CHAPTER 3
The next morning, Nadia overslept. It was only a few minutes, but she had to run the whole way to school. She wanted to get there early.
Coach Levine would be posting the names of the girls who made the team. Hannah and Alya had promised to wait for Nadia in front of the school.
“I picked the worst day to oversleep,” Nadia muttered to herself as she ran.
Finally, she went around the corner at Riverside Avenue and the school was in sight. Hannah and Alya waved as Nadia ran up to the school’s front door.
“Finally!” Alya said.
“I can’t believe you’re late today. It’s team-posting day!” Hannah cried, throwing her arms up. “Come on, let’s get to Coach Levine’s office.”
Nadia nodded. “Let’s go,” she said. The three of them jogged past all the other students, who were looking through lockers and gathering books.
“First hour starts in like two minutes,” Hannah called out. “Hurry!”
By the time they reached Coach Levine’s office, most of the other girls were already crowded around the list.
Hannah was the tallest of the three friends, so she peered over the heads of the other girls looking at the list.
“Yes!” Hannah cried out. “I’m on vault and bars!”
“Nice!” Alya said. “What about us?”
“Alya,” Hannah said, “you’re on floor.”
“Great!” Alya shouted. She pumped her fist.
“And Nadia,” Hannah went on, “you made beam!”
“What?” a voice suddenly yelled. “Nadia fell and made the team anyway?” Nadia turned to see who had spoken. It was Blaire, of course.
“Oh, be quiet, Blaire,” Alya said. She turned and faced Blaire.
“No!” Blaire replied. “I don’t want a girl who can’t even finish her routines on my beam team!”
“Your team?” Alya shouted back. She got right in Blaire’s face.
Coach Levine came out of her office. “What’s going on here?” she shouted. Her face was red.
“Coach Levine,” Blaire said at once, stepping up to the coach, “how could you put Nadia on the beam team? Her performance at tryouts was horrible!”
Nadia shrunk back. She wished she could just disappear into the walls.
“It was not horrible,” Hannah said. “She just made one teeny tiny mistake.”
“Ha!” Blaire replied. “She fell off the beam!”
“That’s enough, ladies,” Coach Levine said. She stepped between Hannah and Blaire to separate them. “Everyone get to class,” Coach Levine said.
“Yes, Coach Levine,” everyone replied. The girls started to break off and head toward class.
“Nadia,” the coach added. “Wait a second, okay?”
Hannah and Alya looked at Nadia. She waved them off. “I’ll catch up,” she said quietly.
As her friends walked off, Nadia turned to Coach Levine. “What’s up, Coach?” she said.
“Nadia,” the coach replied, “I wanted to talk to you about your performance at the tryouts.”
“I’m a little out of shape,” Nadia replied. “I just got the cast off last week, so I haven’t had any time to practice.”
The coach nodded. “I know,” she said. “I’m giving you another chance because you were injured, but you’ll need to work extra hard now.”
“I know,” Nadia said, nodding.
“I mean it,” the coach added. She put a hand on Nadia’s shoulder and said. “If you don’t show some quick improvement, I’m going to have to give your space on the beam team to someone else.”
“What?” Nadia said, shocked.
“I’m sorry, Nadia,” Coach Levine said. She started to head back into her office and added, “There are a lot of girls who’d like your space. We have to be fair, you know.”
The office door closed with a thud. Nadia stood there, staring at it.
“I can’t believe this,” she muttered to herself. “I’m going to get kicked off the gymnastics team!”
Just then, the bell rang.
“Great,” she said. “Now I’m late to class.”
Nadia turned and ran down the hall toward her first class.