Velma Peyton

friends?

Weeks into the team's best season ever, i still couldn't figure it out. How could Skyla and I be so close in skill, when we were so far apart in every other way?

A rare mistake would devastate me. Skyla  would just laugh at her own goofs and get to work fixing them. I had little patience with the shortcoming of others. Skyla was always the first with an encouraging word. I was a perfectionist. Skylar was more of a -in her words-"perspectiv-ist".

"Really, Velma, it's not brain surgery or the formula for world peace. It's just a sport that's supposed to be, you know...fun?" she said once.

I just shook my head and went back to work. But Skylar's laughing comment stuck with me. How could Amy take something so important so...lightly? Not take gymnastics seriously?! Why, without gymnastics I'd be...I'd be...

My mental gears ground to a halt for a moment then rolled relentlessly on. That was the question I didn't have the answer to. That day she did, and it shocked me. Without gymnastics I'd be...nothing! Wait, that can't be right! But it seemed it was.

Ever since my outstanding talent had been recognized as a child, I had made gymnastics the entire focus of my life. And of course, why not? It was the one thing i did better than almost anyone else. It was the one thing i could almost count on-and take with me-no matter where my dad's frequent job transfer sent us.

Maybe I had gone a little overboard, but I had no earthly idea how to change direction now and I wasn't thinking of doing that now!

Besides, what's so wrong with working hard and making perfection your goal?! Unfortunately, what I had forgotten-or never learned-is that there's perfection...and perfection.

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Slap! My hand struck the high bar-and slipped off! This can't be happening! But it was-and, of all places, at the meet with archrival Northridge. It wasn't my first mistake. I'd had been distracted all week by some pesky questions that just wouldn't go away:

Is looking for the worst in people really the way to see their best? When was the last time I threw out a compliment, instead of a criticism? Do I show people any reason to like me other than my gymnastics talent? And-this was the biggie-is winning the most important thing?

Skylar didn't seem to think so. "Well, sure, winning is fun," the blonde team captain had said. "But, hey, it's not the only thing that matters."

"Like...?" I asked, for me it was the only thing.

"Oh, you know...," Skylar had answered. "Friends. Being part of something bigger than yourself. The... joy of the moment".

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I know I took a lot of time updating this chapter but its up now so I hope u guys like it.

do you think that Velma will listen to Skylar?