Somersaults and Dreams: Rising Star

First published in Great Britain 2015

by Egmont UK Limited

The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

Text copyright © 2015 Cate Shearwater

Illustration copyright © 2015 Jongmee

The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted

First e-book edition 2015

ISBN 978 1 4052 6879 0

Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 1422 8

www.egmont.co.uk

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Please be aware that online content can be subject to change and websites can contain content that is unsuitable for children. We advise that all children are supervised when using the internet.

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

Back series promotional page

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!’

CHAPTER

Three

‘So tell us again what happened, Katya?’ Sian Edwards was saying, as the gymnasts sat around the giant kitchen table in the basement of Head-Over-Heels House, tucking into a supper of salad and cold roast chicken. Sian and Sophia, another of the Senior Elite girls, shared a flat at the top of the house, but they always took an interest in the younger girls. And it was impossible not to be interested in Katya Popolova.

‘My family runs Popolov Circus in Moscow,’ said Katya, who was already on her third helping. ‘Three generations all work together.’

‘And does everyone perform in the show?’ asked Kashvi, who was sitting astride a chair and staring at Katya in wide-eyed amazement.

‘Yes! My grandfather, he is clown,’ Katya explained. ‘My father does trapeze and high wire. My little brother Pietr is world’s smallest strongman, and my grandmother does acrobatics on horseback . . .’

‘Your grandma?’ asked Ellie with a look of surprise.

‘Oh, yes,’ said Katya, like it was no big deal to have a somersaulting granny.

‘And you?’ asked Tam. He had just about recovered from Katya’s kiss attack, but he had sat down on the opposite side of the table just to be on the safe side. ‘What can you do?’

‘I do many things,’ said Katya, helping herself to another baked potato. ‘Juggling, trapeze, high wire, tumbling, unicycle . . .’

‘Wow! Who trained you?’ asked Nancy.

‘Oh, circus is like one big family – everyone helps.’ For a second Katya’s twinkling eyes clouded a little and Ellie realised how hard it must be for her, knowing her family were thousands of miles away. ‘

OK, so tell us what happened with Toni,’ said Tam.

Ellie saw some of the others leaning forward, intrigued to know exactly how a small circus girl from Russia had ended up at one of the most prestigious gymnastic academies in Britain.

‘Is all big surprise!’ said Katya. ‘Toni, he come home to Russia to see his family – he is also Russian, you know. He comes to circus one night . . .’

‘. . . and sees you,’ added Bella.

‘And the next minute he’s whizzing you back to England!’ Robbie concluded. ‘Blimey – that’s all a bit like something out of a movie!’

‘It’s all a bit odd, if you ask me!’ said Scarlett. ‘I mean, it sounds too much like a coincidence – unless you’re going to tell us your uncle was an exinternational gymnast or something.’

She look pointedly at Ellie as she said this and Ellie knew what she was thinking – Scarlett never missed an opportunity to make Ellie feel like she had only won her scholarship to the Academybecause of her Aunt Lizzie’s success.

‘No, all my family are circus people,’ said Katya. ‘Is just my lucky stars that Toni comes that night!’

‘What did I tell you about luck!’ said Tam, grinning at Ellie and Nancy.

‘You must miss your parents,’ said Bella.

‘My mother died when Pietr was born,’ Katya said, quietly. ‘And my father think it is good for me to go to English school, and to have proper gymnastics training in one of the best academies in the world.’ She smiled again. ‘There he is right! But, yes, I do miss them – my brother Pietr especially.’

‘And the animals,’ said Robbie cheekily. ‘You must miss them.’

‘Yes, even them,’ Katya laughed. ‘I want to bring my favourite dog to Head-Over-Heels House but they say this is not possible.’

‘I’ve been trying to persuade Mum that we should get a Head-Over-Heels puppy for years,’ said Tam.

‘Maybe Katya could train it up and take it to Junior British Champs!’ said Nancy.

‘Well, obviously, Katya won’t be going to Champs,’ said Scarlett snootily.

‘Um – why not?’ asked Nancy.

