Nina Sticks The Landing

Part 2: It Gets Even Worse

Kestral had noticed the commotion, and had rushed down from the bleachers, Boola on the verge of tears.
"Nina, are you OK?" Kestral exclaimed.
"My fingers hurt really badly." Nina moaned tearfully.
"Can I see?" Kestral asked. She gasped at the sight of Nina's fingers.
"How did this happen?" Nina's mom asked her.
"Um, during my dismount." Nina groaned. "It really hurts, mom. I want to go to the hospital."
"I'm not sure if that's serious enough to go to the hospital for." Kestral said. "We can just put some ice on it at home."
"I don't know about that," said Coach Blunt. "It looks like she hurt her wrist pretty badly, too." Nina's wrist was slowly growing purple and beginning to swell.
"Oh boy," Kestral said. "That might need more than ice. Let's get you to to Dr. Menzel ASAP."
"Yes please." Nina said unhappily.
Kestral pulled Naia and Lina out of class and the five of them headed to the car. Kestral drove along the snow-covered streets until they reached the town's hospital, a clean and welcoming facility. As the family walked through the hospital's huge glass door, the receptionist at the front desk smiled at them. Naia, Lina, and Kestral seemed anxious. Even little Boola was wearing a frown. Nina's eyes were red from crying, and she was still wearing her gymnastics leotard. Some of the people in the waiting room started to stare at her.
"Hi." Kestral said to the receptionist lady. "I'm Kestral LaFeye. I'm here because my daughter Nina hurt her arm at gymnastics and she might need an x-ray."
The woman behind the counter smiled. "Alright," she said, pulling out a form. "Patient's full name, please."
Kestral glanced at Nina. "Nina Madison LaFeye. She's 10."
The receptionist lady jotted the information down on the form.
"OK," the lady said. "Fill out the rest, please. In the meantime I'll let the doctor know you're here." Kestral and Nina smiled in unison.
"Thank you!" they said simultaneously.
Naia, Nina, Kestral, Lina, and Boola sat down in the waiting room. Naia held Boola while Kestral finished filling out the form. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, Nina heard a nurse speak her name.
"Nina, the doctor's ready to see you."
Nina followed the nurse down a long blue and green hallway covered with posters. The posters said things like, "wash your hands" and "cover your mouth when you cough."
"In here." the nurse smiled, holding the door open for Nina. It was an ordinary doctor examination room. Nina sat on the bed and answered the nurse's questions. She winced when the nurse touched her arm. The nurse took Nina's blood pressure and her temperature, and asked her some questions about her accident. Then she said, "The doctor will be in in just a minute." and left the room. Nina occupied herself by flipping through a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The doctor came in and examined Nina. He looked at the notes that the nurse had taken and asked Nina a few additional questions.
"Alright, young lady." He said after a while. "Are you ready to get an x-ray?"
Nina shrugged. "I dunno." she said.
The doctor led her to the x-ray room, where they put her in a strange and heavy apron. Nina laid on a table. "Be perfectly still!" said the doctor before exiting the room. Nina saw him push a red button. Then, he came back into the room and said, "Alright! we'll have those developed right away."
About a half hour later, the doctor came in with Nina's x-rays, as well as her mom and siblings. Dr. Menzel placed the x-rays on a lighted board and gestured to a small fracture in Nina's arm. "She'll need a cast, but not for long." the doctor said. "The break wasn't bad, so it won't take too long to heal. The cast should only be on for about two months."
Nina's jaw dropped. "Two months? Two months? " she cried. "I'll miss regionals! There's no way I'm going to let that happen!"
"I'm sorry, honey." Kestral said. "It looks like you're not going to regionals this year."
Nina began to cry.
"Regionals was my dream!" she wailed. "Now I'll never even get a chance to compete, let alone make the regional team! My dreams are crushed!"
"Oh honey..." Kestral said.
Nina sobbed uncontrollably.
"I-I-I just wanted to be a regional gymnast and make the regional team, and..."
Nina sniffed.
"I'll never get the gold medal at the Olympics!" She wailed.
"What does the Olympics have anything to do with this?" Kestral questioned.
"Only everything!" Nina scoffed.
The next few days were awful for Nina. She got flowers and chocolates and cards but all she wanted was to go to gymnastics practice. Every day she went to the gym for Naia and Lina's gymnastics class. She sat next to her mom, gazing at the other gymnasts and the way that they effortlessly flipped and tumbled. It almost brought her to tears to see how happy the level three gymnasts were, practicing their regionals routines. Nina couldn't take it anymore. Next week was regionals and she wouldn't be able to compete. The fact was like an icy blade piercing her heart. Every time she even heard the word "gymnastics" she would stare at her broken arm and imagine what she would be missing out on.
Nina's cast was hot pink, and she'd been collecting her friend's autographs. Clara had written, "Live, love, gymnastics!" on Nina's cast and now she really couldn't stop thinking about regionals.
One day, Nina was at practice, waiting with her mom and watching her fellow gymnasts. At one point, she heard Coach Blunt and Coach Taylor talking about the snow.
"There's too much of it." Coach Blunt said.
"It might be dangerous to have the gymnasts and their families drive to regionals with all of the ice on the road. Regionals might have to be postponed."
The next week, Nina headed to the gym to watch her sister's gymnastics class with her mom. It was the day before regionals, but nobody seemed nervous or excited. Nina was a bit confused. "Aren't regionals tomorrow?" she asked her mom.
"Pretty sure." Replied Kestral.
Nina walked over to Coach Blunt and asked her the same question.
"Regionals have been postponed for two months, due to ice and snow." Said Coach Blunt, disappointed.
It only took Nina a split second to piece together the puzzle.
"I'll have my cast off by then!" she practically screamed. "I can compete in regionals!"
The next day, Nina bounded out of bed. She ran downstairs, passing Lina and Naia, and waving to baby Boola. Nina rushed into the kitchen and poured cereal and milk in a bowl and grabbed a spoon. She darted upstairs and threw on her clothes just in time for the bus. Grabbing an orange and a sandwich for lunch, Nina headed out the door and boarded the Glass Cape Elementary school bus.