Hiding From Truth(being edited)

Chapter 8

"Look, look, look!" Jordyn squeals, rushing up to me when I enter the gym Wednesday afternoon.

"It's already out!" I gasp as she thrusts the latest issue of GymnasticsWeekly into my hands.

"You're on the cover!" Jordyn giggles. She's right. There's a photo of me in an action shot of a layout step out on beam.

"It's awesome!" I say and flip through. One page section has Jordyn's interview and there's another with mine. The pictures look incredible.

"I hope mine comes in the mail today," I say, flipping through the rest of the magazine.

"Let's practice ladies!" Coach Megan calls from the gym. We practice with the whole team today on bars.

"I want to see dismounts," Coach Megan tells us. Strapping on our grips, we go one after another, flipping of the bars in different ways.

"Jordyn, your double front is looking really good," I say when she joins me at the chalk bucket.

"Thanks. I need to correct my form a lot though," She says, rubbing chalk on her grips.

"C'mon, you two. Go on the other two sets of bars and work routines," Coach Megan tells us while the other girls finish dismounts.

I go to the far set of uneven bars and kip up on the bar. I go through my whole routine and when I reach the release move, I lock my body tight, crossing my arm around my body, allowing myself to turn. I grasp the bar and get a good swing that throws me into a straddle back to the low bar.

When I reach my dismount, I try to envision the corrections Dave and I made at the ranch and what Megan had just told me to do.

"Come to floor when your done, Carmen and Jordyn," I hear Coach Dave say. I nod and do my bar routine once more before heading over to where he stands.

"Jordyn take the floor over there and start warming up tumbling, Carmen stay here. I got to the corner of the blue floor and take off for my tumbling pass. It's front tuck, roundoff handspring, double layout, back full. I run all my passes twice then Dave motions for me to get into position for him to play the music.

I put my leg to the side and arms in their position, waiting for Coach Dave to play the upbeat, jazzy song. I fall into an easy rhythm with the music and let my mind adjust to the sounds of the floor when I land.

"Good," Coach Dave says as I finish, then he calls Jordyn over to do her routine.

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"Hello, students. We're starting a unit on gymnastics. For the next couple of weeks, we'll be testing to see who has the flexibility for all these things!" Mrs. A stands at the entrance of the gym, welcoming us in.

It's not all about flexibility, I think.

"Gymnastics in gym?" Isabel says when we go to our school gym class, "We've never done that before." She's right, and I am not happy about this. There's mats strewn about the floor and at one spot, there is little fold up floor beams.

"Let's start! First off, has anyone here done gymnastics before?" I tentatively raise my hand, then I'm extremely thankful when a girl I don't know raises her hand.

"I'm currently a level seven gymnast," She brags. I was a level seven gymnast when I was ten, but okay.

"Great. So, you have a lot of experience, Jenna. Could you come on this mat and show the class a forward roll?" Mrs. A asks.