Bitter Rivals
Chapter 9
Silver and Gold

"Where the hell is he?" Bailey shouted to no one in particular. The competition started in an hour, and her coach was nowhere to be found. She hadn't spoken to him since their phone call the previous night when she told him Kelly was at the hospital.

"Calm down, Bailey. I'm sure Nicky will be here as soon as he can," Amari told her. Both girls, along with their sixteen teammates, were sitting in a back hallway at the arena stretching. Well, everyone but Bailey, who was pacing back and forth cursing Nicky.

"How can he do this to me! Nationals! I train the whole effing year for this, and then he decides to pull an effing Houdini on me!" Bailey shouted. None of the other girls bothered to contradict her on the fact that they were left without a coach as well. After training with her for years, everybody knew to stay quiet.

"Nationals! How could he! When I get my hands on him-"Bailey shouted. All the other girls stopped stretching and stood up. Each of them was starring behind Bailey. She whipped her head around and saw Nicky.

"You'll what, Bailey?" he asked her. Everyone laughed when Bailey's jaw dropped. She shook off her initial shock of seeing him and resumed her glaring.

"Where the hell have you been?" she snarled at him. His eyes widened at the hostility in her voice. Bailey's face softened, though, when she saw looked into his eyes. They were puffy and red from crying. She opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong, but he held up his hand to stop her.

"Girls, go in lockerroom and get dressed for the opening ceremonies," Nicky said. Seventeen girls started walking to the lockeroom, but one stayed.

"What happened?" she asked her coach. Nicky looked into Bailey's blue eyes and had to resist an urge he hadn't felt in over a month. He wanted to kiss her more now than he ever had before. He just shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. You just go out there and win, okay?" Nicky said. Bailey nodded. She turned to walk away, but then she stopped.

"I know you probably won't believe this, but I want you to know that your the only 'father' I've ever had," she said. "And I'm really, really sorry that I screwed that up."

Nicky started to speak, but Bailey was already walking down the hallway. He felt the tears start to well up in his eyes. He reached up with his hand and dabbed at his eyes. Normally, her statement wouldn't have bothered him. But she had no idea how much it hurt him to loose another child.

--

"Okay, this is it. You've practiced and practiced, but that doesn't matter now. All that matters is what you do out there today. I know you can do this," Payson told Kenzie. The pair were in the competition area. Kenzie was sitting in chair, and Payson was pacing back and forth giving her speech.

Kenzie started to look up in the stands for her mother, but Payson grabbed her head, "It doesn't matter where she is, what she says, or what she thinks. All that matters for the next few hours is you and your talents."

Payson let go of her and looked up in the stands to see where Amanda and Meghan were. She smiled when she saw her daughter. After Nicky left her in the park, she had gone back to the hotel and spent the whole evening with Meghan. They played checkers, watched a movie, and even had a fake teaparty. Payson had felt so guilty about not telling Nicky that she had even ordered her a new bicycle online.

She hadn't seen Nicky yet, but she knew he would be there. She hadn't seen Kelly either, but that didn't surprise her. Nicky had said she was in the hospital, so she figured Kelly wouldn't be there.

"Okay, Kenzie, let's go," Payson said.

--

The Next Day

"Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for the three-time National Champion, Bailey Ellington!" the announcer said over the PA system.

Bailey stood on the middle platform of the podium, waving her hands at the crowd. Amari and Kenzie were on both side of her. Nicky and Payson stood on opposite sides of the podium, smiling as big as their gymnasts. Kenzie's tearstained eyes darted to her mother, who was standing beside Payson. Amanda looked pissed.

After the cameras stopped flashing, Bailey jumped off the platform and into Nicky's waiting arms. "I'm so proud of you," he whisperd to her. Bailey didn't reply. After they stopped hugging, Amari walked over to them and the three hugged without speaking a word.

Kenzie's celebration, though, was nonexistant. She had started to hug Payson, but her mother had started yelling at her. "Second place! You train all year for this, and you want to celebrate second place!" Amanda whisper-shouted.

Payson stayed silent. She gave Kenzie a pitying smile before she took Meghan's hand and led her away. The two were half-way out of the arena before they were stopped by the head of the National Committee, Tina Sanders.

"Payson, I just want to say what an amazing job you did with McKenzie. Very few coaches could have taken a girl who didn't even compete in Nationals last year and make her into a silver medalist," Tina said.

"Yeah, well Kenzie's not like most gymnasts. She deserves all the credit," Payson said. She started to walk away again, but Tina grabbed her arm.

"Payson, I know that normally the coach of the gold medalist gets to coach the National Team, especially when he's also the coach of the bronze medalist. But I want you and Nicky to be co-head coaches. What do you say?" Tina asked her.

Payson laughed, "How much did Amanda pay you?"

"Twenty-five grand. But we were considering it anyway," Tina replied.

"Fine, I'll do it for Kenzie. Where are they training at?" Payson said.

"The Rock."


Payson and Nicky coaching the National Team at the Rock, there's a perfect setting for drama, don't you think? The next update will probably take a while because it's going to be really long.

Is anyone disappointed that Bailey won again? She didn't just win because she's my favorite, there is a reason behind it. And it's VERY important for the storyline that Bailey's the National Champion.

The reason I left out all the gymanstics in this chapter is I have no clue about gymnastics! So if your disappointed by this, just imagine Nationals from All That Glitters with Bailey performing like Kelly did and Kenzie performing like Kaylie did. Except for the whole Kaylie winning thing.