A/N: The end of this chapter is another one of my favourites!
"Good evening and welcome to the first night of competition here at the P&G Championships! Tonight, we watch as the best of the best in USA Gymnastics fight for a national all-around title. We have three returning Olympians from last year's Games, and a whole crop of new faces who are hungry for a taste of the action"
"I must say Al, I'm very excited about up and comer, Simone Biles. She had a bit of a shaky outing at the US Classic a couple of weeks ago, and her appearance at the American Cup earlier this year was not without a few mistakes, but you can just tell by watching her that she is capable of so much more, and she is determined to show it all off for national team coordinator, Marta Karolyi"
"I'm really excited to see what the girls from the Fierce Five have to show us. McKayla Maroney has said she has reworked her floor routine to make it more consistent, and is focusing on a stronger presence in the all-around. Kyla Ross is determined to make more of a name for herself this year, sounds like she's got a few upgrades up her sleeve. And JJ, or Jennifer Jareau if you're new to the sport this year, well she's just focusing on being consistent, clean, and getting herself up there in the standings – but after the outing she had at the Games last year, that shouldn't be too much of a problem!"
JJ took a swig out of her water as she stood beside Nick at the chair bank near bars. They were in Hartford, Connecticut, ready to really begin the new quad of gymnastics that lay ahead.
It had been almost a week since she had been taken down so viciously by the stomach flu, and even though she had just scraped in a recovery before they flew to Hartford, she still wasn't feeling at her absolute best. Her guess was that the travel to Hartford, what with crowded airplanes and recirculated air, had dragged out the effects of the bug for a little longer. Will had also managed to make it for the competition, but had had to change his flight to arrive that morning rather than the previous evening, as the bug had also been particularly vicious with him.
But nonetheless, she was prepared to give it her best shot. Marta had already assured her that due to the bad timing of getting sick, she would be invited to the Worlds camp regardless of her placement at championships, but she still wanted to earn her spot just like everyone else.
Simone currently stood beneath the bars, awaiting her green flag as the competition carried on noisily around the arena. She was wearing a bright blue leotard with accents of pink, and it stood out brilliantly against her dark skin.
"On uneven bars for Bannon's, Simone Biles!"
Simone saluted and JJ turned her attention completely to her young friend. She watched as the stocky little gymnast mounted the bars and began to swing. Just from watching, JJ could tell bars were not Simone's strongest event by far. Her swing did not come naturally, and JJ knew she was counting the seconds until she could dismount.
"Come on Simone!" JJ cheered, clapping her hands together as Simone flew between the high and low bar on her Pak salto.
"Ooh, that was so close, she barely had her hands around the bar!"
Back on the high bar again, Simone flew into the air for her full twisting double back, landing it with ease and straightening up immediately to salute the judges. JJ and the other girls in their rotation began to applaud as Simone jumped down from the podium and hugged her coach, Aimee.
Grabbing her spray bottle, JJ headed up onto the podium; she would congratulate Simone on a hit routine later. Nick was already there, prepping the bars for her as she stood over the chalk bucket readying her grips.
"So we'll have JJ up next on the bars... she's coming into this competition today, not really at 100 percent. Her coach told us she actually missed most of the last week of training because of the stomach flu, so she's feeling a little more fragile than she usually would, but nonetheless, she's here and she's going to give it her best shot"
Simone's score was announced amongst the noise of the crowd, and JJ was ready to go. She got her green flag almost immediately, and wasted no time in saluting the judges.
Before she had too much time to think about it, she had mounted the bars and cast up into handstand, focusing on keeping everything tight and clean.
The first few skills were fine; pirouettes, kips, low to high flight element, all good. Her Tkatchev was clear over the high bar, and it connected straight to her Pak salto.
And it was on the Pak salto that it became a little unravelled. When she caught sight of the bar on the other end of the flip, she was way too close to it to catch it smoothly. Instead, she hit it and buckled her elbows, losing control of the momentum and smacking her feet into the floor as she flew through into a wild kip cast.
"Oh boy"
Heart racing, her nerves a little on edge, she muscled her way back into a handstand, executing a quick half turn before shooting back up to the high bar.
"She's rattled now, and she's working a little bit quicker than she should. She needs to slow down, calm down, and keep going"
Giant swing, full pirouette... her heart was pounding. Suddenly her arms felt like jelly. She collapsed, swinging down beneath the bar, but refusing to let go. Even so, her strength was sapped. Resigning herself to another counted fall, she let go, dropping down onto her feet.
