It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and I was at my most favorite place in the entire world-Starlite Gymnastics Center. I was particularly happy because I had just nailed my floor routine. Not only that, but I hadn't walked off the floor feeling like I was going to collapse. Having asthma is bad, but it's definitely worse when you're a level 6 gymnast.
"That was a beautiful floor routine, Kat," my friend Jenny Carlton remarked.
"Thanks! I hope Marlena noticed." Marlena was our new coach who was originally from Ukraine. She had moved to the U.S. in hopes of starting a new life for herself. It had only been one week since she had arrived, and already everyone at the gym was trying to impress her; even me!
"Katherine," Marlena said, "That last back tuck did not have enough height. Nor did your ariel. And what did I tell you about pointed toes on that tour jete? Now if you want to get a good score from the judges at the meet next Saturday, you're going to have to work harder than that." I tried to hide the surprised look that was on my face. I had thought my routine was perfect, but Marlena had practically tore it to shreds!
Suddenly, a small girl tumbling on the floor diverted my attention. Marlena watched the girl's every move. "Did you see that tuck?" Marlena asked me, "That tuck had perfect height. Watch her. Maybe you can pick up some pointers." I was so stunned I couldn't speak. Marlena wanted to me to watch this girl who looked like she was half my age? Right! I barely knew the girl, but I could already tell-I didn't like her.
***"Girls! Please report to the floor! I have an important announcement to make!" Marlena exclaimed as practice was ending. "We are adding a new edition to our level 6 team! This is Brittany Kelley. I hope you all give her a nice welcome." She put her arm on the small girl's shoulder. "She will be competing with us on Saturday."
When Marlena was done speaking, I walked out into the waiting room with my friends, Jenny, Kaitlin Rayes, and Marianne Smith. "Do you believe that girl is going to be on our team?" I asked with disgust.
"What's the problem?" Marianne asked, "Brittany seemed nice enough to me."
"Yeah, she's so sweet. And so good," Kaitlin said.
Suddenly, Brittany came waltzing in. "Hi, I'm Brittany Kelley. I don't think we've met. Are you on this team? What's your name? How old are you? I'm nine."
What was with all the questions? "I'm Kat. I'm thirteen," I replied unenthusiastically.
"Kat!" exclaimed Brittany, "What a funny name! Can I call you AlleyKat? Or would you mind if I called you KittyKat?"
I scowled. Now Brittany was just being rude! "Yes, in fact, I would mind," I said through gritted teeth, just before I stormed out of the building.
***All week, we practiced hard for the big meet on Saturday. And little by little everyone was getting better. Also, little by little, Brittany was getting more annoying. But no one noticed except me. Marlena simply loved Brittany. Even all my friends were ga ga for Brittany. The main thing I didn't understand was why Brittany always followed me around, and did all of her routines with more precision and flair than I did mine. It was if she was trying to make everyone like her more than they liked me. And her little "act" was becoming exasperating.
Finally, when Saturday came, I was really excited. I woke up at 6, and ran down the stairs, flowing over with excitement. As I left, I had the feeling that I was forgetting something, but I just ignored it. I was too excited!
"Are you nervous?" Kaitlin asked me when I arrived at the meet.
"Nah, I'm more excited! I can't wait to get out on the floor and start performing!" I really couldn't wait! The arena was huge, with brand new equiptment, and a lot of room for all of the teams to put their bags and personal belongings. Everyone seemed excited; even my teammate, Kerri, who was usually nervous at meets! But there was one person who didn't look that happy. Brittany sat in our teams area, her face a chalky white, and her mouth suspiciously shut.
"What's wrong?" Jenny asked Brittany.
"I-I'm n-nervous," Brittany shakily replied. However, I did not feel one bit sorry for her. Who cares? She's nervous, so she should just deal with it, I thought.
Finally, after about an hour and a half of warming up and testing the equiptment, the meet began. Our team was on vault first. Marianne was our first competitor. She landed both of her vaults fine, but had some form breaks. She received an 8.5.
