It was half past five in the morning when the shiny white Cadillac pulled into the Rock parking lot. It was obviously brand new and Sasha sighed, shaking his head.
Payson looked up from the science section of the paper, "Who is that?" she asked, squinting in the car's direction, the glare from the sun blocking her view.
"That is my father," he said, picking up his finished bowl. "You done?" he asked her and then picked up her bowl as well.
Sasha went into his trailer, but not before seeing the white hair of his father as he stepped out of the car and looked around. Sasha deposited the bowls in the sink quickly and stepped back outside to see his father greeting Payson, with a kiss on each cheek. "Hey Dad," he said, with his hand extended and they shook hands quickly.
"You are here very early," he said to Payson.
"I want to get here as early as possible to start training, but Sasha won't let me get in the gym until 5:30 when we're not leading up to a meet. So I sit here and bother him 'til he opens the doors," she said, with a smile. Sasha could see his father was practically wetting himself at the idea of a gymnast who would arrive ready to train before the sun rose every morning.
"Here, Pay," he said, handing his keys to her. "Why don't you open the place up?"
She smiled, looking between him and his father, "Sure."
Sasha looked over at his father and sighed. This is what you wanted, Beloff. You wanted Beals out and this was your only option. "New car?" he asked, nodding towards the Caddy. His father had always had a weakness for flashy automobiles, something that would stand out, much like the man himself.
"Yes. New car, new job, new house. I close today on a house near the lake."
Sasha sighed. He should have expected it. He hadn't thought about where his father would live, but Boulder made the most sense. Four of the women's team members trained in Boulder, another in Denver. He'd want to be as close to them as possible.
Boris looked around, "Where are the rest of the girls?"
Sasha laughed, "Practice starts at eight, Dad. They'll be here at eight."
"Keeler is here," Boris said, frowning.
"Payson's special," Sasha said with a smile. "This isn't Romania, Dad. You aren't going to be able to control every minute detail of these girls' lives. They're dedicated athletes, but it's different here."
Boris scoffed, "Gymnastics is gymnastics. I am going inside. You will join us today." It was a command more than a request, but Sasha knew that it was better he was there to run interference, just in case.
Sasha went to his office, intent on finishing up some paperwork Kim had put on his desk the night before, when he saw Payson and his father talking as she stretched, taking extra care with her back as she always did. That was safe enough; there wasn't much for Boris to pick at as far as Payson's gymnastics was concerned. It was Kaylie and Lauren that he was more concerned about.
He heard Payson begin her beam routine, the tell-tale thumps of her feet hitting the four inches during her tumbling and leaps interspersed with a variety of praises from his father, "Good job," and "Excellent Payson. " echoing through the empty gym.
Then the squeak of the bars, as she went through her uneven bars routine, and more praise from his father. He heard the springboard of the vault, and his father's joyous bark as she must have done her Produnova and then minutes later the pounding of the floor under her feet a she ran through her floor routine. Payson liked to start off training every morning with an all-around run through. It was unorthodox, but what was normal about Payson Keeler anyway? Absolutely nothing.
He thought back to a few nights earlier, after the strangest training session he'd ever experienced with Austin Tucker. They'd worked well into the night on his own release move, the one he'd developed that had sewn up the gold medal on the parallel bars. It was an oddly comfortable silence that surrounded them, especially after the conversation they'd had about Payson. Sasha thought Austin viewed himself as some sort of alternative, a more appropriate option for the world class gymnast, still only seventeen, but Payson showed up the next day, at around noon, and eased his mind.
He'd told her everything right down to the verbal pissing contest he and the younger gymnast had engaged in the night before.
"This is my fault," she said, resting her head on his shoulder.
Sasha shook his head, "How could this possibly be your fault?"
"I was such an idiot. Kaylie sort of dropped Austin the other day and I think she might have pushed him in my direction. I know for a fact this wasn't a problem before. He wasn't interested and I don't think he really is right now, but his ego got bruised. I don't want to start going all nature channel on you but you're sort of the alpha male around here, you know, leader of the pack and all that," she said. "Austin's definitely got an alpha streak in him too and when an alpha gets taken down a notch…" she trailed off and Sasha got the picture.
"His ego took a hit, so he tried to give mine one too." He shook his head. "I don't have time for crap like this. The elites in this gym need something to focus on, a goal that's more tangible than Nationals and Worlds later this year."
"Well, there are National Team practices coming up and that always seems to focus everyone. Oh and I'll talk to Austin, straighten this whole thing out."
There hadn't been an issue since. He assumed that Payson spoke to Austin, but he hadn't asked her about it and he had no plans to. Their lives had settled into a peaceful routine again and he wasn't about to fix something that wasn't broken.
