The Worst Gymnast Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Copyright Page

  Gemma stood at the start of the run-up, ready to run. She pictured a handspring in her mind – legs together, bum tucked in … up and over the vault. But she didn’t run yet. She was waiting for Michael to nod his head.

  Michael was Gemma’s gymnastics coach. He kicked a safety mat into place, then stood next to the vault, ready to help Gemma over.

  Finally, Michael nodded his head.

  Gemma wiped her hands on her legs, and looked at the vault. Then she ran.

  She ran fast, pumping her arms.

  As Gemma ran up to the vault, Michael reached in to help her over.

  But as Gemma jumped, her foot slipped. Her legs went apart and her bum stuck out. She did it all wrong. She was just about to crash into the vault when Michael pushed her up and over – legs apart, bum out, almost over …

  Thud.

  One of Gemma’s legs – out of control – hit Michael in the face. Gemma landed on her back, arms and legs out.

  It had been a very bad vault.

  Gemma lay on her back, surprised that she had made it over. That had been close. Was anything hurt? Nothing.

  Then Gemma remembered the thud. She rolled off the mat.

  Michael stood in the same spot with his face in his hands.

  ‘Sorry,’ Gemma said quietly.

  This was bad. Was Michael all right?

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ Gemma said a bit louder.

  Michael lifted his head.

  Blood trickled from his nose onto the palm of his hand.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Gemma asked, but it felt like a silly question. His nose was bleeding.

  Michael looked at Gemma and shook his head. He wiped his nose with a tissue. ‘Team meeting,’ he said, and walked away.

  The rest of the team were sitting at the start of the run-up. The four girls sat in a row with their mouths dropped open and their eyes wide. They looked as if they had just seen a ghost. Either that, or the worst vault ever.

  Gemma sat down next to her best friend, Kathy. Kathy had dark curly hair that bounced when she moved, and a broad smile. Gemma thought Kathy was beautiful.

  Kathy looked at Gemma as if to say, We’re in for it now.

  Gemma raised her eyebrows back at Kathy. Was she about to be kicked off the team?

  Michael was a good coach, the best at the club. But he yelled a lot. Most of the gymnasts were afraid of him. He had hairy eyebrows that made it look like he was always frowning.

  ‘You don’t have to like me. But you have to listen to me!’ Michael would often yell at the girls.

  So kicking him in the head was not very good at all.

  ‘OK, level six,’ Michael wiped his nose again.‘It’s time to talk.’

  The five girls sat in a row. For the next ten minutes, they listened to Michael. He talked, he frowned, he yelled. For the whole ten minutes, the girls didn’t move.

  Gemma loved gymnastics. Her school friends called her ‘Gemma the gymnast’. But they had no idea how hard Gemma worked at gym.

  She had worked so hard that she was now in a real team. Being in a team meant that she had her own routines and entered competitions. Soon, the level six team would go to the state finals.

  But being in a team meant more than that. It meant that Michael was Gemma’s coach. And Michael was the top coach. Some of the girls in his teams had even made it to the Olympics. So Gemma was delighted to be in Michael’s team.

  Now Michael talked about working hard – harder than ever before. He talked about what it takes to be the best.

  ‘It’s time to get serious,’ he said.

  At the end of his talk, Michael sent the rest of the team to the uneven bars.

  Then he looked at Gemma.‘Let’s go to my office,’ he said.

  Gemma looked at the f loor and nodded. She swallowed a big lump in her throat. This was it. Her life as a gymnast was over.

  She was about to be kicked off the team.

  Gemma sat in Michael’s office, looking at her feet. She had already said sorry for kicking Michael in the head. Now she didn’t know what to say. She felt terrible.

  Michael was writing and frowning. He wiped his nose with a tissue, which was now blood-red.

  Michael put down his pen and handed Gemma a sheet of paper.

  ‘Here is some extra strength work for you,’ Michael said.

  Gemma looked at the paper.

  ‘When the other girls start stretching, you do this,’ Michael said, and sniffed.

  ‘OK,’ Gemma said. Extra strength work? Did that mean she wasn’t being kicked off the team?

