Perfect

Flashbacks

~A/N: 70+ Views WOOOO btw sorry this took so long to come out!! I finally got cleared to tumble again so I've been doing a lot of privates to get my skills back which means less writing time. Comment down below your favorite event to do/watch!~

Everything is a little fuzzy. I get up and duck under the bar, with a weird feeling in my head and stomach. I see people, but they're tippy and swirly and they all have fake smiles on their face. Their heads are sideways. I can't make them out. They're wearing braids and odd neon scrunchies. They're all smiling. What are they saying? There's a sound in my ears. I can't hear them. I listen, I listen, I listen. What are they saying? "Eye pink." Pink eye? "Eye think." Thinking eyes? "Is tree oh hey?" What about trees? "Eye think hens back art." Can hens paint? 

.

.

.

.

It's been an eternity

.

.

.

.

I don't even realize my eyes are closed until I open them. "I think..." "Is she okay?" "I think she blacked out." The fuzzy feeling disappears from my head and ears, and my eyes slowly adjust to the lights. I roll onto my back and see everyone staring at me. I hear a little bit of noise in the back of my head, but there's nothing too bad. I stand up and feel a rush come to my head, but it goes away after a few seconds. I'm fine, just a little shaken up. These things happen all the time. Needless to say, I get up and try it again.

*Skip to the end of practice*

My muscles are sore and they ache. I rush into the locker room quickly and grab my stuff. I'm proud of myself for getting up after that scary fall and trying again. After a few tries where I fell on the pac or the bail, I finally got up the courage to go for the toe on Hecht. I missed twice, but on the third time I caught the high bar and didn't miss again. My back hurts from arching it in my fall, and my knees are bruised on the tops, but I haven't pulled any muscles. I have matching scabs all the way from my toes up my shins. They're pretty impressive. I'm walking to my bike when I decide I deserve to go out and eat. Every once in a while I grab Starbucks with Madi, Sam, or Alex, but their practice ended an hour earlier. I'm opening the door when, out of the corner of my eye, I see Madison Avery Fletcher, and a lot of the memories come back. "Mads!" I call. She turns to me and smiles. "Grace? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever! Want to grab Starbucks?" "Exactly what I was thinking." I say and we head out the door. It's a long story of why I haven't talked to Madi in 2 years.

-flashback-

November 3. First meet of our level 6 season. Beam was our first event, and after open warm up and march in, Sam, Alex, and I went to the bathroom. Madi insisted that she warm up first, because she has a weird thing where she won first on beam in Level 4 at state when she warmed up first. I was washing my hands and I noticed I had a couple of stray hairs that escaped my tight bun. I knew they'd annoy me, so I splashed water on my hands and pressed my hair into my braid. I was standing looking in the mirror to make sure I'd got all of the whispies of my head, when Sam walked out of the stall. "Hey, Gracie, you've got something in your hair." She said. We were trying to get it out when Alex started washing her hands. "Gracie, there's nothing there!" She said. I finally realized that Sam was tricking me and we all started laughing. When we went back out to the floor our old coach, Coach Kimmy, was angry. "What took you girls so long? You've missed warm up, and you didn't get to watch Madison or Olivia compete. What were you thinking? None of you will be competing today. Go sit in the stands. "

We cheered Madi on, but she ignored us. She seemed distracted. Her scores reflected it. Beam- 8.7 Floor- 8.8 Vault- 8.2 Bars- 7.9 AA- 33.6. We were disappointed. Everyone thought Madi would win. In our level 5 season, she had gotten first place on everything and never got lower than a 9.5 all season. Later she confessed to me that after beam, she sort of gave up. I've talked to Madi on and off, but she and Alex and Sam have become even closer.

-End of flashback-

As we walk to Starbucks, we talk about gymnastics. I tell her about my two scary falls and about Chelsea being mad at me and about training with the level 9's and about Robert Menderez. She tells me about getting back into her competing groove after level 6, and about how she was level 7 state all around champion last year. We talk about our gymnastics careers and she tells me that her scores have been improving and she's been getting much more confident since the "accident." 

-Flashback to the accident-

Level 6 State meet. The end of the season. What we've worked hard for. Madi had been slowly getting closer again with Alex and Sam, but we had began to drift apart. She had been improving her scores a little, but was still mostly in the 8s. At the state meet, she competed last on beam. It was our last event. I had done really well. All my scores were a 9.25 or higher, and I managed a 37.6 all around. Madi still had one event to go. She had a 9.7 on floor, a huge improvement, 9.1 on vault, and an 8.7 on bars. She saluted the judges, turned, and swung one leg over the beam. Straddling the beam, she lifted her hips easily into a press handstand. Her legs sliced into a split and came down one came down onto the ground, followed by another. Easy. She gracefully stepped back to the end of the beam, moving her arms in a flowy motion. When she felt her foot at the very back of the beam, she took a breath before launching into her acros series. Her series was by far the most difficult on the team. She competed a front handspring step out, back handspring step out. Because we were only 6's, this was extremely difficult. She put her first foot down, put pressure on it, and moved into her series. 

From the moment she put her hands down I could tell something was off. Usually, because of her beautiful back and leg flexibility, her legs would fly over her head in a perfect split, her back would arch, and her foot would take the place of her hands on the beam. Not this time. This time, her legs twisted slightly to the side. She pushed off her hands, but her foot had a difficult time finding the beam. I could tell from a distance that it was barely half way on the four inch surface. Still, she continued, attempting to put her other foot down. This one was barely on the beam at all. As she swung into her back handspring, her front foot slipped off and the back one came crashing down with it. One of her wrists bent awkwardly as it hit the beam, and she fell to the ground, but hit the beam on the way, and hooked one ankle. She landed sharply on her opposite elbow,  and we heard a shriek echo from underneath the beam. 

Instantly, Coach Kimmy was at her side, asking her what hurt. The judges looked shocked and surprised. One of them stood up to rush and help her, but the other pulled her down. Everything in the arena seemed to be silent. We could hear Madi whimpering, trying to make out words. Soon, the meet's medics were out on the floor. Soon after that, she was being loaded onto a stretcher. Coach Kimmy came up to us to give us a prep talk. 

"Girls." She said. "Madi is hurt. Badly. She has mostly likely broken her left elbow, right wrist, and right ankle. She may have a concussion. We do know that after a few months of physical therapy and potentially surgery she will be okay." We all looked at each other, mouths hanging open. Nobody expected it to be this bad. "Madi is out for the rest of the season. You, however, have a meet to finish and I expect you to finish strong. For Madi?" "For Madi." We all echo, and, in shock return to the beam. 

-End of flashback-

I tell Madi how great it is that she continued doing gymnastics after the accident. She tells me how proud of me she is for me making it with the nines. We arrive at the front of the line, and we each order a skinny Vanilla Latte. As we sit and talk, I realize that gymnastics is my whole life, and how dedicated I am. But then I see a face. A very familiar face.