The Gymnast

Part 2

I look at Sophie one last time before entering the gym. We immediately rush to the locker room. None of the other girls are warming up yet, so we must not be that late.

Sophie's locker is right next to mine, and we both unpack our stuff. I put my bag and sweatshirt in my locker, but I decide to warm up with my t-shirt and leggings. Sophie always warms up with just her leotard. Today, she's wearing a pink leotard with a silver stripe on each side and a swirl on the front made of sparkles. I'm wearing my favorite leotard. It's mostly black, but a small part at the top is red, and the red swirls into the black. There is also a design that's kind of swirly on the front which is made of sparkles.

Right when we're about to exit the locker room, someone taps me on the left shoulder. I already know what will happen, but I turn to the left anyway. Obviously, she's not standing there, she's on my other side.

"I got you!" Sharon exclaims. "I totally tricked you that time!"

"Yeah, totally," I say sarcastically.

"I did! Right Sophie?"

"Uh... yeah, sure. We should really start warming up before someone yells at us," Sophie says, and Sharon and I laugh.

"What?" she asks.

"You're so anti-social and uptight sometimes, that's all," I say, and Sharon nods.

"Shut up, I am not!" Sophie says, but she's laughing. Sharon and I laugh too, and soon we're rolling on the floor laughing. It wasn't that funny, but we can't stop laughing. I guess it's just that kind of day.

A few minutes later, we're still laughing on the floor, but we're starting to calm down. 

"What are you guys laughing about?" someone asks from the door. Sharon, Sophie, and I look up at the same time and see Gabby looking down at us. Gabby is super mysterious. She's been homeschooled her whole life, but she doesn't take lessons at the gym with us. Instead, she has a private tutor and sometimes her mom teaches her. She has long, dark brown hair and she's pretty tall. She's nice enough, but she has terrible social skills since she spends most of her time at home with her mom. We also suspect that she takes private lessons at another gym since she seems to arrive at the gym with a new skill every day.

I wipe the tears from my eyes. "Oh, nothing. You had to be there," I explain.

"Um... okay," Gabby says.

She stands by the door for an extremely awkward minute.

Sharon, the exact opposite of Gabby, breaks the silence. "So... I guess we should go out and warm up."

Gabby perks up. "Yeah, that's what I came to tell you. It's time to warm up. I wanted to tell you before-" she begins, but stops when she hears footsteps behind her.

We all freeze as coach Hazel looks us all over. I prepare for the worse. Hazel is a super tough coach. She was a gymnast when she was younger, but she only made it to level 8 before she reached high school and had to stop because she had no time for practice. She seems to take out all her anger on us. 

"GET UP AND START WARMING UP! JUST BECAUSE NOT EVERYONE IS HERE YET DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD SIT IN HERE FOR HOURS!" Hazel yells, and the four of us scurry out of the locker room.