Perfect Balance Gymnastics

Chapter Seven - Savannah

I tug on my long sleeve blue and white shimmery leotard. "Today's order is bars, beam, floor, vault." James informs us. We all nod. We head to the big floor with the other teams and start warming up. After a few minutes of stretches and conditioning we head to bars. We all chalk up and get a thirty second rough warm up before we go. I'm on first. I jump on the springboard and kip into cast handstand on the high bar, gripping the bars with my hands. I do a half handstand pirouette just in time to hear, James yell,"Times a'tickin!" I quickly complete my overshoot and kip up. I let go of the bar and walk behind the line preparing for my routine. After everyone's done I walk in front of the bar. 

The judge salutes me and I grin at them, saluting back. I glide into a clean kip to cast handstand. I complete a sole circle and grab the high bar. I do a kip into straddled cast handstand and do two clear hip circles. I do my half handstand pirouette and a giant. I manage a solid overshoot and rotate enough to crisply grab the bar and move into a kip. I pop into support position and push up into my cast handstand. My feet connect with the bar during my sole circle and I jump to the high bar. I finish with a kip to cast handstand, two giants and a layout flyaway dismount. I tuck my head into my chest and bend my knees, perfecting my landing. I salute the judges and walk back to James. "Good job Anna!" James says, clapping me on the back. I anxiously look at the scoreboard as Paige starts her routine. 8.75! I grin. I was hoping for high eights on every apparatus and I was already off to a good start. Paige nails her landing but walks back to us with tears in her eyes. I want to comfort her, but I didn't see what happened in her routine. The landing looked great to me. "My legs hit the bar." She says, as if reading my mind. 

"It's ok red, shake it off." James says, patting her shoulder. She sits down miserably and I see her score on the board. 8.25. She looks really disappointed. After we all go, we rotate to beam. Up first is Marissa. After that is Carmen, Trista, me, Alexis and Paige. We start are warmups, in that order. Once it's my turn I mount the beam and kick into a back walkover. I do my handstand for one second then set my arms for my full turn. I wobble a little then bend to do my wolf turn. I do one turn and end up in a clean position. As I prepare to do aerial back handspring, James calls out "Times up!" I look down at him. "But I didn't get to do my back tuck!" I say nervously. "Next time don't take so long." He says, helping me down. I sit down next to Trista and try to ignore the anxious feeling in my tummy. Marissa mounts the beam for her routine after Paige finishes warming up. She does a back walkover back handspring and lands cleanly. She does a pivot turn and then back handspring back tuck, she lands and squats a bit to keep steady. A perfect landing! She does her switch leap and wolf turn, she leans in a bit but keeps steady. She does an aerial and wobbles slightly. She backs up and runs into a clean front handspring front layout dismount. We all cheer as she lands with no steps. A whooping 8.95! After Carmen and Trista, I'm up. I nervously salute the judges and start my routine. I mount do a back walkover. I do a handstand and then a full turn. I wobble a bit but don't fall off. 

Next I do my wolf turn, ending in a clean position. I do an aerial back handspring and windmill my arms. I pivot and do my back handspring back tuck. Well I'm in the air I can tell somethings wrong. Only one foot lands on the beam and I tip backwards I crash onto the mats below. Tears burn In my eyes but I have to get back up. My back is sore and everything hurts. I remount the beam and do my leaps. I walk backwards to the edge of the beam and do a roundoff back handspring layout ½ twist dismount. I take a step backwards but land solidly. I walk back over to my teammates. "You ok?" Trista asks. I nod silently. I turn to see my score. I got a 7.2. I sigh and tape up my ankles as Alexis starts her routine. Floor's up next. "The order for floor is Alexis, Trista, Carmen, Marissa, Paige and Savannah." I feel grateful for having some time to cool off after my fall. I warm up some tumbling and practice my dance sequences and layouts. After Alexis, it's Trista's turn. She looks more than happy for her routine. Well she runs into her tumbling I check my phone really quick. A notification pops up saying I've been tagged in the most trending post in my school's group. I tap on the notification and it shows me a post titled. 'Biggest gymnastics fail, this loser's never going to the Olympics'. Linked to it was a GIF of me falling off the beam. Tears budded in my eyes. I looked at the account, it was @BFFS4EVA, Lily's joint account with Megan. My hands curled into fists as Trista walked towards me, her face a happy flushed glow. Her smile fades when she sees the post on my phone. 

"You know people can get reported for cyberbullying." Trista says slowly. "Lily's dad works with Apple, she'll find some way to get out of it." I reply, "He works with apple, not the gram." Trista says comfortingly. I sigh. Carmen and Marissa perform well and Paige is stunning. Soon after, I'm up. I walk to the corner mat and scan the area before saluting. Across from my teammates, Lily, Megan, Sarah, Jay and Daniel are sitting down. I gulp and start my routine. I raise my leg and do a clean cartwheel back aerial. I do leaps to the opposite corner of the mat and do my layout round off back handspring back layout ½. I land with extra rebound and almost go out of bounds. I run and do a switch leap to the middle of the mat and hold a straddled handstand for two seconds. I run to the corner of the mat and do a front tuck front handspring pike. I land cleanly and squat down to prevent taking any steps. I do a back extension roll into a middle split as my finishing pose. I salute and look at Lily. Her lips are pursed. Megan looks uncomfortable, Sarah looks dismayed, Daniel looks like he doesn't care and Jay is impressed. I smile to myself and walk back over to my team. Trista was grinning wickedly. 

"What..?" I ask her. "Nothing. @BFFS4EVA was just banned for cyberbullying and tormenting a future Olympic gymnast for being human. Everyone makes mistakes. Lily's biggest one was being an immature insecure bully." I gape. "Go off girl." Paige says. "I bow to the queen of rant, Trista." Carmen says, sending us all into giggles. I look to see my score, 8.85! We rotate to vault and I'm second. I warm up with a simple front handspring vault. Carmen runs and does a perfectly symmetrical vault, landing with no steps. The parents went wild. I ran towards the vault, slamming my weight into the springboard and squeezing my legs. I land with a small step back, then salute the judges. "Great job Anna."James tells me. 

"Do another just like that and we're good." I dash towards the vault and do a clean roundoff onto the springboard, catapulting myself into an energetic yurchenko. I land with nothing but another small step and leg separation. "Nice, we'll take the first one." James says. I flash him a superstar grin and turn to watch Trista perform two ok but slightly sloppy vaults. I look at my score. 8.50. I turn to Marissa. "33.3 she replied smoothly." I sigh with relief. If only my beam score was better. I could have scored out.

Savannah's Score Card

Bars: 8.75

Beam: 7.2

Floor: 8.85

Vault: 8.50

AA: 33.30