Girls Only! (9 page)

Giggling quietly, she thanked the Lord for her family, including a mom who had always cared and helped her dream big dreams. Never had she doubted that.

“Thanks, Lord, for a dad who’s smiling again,” she prayed. “And for a grandma whose mothering has made all the difference.”

Livvy nestled down under her warm comforter. But her spirits soared up . . . up, high as the best triple flip ever. With divine guidance, she would work hard to follow her dreams. Harder than ever!

Her family and her girl friends would support her from the sidelines. She could count on that. As for Mom . . . well, Livvy had a feeling
she
was cheering her on, too. From the grandstand of heaven.

Better Than Best

Once again, I am grateful for the help given me by my young cousin, Alissa Jones of Hutchinson, Kansas, who answered my questions about the thrilling sport of gymnastics. Thanks, Alissa, for being so resourceful!

USA Gymnastics Online also assisted my research. Their official Web site is fascinating for readers eager to know more:
www.usa-gymnastics.org
.

For

Sarah Simmonds
,

who gives her all to

gymnastics
.

Better Than Best

Chapter One

Nothing comes between gymnastics and me
, thought Jenna Song.
Nothing!

Carefully, she taped up her hands for protection before beginning her early-morning training at Alpine Aerial Gymnastics. AAG for short. During the next forty minutes, she planned to warm up her muscles. Stretching exercises were always a great way to get started before
any
sport. Aerobics came next. Last of all, individual routines. Her all-time favorites were floor exercise and the balance beam.

Keeping her focus, Jenna thought through her compulsory elements. She wouldn’t allow herself to get off track and think too far ahead, even though the upcoming weekend—a three-day sports camp in Vail—was going to be
very
exciting. All week long, they had been working on individual skills, preparing for the camp.

“Hey, Jen!”

She looked up to see Cassie Peterson, a tall blond sixth grader, bounding across the gym. “Looking good, girl,” Jenna said.

“We’ve gotta nail everything today . . . and I mean
everything
,” Cassie said, grinning. She wound her long hair into a quick knot at the back of her head and stuck in a single hair clip.

“Duh!” Jenna gave her teammate a playful pat on the shoulder. “Like I don’t know that.”

“C’mon, I’m serious.”

“And I’m
not?
” Jenna laughed. She and Cassie were both a Level Eight in gymnastics, testing for a Level Nine in a few weeks. They were also on the same All-Around Team.

“Coupled in competition,”
Coach Kim liked to say about the girls.

Cassie tilted her head, then shook out her arms, rotating her shoulders and neck. “Heard the rumor yet?”

“Which is?” Jenna studied Cassie’s face. Something was up.

Cassie leaned closer, whispering, “There’s this guy—an elite gymnast—who’s going to be a spotter for our All-Around Team. Lara Swenson said she heard it from Coach. And . . . he’s supposedly very cute.”

“So what?” Jenna couldn’t care less. She was team captain and starting to feel
very
annoyed with all this waste-of-time boy talk. “What
I
want to know is, are
you
set for the weekend sports camp?”

Cassie was in her face with more news. “Listen, Jen, this guy’s not just
any
male. Lara says he’s so gorgeous you’ll drop your teeth.”

Jenna leaned down and touched her toes. Then again, this time with her hands flat on the floor. “Bottom line: If he’s gonna be a spotter, he’d better know what he’s doing.”

“I’m sure he does, especially if Coach Kim’s paying him to do it.”

Jenna didn’t care to respond to Cassie’s comment. “By the way, cute is way overrated. And if I
do
drop my teeth, I’ll just have to gum my fruit leather. Won’t I?”

Cassie laughed softly. “Spoken like a true team captain. Way to go, girl.”

Jenna nodded, feeling better. Finally she’d gotten Cassie’s attention off the new boy’s physical appearance and on what really counted in their world of competition and mastery of athletic skills. “You said he’s a good gymnast, right?” she asked again.

“That’s the word around the gym.”

