The Obstacle Course

"Did you bring your friend here just to show off, Blondie?" A tall Cuban immigrant girl I knew as Diamond because she always wore four diamond studs that got smaller as they went up each ear walked over to us with a smirk.

I grinned at her cheekily in return. "And why not? I'm amazing."

Diamond laughed. "No kidding." She turned to Nick. "She's the only girl I've ever seen who can actually complete the obstacle course here."

"Obstacle course?"

"Yeah, didn't you see it when you came in?" Diamond asked before shrugging. "I guess it's in the back."

Nick followed her line of sight before his mouth dropped open. The course usually had that effect on newbies. It consisted of tons of mats, bars, walls to climb, trampolines, and even a bit that looked like a lava-filled dungeon from a video game. "You're telling me she can get through that?"

Diamond smiled. "Show him what you've got, girl. That is why you're here, isn't it?"

Indeed it was. Thankfully I'd worn baggy harem pants instead of jeans because I couldn't stretch the way I needed to in denim. Stretching my arms in front of me, I shot my audience a confident wink before climbing up on top of the first wall.

Diamond took it upon herself to narrate as I went through the obstacle course. "The first rule of the course is that you have to do jump over that cube onto the trampoline and flip onto the mat before shimmying across that wall with your hands onto the platform beside it. A lot of people can't even jump high enough to make it onto the wall."

When I first started coming here, everyone thought I wouldn't be able to get a grip on the top of the wall because I was so short, so when I did manage to make it across, the whole gym gasped collectively. Like Nick did just now as I fluidly did my flip, ran across the mat, and shimmied my way to the platform.

"Now she has to do a backflip off the platform onto the mat below and make it across those bars on the floor without touching the ground," Diamond said as I executed my backflip.

The bars were set far enough apart that you had to leap onto each one from the last. Longer legs were an advantage here but I managed. Nick's jaw was about to unhinge completely but I didn't notice because I was too focused on my next task, jumping across several trapezoid-shaped mats of different heights.

"After you make it across those mats you have to jump onto that stack of mats and make the top one slide far enough to get you to the next obstacle. If you don't slide far enough, you won't make it," Diamond continued.

My slide wasn't quite far enough but it was still easy to make the leap onto the mat next to the dungeon without touching the floor.

"...unless you're superhuman like your friend."

Hearing that made me chuckle but I continued with the next part: gripping the dungeon wall and swinging over to the ledge next to it.

"Okay, this is the part that almost no one passes," Diamond went on. "She has to go from that ledge, around those red bars and slide down the last one without her feet touching the ground before climbing onto the 'roof' of the dungeon."

I nimbly swung my way across the bars and made it to the roof after jumping over another trapezoid hurdle. I flipped off the roof, landing on my feet like the gymnast I once was and completing the course.

"Forty-eight seconds!" Someone called out from behind Diamond.

"Seriously?!" she exclaimed. "That's even faster than Slim can do it!"

I bounded over to them with a rare carefree grin on my face. "So what'd you think?" I asked Nick.

"You're completely insane," he said in awe. "So you're definitely the leader."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"How did you even DO that?!"

"Practice," I said, suddenly bogged down with memories. "Lots of practice."