Velma Peyton

chapter 3

     It wasn’t what I was used to—this feeling of drifting aimlessly with no control over where i was going or what might happen next. And-- as much as I loved my new school— I still had a few doubts about this particular adventure.

    For the past few days—during gym class—different questions had been bugging my head—especially when Skyla was around. I knew who would be my biggest competitor on the Eastwood gymnastics team from day one. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Skyla Smith was the team star.

       The problem was. She didn’t seem to notice that we were in a competition! Instead of resisting me, Skyla seemed to actually enjoy the presence of a rival. Instead of being psyched out by some brilliant move, she’d ask me to do it again—and would pay very close attention. And she was as generous with her compliments to me as she was with the rest of the team. What’s going on here? Why is she being so… nice?

      The sudden bang on the door downstairs woke me up from my day-dream, it was mum. Finally there was someone to talk to.

      I ran downstairs from my room to chat with mum in the kitchen. The smell of fresh bacon hung in the air like a just-rang bell. The kitchen was a wide one with neatly hung curtains on the Louvre and a nice view of the backyard filled with a garden of roses. She found a chair and propped down on it. Mum loved roses and I found that very annoying especially since lilies were my favorite.

         “Hi mum” I said   

        “Hi sweetie how was school today” mum asked with her I-hope-it-all-went-well look.

        “Well…sorta-kinda weird’

“Hmm, that was unusual. What went wrong?”

“There’s this girl; her name is Skyla and she’s like really good at gymnastics but obviously am better. But my presence doesn’t seem to make her feel like she has a rival but instead each time I pull a stunt she feels s comfortable with it. It makes me feel kinda strange each time I see her” I said, with a feeling that mum wasn’t  going to provide me with an answer that would put me right back on track but it was worth a try.

“I think I know your problem”

“Huh?” I blurted out not really seeing this as a problem: it was far more than that. It was a crisis, a dilemma, a predicament or whatever you want to call it. To boost me up during practice I needed to feel that I was superior and others were inferior. I liked a challenge.

“You like to win so in that case you also like a challenge; so in a case when you see someone to compete with and the person is being friendly, you find it strange”

“Mum I don’t find it strange it’s just....i don’t know” I snorted, with a feeling of utter frustration.

“Honey, it’s a simple logic. You spend most of your time in being the best at your sports you don’t even have friends. I think Amy is trying to be your friend”.

“Huh?”  I started, “the thought of Skyla being my friend never appealed to me”.

“And that’s the best beginning for friendship”, mum replied, “You won’t know it’s coming your way”

I didn’t feel any better after the conversation, there was no way I was losing concentration in my talent especially not when the competition was just around the corner. There was still one question though that was yet to be answered and i was going to find the answer by myself.