After most of the team went, it was finally my turn. I stepped onto the runway and saluted the judges. I ran as fast as I could and hit the springboard. I didn't get enough push from the horse, and landed kind of awkwardly. I was disappointed, but I knew I had another try. This time, I pushed from the horse, and I landed the handspring perfectly. I threw my arms over my head. It wasn't my best vault, but it was much better than the first one! I looked up to see that I had received a 9.1! No one on my team had scored that high yet!
After my vaults, it was finally time for our last competitor: Brittany. Brittany looked so nervous that she was shaking. She saluted the judges, and began to run. I cringed when I realized she wasn't running fast enough for her handspring. She hit the springboard very lightly and only went into a small handstand, coming right back down. At that moment, I almost felt bad for her. She looked like she was going to cry. But she wiped her tears away, and began her second vault a little quicker. But this time she got stuck in the handstand. Brittany went over, but very slowly, and she didn't stick her landing perfectly. She sat back down, looking very disappointed. She anxiously awaited her score. When she saw it was a 7.825, she hung her head in shame. It was the lowest score anyone had gotten so far. I felt a pang of sympathy, remembering when I was that young and how upset I used to get when I got a low score. However, Brittany's score wouldn't hurt our team because for each event we were allowed to drop off the lowest score.
Bars was next. I was the second competitor. I began my routine with a glide kip, and I lightly tapped the floor. I silently scolded myself for bringing back my old habit. However, the rest of my routine went smoothly, and I landed my flyaway nicely. My score was an 8.875. I shrugged my shoulders. The tap had hurt my score, but I was still happy with what I had gotten. I was also very proud that the rest of my team had scored well. Kaitlin did awesome and scored a 9.025. Jenny brought in a decent score of 8.7, and the rest also did nicely. Even nervous Brittany who had looked very shaky up there still got a score of 8.2.
We had a break between bars and beam, so we took that oppurtunity to watch other teams. Melissa Danson of Townson Gymnastics precisely scored a stunning 9.5 on bars. Only one other girl beat Kaitlin's score, and she received a 9.2. Kaitlin was ecstatic; she had already won a medal! I wasn't keeping track of everyone else's scores compared to mine yet. I didn't want to put extra pressure on myself by knowing what I needed to get to stay in one place.
Fortunately, I knew our team was doing pretty well. Townson was ahead in first place, and I knew World Gymnastics had to be a tiny bit ahead of us also. If we nailed beam, we could pull ahead. I was to compete on beam last.
Brittany was first, and she still hadn't calmed all of her nerves yet. She mounted fine, and began to dance gracefully down the beam. She still looked shaky, but was so far doing okay. She leaned backwards to do a back walkover, and that's when things went downhill. Her body was way off, so she had to jump off the beam. She took a deep breath, and re-mounted. She completed her routine fine, except for a little wobble on her cartwheel. However, she wasn't happy. Her score was a 7.9. The rest of my team did good, except for Brianna and Allison, who fell off also.
I had to pull off a wonderful routine. I had to concentrate, and block out everything else to perform well. I mounted the beam, and precisely went into a half turn. I landed my back walkover perfectly. It was as if it was just me and the beam, and no one else there watching. I was all by myself. Finally, I dismounted the beam still with perfection. Suddenly, I was back in the arena again. I saluted, and turned to Marlena to see her reaction. She said nothing, only giving me a hug; but her hug shouted out, "I'm proud of you!" I sat down. All my teammates were busy congratulating me, and I couldn't help the huge smile on my face. I impatiently waited for my score. Come on, come on, I thought. After what seemed like a year, they finally flashed my score. A 9.75!
"Oh my gosh!" I cried. It was the highest score of the day so far! Every one of my teammates cheered and slapped me on the back. Except for Brittany. She just sat sadly all by herself. I was about to say something to her when someone tapped me on the houlder. It was Melissa Danson, the favorite to win the all-around.
"That was a great beam routine! Congratulations!" she exclaimed.
What a nice person! Here I'd think the all-around leader would be upset, but she was congratulating me! "Thank you!" I replied, "You're doing awesome so far!"
