Chapter 14: "Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." AA Milne

A/N Sorry for the late update – nationals let's go!

Lauren slouched down on the backseat of the Rock's minbus. They had six senior and two junior athletes competing. More than any gym in the country, so Sasha was driving the huge vehicle that Payson had bought so Brian Kmetko had been able to get to nationals and trials last year. It was crazy what could happen in a year. A year ago Lauren's world had been dark and impossible. She'd been terrified of the future, of not making the team, of falling, of her father's disapproval. Today she was looking forward to competing. She had already hit bottom last year, and now she was just grateful for every single day. She was going to go out on the podium and do her best. She might fall, she might not make the World's team, she was not well thought of in the wider gymnastics community because of 2011 Worlds but she had her team and family. Most importantly she had herself. She grinned as Sasha pulled up to their hotel. It wasn't the fanciest hotel in town like last year. She hadn't asked her father to try and buy her friends. It was just a regular three star hotel that Sasha had chosen because it was closest to the supermarket and the stadium.

They assembled inside the foyer. One family that was also checking in had noticed Kaylie and Payson. The Olympians smiled at the girls and happily gave them their autographs. Lauren wasn't jealous. Well she sort of was but she shut it out, she had more important things to focus on. Once they were done Sasha gathered his team in a huddle like he did every year. "Well this year has been an eventful one. Lauren, Payson, Kaylie, Rachel I want to thank all of you for the incredible ride. Tori, Ronnie, Nessie, Catherine, and Taylor welcome to your first nationals as Rock gymnasts. Now each of you have earned your place here. I want you to each go out and compete your hardest and support each other. I am incredibly proud of you." He looked at Payson and Darby. "Anything else you'd like to add?" Payson and Darby shook their heads. Sasha was the pro at pep talks and they were both tired.

Sasha nodded "right – room allocations. These are final by the way, so no drama. Right Catherine and Taylor you're together. Rachel and Tori, Ronnie with Kaylie which leaves Lauren and Nessie together. Go freshen up, then we have a pack run before dinner."

Lauren was surprised. She'd assumed she'd be with Kaylie. She could tell her best friend was a bit put out too. But arguing with Sasha was about as useful as asking the sun to turn purple. She smiled at the younger girl.

"Shall we head on up then, Ness?" Lauren asked Nessie.

Nessie smiled nervously "sure."

Lauren took their key off Sasha and went up to their room. It was nothing fancy, just two single beds in the bedroom with an adjoining bathroom. "Home sweet home" Lauren said to Nessie who smiled quietly. Lauren was a bit unsure of how to act around the younger girl. She reminded Lauren of Payson a bit. Nessie was very focused, but at the same time she seemed to lack the confidence that Payson did. And something had happened at her old gym, but Nessie never talked about it.

XXX

Kaylie was relieved once the press interviews were over after podium training. Podium training had gone fairly well, after the Olympics this nationals didn't seem too bad. The girls were filing out when a tall (for a gymnast) blonde girl tapped Kaylie on the shoulder.
"Hi" Kaylie said smiling.

"Oh Kaylie, you remember me. You're so nice! I'd heard you were nice. I just wanted to reintroduce myself –I'm Lisa, Lisa Barnardos. I can't wait to compete with you this weekend." She said with a smile on her face.

"Oh, well it will be nice competing with you, too, Lisa" Kaylie responded, bemused as Lisa left, her perfectly straightened, platinum hair swishing behind her.

"Who was that?" Lauren asked.

"Ah I think she's a second year senior, but she was out last year because her ankles hurt or something."

"Well she also wanted to work on her modelling career." Nessie piped up. "She goes to my old gym." The younger girl said by way of explanation.

"Kaylie, Payson – would you be able to come and give us a few minutes. CNN is here and they want to have a chat." Marcus appeared out of nowhere.

Payson repressed a sigh. She was a public figure now, she had to be gracious. And it wasn't like she'd been doing podium training all day like Kaylie had.

"Yes of course, Marcus, that's fine." She said and she and Kaylie followed him.

"Excellent – oh and Lauren, there are a couple of people who are here to see you." Marcus said ambiguously before Emily and Kelly appeared through the side door from where Marcus had entered.

Lauren grinned and ran to hug her friends. "I'll see you guys later!" She waved to the younger Rock girls.

"I'm so glad you came!" Lauren grinned.

"Ha – the wonderful NGO all but forced us." Kelly said wryly.

"Don't mind her – she's hardly had any sleep."

"Well moving all my crap into our dorm took a heap of time."

"Only because you left everything up to the last minute – slacker."

Lauren chuckled. "I can see you two are going to have a fun year. Seriously though – what's it like, moving into Harvard?"

Both girls grinned "It's amazing. The campus is so gorgeous." Emily said "And I can't wait for all the learning."

"It's going to be incredible to be able to study without training getting in the way."

Lauren rolled her eyes "nerd alert, nerd alert." She linked arms with the other two and they walked up to Lauren's room.

Nessie was about to follow them when Rachel tapped her on the back. "Are ya keen to get a smoothie?" The older girl asked.

Nessie grinned. She'd never really been invited to anything genuinely before. "Of course I'd love to!"

