A/N: Yay for more gymnastics and antics!

"Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Jennifer Jareau, Bailie Key, Maggie Nichols, Aly Raisman, and Kyla Ross will be attending the City of Jesolo Trophy as our senior team. Our junior team will be Norah Flatley, Jazmyn Foberg, Laurie Hernandez, Victoria Nguyen, Ragan Smith, and Olivia Trautman"

The 13 girls whose names had been called out immediately beamed.

It was March, and it was time to start ramping up for the competition season. The City of Jesolo Trophy was in a week's time, and the team was leaving for Italy the following morning.

The start of their season had seen the 2015 edition of the American Cup. Initially, Simone and JJ, as the top two Americans from Worlds, had been offered the places. Simone had accepted, but as she had said she would, JJ had turned it down, wanting a little extra time to work on her upgrades. She was hoping to use Jesolo as the testing ground; if she fell or had any major issues, it wouldn't drum up any negative rumours that she was burning out, which would have been the case if she had competed in Arlington. Jesolo was an annual friendly competition that the USA had attended since 2011, but it didn't receive anywhere near as much attention as something like the American Cup.

JJ had spent the last two weeks of February helping Will settle into his new apartment. His parents had packed up and moved back down to the South, and the first few days of being completely independent had been a bit of a struggle for Will. But like JJ knew he would, he'd pushed through, and seemed to be doing just fine.

"You'll have to call Will and be like 'sorry, going to Italy, see you in three weeks'," Aly jibed as they were dismissed from the gym. JJ laughed.

"He'll survive. I'm pretty sure my mom has been making him come over for dinner, it's like she thinks he doesn't eat or something," JJ replied with a grin.

"Doesn't he find that awkward without you there?"

JJ shook her head. "No, he gets along really well with my parents. Especially my dad. When my mom came with me to the Classic last year, Will came over and watched it on TV with my dad"

Aly laughed. "Perfect male bonding session. Watching gymnastics"

"He'd never tell my dad, but I think he just likes watching my butt in a leotard"

Aly cracked up, shaking her head as she draped an arm around JJ's shoulders. "He's a beautiful sweetheart, but deep down, he's still a red blooded male," she sighed dramatically, getting a grin out of JJ. "Clone him for me"

At that, JJ burst out laughing as they pushed open the doors and headed towards the bank of treatment rooms.

After a massage and some work on her ankles, it was with a great sigh of relief that JJ sank into the ice bath as Aly came through the door of the therapy room.

"Oh hey. Everyone leave you because you smell?" the brunette teased. JJ laughed, flipping her off as she set her stuff down and also began to climb into the tub.

"Larry was super weird today," Aly said as she slowly lowered herself down beside JJ. "I mean, he's always weird while he's doing the treatment, but today he was extra weird"

"The treatment?" JJ queried with a furrowed brow.

"You know, the one where he has to put his fingers in you to adjust your back and hips," Aly said lightly. JJ's eyes widened in surprise, her mind suddenly running a million miles an hour.

"That's… a treatment?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, it's meant for lower back and hip pain. Haven't you had it?"

JJ slowly shook her head. "Aly… he's never done that to me"

"Yeah I guess you've never really had problems with your back and your hips," Aly said nonchalantly. Even as she spoke, however, JJ missed the look of worry that flashed across her face. "It used to work on me, but now everything just hurts all the time"

"Sounds like you're just getting old," JJ teased, making her friend laugh.

A few moments' silence passed before Aly spoke up again. "He's really never done it to you?"

JJ shook her head. "No. But like you said, I've never really had trouble with my back or anything, it's more my legs and ankles I need him to work on the most"

"I hear the other girls talking about it, I guess I just assumed it was something everyone had to have done," Aly replied.

The two girls fell silent, Aly gently swirling her fingers through the water. JJ kept her eyes fixed on the ripples it was creating, her mind screaming at her. What the hell was this treatment? She'd never even heard of such a thing.

Larry had always made her feel strange, but he had never put his fingers inside her. Sometimes during a massage, he had gotten a little too close for comfort, but she'd had massages from other physios who had done the same thing and it had never been weird. It was surely just Larry himself that was strange.

Glancing over at Aly, JJ recalled the conversation. Aly had said it so nonchalantly... if it wasn't worrying her, it probably wasn't a big deal.

"You're going to Italy, how am I supposed to watch you compete?"

JJ giggled. "Go see my dad, he has the whole "JJ's competing at an event with no television broadcast" thing downpat"

"So this... Jesolo, is it? Is it a new competition? You've never been before have you?"

"I have, I went in 2012. I didn't go the last two years because I was taking time off in 2013 and I was in a cast last year. It's generally pretty low key... if you do manage to watch it, don't expect it to resemble nationals or worlds at all"

"I'll try my best to see it somehow, but keep me updated anyway"

"I will," JJ replied as the bus they were taking from the ranch came to a stop outside the airport. "I have to go, but I'll call you when we get to the hotel"

"Alright. Have a good flight. I love you"

"I love you too," JJ said with a smile. Bidding goodbye, she hung up the call, grabbing her backpack and swinging out into the aisle to get off the bus. The thirteen girls gathered on the sidewalk, their huge backpacks on the backs as the coaches pulled their bigger bags from the belly of the bus.

Then, with Marta at the helm, they headed into the airport and off to begin their journey to Jesolo.

It was nearly fifteen hours later that they were on the bus from Venice to Jesolo. While most of them were used to long periods of travel, it didn't stop the snarkiness that came with being tired. Simone and JJ had had an exhaustion fuelled spat in the airport in Paris that had been promptly broken up by Aly and Laurie. Somehow, they'd started arguing in the chair bank, with JJ complaining that Simone was being too manic, which had earned scathing sarcasm from the younger girl in response. After Simone spent five minutes purposefully trying to annoy JJ, the two of them had leapt out of their chairs, which had immediately prompted Aly to jump between them and exclaim that everyone was tired. Laurie, ever the ray of sunshine, had loudly suggested they hug it out.

Thankfully, Marta had been in the bathroom and was none the wiser to the spat when she returned.

The flight to Venice had been much shorter, and by the time they had landed, JJ and Simone had cleared the air again.

Now, they were almost at the hotel, and gladly, they had the rest of the day to settle in and catch up on sleep before entering into their pre-competition training program the following morning.

The seaside town of Jesolo was a surprisingly popular place, and while the competition was nothing fancy like the girls were accustomed to, they all thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to attend it if only for its stunning location.

"I'm gonna take a nap," JJ sighed half an hour later when she finally collapsed into her bed.

"You and me both," Aly yawned, dropping her backpack on the floor and falling into her own bed. "Maybe you'll be less cranky afterwards"

"Shut up," JJ mumbled.

Aly laughed. "Cranky pants"

But she got no reply, for JJ had already fallen asleep.