He heard more voices echoing down on the floor and he looked up at the clock, ten to eight. He must have been daydreaming longer than he thought. He shuffled down the steps to the gym floor and saw parents milling around. He raised his eyebrows in their general direction. He made eye contact with Alex Cruz, who nodded and led the party into the observation room, away from their daughters.
He saw his father had gathered the girls around him, ostensibly to give them a speech. The National Committee members in attendance stood behind his father, in a show of support that probably went over the girls' heads entirely. He approached the group, taking in the faces of the young women. They were all focused on his father, the man's reputation preceded him as a great coach, but if they were expecting his methods to mirror his son's they were sorely mistaken.
Payson focused on the run, sprinting full speed towards the springboard, a necessity when doing the Produnova, to build up the momentum she needed to complete the rotations. She landed, firmly, a slight bend in her knees, and stood tall to salute.
"And how is your back?" the gruff accented voice asked from next to the mat.
She nodded, "Fine. The surgery took care of the injury as well as the pain."
Boris Beloff made a few notes on his clipboard and then nodded to her. "You used a double twisting Yurchenko at the London test event; you have no plans to upgrade it?"
She smiled, "I already have," she said. "A Yurchenko, two and a half," she said.
"Not a triple?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. It was obviously a trap, but one she wasn't going to fall into.
Payson smirked at him, much like she would his son, "I'm too tall," she said shortly and moved back down the run to show him her easier vault. She saw Sasha wander up to his father. They spoke a few words and Sasha frowned at him before shaking his head. She ran towards them, landing from her round-off onto the springboard and into her two and a half twist, her feet stamping into the ground firmly. She nodded to herself and walked away, not looking at either of the coaches.
She had plans to be with Sasha for a long time, for long after his father was her National Team coach, but she was not going to take sides in whatever was going on right now. She walked over to the parallel bars where Kaylie was stretching.
"What's going on over there?" she asked, nodding towards the father and son, who were still having an intense conversation.
"No plans to get in the middle of that," Payson said. "I'm sure it's about one of us or all of us or them." She shrugged. "How's the round off, half on, front straight salto with one and a half twists?"
Kaylie shrugged, "Really hard, but it's getting there. At this rate, I'll have it for the Olympics," she said with an eye roll.
"You'll get it," Payson said, pulling her leg up against the bar to stretch more fully for the floor routine she'd be doing next.
Lauren bounced over, "What are we talking about?" she asked.
"Vault," Kaylie and Payson said together.
Lauren opened her mouth to respond, but Sasha's voice rang out from their right, "Lauren, you're up next on the vault."
Emily wandered over as well, having finished her bars routine for several National Committee members and watched Lauren jog over to the run. "She's been working on a Tsukahara straight with a double," she muttered. "It was all she talked about the other night at dinner."
Kaylie and Payson looked at Emily in shock, "After Summer left for California, Steve and my mom decided to give it another shot. I really don't want to talk about it," she said with a sigh.
Lauren sprinted down the runway and threw herself into the vault. Payson frowned. Her approach was sloppy, her legs had been uneven and she barely finished the double twist.
Sasha walked away, past the girls shaking his head. Kelly Parker went next, performing her Yurchenko two and a half flawlessly. She nodded towards the three Rock girls watching, as Lauren went again with her easier vault, the Yurchenko double, the vault Payson had upgraded from. Kelly wandered over and rolled her eyes. "Hey Rebels," she said, an ironic lilt to her voice.
"Parker," Payson said, acknowledging her long time rival.
"Keeler," she said, "What's with Lauren?"
They all looked at each other and shrugged. Lauren and her weighty baggage hadn't been on any of their radar lately.
Kelly sniffed, "Wow, some team," she said and rolled her eyes before walking away.
Emily and Kaylie frowned and Payson sighed, "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but she's right."
Kaylie nodded, "I know. We haven't been much of a team lately."
Emily nodded, "It does seem like we've all gone our separate ways."
"Let's make a pact," Kaylie started, but identical groans from Emily and Payson stopped her, "What?"
"You aren't going to pull out promise rings are you?" Payson asked, cringing.
Kaylie rolled her eyes, "No, what I was going to say is that we should try to be there more for each other and not let ourselves get so caught up in our own lives. We're teammates and I thought we decided that's supposed to be an even stronger bond than being friends."
"And it is," Payson said, walking over to where Lauren was standing, just a few feet away. "When did you start trying the Tsukahara Double?" she asked.
"A few weeks ago. I told his dad that I'd only been working on it for a little while. It ups my start value by three tenths a point. I don't know why Sasha is being so pissy."
