Another Death Note story. This one is finished (unliek all of my other stories), but I'll only be uploading about once every week. Or once a fortnight.
Reviews will encourage me!
And now the story.
Near stood at one end of the empty gymnasium, looking around at the mats, bars, rings and ropes. He raised his arms above his head, palms flat, his baggy shirt sleeves bunching at his shoulders. He placed one foot forward, then gracefully fell onto his hands, holding the perfect handstand there for a moment. He then dropped backwards and bounced up again to tumble twice in the air before landing on his feet. Near crouched for a moment, regaining his balance, before standing.
It hadn't taken him long to get that good. Near had seen a gymnastics competition on the television one day and, interested, had found out all he could about it. He eventually asked Roger for a tape of the competition and had watched and studied it over and over again.
As far as physical activities went, Near wasn't much good at anything. He was too shy for a team sport, not strong enough for competitive swimming and too precise for club games (such as golf or croquet). But gymnastics. Gymnastics was something else. When he flipped, he felt like he was flying, when he cartwheeled, he felt like he could flatten anything in his path. It was beautiful. But no one knew of his passion.
That is, until he heard the clapping.
It echoed around the empty hall and Near quickly turned startled.
"Oh, I apologise if I scared you. I merely wished to show my apparition for such a fine gymnast."
A teacher, Mr. Hunt, stood just inside the gym door. Near waited, expressionless, to see if he would continue, but inside he felt very pleased.
"I wonder…" the teacher trailed off for a moment, thinking. "Have you applied for an extra curricular sport yet?"
Near shook his head. You were allowed to sign up for a sport, but it hadn't been compulsory.
"Well I think you, and gymnastics itself, would really benefit from you signing up. Besides, if one is good at gymnastics they tend not to be so good at other sports."
"I wasn't going to sign up for a sport." Near replied quietly.
Mr. Hunt got the impression that what Near meant was he hadn't been going to, and wouldn't.
"Well, I suggest it's gymnastics you sign up for, because sport is becoming compulsory by the end of this week."
Near just stared back and the teacher shrugged and left. But what the teacher didn't realise, was that Near was thinking. If sport was to become compulsory, then gymnastics would be his best bet. But what if they laughed at him? What if he was no good? For once in his life at Whammy's House, Near was actually nervous.
In a fortnight, it was common knowledge that Near was number one in something else; Gymnastics.
I've had this story for ages, and only now do I decide to upload it. :D
PS: Hello Vanilla Vanish!
