Kitabı oku: «Somersaults and Dreams: Rising Star»

For Elsie, Nancy, Kate and Lexi –

gorgeous gym girlies!

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

CHAPTER One

CHAPTER Two

CHAPTER Three

CHAPTER Four

CHAPTER Five

CHAPTER Six

CHAPTER Seven

CHAPTER Eight

CHAPTER Nine

CHAPTER Ten

CHAPTER Eleven

CHAPTER Twelve

CHAPTER Thirteen

CHAPTER Fourteen

CHAPTER Fifteen

CHAPTER Sixteen

CHAPTER Seventeen

CHAPTER Eighteen

CHAPTER Nineteen

CHAPTER Twenty

CHAPTER Twenty-One

CHAPTER Twenty-Two

CHAPTER Twenty-Three

CHAPTER Twenty-Four

CHAPTER Twenty-Five

CHAPTER Twenty-Six

CHAPTER Twenty-Seven

CHAPTER Twenty-Eight

CHAPTER Twenty-Nine

CHAPTER Thirty

Acknowledgements

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CHAPTER

One

Ellie stood in the middle of the Olympic arena, waiting for the music to start. She shivered with fear and anticipation. This was it. Her chance to win the gold medal she’d always dreamed of. It all came down to this final routine.

The audience fell silent as the music started, a haunting strain that seemed to bring Ellie’s limbs to life. It was like she was a puppet, being tugged by the strings of the melody. She forgot about the audience, forgot about the arena, forgot that she was in the biggest competition of her life as she lost herself in the magic of gymnastics.

Ellie performed as she had never performed before, leaping higher, spinning faster, tumbling more powerfully. And, as the music moved towards a crescendo, she launched into her final tumble sequence. As she flew through the double pike to finish, she felt like an exotic bird, twisting a myriad of colours through the air.

And then she landed . . .

. . . and there was silence. Total silence. No applause, not a single hand clapped. Ellie glanced around breathlessly at the sea of blank faces, staring at her, unsmiling. And then, high up in the back row, someone stood up and shouted, ‘This girl is not eligible to compete. She hasn’t qualified for Junior British Champs!’

Ellie woke with a start. It took a second for her to register where she was: not in an Olympic arena, but on a train heading back to the London Gymnastics Academy for the start of the autumn term. She shook her head and blinked a couple of times but somehow she couldn’t seem to shake off the vivid dream.

‘Ah, Sleeping Beauty is awake!’ said Nancy who was sitting next to her. ‘Were you dreaming of gym again, Ellie?’

Ellie felt herself blushing. ‘Yeah. How could you tell?’

‘Oh, you were doing funny things with your hands,’ said Nancy with a grin.

‘And you were humming your floor music in your sleep!’ added Tam, who was sitting across the table from Ellie.

Ellie laughed. ‘No, I wasn’t!’

Tam just shrugged. ‘So what was it this time? Commonwealth Games . . . the World Championships . . .?’

‘Olympics,’ Ellie admitted.

‘Ooh – I like it. Dream big!’ said Nancy. ‘How did you get on?’

‘You realise it was only a dream – right?’ Tam asked her.

‘Yeah, but it could be one of those fortune-telling dreams, couldn’t it!’ said Nancy. ‘I’ve had one of those. In it Sasha was telling me I was talking too much during warm-up – and then the very next day she actually did! Spooky, huh!’

‘Um – that doesn’t exactly take a crystal ball!’ said Tam. ‘Sasha tells you off practically every other day!’

Nancy huffed loudly. ‘Yeah, well, it doesn’t take a fortune-teller to know that Ellie’s going to make it to the Olympics either,’ she declared. ‘I mean, she’s so dedicated she even keeps up her training in her sleep!’

Ellie laughed, and so did her two best friends. It was easy to see they were twins. Even though Tam had dark curly hair, whilst Nancy’s was straight and straw-coloured, they shared the same warm chocolate-coloured eyes and upturned noses – now even more covered in freckles than ever after a fortnight in Cornwall, staying with Ellie’s family.

‘Anyway,’ Nancy continued. ‘I want to know how Ellie got on in this Olympic dream! Did you end up on the podium with a gold medal round your neck? I bet you did!’

‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ said Ellie with a sigh. ‘But it was more of a nightmare. They kicked me out because I hadn’t even qualified for Junior British Champs – let alone the Olympic team!’

‘Ouch!’ said Nancy, pulling a face. ‘Classic anxiety dream then. I get them all the time – only usually, in mine, I’m doing a routine in my pyjamas.’

Ellie laughed at the thought of Nancy taking to the floor at the Olympics in her fluffy, kitten-covered PJs.

‘That’s nothing,’ said Tam. ‘I once dreamed I was performing in one of Nancy’s leotards!’

Nancy shrieked with laughter. ‘Which one? Ooh – I bet you’d look gorgeous in my pink-and-purple comp leo – the one with all the sparkles!’

Tam rolled his eyes and Ellie glanced at him curiously. Despite being shorter than Nancy – and being born three minutes after her – Tam always seemed like the older sibling. He was calm, patient and a very talented gymnast. Ellie couldn’t imagine him getting worried about anything, let alone competitions.

‘I didn’t think you got nervous,’ she said.

Tam looked serious for a second. ‘Of course I do. Everyone does.’

‘But you got selected for GB Junior squad!’ said Nancy. ‘And you already know you’re going to British Champs. What on earth have you got to be worried about?’

Tam shrugged. ‘I’ve just been really lucky this year.’

‘Not lucky,’ said Ellie. ‘You’ve worked really hard. You deserve all your success – you earned it!’

‘There’s always an element of luck in any sport,’ insisted Tam. ‘I mean, if you hadn’t got chickenpox last term and missed Grades you’d have qualified for Junior British Champs then. That was epic bad luck!’

‘Maybe,’ Ellie said, doubtfully. Privately she still wondered whether she’d have qualified, even if she hadn’t been ill.

‘And it’s totally bad luck you keep shooting up like a sunflower, sis,’ Tam added, helping himself to the last of the home-made Cornish pasties Ellie’s mum had packed for the journey. Apart from gymnastics, there was nothing Tam loved more than food, and he seemed to be perpetually hungry.

‘It’s true,’ said Nancy, shoving her long gangly legs out into the train corridor. ‘Look at me. I’m officially the Big Friendly Giant of the Academy.’

‘Which is bad luck for me because it makes me look like a hobbit,’ said Tam. ‘And worse luck for you because everyone knows a sudden growth spurt can throw a gymnast off her game.’

‘Yeah, but it’s not like that’s the only reason I keep failing to qualify for British Champs,’ said Nancy, pulling a face. Then she sighed. ‘Maybe I’m just not good enough.’

‘Of course you are!’ Ellie protested. ‘You are an amazing gymnast – ten times more powerful than me. I’d love to be able to vault like you do.’

‘Yeah, but you know what Emma says,’ said Nancy with a resigned shrug. Emma Bannerdown was the director of the London Gymnastics Academy. A former Olympian herself, she knew exactly what it took to get to the top. ‘Gymnastics is not just about being physically strong. It requires mental strength too, and that means not falling to pieces in a competition.’

‘Yeah, well, Emma obviously thinks you have both kinds,’ said Ellie, firmly. ‘Or she wouldn’t be giving you another chance.’

‘Or promoting you and Ellie to Pre-Elite squad,’ said Tam who had polished off his pasty and was now helping himself to a tomato and chocolate muffin – one of Ellie’s mum’s famously bizarre recipes which usually tasted better than they looked.

‘Yeah – what’s all that about?’ said Nancy. ‘When neither of us have qualified for the Junior British.’

‘Emma must think that you and Ellie will qualify via the Challenge Cup,’ said Tam. ‘Which is definitely not easy, so she must really believe in you! That’s why she promoted you early.’

Ellie’s stomach did a flip at the mention of the Challenge Cup, the make-or-break competition that took place just before Christmas. It was her last chance to qualify for Junior British Champs next term and become an elite gymnast. ‘It seems like such a long shot.’

‘Well, I don’t care why she promoted us,’ Nancy was saying. ‘We’re going to feel so grown up compared to the babies in Development Squad. And we’re going to be training with Oleg!’