  ‘Now go to the bars, Gemma,’ Michael said, without smiling.

  ‘OK.’ Gemma smiled to herself.

  She wasn’t being kicked off the team! This was great.

  When Gemma came down to the bars, the rest of the team crowded around her.

  ‘What did Michael say?’ Naomi asked. Naomi was the best in the team. She was small and strong. Naomi, Anika and Fiona had all been in the level six team last year, and Michael had kept them down. But all the girls thought Naomi should have gone up to level seven.

  ‘I have to do extra strength,’ Gemma said. ‘That’s not too bad, is it?’

  ‘Not too bad,’ Kathy smiled.

  The other girls nodded.

  All through bars, Gemma started feeling better. She was still on the team. Plus, she was good at bars. She loved the swinging, rolling feeling as she swung between the bars – swing up, hip circle around, pike over the lower bar to catch the high bar. It was almost like flying.

  But when it was time to do the extra strength, Gemma started feeling bad again. The extra strength was hard work. And there was lots of it.

  Gemma did so many chin-ups her arms felt like they were on fire. Then she had to hold a handstand, followed by running and jumping while holding weights. Last of all she had to do push-ups. Soon her arms and legs started to hurt.

  Gemma looked over at the rest of the team. They were stretching their legs and talking. They looked happy. Kathy looked at Gemma with a broad smile. Gemma smiled back, but inside she felt sad.

  Gemma liked stretching. She could do the splits on both sides already. It felt good to stretch her legs after the energy of gym.

  But now, Gemma had to do extra work on her own. Her whole body hurt.

  When Gemma’s dad came to pick her up at the end of the class, Gemma felt too tired to move. She slumped in the car seat like a rag doll. She was almost too tired to put her seatbelt on.

  ‘How’s my gym bunny?’ Gemma’s dad asked.

  ‘OK,’ Gemma said quietly. What should she say? I kicked my coach in the head. It was the worst class ever?

  ‘Are you OK, Gem?’ her dad asked.

  ‘Yup,’ Gemma said. She didn’t know what else to say. She was too tired to talk.

  Gemma looked out the car window at the bright lights zooming past.

  Now it all started to make sense.

  Gemma had kicked Michael, but he wasn’t going to take Gemma off the team. He was going to make her pay in other ways. He had set all that extra work to get back at her.

  Gemma turned her head to the side so her dad couldn’t see a tear spilling down her cheek.

  She still felt bad for kicking Michael. But it had been an accident. She had said sorry. What if you do something wrong, but saying sorry isn’t good enough? How do you fix things then?

>   Gemma loved gymnastics. She lived for gymnastics. But now it had all gone wrong.

  Two days later it was time for the next gym class. Gemma’s shoulder muscles still felt sore from the extra strength work, and her legs were tired. She didn’t feel ready for another training session, let alone more strength work.

  While the team warmed up, Gemma scrunched up her face in pain. It hurt simply to lift her arms in the air.

  ‘Sore muscles, huh?’ Kathy said.

  ‘That strength work was really bad,’ Gemma said, swinging her arms stiffly.

  ‘Yeah, we could see,’ Anika said. She tilted her head in sympathy.

  ‘Do you have to do it again today?’ Fiona asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ Gemma said sadly. But it felt good talking about it. She hadn’t said anything at home or at school about the extra strength. At least the gym girls knew what it was like. Even if they didn’t have to do the extra strength, they knew how Gemma was feeling.

  ‘You’ll be right, Gem,’ Kathy said and tickled Gemma under the arm. ‘You can do it.’ Gemma giggled and jumped back. Somehow her sore arms didn’t matter so much when she was with the team.

  ‘Glad it’s not me!’ Naomi said, and she leant back into a walkover.

  Then Michael walked up, and the talking stopped.

  ‘OK, level six,’ Michael said. ‘Floor and beam today.’ He put his hands on his hips. ‘Start warming up the dance leaps from your floor routines, please.’

  Michael walked to the edge of the floor and folded his arms in front of him. His eyebrows seemed to be stuck in a frown.