"This is going to be a rough score for JJ. She fought really hard through that, but when you have to add extra skills to complete your routine, it's exhausting. And she isn't even 100% today, so no wonder she's having a hard time"
"You ok?" Nick asked gently as she quickly rechalked her grips. "You can finish it now if you need to. I'm not expecting you to push yourself further than you need to today"
"I'm ok," JJ said softly, looking up at him with a defiant expression. "I want to finish my routine"
Nick nodded once, following her back over to the high bar. He stood behind her, his hands on her waist as she clapped her hands together to dust off the excess chalk. She looked up at the bar, swinging her arms back and jumping up towards it, Nick's strong arms lifting her the rest of the way.
It felt foolish to remount just to complete her dismount, but she wanted to show that she was resilient. She would fight to the finish no matter what.
She pulled into a clean handstand, swinging around once, then twice, before releasing into a surprisingly flighty double layout dismount. The landing was clean, but the damage had very clearly been done.
"Not a great routine for her, but she is moving to beam, where she's the reigning World and Olympic champion, so her day should start to improve"
Heaving a sigh, JJ hopped down onto the walkway. Nick came up beside her, giving her a quick squeeze around the shoulders.
"That was bad," she sighed.
"Wasn't your best, but that's ok. You're not well, but you got up a finished. That says a lot. You'll come back ten times better on Sunday with a little more rest under your belt"
Every skill was punched into the beam with a loud thwack. She fought hard not to wobble. After the bars mishap, there was no room for mistakes if she wanted to prove to Marta that she didn't need to be given a spot at Worlds camp, that she would earn it just like everyone else.
Her leaps were beautifully flexible, her acrobatic skills clean and concise. Not a wobble to be seen.
With a ring of the bell, it was just the dismount to go.
Flip, flip, full twisting double tuck. Only the slightest shuffle of her feet and she was up.
"Good comeback! Marta will be impressed with that!"
"Yes!" JJ cheered as she walked back down to join Nick, clapping her hands together triumphantly. Nick beamed, giving her a tight hug before she was congratulated on her great routine by the other girls.
'Atta girl,' he thought as he watched her with a smile. What a way to fight back after a rough start.
Floor had gone better than at the Classic; she hadn't fallen on her a double layout, but she had still come up slightly short and had to take a couple of steps forward to compensate. But she had finished her other tumbles strongly. That had then been followed by a respectable effort on vault – it wasn't a huge pop off the table like she had been doing in training, but it was clean and on her feet. She would take every little win she could get. By the end of the last rotation, Simone was leading the standings, with Kyla just behind her, and Brenna Dowell in third. But those standings meant nothing until after the second night of competition; if they couldn't hit it twice in a row, they couldn't handle the pressure.
In the post-competition buzz, JJ was sitting on the edge of the larger end of the vault podium, chatting easily with journalists. To her left sat Kyla, McKayla, Simone, and Mykayla Skinner. Nick had disappeared about ten minutes ago, but she knew he would be back soon.
As the throng of media officials moved down the queue to start chatting with Kyla, a young girl with reddish brown hair approached her, looking somewhat overwhelmed by the bustle of media activity going on around the floor.
"Hi JJ... my name is Lauren Hopkins. I'm here to write a piece for a website called The Couch Gymnast, would it be ok if I chatted to you for a few minutes?"
JJ smiled. "Of course"
Lauren beamed, clicking a recorder into action. "So first of all, I know it's been a year, but I wanted to personally congratulate you on your success in London. Your performances were fantastic, and all medals were well deserved"
"Oh, thank you! That's really sweet," JJ said happily, unable to fight back the smile spreading across her face.
"It's so exciting to have you, Kyla, and McKayla back competing. It's always a shock the year after the Olympics for us fans when half the familiar faces disappear, so we're all very glad you girls have decided to stick around"
"I bet Marta is too," JJ joked, getting a laugh out of Lauren.
"So, JJ, how do you feel today about how you performed?"
"I think I did pretty well, considering that I've had the craziest year getting back into the swing of training, and I'm still recovering from a stomach bug I caught last weekend. Obviously my bars routine was not the best I could've done, but I'm eager to get back out there on Sunday and do it much better than I did tonight," JJ said with a smile as Lauren held the recorder out towards her. "I think, given every circumstance, I did the best I could today and that's what I'm going to focus on. I'm trying to not put as much pressure on myself this year"
"You said that at the beginning of your comeback you were looking at dropping an event, but you ended up competing in the all-around anyway, is that the plan going forward?"
