A/N: AHHH I've had Rio planned since I started this story, I'm SO EXCITED!
Podium training was done and dusted, qualifications lineups were decided, and it was now the morning of the opening ceremony; August 5th, 2016.
The Olympics had finally arrived.
JJ had expected to wake that morning to an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation. What she hadn't expected to awake to was Simone perched on the edge of her bed with her face pressed up against the glass of the window.
"Uh…," JJ mumbled, rubbing her eyes in the bright sunlight. "What are you doing?"
"There's a chicken," Simone said flatly, her gaze never faltering.
"A chicken?" JJ asked, yawning as she pushed herself up onto her elbows. Over to the right, Aly groaned, pulling her pillow over her head.
"There's a chicken on the balcony," Simone said matter-of-factly.
"What do you mean there's a chicken on the balcony?" JJ asked as she sat up properly, her brain swimming in a haze of sleepy fog. Without a word, Simone reached over and grabbed JJ's arm, pulling her up beside her with surprising strength. Taking a moment to focus in the now blaring sunlight, JJ peered through the window.
"What the…," she said in disbelief as her eyes finally fell on a scraggly looking chicken wandering around on the balcony. "How did it get up here?"
"I don't know," Simone giggled. "I bet someone did it as a prank"
"How the hell would they get a chicken into the Olympic Village?" JJ laughed.
"Who knows, it's Rio, anything's possible!" Simone exclaimed.
"Guys," Aly mumbled from beneath her pillow. "It's stupid o'clock in the morning"
"It's actually seven thirty, but you were close," JJ said with a smirk. Seconds later, Aly's pillow came flying across the room, hitting JJ square in the head and knocking her off her bed. Simone broke into hysterical laughter, almost falling off the bed herself as Laurie came wandering into the room.
"Marta wants us up and ready for training in half an hour," she said, breaking into a grin as she took in the scene before her; a disgruntled Aly buried under her covers, Simone laughing hysterically on the end of JJ's bed, and JJ sitting on the floor on the other side of her bed trying not to laugh.
"Laurie, there's a chicken!" Simone suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the window. At that moment, the chicken decided to try and fly, letting out a loud SQUAWK before crashing into the window, making the girls scream as they all ducked down.
"What on earth is going on in here?" came Aimee's bewildered voice ahead of her entering the room. She was followed by Madison, who slipped past her and jumped onto the end of Aly's bed with a grin.
"There's a chicken on the balcony, we don't know why or how it got there, but it's there!" Simone cried, pointing at the window.
Confused, Aimee walked forward. When she saw the feathers, and the befuddled chicken wandering around outside, she started to laugh.
"Oh man," she chuckled, turning back to the door and shaking her head. "I love Rio"
How did the US girls look in podium? Who's doing the all-around, Aly or Laurie?
They looked fantastic as usual! Everyone was completely on, which was surprising to me to be honest, especially for JJ; we haven't seen her since Trials, and I guess I kind of expected her to be a bit more of a mess with what she's been through, but no, she proved her place on the team.
As for the all-around, it's going to be Aly. All five girls did every event in PT, and the girl who wasn't competing it at all in competition went last. Obviously that was Maddie for everything but bars, and on bars, it was Laurie. She's apparently had a minor nagging injury, and they decided doing the all-around would be too much. She's fine, don't panic, but Aly is competing AA in qualifications with JJ and Simone.
Do we know the team final lineups for the USA?
Judging from PT, I'm pretty sure this is their lineup:
VT: Raisman, Jareau, Biles
UB: Biles, Jareau, Kocian
BB: Hernandez, Biles, Jareau
FX: Hernandez, Raisman, Biles
Kind of surprising that they're having Simone do bars in the team final by the looks of it, but if Laurie's injury prevents her doing bars well, Simone is the only other option really. The other surprising thing is that they're not using JJ on floor, especially considering she's better on floor now than she was in 2012. If she competed the routine she did on night two of Trials, she would score about half a point higher than Laurie, but maybe having her do the AA as well is too much? I'm not sure. They have room to play with the lineups without losing the gold, so it's not really a big deal anyway.
The opening ceremony was completely underway. The Parade of Nations had brought tears to their eyes; even though the Brazilian crowd had cheered loud and proud for their athletes, the Refugee Olympic Team had received the biggest cheer of all.
The girls watched, huddled in the common area of their apartment, as the Olympic Flame was lit, signaling the official start of the Games. Laurie was wiping away tears as JJ gave her a tight squeeze.
It had been the longest four years of JJ's life, but finally, the Games had arrived, and she was ready to go. She was incredibly grateful that she had made it this far.
And now she was ready to have the most amazing two weeks of her life.
She only hoped that, somewhere up there, her dad was looking down on her, beaming with pride.