CHAPTER 6
On Saturday morning, Nadia and her friends were at the local gymnastics club. They had all been members since they were about four years old.
“Okay, Nadia,” Hannah said. “All stretched out?”
“Yup,” Nadia said. “I guess so.”
“If you ask me,” Hannah went on, “all you need to do is go over the routine a lot of times.”
Alya nodded. “Exactly,” she agreed. “It’s not second nature anymore, like our old coach Mr. Barkoff used to say it should be.”
Hannah rolled her eyes. “Ugh, practicing with him was so boring after a while,” she said.
The others nodded. “Yeah, it was,” Nadia said. “But it worked. After doing the same routine about a million times, I never messed up.”
“That’s right,” Alya said, giving Nadia a light shove. “So get up on the beam and start making it second nature again.”
“Okay, okay,” Nadia replied. She mounted the beam and started her routine.
“Looking good, Nadia!” Hannah called to her.
“How’s the ankle?” Alya asked.
Nadia finished an aerial and landed perfectly. “Not bad,” she said, turning her ankle. “I don’t even notice it!”
“Good,” Hannah replied. “You’re doing great.”
Nadia really felt like she was doing great. Unlike at tryouts or the first practice, she was even having fun.
The routine flew by. Soon she was dismounting. She did one flip on the beam, then one flip off. She stuck the landing perfectly.
“There it is!” Alya shouted. She and Hannah clapped and hooted.
“Now do it again,” Hannah added with a laugh.
“Okay, Coach!” Nadia said. She turned to the beam and started the routine again.