The Dive from Up High

6- Allison Plus One and a Half Equals Diving

"Alli, can you come down for a minute?" Coach says.

"Sure," I say, climbing down the ladder. My foot slips, so I go tumbling down like a tumbleweed.

AHHHH!

"Alli, I've got you!" Coach says as he runs toward the ladder. He catches me just before I hit the ground.

"That would've hurt like a freaking hit to the head on the board," I say in complete annoyance.

Diving down would've been safer...

"Ha, but no." Coach puts me down. "That was great! If you keep that up, you'll rock it at District. Your parents would have been so proud, Alli, so, so proud. You've truly grown into a fantastic diver when I met you your freshman year."

I go up and practice the cartwheel plus one. It's essentially a cartwheel with one full 360 flip, then I hit the water.

I repeat this until the last half hour, then attempt to add the half in this dive.

God, it's so difficult... Every time I've hit the water, I started the half too early, turning it into a cartwheel plus a double.

This is messing with my head...

This next rep, I accidentally slipped off the board, resulting in a belly flop plus an ouch and a half. I heard Coach Tristan starting to break out into hysterics of laughter. Good to know he took pleasure in seeing my misery...

I get out, shooting my coach daggers in the process. My stomach was killing me, so I grabbed a towel to dry off with until Emerson and Shiloh would show up for the synchronized practice. I laid down on one of the lounging sofas.

"How did you slip off the board?" Coach asked me.

"My foot thought it would be absolutely amusing if I slid off before being given a chance to stop," I say sarcastically.

"Well, maybe if you would have slowed down the running, you wouldn't be laying there right now," he says in the same tone I had just used.

Coach Tristan is definitely something else. He treats me like my father, brother, and best friend all at once. He's a young coach of only twenty-two. With the energy he brings to our practices, it allows me to bring mine out. We have a good student-coach relationship (no, not dating, you dirty-minded people). He was willing to take me up as a broken diver when no coach did. Believe me, I had other coaches before Tristan, but they all ditched me when I mentioned the plane crash to them. I was the Bubonic Plague when I brought up my parents' deaths. When Coach Tristan came along, I knew he was different from other coaches I had previously.

It was a hot summer day at West Palm Beach, perfect for swimming. I hadn't gone, because the death of my parents left me in a huge depression. I didn't want to do anything but dive. Shiloh rarely took me out anymore, because I trained myself so hard that I nearly killed myself. Hey, if it was worth dying for, why not?

"Allison, you need to get a new coach for diving. I can only take you so far before you literally die out there," Shiloh said to me. I knew my sister was right, but I was thirteen and battling depression, what was I supposed to do?

"I know, Shi, but all of my other coaches left me because of this baggage. What makes you think another one wouldn't do the same?" I said, challenging my sister.

"You know there will be that one coach that will accept you no matter what. There's one out there that will help use this," Shiloh says, pointing at the tears coming out of my eyes, "for that." Shiloh points at the ten meter diving tower.