Cate Shearwater - Somersaults and Dreams - Going for Gold

After warm-up, Ellie was on tumble track, working on new tumble combinations. Even the thought of landing hard on her ankle made her feel sick, but when Barbara Steele wandered over to where the Juniors were working, Ellie pushed the pain to the back of her mind, determined to impress the head national coach.

She delivered a round-off double back straight, landing easily on the safety mat, ignoring the screaming pain that shot through her ankle on impact.

‘What else are you working on?’

Ellie turned and saw that Barbara Steele was talking to her.

‘Oh – um – I’m trying to master a double back straight into front punch,’ said Ellie, hoping her eyes did not betray the pain that was still making it hard to think straight. ‘I’m nearly there.’

‘Let’s see it, then.’

Ellie took a deep breath and tried not to hobble as she made her way back to the far end of the tumble track. Vivian had come to join Barbara and was saying something to the head coach. She waited for the signal to go, rotating her ankle to try and shake off the throbbing pain.

‘Is that foot bothering you, Trengilly?’ asked Vivian, looking up sharply.

‘No . . . it’s just . . . I bashed it earlier. On the bars.’

‘You need it checked out in the medical centre?’

‘It’s fine. I just need an ice pack.’

‘After you finish here you get it looked at, OK?’ said Vivian curtly. ‘Now, show us what you’ve got.’

Ellie powered into the tumble – more self-conscious now that Vivian was watching. She rotated neatly through the air and landed it with only a slight stumble, feeling her ankle jar agonisingly but planting it firmly and refusing to wobble.

‘Good effort,’ said Barbara with a nod.

‘Your arms are still too wide on take-off,’ said Vivian. ‘And I’d still like to see more directional change. Here.’

She walked over to Ellie, who was still reeling slightly from the pain, stood behind her and lifted her arms up in the air. ‘Like this.’ Vivian slowly rotated Ellie’s body, mimicking the position she needed to achieve in the air. ‘Pull your shoulders right back and lift your chest up – it’ll help you power through.’

Ellie nodded. What Vivian said made sense, but she was feeling slightly dizzy, and she was unable to relax in Vivian’s presence after all she’d learned about her past the previous day.

‘Try again,’ said Vivian sharply, glancing at Ellie’s bound foot as she walked back to the start of the track, doing her very best not to limp.

This time Ellie took the tumble recalling all that Vivian had said, and she landed it tightly, ignoring the shot of pain on landing.

‘Not bad, I suppose,’ was all Vivian had to say. ‘Now go see the doc about that ankle, Trengilly.’ Then she turned and walked away.

Ellie made her way over to the medical centre, feeling weirdly tearful. Vivian’s eye for detail was incredible. Ellie knew she could learn so much from her – if only Vivian was willing to teach her!

The doctor, Sam, was a tall guy with dreadlocks and a Cockney accent.

‘So, what’s bothering you, missus?’ he asked, with a white toothy grin.

‘Nothing much,’ said Ellie. The pain had receded a little and the lie came easily. ‘I just bashed my ankle this morning on the bar. I guess I need a bag of ice to hold against it or something.’

‘Can I take a look?’

Ellie reluctantly hopped up on the table and allowed Sam to examine her ankle. He rotated it this way and that and asked her to point and stretch her toes several times.

‘You sure you just bashed it?’ he asked, looking up at her with a serious expression in his eyes. ‘Nothing more than that?’

‘Nope,’ Ellie shook her head, although she could feel herself blushing.

‘It’s important that you’re completely honest,’ said Sam. ‘Something that starts out as a niggle can turn into a progressive injury if left untreated.’

‘I know,’ said Ellie, forcing herself to meet his eye. ‘But it’s nothing. I just caught it – that’s all.’

Sam finally gave a shrug. ‘OK – I can’t feel anything wrong. I’m going to give you an ice pack, and I want to keep an eye on it so I’ll need you back here tomorrow, OK?’

Ellie nodded.

‘If it doesn’t get better you need to rest it,’ Sam went on. ‘Give it time to recover. Your body is like a machine, you have to look after it or it will malfunction.’

‘I know,’ said Ellie, her face flushing again. The knot of anxiety in her stomach suddenly hurt as much as her foot. Keeping the pain secret was agony too, and part of her wanted to blurt out the whole story to someone. But she had no choice. If she told Sam how much it hurt, he’d say she had to stop training, and that just wasn’t an option right now.

‘There’s really nothing wrong with me,’ she insisted, biting her lip hard to keep back the tears. ‘I promise.’

CHAPTER

Six

‘We figured it out,’ said Lucy when Ellie Skyped them again that evening. Lucy, who was crazy about gymnastics, had made Ellie and Katya promise to give her daily National squad camp updates. Ellie didn’t mind – she always loved hearing what was going on back home in Cornwall in exchange.

‘Yup, we know why Vivian’s being so mean to you!’ said Nancy. Her freckled face was looking brown as a nut and she was grinning happily out of the screen, like she’d just solved a big mystery.

‘We know!’ said Ellie. ‘She didn’t like Aunt Lizzie!’

‘No, it’s more than that,’ said Lucy. ‘She’s stopping you trying the hard stuff, right?’

‘Yes,’ Ellie admitted. ‘I don’t even care about her being harsh but I just feel like she’s deliberately holding me back – especially on vault.’

‘And that completely makes sense,’ said Nancy, triumphantly.

‘Um – why?’ said Ellie. ‘Explain.’

‘So we’ve been reading all about her in this biography,’ Lucy held up a copy of a book. It was called Silver Linings – an Unauthorised Biography of Vivian Ponting , and it had a picture of a young Vivian on the front, her face screwed up in concentration as she sailed over the vault.

‘Wow!’ said Katya, who was sitting in the splits on the floor as if it was the most natural position in the world. ‘Lucy, you are doing detective work!’ she squeaked, grinning at her pal who smiled back happily.

‘Lizzie was beating Vivian in every competition,’ said Lucy. ‘So when it came to World Champs, Vivian decided she needed to do something drastic to beat her.’

‘What did she do?’ asked Katya, who had levered herself up into an elephant lift and was talking to the screen from her upside-down position.

‘That’s when she decided to attempt the Produnova vault,’ said Nancy.

‘Whoa!’ said Tam. He appeared in the doorway and flung himself down on the bed. He was now a regular feature in the girls’ dorms, which he had announced were far more comfortable – and less smelly – than the boys’. Some of the Junior squad boys had started calling him a ladies’ man, but Ellie figured his visits had more to do with their cake! ‘Sorry I’m late – what did I miss?’

‘Just shut up and listen!’ said Nancy, although Ellie saw her grin, and knew she was pleased to see him really.

‘Love you too, big sis!’ said Tam, blowing her a mock kiss.

‘Yuk,’ said Nancy, pretending to wipe it off her chin. ‘Now where was I?’

‘The Produnova.’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Nancy. She boomed out in a dramatic voice over. ‘Everyone knows that the Produnova is the most difficult vault there is!’