Chapter 9: Life's gon' getcha down
"These boxes are so heavy." Damon said, his fingers chafing against the cardboard of the box that contained a good deal of Emily's books. He tried to get a better grip on them but one of the books on top slipped and landed on the floor with a big thud. Damon sighed and half placed, half dropped the box to the ground. Emily walked past him, carrying a much bigger and much heavier box and smirked at her boyfriend.
"Struggling?" She asked sweetly. Emily had been training her butt off for four months since James was born and although she was nowhere near her best she was still stronger than Damon, not that that was much of an accomplishment.
"When I suggested we move ourselves in and didn't hire a moving company I expected pain but I did not expect to get beaten by a seventeen year old girl." Damon said good-naturedly. He was not one of those guys who was bothered by the fact that some girls could be stronger than him. He wasn't that insecure, and Emily loved him for it. She laughed and kissed him.
Damon deepened the kiss and smiled "what was that for?"
"For everything." She whispered "for believing in me, and for buying this fricking amazing house." She said as she looked around her living room. Margi had generously bought them some plush leather chairs and Emily had picked out some royal blue wall length curtains. The majestic effect was offset somewhat by a painting Matthew had done for Emily. He'd smeared every colour imaginable onto the canvas with his fingertips. Emily loved it. On the opposite wall there was a photo of Emily, Margi and the foster kids. Larissa, her usually bubbly self was standing in the middle of the group grinning ear-to-ear. Her facial expression made Emily laugh every time she saw it. She was going to miss her foster mother and the kids she'd come to think of as her siblings but she needed her own space now. Training took up all your concentration at the best of times. It was a thousand times worse trying to come back after giving birth. She thought back to the day, around three months ago when Darby had finally said she had done enough conditioning to start training again.
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Darby had finally given her the go ahead. Emily hugged her coach, this was the moment she'd been waiting for, for almost two months. She'd realised that conditioning till you could hardly move, let alone think, was a good distraction for the despair that came whenever she thought of her son. Summer, true to her word sent her emails every week, with photos attached. Whenever she saw one Emily felt like her heart was being ripped out all over again. Conditioning had become her life – she threw herself into it heart and soul, it was the one place where she could escape the crippling guilt she carried about James.
"Are you ready?" Darby asked smiling. She was proud of Emily: she'd gained a couple of other students while in LA, to keep herself solvent, but she'd told them to go home early. Emily needed to do this in privacy.
"Of course!" Emily said, she didn't feel nervous at all, in fact she felt great. She'd never been as physically strong as some of the other girls, especially Lauren and Payson: artistry and flawless execution had been more her thing. But now, after the chin ups, press ups, prone holds and every other possible torture imaginable Emily was much more toned than she'd been before.
Darby suddenly became very serious "ok, but Em, I'm warning you this won't be as easy as you think. You need to keep your spirits up. We're going to start on bars, it's your strongest. All I want is a simple mount, a handstand, a pirouette another handstand then drop without a dismount. Do not try to twist, I mean it."
Emily rolled her eyes. Her coaches always seemed to underestimate her skills. "Yes Darby." She said: as if she was going to a routine that simple, in fact you couldn't even call it a routine. She obediently mounted the bars and pulled herself up to turn into her handstand. She felt weird, like her body, that used to automatically know what it was doing, was resisting her. Her hips were wider than before and they felt heavy. With a mammoth effort she pulled herself up to a handstand but she could tell her lines weren't straight. She barely held it and then her arms, bent and then she was falling, she forced herself to turn mid air and she landed on her knees. Not the most dignified way to go but a heck of a lot better than landing on your head.
Darby's face showed no emotion "try again."
"But Darby I can't my body's not the same it won't work."
"Get up."
Emily glared at her coach. She didn't seem to understand. But she knew better than to argue with Darby. She tried again, this time she managed two handstands but her body felt like it was screaming at her. Her joints were nowhere near as flexible as they had been. It took 20 tries before she could pirouette then get back up to do another handstand. Finally Emily, bruised and feeling defeated sat on the mat and sobbed "Sasha was right, it's impossible to come back after giving birth."
