Gymnast Romance

Chapter 1

Hot water devoured my body as I stepped into the shower. A cloud of steam had covered the bathroom in a blanket of humidity. My lime scented shampoo bitterly stung my freshly ripped hands. I had been training a double flyaway on bars and my hands were raw and bloody. Oh, the joys of gymnastics. Every muscle ached after our conditioning session today. Our coach, Stephen, was the toughest coach in the gym for strength conditioning. He was hugely muscular and tortured us with push ups and core work. I switched the water from searing hot to freezing cold, allowing the coldness to consume my body, hoping it would ease my stiff muscles. After a minute I couldn't take the cold any more, switched the heat to warm again and let my body return to a bearable temperature. I stepped out of the shower and towelled myself off, wiped steam off the circular bathroom mirror to see my face and then brushed knots out of my short brown hair, sweeping my fringe off of my forehead.

I struggled into my pyjamas, as my stiff shoulders screamed out in agony. I crawled downstairs to eat something before I was going to fall into bed. My mom quizzed me on how my training session had gone even though she had no clue what I was talking about, pretending she understood what a Tsukahara is. Lying in bed I could hear the heavy rain lashing down of the roof above my head. I listened to music, scrolling down Tumblr for about half an hour before my eyes were too heavy to keep open. 

Today was Sunday, one of my two days off from the gym in the week. Sundays and Wednesdays. My iPod's iPod's alarm started wailing, trying its best to persuade me to get out of bed. I always had to leave my alarm on the other side of my bedroom forcing me to get out of bed to silence it. "Conor!", my mom called. "Turn that alarm off!" I did as she asked, and saw the time was nearly half nine. It must have been going off for half an hour now and I'd slept through it. "Sh*t..." I thought to myself, drawing out the syllables. I never did my homework last night. I had put it off to Saturday as I was going out with my best friend Amy on Friday night. Now I was going to have to waste my rest day on doing homework. And I had a lot of it. I had a Teen Wolf marathon planned for today. I know, Teen Wolf is kind of cheesy, but I just wanted some mindless entertainment. 

As I ate my breakfast of eggs, porridge with blueberries and a banana, I absorbed the endless amounts of new posts on Tumblr since last night. Following about 250 people meant that I had a lot of funny text posts to consume.  My parents had already left the house, gone on their weekend hike. They had started a new fitness craze, I guessed it was part of their midlife crisis, and now they were trying to hike every mountain in Ireland, though they hadn't hiked outside Leinster yet this year. It was drizzling rain outside and the clouds were an ominous grey, with no blue to be seen behind its veil, concealing the sky. I pitied my parents being out in that weather.

I started my homework, writing the first three quarters of an english essay, giving up as I was unable to think of an adequate conclusion for my characterisation of Atticus Finch, from the novel we were studying. I skimmed through the Irish I was supposed to be learning and when I came to maths I just gave up completely. Maths was not my academic strong point, I preferred art. I figured I'd finish the rest of my homework later on, my science teacher never checked our homework anyway so there was no hurry for my chemistry paper. My brain needed time to relax, I told myself, trying to justify my laziness. I began my Tv marathon, watching four episodes of season two, snuggled between all of the mismatching coloured cushions in the living room. My eyes were tired and I had grown uncomfortable sitting in the one position on the deep leather couch, so I retired to my room until my parents would be home to cook dinner.

My parents arrived home, splattered in a thick coating of mud and dirt. Their hair and clothes were dripping with rainwater and their supposedly waterproof coats were permeated with the unmerciful Irish rain. It must have lashed rain when I was finishing off my homework. Our dog was wagging his tail, happy to see me regardless of the harsh weather. They were unimpressed with the fact that I was wearing my pyjamas at three o' clock in the afternoon. 

Later that evening we ate dinner of spaghetti spaghetti bolognese with salad, with the usual babble about mutual friends, neighbours, my parents' work. My brother and sister were away at friends houses, having stayed the night there, so the house was quieter than usual. I retreated to my bedroom, hoping to get an early night's sleep for school in the morning. I find i cannot cope with any less than ten hours a night, even with the excessive amounts of coffee I drink. I lay down on my bed, restless, staring at my bedroom walls. Three of the four walls were a very pale grey, while the one wall was a deep charcoal grey. This wall had a large window, stretching across it. I had a thing for monochrome colours and had wanted to paint my bedroom shades of black and grey for a long time. Last summer my parents finally allowed me to paint it, I decided charcoal was more subtle than black. 

While meditating about the colour of my room, I eventually drifted off into a calm sleep, lying diagonally across my plush Ikea bed, with my duvet covering all but my face. 

I awoke, sprawled across my bed to the sound of my brother and sister, both two years younger than me bickering over something petty like using the wrong shampoo. Seconds later my alarm began to screech out its 'pleasant' wake up call. I rolled off my bed onto my pillows which had fallen off my bed to the dark walnut floor beneath me. I dressed monotonously into my ugly grey school uniform. The jumper was woollen and shapeless, with the shoulders sagging halfway down my upper arms. The design was 'one style suits all', meaning that really one style suited nobody. Frankly it made everyone look ten pounds heavier. The rest of the uniform included dark grey pants, a periwinkle blue shirt and a black tie.

I swallowed down my breakfast, not taking the time to even chew my food, forget about tasting it. I scalded the inside of my mouth on the steaming hot coffee I was drinking in the feat of keeping my self awake long enough to reach my school. I brushed my teeth while singing to my morning playlist, the lyrics being garbled by the toothbrush in my mouth.

I walked to school alone, leaving my brother behind as he wasn't ready and I couldn't be late to maths, where I had  to endure my most strict and horrible teacher. The suffering of class was eased by the chat had in hushed voices with Amy, who sat next to me. She informed me of a new guy who had joined our year. Our conversation was rudely interrupted though, by our teacher giving out tonight's endless load of homework.