The Real Life

The trees flying by the train car window are passing and blurring together into a green blob with a brown bottom. I lay my head back on the headrest and release a loud sigh. I am going back home for the first time in 3 years, oh joy.

I always came second to Rosalie that is the way it always was. She was defying gravity doing death defying tricks in gymnastics. I learned every trick right after her it should have been amazing that I was 2 years younger than her yet I could do almost everything she could. When she couldn't do something she got angry and threw a fit while I got up and tried again.

She got the chance to go to an Elite gym and they offered me a spot as well so that it would be easier on my parents to have both girls in one spot. At 12 years old my parents sent me away to boarding school so that they could focus on her future Olympic career. They got rid of me, like a piece of trash.

The boarding school I was forced to go to was in upstate New York near Albany. During a weekend there I noticed the little town had a gymnastic school. That is where I have spent all the free time I have had since.

For me gymnastics was never something that I was good at so I just kept doing it to excel and be better than everyone else. I loved the sport it was fun for me to do it. I always loved being on the unbalanced bars and feeling like I could soar. It is the one place I feel like I could belong.

But it would be lying to me if I say that I'm happy to be home. At 15 every girl tries to act out and be "cool". At boarding school it was showing how much money you have and how much you could drink before you got wasted. And that my friend is why I have been expelled from Albany Ridge Boarding school.

I was also brought up on charges because my so called friends ditched me while I was pasted out drunk on the floor in the school gym that had been completely vandalized. So when my parents had to pull themselves from my sister to check up on me while I was in jail, furious wouldn't even describe it.

So I got two alternatives 100hrs of community service or be forced back into training with my sister again and if I go to nationals and place in the national team I can quit and go back to doing whatever I was doing. I chose community service but the judge over ruled it and wanted me to suffer in something I didn't want to do.

So that leads me to my current predicament sitting on a train after a 4 hr plane ride heading to the little town the houses the Elite gym called The Win. Their slogan is even better "Because this is where winners are born and molded into Olympians". Yea that is cockiness to the extreme.

The train had finally halted to a stop; I lugged my carry on to the platform where I gathered my luggage. To find myself disappointed to not see my parents. I walked to the exit of the train station and hailed a cab to drive me home. Once again they had forgotten about their second daughter.

I got home to find that nobody was home, like I didn't expect that. I left my stuff in the hallway all but my carry on and went upstairs to my old room. In my carry on I had the things I hold most dear, my gymnastics apparel. I put on a black leo and yoga pants to go over them. Then I took my keys and a water bottle and began to jog to The Win. Hopefully I get a warm welcome, probably not.