Make It or Break It: London 2012

Part 9

The girls walk out of their coach's room with their heads high, but the moment the door closes behind them, they all slump. They walk slowly down the hallway, heading back to their rooms in complete silence. All four girls stop outside Lauren and Payson's room; each of them stares at the ground, not daring to meet the eyes of her teammates.

Finally, Payson breaks the heavy silence. "This is our dream. And we're letting it slip away. We have to get our acts together before tomorrow." Without thinking, her hand flies to her back and she begins to rub it.

"What's wrong with your back, Pay?" Kaylie asks quietly.

Before Payson can respond, another voice emerges. "Would one of you care to explain what exactly happened out there?"

Lauren, Payson, and Kaylie straighten up and whip their heads around to face their unexpected visitor.

"Is that-?" Jordan asks.

"Sasha," the three other girls breathe in unison.

Sasha doesn't return the girls' eager smiles.

"Sasha, what are you doing here?" Payson asks.

"I came to watch you compete. And I'm here to get my medal back once you've won your own," he adds, looking at Payson. "But given the way you all performed today, I'm worried. Let's talk."

Payson and Lauren lead the way into their room and sit on one bed, and the other two girls sit on the other. Sasha grabs a chair from the desk in the corner of the room and pulls it over between the two beds. The tension in the air is nearly tangible; even Jordan feels guilty. Sasha had been the coach for Payson, Kaylie, and Lauren leading up to the Olympics. The girls had offered to bring Jordan to the Rock with them during the girls' pre-Olympic training, but she'd decided to continue working with Coach Mac instead. Despite that, she'd heard enough stories about Sasha that now, sitting so close to him, she feels like she knows him. Something about him makes her want to earn his respect.

Sasha leans forward in his chair and gives each girl a hard stare. "I'm waiting for an explanation."

"So are we," Kaylie replies bitterly.

Sasha raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that I don't think even we fully understand what happened to us out there," Kaylie explains.

"Look, we choked, okay? We're embarrassed, and we already got chewed out by Coach Mac, so we really don't need to hear it from you too." Lauren snaps, burying her face in her hands. She's happy to see Sasha, but she feels bad enough about her performance, and she doesn't have it in her to hear another lecture about how much she disappointed everyone today.

"I'm not here to yell at you girls." Sasha says, surprise coloring his voice.

Lauren lifts her face out of her hands and exchanges a look with Kaylie.

"You're not?" Payson asks.

"No, I'll leave that for Coach Mac. I know how you perform when you have mental blocks, and I've never seen you make these mistakes before. And if you want a chance to medal tomorrow, you need to clear those blocks before then." He explains.

Sasha turns to Lauren again. "Tell me what's blocking you."

Lauren confesses that her worry over her heart condition added extra stress, on top of the all-time high competition stress, and now she can't shake off the feeling that she might not be able to finish her routines the next day. If Coach Mac even lets her compete at all. She doesn't mention her fight with Payson, although she can't shake that off, either.

Payson tells Sasha that she started the competition concentrating on her lack of trust in some of teammates instead of focusing on what really matters. She doesn't look at Lauren as she speaks, but she explains that she's not as upset anymore. As an afterthought, she mentions her slight backpain as an attempt to downplay it, but Sasha sees straight through it.

"You had a bad fall on vault. Where's the pain?"

"I'm fine," Payson insists feebly. She's said that word so many times today that it has stopped sounding like a word to her.

"We both know that's a lie. Tell me, Payson."

Payson points to the spot that's been causing her pain. Sasha stands and has Payson do a few stretches to test her pain and range of motion. Her pain has nearly completely faded since the competition ended, but she couldn't stop worrying that it would come back.

"You shouldn't worry; it's not your disc. The muscles here feel tight though, so rest tonight and take it easy tomorrow before the competition. But I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to make it through your routines."

Payson sighs in relief, and the focus shifts to Kaylie, whose face reddens.

"Oh, uh, it's not that important. I was mostly worried about Lauren." Her mind goes to Austin, but she can't bear the thought of telling Sasha the details of her love life. She can see that he's skeptical, but he doesn't call her out on it, to her relief.

Lauren smiles sadly at Kaylie. "Please don't let me be the reason that you don't perform well."

"I don't want him to pull you from the competition," Kaylie says.

"Even if he does, you can't let that distract you. Please, Kay."

Kaylie nods. "Okay. I'll try."

Then, Sasha turns to Jordan.

"What?" She asks.

"What's blocking you?" Sasha asks.

"Oh, you don't have to do this. I'm not one of your Rock girls; you don't owe me anything. You don't need to help me out of pity or anything."

"Pity?" Sasha laughs once. "That triple back dismount does not indicate that you need pity, Jordan. You're a vital member to your team, and I know you're important to these girls. What's blocking you?"

She stares down at her hands and fidgets. Finally, she tells him that she was so worried about her triple back that it was the only routine she practiced. Even now, forgetting her floor routine is sticking in her mind. She admits that she feels like she let her team down by performing so poorly.

"You didn't let us down, Jordan," Kaylie says, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"We need you," Payson agrees.

"Totally," Lauren adds.

Even Sasha nods. "You all made mistakes today. You can come back from them, but tomorrow is going to be a battle, and you need to be prepared for that."

"I thought you weren't going to add pressure on us," Lauren teases.

"I said I wasn't here to yell at you, and I'm not. But you have to understand that if any of you want that individual gold, or even the team gold, you'll have to fight like you've never fought before."

The girls nod solemnly, and Sasha gets to his feet.

"I'll leave you to rest and prepare; I'll see you all tomorrow. Good luck." He gives each girl an encouraging smile before walking out of the room.