Dream, Dive, Daley?

Chapter 2

I slowly balanced out a handstand and felt the blood flow to my head. It was still Monday, the worst day of the week. Suddenly I fell over on my back. Argh! I sat up. It was at least my fiftieth time attempting to do a handstand.

'You need to tighten every muscle in your body, and do not forget to breath' I turned around to see Andy Banks standing there behind me. I pushed myself up to a standing position. Tight muscles and breath. I placed my hands on the floor in front of me and found my balance point. Slowly I kicked up my feet behind me and pointed them straight up in the air. While tightening my entire body, I felt once again the blood streaming to my head. Some of my dark hair were falling out of the pony tail and caused a distracting factor. Quickly I bent my hips, landed lightly on the floor and straightened myself up.

'Sutton, tell me, why are you here so early?' He sat down on the nearest bench. I took my towel and dried off some sweat from my forehead. The man is so calm where he sits. How does he manage? The London Olympics are only moments away - with moments I mean three years exactly - and I have to qualify.

'I need new sponsors. After I'd moved and swapped teams, my sponsors cut my contract. I have no economic support. All I can rely on now is my reputation, which since the Beijing Olympics has been very poor. I need to start fresh and be good, exceptionally good to say it at least.' I took a sip from my water bottle and sat down left to my new coach. 'In other words; I need to get a spot on team Great Britain, I need to qualify for the 2012 Olympics'

Banks nodded like he understood me. Nobody understands me, because nobody knows the entire story. 'Let's begin with a good hand stand, and then we can worry about other performances OK?' He paused for the longest half minute of my life. 'Your front 4 and a half isn't too bad. A great entry also' I thanked him for his nice words. 'But they're only my words. God knows what the judges will say this weekend. Shall we?' He gestured and walked up towards the spring floor. We shall.

After several cartwheels, back handsprings, back tucks and everything in a long complicated combination, I was - as some will say here - 'knackered' and slightly dizzy.

'Coach, five minutes please?' I sat down at the corner of the spring board. He agreed as if he was beginning to get dizzy after seeing me do all those flips and turns. The gymnastic room wasn't all that big. It was big enough for my old cheerleading team to fit in it. I guess what takes up all the space is the spring boards and the foam pit.

'Hey, Sutton' A hand grabbed my shoulder. My instincts forced me to toss this person over my shoulder. I grabbed the hand with my left hand and tossed the person over my head and on to the open space in front of me. That was when I realized who I'd thrown - it was Tom laying there flat on the blue springboard. Great!

'Oh my... Tom! Are you OK?' I gasped and crawled over to him. A deep chuckle escaped his mouth and burst into a loud laugh. Thank God he's OK. 'You startled me, real bad too!' I laughed along with him.

'OK, kids, let's get to it!' Mr. Banks ordered us up and to different posts. He sent me to do some dry land diving into a foam pit from a springboard and Tom to warm up and stretch. I walked as close to the edge I was supposed to and took off into the air for a somersault. After a couple of repeats, I started to feel uncomfortable. Tom stood there, staring at me with his arms crossed over his chest, panting.

'Great, Sutton, that's everything for today. I'll see you tomorrow at 6 a.m.' I landed on my butt and hit my nose on my knee. Ouch! 'Maybe you want to rest your nose tonight' Both of them laughed. Fantastic, Sutton, that wasn't embarrassing at all! I gave him a thumbs up, rubbed my nose and climbed out of the pool of foam cubes,

'Need a hand?' Tom placed his left hand on the rim and reached out his right one. I reached my hand after his. A warm, sweaty hand met mine, and it felt sort of ... disgusting? He pulled me up too quickly and I didn't manage to get a good step on the edge. Then I fell into his arms. Could it be any more awkward?

'Thanks!' I looked up at his dashing smile, avoided eye contact and friendly patted his shoulder. 'See you both tomorrow. Coach. Tom.' I didn't even glimpse at him before I almost ran out of the gymnastics room. Really smooth.