Hiding From Truth(being edited)

Chapter 12

Bars. That was the first event.

I was panicking.

"Carmen, look at me," Jordyn takes me by the shoulders, "You got this. We've done these routines thousands of times. It's just like that. Focus."

I nod, readjusting my grips for the hundredth time.

"And stop that. You'll give yourself wrist burns," Jordyn playfully slaps my hands.

I'm the first person on bars today and I'm glad. I didn't have to watch any girls go. I present to the judging panel, then turn to the apparatus.

I take a deep breath, then jump to the bars into a kip. I can almost feel the judges deducts points as I go, but I can't help the smile that spreads when I catch the bar on my most difficult release, swinging nicely into my next movements.

I stick the landing. My smile comes in full force when I present to the judges.

"Nice, girl!" Jordyn gives me a high five, but the emotion in her voice doesn't show on her face. I know why. She's focused. She can shine on this element when she's in full focus mode.

"Thanks. Good luck," I pat her on the back. I stare at the score board, anxiously awaiting the arrival of my final score.

14.95.

Not bad. I could have done better.

When Jordyn goes, she does her moves in perfect synchronization. It's enthralling to watch her. She gets a 15. 2. I know she's not happy about it, but she puts a smile on her face anyway.

We then go to beam after about twenty minutes. My hands are shaking when I go into my press handstand mount. Shifting to the side, I come to a standing position on the beam. I force myself to focus when I do my back handspring series.

My leaps and jumps are a breeze, but I wobble on my front side aerial into a layout. I stagger just a little on my dismount, but pull myself together enough, so it's only a tenth of a deduction. I make it through beam with a 15. 875.

On vault, I watch some of the girls I competed with at Nationals. My claps for them are definitely audible, but I'm keeping any mental attention on imagining the challenging vault ahead.

"You can do it!" Coach Megan claps as I go to the runway. I take a giant breath, present, the start my run down the runway. Round off, Yurchenko, Amanar.

Stick?

"Yes!" I hear from the crowds when I land. It takes me a few seconds to register that I stuck my vault. I just stuck it!

I laugh in pure joy when I see the 16.5 on the score board. When Jordyn goes, she stumbles off to the side, taking three steps to catch herself. I bite my lip. She's not happy. She doesn't smile when she presents, and I see her eyes fleck with pink when she sees the 13. 87 on the board.

"It's okay. You have nothing below a 15.5 on everything else," I assure her. It may look like we're all surrounding and overwhelming her on camera, but we're not. She's sitting in a chair that makes her face the camera, Coach Dave and I between the camera and her. She wants to cry, and that's what the camera people want to capture.

"Get ready for floor, Carmen," Coach Dave instructs. I nod and smile reassuringly on more time at Jordyn before making my way to where the vast blue floor lay.

On the sidelines where the chairs were, I stretched out and went through a few imaginary routines.

"Alright, keep your power under control, but don't get rid of it completely. Your doing well. You're in seconds place just behind Kay Lingly," Coach Morgan peps me. I look over at beam where my former teammate Kay does flawless flips.