‘That’s definitely NOT going to be easy!’ said Tam and they all laughed. Oleg Petrescu was the kindly but eccentric gymnastic coach of the Pre-Elite squad. He was Romanian and he was famous for his rather unusual training methods.

‘Did you hear he spent the summer in Romania?’ said Tam. ‘He’s come back determined to be much stricter – the way they are over there. So you’d better watch out, girls!’

‘Ellie and I can cope with Oleg, can’t we?’ said Nancy with a giant grin. ‘Anyway, I reckon my muscles are twice the size they used to be after all the rowing I’ve done in the past two weeks!’

She bared her arms, which were indeed looking incredibly toned – even for a gymnast. The three of them, plus Ellie’s little sister Lucy, had spent nearly every day of their holiday out on the water, rowing, crabbing, sailing and messing about on Trengilly Creek. Nancy was a natural and could beat the others easily in a rowing race – even Ellie, who’d been rowing all her life.

‘Hey, and did you hear that Toni Nimakov found some gymnastic prodigy in a circus?’ Tam went on, searching around in the cool bag for more food. ‘He’s brought her back to the Academy!

Toni Nimakov was a four-time Olympic gold medallist who had coached the very best gymnasts in the world and trained the Elite squad at the Academy. He was terrifyingly strict but brilliant.

‘How do you know all this stuff ?’ Nancy demanded.

‘I have my sources,’ grinned Tam, pulling out three little bags of fudge Lucy had made for them as leaving presents. Each was tied with a different coloured ribbon and had a hand-drawn label with their name on it. Looking at the effort that Lucy had put into them made Ellie feel a pang of sadness. She wished she didn’t have to leave her little sister behind each term.

‘Don’t make out like you’re some kind of superspy,’ Nancy was saying as Tam tossed over her bag of fudge and started munching on his own. ‘You’ve probably just been on Facebook with Robbie Sipson. He’s the worst gossip ever.’ Robbie was one of the other boys at the Academy. He and Tam had become more friendly this summer, although Nancy thought he was irritating and even Ellie couldn’t figure out what Tam saw in him.

‘Never mind how he found out,’ said Ellie. ‘Did this girl really come from the circus? Doesn’t she have any formal gym training at all?’

‘Apparently not,’ said Tam.

Ellie was surprised. She remembered how hard it had been for her to start at the Academy behind the others last year. If the new girl had never been trained at all, it would be even harder for her. ‘How old is she?’ she asked. ‘What squad is she going into?’

‘Robbie said she’s twelve, so I guess she’ll be going into Development Squad, one below you guys,’ said Tam. ‘She’s meant to be incredible on floor and beam, but she’s never done the bars in her life!’

‘Ooh, I can’t wait to see this!’ said Nancy. ‘A girl who’s been swinging on the trapeze and walking the tightrope making a splash at the Academy! Scarlett is going to be up in arms about it.’

Ellie sighed at the mention of Scarlett Atkins. Scarlett resented anyone she thought showed talent and might be a threat to her Queen of the Beam status (or Queen of Mean, if you asked Nancy). She had made life really difficult for Ellie last year. Luckily Nancy and the other girls had made her feel welcome – Ellie made a silent promise to herself to do the same for the younger circus girl.

Ellie turned and glanced out of the window. The train was on the outskirts of London now and the green fields had been replaced by rows of terraces. She felt a flutter of excitement as they neared the city. The summer had been magical and it was so tough saying goodbye to her family – especially Lucy – but it was brilliant to be back in London, about to start a new year at the Academy.

‘I’m missing the beach already!’ said Nancy glumly, staring at the London houses. ‘I mean, I can’t wait to see Mum and all the girls, but remind me again why we want to spend twenty-five hours a week in a stuffy gym being tortured by slave-driver coaches?’

‘Twenty-seven and a half hours,’ Tam reminded her. ‘Pre-Elite squad train for longer!’

‘What joy!’ said Nancy, pulling a face.

‘Isn’t it!’ asked Ellie, who would happily spend every hour of every day in the gym.

‘Um – I was being sarcastic,’ said Nancy.

‘I know you were,’ said Ellie. ‘But this is going to be the best term ever. Just you wait and see.’

