Best of Women

Lin

Eva was laying on her bed, her head tilted over the edge as she stared at the wall. She was still such a kid. I poked her belly, which was showing slightly. The kid had way better abs than me.

"Sit up," I requested gently. She reluctantly managed to move her body around and sit up on her bed as I sat at her desk chair.

"I think we need to have a serious conversations," I began, leaning forward on my elbows. She sighed and frowned, obviously not wanting to. "Are you really done with gymnastics, or do you just have a bad attitude right now because of Saturday?"

"I don't know, Dad," she told me. "I just can't stand Mia being all happy and always bragging about what she's doing."

That didn't sound like Mia. I had a feeling Eva was exaggerating. "Well, of course she's excited, but I haven't seen her gloating. Are you a bit jealous?"

"Of course I'm jealous," she said. "I worked my butt off for months. I came back from an injury, and stupid Mia stops eating and still she manages to make it. It sucks."

"You work incredibly hard," I agreed. "Which is why I don't want you to just give up this easily. Were you feeling this way last week, before the meet?"

"No," she admitted.

"Well, I think you need to give it some more time. See how you feel in a month," I suggested. "If you decide you're sick of it fine. But I expect you to go to every practice. Understood? None of this skipping."

"Okay," she agreed.

"Good girl," I told her as I stood up and kissed the top of her head. "Get busy on your homework, please."

The school work was starting to become more intense for the girls their 8th grade year. The teachers were trying to get them ready for high school, which was known to be very challenging. On top of practice, they usually had several hours of homework. I worried sometimes they didn't have enough downtime to just be kids. Mia especially seemed to thrive on being busy. I thrived on it myself. Eva seemed to be getting a bit burned out.

____

A month passed and Pippa was starting to show just a little. She had a tiny little bump. We'd bought a book about what the baby looked like each week of its development. Every weekend, Rio, Eva and Mia wanted to see what the baby looked like now. It still didn't really look human at this point.

Eva was still lukewarm about gymnastics. She went to practice each day and was doing well, but she was still having trouble getting over the disappointment of not making the team. This weekend, Mia had a meet in Boston with the team. We decided I'd fly out with her and Pippa would stay home with everyone else. This team was an extra commitment for sure, for both Mia and the adults.

Because the meet started early Saturday, Mia had to leave school two hours early so we could catch the flight on time. It was a short flight, but we needed to get Mia settled and she needed to have her head in the game. That morning, Eva was practically seething.

"Alright, everyone say bye to Mia," I announced as she came out with her rolling suitcase. Carmen, Sebastian, Pippa and Rio all gave her a big hug, but Eva stood back. I didn't want Eva to ruin things for her sister.

"Eva," I said to her gently, motioning with my head that she needed to come over. She furrowed her eyebrows and reluctantly walked over. She gave Mia the shortest, most disingenuous hug I'd ever seen. Mia tried not to let on, but I could tell she was upset.

Mia and I caught our flight to Boston and touched down to dreary weather. We found our hotel room, where lots of other gymnasts' families were staying. Mia didn't know anyone besides Jasmine and she could be a shy kid. Maybe she'd get to know the other kids more over the next few days. It would be a grueling two days of rotations.