"Yeah, I would like to be competitive in the all-around going forward, maybe even win a title?" JJ said with a sheepish grin. "So we decided to just stick to my normal program. I may not compete all-around at international events this year if I get sent to any, but we'll see. It's up to Marta at the end of the day, so I'll trust that she knows what she's doing for me"
"Any upgrades planned?"
"Not this year," JJ chuckled. "But I have started training a second vault and it's actually going pretty well, so I might be able to bring that in on the domestic circuit by next year to start testing it out. And we're looking at upgrading some of my tumbling on floor, but that won't be until next year at least"
"You've had a pretty exciting year what with all your post Olympic opportunities, but you also started dating someone, which you only went public with a couple of months ago. Do you think that affects your training at all?"
JJ looked up with a grin as Lauren finished speaking. Nick had returned, leaning against the barrier that separated the competition floor from the seating. Standing beside him was Will, who had an expression on his face like a fish out of water.
"No, it doesn't affect my training, but it's going to affect this interview," she giggled, gesturing towards Will. Lauren turned, laughing when she saw Will grinning at them, having caught JJ's eye. Nick nudged him forward, shaking his head as a smile crossed his face.
"Being with Will doesn't affect my training, if anything, it's taught me how to manage my time better. Sometimes we go a couple of weeks without seeing each other, and we both just have to learn how to manage that because that's going to be our life if I make it all the way to Rio," JJ said with a smile as Will sidled up beside her and slipped an arm around her waist. "Also who told you to come down here?"
"Your mom," Will chuckled, getting a laugh out of JJ and Lauren.
"You know, I don't think I've ever seen you two standing side by side, because all your Instagram posts are expertly framed, but now I'm starting to appreciate the height difference," Lauren said with a grin.
"She's a tiny badass," Will replied, making the girls laugh. "But she's my tiny badass"
"Are you from Pennsylvania?" Lauren asked curiously.
"Yes," Will said flatly, earning a nudge to the ribs from JJ, which made him chuckle. "Ok no, I was born in New Orleans, and I moved to Pittsburgh when I was eight"
"Explains the accent," Lauren giggled. "How do you understand him, because I'm struggling"
JJ laughed. "I'm just used to it. But it gets worse when he's tired, and even then, I start to struggle"
"Oh shush," Will shot back, tickling her side. "That's how I feel when you talk about Padlonovas and Kurchenkos or whatever they're called"
"You've got a lot to learn, because they're called Produnovas and Yurchenkos buddy," JJ said with a roll of her eyes, Lauren laughing at Will's attempt to remember gymnastics skills.
"JJ, I think everyone's been talking about how your shift in confidence this year is just amazing when you look back at last year. Do you feel more confident?"
JJ nodded. "Yeah, and quite honestly, I think a lot of that has come from being with Will. Before we started dating, I was so shy and insecure, it was almost painful. But he builds me up every day, and he helped me work through a lot of stuff that I had issues with… like, and this may sound stupid, but showing affection in front of other people"
"That was a great fight," Will cut in, getting more laughs from the girls.
"It was things like that… I think it all came from how shy I was, and contributed to my lack of confidence in myself. It all stemmed from worrying about how other people viewed me, and being with Will has shown me that I don't have to worry about other people, that as long as I'm happy and confident with where I am, that that's all that matters. He really is my better half"
"She's too modest," Will added. "She's my better half. She keeps me in line"
Lauren grinned helplessly. "You guys are too cute to handle in person. And on Instagram. Just in general"
"Try having it in the gym at the end of every. Single. Practice," Nick added dryly from behind Lauren. They all laughed, JJ shaking her head as her cheeks flushed pink.
"I'll let you guys go, but good luck for Sunday night. And Will, it was so lovely to meet you," Lauren said, extending her hand. Will gladly shook it, turning to JJ with a smile as they were left alone for a moment. All along the edge of the podium, the other girls were being interviewed by other journalists, but the biggest crowds were surrounding Simone, Kyla, and McKayla.
"You were really great today," Will said sweetly, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "I can't wait to see how you go on Sunday"
"Thanks," JJ replied, slipping her hand into his and giving it a squeeze. "I love you"
"I love you too, you crazy little badass"