Chapter 31: The end of the beginning
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final day of competition at the 2012 London Olympics for artistic gymnastics. It certainly has been an incredible time – especially on the women's side." Tim Dagett said, he had been commentating gymnastics for years but he had never been so impressed with a team as he had been with the Americans.
"Yes it has Tim. Sasha Belov, a four time Olympic champion has coached two girls to perfect tens. That is, frankly, incredible. There has not been a single perfect ten since the new open ended scoring system was introduced. Payson Keeler gave us a perfect floor performance early on and her teammate Emily Kmetko two days ago became the uneven bars champion with a perfect routine. She is being compared to Nadia Comenici – it really is an incredible team."
"Their teammates Kaylie Cruz and Kelly Parker are competing in the beam finals today. What are their chances do you think, boys?"
"Kaylie Cruz has the potential to be an Olympic champion on this event. She's had a rough ride – she's been dealing with anorexia and she has always been flighty. But it's that personality that also makes her such a delight to watch, unlike many gymnasts, she doesn't shut out her world around her. Rather she lets her emotions show, she can play to the crowd like no one else."
"Kelly, who is one of Kaylie's best friends, is the complete opposite. This kid is steady and has nerves of steel – she can hit when it counts. If you were to tell me that she would be the vault champion I would have told you you were crazy. And no one was expecting her to make beam finals either. Rosa Reynolds and Payson Keeler both usually outscore her – but she hit on game day, which is what needs to be done."
"But I think our Russian girls Olga and Ivanka are going to be formidable here, as well as Gengi Cho – remember this kid doesn't have an individual medal yet, and she's the reigning all around world champion. I wouldn't be wanting to be competing against her, she's going to be hungry for a medal."
Kelly saluted the judges. She had not been expecting to make this final, so she was just going to do her best and enjoy herself. She mounted the beam and steadily went through her routine then dismounted. An overwhelming feeling of relief coupled with exhaustion hit her. Her Olympics were done! She ran over to hug Lauren and Sasha. She knew she wouldn't medal unless some of the others mucked up but she was pleased. She watched Olga, one of the Russian girls simply attack the beam. She was rocking her routine and taking no prisoners. She finished her routine with a stuck Patterson dismount. Kelly whistled, she couldn't help herself: the tiny Russian had sass. She easily outscored Kelly.
Gengi was next, and the look in her eyes frankly terrified Kelly. The reigning world all-around champion mounted the beam with absolute grace. Her routine was almost perfect, and there was a certain depth in her that she'd not seen before. The realisation that not everything would always go her way had strengthened the former it girl. Before there was just gymnastics, but now there was a story behind the gymnastics – a story of picking oneself up and keeping going. Kelly knew it well, as did her teammates, now Gengi was learning it too. Gengi finished her routine with a triple twisting dismount, hers was the best in the world. Kelly whistled when the score was posted: a 16.2, she really hoped Kaylie wasn't looking at the scores because that was huge.
Ivanka and the two girls from Romania were next, then the other girl from China. Finally it was Kaylie's turn. Kelly and Lauren held hands. The anticipation surging through them, their combined hope for their friend who had been through so much. Kaylie smiled at the judges and did her press handstand mount. Her lines, as always, were perfect. Her aerial combinations were connected almost instantly. Finally she dismounted, but something was wrong. It was shaky, and she stumbled forward. And she took a couple of seconds before she got to her feet. Kelly rushed forward and pulled her up, Kaylie gripped her friend's hand tightly and she managed to salute the judges. Sasha, Lauren and Kelly sheltered Kaylie as the cameras tried to close in. Lauren noticed the shivering – an indication of the anorexia, she took off her jacket and put it over Kaylie's shoulders. Kaylie silently wiped two tears from her eyes. Then she smiled at the three people around her.
"I can be okay for now" she, Lauren, and Kelly linked arms and waited for her score. It eventually came up. Kaylie had come fifth. Gengi took the gold, Olga the silver and Cho the bronze. Kaylie let out a barely audible sigh but then went to hug each of the medallists, Kelly close behind her. "Poker face, Cruz" Kelly whispered in Kaylie's ear, Kaylie nodded and smiled. It wasn't the best way to end an Olympics, but Kaylie was relieved that it was over. None of the Olympians had got there easily, but Kaylie had a rockier ride than most.
XXX
"Please welcome our floor exercise finalists" said the announcer in a booming voice. Payson and Emily walked out, followed by the six others. Emily was shaking, she could hardly stand she was so exhausted. After what seemed like an age the applause stopped and she followed Payson over to their corner. Emily felt dizzy.
"What's wrong?" Payson asked softly.
Emily slowly wiped two tears from her eyes. "I don't know – I'm so tired I can't even see straight."
Payson hugged her friend tightly. "You can do this."
"No – I can't, I can't even see you properly let alone remember my routine."
