Perfect Balance Gymnastics

Chapter Twelve - Alexis

I chalk my hands and take a deep breath before I salute the judges. They salute back and I turn to the bars. I kip up into a cast handstand. I slowly place my feet on the bars and throw my body back into a sole circle. I jump to the next bar and kip up into a straddled cast handstand, slowly turning and jumping into my overshoot. I press my legs up into a kip immediately and let my body sag to pull myself up again for a kip. I quickly cast into a I press my legs back into a sole circle and jump up to the high bar. I do a clean long hang kip with my toes pointed into cast handstand. Next, a clear hip and then two giants into a solid layout dismount with two tiny steps. I salute the judges, take a deep breath and scitter back over to my teammates. Trista starts her routine as my score pops up. 8.3. I breathe in a sigh of relief. After Trista's less than average performance on bars we head over to beam. 

After waiting for what seemed like forever, I stand up to salute the judge for my beam routine. I slowly mount the beam and do my aerial. I make sure to separate my legs and point my toes. I land with no wobble but my ankle twinges. I turn and do my leaps and a full turn with a tiny wobble. I perform my back walkover and turn and do my front tuck. Next I do my back handspring back tuck. I wobble and one of my feet lifts but I place it back down and complete my routine with a front handspring front layout ½ twist. I take a small step then salute the judges. I managed to stick my back tuck! Carmen and Savannah fell but I stuck it! Next, we move over to floor. I'm up first. The judge salute's me and I salute back and walk to the edge of the mat. My music comes on and I start with a one hand forwards flick then a sassy move and a point of my finger into a roundoff back handspring back layout. 

I rebound and continue with my routine. I do a switch leap into a half turn pirouette. I transition into my dance sequence. I hesitate before running into my front handspring front layout ½ twist. I have a huge rebound and jump backwards. My foot goes over the out of bounds line. I quickly turn and try to keep up with the music. I do an aerial into front aerial, then I roll down to the ground with a leg kick into my pose. I slowly sit up and bite back tears. I salute the judge and run back to my teammates. They comfort me as Trista starts her routine. I look up at my score and see 8.00. I wipe my eyes quickly and cheer on Trista as she performs a gorgeous routine. On vault I am up last. I nervously wait as my teammates perform and butterfly's fly in my stomach. When it's my turn I wait for the judge to salute me. 

When she does I look at James. He nods at me and I salute back at the judge. I haven't done my yurchenko without James spotting me since I hurt my ankle. I run and hesitate slightly before I do a roundoff back handspring onto the block. I flip through the air, but don't quite rotate enough, landing with my feet way behind me. I stumble forward a few steps. I salute the judge and skip back to position. That wasn't so bad right? I run back into my yurchenko and this I overotate a bit and take a big step back. I salute the judge and run back to my team. I miss my score but I hope it's good. We all head over to the big floor for awards. Our score cards are handed out and I look at mine nervously.

Alexis's Score Card

Bars: 8.30

Beam: 8.50

Floor: 8.00

Vault: 8.00

AA: 32.80

My all around was pretty disappointing. I quickly swallow and look down, feeling my eye's burn. I'm going to have to perform way better to score out. The top six spots for every event earn a prize and the top ten all around earn a prize. On bars Savannah takes fourth and Marissa takes second. On beam Trista takes sixth, and Marissa takes third. 

On floor, Marissa takes sixth, Paige fifth, Savannah fourth, and Trista takes third. And lastly on vault, Carmen takes first! We all hold our breath as they announce the top ten. Paige takes tenth and Marissa takes fifth in the all-around. We all hug each other but I can't help but feel sad that I didn't get a medal. When the team scores go up we get fifth! We crowd onto a tiny fifth place podium and take a picture with our medals and trophies. 

Getting in the top six for an event and the top ten gets a medal and getting in the top ten teams is a trophy. I can't help but feel jealous of Marissa with her four medals and a trophy. I swallow my jealousy and grin with my team as we take our photos. We all qualified for state!