This is one of my older stories, but also, one of my favourites. I've edited it, made it a bit more refined, and spaced it out more. It still may need a bit of editing, but I am a lot happier with this version.
Trampoline
An elite gymnast. That's all she ever was, and all she would ever be. She was only ten years old but she knew that's all her future could be. Winning the gold in the Olympics. It's not like she had a choice either. Her parents were told when she was born; she was to be a gymnast, and nothing else. She was home schooled and had over five hours of training every day, and only a measly one and a half hours of school work. She was never assigned homework either, a kids' dream, but she didn't want to be an elite gymnast, she didn't want to go to the Olympics, and she didn't want the gold. But she had been an obedient girl, and she practiced every day of the year Monday to Sunday, rain or shine, every day. Today was no exception. She was told to go outside and practice on the trampoline, her least favourite thing to do, but if she was told, she had to do. And so she went. The obedient little girl she was.
When she got outside she cautiously walked up to the outdoor trampoline and unzipped the safety-net, slipped of her shoes, and delicately lifted herself up on to the trampoline. Not even bothering to use the steps conveniently located to her right. Once inside the trampoline, she gently pushed aside the twigs that had fallen on to the trampoline from the wind and pushed them off the side. She put herself, sitting Japanese-style as apposed to 'cross legged', in the middle of the trampoline, closed her eyes, and sighed. She thought about the upcoming gym competition, and pretty much anything that crossed her mind. Her silence was interrupted by the small 'tink' of a twig landing on the trampoline. She looked at the twig in front of her and cautiously thought about where it could have come from. The wind wasn't blowing, so it couldn't have blown in through one of the holes in the trampoline net, and she thought about where it had landed. The angle in the way it had landed could only have meant that a person had thrown it. She looked around, and noted something different in her surroundings. There was a patch of pale-purple in the bush nearest the trampoline. She knew she didn't know anyone with purple anything, and quirked her head to the side trying to figure out who could be there. The bush made some rustling noises but no reply came from the person behind the bush.
'Fine, have it your way then.' she muttered under her breath, and stood up gracefully from her sitting position. She took a deep breath and began to jump. She started out doing simple tricks like splits in the air, back and forward flips and jump-handstands. When she felt she was stretched enough, she started to jump really high and attempted to do what she was sent out to do, a back-handspring triple back-flip. On her first try, she got the handspring perfect but didn't jump high enough to do the flips, so the laws of gravity forced her back down onto the trampoline. The second time she tried the trick, she jumped to high and landed funny on the hand spring causing her to jump too high for the flips. She was too far away from the trampoline to land correctly and her momentum sent her into another spin, but in the middle of that spin, gravity took over again, sending her down on the trampoline with a loud shriek from the springs. She winced and stood up with a limp, but shook it off. She had to master this trick, whether she liked it or not. She sighed as she attempted the difficult trick and landed it perfectly. Though she landed perfectly for both parts of the trick, she scolded herself for coming out of the 'tuck' position too soon and not pointing her toes hard enough. She had to get it perfect. Nothing less.
She was broken out of her trance by the sound of…clapping? At first she thought it was the spring of the trampoline squeaking after she landed, but, it was more consistent and it sounded…nice. Never was she applauded for working hard and practicing everyday. Sure, when she was in competitions she was heavily applauded, but only because of a high score, or a good coach. This felt, good, she decided as the best word to describe the feeling bubbling up inside her as she got off the trampoline, re-zipping the safety net and carefully slipping her shoes back on. As soon as she was done, she ran off towards the bush seeking to find the mysterious person applauding her. She dashed to the bush, expecting someone to still be there, but instead, she found a note saying;
"Meet me back here at this bush at 12:00 midnight; I have a gift for you.
Keep up your hard work; I'm sure you'll make the Olympics someday if you do.
Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you or anything; I'm only eleven .Hope to see you then.
Your new next-door neighbour,
Neji Hyuga"
'Hmm...Neji Hyuga, eh?' she thought.
'Well, Hi!….Where ever you are. I'm Tenten Chishu…I'll see you then.' she said with a smile.
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