XXX

The Rock gymnasts were so numerous that they made up an entire rotation. And they were starting on bars. As they all saluted the judges as a group they got a huge cheer. Lauren knew that it was mostly for Kaylie but she pretended that the cheers were for her.

Nessie was up first in the rotation Lauren hugged her teammate briefly. The short girl was good on bars. Sasha often made the younger girls watch her to learn from her technique. Nessie's toes were perfectly pointed, and she swung the bars like a little monkey. She dismounted and Kaylie went to hug her tightly.

"That was amazing!" She said to the shortest teammate.

Nessie hugged her back with a smile on her face, but she could have sworn that Nessie had tears in her eyes, Kaylie made a point to talk about it to Lauren later.

Lauren looked at the bars. It was her weakest apparatus by far. She looked at the stands, it had been over a year since her last proper competition and she'd forgotten how loud the crowd could be. She looked at the judges. They were all watching her like hawks. Suddenly she couldn't breathe, then her heart started to race really quickly. She groaned inwardly. She hated her medication and its side effects! She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Payson.

"I can't do this." Lauren said helplessly. She knew she sounded pathetic but her mood had just suddenly plunged.

"You know you can."

Lauren plunged her fingernail underneath her thumbnail to stop herself from crying.

"And more importantly, Lo, I know that you can. And I will be pissed off if you miss today because you've done so much to get this far to screw up now."

Lauren nodded. She was sick of being sick, and being the underdog. The routine was only fifty-five seconds long - she could do this! She hugged Payson quickly then saluted the judges. She did her first pirouette, then her pack salto to the low bar. She judged the difference incorrectly and had to do an extra couple of elements before getting her routine back on track. But there was no way she was going to fall off the stupid bars. She muscled her way through the rest of her routine, she dismounted with a big lunge forward, but she'd stayed on! Her score probably wouldn't break the 14's but she wasn't exactly in medal contention for bars anyway. She looked up to the stands. Her father was grinning and crying at the same time. And there was a weird noise - like a TV that couldn't get reception. Then she realised that it was the crowd! They were cheering for her. Lauren grinned and waved at the crowd. Sasha walked over and hugged her tightly.

"Top work, Tanner."

Lauren grinned and fist-bumped him before cheering for Kaylie. Her best friend did really well. With Payson, Emily, and Kelly not competing, Kaylie was one of the top bar workers in the USA, after Nessie. She aced her routine grinning like a little kid. Lauren ran and gave her a bear hug. Who would have ever thought that she and Kaylie would be at nationals, aged 20, and contending for the all-around crown, they had both been through so much together.

The other three Rock girls stayed on the bars, Rachel doing really well. She was a fighter and had really improved on her weakest apparatus. Then they moved to the beam. Nessie watched nervously as all five of her teammates performed hit routine after hit routine. Tori and Ronnie were a bit tentative but Rachel, Kaylie and Lauren were all incredible. The crowd gave Kaylie a standing ovation after her beam routine. Kaylie's routine had a 6.9 start value, the highest in the world and she'd received a 9.2 execution score – making her score over 16. That was huge for the first year after the Olympics. Nessie gulped. She hated the beam, it was so narrow! And she was following an Olympic champion. She did her mount, the same as her idol Alicia Sacramone. Her left foot missed the beam! She swore inwardly but managed to squeeze her other toes around the beam and turn her next move into an arabesque. Then she did her acrobatic series. Her full turn was a bit short and she left out her sheep jump but she stuck her triple twisting dismount. Nessie wanted to cry she was so happy. Then Sasha grinned at her and hugged her tightly.

"That was the best save I've seen in ages, you're going to get yourself a lot of new fans, and if you can save a fall from the beam with a beautiful arabesque, you can do anything!" He gave her another hug before going to talk with Payson.

Nessie was still shaky about nearly falling off the beam. Her score was a 14.100, not too bad, but she knew she was capable of much more.

"You did so well, Ness!" Kaylie hugged her shortest teammate. And Lauren and Rachel each slapped her on the back. Nessie smiled shyly. She'd heard rumours about the Rock girls being catty, especially Lauren, but they were so nice! "Thanks guys, you were all amazing, too!" She hugged each of them.

Next up was floor. Sasha looked at the scoreboard, something he forbade his athletes from doing. Kaylie was ahead of Rosa Reynolds, one of the Olympians from last year, largely thanks to her phenomenal beam routine. Rachel was in third, Lisa Barnardos in fourth, Lauren in fifth after her two weakest events, his other three were in seventh, tenth, and twelfth. He smiled, if they kept this up, he might have six girls on the national team.

The Rock girls were stretching in a circle before floor, Payson leading them while Sasha and Darby watched. Payson was coming into her own as a coach, and Sasha still hadn't completely come to terms with the fact that she was going to go to college in a couple of weeks. Hopefully she'd be back soon, she was more patient than him but was capable of being tough as well.

The gymnasts before the Rock girls finished up on floor which was the apparatus that normally took the longest. Lisa smiled sycophantically at Kaylie and Lauren who smiled awkwardly back. Then she walked over to Nessie "hey Ness!" She smiled widely.