"Oh, thanks," she shyly answered, "But I don't think I can beat a 9.75! Anyway, it's almost my turn on vault. Good luck!" She waved, and walked towards the vaulting horse.
***A half an hour later, it was my turn on floor exercise. I was excited, because I loved floor. I stepped onto the spring floor, and my music began blaring through the speakers. I had never felt so strong as I started my routine. I was doing great until I realized how tired I was getting. I was barely halfway through, and I was already breathing hard. I completed my front handspring pass fine, but didn't know how much longer I could keep going. My inhaler! That's what I forgot! I attempted an aerial, but didn't have the strength to keep my hands up from the ground. Now I felt like I couldn't breathe at all. I knew better than to try to do a roundoff back handspring back tuck pass, so I just did a roundoff back handspring, and barely landed it. I went into my pose, and saluted.
I felt like I was going to die. I couldn't breathe. "H-help, I-I can't b-breath," I gasped.
Brittany ran to me. "Here, take this," she said, handing me an inhaler. I took it, and soon I was breathing easier. "That's it, inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale," Brittany said.
Once I could finally breathe, I smiled at Brittany. "Thank you, Brittany. Thank you so much. Who's inhaler was that?"
"Um, it was mine," she said, looking down.
"But why did you help me? I thought you didn't like me!" I exclaimed.
"ME not like YOU? I thought you didn't like me!" Brittany said.
"Well, yeah, I didn't," I admitted, "It was because you were always calling me AlleyKat, and following me around. And constantly doing better than I was."
"I just wanted you to like me. You see, at my old gym, the girls who were older than me were jealous. They were constantly making fun of my asthma, and trying to play pranks on me just because I was a better gymnast than they were. I didn't want that to happen here, so I tried to become friends with everyone," she explained. "I didn't tell anyone I had asthma, because I was afraid they'd make fun of me. I have a really bad case."
"Oh Brittany," I said, feeling ashamed of the way I had been acting.
"The reason I followed you around was because I admired you. You were the best gymnast, and I wanted to be just like you. I didn't mean to make you mad when I called you AlleyKat, I was just trying to make you laugh."
"I'm so sorry, Brittany. I really have been acting like a jerk. But you really think I'm the best gymnast?" I asked.
"Of course! Your moves are so perfect and graceful. And you don't fall apart in competitions, like I do," she said, "Kat, I don't want to go out there. I've made a complete fool out of myself. I just can't do it. I know I'm going to fail."
"No Brittany!" I exclaimed suddenly. "You're going to go out there, and be the best that you can be. I know that you can do it."
"Y-you do?" she asked uncertainly.
"Yes," I replied, "Just pretend you're in practice all alone."
"OK. I better go. It's my turn." She walked onto the floor. Her music began, and she danced gracefully. Her tumbling was powerful, and her every move was perfect. She landed her last pass, and went into her pose.
"Yeah, Brittany!" I yelled. When she came over, I gave her a big hug. "I knew you could do it!" They flashed her score: a 9.6! She had won floor exercise!
"I won? I really won?" she asked me.
"Yes," I replied. "Not even Melissa Danson got a higher score than you did." Everyone happily congratulated everyone else. Our team had done great.
***On the bus on the way home, I let Brittany sit with me. Now that we made up, I was finally getting to learn how the real Brittany was.
My medals clanked whenever I moved. I had won beam, came in third on vault, and despite my poor showing on floor, still captured the bronze medal for the all-around. Not only that, but our team won third place! But I was more happy that I had come to understanding with Brittany.
"So Brittany, as floor champion, what are you going to do now?" I asked, jokingly.
"I'm going to Disney World!" she exclaimed. "Well, I wish I was." I laughed. Brittany was fun, and was now like a little sister to me, a little sister I never had. "But seriously, thank you Kat," she said, tears of happiness in her eyes, "If you hadn't talked sense into me, I wouldn't have gotten the 9.6."
"No, Brittany, thank you," I said, and I really meant it.