She pursed her lips. “Your chin is cut pretty badly,” she said. “This is going to need stitches.”
Stitches! Alex had never had stitches in her life. Ava had had them multiple times, thanks to all her sports and her daredevil climbing and bike riding. But not Alex—she was always the careful, deliberate one. “I can call my mom,” said Alex in a small voice.
Mrs. Sackett was at the school in fifteen minutes, a smear of paint on her chin and still wearing the blue-and-white-striped apron from her pottery studio. On the way to the walk-in clinic, she called their pediatrician’s office. On speakerphone Alex heard the nurse say they’d call ahead to the walk-in clinic.
Coach Jen had bandaged Alex’s chin with gauze and tape. It hurt, but the waves of guilt washing over her made Alex feel so much worse. She had caused the accident! This was all her fault. Her mom kept glancing anxiously at her as they drove to the clinic, one hand on Alex’s knee.
At the walk-in clinic, they were seen almost immediately by a nurse, who examined Alex’s chin. She asked Mrs. Sackett a bunch of questions and wrote everything down on a clipboard, and then hurried out. A moment later the doctor walked in. Her name was Dr. Kumar. She was young and nice, and told Alex everything she was going to do before she did it. The numbing shots hurt a little at first, but after that, the stitching part was just a disconcerting tugging. At last Dr. Kumar finished and taped Alex’s chin with a surprisingly small sticky bandage. Then Dr. Kumar asked Alex a bunch of questions, shone a light into her eyes, and made her go through a series of exercises like extending her arms out and touching her nose, first with one index finger, then with the other.
“I think we can rule out a concussion,” Dr. Kumar told Mrs. Sackett, patting Alex on the back. “But keep an eye on her, and be sure to call if you have any concerns. She can visit her regular doctor in a week to have the stitches removed.” She handed Mrs. Sackett an information sheet about how to care for Alex’s stitches, and another about concussions.
Mrs. Sackett thanked Dr. Kumar, and after the doctor had left, helped Alex collect her things.
“I’m going to keep you home from school tomorrow,” she said to Alex. “Even though the doctor doesn’t think there’s much danger of a concussion, I’d rather play it safe and keep an eye on you for a day.”
Alex started to protest. That would mean she’d miss the pep rally at school! But as she thought about it, she liked her mom’s plan more and more. How could she face her teammates? She stared down at her T-shirt, which had three dark drops of blood on it.
As they drove home, her mind flashed back to what had happened. Rosa slipping. Annelise falling. She, Alex, diving headfirst underneath Annelise in order to cushion her fall. The whole thing had been Alex’s fault. Rosa had slipped on Alex’s lip balm, for sure. On top of the gnawing guilt she was feeling, Alex was also acutely aware of another, darker voice, telling her that if this was the worst thing that had happened, she was very lucky. She had no business being on the team. How could she have thought she would be good enough to be an Ashland cheerleader? She could have caused someone a serious injury.
When they got home, Alex told her mother she was going upstairs to bed.