‘Duh! Because she’s not actually British!’

‘My mother she from England,’ said Katya. ‘So Toni say I am allowed to compete over here too.’

‘Oh,’ said Scarlett, unable to hide her disappointment. ‘Well, only gymnasts who’ve qualified are eligible,’ she added. ‘Or perhaps you’ve failed so often you’ve forgotten that, Nancy?’

‘Then she’ll just have to qualify at the Challenge Cup!’ said Nancy through gritted teeth. ‘Just like me and Ellie.’

Ellie’s heart did a somersault. For a few moments she’d forgotten her fears about the make-or-break competition but now they all came flooding back.

‘There’s no way she’ll be ready for a major competition this term,’ said Scarlett. I doubt she even knows the rules!’

‘In circus there are no rules!’ Katya declared happily. ‘Is all about entertainment.’

‘Blimey!’ said Kashvi. ‘You’re going to get the shock of your life at the Academy then.’

‘Oui – gymnastics ees all about ze rules,’ added Camille.

‘And if you go breaking them you’ll be out of the Academy before you can say big top!’ said Scarlett smugly.

It was quite a squash in the room the girls were sharing. Mandy had moved in the old bunk bed that Tam and Nancy had used as kids and squeezed in another small chest of drawers. Nancy didn’t mind sharing with Katya, although she insisted on getting the top bunk.

‘Tam made me sleep on the bottom for years,’ she said. ‘Even though I was way too tall and forever bashing my head – I was black and blue all the time!’

Katya was thrilled with the bottom bunk. In fact, Katya was thrilled with everything. She seemed to have a permanent smile on her face, and she hugged and kissed anyone who came within a five metre radius of her – probably why Tam had offered to wash up rather than help the girls unpack.

‘I sleep always in different places,’ Katya told Ellie and Nancy, as she clambered happily into bed that night. ‘In circus you move around a lot. Different town every month.’

‘So how did you go to school?’ asked Nancy.

‘Oh, no school,’ said Katya. ‘My grandmother teach me.’

‘No school!’ said Nancy. ‘How cool is that! We do reduced school hours to fit in with our training, but we still have to keep up with our work. The Academy is really strict about that.’

‘But it’s fun,’ said Ellie, to reassure Katya. ‘School’s nice and the Academy is amazing. Just you wait – you’re going to love it!’

‘And you can forget about what Scarlett said,’ Nancy added. ‘Cos you’re going to totally rock it as an Academy girl!’

Ellie lay awake for a while after the others had dropped off. She always found it strange when she first came back to London, getting used to the night-time sounds of the city, so different to the soft lapping of the waves on Trengilly beach that she could hear from her bedroom at home. But it wasn’t just that stopping Ellie from sleeping. She couldn’t stop thinking about the dream she’d had on the train, and about the Challenge Cup – what would happen if she didn’t qualify this time round?

She had to qualify. Because if she didn’t, she’d lose her scholarship. Ellie’s parents were already making huge sacrifices to send her to the Academy, and there was no way they’d be able to manage it without the scholarship money. So, there was a lot more than just Ellie’s pride riding on the Challenge Cup – her whole future at the Academy depended on it. Even with the two other girls sleeping next to her in the room, Ellie suddenly felt very lonely.

CHAPTER

Four

In the early-morning September sunshine, the red brick building of the Academy shone brightly as a gaggle of Academy students sat on the steps, catching up on summer gossip before training began. As she approached, Ellie felt the same thrill of excitement she’d experienced on her very first day, last year. She reckoned she’d always feel that same buzz, however long she kept going.

Katya bounced up the steps beside her and Ellie grinned.

‘It’s like having a puppy,’ Tam joked, waving goodbye to the girls as he headed off into the boys’ gym.

Ellie and Nancy showed Katya to the girls’ changing room, where they found a gaggle of smaller gymnasts giggling in a corner. The younger girls fell silent at the sight of the two Pre-Elite girls.

‘Ah – the new kids in Development,’ said Nancy. ‘They make me feel so old and wise!’