Darby came and sat by her star gymnast. "I hate to break it to you but Sasha is a man. He doesn't really know what he's talking about."
"But my body won't work – it feels like I'm working against it. Before it just sort of seemed to know what to do, I know that sounds weird but during a routine I'd just let go and my body would take over."
Darby put her arm around Emily "do you want to know why you were such a huge sensation when you got to the Rock two years ago? Why everyone was raving about you?"
Emily looked at Darby "no."
"It's not because you had power like Lauren or Payson, or because you had grace like Kaylie. It's not even that you wanted it more than them, it's because you loved what you were doing and because you instinctively knew what to do. Other girls take years to get their toe points correct, some girls try and try to link their moves together on beam but can't, others injure themselves severely because they can't judge how tight their spins need to be on their double Arabians. But you Emily, you are one of those rare gymnasts who has that natural in built rhythm, that ability to instinctively know what to do. And to top it off, you have passion."
"So do the others – look at Payson, I've never worked as hard as her."
"Payson is an amazing gymnast and yes she loves it but she loves the fact she can pursue excellence, whatever goal she chose she would love it because that is her goal: excellence. Kaylie loves how gymnastics makes her feel, that's why she seems so happy when she's on floor, she can express herself. And Lauren loves how gymnastics makes her feel powerful and in control. But you love gymnastics because it's gymnastics. You were born to do this. The others might find other things they love but gymnastics is your dream."
Emily stared at her coach in amazement, realising the truth of her words.
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Since that day Emily had worked twice as hard as she ever had. She even came back in the evenings when Damon was busy recording. Larissa usually came with her, to help 'supervise' as she put it and then Emily would help Larissa with her homework. Her grades were coming up, slowly. Emily was touched by how much Larissa relied on her and it made Emily work even harder, and helped her from getting discouraged. It had been months of slogging it out on each apparatus but she was still nowhere near as good as she'd been. She'd clawed her way back to doing a 1.5 yurchenko on the vault, but she knew it was still a bit sloppy and she was aiming for at least a double before nationals. Her beam was a mess, the two backflips, standing Arabian, and her double twist dismount were all but a distant memory. Floor was ok, she found it much easier to express herself than she had before. But bars was her best apparatus. She'd relearned how to do a giant, and her dismount had a double twist: but it was the grace in her routine that Darby was most proud of. Her toe point was consistent through the whole routine, and even though Emily was quite tall for a gymnast she managed to keep herself totally straight. And tonight she was showing it to Damon and the others for the first time ever.
Margi, Larissa, Damon, Jacky and Larissa all watched in awe as they saw her perfect handstands and flawless pirouettes. Damon had taken out his iPhone and recorded it. He sent it to Payson with the message 'here comes the next world champion, be prepared to be knocked off your podium' before running over to Emily and hugging her.
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Payson was exhausted. She couldn't get her Amanar quite right. Kelly's trick had helped but she wanted to get a bit more height. Finally Sasha called for everyone to stop for lunch. Payson rummaged around for her drink bottle and her phone. She saw there was a message from Damon from the night before. She played the video and saw Emily, more graceful than she'd ever been at the Rock perform a flawless routine. It wouldn't have a very high level of difficulty but the execution score would be very high. Payson was surprised to find tears in her eyes when Emily finished. She was so proud of her friend who had come this far despite going through more things in seventeen years than most people do in a lifetime.
Kaylie walked over to Payson, the national champion was in her customary pink leo. She looked exhausted. Payson couldn't imagine the strain she was under. Kaylie's parents were fighting over whether they should sell their home, and her father was thinking of moving to New York. On top of it all, they were set to give a big press conference for nationals coming up and all eyes were going to be on her to perform.
"What are you watching?"
Payson looked at her friend, wondering whether to tell her: Emily had given her permission to tell Kaylie but the right moment hadn't come – silently she handed her phone over to Kaylie, it would be better to show her. Kaylie took the phone and pressed play. Payson loved seeing her expression, going from confusion, to shock to pride. Despite what some people said about Kaylie being flightly and a bit of an airhead. One thing couldn't be denied: she loved her friends and family and supported them no matter what.
