Page 43 of In It to Win It

He moves over to Arya and extends a hand. “Hi, I’m Harrison.”

“Nice to meet you, Harrison.”

“Looking forward to class. I’m looking forward to experiencing a higher consciousness.”

She gives him an amused look. “Well, good. Let’s get started.”

We head out onto the water with our boards. The class is ninety minutes long, but the first part of it is spent making sure we know how to paddle our boards, so we paddle around a bit, which is easy; I’ve done this many times. Then Arya directs us into place and shows us how to lower the anchors we all have so we don’t float away.

“Even if you’ve never done yoga, or never been on a paddleboard, you should be able to follow along,” Arya says. “We’re going to go through a Vinyasa yoga flow, which has been customized for the paddleboard.”

“Vin what?” Harrison says next to me.

I shrug.

“I want to be closer to the instructor,” he says to me in a loud whisper.

I roll my eyes but paddle along with him. This brings me closer to Taylor, so win-win.

We start off sitting cross-legged on the board, hands on our knees, focusing on our breathing. We’re supposed to close our eyes, but I meet Harrison’s and we both make faces.

Then I swallow a sigh. I really should at least give this an honest shot.

“Okay, open your eyes.” Arya changes her pose. “Let’s position ourselves on our boards, palms directly underneath our shoulders.”

I watch Taylor instead of the instructor, taking in her smooth movements as she gets onto hands and knees. Of course this makes me think dirty thoughts about having her like that in front of me . . .

“Knees directly under your hips,” Arya calls out. “And tuck your toes under.”

I watch what Taylor does and emulate her as Arya talks us through arching our backs, then curving them the other way. When Taylor does it, it looks graceful and supple. I feel like I’m stiff and awkward, but I keep going.

“Feel your breath pulling your spine on the inhale,” Arya says. “Okay, curl your tailbone down into our first child’s pose.”

“Curl your tailbone?” Harrison says skeptically.

I have to smile. He looks as uncomfortable as I feel.

“Walk your hands out in front of you,” Arya directs us. “This is a really good way to ground your energy.”

I choke on a laugh as I see Harrison, arms stretched out in front of him, banging his forehead repeatedly against the paddleboard.

We move into downward-facing dog. My hamstrings protest, and yet Arya tells us to walk our feet back even more. “Jesus,” I mutter.

“I know,” Harrison responds, his jaw clenched.

We’re supposed to move our hands forward, asses up in the air, and the board wobbles beneath me, making me pause.

“Bend your knees and stick those sit bones up nice and high.”

“Sit bones,” Harrison says with a laugh, this time loud enough for Arya to hear.

She gives him a quick, quelling glance.

At least it’s him in trouble with the teacher, not me, unlike most of my school years.

“Press one heel down.”

I grunt as this stretches the back of my thigh and calf, and bite back a curse.

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