In Time (Sequel to Time Ahead)

chapter three: junior olympics

11/2/2037

5:03 am

"Izzy, Iz," Alex's voice echoed through his daughter's room. He flicked the light on and Izzy started to stir. He walked over and sat down on the bed. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and shook her awake.

Izzy eyes opened slowly and smiled when she saw him. "Morning sunshine," Alex said smiling back. "Are you ready for today?" he asks. "I hope so," Izzy said with a nervous tone. "You're going to do fine, trust me," he says messing with her hair. Izzy nods and breathes out a nervous breath.

Alex patted her on the back and left the room. Izzy got up and tossed on her team leotard and jacket. She put her hair up in a braid going into a high ponytail. Since she would be competing all day, she decided she would just put on some concealer and mascara to hide the fact she was too nervous to sleep last night.

She grabbed her gym bag and her tennis shoes before meeting the rest of her family in the kitchen. "Hey beauty," Perrie said handing her a bowel of fruit and a granola bar. "You all ready?" she asked. Izzy nodded taking a forkful of fruit and shoving it into her mouth. "Once you're finished and dad's ready we can go," Perrie said putting the breakfast dishes away. Izzy nodded and continued eating.

Luke spent the night with Kaiden since all the girls were coming with their families to support Izzy. They didn't have to be there until much later towards lunch time when the actual competition started while Izzy had to be there early to warm up and run her routines.

Once Izzy finished, she placed her dishes in the dishwasher and double checked her bag. Perrie and Alex had emerged from the hallway and walked into the garage. Izzy followed, climbing into the backseat of the car.

They drove for about twenty minutes until they reached the venue where the competition was held. In order to distract herself, Izzy had both earbuds in, having the music turned up as loud as possible.

When Alex pulled into the parking lot and parked the car, the three got out and walked inside. There were tons of people walking around and chatting, making the whole place seem hectic. After tons and tons of regional and other competitions, there were only twenty gymnasts left, meaning only ten would land a spot on the Olympic team.

As Izzy, Perrie, and Alex walked through the various competitors warming up, Izzy saw a girl waving to her. She smiled and waved back to the girl. The girl's name was Kira, AKA the only friend Izzy had made on the team. "Good luck!" Kira shouted in a cheerful voice. "You too!" Izzy said back. Perrie and Alex smiled at the gesture as the three walked to a small spot in the corner.

Izzy did a few different warmups to get her body moving before the actual warmup. "Hey mum, can you give dad and I a second," Izzy asked with a small smile. Perrie nodded and walked to find the stand that was giving out coffee.

"I'm really nervous," Izzy confessed to Alex. "I know you are, but you wouldn't be here if you didn't have a shot," Alex comforted. "I have a 50/50  chance of achieving my dreams, what if I can't do it?" Izzy asked. "Then you train for four more years and try again," Alex said. Izzy nodded. "I would be more comfortable if I was swimming, I started that at two and gymnastics at five, everyone here has been training since they were born," Izzy mumbled. "I know, but you know you can't swim like that anymore," Alex said. Izzy nodded.

It was true, Izzy had a passion for swimming. But when Izzy was five, her bathing suit got stuck to the bottom of the pool, pulling her under. She was underwater for too long to where a small part in her lung was damaged. While she can swim for fun still, she can't do the vigorous task of going underwater, since she has trouble holding her breath for long periods of time. Alex enrolled her in gymnastics a few months later and Izzy loved it too.

Perrie had returned, a cup of coffee in hand. She handed a second cup to Alex and another bottle of water to Izzy. Little do they know, she saw the whole interaction between the two, waiting for them to finish before venturing back over.

Perrie knew Izzy and Alex had a really close relationship. Most of the time she would go to Alex first for stuff instead of her. She knew a lot of it had to do with Alex being an athlete so they bonded with that, so whenever the two of them would go to some event Perrie would go over to one of the girls' house and spend time with their kids. That's one of the reasons Perrie for example, is so close to the twins.

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Izzy had gone back to a separate room to warmup and get ready, leaving Perrie and Alex to sit on the bleachers. Perrie saw Jade and her family coming in. A large grin came across her face as they made their way over.

"Hey!" Perrie said, standing up to give Jade a hug. As Jade went to greet Alex, Perrie gave each of the kids a hug. "Thanks for coming, she really appreciates it," Perrie said with a smile. "We wouldn't miss it for the world," Jaz said smiling back.

"Luke!" Perrie said, excited to see her son. She walked over to give him a hug. "How was your night?" Perrie asked. "It was good," he said, trying to break away from the hug. "Mam stop, there's other people I know here," he said. "Sorry," Perrie laughed. Perrie gave Jed a smile as he walked by to go sit with Alex. Luke and Kaiden walked away to go sit by themselves and the girls climbed on the bleachers in front of them.

Jade took a seat next Perrie and they started chatting. "Thanks for taking him, he wasn't trouble was he?" Perrie asked. "No, not at all. I heard them singing so they must've been having fun," Jade said.

Unlike some of their sisters, both Kaiden and Luke were very fond of singing. Luke learned piano from Perrie and Kaiden learned Guitar from Jed. They both have very good voices and often write music together.

Leigh and Jesy showed up a few minutes later with their families. Andre and Chris sitting with the boys. Sophie and Rhea sitting with the twins and Jesy and Leigh joining Perrie and Jade.

"Yay! You're here," Perrie said with a smile hugging them both. "Sorry Brynn couldn't come," Jesy said feeling slightly guilty. "It's alright. Did you end up getting her home okay?" Perrie asked. Jesy nodded. Brynn had snuck out for the third time in the past week and a half. "Yeah, she was at one of her friend's houses," Jesy said. "I decided since she was out past 4am, she should stay and sleep so I don't have to deal with even more of an attitude," she said. "You'll figure it out," Leigh said rubbing her back.

The arena started to fill in quickly even though it didn't start for about half an hour. "I'm going to go grab us some waters. Jaz and Jolie, want to come?" Jed asked as he stood up. "I'm good thank you," Jolie said. "Me too," Jaz said. Jed nodded in defeat as he inched out of the row. "We can help," Kaiden said with Luke nodding. Jed nodded and the two boys stood up and followed him out to the stand.

"They still don't want to be with him?" Jesy asked. Jade shook her head. "They don't trust him. It's going to take a lot of work for them to even have a full conversation without either me or Kaiden in the room," Jade said sadly.

As the twins got older, they began asking more questions about the situation that happened between Jade and Jed. They still had vivid memories of that night and living with Perrie, so there's no way Jade and Jed could play it off like it never happened. The twins understood what had happened but that changed the way they saw Jed, even more than the night everything happened. Now, they don't like being alone with him. There's a trust missing between them and will probably always be there.

Kaiden on the other hand was too young to remember anything. The rest of them decided it was best to not address the situation with him and just move on, leaving him unaware. They knew it would devastate him, seeing how close he was with his father. Something like that would impact his life the same way it did the other three and they weren't ready to do that.

Pretty soon the gymnasts came out and got presented. Everyone screaming a little extra louder when Izzy was presented. After the opening, the team got in line to do their first event: vault.