Gymnastics at its Finest

Chapter 16

Our last event before lunch is vault. Mattee tells me that we have Cliff as our coach today.

Awesome. He's the one who got me to do my double full.

"Ok girls. Start with run-byes, then do one timer, then start building up to your vault. You know what you have to do."

He calls me and Liv over.

"Hi girls. How's your day been?"

"Good!" Liv says. "I caught a tkatchev! I mean, I had a spot, but I've never even thrown one before!"

"Awesome Liv! How about you Mickey?"

"I made my first double layout dismount!" I say with a smile.

"Great job! I'm proud of both of you! So Liv, I'm pretty sure you know what you have to do to warm up for your one and a half. Mickey, do a timer, then a full, then one and a half, then double."

We both nod and run to the end of the runway. We do as we're told, starting with a run-by. We then do our timers. Liv goes right before me, getting ready to do her full. She sprints, pumping her arms, she hurdles, and does a good round off backhandspring. She does the full with a little leg separation, but she does stick the landing.

As Cliff begins to give her corrections, I start my full. I begin running, hurdle, do the round off, backhandspring, twist the full, and over rotate it a little, stumbling backwards.

"Nice job. I actually don't mind that you over rotated, considering you're gonna be competing a double in no time." Cliff says. I nod and walk back to the runway.

As I stand at the end of the runway, I start to talk to my new teammates. I already know Mattee of course, but I begin to talk to the other girls.

"Hi. I'm Maria." One says.

"And I'm Kristin."

"I'm Abigail. But you can call me Abi."

Most of the girls tell me their names, and I smile and nod. "I'm Mckayla." I say.

"But you can call her Mickey or Mike!" Mattee exclaims. I giggle.

"Yeah. You can call me those too. Actually, I prefer those."

"Well Mickey, let me just say, you're really good! What vault do you compete?" Kristin says.

"Well, I did compete a one and a half, but yesterday with Cliff I got my double!"

"That's so cool! That's the most difficult vault any of the level 10's here do!"

Really? Wow.

"Does anybody else do it?" I ask.

"Mattee, Kristin, and you are about it. The rest of us are working on it though." Maria says.

"That's so cool!" I say.

I get ready to do my one and a half now. I do the same thing as last time, but try to block a lot harder in order to do the extra half twist. I land it pretty well, with only a step to regain my balance. Cliff nods and gives me a smile. I smile back.

As I go back to the end of the runway, I get a few high fives and good jobs. I then see Kristin getting ready to vault. I yell, "Come on Kristin!" and a few of the other girls kinda look at me.

"Do you guys not cheer here?" I ask.

"No, not really." Maria says.

"Well it actually helps the gymnast a lot! It's also kinda fun. Why don't you guys start now?"

Everyone begins cheering, and I see the smiles appear on their faces.

She does the double flawlessly, sticking the landing.

Mattee goes right after Kristin. She does the double full amazingly, with only a step on the landing.

Liv goes after Mattee, doing an absolutely flawless one and a half. She sticks the landing so perfectly it's almost unreal.

"Nice job Liv!" I cheer.

"Yeah. Great job!" Abi says.

Soon enough, it's my turn. I think about everything I did yesterday. I run, have a really aggressive hurdle, do the round off backhandspring, and block as hard as I can. I twist super quickly, and land on my feet, with one step back.

"Wow! Awesome Mike!" Mattee says.

"Yeah! That was amazing!" Kristin says.

I think Liv and I are starting to fit in here more and more.