Golden Futures
Chapter 1
Changes

Kelly stood in the center of the room where her two year-old daughter had practically grown up. With Leah's little arms wrapped tightly around her neck, Kelly twirled around one then twice, trying to take in twenty-six months worth of her daughter's life in just the few short minutes she had left in the room.

She took Leah's little hand in her own, then pointed to the light pink rug that was laying in the center of the hardwood floor. "This is where you said your first words," Kelly whispered in her ear. "Daddy and I were sitting there with you, and I kept telling you to say 'momma'. After I said it twenty times, you looked right at him and said 'dadda'. He still won't let me live that down."

She pointed Leah's hand at the white rocking chair in the far corner of the room. "The first and only time I dropped you," Kelly told her with a small laugh. "I was sitting in that chair. You were sick, your first cold, and you were really fussy. You kept trying to squirm out of my arms when I tried to give you the medicine. Somehow you managed to roll right out of my arms and onto the floor. Daddy came running up the stairs when he heard the screaming. Not you, but me," Kelly laughed again. "I was so freaked out, and you were just lying there in the floor, looking at me like I was crazy."

Kelly let go of Leah's hand and touched the light pink walls with her own hand. "Daddy and I fought constantly about the color here," she recalled. "I didn't want to paint the walls pink. I thought it was too overdone. Every baby girl has a pink nursery, and I wanted yours to be different. It was going to be that pretty light green color over there," she said, pointing to the green letters above the crib that spelled out Leah's name. "But your daddy wanted pink. He said green just wasn't a good color for a nursery. So you know what we did? We let you choose. When you were three months old, just before we moved you out of our room and into yours, we held out the color splotches to you and you chose the pink."

She looked around the room again, taking it all in. Then she looked down at her daughter, fast asleep in her arms. Kelly smiled to herself as she walked over to Leah's pretty white crib with its green and pink bedding. Rather than lay her daughter down for her nap as she had every day for two years, Kelly reached up and pulled down each of the letters from the wall. Then she walked to the door. She surveyed the room one last time before turning off the light and walked out the door.

...

"Mindy!" Payson shouted at her three year-old daughter. The little girl looked up at her mother, lip stick smeared all over the lower portion of her face. Payson had to fight back the urge to laugh and run for her camera. "No, you know better," she said instead. Payson ran over and snatched the tube of lipstick from her little hands, smacking her lightly on her wrist as a form of discipline.

"I'm sorry, Mommy," Mindy said innocently.

Payson smiled and picked her daughter up off the bathroom floor. She was about to walk into the living room and place her in the time-out chair before another blond head appeared in the doorway of the bathroom. "Come on, babe," Austin Tucker told her with a smile. "She's sorry. She won't do it again. Will you Minnie?"

The girl shook her head, her blonde pig tails flopping adorably. "See? There's no need to punish her."

"Did you even open all the parenting books and magazines I bought you before she was born?" Payson asked him. "They said if you don't punish from a young age children will grow up thinking there are no consequences for their actions."

"No, I didn't read those magazines, but I do know that you punishing her for everything is why she likes me more," he said, flashing her his signature smirk.

"I don't punish her for everything," Payson argued.

"Whatever you say."

"Here," she said, handing Mindy to him. "Just take her into the living room so I can get ready."

"Get ready for what?" he asked.

"The awards banquet at the Rock."

"Oh, right. I don't have to go to that, do I?"

"Considering that we're the head coaches there, I would think so."

Austin touched his forehead and cheeks dramatically before saying, "You know, babe, I think I'm coming down with something. I'm feeling a little feverish. I had better stay home tonight, don't want to get any of the gymnasts sick."

Payson picked up Austin's perfectly tailored suit from the bathroom floor, where he had thrown it last week when she first told him about the banquet, and tossed it at him. "You're going tonight," she told him flatly.

...

"Are you ready?" Nicky asked Kelly when she exited the front door of their quaint little cottage with Leah in her arms. Kelly nodded slowly as she handed him the sleeping brunette. "Are you okay?" he asked her as he placed Leah in her car seat, careful not to wake her or her six week-old baby sister.

Kelly nodded again. "Yeah, just a little sad to be leaving."

Nicky quietly closed the back seat door of their family SUV before walking over to his wife. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. "You're the one that wanted to leave, Kel," he reminded her in a whisper.

"I know, but I still blame you," she said without a drop of anger or resentment in her voice.

Nicky chuckled. "Why?"

