Awakenings - SF1 (50 page)

"God, doesn't that hurt?" Jamie finally asked with a grimace.

"It starts to burn a bit," Ryan gamely agreed. "But it's not too bad." When she was finished she got a little gleam in her eye and said, "Another thing I do is run up and down the stadium."

"I can see that would stress your legs, but how does that help balance?"

"Watch," she said with a grin. She took off and started to run not up and down the steps, as Jamie expected, but down the narrow metal seats. The slick benches were spaced significantly further apart than the stairs and their surface didn't allow for much traction. Once Ryan started flying down the steep seats it was obvious that her balance was the only thing that kept her from coming down head first. After she had completed three loops she started to run across the narrow benches. Each bench was only about a foot wide but she flew across the surface like it was an airport runway. When she reached the end of a section she leapt across the aisle to the next section, never touching down on the concrete steps. The fact that she chose the uppermost bench did not in any way relieve the knot in Jamie's stomach as she watched her dart around the stadium. When she returned to the section that she started at she once again flew down the seats, completely at ease. Jamie was waiting for her at the bottom, wide eyed with mouth agape.

"You amaze me," she said solemnly.

Even the normally indefatigable Ryan O'Flaherty needed a breather after that demonstration. She took the exercise pad and spread it out on the infield, and then she stretched out on it like she was sunning herself at the beach. Just a few minutes of rest found her ready for more. "Now what?" she asked brightly.

"Umm...I think I need an exercise for my calves and then I'm done. Whatcha got?"

"Hmm, I can think of a few," she mused. "But the easiest is just to do calf raises. You can use the first bench here in the bleachers," she said, indicating the nearby stands.

"I normally do calf raises with weight," she reminded her. "I'm up to 45 pounds now."

"We can duplicate that," Ryan smiled. "Actually, I could sit on your shoulders and give you a real workout." Her eyes were shining in the late afternoon sun, and her sun bronzed skin seemed to glow in the fading light. Jamie's appreciative eyes took her in and just for a moment she thought that was a terribly good idea. But her conscious mind reminded her that Ryan had to outweigh her by 50 pounds, so it was best that she refuse.

She gave her friend a smile and got up to do her calf raises. Ryan assisted by placing her hands on her shoulders and pressing down, actually doing a good job of duplicating the feel of a 50 pound weight on the machine. "How did you figure out all of these ways to exercise without equipment?" Jamie asked as she completed her three sets.

Ryan thought about that for a minute. "I don't really plan this stuff," she admitted. "But I was such an active kid that I was in fabulous shape just from playing. As I got older and started to work out with equipment I found that the structure would bore me after a while. One day it dawned on me that I was in better shape from playing than I was from working out. So I decided to stay childish!"

"Why not play all the time?"

"Well, it is easier to chart my progress in the gym, and sometimes it's too hot or wet to be outside for long. But I'd say I play once or twice a week through most of the year."

"I feel like I'm done, how about you?"

"I can do more if you don't mind hanging around," Ryan conceded.

"Mind? It's terribly entertaining. What else do you want to do?"

"I need to work on my core balance a little, and I haven't done anything for my upper body balance."

"Upper body balance? What's that?"

"I try to work on keeping my balance no matter what plane I'm on. I've got an exercise I haven't done in a while that would let me show off a little," she said with a childlike grin. "Wanna see?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay, I need something about waist high that I can curl my fingers around." She squinted a bit in the bright light that was about a half hour from dusk and finally found what she was looking for. They strolled over to where trucks could drive in and out of the complex. A series of concrete filled yellow metal sleeves were locked in place vertically across the entryway. Each was about 12 inches in diameter and very sturdy looking. It was clear that they were removable when a truck needed to enter, but they were very stable in their locked position.