‘You might be old but you’ll never be wise, Nancy!’ said Ellie with a grin. She recognised several of the younger girls who had been in Beginner’s squad last term, and she introduced them to Katya as the people she would be training with. Katya greeted every single one of them with a giant bear hug.

‘She doesn’t seem to have any problem making friends, does she?’ Nancy observed as she and Ellie pulled off their tracksuits and tugged their hair into ponytails, ready for training.

Katya was already giggling and swapping scrunchies with a girl who had a doll-like face and curly brown hair that fell in ringlets nearly as far as her bottom.

‘Who’s that?’ asked Ellie.

‘I haven’t seen her before,’ said Nancy. ‘I guess she must be new too.’

They didn’t have to wait long to find out the identity of Katya’s new friend. As the other members of Development headed off for warm-up, Katya tugged the little girl over to Ellie and Nancy.

‘Nancy, Ellie – this my new friend Lexi Davies!’ she squeaked.

‘Hello,’ said Lexi, blushing a deep crimson and lowering her eyes.

‘Lexi is new to Academy – like me,’ Katya declared.

‘We didn’t think we’d seen you before,’ said Ellie. ‘Where have you come from?’

‘I was training in Liverpool,’ Lexi explained shyly. ‘But my father got a new job, so we had to move.’

‘Oh, Liverpool is a great gym,’ said Ellie.

‘Even if they are our biggest rivals,’ added Nancy with a grin. ‘Were you training with Eva Reddle?’

‘Oh yes!’ Lexi’s eyes lit up. ‘She’s absolutely lovely – and she’s the Junior British Champion, you know.’

‘She is for now,’ said Scarlett, who had just appeared in the changing room, sporting a new leotard and matching training shorts with her name emblazoned in diamantés across her bottom. ‘Until I knock her off the top spot, that is!’

‘Oh, so you reckon you’re going to win gold at British Champs now?’ asked Nancy, rolling her eyes.

‘Just watch me!’ said Scarlett coolly, picking up her guard bag which she’d forgotten. ‘Oh no, you won’t be able to – because you haven’t even qualified yet!’

‘Well I only started at the Academy in January,’ Ellie told Lexi, changing the subject quickly. ‘But everyone was really nice . . .’

‘Nearly everyone!’ said Nancy, rolling her eyes in Scarlett’s direction.

‘And your coach, Sasha, she’s super lovely!’ said Ellie, who kind of wished she was still training with her old coach who’d helped her so much.

‘Unless you get on the wrong side of her,’ added Scarlett, pulling a diamanté-studded scrunchie over her perfect bun. ‘If you do that she’s super strict, the scariest coach in the whole gym.’

‘I am not scared of Sasha Darling,’ said Katya with a little shrug. ‘I hear she was once in circus like me, so I think we will get on very well. Just like friends!’

‘Well, you’re not going to get on well if you’re late!’ said Nancy. ‘Come on!’

The girls all hurried into the gym. Ellie and Nancy waved goodbye to Katya and Lexi and went to join the other Pre-Elite girls, who were already lined up on the blue mat waiting for Oleg Petrescu.

The eccentric and brilliant coach had once been an international gymnast, training alongside many of the greats. He had a reputation for being fierce one minute and cuddly the next. ‘A bit like a bear,’ Nancy whispered as they waited for him to come over. ‘Only you don’t know if he’s going to be a teddy bear or a grizzly from one minute to the next.’

Oleg had a comical appearance. Like many gymnasts he was small, but since he had retired from competing he was nearly as round as he was tall. He had a large curling moustache like an old-fashioned strongman, and he liked to wear flamboyantly coloured tracksuits, usually in patterns that were about twenty years out of date.

Today he was looking incredibly fierce, despite sporting a pink and yellow tracksuit in a shiny material that made him look a bit like a small round spaceman. He did not even smile as he walked along the line of gymnasts, inspecting each of them as if he were a sergeant-major in front of a parade. Ellie felt nerves flutter in her stomach.