Payson sighed, "Probably because he told you not to do it. That's not why I came over here though. Do you want to work on it tomorrow morning? That was the vault I used at junior nationals. I'm a pretty good coach with the vault, ask Emily."
Emily nodded, "I nailed my blind landing because of her. She is, actually, a really good coach."
"Who's a good coach?" a familiar British accent asked from behind them.
Payson spun around, "You are," she said sweetly and smiled brightly. The other girls plastered near identical smiles on their faces quickly.
"Do I even want to know?" he asked and they shook their heads collectively. Sasha smiled and shook his head, letting out a small laugh. "To the floor ladies and be quick about it."
"Yes, Sasha," they said in unison as they scampered away. Payson looked back as they moved away from him, and smiled again, their eyes meeting.
Things were so much better than that crazy day when she'd been thrown off her game completely by Kaylie's near early retirement and her own swirling emotions. She and Sasha were back to their routine, one she envisioned them continuing for years. She knew it was crazy, that's exactly what Austin had called her, but she just knew. He was it for her. He was the man she'd be with for the rest of her life. It didn't scare her like it probably should, Austin had said that too. She sighed when she thought of their conversation just days before.
Someone was ringing the doorbell. Payson had just stepped out of the shower. "Becca, can you get that?" she yelled and heard her sister thump down the stairs. Their parents would be returning later that evening from their weekend away in Minnesota and not a moment too soon. Payson had enough of babysitting twenty four hours a day.
"Payson, it's for you!" Becca shouted up the steps. "It's Austin Tucker!" Payson rolled her eyes. Becca was smitten with Austin since the moment he walked in the gym. Apparently Becca Keeler, all of thirteen, had developed a bad boy streak a mile wide.
"Austin, I'll be right down," she called. "I just got out of the shower."
"I can see that," his voice said from the doorway to her bedroom.
She turned around, still in her towel, glaring at him. "Do you get extra points for scaring the shit out of me on a regular basis? You don't have a solid sense of personal boundaries do you?"
He just raised an eyebrow at her. She huffed and picked up a pair of shorts, slipping them on under the towel. Then turning so her back was too him, she dropped the towel and pulled a tank top over her head. "What are you doing here, Austin?" she asked as she turned to face him.
"I came over to apologize," he said.
"Apologize for what?" she asked.
"For being a pain in the ass and for what I said to Sasha the other day," he said.
Payson's eyes widened. Becca's room was only across the hall. Her little sister was extremely nosy and could be counted on to be listening. "Shh," she said and pulled her fully into her room, before shutting the door behind them.
"Nice digs, Keeler," he said, relaxing across her bed.
"You were about to apologize for being a jerk and messing with my relationship because you're pissed off at Kaylie," she said, a sarcastic smile crossing her face.
"I was, in fact, about to do just that." He sighed. "I really am sorry, Payson. It's just this whole thing with Kaylie has me tied up in knots and when she said she was going out with that robot, Russo, it was like a punch to the gut. She said he's 'better for her.' Whatever the hell that means."
Payson smiled and moved towards the bed, nudging him over before relaxing next to him, "It means that Nicky is her safe. He's guy you date because he doesn't turn your stomach into a mess of butterflies or make your heart race just by being close to you. She's scared," Payson said and put a hand over his. "I'm sorry. She's the one missing out."
He shook his head, "So it turns out you're not the only Rock girl out of my league."
She rolled her eyes, "Austin, I'm not out of your league and Kaylie certainly isn't. I think you guys would be really good together, honestly. Kaylie needs someone to, and I can't believe I'm saying this, get her out of her gymnastics a little. She was so unfocused before she won her national title and then it was all gymnastics all the time and then she got sick and now it's back to where she was before that. If you don't do something, she'll turn into a little gymnastics robot, like Nicky, like me."
Austin laughed, "You, Payson Keeler, are no robot. Robots don't leave six inch scratches down a man's back and they certainly don't get hickies," he said, flicking his fingers just above her chest, where the mark Sasha had left was fading, but still visible.
She swatted his hand away. "He was supposed to keep his shirt on in front of people," she muttered, her cheeks turning pink.
"No sense in blushing now, Keeler. Don't be ashamed of it. You're good in bed."
She frowned, "We aren't having sex," she said.
He chuckled, "Well, whatever you're doing is close enough," he said. "You're crazy you know. You're gorgeous, a world class athlete and not even eighteen years old. You're supposed to hook up and break up and not tie yourself down. Commitment should scare the hell out of you."
She shrugged, "But it doesn't. You'll get it one day, Austin. I promise."
Payson shook herself from her thoughts. Both Beloff men were looking at her expectantly. She smiled and walked to the center of the floor and began her routine.