Ryan grabbed one with both hands and gave it a very firm yank. It did not budge an inch since it was obviously sunk into the ground several feet. "This one's perfect," she declared as she took off her sweatshirt again. "I need to loosen up my biceps a little first," she commented as she hit the ground and did about 25 quick push-ups. "Here goes nothing," she said as she backed up about 10 yards and took off in a brisk trot. Jamie's eyes grew wide as Ryan neared the post.
What in the hell is she going to do?
She had her answer a moment later as Ryan slapped her hands down on the post and executed a perfect vault, landing neatly on her flexed legs, adding a quick little hop to maintain her balance. "Okay, I think I'm ready," she declared.

When she heard no response she turned to find Jamie once again slack jawed. "You okay over there?" she asked with a chuckle.

"That was the warm up? My God, what is the exercise?" she gasped.

One waggling eyebrow was Ryan's only response. She walked back to the post and faced it, then placed both of her hands flat on the top. The heels of her hands were touching and her fingers were spread wide, obviously to give her a strong platform. A very quick movement flexed her biceps and in the next instant her feet were off the ground and she was holding herself parallel to the earth, mostly held up by her powerful biceps. Her arms straightened slowly as she rotated into a handstand. Now she was absolutely perpendicular to the ground, her entire body braced on her two hands.

Jamie was awestruck, unable to do anything but watch in wonder as her friend performed. After a few moments in the vertical position Ryan did a few push ups, obviously, just showing off. Now she bent her body once more, this time rotating until her arms were rigid and her body was again horizontal. After holding the position for a few seconds she removed one of her hands and held up her entire body by one powerful arm. She held the position for a few seconds, although Jamie could see the immense strain the move was putting on her dangerously shaky arm. Then she switched arms and held the position for an even longer time with her left arm. She placed both hands back onto the post and pushed up forcefully, landing next to it with another little hop. Just for effect she stood ramrod straight and affixed a very theatrical smile onto her face. She raised her right arm and waved dramatically as she turned slowly, acknowledging the massive crowd that filled the stadium to watch her record setting performance.

Jamie trotted the few feet that separated them and gazed up at her beaming friend. "Are you sure that both of your parents are humans?" she asked with a smile. "Cause that was not of this world," she said emphatically.

"Sure it is," Ryan assured her. "It's pretty basic gymnastics."

"I took gymnastics, Buddy, and I never got close to doing anything like that! I spent my years on the damn balance beam!"

"Yeah, well I took gymnastics for boys," she said proudly. "You just weren't in the cool class."

"You took boys gymnastics?" she asked in amazement.

"Yep. I thought it was cool when I saw it in the Olympics. Brendan took me down to sign me up. It was pretty funny," she said as she laughed in remembrance. "He practically had to fight the guy to get him to let me in, but after they gave me a few tests they pretty readily agreed."

"I just bet they did," Jamie said with a smirk.

Jamie was still smiling at her friend's theatrics as they walked back across the enormous stadium. Something caught Ryan's eye as they moved along and she zipped over to the interior of the stadium and yelled, "Hey, Jamie, come over here."

With a smirk and a small shake of her head she trotted over to the underside of the stadium. Near the end zone of the football field the school had erected relatively modern bleachers to make the stadium homier for the normally small crowds that Cal drew for football. The back of the bleachers was a series of interconnecting metal supports that ran through the underside like a maze. Ryan was staring at the interlocking braces with a very studious look on her face. "Doesn't this remind you of a great big jungle gym?" she asked thoughtfully.

"Ahh, yeah, I guess it does," she admitted. "Boy, I used to like the one we had at a park near our house. But they decided that too many kids got hurt on it so they removed it and the slide and the swings and replaced them with a really lame bunch of horses on springs. I never wanted to go again," she said somewhat wistfully.

"Well, you've got to admit that they can be a little dangerous," Ryan said with a gleam in her eye. "Especially when they're really, really tall." She said this last statement as she leapt to her full reach and grabbed one of the supports with both of her hands. She was only off the ground about 18 inches, but she looked pretty comical, nonetheless.

"Okay, Tarzana, let's go," she said fondly.