“Then he should know how to spot” was all she said.

“Later, Jen.” Cassie turned and waved, doing repetitious handsprings across the soft crash pads.

Looking around, Jenna expected to see Coach Kim and his Russian-born wife, Tasya, nearby. Sure enough, the famous twosome were working with Lara Swenson on the balance beam. True professionals, Coach and Tasya were assisting all of them along the path to the Olympics.

Not waiting another second, Jenna blew her whistle, the signal to her seven teammates. Major work had to be done before sports camp this Friday. “Let’s get cracking!” she called out, clapping her hands.

Once the girls were gathered on the mats, she began to call out their regular stretching routine. Fifteen long stretches total. She, Cassie, Lara, and the others were a cluster of blue, yellow, and pink warm-up suits. Tall water bottles were lined up, each marked with the individual team member’s name.

Soft crash pads were scattered in various sections of the gym. Gymnasts in different levels trained on the uneven parallel bars, the balance beam, and the vault. The large padded carpet in the center of the gym was used for the floor exercise.

Across the expansive gym, Coach Kim and Tasya were busy talking with a tall, slender guy. Their faces were animated, eyes bright as always.

She noticed the young man’s confident stance. How could she miss it? He had that totally self-assured look. His hair was the color of corn, and his eyes . . . Well, she wasn’t much for blue eyes, she decided on the spot.

Cassie was right. He was drop-dead gorgeous.

But so what? There were plenty of cute boys in their town of Alpine Lake, situated in the middle of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

“Stretch and . . .
hold
,” Jenna called out the last three long extensions.

She and her teammates would train individually, and as hard as possible. And nothing, not even a cute guy, was going to mess up their concentration!

Better Than Best

Chapter Two

“Mom, I’m home!” Jenna dropped her gym bag near the door.

The three-story brick house was unusually quiet. By now, her adopted baby brother, Jonathan Bryan, would come crawling across the carpet toward her. He would probably be drooling, too, and babbling jumbled-up syllables.

“Anybody home?” she called, heading for the kitchen.

But the counters were washed clean. No dirty dishes in the sink. The place was spotless.

This is too weird
, she thought.
Mom’s always home
.

Thinking her mother might be busy upstairs with Jonathan, Jenna scurried in the direction of the steps. “Mom, are you up there?” She asked this in Korean, her first language.

Mom didn’t respond. So Jenna hurried to the former guest room, which had been transformed into a nursery for tiny Jon. The room was small but light and airy, decorated in soft shades of yellow and green with white wicker accents. The sweetest nursery ever.

Sighing, she sat on the wicker rocker and leaned back. “Where could they be?” Jenna whispered, feeling drowsy.

Her day had been hectic, working out at the gym before
and
after school. These days, her schedule was exhausting. Up before dawn, early breakfast, rush to the gym, then to school, back to either ballet or the gym. Race like crazy all day long: She knew if she couldn’t handle the mental strain, the stress, her own emotions, all of that, she would never attain the success she longed for. At the moment, her goal was to become a member of the Junior National Team.

Getting up, she went to the crib and leaned on the ruffled crib bumpers. She smoothed the folded baby quilt at the bottom. Restless, she reached for the cow-jumped-over-the moon lamp on the bureau and went to sit again in the rocker. She stared at the lamp, very glad to have the support of both her parents. Coach Kim and Tasya were also two of her biggest fans.

And there was the very cool, very exciting Girls Only club. The other three members were also her closest friends—Livvy Hudson, Heather Bock, and Miranda Garcia. They liked to perform ballets and elaborate dramas for their parents. They also offered enthusiasm and encouragement to Jenna and to one another.

Jenna sometimes wondered how she’d ever managed before the club was created last fall. Livvy was an amazing novice-level figure skater, and Heather was a dazzling, award-winning ice dancer with her brother, Kevin. Manda, their newest member, was a stunning and daring downhill skier. Four girls following a strenuous, yet thrilling, track to the Olympics. They shared athletic dreams and goals, forming a tight-knit friendship.