  Quickly the girls lined up at the corner of the floor and started leaping across it.

  Gemma liked floor, especially the dance part. She could leap high and split her legs wide. It felt like she had an extra lift as she split her legs in the air.

  Gemma spread her arms like a real dancer and practised her favourite leap sequence – run, run, split-leap, run, run, side-leap, turn … run, change-leap. Quickly she swapped her legs in the air. She felt light and graceful.

  ‘Good, Gemma.’ Michael stopped frowning for a moment.

  Gemma smiled to herself. Michael didn’t praise her very often.

  ‘Start working on your tumbles now, Gemma,’ Michael said.

  ‘Tumbles already?’ Gemma frowned. She had only done one leap sequence. Now she had to start on the acrobatic part of her routine.

  ‘Do as I say, Gemma.’ Michael suddenly looked cross. ‘You have a lot of work to do before the state finals.’

  Gemma nodded and ran to the other side of the floor. She started some backflips and somersaults to warm up. Was this because she had kicked Michael?

  Tumbling by herself was no fun. Secretly Gemma felt almost scared each time she tumbled. She always felt a little bit out of control, as though landing on her feet needed some luck.

  ‘Don’t think I’m not watching you,’ Michael yelled to the rest of the team. ‘OK, Gemma, let’s see the tumbles from your floor routine.’

  Gemma breathed out hard. She wiped her hands on her legs, and ran – run, run, round-off, backflip, backsault, land.

  That wasn’t too bad.

  ‘Do it again, Gemma,’ Michael said. ‘I want to see that faster and higher.’

  Gemma sighed and glanced at Kathy, who shrugged her shoulders.

  ‘Naomi, keep working on those leaps!’ Michael yelled.

  Gemma sighed again and ran harder for her next tumble. She managed to jump just a bit higher into the backsault.

  ‘OK,’ Michael said. ‘Again.’

  Gemma kept tumbling until her arms ached. She felt lonely and tired.

  Finally, the other girls were called to tumble too. At last Gemma wasn’t alone. She could feel the girls lining up behind her, even though they couldn’t talk.

  When it was Naomi’s turn, she did a near perfect tumble straight away.

  ‘Good, Naomi,’ Michael almost smiled. ‘Very good layout.’

  Naomi walked back to the line. ‘Then why didn’t you let me do level seven?’ she muttered under her breath, so Michael couldn’t hear.

  The rest of gym class went quickly until – all too soon – it was time for Gemma to do the extra strength.

  As the rest of the team went over to stretch, Kathy whispered, ‘Go, Gem!’

  Gemma tried to smile, but really she wanted to cry. Her arms were so tired from the extra tumbling that she didn’t know how she would get through the extra strength. It didn’t seem possible.

  Slowly Gemma started the chin-ups. She pulled up and her chin just cleared the bar.

  ‘One,’ came Michael’s voice from the other end of the gym. ‘I’m watching you, Gemma.’

  Gemma’s eyes narrowed. She pulled up to the bar again, faster this time because she was angry.

  ‘Two,’ came Michael’s voice.

  Gemma didn’t know what it felt like to hate someone, but she thought she was starting to hate Michael.

  Gemma stayed angry through the chin-ups and finished them OK. Even though her legs were tired, she still found energy for the running and jumping. But when it came time for the push-ups, Gemma’s arms stopped working.

  Each time she tried to push up, her arms shook and wouldn’t hold her up.

  ‘Just get those push-ups done and you’re finished,’ Michael said as he stood over Gemma.

  Gemma tried once more, but her arms wouldn’t move. She lay on her stomach, her arms shaking. She wanted to scream.

  ‘Had enough?’ Michael asked.

  Gemma nodded. It didn’t matter what Michael said now, she just couldn’t do it.

  ‘OK, quick stretch, then go home.’ Michael’s voice almost sounded kind.

  Gemma stood up slowly, but she couldn’t look at Michael. If she did, she would want to yell at him. This isn’t fair! I didn’t kick you on purpose. She would either yell or she would burst into tears.