‘This year I am bringing a new regime to the Academy,’ Oleg announced in a loud booming voice that seemed too big for his little body. ‘In holidays I spend time in Romanian gymnastic school, where I train as boy. Things are very different over there.’

‘Uh-oh,’ whispered Nancy under her breath. ‘This sounds worrying.’

Oleg shot her a look. ‘In Romania, coach is like god,’ he said, his voice booming off the high roof of the gym. ‘The gymnasts, they obey without question.’

‘He thinks he’s a god now?’ whispered Kashvi.

‘In England there is not so good discipline,’ said Oleg glaring even more fiercely. ‘But in Oleg’s class, no more!’ he declared, waving his arms wildly to stress his point. Next to her, Ellie could feel Nancy trying hard not to giggle. ‘We will train Romanian-style. We will work like in army – bootcamp, drill, silence! And in this way I will make great gymnasts of you all.’

Bootcamp – army style – drills! This was worse than Oleg’s healthy eating obsession! Ellie glanced at Camille, Kashvi and Bella, all of whom were looking as alarmed as she felt. Of course, Scarlett wore her usual smug smile, as if she had nothing to fear from Oleg’s terrifying new training regime.

‘Well, I might as well give up now,’ muttered Nancy.

‘Does anyone want to quit?’ asked Oleg, fixing his stare on Nancy, his eyes bulging. ‘Because if you cannot take the heat, is time to get out of Oleg’s kitchen.’

‘Um . . .’ Nancy started to say, but Ellie jabbed her hard in the ribs.

‘You!’ said Oleg, transferring his gaze to Ellie and eyeballing her suspiciously. ‘You are Elizabeth Trengilly, right?’

‘Um – yes,’ said Ellie, colouring as Nancy let out a snigger next to her. No one ever called her Elizabeth, and very few people even knew she’d been named after her Aunt Lizzie.

‘So you and this giggling girl here,’ Oleg glared fiercely at Nancy, who instantly stopped sniggering, ‘you must do Challenge Cup if you are to qualify for British Champs.’

‘Yes,’ said Ellie. Nancy nodded seriously.

‘I ask myself if you are even ready for Pre-Elite, but Emma say you will prove yourselves. I hope this is right.’

Ellie’s stomach did a flip. ‘We’ll try,’ she said.

‘Try is not good enough for Oleg!’ he barked. ‘You must succeed – or is back to Miss Darling and her babies for you both, understood?’

Ellie nodded. She glanced over to where Sasha Darling was talking to the scared-looking bunch of new Development kids. She might miss her old coach, but there was no way she wanted to be demoted, and she silently vowed to work so hard that Oleg would never even think of it again.

‘Good, then let us begin!’

CHAPTER

Five

The Pre-Elite girls quickly got an idea of exactly what Sergeant Oleg’s training regime involved. First he put them through the most gruelling warm-up they’d ever done in their lives. ‘No amount of medals could ever be worth this pain!’ Nancy observed as Oleg made them hold the plank position for a whole five minutes before making them do two hundred sit-ups in a row.

Then he presented each of them with a training schedule, broken up into ten minute segments of intense repetitions to be completed at top speed. At the end of each segment, Oleg blew a whistle.

‘He thinks he ees ze football ref now!’ whispered Camille as the girls passed between rotations.

‘SILENCE!’ Oleg’s voice boomed out, echoing off the high ceiling of the gym. ‘No slacking, no chatting, no daydreaming – just work, work, work until you drop.’

But in fact the silence rule wasn’t necessary, because if they were going to complete each of the ten-minute rotations they barely had to breathe, let along gossip.

It was pretty intense. In the floor segment, Ellie had to complete three back to back versions of her floor routine, followed by a series of tumbles onto a pile of mats. Then on to the bar, where she had to do sets of top turns, upstart handstands and giants. And the same again on the beam and vault, plus conditioning circuits in between.