"We're leaving London to go coach in Denver. If we hadn't started coaching here, we wouldn't have to move."

"If we hadn't moved here to begin with, we wouldn't have to move," he countered.

"We moved here to get away from gymnastics," she said with a sigh, abandoning their pointless exchange in favor of what was really bothering her.

"You moved here to get away from gymnastics. I moved here to be with you."

"And you met Daphne first, and agreed to coach her without even asking my opinion."

Nicky shook his head, though Kelly, her head still buried in his chest, couldn't see. "I agreed to go watch her practice, not to coach her. You're the one that agreed to coach her."

"Nick," she said, finally getting to her point, and pulling away to look him in the eyes. "I don't know if I want Leah and Aubrey to grow up around gymnastics. I want them to have everything we didn't."

"It has to be their choice to start competing, Kel. We agreed on that when Leah was born. So it should be their choice not to, too. You can't just keep them away from the sport we both love just because you're still not over what happened here over four years ago," he said, knowing he was crossing a line that he had been avoiding.

Kelly glared at him, pulling out of his arms. "It has nothing to do with what happened in 2012," she snapped at him before climbing into the passenger seat, slamming the door and waking up both of their sleeping children.

...

"It is with great pleasure that Austin and I present the Rock's annual Gymnast of the Year Award to," Payson paused for a moment to add a little drama, although every person in the room knew whose name was about to come out of her mouth. "National Champion Jasmine Porter."

Payson held out the trophy to the sixteen year-old gymnast as she climbed the stairs to the stage, her dark brown hair flowing behind her as she walked. Jasmine took the trophy and smiled to the crowd. "Thank you," she said, the audiances cue to cut the applause. "This past year as been a whirlwind for me. As if trying to defend my title isn't enough, I have press conferences, photoshoots, and all the other things that come along with being at the top of a sport. It's been pretty hectic, but I get through it because of all the support I have recieved here at the Rock. Without all of you, I could never have managed."

Jasmine stepped down from the stage as the crowd erupted in applause for her 'spur-of-the-moment-heartfelt-speech' that she had read from a teleprompter that no one besides the people on the stage could see.

"And our last award for the night," Austin said, the first words he spoke since Payson dragged him onto the stage. "Is the Payson Keeler Award." Payson turned to him, her eyes the size of saucers. She and Austin had mutually agreed to discontinue the award, thinking it inappropriate for Payson to had out an award in her own honor.

"This girl represents everything it means to be a champion. Determination, talent, and most of all, heart," he said, looking around the room and noticing that Jasmine was practically already walking to the stage. "This girl doesn't get all the recognition she deserves, but it doesn't bother her. She takes all her frustration and channels it into her gymnastics. It is with great pleasure that I present the Payson Keeler Award to Brittani Ross."

Brittani looked at him in shock, her eyes quickly turning to the shell-shocked Jasmine. She sat in her seat, completely frozen by shock and fear. "Brittani, come get the trophy," Austin sang into the microphone, attempting to lighten the mood in the room.

The red-haired girl stood from her seat, her legs shaking as her knees tried to give out on her. She took the trophy from Austin, praying that she wouldn't drop it during her speech. "I, um,-" she looked over to Payson for help, but the blond girl was as shocked as she was. "I want to thank Austin and Payson," she began. "Without them, I would just be another farm girl in Alabama right now. No Olympic dreams, no gymnastics period. They've given me the chance to make my dream come true." She turned to Austin and Payson, a smile on her face. "And I promise you guys that I won't let you down."


Okay, I know what many of you are thinking. 'This is just going to be another version of Bitter Rivals'. Well, you're wrong!

In the beginning, this is mainly going to be about Payson and Austin's gymnasts (Jasmine and Brittani) competing against Nicky and Kelly's future gymnasts. But of course, Kelly and Payson will make things personal between them, eventually dragging Leah and Mindy into it as well.

Fans of Bitter Rivals:
For Nicky and Kelly's gymnasts, would me naming them Bailey and Amari be a bad idea? The characters are pretty much going to be the spitting image of them, so it would be easier for me to name them that. But if it would confuse you guys, I won't.

Things in this chapter you must remember for the rest of the story:

1) Kelly being upset about 2012.
2) Daphne (A former gymnast of Nicky and Kelly's that will shake things up a bit in future chapters)
3) Jasmine reading from a teleprompter (Not specifically that, but her being kind of a phony)

I think that's pretty much it. I'm going to try for weekly updates, but as usual, I make no promises.

Reviews = faster updates!