"Think of James, think of Damon, think of Sasha, think of Darby. Think of Kelly – she'll be pissed if you don't do a good routine when she could have easily medalled on floor."
Emily laughed quietly "this is true. Can you stand by the corner while I do my routine?"
"Of course – and Darby and Sasha will too." Payson squeezed her friend's hand tightly. They stood side by side as Gengi performed the routine of her life – she received a 15.2. Payson walked over and hugged her tightly. Emily followed suit only because Payson was doing it. Her vision was a bit fuzzy.
Next were two women from Romania with dynamic tumbling. Payson whistled at how high they tumbled. Then, suddenly;
"Next on floor exercise Emily Kmetko from the United States of America" Emily lifted her head and walked slowly to the corner of the mat and saluted the judges. Her arms were aching, her head was pounding, her music started and she forced herself to run into her first tumbling pass. She felt slightly funny coming down from her double twisting double layout and she took a step backwards and rolled her ankle. She winced but kept going. She shut out the pain and somehow managed to complete her routine, once she saluted the judges she fell down. Darby and Sasha sprinted over to her.
"Emily – speak to me!" Sasha whispered fiercely.
Emily whimpered
"She's hardly conscious!" Darby yelled, motioning frantically for a doctor. Quickly two medics came and lifted her onto a stretcher, Darby ran out with them.
Sasha put his head in his hands. He'd landed another gymnast in hospital. He wanted to punch a wall at his stupidity. He'd known Emily was exhausted but he'd pushed her at training, even though she had the least difficult routine of the floor finalists and could rely on artistry. He wanted so badly to chase after her but he had to stay for Payson who was shaking. Fortunately she was last on floor so he had a while to talk to her.
"I didn't realise how tired she was." Payson whimpered. "I should have stopped her."
"Payson, listen to me. When you broke your back at nationals all those years ago – it was Emily who brought the others in and gave them a pep talk. She told them to be strong for you, because you wouldn't want them to miss out just because of you. I'm asking you to do that now. Emily would want you to go out there and kick arse. Am I clear?"
Payson looked down for a second, biting back tears. Then she looked Sasha in the eye "crystal clear." She whispered determinedly.
She walked over to the floor and performed her final routine. This time it was for Emily, her closest friend who was almost a sister who had been through hell and back to win Olympic gold. There was no holding back, she threw herself into her routine entirely. When she finished her routine, there was silence for a few seconds before the stadium erupted in applause. Sasha grinned – it was the best floor routine he'd ever seen. He went to hug his gymnast. After what seemed like an age her score was posted – a 16.3, giving Payson her third gold medal making her the most decorated female gymnast of the games. Emily's floor performance had just scraped her the bronze medal. Sasha picked Payson up and spun her around like he'd done hundreds of times, then he hugged her tightly. He desperately wanted to kiss her but he knew that the American team would be facing huge controversy anyway with both Emily and Kaylie being sick.
Lauren looked down at her phone "you won the bronze!" she said to Emily, who just smiled groggily. Her ankle was fractured and the doctor said she'd collapsed from exhaustion but otherwise she was ok. Darby kissed the top of Emily's head. "You are incredible doll."
Emily rolled her eyes "now I have to find my stupid tracksuit I don't particularly want to walk out in a hospital gown."
XXX
Kaylie rested her head on Kelly's shoulder while Emily, Payson, and Lauren were sprawled out on the floor of Payson's room.
"I can't believe it's over" Payson murmured. "We made it – together."
Lauren let out a sigh that was barely audible.
"Lauren, you did the best of all of us" Emily said "you came back with your head held high and I know I would not have made it without you. And I'm not just saying that, Lo – you are incredible."
Lauren wrapped her arms around Emily tightly, the tears that were always near the surface recently came down her cheeks, and before long Emily was crying too, from relief that the Olympics were over, from sadness that the Rock Rebels would never likely compete together again, to sadness for what Lauren was going through.
"Emily – I'm so sorry for the person that I was."
"None of that, it's forgotten. It's who you are that matters."
Lauren gave her friend a watery smile. "You are such a cheese."
"And you love me for it."
There was a knock on the door, Emily and Lauren dried their eyes and Kelly walked over to open it. She was taken aback to find four Olympic committee members staring back at her. "Hello – we are looking for Payson Keeler."
"That's me" Payson said softly, she got up and shook the hands of each of the men.
"Payson, we just wanted to let you know that we would like you to be the flag bearer for the United States. Your achievements and class have been a huge inspiration for young people throughout our country."
Payson put her hand over her mouth, and tears sprung into her eyes. "Of course, I would be honoured." She said softly.
