Diving for the Gold {A Tom Daley Love Story}

Three

“It’s about time now, Lancaster,” Coach Banks barked out as Mia appeared before the three coaches and two divers. It was obvious for all of them that the young girl was nervous beyond words, visibly trembling before their own eyes. “I would like to introduce you to your new personal synchro coach, Peng Li.”

“Synchro?” Mia asked, scrunching her eyebrows together in puzzlement.

“Yes, mixed synchro.” He explained flatly, crossing his arms over his chest to showcase his dominance over the situation. “Do you have a problem with that, Lancaster?”

She slowly nodded her head. “N-No sir, it’s just that I thought you needed me for individual—”

“I need you to win,” he replied tediously, his piercing blue eyes on her tiny frame. “That is why you are here. I don’t care if it is individual or synchro. So now you need to politely introduce yourself to your coach Peng Li.”

Mia smiled respectfully to the wise coach who once coached some of the best divers in China, which was the main country rival of Great Britain. After exchanging names and friendly banter, coach Andy Banks broke back into his dominant position as the coach of GB.

“Sarah and Tom here used to be our mixed synchro pair for competitions for the last year now.” Andy explained, pointing to the two divers that stood before Mia. “And sadly, they are not where we would like to be with the synchronization. But after watching some of your diving, we recorded you and then compared the videos of Tom performing the same dive.”

Mia bit her lip, unsure of where this conversation was going. But the gut wrenching feeling in her abdomen told her it wasn’t something she was going to enjoy.

“And the execution, synchronization, and rhythm of both of your diving is tremendously alike. Both Peng Li and I believe that if we were to train you two vigorously for the next week and a half, you two would be the most likely to perform in the Commonwealth Games and ultimately 2012 Olympics.”

Conflicting and disquieting thoughts roamed through her mind. Mia was beyond thrilled that they were giving her a shot within her first time on the team to represent GB in the Olympics. But then again, they are pairing her with none other than Tom Daley.

“So with you and Tom at mixed synchro, we will then move Sarah over to women’s synchro with Tonia.” Andy clarified, eyeing all of the three divers with intense detail. “That is the plan as of now, so you all may hit the showers and return to your rooms early tonight. Get some good rest, Tom and Mia because practice starts at five tomorrow morning.”

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  Mia mindlessly twirled her fork around her plate, dancing the fine utensil across the glass plate as she quietly thought to herself. After returning to the apartments from practice, she took a much-needed nap before grabbing her dinner Tonia brought back for her.

Due to her joining a highly active and demanding sport, she had to eat healthy and what was prepared for her by the chef. An untouched liver of some animal lay lifelessly on Mia’s plate, as she painfully tried to chug down the wheatgrass thick drink. She merely played with her food, alone as she sat at the countertop bar.

Jack appeared behind her, patting her shoulder sympathetically before taking a seat next to her. “Trust me, it will get easier to eat once you get used to it… And start plugging your nose so you can try to forget how bad it taste.” 

 Mia lightly laughed at the young diver, still aimlessly twirling her fork. “I am just depressed that the chef actually threw away the chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream. Without it, I will be dead by Thursday.”