Somersaults and Dreams: Going for Gold

‘I spoke to one of the squaddies and he promised to leave a window open,’ Tam went on. ‘But he’ll be in big trouble with his unit commander if we get caught.’

‘How come he’s even helping us?’ asked Ellie.

‘His sister’s a mad-keen gymnast,’ Tam explained, checking that the coast was clear before sidling round the back of the rehabilitation centre building. ‘And he used to be pretty good himself before . . . you know.’

Ellie nodded. Over the past few days she’d seen quite a few injured soldiers on the campus, on crutches or in wheelchairs. She found the idea of life after a war injury hard to even imagine. It made her ankle – which seemed to be getting worse rather than better – seem trivial in comparison. Not that she’d mentioned the getting-worse bit to Sam when she’d gone for her daily check up earlier, of course.

‘Here we are,’ said Tam, pushing himself through a bush to a low window that was half open. ‘He said he’d leave the window on the catch so we can climb in. Give me a leg up.’

Ellie glanced around nervously. Tam’s secret training session idea was brilliant, but it was also totally against the rules. If anyone saw them using equipment unsupervised – let alone breaking into a facility after lights-out – it would mean instant dismissal from camp, and probably from National squad, for both of them. Tam was making light of it, but Ellie knew he was risking a lot for her sake.

She remembered how she’d once thought she’d lost Tam’s friendship forever, when Robbie had been teasing him about being her boyfriend. She’d missed him like mad then, but she realised now that she never could have lost him. He was a true friend.

But this was no time to start getting soppy. Tam hoiked Ellie up after him and she peered inside the open window. ‘Wow – there’s a fully equipped gym in here.’ She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it wasn’t this.

‘Get a move on!’ whispered Tam.

Ellie managed to clamber in, then she grabbed Tam’s arm and dragged him over the sill, toppling him over so that he landed with a crash on top of her.

‘Ow . . . geroff ! Do you mind?’ he cried.

They both dissolved into giggles.

‘You have no idea how much grief I’d get if the other boys could see me now!’ laughed Tam. Ellie shoved him off and they both jumped to their feet. Ellie could feel herself flushing, and for a moment she couldn’t look him in the eye. It was pretty dark in the unlit gym. Only the light of the street lamps flooded in through the high windows, but in it she could make out ropes and parallel bars, a vault and a tumble track, plus lots of other unfamiliar equipment which Ellie supposed must be for the soldiers’ physio sessions.

‘I reckon we’ve got an hour before lights-out,’ said Tam. ‘So get vaulting, Trengilly. The gym is all yours.’

Ellie suddenly felt nervous. The vault here didn’t have a pit, so landing was going to be agony. ‘You can do a double Yurchenko, right?’ she asked Tam.

Tam nodded. ‘Actually, I can do an Amanar,’ he admitted modestly.

‘Wow!’ said Ellie, although she didn’t know why she was surprised. Tam had won gold at British Champs – he was a dead cert for the boys’ Euros squad. Of course he could nail the Amanar!

‘So – um – maybe you can give me some tips?’ Ellie asked. She couldn’t quite shake off the shyness that had suddenly come over her now that it was just her and Tam, alone in the dark.

But Tam was businesslike. ‘Love to!’ he grinned. ‘I’ve always fancied myself as a coach. Do I need to make you do a gruelling warm-up first?’

‘Don’t get carried away!’ laughed Ellie, pushing aside her awkwardness and focusing on what they’d come for.

‘Pain is power, Trengilly!’ Tam whispered in a fake Aussie accent that had them both doubled up.

It turned out Tam was a great coach with a fantastic eye for detail. ‘Nice and square . . . keep your kneecaps tight . . . make your take-off higher . . . better.’

Ellie was soon landing the double confidently. It hurt like mad and she was glad it was too dark in the gym for Tam to see the pained expression in her eyes. She was pretty sure he’d try to stop her if he knew how much she was hurting. ‘I want to try for an Amanar,’ she said.

Tam squinted at her through the gloom. ‘You realise that needs a more powerful take-off ?’

‘You sound like Vivian again,’ said Ellie.

‘Fine,’ said Tam with a slight frown on his face. It made Ellie wonder if he had spotted that something wasn’t quite right. ‘You need to be aggressive, then – punch the vault really hard – then plant your feet in the landing like you’re trying to make a hole in the floor.’

Ellie swallowed. Her foot was throbbing again, but she couldn’t think about that right now. Ignoring the pain, she took a deep breath and started into the run up. But then she spooked, stopping just short of the vault and crashing into it with a thud.