XXX
Kelly zipped up her suitcase, she wasn't sure where she was going to go next. She had the choice of any university she wanted, Sasha and Marty had both offered her coaching positions and she had endorsement offers for Africa but nothing appealed to her. Gymnastics had been her entire life and she couldn't bear the thought of throwing herself into anything else just yet. She carefully placed her medals into their cases and put them in her backpack. She also put a photo Rosa had given her into it. She had placed her all-around medal round Kelly's neck and had taken a photo of her. She'd then engraved the photo frame 'I know you would never let me physically give you this medal so I thought this would be the next best thing. Thank you – love shortie.'
"That was a courageous thing you did, Kelly."
Kelly spun around to see her mother, she forced herself to smile, although she didn't want to. "What was?"
"Giving up your spot in the all – around. A year ago I would have called you stupid but it was a very brave thing you did."
"She deserved it more than I did – the winner of trials deserves to compete in the AA, besides I had a very nice consolation prize."
"That you did."
"Ma?"
"Mmm"
"Do you want to travel around Europe with me for a couple of months? Just the two of us?"
Sheila beamed "of course, sweetheart if that's really what you want?"
"Yes Ma, it is."
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"I don't want to tell her until you're completely well."
"Seriously I'm fine; I was just overtired is all."
"That's the understatement of the century."
Emily rolled her eyes. There were pictures all over the papers of her being carried off on a stretcher and then limping onto the podium "the way people were carrying on you'd think I was dying or something."
"It does make a good human interest story."
"Yes – I didn't realise how much" Emily was the shyest of the Olympians, Payson was the golden girl, Kelly was the popular girl next door, Kaylie was the brave returning champion, Rosa the cute young one, but Emily was the girl the press was most interested in, her rags to riches tale coupled with the fact her boyfriend was a rock star made her irresistible.
"Well I guess I should just give her the letter then." Darby said quietly. She walked out of the hallway and knocked on Jenna's door.
"Come in" Jenna said softly.
Darby opened the door, she was an Olympic silver medallist but she was terrified of this eight year old. She was so reserved. "Hi, how're you doing?"
Jenna looked up slowly "I'm ok" she said quietly her small face looking confused and slightly mistrustful. The look in her eyes made Darby want to cry.
Darby smiled weakly and sat beside Jenna on her bed "I have a letter for you Jen – it has some pretty big news, I don't know how you'll feel after you open it but I want you to know you can ask me any questions, and I'll promise I'll give you an honest answer, or I won't answer at all but I won't lie to you."
Jenna looked up suspiciously "why would you want to give me a letter?" she whispered – as a foster child she was not used to attention of any kind.
Emily put an arm around the younger girl with whom she related so well. "Just read it J – it will be worth it I promise."
Jenna took the envelope from Darby's outstretched hand and slowly opened it and began to read, her little face remained expressionless. Eventually she folded the letter and placed it carefully back into the envelope, stood up and walked quietly out without saying a word.
XXX
Lauren stared out to the Thames – it was an interesting river with all its history and she was glad she had the chance to explore London, regardless of the circumstances.
"So you've made your decision?" said a quiet voice.
Lauren turned to see Summer standing behind her in a blue dress.
Lauren nodded – she looked at the pills in her hand. She'd put off taking the anti-depressants during the games because she didn't want to worry about the side effects. "Yes I'll take them. I'm going to get well, and then I'm going to travel, and then I don't know I think I want to at least get that vault named after me."
Summer gave Lauren a long hug. "Yes you will."
"Thank you for everything Summer."
"Lauren, you're welcome – I'm so proud of the person you've become sugar. It's been an honour knowing you the past four years."
XXX
"Then what happened?" Damon asked Emily.
"Eventually she came back with Margi and actually hugged Darby. I've never seen her do that before."
"It must be a dream come true for her."
"I think so – but she'll miss Margi."
"Mmm" Emily was worried that they were going into dangerous territory about life after the Olympics, which she wasn't all that keen on thinking about. She knew she wanted to go to uni, but she'd just finished one of the most gruelling experiences someone could go through and she didn't really want to tackle a degree at the moment.
"D'you remember that time we were both in France and you snuck out to see me – and we said we'd meet under the Eiffel Tower?"
Emily smiled "yes – vividly" she'd forgotten how rebellious she used to be.
"I think we should go to France for a bit. Seeing as you'll be wearing gold."
"You were the only one who believed in me you know, the whole way through you stood by me." She leant over and kissed Damon softly.
Damon wrapped his arms around Emily and kissed the top of her head. The two of them sat like that for a long while and watched the sun set over the Thames. Looking back Emily would put that down as one of the perfect moments of her life.
A/N I'm so sorry this took so long to update. Thank you for all your lovely reviews and being so patient.
I've not had the best couple of months – here's to 2013 being better than last year. Happy New Year everyone! This chapter is dedicated to everyone suffering from depression out there and to TWLOHA. I hope you all had a great Christmas. XXXX One more chapter