"Hi" Nessie replied, confused as to why her old teammate was speaking to her.

"Good to see you coming back and giving this a go. Shame about your beam routine, but I'm sure people won't be laughing too hard, we all make mistakes."

Nessie wished she had a quippy comeback, she also wished she had a thick skin and could pretend that Lisa's words didn't make her feel like a piece of dirt.

"And don't worry about your leo making you look a bit chunky – I think it looks nice, it's just a shame that you're so much shorter than all of your teammates." Lisa patted Nessie on the shoulder and joined her teammate and the other girls in her rotation.

Nessie blinked back tears. Why was she so upset by this? It wasn't as if she didn't know what Lisa was like. The girl had perfect people skills, and was quite popular, not like shy and awkward Nessie, but whenever she felt threatened Lisa lashed out, and she ignored people she thought she was better than.

"What was that about?" Kaylie asked.

"Nothing – Lisa just wanted to catch up." Nessie replied tersely, she pinched the back of her hand, forcing herself not to cry.

Kaylie nodded, not entirely believing her teammate.

Nessie watched Tori, Ronnie, and Lauren go up on floor. Lauren's tumbling was amazing. Under Payson's coaching her dancing had improved, while Sasha had pushed her attention to detail further than before. Then it was Nessie's turn. She saluted the judges. Ran into her first tumbling pass and landed it, she smiled. This was going to be okay, she started one of her dance elements but she couldn't get Lisa out of her mind and she stumbled part way through one of her turns. She wasn't going to quit! Not after what Lisa did. She forced a smile on her face and ran into her next tumbling, sticking it cold, she danced like it was her last day on earth, determined and passionate. She did her next two tumbling passes perfectly. She saluted the judges and went to hug her teammates. Her score was low and she felt like crap.

As the Rock girls were walking towards the vault Lauren tapped Kaylie on the shoulder.

"Lo, we're meant to walk in a line, that means single file."

"Yes, I know what a line is, believe it or not. But something's up with Nessie. I think that Lisa kid was giving her a hard time."

Kaylie frowned. She hated to think badly of anyone, especially when she didn't know them, but then Nessie had seemed a bit upset when Lisa was talking to her. "Hmm maybe you're right. But Nessie won't say anything, she's got a tough shell to crack."

"We'll get her to spill somehow" Lauren muttered.

Sasha cleared his throat "I thought you were meant to be walking in order, in silence."

"Sorry Sasha" Kaylie and Lauren said perfunctorily.

The vault was what Lauren had been waiting for. She'd been known as the Queen of the Beam in her first two years as a senior but in the years leading up to the Olympics she'd really developed on the vault. In 2012 she'd been doing a Prudonova with an extra half twist and had been working on a triple twisting yurchenko. Both would have been named after her had she made the Olympic team and competed them. Whoever made the roster for championships must have factored this into account because Lauren was last on the vault. The old Lauren would normally have been excited by this but now she felt nervous, all eyes were going to be on her. She bit her nails (she was turning into Emily) as Tori, Nessie and Ronnie all vaulted excellent DTY's. With the new code the Amanar vaults were only worth 0.5 more than at DTY which would hopefully reduce skill chucking. Then Rachel did her Rudi and her DTY. Sasha had recently encouraged her to do two vaults, but her DTY was landed with a deep chest and a big step forward. Sasha went to console her while Kaylie did her Rudi and her Amanar. The crowd went crazy when Kaylie stuck the difficult vault cold. Lauren was so proud of her friend. She gave Kaylie a hug before walking up to the runway. She felt Sasha grip her shoulder tightly while she walked over, Payson and Darby each gave her a thumbs up. She could hear the commentators, who were nearby, giving a rundown of her vaults. She looked ahead. Man she was stupid, why on earth would she try and do a double Arabian off the vault and add an extra half twist. It was so dangerous! She shook her head to rid herself of the negative thoughts and sprinted towards the runway. She felt amazing as she spun around forwards twice then moved her body with an extra half turn. She threw her hands in the air to salute and realised she'd stuck it cold! She, Lauren Tanner, had just stuck a 7.7 difficulty vault. She couldn't help it she let out a whoop and ran to hug her coach.

"God Lauren I am so incredibly proud of you!" He kissed her on the cheek "now go and nail that triple."

Lauren smiled and walked back to the runway. She took a deep breath. The thing about gymnastics was that no matter how well you did in the past, it was always the next performance, the next goal that was important. And a triple twisting Yurchenko wasn't exactly easy. She looked at Payson, her friend and coach who had stuck by her no matter how many times Lauren messed up or hurt her. Payson didn't know it, but it was for Payson and her other friends that Lauren pushed herself so hard in the gym everyday. She looked at the vaulting table and ran, she did her round off back handspring with three twists, as she landed she took a massive step back but she'd put it to her feet! Lauren ran over to Payson, she noticed that the taller girl had tears in her eyes, and Lauren realised that she was crying too. After the hell of last year, Lauren Tanner was back!

A/N again sorry for the late update, and I know a prudonova with a half twist is super unrealistic but I wanted Lauren to kick arse! Hopefully day two of nationals won't be too far away. Who do you want to win?