Champion [2014]

Chapter 1- One More Try

Hi readers! I'm Harry Potter Nerd. Welcome to my first story on Wattpad. I'm kind of new to Wattpad but I've been writing stories for a long time. If you like my story, please comment. I like your comments. And don't be afraid to give me feedback; without it, I'll never get better. I like constructive criticism! Anyway, have fun with Becca Robin! See you soon!

If you walked into Shooting Stars Gymnastics Center at the time this story takes place, you would see a blonde-haired woman sitting at a table in the lobby, texting on her phone, and beside her, a young girl with silky black hair, arguing with her. The girl was Becca Robin, and she was at her first gymnastics class at Shooting Stars. 

Becca had gone to Andy's Academy of Gymnastics for several years before, but her mother had been too late to sign up for an intermediate class at Andy's and the spots had all been taken. Becca had pleaded with her mother, but Mrs. Robin had told her that she was too late to sign up for the class and all the spots in the level that her daughter was fit for were full. 

Now it was the first day of Becca's gymnastics session and Becca was getting desperate. She was just about to lose hope, but she figured she had the heart for one more try.

"Mom," she began tentatively, "I really-"

"My final answer has been given, Rebecca," her mother interrupted. "There weren't any other spaces in the intermediate classes! I tried to put you in the class you wanted, but-"

"I still want to," Becca muttered under her breath.

"-but it was full! And don't take that tone with me, young lady," she added, looking sternly at her daughter. "You can't say I didn't try. Now go change out of your sweats."

Becca sighed. There wasn't any hope. With her shy personality, she would never be able to do gymnastics the way she used to without Katie Ramon, her best friend from her old gym. Katie had always made Becca feel confident, and she'd helped her win second place in the tournament. Katie herself won first place. Becca had never had the courage to perform her best without Katie around. What if she had to be teased and humiliated by everybody else in the class on every Tuesday, Thursday AND Friday, every time she had gymnastics class?

After finding the locker with her name on it, changing into her plain black leotard and returning to the lobby, she made another attempt to convince her mother.

"Mom..." she pleaded one last time. Mrs. Robin let out an impatient, exasperated sigh and opened her mouth, but before she could lecture Becca about the class again, the door to the gym swung open. 

A tall, strawberry-blonde girl wearing a long-sleeved, light-blue leotard and a high, swinging ponytail walked into the lobby. It was hard to tell because Becca was sitting down and the blonde girl was standing up, but she looked about three inches taller than Becca. The blonde girl walked straight toward Becca! Becca's personality instantly changed; she slumped down in her seat, and her beautiful hair fell into her face, obscuring one of her big, blue eyes.

The tall girl walked over to their table. "Hi," she said. Her voice was softer than Becca expected it to be. "I'm looking for Rebecca Robin. She's a new student in the 4:30 gymnastics class. Is that you?" she asked politely.

"Yes," Mrs. Robin said, looking slightly confused. Becca didn't usually act like this! "Um, this is my daughter Rebecca."

"My coach sent me to bring her in," the girl explained. Then she turned to Becca. "I'm Emma. It's nice to meet you. Do you want to go meet your coaches now?" Becca nodded shyly. Emma turned around and said, "It was nice meeting you, Miss Robin." She walked toward the door to the gym. Becca reluctantly followed. There was no backing out now-- class was in session.

The moment Becca entered the gym, she wanted to disappear. The gym was buzzing with life and movement. Ten- and eleven-year-old girls were warming up on the floor. Some teenage girls were performing amazing stunts on the bars, while a group of boys flipped on the rings. Some five-year-old girls were jumping off the balance beams into a large pit of foam blocks. 

Emma led Becca toward the girls doing stretches on the floor. The stretches were  being led by two teenagers wearing exercise shorts and tight short-sleeved shirts. Emma walked up to the coaches, one of which had dark brown hair and the other auburn.

"Coach," she said respectfully, "I have Rebecca."

"Great," the auburn coach grunted. "I thought you'd never... Never mind. You're just in time-we're wrapping up warm-ups." She turned to Becca. "Hello, Rebecca. I'm Coach Hannah."

"I'm Becca," Becca mumbled. Hannah smiled and then turned to the other eight girls. "O.K., girls, listen up!" she barked. "We're taking a short break from our warm-ups so you can introduce yourselves to your new classmate. Her name is Becca." The girls were silent. Becca stood there awkwardly. Her bangs covered her face. One of the girls giggled, which made the girl next to her giggle, too.

"And I expect you to treat her respectfully and make her feel welcome," Coach Hannah added, raising her eyebrows at the girls who had laughed. "Now, I want you to form a line behind Emma and introduce yourselves." The girls scrambled to follow directions. They created a line behind Emma, who was standing in front of Becca.

"Hi, Rebecca," Emma said to Becca. "I know that you'll have fun here. There are a couple girls who might give you a hard time, but most of them are good. You'll be part of our class in no time."

Becca smiled. "You can call me Becca," she said. Emma smiled and jogged over to the coaches, where she stretched into a perfect straddle-split.

The next girl in line walked up. Her hair was black and frizzy. She was pretty and had a pointed chin and a slightly sour look on her face. 

"I'm Jessie," she said with a smile, thrusting out an arm to shake Becca's hand. "Welcome to the 'team'. Of course, there's no 'I' in 'team', so it's not technically a team. We compete against each other, not together." There was something wrong with her smile; it looked like it was forced. "Well, have fun in this class, and, uh... good luck." 

Jessie skipped over to the coaches to finish her stretches. She could do a good straddle-split, but she couldn't stretch as far as Emma could.

This girl doesn't seem very nice, a voice in Becca's head said. She didn't want to jump to conclusions, but it didn't look like people liked Jessie. Becca wondered if the other girls were mean to her or she was mean to them.

Becca was introduced to several other girls-Abby, a girl with black hair who seemed to be running on nervous energy; Francesca, a sweet, shy brunette; Daphne, a golden-haired beauty who spoke with "like" between almost every word; Heather, a short, blonde girl with her dirty-blonde hair curled in ringlets and a knack for making friends; and Catherine, a brown-haired girl who had glasses and a sweet smile. Outside of gymnastics, she was rarely seen without a book in her hands. 

Then the last girl in line stepped up. She had straight blondish-brown hair. She was pretty and looked like someone you'd want to be friends with at first glance... but after she opened her mouth, Becca wasn't so sure.

"I'm Melissa," she said. "This class is full of airheads. So far, Jessie and I are the only ones who have a chance-none of the other girls are very good. I like a little challenge... and it's not very challenging to beat a bunch of nerds. But if you think that we are as dunderheaded as the other girls, we're not... me and Jessie are actually decent competition. All the other kids enter the class thinking, 'Ha ha, I won last year and I can beat all these girls with my eyes closed!' And we sure teach them who can beat who with their eyes closed. So you better be able to do a decent cartwheel... some of the girls can't, I'm pretty sure." 

She laughed. "The coaches are totally useless. They're all like, encouraging us to 'work as a team.' And I'm all like, 'Uh, hello! We're competing against each other here!' They act like they try to keep us working together, but they're actually encouraging us to be more competitive. Well, like Jessie said, good luck... beating us." 

 And she walked over to the coaches to stretch, leaving Becca to stand there uncertainly.