Jenna’s All-Around teammates were cool, too. They worked well individually and as a team. But she was worried about something—
someone
.

Lara Swenson, the youngest of the seven members, had just turned eleven. In the past six weeks, she had grown really fast. Maybe too fast. Right in front of everyone’s eyes, she was sprouting up like she might never stop! At the moment, she was just a hair taller than Cassie Peterson, who
had
been the tallest on the team.

Jenna could hardly believe it. Did Lara have an out-of-control pituitary gland or what? Petite Lara was no longer tiny. If she kept up her growth rate, she might end up six feet tall. Jenna worried that Lara wouldn’t be able to maintain her exceptional skills as a gymnast. Which would hurt
all
the others on the team.

This week she’d noticed Lara’s inability to “stick” her landings perfectly. For the first time, her performances had been less than precise. Lara was struggling for sure.

Jenna really wanted to help. But she had no idea what to do.

The phone rang, and Jenna raced down the hall to her parents’ bedroom. “Song residence, Jenna speaking,” she answered.

“How’s life?”

It was Olivia Hudson, Jenna’s best friend. “Livvy, hi! Things are going okay . . . I guess you could say.”

“Well, by the sound of your voice, I’m not convinced. What’s up?”

She cringed. Should she unload on Livvy?

“What
is
it, Jen? Something wrong?”

Putting the phone to her other ear, Jenna said, “I’m worried about my All-Around Team.”

“Why, what’s up?”

“It’s just that, well . . . I think some of us might need some special attention,” she said.

“Meaning what?”

Hesitating, Jen wondered what to say. “Well, I think you know how it is. One of us is having an annoying expansion.”

“Speak English,” Livvy laughed.

“Meaning one of us has an overactive growth gland.”

“Well,
you
don’t,” Livvy said quickly. “Not yet, anyway.”

Her friend’s answer took her off guard. “You’re right, I’m
not
growing.”

“Then who?”

“You remember Lara Swenson?”

Livvy chuckled. “Right. The baby gymnast at AAG.”

“Well, try this on for size: Lara’s now the
tallest
team member. And it
just
happened.”

“You sound . . . sorta jealous,” Livvy said. “What’s with that?”

Jen bit her lip. “I guess I’m afraid
I
won’t grow anymore at all. Maybe I’ll stay this small—this short—for the rest of my life.”

“Being petite is a good thing for gymnasts, isn’t it?” Liv asked.

“So everyone says.”

“Then it must be true.”

Leave it to Livvy to turn things around, to try to encourage her. Livvy had always been good in the cheering-up department. She’d been Jen’s good friend for a long time. They’d started out as pen pals—the snail-mail kind. Then they’d both moved to Alpine Lake with their families before school started last August. Just in time for sixth grade at Alpine Lake Middle School.

“You know what?” Jenna changed the subject. “We’ve got a new guy helping with the team.”

“A guy? You must be kidding.” Livvy sounded shocked. “Who is it?”

Jenna had to smile. “His name is Nels Ansgar.”

“Sounds Norwegian.”

“Might be,” replied Jenna.

Livvy was silent for a moment, then continued. “So . . . what’s Nels got to do with Lara’s growth spurt?”

Jenna sighed. “I guess I’m not making much sense. Nothing really. It’s just that Lara’s shooting up. Way up. And I’m trapped in pre-puberty.”

Livvy was laughing. “Don’t go morbid on me.”

“I’m not . . .
okay
.” Jenna felt angry and didn’t know why.

“Hey, did I say something wrong?” They were silent for a moment, then Livvy asked, “Are you worried? About your height, I mean . . . because of this guy?”

“Sorta.” Jenna shrugged, even though Livvy couldn’t see her.

“Don’t worry. He’s just a spotter. It’s no big deal.”

Maybe not for you
, Jen thought.

Just then she heard her mother returning home. “I better get going,” she said, adding a hurried “Bye, Livvy.”