The girl closed her eyes with a look on her face that was like bracing herself. With a running leap she vaulted herself onto the balance beam. It was a beautiful mount. Twyla let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She was sitting on the edge of the couch in front of the television. Her brown-eyed gaze transfixed on the gymnastics tournament playing on an ESPN channel she had found about half an hour ago. It was around one on a beautiful Saturday afternoon and instead of enjoying the weather with her friends outside like many of the other students she was one of the few still in the living room and she was glued to the screen. Part of her not enjoying the weather with friends was that she still didn’t really have any friends at the mansion, she had talked to a few other students, but not enough to form a real relationship.

She probably looked strange, sitting tensely on the edge of a very comfortable couch leaning forward as if to get closer to the action of the tournament and changing her expression based on the events unfolding on the gymnastics mats before her. Her appearance wasn’t something she had paid a thought to, not when her favorite sport was holding her attention. Besides her family, gymnastics was the thing Twyla had missed the most since leaving home. She had reconciled with her family over a few phone calls–her mother was coming to grips with her mutation and was already making plans for her to come home for Christmas but gymnastics was still something she hadn’t been able to get back. She had tried to practice a few days ago but had instead gotten into a conversation with another student–a girl name Clea. This morning Twyla hadn’t felt like practicing or doing much of anything. It was one of those days. Luckily, she had found this tournament and her attention was held.

Jealousy threatened to crawl up her throat but she suppressed it and made herself be happy for the gymnast on the beam. She had had a good routine and it was evident in her scores. Beam wasn’t an event that Twyla excelled at but she still knew the rules well enough to know that the blonde girl had done well. A commercial for tennis shoes flashed across the screen and Twyla let herself relax against the soft cushions of the couch.

"Gymnastics?" David thought as he walked by the nearly empty living room. He wasn't sure why he reacted that way,the sport certainly looked challenging, and when someone did something good it certainly was impressive. Still though it wasn't a sport he really gave much attention to. Today was a boring day anyway, so why not do something different? He walked into the room quietly, not giving too much attention to the girl relaxing on the couch, she seemed really into it, and David didn't want to interrupt her.

He just stood behind the couch, watching the events unfold, he had to admit the women really were talented, he could now see how someone could get so into it. He waited till the commercial started and walked around the edge of the couch, "Must take some guts to do tricks like that." He said turning to face the girl. He stopped for a second as her face dawned on him "Hey! Twyla right?" He said with a big smile. He took a seat next to her, falling onto the couch. "So you decided to come after all."

"Must take some guts to do tricks like that." Twyla heard footsteps and a familiar voice coming from behind her. She jumped, she had been so entranced with the screen that she hadn’t even noticed that someone had come into the room. As the boy came around the couch and looked at her the voice was revealed to be belonging to David, the boy from the park. He hadn’t realized it was her either apparently, because he suddenly exclaimed: "Hey! Twyla right?" To which she nodded and returned his smile, glad for a piece of familiarity. "So you decided to come after all." He fell onto the couch and into one of the cushions next to her.

“You scared me, I was totally in the zone I guess.” She held her hand over her heart which had been beating overtime a few seconds earlier. “Yep, I am officially a student here I guess. You wouldn’t believe the story that got me here. It’s a really nice place, I’m glad someone gave me the idea.” She smiled again, this time it was more of a teasing smile. Glancing up at the screen she noted that commercials were still playing. She realized she was probably babbling so she abruptly stopped talking. Maybe it was the comfort of knowing that her parents were dealing with her mutations or it could have been the fact that she didn't have to hide what she was there but something about being at the Mansion had made her more comfortable with herself. Apparently comfort to her meant babbling to people that were still in between the stranger and acquaintance categories. Her brother Nate would be happy that she was speaking at all. It could have been worse, she could have been mute.

She must have really been interested in the sport, there must have been some redeeming thing about gymnastics to keep her that focused. "Heh, didn't mean to scare you, just was wandering around and heard the T.V." He said, turning his head to catch some car commercial. He returned her smile with one of his own "Well whoever this someone is he sounds like a pretty nice guy." He said with a laugh. "It's good to hear you're a student now, maybe I can hear that story sometime."

He heard the announcer on the T.V. and realized the commercials were just ending "You did look pretty entranced by the T.V., I'm afraid I don't know much about the sport, what's the big draw." He said. He supposed he could have just looked it up, but he preferred to talk it out, after spending so much time cooped up in his own head he wanted to interact more.

“It’s not that hard to scare me.” Twyla said by way of reply when David told her he hadn’t meant to scare her. There was a lot of truth in that statement, more than she wanted to look into. Someone on the television was telling Twyla that she needed to buy a car now or she was missing out on some ‘amazing deals’, she ignored the spokesmen and focused back on the boy next her when he replied to her comment about being given the idea for coming to the school. He was smiling as he said "Well whoever this someone is he sounds like a pretty nice guy." and laughed. "It's good to hear you're a student now, maybe I can hear that story sometime." He went on.

With a shrug she replied “He seems pretty nice...Maybe you’ll get to hear it, I doubt you’d believe it; I’m still having trouble making sense of it.” She let her mind wander back to a few weeks prior, when she had first reconnected with her grandmother. Small world and all that...She thought to herself. The commercials were ending and the tournament was coming back on. The beam competition was almost over, only one more girl had to compete, and then it would be time for one of Twyla’s events: uneven bars. At least that’s what the announcer said before David spoke again."You did look pretty entranced by the T.V., I'm afraid I don't know much about the sport, what's the big draw." He asked her.

She moved her head so that she could watch the girl’s mount with her main vision but she kept David in her peripherals and her body facing towards him so that he would know that she wasn’t ignoring him.She hoped David understood that she wasn’t ignoring him. The mount was a bit shaky and Twyla tensed up like the other gymnasts coach. What was so special about gymnastics? That was a big question, so she took her time to think. Still looking at the screen, she replied to his question about halfway through the girl on the screen’s routine. “My mom got me started in gymnastics when I was really little. I think I was four the first time she took me to the gym. It was something all my older sisters had done but none of them had stuck with. It stuck with me. When I was little I just thought it was fun, I was always a quiet kid but at the gym I had friends, good friends, who all knew what I was going through. As I got older I realized how much I liked being on a team. My triumphs were theirs, my failings were theirs, we supported each other and pushed each other. The girls that stuck with it and I were on the highschool team together. I like that gymnastics is solo events but you still get the support of other people who understand what you’re working for. I also really like the control it gives me, over my body I mean. How well I place is all based on me, my body, my control, my moves. And it’s strong and powerful but so feminine. I mean,” She pointed at the screen where the gymnast had just finished her routine with a hard landing that she landed with the graceful arms of someone who had ‘stuck it’. “It’s beautiful. THAT is beauty.” She trailed off and her face tinged a bit pink as she realized that she had been speaking fast and that he probably didn’t need to know all the information she had shared. A simple: ‘I’ve done it since I was little.’ probably would have sufficed, Motor-mouth.