"Hey champ, how was it?" Seth asked Riley as soon as she set her shoes on the table, to this her mom gave her a look, but then shrugged and took them off. Riley unzipped her shirt pulled off the sweaty thing. She didn't mind Seth or Mom seeing her in a bra, as long it was a sports bra.
"It was fine, nothing spectac. I Did 16:07 on Alexanderion, and 11:45 on Bellington." Seth typed it up into the laptop, and rolled his wheelchair to the fridge to get some juice.
"Go shower, and then eat. I want to try a new post-workout drink with you." Riley nodded, gave a slight moan, and headed to the shower. She hated all the concoctions Seth would try with her, 97% of the time they would make her feel like vomiting, 2% of the time they would actually make her vomit, and 1% of the time they would be affective. Although he was a great coach, he wasn't much of a chef, since he was only thinking of nutritional value and not of the flavor.
Riley was out the door a few minutes later with a bright purple liquid in her hand. It was only a 10 minute walk to the gym, and she still had half-an-hour until Alexis would be done, but she didn't want to hang around the house. She hadn't spoken to Payson in almost a week, and she needed her dose of Inspiration. Not that Seth wasn't amazing, but he always expected things just to be done. When he was a competitive bike racer, that was the way it was, and now, he wanted Riley to be trained exactly the same. But Riley felt the pressure just like any other girl in her category, although she could beat them even if she was woken up at 2 A.M. to race them. She struggled to stay skinny, to work out even when she just wanted to sleep, to go to sleep even when she wanted to hang out, and to be disciplined, disciplined, disciplined. Seth didn't understand Riley's hardships, but Payson did.
The gym was empty, as expected, except Alexis and Payson, and one of the conditioning coaches, who was just leaving. Payson's sweet but stern voice echoed through the gym as she explained a new move to Alexis. Since Alexis's knee wasn't in the best of conditions, and the Pacific Rim Cup was a month away, she had to learn a new vault, that wouldn't cause further damage to the knee. Riley thought the vault was just as bad: running at full speed to the vault, cart wheeling a few feet away from the springboard, slamming her fists into the horse, then flipping over twice with her chest held tightly to her knees, and somehow releasing just in time, so she could land on the mats.
"Ok, do 5 or six more, and then we'll call it a day. If you start hurting too much, call me over." Payson told Alexis as she rubbed her knees and pulled leg warmers on. It was way passed gym hours and the heaters had been off for awhile. Alexis waved quickly at her older sister and got back to work.
Riley only noticed how exhausted she was when she saw the heap of mats in the corner of the room—she usually sat on them with Payson when she came to watch Alexis, and slept on them some times after hard training sessions.
"Right, but before you fall asleep, help me up," Payson chuckled as she saw Riley's desperate face. As Riley helped Payson out of the wheelchair, and into a comfortable position on the mats, she thought about how much Payson had improved. A few months ago, when the doctors first recommended the wheelchair, she refused to use it, and when she finally gave in, she refused help getting in and out of it. Now she would ask Riley for help.
"I don't know if I should let her compete this season." Was the first thing that slipped Payson's mouth. Riley didn't respond at first, eying the little girl that could do things that weren't human. She was flying. But something was off: Her face wasn't cheerful as it used to be in the gym, numerous parts of her body were wrapped, bruised or iced regularly, and she was a lot weaker than last year.
"I don't know Pay, whatever floats your boat. She's my little sister, it's hard for me to watch her do this to herself, but you know, I'm not one to talk." Riley reminded herself of the multiple crashes she has, causing ugly scars on her knees, elbows and hips, of the grueling training she went through every day, and the mental struggle she pushed through every second of the day.
"Well, I'll think of it for a bit, and I'll call her in the evening. What's going down with the World Champs? They have to take you. If they don't I'll come and murder them one by one." Riley chuckled, but her insides churned. The cycling committee wasn't ever planning on taking a girls squad out, but now with Seth's new "renegade" team, everyone was hoping for a change. He took Riley and another 3 great riders from the Country, and in a month they would start touring Europe, and doing this would hopefully impress the committee enough to create a national team for the girls. So far, Riley only knew one of the girls, and that's because she was her best friend.
"You know Seth, he just never gives up," Riley didn't really want to talk about cycling, because lately it was becoming more of a chore than anything. They sat in the silent for a few more minutes, until suddenly they heard the sickly sound of a body hitting the mats—hard. Riley's first instinct was to run to her sister, but she held back and waited for a sign. Alexis was laying flat on the mat, taking deep breaths. Payson and Riley watched her stomach move up and down—up and down. Finally, she sat up, and then stood, and Riley let out the breath she was holding in.
"Hold it there, sister," Payson said when Alexis went back to do another vault, "something isn't right"
They three of them knew it too. Alexis wasn't one to land a vault on her back; her reflexes and instincts were too sharp. She wiped her brow and walked over to Payson, who was getting off of the mats, with the determined face she had on when she was in pain. When she was standing, she checked different points on Alexis's body by twisted and prodding them.
"Lex, you can't compete in the Pacific Rim. I don't want you to take a chance like that." But Alexis didn't know what "chances" there were. She wanted to finally win the world championships, after 2 years of being injured. She had only technically been the best in the world because of her victories in other competitions, but the actual title of "world champion" was really important to Alexis, and the only way the National Committee would choose her would be if she competed in the Pacific Rim, regardless of her abilities.
"Are you kidding? I can't take the chance of missing the meet! I don't want this to be another you. I don't want to have to be chasing that spot on the team when it belongs to me." Alexis screamed, and her voice echoed the room, making the dramatic moment even more dramatic, and then angrily stomped over to her locker, pulled her bag out, and exited the gym, leaving Riley and Payson alone.