Clarity ~ m.c.

•Chapter 42•

As I sat in the tunnel preparing to enter the gymnastics arena. Brendan was tapping my ankles as i tried to relax my mussels in preperation of our first event for qualifications. i was still insainly sore, it's gotten a little better but i am determined to compete and try my best; I'm going to fight through the pain. Waiting for Brendan to finish tapping my ankles I looked at the folded up piece of paper in my jacket that had my song selections for all the floor exercises throughout all the qualifications and finals. I felt really confident about the songs I picked,

All-Around-

Qualifications: Talking Body- Tove Lo

Finals: Save Me- Nikki Minaj

Floor Exercise Finals-

Finals: Hall of Fame- The Script

Team-

Qualifications: Outside- Calvin Harris ft. Ellie Goulding

Finals: She Looks So Perfect- 5 Seconds of Summer

"Gymnasts!" the organizer called. "Division two All-Around qualifications will begin momentarily; go to the sign with your marks country and get ready to enter the arena!"

Standing up I took my jacket and warm up pants off and stood with Grace, Madison, Ivy and Cleo near the person holding the sign marker Australia. Looking around I observed the other groups in our division, Russia, Mixed group 3 and mixed group 4. The way All-Around worked was that all the gymnasts from each country did their routines and the top eight countries who had the highest scores in qualifications then send two gymnasts from each team to compete in the All-Around final- there's also usually one or two mixed groups of gymnasts from a mix of multiple countries in the final too. So even thought my teammates and myself are working together to get Australia in one of the eight spots for finals they're also my competition at the same time because the top two gymnasts with the highest scores from each country are the two who will compete in the All-Around final.

"I can't believe this is actually happening." Grace said as we stood in line, waiting to be announced into the arena.

"We're actually in the Olympics." Madison added in awe.

"I've been dreaming about this my whole life." I commented in astonishment. "This is finally happening."

"Girls." Doc called for the five of us to gather in a quick group huddle. He started reminding us to do certain things and gave us a quick pep talk. "Does the Captain have anything to add?" Doc asked turning towards me. Yep that's right I'm the caption of the team; way back before the Olympics we all anonymously voted to who was going to be captain and everyone wanted it to be me, I was honored. My friends turned to me waiting for me to speak.

"Alright ladies, this is the Olympics now, it's time to show what we can do and what we've been preparing for the past year and a half. Give nothing but a hundred and ten percent, we can do this!" I said confidently. "I'm insanely proud of all of you and I couldn't imagine being here with anyone else. Just remember that as much as we want to win; we're also here to have fun and to enjoy the experience. " I added.

"Agreed!" the four of them said and we brought our hands in.

"It's game time! Let's go!" I said loudly and we all cheered as we threw our hands up in the air and came in for a quick group hug.

"Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the Division two gymnastics athletes!" the announcer spoke into the loud speaker and we repositioned ourselves back into a straight line and followed the lady holding the Australia sign into the arena only to be welcomed by roars and cheers coming from the stands. We followed the worker to the center of the arena, our first event today: Floor exercise. Walking up on the platform; Grace, Madison, Ivy, Cleo and I presented ourselves to the judges.

***Michael's POV***

"Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the Division two gymnastics athletes!" the announcer at the arena said and the teams walked into the arena following a person holding a sign with the marked country they were guiding.

"There they are!" Mrs. Hood called; pointing at the TV and the cameras showed Lauren and the rest of her team enter the arena.

"Here comes the Australian team, today they are starting off on floor exercise." One Australian commentator started to explain what was happening.

The camera showed Lauren, Grace, Ivy, Cleo and Madison lined up on the platform the floor mat was elevated up on and presented themselves to the judges. After a minute they dispersed and started warming up on the mat practicing their flips. Then the camera focused in on each individual girl and the commentators started talking about each team member. Then they got to Lauren,

"There she is, Lauren Jacobs or also known as the American Reject." One of the presenters said and everyone in the living room cheered.

"It's hard to believed how well talked about this girl is and it's her first time competing on such a large stage like this for the whole world to see." The other commented as they went back and forth talking about Lauren. Lauren kept paracticing and you could see dicomfort in her face still being in pain from her dad, but she kept going not stoping.

"It's going to be interesting to see her floor exercise. She doesn't use the traditional playlist gymnasts' use for their floor exercises; she actually uses modern day music produced by current artists." The first commentator said to explain to anyone who doesn't know anything about gymnastics that this was something out of the ordinary. "Because of this she influenced her other teammates and they did the same thing, using current music as well." He added.

"Yep, Madison McNaught is using Anthem Part Two by Blink 182, Cleo Van Houten is using Partition by Beyoncé, Grace Johnson is using Drown by Bring Me the Horizon, Ivy Dunay is using Hey Brother by Avicii and Lauren is using Talking Body by Tove Lo." The second commentator said as Lauren made her final practice tumbling pass. By now the judges were ready and everyone cleared off the mat except Lauren's teammate Madison who was going first.

After watching all of Lauren's teammates before her go it was finally Lauren's turn. The music to Talking Body started playing and Lauren started her floor routine and with every flip and every move she did with such precision, it's amazing to see how much better she has gotten. By the end of her routine Lauren earned a 14.502.

*

After watching all the teams run through the events, it came down to the last score we were waiting for to see who would make it to finals.

"And Ivy Dunay receiving a 14.800 on balance beam, giving the Australian team that last score they need, causing them to be first in Division 2, as we watched Lauren and her teammates hugging with big smiles. They were off to a great start, I can't wait to see how well they do in the rest of the upcoming events!