"Go? You want to go?" Ryan said with an even bigger gleam. "Race you to the other end!" she cried as she started to propel herself along the undercarriage of the structure. Jamie not only did not race her, she was stuck in place as she stared at her daredevil friend. Ryan was motoring at an unbelievable clip but she had to follow the supports to get where she was going. In order to do so, she climbed higher and higher until she was at the very top of the very tall structure, dangling like a chimp. A wildly laughing chimp that is, who was having the time of her life.

Jamie started to jog just to keep up but Ryan was moving much too fast for her. She truly looked like some breed of beautiful simian as she swung up and down the supports, gracefully propelling herself along with ease. She was standing on the ground, looking rather bored when her panting friend caught up to her moments later. "Are you insane?" she shrieked as she ran up and slapped Ryan hard on the chest with both of her open hands.

"You said you wanted to go," she said innocently as she blinked down at her. "I assumed you wanted to go fast."

"I can't imagine what I would say to your father if you had fallen!" Jamie chided her laughing friend.

"You could have said, 'You were finally right, Martin. She did fall and break her neck!'"

They walked the rest of the way in silence, with Jamie reflecting on all that she had seen. "Do you know that you can do things like that?" she finally asked with a very thoughtful look on her face.

"What do you mean?"

"I guess I want to know if you're certain that you can do something dangerous before you try it," she said.

"Oh, heck no," Ryan admitted. "Where's the fun in that?"

"Ryan!" she said as she stopped and grabbed onto the back of her tank top. "You mean to tell me that you might have not been able to do that but you tried it anyway?"

"Well, yeah," she explained slowly. "That's what makes it fun. I mean, I know I'm strong and that my grip is really good. I know I'm flexible and that I have good balance. There's no reason to assume I can't do something like that, so I try it. Once I get into a situation I'm certainly not going to back out, so I have to figure out a way to finish without breaking my neck. But I've never done that before, and if I had I probably wouldn't be interested in trying it again. Once I've done something it loses its allure," she admitted with a toothy grin.

Like your women
, Jamie thought with an internal smirk as she stole another glance at the grinning, sweaty, gorgeous hunk of woman that blithely strolled along beside her.

When they reached their gear Ryan checked the position of the sun and regretfully announced, "Time to go, Pal."

"I don't wanna go," Jamie pouted. "I'm having too much fun!"

"Come on," Ryan urged as she bent to pick up her keys and her gym bag.

But her small friend was too quick for her as Jamie's hand snaked out and grabbed the keys at the last instant. "You can't leave without your bike!" she declared defiantly as she dangled them in front of Ryan's darting eyes.

One quick swipe with her hand left her grasping nothing but air as Jamie laughed wildly and took off. Ryan joined her laugh and doggedly began to pursue her. In reality she could have caught the smaller, slower woman within three strides. But Ryan felt a little guilty about turning down her last two invitations and she had actually planned this afternoon to give them a chance to reconnect and just have fun. She had a date with Tracy but it wasn't for another 2 hours so she had plenty of time to play.
And Jamie seems so childlike and free,
she thought with a smile.
She hasn't been this way very often lately. We've got to get outside and play more,
she decided immediately
. She really needs some cheering up on a routine basis, given how things are going with Jack.
So even though she was happy to be forced into staying longer she could not let Jamie just win...she couldn't let anybody just win!

Jamie darted around the infield, using various track paraphernalia as a shield to keep Ryan away. She scurried around hurdles, the long jump pit, even the huge cushion that the pole vaulters landed on. But Ryan was dangerously close; never more than two body lengths away, no matter what she tried. About 25 yards away she saw what she hoped would be her salvation. A large, bright blue, square cushion that protected the high jumpers was beckoning to her. She latched onto an idea and scampered aboard, crawling frantically on all fours just before Ryan grabbed her feet. The cushion stood about 4 feet high, clearly no barrier for her chimp-like pursuer. But as Jamie coyly reminded her, "Wherever you start to climb I can run to the other side and jump down before you get up!"