‘You OK?’ asked Tam, running over to where Ellie stood, breathless and winded.

‘I’m fine,’ said Ellie, not looking him in the eye. ‘I just thought I heard something – someone coming.’ It was a lie – she’d spooked because her foot was aching – but at that moment they actually did hear footsteps and voices outside the window. They both stopped silent for a moment and listened breathlessly. After a moment the sounds retreated into the background.

‘We’d better not stay too much longer,’ whispered Tam, his eyes running over her face as if he was trying to figure something out. ‘Try it again. This time imagining you’re punching Vivian when you smack into that vault.’

Ellie managed a quiet laugh as she made her way back to the beginning of the runway. Determined not to spook again, she tried to push all thoughts of her ankle out of her brain as she ran up. She hit the vault hard and twisted, once, twice . . . but this time something made her pull back at the last moment and she landed on her bum.

They tried the vault over and over and a couple of times Ellie planted it, but mostly she ended up toppling on to her bottom, or falling flat on her face. She was really struggling to push aside the pain and focus on the vault. She knew that was making her hold back.

‘Perhaps we should stop for tonight?’ suggested Tam.

‘No,’ Ellie insisted. ‘I need to get it.’ The gym was too dark for him to see her flushed face, but she looked away anyway.

‘I’m just saying – sometimes you need to take a break and then come back to it fresh.’

‘I don’t have time to take a break!’ Ellie said, louder than she intended. ‘I need to nail this by the end of camp.’

‘OK, OK, don’t get your leotard in a twist!’ Then he stopped. ‘What was that?’

A light had come on just down the corridor and they could hear voices not far off – two female voices. ‘Training in secret . . .’ said someone Ellie didn’t know. There were some unintelligible words, then, ‘sneaking around . . . recovering from injury.’ Then they heard the other person speak, in a voice with a familiar Australian twang to it.

‘It’s Vivian,’ she whispered to Tam. They were both crouched down behind the vault in the dark. Ellie could hear Tam’s heart beating and was sure her own was just as loud. She suddenly felt like he was too close.

‘Perhaps someone told her we’re here?’ she whispered.

‘We need to get out quick!’ said Tam. ‘Come on.’

They raced to the window, the voices getting closer as they did so. Ellie caught a fragment of the first voice: ‘. . . going behind everyone’s backs . . .’ Vivian replied something about ‘punishment’ and then they both laughed.

Tam put out a hand to lift Ellie up, but she stepped back.

‘You go first,’ she told him. ‘I can’t risk you being caught for me.’

Everything felt weird. Being here alone with Tam. Lying to him about her ankle. Not being able to look him in the eye.

‘Nope – ladies first,’ Tam insisted. ‘No one can say I’m not a gentleman.’

Ellie hesitated, the pain making her feel dizzy and more confused than ever. A door slammed and the footsteps came closer.

‘Come on, Ellie,’ Tam urged. ‘Or we’ll both be caught.’

So Ellie allowed Tam to push her up over the sill. She landed in the bushes and fell awkwardly on her foot as she descended. She almost screamed out in pain but managed to muffle it. A moment later she was up and pulling Tam out too.

‘Come on!’ said Tam again, grabbing her hand as the light in the gym went on. They both legged it through the bushes back towards the dormitories. Glancing up at the clock tower, Ellie saw it was already past ten. They should have been in bed over an hour ago. The coaches didn’t come round checking; they trusted that none of the gymnasts would be stupid enough to blow their chance by breaking the rules. But they slept in rooms just along the corridor from the gymnasts, and if Ellie and Tam were caught . . .

Ellie’s ankle was in agony and she knew her body was covered in scratches from landing in the bush. And as they snuck back into the boarding house – red-faced and out of breath – they bumped into the tall, quiet figure of Memory Danster, making her way from the shared girls’ kitchen area with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands, wrapped in a giant dressing gown.

Ellie and Tam came to a breathless halt. ‘Hi,’ they both said at once.

Ellie knew they must look totally suspicious. Back past curfew, red-faced and covered in leaves.

But all Memory said was a gruff, ‘Hi.’ She didn’t ask where they’d been or what they’d been up to. She just shuffled past them and made her way back to her room.

‘Has anyone ever heard that girl say more than a single word?’ asked Tam.

‘Well, let’s hope she doesn’t say anything to Vivian,’ said Ellie, a thrill of fear pulsing through her stomach. ‘Or we’re both going home!’

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