"Emily's coming back?" She asked quietly.
Payson smiled "didn't that just cheer you up?"
"So much, wow her style is so different. Who's coaching her?"
Payson rolled her eyes "Darby, Emily claims she's changed but I highly doubt it."
"But then on the other hand, if she managed to do a routine like this, maybe Darby isn't such a bad coach after all."
"Maybe I still think she'd be better off at the Rock though. I miss her." Payson said "and trust you to always see the best in people."
Kaylie smiled at the compliment. "Do you mind sending the video to me? I want something to watch to motivate me for the Rock rankings, I'm so not looking forward to them."
Payson smiled encouragingly at her friend "you're going to be fine. You ranked first last year, and you've been working really hard." Well she hadn't really, but Payson didn't blame her, she'd had a rough couple of months. Kaylie saw right through Payson but she appreciated that her teammate was trying to encourage her.
Before Kaylie could respond Sasha emerged from the office. "Your lunch break is over, and can I see the elite girls up by the office now."
Payson and Kaylie looked at each other, confused and joined Lauren and Kelly near the office. Payson could tell that their head coach was not happy. He had his arms crossed and a fire in his eyes. "I have been informed by MJ" she said his ex girlfriend's name bitterly "that ESPN wants to do a special interview with the Rock girls to get some publicity for the Rock rankings and for nationals. I agreed only because you all have some explaining to do about Worlds. I know you are all ashamed about the way you conducted yourselves as a team. I have already spoken to you about this and I will criticise you no further but you should all be aware that the reporter is going to be very interested in what went wrong. I expect you to be composed, graceful, mature and taciturn where necessary. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes Sasha" the four girls mumbled. Kaylie realised he'd left out an important detail. "Um when are the media going to be coming?"
Sasha grinned "half an hour after practice finishes tonight. If you thought I was going to actually let you take time out of training for this you must have been dreaming."
Lauren pouted "but Sahsa we have to shower and decide what to wear."
"MJ will be here with clothes and you'd better learn to shower fast."
Kelly snorted "not likely, Blair Whaldorf here takes at least forty five minutes every time, why do you think the Rock's power bill is so high?" Payson and Kaylie looked at each other and tried not to laugh. One of the best things about having Kelly at the Rock was that she and Lauren were too busy sniping at each other to get at them. It was pretty entertaining as well.
"Do I look like I care Parker? Now I want you all on bars, now." He said before walking down the stairs to the level 9 girls including Becca Keeler who were working on their beam routines.
The news of the interview had a big impact on all four of the girls. Sasha had kept them fairly sheltered from the press: they'd only really had to give interviews in the week following Worlds: in the months since then Sasha had made it clear that he did not want any unauthorised people in his gym. Payson was irritated at the distraction, Kelly was nervous about they would say about her all-around performance: although she was fairly sure that her three medals in the event finals would be enough to appease them and Lauren was scared that she'd be overshadowed by the other three. But no one was more nervous than Kaylie: she was the national champion: everyone expected her be dominating but instead she'd had to completely rework her whole training regime and she knew they would be keen to hone in on her anorexia. She rubbed her eyes, she'd asked Sasha if she could finish a bit earlier to mentally prepare for the interview and to her surprise he'd agreed. So she was in the changing room, trying her best to hold back tears, sometimes her life overwhelmed her. Instinctively she reached for her phone to check her texts. She smiled, Payson had found the time to send her the video of Emily: she played it, watching her friend execute one of the most beautiful routines she'd ever seen.
Lauren bounded into the changing room "Kales, how come you got off early? Oh a video let's see it." She grabbed the phone out of Kaylie's hand before her friend had time to react. Lauren's face went from curiosity to revulsion in a matter of seconds. "Tell me it's not who I think it is."
Kaylie looked at Lauren hopelessly. She was a terrible liar. "It's Emily – she's coming back. Isn't that amazing? And look at her lines and how well her moves flow and link."