As they went along, Oleg stood watching, frowning and occasionally calling out things like, ‘Pull your arm back quicker on the dismount,’ or, ‘You’re not finishing into corners’. It was completely unlike the way they’d trained under Sasha, but to her surprise Ellie found that she really took to it. The new intensity was exhilarating, and she liked the way they were each responsible for their own training programme. They could choose to slack and not complete their repetitions in the set time – or they could rise to the challenge. Ellie had always been self-disciplined, so Oleg’s style suited her perfectly. And there was no time to think of anything but gymnastics, which was kind of wonderful!

On the beam Ellie even managed to perfect flipping over in her tricky front salto followed by a sheep jump. They were both moves she’d done before but the really difficult bit was connecting the two together. Each time she had tried it in the past she had lost forwards momentum and started to wobble.

But then Ellie recalled Katya on the washing line – the way she’d seemed to glide rather than walk, how she’d barely seemed to need the rope to support her at all. Ellie decided to pretend she was on the high wire with just a flimsy piece of string beneath her feet, the only thing keeping her upright the sharp stillness of her body. She tried the move again, flipping up, back and around, and then as she came into the connection she pulled herself sharply upwards, defying the downwards pull of gravity. She imagined that she wasn’t aiming to land on a strip of wood ten centimetres wide, but a tiny sliver of rope.

And it worked. She moved effortlessly from move to move and landed without a wobble. As she came back down to earth she heard a voice from behind her say, ‘Better.’

Ellie nearly fell off when she realised Oleg was talking to her. She’d been so engrossed in practising that she hadn’t even noticed the coach come over to watch her.

‘Thank you,’ she managed to stammer. ‘I think maybe I could try a layout with the sheep jump too.’

But Oleg shook his head. ‘Now is not time for learning new moves,’ he said firmly. ‘You want to qualify at the Challenge Cup, you cannot afford to make mistakes. You play it safe. Stick with what you know.’

‘But if I could put in some new skills, raise my difficulty levels . . .’

‘Forget about difficulty,’ said Oleg. ‘When you prepare for competition, you must think only execution! Execution! Execution!’

Then he moved away. Ellie’s heart sank, particularly when she saw Camille working on a new vault and Bella practising a new skill on the bar, but she knew Oleg was right. For now, she just needed to focus on qualifying. Ellie gritted her teeth and pulled herself back up on to the beam.

Not everyone was so sure about Oleg’s new approach, though. In the changing room after the first session, Nancy declared, ‘I’m a gymnast – get me out of here!’

‘It wasn’t that bad,’ said Bella, who was pulling on her school uniform.

‘It’s the silence that gets me,’ said Kashvi, tying her school tie in a messy knot.

‘Oui! I ’ave never seen Nancy keep quiet for so long in all ’er life,’ remarked Camille, and the others all giggled.

‘Well, I rather enjoyed a rest from the incessant chatter,’ said Scarlett who was brushing out her golden hair in long even strokes. ‘And I found Oleg’s style of training refreshing. But perhaps it requires a dedication and focus that some of you don’t have.’

She looked pointedly at Nancy as she said this. Nancy was about to say something cutting in response, but at that moment Katya appeared along with the rest of Development squad. She was looking very glum.

‘What’s the matter?’ Ellie asked.

‘I do not like that Sasha Darling!’ declared Katya. ‘She make me do cartwheels and round-offs all morning.’

‘Just cartwheels and round-offs?’ asked Ellie, confused. It didn’t sound like the inspirational coach she remembered from Development squad.

‘And walking,’ said Katya, her big violet eyes flashing crossly.

‘Walking?’ said Nancy.

‘She said Katya doesn’t walk right,’ explained Lexi. ‘Because she’s so bendy from the circus.’

Katya wiggled like a worm as if to demonstrate. ‘She tell me I learn bad habits and I have to unlearn them.’

‘Oh, she did that to me last year,’ said Nancy with a shrug. ‘Don’t stress about it!’

‘She’s right. Sometimes Sasha makes you go right back to basics to unpick bad habits you’ve got into,’ Ellie explained.

Katya sighed theatrically and slumped down on to the bench.

‘Did something else happen?’ asked Nancy.