CHAPTER

Two

It was great to be back at Head-Over-Heels House, the large, tumbledown building that was home to all of the out-of-towners, the Academy students who boarded during term time. Ellie and the twins were dying to see all their old friends, but when they walked through the front door they found the house practically deserted.

‘What’s going on, Mum?’ asked Nancy, giving her mother Mandy Moffat a massive hug before flinging her luggage down in the hallway. ‘Where is everyone?’

Mandy wasn’t just the twins’ mum; she was also Head-Over-Heels housemother, which meant she looked after all the gymnasts who boarded there. She made sure they were fed and clothed, and she also helped them through all the ups and downs of gymnastic life. Ellie wasn’t sure what they’d do without her.

‘You’d better go out to the garden and take a look at what’s going on!’ said Mandy with a smile. ‘I must admit, I’ve never seen anything like it.’

‘Sounds exciting!’ said Tam, giving his mum a quick peck on the cheek before dumping his stuff on top of Nancy’s and heading for the patio doors. ‘Cheers, Mum! Come on, girls. Let’s check it out.’

‘Oh, how I’ve missed clearing up after you two!’ laughed Mandy as the twins sped outside, leaving bags scattered everywhere. Ellie followed them.

They made their way out into the back garden to find lots of the other Academy students scattered over the grass on an assortment of rugs and deckchairs. There was copper-headed Robbie from the boys’ squad, and Kashvi, Camille and Bella from the girls’. Even Sian Edwards – the most Senior gymnast at the Academy who’d won a medal at the last Olympics – was there. And there was Scarlett, lying in a sun-lounger wearing a giant pair of shades and a scowl and glaring hard at something on the other side of the garden. They looked to see what had caught her attention. ‘What on earth . . . oh!’ said Nancy.

A washing line was strung across the garden. It ran from the low kitchen roof over to the red brick wall at the end of the garden, fixed carefully at each end. And walking along it – as if it were the most natural thing to do in the world – was a girl that Ellie had never seen before. A tiny pixie-like creature with white blonde flyaway hair and a face that twinkled like a cheeky little elf. And she was gliding like an ice skater along the thin strip of rope without the teeniest hint of a wobble.

‘Whoa!’ breathed Tam.

‘How is that even possible?’ said Ellie. ‘It’s just a flimsy bit of rope!’

‘She must be some kind of fairy,’ said Nancy. ‘With invisible wings or magic space dust or something!’

‘Amazing, isn’t it?’ said Bella, a tiny dark-haired girl with a wise face and two little buns which looked like monkey ears.

‘Yeah, an’ she’s been up there all morning,’ said Robbie. ‘Walking along the fence post too – and the ridge pole of the kitchen roof. She’s a nutter if you ask me!’

‘Seriously?’ said Tam, looking at the younger girl in admiration. ‘And Mum let her?’

‘She made her get off the roof,’ said Scarlett loudly from her sun-lounger. ‘And she did tell her not to walk the washing line either, but Katya seems determined to ignore instructions.’

‘Katya?’ said Ellie.

‘Katya Popolova,’ said Kashvi, an Indian girl as pretty as a princess who dressed like a tomboy and talked like a cockney street urchin. ‘She’s Russian.’

‘Ah – so she’s the girl Toni found?’ said Tam. ‘Well, I can see what he saw in her. She’s amazing.’

‘Talented but totally undisciplined,’ sniffed Scarlett.

Ellie glanced at Scarlett, who was looking as glamorous and groomed as always. She should have been beautiful with her creamy complexion, sheet of long blonde hair and startling green eyes, but there was something about the permanently dissatisfied expression that she wore, and the condescending spark in her eyes, that spoilt her otherwise perfect looks.

‘She’ll never make a gymnast,’ Scarlett went on. ‘She’s all showy moves with no polish.’

‘Then the Academy will give her polish,’ said Nancy.

‘Really? It never worked for you, Nancy Moffat,’ said Scarlett with a silky smile.

Robbie sniggered and Tam glared at him.

‘You need to polish up your people skills, Scarlett,’ said Tam. He might spend most of the time teasing Nancy, but there was no way he was letting anyone else do it.

‘I’m just saying that Katya Popup, or whatever her name is, won’t last five minutes at the Academy,’ said Scarlett with a shrug. ‘Gymnastics is about discipline, precision, focus – not about silly circus tricks and showing off.’

