𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗜𝗧? ✰ w. bjerken

•4•

WHITNEYS POV

"Get your meet face on. I want to see you perform to the very best of your ability. No goofing of. Any little mistake could cost you your career. Are you ready?"

"Yes, Coach," we murmur.

"Alright. Salute."

We salute, and begin our warmup. I'm nervous, but only minimally. I feel pretty prepared, and I'm happy to have Delaney by my side here with me. I push all negative thoughts about missing having my family here, and follow the giant circle of girls jogging around the meet floor.

PERREYS POV

I circle my arm around as I jog among the many girls at the American Cup. I recognize a couple. Whitney Bjerken, one of the most famous and accomplished 13 year old gymnasts, one of my inspirations, Mya Witte, Konnor McClain, and some others. I take a deep breath to calm my heart rate, and circle the other arm around. I think I'm ready. Yes, I'm ready to kill it.

WHITNEYS POV

First event: Bars. I feel really prepared, and actually excited. It's one of my favorite apparatuses. My warmup went pretty well, too. I look up from the chalk bucket and see Delaney's mom recording me from the stands.

Delaney nudges me with her elbow. "Are you nervous?"

"Surprisingly not," I whisper. The roar of the crowd is enough to throw anyone off, but I'm used to it, so I easily can tune them out. "Are you nervous?" She's next in the order.

"Yeah." She takes a deep breath, and I gently punch her arm. "You got this, Laney, I believe in you."

She smiles nervously back at me and steps up to the bars, facing the judges. They give her the sign to salute, and she does, and goes into her routine.

It's a clean routine, but she takes a couple steps out of her landing.

"Great job," I say, fist bumping her as she steps down from the mat.

"Thanks," she takes a couple of deep breaths to catch her breath. "I was so nervous I could barely breathe."

"It's ok, you did really well." I smile encouragingly, but now I have to focus on my own routine.

I picture it in my mind, going through all the motions, and take a deep breath. The girl after Delaney finishes her routine, and it's my turn now.

I salute, and jump (literally), into my routine.

PERREYS POV

Whitney Bjerken did her bars routine. As she stepped down from the mat, I gave her a high five and smiled at her. She returned the smile and I was fangirling inside. And after I did my bars routine, she highfived me and said good job. But enough about that. We finished floor after, and now we have beam. I have to perform my routine now and get my head out of the clouds.

I watch as Whitney pulled off a perfect bhs-lso-layout series and drop my glance to the floor. I can't let the success of other people get to my head. I have to focus. I visualize my routine and picture me saluting after a perfect, stuck, landing.

The buzzer beeps, and I look up to see Whitney do a round off into a perfect twisting double dismount. She stuck the dismount a little low, but she stuck it. I take a deep breath and exhale loudly. One more girl, and then it's my turn.

The judge gives me the signal to salute, and I do so. Then, eye on the beam in front of me, I place my hands on it carefully and take a small hop to mount the beam in a pike handstand. I'm prepared, calm, and ready to say this routine.

// sorry super boring chapter I PROMISE the next chapter is where REAL drama starts 😁 //