Katya shrugged. ‘Well, at the end of session I get a little bit bored,’ she said.

‘Yes?’ asked Nancy curiously. ‘And . . .?’

‘And I am deciding to show the girls my Chinese pole routine on the ropes.’

‘What?’ gasped Kashvi.

‘Without Sasha’s permission?’ said Bella.

‘And she caught you?’ asked Nancy, who knew better than anyone what Sasha could be like when she got mad.

Katya nodded, half apologetically, half gleefully. ‘In middle of the chopper.’

‘Um – what’s the chopper?’ asked Ellie curiously.

‘She climbed up the rope like a monkey,’ explained Lexi, eyes bright with admiration. ‘Then when she was at the very top she sort of turned upside down, in the splits and spun around. It was incredible! Even the way she climbed the rope – like she was walking up it horizontally.’

‘I learn to do that when I was three year old,’ said Katya, without a hint of bragging in her voice.

‘I wish we’d seen it!’ said Nancy. ‘It must have been while Oleg was making us do that horrible warm-down in the studio.’

‘So zen what happened?’ asked Camille.

‘Did she fall?’ asked Bella her face creased in concern.

‘No, but – um – then Sasha turned around,’ said Lexi.

‘Uh-oh – you unleashed the pink fury!’ said Nancy.

‘She shout at me to come down right away,’ said Katya, pulling on her school skirt back to front. ‘Then she talk very, very fast about not being in circus now . . . ‘

‘Then she made her do more walking,’ said Lexi sympathetically.

‘Walking and walking,’ said Katya, dolefully buttoning up her school blouse. ‘It’s not very much fun!’

‘So you haven’t exactly had the best first session!’ said Ellie, smiling sympathetically.

‘Well, it will get a lot worse if you’re late for school too,’ said Nancy, glancing at her watch. ‘Which we are all going to be if we don’t get a wiggle on.’

Katya grinned. ‘Ooh, I am good at that!’ she said, and she wiggled enthusiastically.

CHAPTER

Six

When Ellie Skyped home that night, she already had so much news to fill her sister in on.

‘Are you learning loads of cool new stuff ?’ asked Lucy, who wanted to know every single thing about her first day back.

‘Not exactly,’ said Ellie, feeling a twinge of anxiety in her stomach again. ‘Oleg wants me to focus on perfecting my routines with the competition coming up.’

‘Ooh, Fran says the same,’ said Lucy. Fran was Ellie’s old coach from her Cornish gym, the place Lucy still trained. ‘She says if you rush into new moves before you’re ready you risk injuries.’

‘I know . . .’ said Ellie, without much enthusiasm. ‘So hey, how’s your gym coming on?’

‘I’ve got my Grade Four coming up,’ said Lucy, excitedly. ‘I’m determined to ace it, cos if I do then Fran says maybe I can try out for the Academy next year.’

‘Wow,’ said Ellie. ‘It would be so amazing if you were here too!’ She really missed her sister. There was no one at the Academy who understood what it was like to be Lizzie Trengilly’s niece at the Academy like Lucy!

‘Dad keeps saying he’ll need to win the lottery if he has two daughters at the Academy,’ giggled Lucy. Then she frowned. ‘But if I got a scholarship like you, we could make it work, couldn’t we?’

‘Of course we could,’ said Ellie, sounding more confident than she felt. The truth was that Mum and Dad could barely afford to keep Ellie at the Academy even with the scholarship. How would they cope with two daughters? But she pushed these thoughts to one side so they didn’t show on her face. ‘You just concentrate on gym and forget about all the rest.’

But Ellie couldn’t push her nagging anxiety out of her mind. She was still thinking about it when she and Nancy bumped into Emma Bannerdown as they were making their way into the changing rooms the next day.

‘Ah, Ellie, Nancy, nice to see you,’ Emma said. She looked both girls up and down with her cool, appraising grey eyes. ‘Did you have a nice summer break?’

‘The best!’ said Nancy. ‘We spent two whole weeks in Cornwall messing about in boats – it was epic!’