‘Camille – wow – I love your new hair,’ said Nancy, rolling her eyes and deliberately changing the subject. ‘Did you get it done in Paris?’

Camille Bertinet was sporting a very stylish new hairstyle – cut in a gamine bob that would have looked boyish on somebody else but which seemed chic and super cool on the young French gymnast.

‘Oui – no more buns for me!’ she said with a very elegant French shrug.

‘Lucky you!’ said Nancy. ‘Mum scrapes my hair back so tight for competitions, I feel like I’ve had a facelift.’

‘I swear you’ve grown again, Nancy!’ said Kashvi

‘Don’t remind me!’ said Nancy. ‘I’ve been drinking gallons of dandelion tea because I read somewhere that it stunts your growth, but it’s not working! I keep shooting up like a beanpole.’

Ellie grinned happily. She was thrilled to be reunited with her squad mates who she hadn’t seen all summer. Even Sian Edwards had greeted Ellie with a big hug. ‘You look brown as a nut,’ she laughed. ‘Did you spend the whole summer practicing gymnastics on that beach of yours?’

‘Yes, but we did loads of other things too,’ said Ellie. ‘Surfing and kayaking. Nancy even wanted to go cliff-jumping, but we figured Emma would kill us if we brought her back with a broken arm!’

‘Glad to hear you had some fun,’ said Sian, grinning at Ellie like a protective older sister. ‘And came back in one piece!’

Scarlett was still scowling.

‘Scarlett, don’t you know if the wind changes your face will get stuck in that sour expression forever?’ asked Nancy.

Just at that moment, Katya Popolova descended from the washing line in a double somersault, landing on the grass just centimetres from where the girls were standing. She finished with a funny little flourish, two bright violet eyes sparkling at everyone and a smile spreading from ear to ear.

She looked even tinier on the grass – especially next to Nancy. If they hadn’t been told she was twelve years old, Ellie would have taken her for not much more than eight or nine.

‘I am Katya Popolova,’ the small girl piped up. ‘What are your names?’

‘I am Nancy Moffat,’ said Nancy, grinning and extending a polite hand to the smaller girl. ‘This is Ellie Trengilly.’

Katya’s face lit up. ‘Oh, I am so pleased to meet you!’ she said, launching herself at Nancy, wrapping her arms around her waist and hugging her tightly, before turning and doing the same to Ellie, much to both girls’ surprise. ‘Your mother say we will share a room,’ said Katya, smiling from Ellie to Nancy happily.

‘Well, that’s cool,’ Nancy grinned. ‘It’ll be a bit of a squish but the more the merrier – right, Ellie?’

‘Totally,’ said Ellie who had taken an instant liking to the tiny tightrope-walking circus girl.

‘And this – he must be Tam – your brother?’ said Katya, grabbing Tam and giving him a kiss on both cheeks that made him go bright red. ‘You have the same eyes.’

‘Um – yes!’ Tam blurted, stepping back nervously as Robbie practically collapsed with laughter.

‘What you were doing on the washing line was amazing!’ said Ellie. The beam had always been Ellie’s toughest piece of apparatus, so to see how Katya managed to perform so effortlessly on an even narrower surface was amazing. Ellie wondered what her secret was. ‘How do you do it?’

‘Oh, I learnt to walk on high wire when I was small,’ said Katya. Her face lit up like a sparkler again. ‘You want me to show you now? Is easy!’

Ellie hesitated. It was incredibly tempting, but she was pretty sure Emma Bannerdown would go mad if she saw any of her gymnasts risking their bodies like that. A gymnast’s career could be destroyed by injury. Ellie was aware of this better than anyone: her own Aunt Lizzie’s Olympic gymnastics dream had ended that way.

So, no matter how tempting it was, Ellie figured she should play it safe. Luckily she didn’t have to disappoint Katya, because just then Mandy called all the gymnasts in for supper.

‘Oh good! My tummy is bumbling!’ said Katya.

‘Do you mean rumbling?’ asked Nancy.

‘Exactly,’ said Katya, linking arms with Nancy and Ellie and dragging them into the house. ‘Let’s eat!’