  But Gemma stayed quiet through stretching and even in the change rooms. As she walked out the gym door that night, she wished she was never coming back.

  It was no fun at all, being the worst gymnast.

  The next class was usually Gemma’s favourite – first normal gym, then dance in the studio. But Gemma didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to see Michael ever again.

  As she packed her gym bag at home after school, Gemma thought about pretending to be sick. She walked slowly to the front door.

  ‘Mum, maybe I’ll stay home today,’ Gemma said. ‘I think I’m sick.’

  ‘Sick?’ Gemma’s mum felt Gemma’s forehead. ‘Sick where?’

  Gemma was quiet. She wanted to tell her mum about the extra strength. But that would also mean telling her about kicking Michael. And Gemma didn’t want to do that. She didn’t want to tell her mum she was worst in the team.

  ‘My shoulders are sore,’ Gemma said finally.

  ‘Sore muscles?’ her mum smiled. ‘We can fix that.’

  Gemma’s mum walked away and came back with some heat rub. ‘All the top athletes swear by this stuff,’ she said.

  Slowly her mum rubbed the cream on Gemma’s shoulders.

  ‘You know, Gemma …’ said her mum. ‘You’re starting to do some pretty tricky gymnastics these days.’

  Gemma stayed quiet.

  ‘You’re doing the real sport. The hard stuff. Someone in your team might even go all the way.’

  Gemma thought of Naomi, but she said nothing.

  ‘So it’s going to hurt sometimes, sweetheart,’ said Gemma’s mum. ‘But promise me one thing.’

  Gemma looked at her mum. Her shoulders felt warm and didn’t hurt so much now.

  ‘If it ever feels like you’re going to really hurt yourself,’ said Gemma’s mum, ‘if it ever hurts too much, then you stop. Don’t let Michael push you too hard.’

  Just slightly, Gemma nodded. Was Michael pushing her too hard already?

  ‘Sometimes that man takes things too far,’ her mum said, opening the front door.

  Slowly and quietly, Gemm
a followed her mum to the car.

  In the change rooms before gym, Naomi held her nose. ‘Pong! Who stinks?’

  Anika stood up and looked at Gemma, but Gemma stayed quiet. She quite liked the strong smell of the heat rub.

  ‘Dance today, Gemma,’ said Anika. ‘That should cheer you up!’

  Gemma nodded. She liked Anika.

  ‘Yuk, dance,’ said Naomi. ‘Who needs it?’ Even though Naomi was the best in the team, she wasn’t the best at dance. She looked out of place in the dance studio.

  All through training, Gemma tried her hardest. Even though she was tired, she didn’t want Michael to yell at her. In fact, she didn’t even want him to talk to her. She jumped high, she ran hard. She did her very best. She made sure Michael had nothing to talk to her about.

  Sometimes, Gemma could feel Michael watching her. He stood with his arms crossed, watching.

  At those times, Gemma tried even harder. But Michael said nothing. He let Gemma go to dance without doing the extra strength.

  In some ways it was the best gym class for a long time.

  Over the weekend, Gemma still felt sore and tired. She lay on the couch watching TV until her mum turned it off. Then Gemma lay on the couch watching nothing.

  Her body felt exhausted. But more than that, her mind felt exhausted too. She was tired of feeling sorry for kicking Michael. She was tired of trying hard. She was tired of everything.

  Slowly Gemma dozed off, and woke up to see her mum standing over her, holding a sandwich.

  ‘Hungry?’ asked Gemma’s mum.

  Gemma sat up. As she started eating, she realised that she was very hungry. Vegemite on fresh white bread tasted great.

  After a while her mum said, ‘Hey, why don’t you put on your favourite DVD? You know, that Olympics one?’ She winked. ‘I can tell you’ve been working hard at gym.’

  ‘Great idea. Thanks, Mum.’ Gemma jumped up to find the DVD. Suddenly she didn’t feel quite so tired.

  The DVD showed the world’s top gymnasts competing in the individual finals. Gemma had watched it so many times, she felt like she knew all of the routines by heart.