Page 30 of Balancing Act

Footsteps cut the tension between the three of them as Lily entered the room.

“Why do I need to learn math?” She groaned and plopped herself down at the kitchen counter, on a stool beside Beth. “When will I ever use any of this?”

“Did you finish your test, love?” Beth asked. Lily nodded.

“Yup, and now I’m ready to be inspired.” Lily looked pointedly at Jamie.

“Good! Because I brought supplies.” Jamie opened the backpack she’d been carrying and emptied its contents onto the kitchen island. Out of it tumbled a large stack of magazines, glue sticks, stickers, and a bag of Nerds Gummy Clusters—the Very Berry flavor. Lily’s eyes lit up.

“You remembered!” she squealed, pulling the bag of candy toward her and tearing it open.

“A deal is a deal.”

Sarah had joined them at the kitchen counter and put her hands on Lily’s shoulders.

“Can I have a few for the road, Lilypad?”

Lily popped a handful of the gummy orbs into Sarah’s open palm before hugging her goodbye. “See you on Tuesday for Ultimate Frisbee, Jamie?”

“Wouldn’t miss it!”

“Lily, love,” Beth said, as the door closed behind Sarah, “I set aside two canvases for you to use in my studio. Can you go grab them?”

When Lily was out of earshot, Beth turned to face Jamie, her blonde waves brushing the tops of her sweater-clad shoulders. She cocked her head to the side, gazing at Jamie intently.

“So Sarah managed to rope you into the Ultimate Frisbee league?”

“Didn’t take much convincing. It’s not like I’ve got a lot going on at the moment, outside of the gym. Thought it’d be fun.” Jamie shrugged as she stole one of Lily’s candies.

After a moment of contemplative silence, Beth said, “Sorry about Sarah.” She gripped the quartz countertop as she leaned ever so slightly into Jamie. “She can be...”

“. . . a little intense?” Jamie finished for her. “I can handle intense. Don’t worry.” She popped another candy into her mouth, enjoying how Beth tried to hide the way her eyes had flicked to Jamie’s lips, even if for the briefest moment.

“Music,” Beth said sharply, cutting the moment. “We need music.”

Lily returned with the canvases as Jamie spread things out across the counter. Beth fiddled with her phone, and a moment later, the sound of “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac filled the kitchen.

“This song,” Jamie said, with an appreciative groan. “It hits differently.” She rocked back and forth on her stool, dancing along.

“Isn’t this your favorite, Mama?” Lily said casually, flipping through one of the magazines.

“It is. It’s one of those songs that keeps getting better each time I listen to it.”

“It’s a great choice.” Jamie flashed Beth a smile over the magazine page she was cutting out a picture from.

Soon, the countertop was littered with magazine clippings as she and Lily chatted about everything. Beth had retreated to the couch and was curled up with her sketch pad while Jamie and Lily worked in the kitchen.

“Okay, I think that completes mine,” Jamie stated satisfactorily. She looked down at her own mess of magazineclippings haphazardly glued to the surface of the stretched canvas. Now that she was really seeing it, maybe the individual cutout letters had been a bit overkill.

“Me too.” Lily snapped the cap back on the glue stick she had been working with.

“Beth, would you mind being our captive audience for a few minutes?” Beth peeked up from her sketch pad with a sightly confused expression before smiling and nodding. “Lily, I want you to take sixty seconds and tell us about what your vision board includes.”

“Fine, but I could have done better with a little more time.” She flipped the canvas around, holding it in front of her.

Lily’s canvas was filled with a collage of images and quotes that all came together perfectly. Jamie was surprised that not all of it was centered around gymnastics. She had cut out pictures of art supplies and other women sports icons, kittens, and Taylor Swift, with a heavy emphasis on the color yellow and rainbows. Quotes like “stick it” and “dream big” covered her collage, alongside others, and Jamie thought it perfectly represented Lily as a person, not just Lily the gymnast.

“Oh, my love,” Beth said. “It’s beautiful.”