Ellie just nodded. She still felt shy in front of the Academy’s director and head coach. Emma had not only been an Olympic great but also a training partner of her Aunt Lizzie.

‘Well, this is a big term for both of you,’ Emma said. ‘Junior British Champs are only a couple of months after the Challenge Cup, so you two won’t have much time after you’ve qualified.’

‘If we qualify,’ muttered Nancy.

Emma looked at her closely. With her cropped blonde hair, angular figure and stern features, she could appear strict and aloof, but Ellie knew that she cared a great deal about all her gymnasts. ‘Well, if you go in with that attitude, you’ve failed before you start,’ she said after a pause. ‘You do want to qualify, right?’

‘Of course,’ said Nancy quietly.

Ellie risked a glance at her friend. She didn’t sound very confident.

‘I have no doubt in my mind that both of you are capable of qualifying,’ said Emma. ‘You both have more than enough talent – it’s just bad luck that you haven’t qualified already.’

Ellie’s heart leapt and Nancy shrugged but did not look convinced.

‘And the only thing that can stop you now is yourselves,’ Emma went on. ‘Nancy, you’ve lost your nerve so you need to find it again – and fast. And as for you, Ellie . . .’

‘I think I need to work on some new skills for my routines,’ Ellie blurted out without thinking.

Emma looked at her curiously. ‘What makes you say that?’

‘Oleg wants me to play it safe,’ she said, unable to stop now she’d started. ‘But if I have higher difficulty values I can get better scores.’

‘You are also more likely to make mistakes, which will cost you execution marks,’ said Emma. ‘I’m afraid I agree with Coach Petrescu. The lead-up to a competition is not the time to work on new skills.’

‘But why did you move us to Pre-Elite if you didn’t want us to work on new stuff ?’ asked Nancy, voicing exactly what Ellie had been thinking.

Emma smiled, as if she was pleased to see a spark of the old ambition back in Nancy’s eye. ‘What you need to remember is that Coach Petrescu trained and competed under the old scoring system,’ she explained. ‘Back in the days of the perfect ten.’

‘But things have totally changed since then,’ said Nancy.

‘And perfect tens don’t even exist any more,’ Ellie added.

‘Ah, but in Oleg’s mind, they still do,’ smiled Emma. ‘And he’s right in a way. No matter what difficulty score your routine is awarded, every gymnast should aim to keep her perfect ten execution points all the way through the routine. No deductions. And Oleg is the best coach to help you get competition-ready. He will make you practice, practice, practice until you are perfect!’

Ellie sighed. She loved the idea of aiming for the perfect ten every time, but it sounded like an impossible ideal to live up to.

‘Don’t look so worried,’ said Emma, breaking into one of her rare smiles. ‘I do have something new for you both to work on this term, but it’s a surprise.’

‘Ooh – what?’ asked Nancy, who loved surprises.

‘You’ll have to wait and see,’ said Emma, firmly. ‘But for now, get back to bootcamp – or Sergeant Oleg will be on the warpath!’

‘Perfect tens! No deductions!’ wailed Nancy, as the girls made their way into the changing rooms. ‘How is that even possible?’

‘I don’t think it is,’ said Ellie quietly.

‘You know me. I do power, not perfection,’ said Nancy. ‘And you’re all about the artistry – that’s what marks you out as a gymnast.’

‘I suppose we need all three,’ said Ellie, pulling off her tracksuit. ‘Power, precision and performance. That’s how the scoring system works, after all.’

‘Yeah, well, the new gymnastics scoring system has got to be the most complicated in the world!’ Nancy said, flinging her tracksuit in a messy heap on the floor. ‘Difficulty tariffs, compulsory elements, marks for linking moves together, points for artistry, blah, blah, blah ! With rowing it’s simple – row faster! End of !’

Ellie sighed. She wasn’t sure it made any more sense to her than it did to Nancy.

‘Oh, take me back to the seaside and stick me in a rowing boat!’ said Nancy, tossing her hand-guard bag over her shoulder and heading into the gym. ‘This is all too much for me.’

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