Lauren scowled. "I can't believe you're supporting this. She is a slut and she doesn't deserve this." Lauren realised she was about to cry, angrily she threw the phone in Kaylie's direction and stormed out of the changing room, she wasn't going to let Kaylie see her cry. She curled her hands into fists and walked out of the gym quickly, hoping no one would see her. Then she went around the back, to the secret place she and Kaylie used to go when training got too tough. Lauren put her head in her hands. Emily Kmetko's kid had taken Summer from her. She always brought the annoying little brat into the Rock, he didn't even look like Summer and now Emily was coming back to gymnastics. And she was probably going to get a place on the national team. Bars were the USA's weakest event, sure Kelly and Payson were good on them but that was all, there wasn't the depth that there was on the other three apparatus. And if Emily came back that meant that Lauren would be pushed even further into the background, she was already treated as second class compared to Payson, the amazing comeback kid, Kelly the media darling and Kaylie the all American girl, and if Emily came back she'd be the amazing underdog who defined the American dream. Lauren could just imagine the headlines now 'from rags to riches: the Emily Kmetko story' the thought made her want to vomit. Sure those girls had amazing stories but none of them were as consistent as her. She stood up and walked back to the gym. She was going to rock this interview. She was sick of being second best to everyone.
"Lo, where have you been?" Kaylie said, worried "MJ's been looking for you everywhere." Kaylie was concerned about how Lauren had been acting recently: she seemed more reckless than usual, taking huge risks on her routines and not seeming to care when she came close to injuring herself.
"You mean someone actually wants me and cares where I am? Well that makes a change" the blonde said snarkily.
"Lauren, please I have a headache: can we just get this over with as quickly as possible." Payson said, frustrated. If she had to choose between being forced to listen to Rebecca Black on repeat or do an interview she would probably choose the Rebecca Black song.
"I'm ready MJ, you're looking great by the way." Kelly said sycophantically.
"Cut the crap Kelly, it's the journalists you want to impress not me, you might want to tone down your eyeshadow a bit too."
Kelly smiled fakely, not wanting to show she was hurt by the snub, if there was one thing Kelly Parker was good at it was being the perfect superficial gymnastics princess in front of the media.
"Gag me" Lauren whispered and Payson laughed, making Lauren feel slightly better.
"Ok girls we're ready to go." MJ said "remember smile, you're world champions. You've got the world at your feet, you are it." Payson forced herself to smile politely: she felt far from the top of the world, she was tired and wanted to go home. Kelly rolled her eyes, the world was far from her oyster: her mother wasn't even talking to her. Kaylie couldn't bring herself to smile, she was nervous – everything was crumbling around her and she was worried that this interview was going to reveal that. Finally Lauren just glared at MJ, she knew no one believed in her and the agent was full of crap, she highly doubted whether the interviewer would talk to her at all.
MJ walked over to Sasha "what's going on with your girls?"
Sasha sighed, "I don't know, I think the pressure is finally starting to get to them, especially Kaylie and Lauren. I was hoping this interview would help them to remind them of how hard they've worked and how they are actually champions."
"Oh Sasha, you're so naive. A bunch of attention seeking seventeen year olds are not going to sort their problems out calmly in front of a camera." MJ said "if anything, it's just going to just make things worse."
"Too late to do anything about it now." Sasha said quietly "I hope you're wrong."
"I hope so too." MJ said as the four girls walked out to the back room. Kelly was smiling brightly but it didn't reach her eyes, Payson looked exhausted, Kaylie looked like the weight of the world was on her shoulders and Lauren looked livid. MJ winced – it didn't look good.
A/N so this was pretty much a filler chapter. Emily gets back on her feet and the Rock girls are about to show the world they aren't invincible after all.
Lauren is screwed up I know but I thought this chapter we'd try to get inside her head a bit, you've got to admit no one really pays her much attention. In the next couple of chapters we're going to see what's going on with Kelly and her lovely mother and finally we'll see if Payson has it in her to forgive Max or if that chemistry with her coach is just too much to resist. We also have the interview from hell followed by the Rock ranking competition. Please let me know what you thought, all feedback is welcome =)