Payson waved goodbye to her coaches before sneaking out of the building. They acknowledged her from the office with a simple nod, so Payson left without a word. Once she was out of the building, she glanced to see if Colleen was on her way in, but the girl was nowhere to be found. There was only five minutes until lunch was over, and neither MacIntyre or Sasha would tolerate tardiness. Payson was missing practice, but it was excused because ballet helped her gymnastics. Colleen had no excuse, but it was none of Payson's worries. Payson's focus was on how would Ms. Viola react to her after she took a break from dance for gymnastics. She arrived at the dance studio and went into the changing area to strip out of her warm ups. Underneath her navy blue and silver warm ups was a plain black leotard. Her legs were encased by pink tights. Payson pulled off her sneakers and put on her ballet shoes. With her hair in a high bun, Payson looked the part of a ballerina.
Back in the gym, Colleen entered with a minute to spare, but it seemed that right on time was late around here because the level tens and the junior elites were doing a conditioning circuit under the watchful eye of the assistant coaches. Jordan was practicing illusions on the beam with Kaylie standing below spotting her. That left Sasha and MacIntyre who were waiting for her. They resembled angry fathers waiting for their daughter to come home after she was past curfew with their feet tapping and their arms crossed. Colleen frowned as she approached them like an ashamed puppy. At her old gym, she would have been early being back a minute before lunch ended which was obviously not the case here. "Sasha, it looks like Colleen is the lucky gymnast stuck with us since everyone else has a partner." Coach MacIntyre commented as he looked Colleen over. "Sounds good. Should we start with a round of intensified conditioning or stretch and head to vault." Sasha countered as he glanced around the bustling gym. Colleen gulped in fear because vault was her weakest apparatus. She was strong all around with perfected routines, but she was not a risk taker. She knew her vault was not up to par with the other girls since they were all preforming Amanar. Colleen did not even start training hers in the practice pit. She knew she would get called out on it sometime, but she did not expect that day to be today. Today was her adjusting day not her day to be be learning new tricks and skills.
"I think Miss Evans needs to be conditioned before she gets her hands on any apparatus." Mac decided as he headed for the shelf with the warm up equipment. He grabbed three pairs of ankle weights. The first set weighed fifteen pounds in total. The other two sets totaled to ten each. MacIntyre handed Colleen the fifteen pound set and handed Sasha one of the ten pound sets. "Let's start with running laps." Coach MacIntyre shouted as he led the way around the gym at a normal pace. As they began to get longer into their run, Mac sped up the pace. Sasha kept with Mac's strides with ease while Colleen battled to keep up. The initial pace was perfect for her, but they were now pushing her limits on running with fifteen pounds strapped to her body. She pushed to keep up knowing that she had to if she was ever going to make it as an Olympic athlete. Especially when compared to her teammates. She had to go to London stronger than she had ever been.
"That looked a lot cleaner with the corrections, do you want to try your double illusion?" Kaylie asked as Jordan stood tall on the four inch piece of wood. The two were partnered up after the morning events as the fact Payson had ballet. Kaylie and Jordan had now revitalized their friendship, so she did not mind working together. It was actually quite fun to watch Jordan perfect her tricks with Kaylie's help.
Ballet was a bag of mixed emotions for Payson. Madame Viola was proud that Payson was on the Olympic team, but she was less than impressed with her dance technique. Her critiques consisted of reminding Payson of her turn out and to let the grace flow and not worry about power. Power took away from the beauty of ballet and made it look sloppy. Payson was getting better at understanding this concept, but her inner determination wanted her to be a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, power came with this though naturally for Payson. Pay was also a bit annoyed that Madame Viola insisted that Payson do the same pirouette sequence over and over. It was tedious for Payson because she thought she had nailed it the first time. Madame Viola saw things differently and batted Payson with her cane until the lesson came to an end. "Work on that turn Ms. Keeler. You must do it precisely." Madame Viola ended as Payson packed her belongings into her gym bag and left the studio.
Back at the Rocky Mountain Training Center, Jordan focused on cleaning her single illusion. From what she had heard from Kaylie, execution was the first thing in Sasha's world. She would have to execute with power and grace. Jordan was given the okay by Kaylie to try a double, but she rather work it in the pit and not on the real beam. She had only attempted the move once in the auxiliary gym, and she was under the watchful eye of coach MacIntyre. She was able to execute the first illusion, but fell into the pit of foam when she entered the second one. "I think I will stick with my single until I get a chance to work on it with Coach Mac or Belov." Jordan suggested as she preformed another single illusion. Her movement ended with a balance check as her foot almost went off the beam when ending the move. Good thing she was not cocky and did not try the double.
Colleen caught her breath as they finished the conditioning circuit. It made her realize how out of shape she was compared to Kaylie or Payson. Coach Mac dismissed her to take a water break, so he could check up on Kaylie and Jordan. Sasha had quit the circuit early to check up on his junior elites before they went home for the day. The level tens had gone home after lunch because they were not required to train as much as an elite or Olympian would. Colleen relieved some of the stress on her body by stripping of the ankle weights. No longer imprisoned by the weights, Colleen found walking much easier, but it would still be a necessity of icing her body tonight. She was already sore, and practice would continue on for a few more hours.
Sasha watched as Becca Keeler executed a stunning floor routine. He had heard rumors Payson was taking the time to teach Becca ballet skills since she was home, but he did not know for sure. It was obvious to him now because the junior elite gymnast was looking more and more like her older sister. Becca was starting to incorporate more grace into her power moves. Her routine was all power with little room for dance, but she flowed and connected her lines with each leap and tumbling pass. Her beauty intermixed with a single arabian made it look completely different than she ever preformed it.
[Author's Note: This was originally two chapters, but I decided to combine them. I am going to start throwing in boy drama in the next one. I promise.
I am only starting to get into the real world of gymnastics. I am clueless about tricks, Degree of difficulty scoring, ect. Bear with me as I learn. I am finding Olympic videos and google searches very helpful. Please leave reviews]