The Deal
“No.”
“You said you wanted me to join a team. This is the same thing!”
“No.”
“I can use all of my gymnastics!”
“No.”
“It’ll only be after school and on weekends!”
“No.”
“I’ll meet new people and make new friends!”
“No.”
“Please!”
“No!”
It was their third conversation about it that day. MJ felt like she was making progress. When she’d first brought up the idea of her mother letting her attend Victory Academy, she shut MJ down in less than a minute. The second time MJ raised the issue, her mother yelled at her for about five minutes before telling MJ to stop asking her. This time, however, they’d been going back and forth on the subject for almost ten minutes, and her mother had only just raised her voice.
They were sitting on the couch in their living room, and her mother was trying to watch some dumb show that MJ hated.
She hadn’t watched a show she actually liked on their television since they moved. MJ and her mother just didn’t share the same taste in things like movies, music, and TV shows. Papi was the one who had watched what MJ liked.
“Mom, will you just think about it?”
Her mother paused the show for the fourth time since she’d started watching it.
“Maya, I have thought about it. The answer is no.”
“You said no as soon as I asked! That’s not thinking about it!”
“I’m the mom. I don’t have to form a committee before I make a decision.”
“This is important, though!”
“You just found out this school existed like, two days ago!”
“I’ve loved wrestling my whole life!”
“Being a fan of it is fine for a kid. Being a wrestler is ridiculous.”
MJ fell quiet. Hearing her mother say that hurt her feelings more than she would’ve thought. Judging wrestling so harshly was a lot different than trying to keep MJ from doing something that was potentially dangerous, or at least it felt that way.
The expression on her mother’s face softened a little when she saw how her words had affected her daughter.
“Look, maybe we can revisit this when you’re a few years older, okay?”
“Who knows if I’ll even have this chance when I’m older, though? What if Mr. Arellano stops teaching by then? It’s not like there’s a wrestling school on every corner or anything.”
“Then you won’t be a wrestler, I guess, and I’m sure you’ll find something else to do with your life.”
“How can I know if I want to do it or don’t want to do it if I never even try?”
“Maya, I’m sorry, but the answer is still no.”
Her mother unpaused the show, and the two of them sat in silence for several minutes.
MJ’s head was spinning. Part of her brain was telling her to stop pressing the issue and not to push her mother any further, but a much louder part of her brain told her if she gave up on this now, she would never get another chance like this.
She couldn’t let it go. She just couldn’t.
“Mom?”
Her mother grunted in annoyance and paused the show once again.
“What is it now?”
“I’ll go visit Papi.”
Her mother looked at her in surprise.
“What?”
“Let me go to one class at Victory Academy,” MJ said carefully, “and I’ll go visit him.”
To her surprise, her mother didn’t get mad. Instead, she looked genuinely distressed.
“Maya, that is . . . so unfair.”
MJ knew what her mother meant, and she felt bad for having said it. All her mother had wanted since they moved was for MJ to stop being angry with her father for leaving them and go visit him. It was unfair of MJ to use that to try and make a deal with her.
She wasn’t willing to take it back, though. MJ wanted to train at Mr. Arellano’s school too much.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know it’s not fair. You’re right. I don’t . . . I’m not trying to be a bad person. I just feel like . . . like I need this right now, you know? Nothing else helps. I hate school. I don’t want to be around other kids. Talking to the family only makes me feel even worse. Even talking to you, and I know how hard you’re trying to help. I really do. It’s not your fault. But meeting Mr. Arellano and hearing about Victory Academy . . . it’s the first thing I’ve wanted that isn’t wanting Papi to come back. It makes me feel better. Is that wrong?”
She was really asking, because MJ didn’t know.
Her mother could see that. She could tell by the way she was looking at MJ in that moment.
“No, it’s not wrong,” her mother finally said. “It’s not wrong to want to feel better, or to have something that takes your mind off things. I’m just worried this is a bad way to do it, that’s all. They hit people with chairs and smash them through tables and all of that.”
“Mom, no one’s going to hit me with a chair. It’s training. It’s like practice. I’ll probably just learn the really basic stuff.”
Her mother groaned, covering her face with her hands, and MJ knew that meant she was considering it now.
MJ stayed quiet. She thought saying any more might hurt her chances instead of helping.
After a while her mother stood up from the couch without saying anything. She left the living room, walking down the hallway toward her bedroom.
When she returned, she was holding a small notebook and a pen. She sat back down and began to write.
“What are you doing?” MJ asked.
“This piece of paper is going to be two things,” her mother explained. “The first thing is a set of rules you have to follow if you’re going to do this. The second thing is a contract. When I’m done you’re going to sign it. That means you’re promising me in writing that you’re going to follow these rules and abide by them and their consequences. Understand?”
“What are the rules?”
“First, this isn’t going to affect school. At all. Do you hear me, Maya? If you miss any school because of this, or especially if your grades start to drop, you’re done. No discussion. Okay?”
MJ nodded.
“Second, if you come home hurt, you’re done.”
MJ frowned. “Well, what does ‘hurt’ mean? How hurt is hurt?”
“Anymore hurt than you’d get doing gymnastics.”
“Kids break stuff doing gymnastics all the time! Stephanie got a concussion last year when she fell off the balance beam!”
“And she was out for the rest of the year!”
“I could get hurt doing any sport, Mom.”
“I don’t care! If you break a bone, or hurt your head doing this, it’s over! Do you understand?”
“Fine,” MJ relented, grumbling. “Bumps and bruises?”
Her mother sighed. “Bumps and bruises are fine. I guess.”
“Okay. But . . . I can go, then?”
“We’ll try it. Okay? One class. Just to see what it’s all about.”
MJ could barely contain her excitement. She threw her arms around her mother’s neck and kissed her on the cheek.
“Thank you so much!”
Her mother hugged her with one arm, patting her between the shoulders.
“It is nice to see you happy about something again, I will say that.”
“I am. I am really happy. Thank you, Mom. I mean it. I know this is a big deal. I’m taking it seriously.”
“I can see that. And Maya?”
“Yeah.”
Her mother reached up and gently took MJ’s chin in her hand, gazing into her eyes softly.
“You don’t have to go visit Papi until you’re ready, okay? I’m not making that part of the contract.”
MJ nodded, not knowing what to say to that, but she did feel relieved.
Her mother finished writing out the rules. The last thing she did was draw a line underneath what she’d written, marking the line with an X.
She presented the notepad and pen to MJ.
“Sign there, please.”
MJ took the pen and wrote her name in careful cursive on the line her mother had drawn.
“Good,” her mother proclaimed. “This is binding. Don’t make me haul your little butt into court.”
MJ grinned at her.
Her mother sighed, tearing the piece of paper out of the notepad and carefully folding it into several halves. She tucked it into her pocket.
“I must be the worst mother in the world,” she said.
“You probably are, yeah,” MJ agreed, nodding in an overly solemn way.
In response, her mother tackled her onto the couch, struggling to pin her arms down. MJ tried to fight her off while they both laughed.
“I better take advantage before you learn what you’re doing!” Her mother fake-growled.
They eventually ended up rolling onto the floor, where they continued to wrestle and laugh until they were both out of breath.
Lying there, huffing and smiling and staring at the ceiling with her mother beside her, MJ felt lighter than she had in a long time.