Golden Bonds

And So It Ends

Hey everyone,

Just started a whole new novel. YAY. The title may change, who knows. Something may come to me while I write so don't be surprised. The cover may change as well. I just love this image but it's not original to the story just a picture that I've always liked. I don't know the artist but I will post them when I do to give them credit but it's not my design. When I do get something made for this novel the cover will change but this works for now. Thank you all so much for reading. Let me know what you think!!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!

Now to the chapter!!!

NJ Kuhr

xoxo

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Practice was over. I was just the right amount of sore; not too sore that I couldn't train tomorrow, sore enough to know I'd worked hard today. And to make it even better; I nailed my wolf turns on the beam...twice. A few more weeks of practice and I will have the muscle memory down pat. Only a few more months before the Olympic qualifiers, I was ready. My floor routines nearly flawless, I only had one turn on the bars that wasn't quite perfect but I was close. SOOOO close.

"Hey, Parker. Want to meet up later?" Sarah called from across the mat. "We're heading to O'Donalds."

I had missed the last Olympics. An ACL sprain had eliminated me from qualifiers. I waited four years for another chance to qualify for the US woman's gymnastics team; four very long, very hard years. I wasn't about to blow all that training by going out with the girls. Not that they didn't understand, they did but they really didn't. I was good enough to be an Olympian four years ago. I was definitely ready now and I had used all that disappointment to motivate me to make it this time. Sarah and the others were good gymnast, amazing actually but not good enough. I was.

It wasn't hubris to say so just hard work. Experts had been watching my career for years; I was the one to beat. I had the world records, the championship titles to prove it. Believe me, I'm not confident by any stretch of the imagination, only determined. Don't get me wrong, I'm not shy. I'm just not social. I guess..? I would have loved to say yes to Sarah, take off into the night dancing and letting loose. When I thought about it one image popped into my mind.

Gold.

One large heavy gold medal that would hang on someone else's neck. I was almost twenty. I could hold off for one more year. I could have that one trophy everyone covets and once I did then I could go out with my friends. I could have both as long as I worked to get the harder accomplishment first.

"Not tonight, sorry." I waved at them. They always asked, I always said no. They just didn't get it. My locker was closed up so the janitors could clean but my go bag was next to the mats. Most of the lights had been turned off except for the one over the floor. With my long strawberry blond hair wrapped in a bun I sat stretching, pulling my nose next to my knees towards the thick pads.

"Hey, don't stay too long." Jason yelled at me, as he unlatched the doors. They were the kind of doors used in public places and schools; a special key would release the handle on the door so it couldn't be opened from the outside. Push on the long bar and open it but once the door shut there was no coming back in. It clicked as he pushed, echoing off the high exposed scaffolding that supported the roof.

Not that it mattered I'd been training in this gym since I was eight. I've had a key for years. I knew how to turn the lights off, where the janitor left his skeleton key to all the lockers, how to get in and out of the showers without disturbing the sterile areas. I was always the last to leave, the one who set the alarms at night and the one who disengaged them in the mornings. There were only two people who spent more time in this building than I did and they were the owners. Gymnastic legends, the both of them, they taught me how to do my first cartwheel, my first backflip. I was here on a scholarship because I worked harder than any gymnast they had.