Friendships and Backflips Read online

  Tara smiled but when she landed tidily on the floor, the wonderful feeling of flying was gone. It was time to get back to work on the balance they couldn’t do.

  At home that afternoon, Tara got out her school bag so that she could finish the homework she needed to do for Monday. But she kept getting distracted and, instead of doing her homework, she practised Y-balances wherever she could. She did them standing on the floor (which was easy), standing on the bed (which was less easy) and even one on the arm of the sofa (which was really not easy, and ended with a telling-off and a frightened cat). She was balancing in her bedroom when the pop song she’d chosen as her mobile phone ringtone interrupted her.

  Tara jumped off her bed and grabbed her phone from the bedside table. It was Emily. Tara couldn’t wait to tell her about the special training session.

  “Are you coming round?” Emily asked. “Kate’s on her way, she’s bringing a couple of DVDs she got yesterday.”

  Tara looked at her watch. It was nearly four o’clock already. “Oh, no, I can’t,” she replied. “I’ve got to finish my homework for tomorrow.”

  “But we haven’t seen each other all weekend,” said Emily.

  “I know,” Tara said, cringing. Last year the three friends had started watching films together early on Sunday evenings. They hadn’t bothered much about it in the summer holidays, because they could do things together any time they wanted. But when they’d realized that they would be split up for most of the day at school this year, they’d all agreed that seeing each other on Sunday evenings was even more important. How could she have forgotten already? They usually only missed it for really important things like family birthdays or when they were ill. “It’s just that I had gym this morning, and yesterday too, so I haven’t had time to get it all done,” she said. “I’m really sorry, Em.”

  “Oh,” said Emily. And then after a second, “That’s okay. You’re probably really tired, anyway. I’m exhausted, and I’m not the one who’s been doing gym all weekend!”

  “I am tired,” Tara admitted. “Lindsay and I are working so hard at the moment.” She rubbed her shoulder where she’d knocked it a few times at the gym. “And you know how tiring school is. But next week, I promise I’ll be there!”

  “Okay,” said Emily. She paused, like she was trying to think of something to say. “Well, see you tomorrow.”

  “Yeah,” said Tara. “Bye.”

  She put the phone down, then dragged her school bag downstairs to the kitchen table and got on with her homework. But all evening she was distracted, thinking about Kate and Emily, wondering what DVD they were watching and what they were talking about. She felt left out, knowing that they were watching a Sunday evening film and she wasn’t with them.

  When she went to bed that night, she thought about gymnastics, going through balances and throws in her head. But Kate and Emily still kept popping into her mind. For once, she wanted it to be time for school so that she could see her friends.

  Chapter Six

  Tara met Kate and Emily at the school gate the next morning. Kate told her all about the film they’d watched. It sounded great and Tara wished she’d been there.

  “We’ll watch it again another weekend,” Emily said generously.

  “Definitely,” Kate agreed. “You have to see it, Tara! Then we can all watch the second one.” The bell rang, and they hurried off to their form rooms.

  After registration, Tara found Emily on the way to the science block. Even though they’d met at the gate that morning, Tara felt like they had loads to catch up on. And by the time they met Kate on the field at break time, after Tara and Emily had spent a whole science lesson sitting next to each other, they still had lots to talk about. They chatted and laughed, all three at once, as if they hadn’t seen each other for months.

  When the bell rang, they headed back towards the main building. The end of break time was always chaos. Girls and boys suddenly swarmed towards classrooms, calling and shouting to each other, and running down the corridors (even though it wasn’t allowed). The three friends were just about to turn the corner towards their maths classroom when Tara heard someone calling her name.

  She turned around. “Hi, Lindsay!” Kate and Emily stopped too, a little behind Tara.

  “I’ve been thinking about that balance,” Lindsay began.

  “I’ve been practising Y-balances non-stop,” said Tara.

  “That’s good,” Lindsay said. “But I think I know where we’re going wrong.” Lindsay tried to explain, while people pushed past them on the way to lessons, but she couldn’t get the words right.

  “Tara, we’ve got to go,” Kate said, crossing her arms. “Break’s over. We’ll get in trouble.”

  “One minute,” said Tara. She was desperate to see if she and Lindsay could fix the balance.

  “Come on, Tara,” insisted Kate.

  “I’ll ask Miss Isaac if we can use the gym sometime to practise,” said Lindsay.

  “I’m sorry…but I’m going,” said Kate, and rushed off. Emily followed hesitantly, then hurried to catch up. They disappeared in the mass of blue and grey.

  “That would be amazing.” Tara grinned at Lindsay. The corridor was starting to become empty. “See you on Wednesday,” she said quickly, and then ran to the maths classroom. She was late. Mr. Spencer gave her an annoyed look as she sat down, but Tara was thinking of that massive gym where they’d had PE on the first day of term. The thought of practising gymnastics in there filled her stomach with butterflies. A whole gym for just two of them… She hoped Miss Isaac said yes.

  Tara kept an eye out for Lindsay at lunchtime, but she couldn’t see her anywhere. She didn’t see her at the end of the day either, or when she arrived at school the next morning. At the end of Tuesday break, she dawdled behind her friends on the way back inside. She’d just given up and was running to catch up with them when she heard Lindsay calling her.

  “I asked Miss Isaac,” Lindsay panted, out of breath from her dash to catch Tara. “She said we can use the gym at lunchtimes as long as we don’t touch any equipment and use crash mats if we’re trying anything difficult.”

  “Brilliant!” whooped Tara.

  “What’s happening?” demanded Kate.

  “Lindsay and I are allowed to use the gym to practise our balances.”

  “When?” asked Emily.

  “Lunchtimes,” Tara replied. “Every lunchtime, if we want.” She waved to Lindsay and trooped inside with the others. “We won’t get that long in there, once we’ve had lunch and warmed up, but it means we can practise every day. And we really need to if we’re going to win that competition.”

  “That’s good,” said Emily. “It’s really nice of Miss Isaac to let you.”

  “Great,” agreed Kate, “as long as you don’t forget about us! At this rate the only time we’ll ever see you will be to play netball once a week, or to talk about fractions.”

  Tara laughed. “Don’t be silly,” she said, linking her arm through Kate’s. “Anyway, it’s just until the competition.”

  Kate pulled away when they reached her English classroom. “See you later,” she said, and disappeared through the door, while Tara and Emily turned in opposite directions for their next lessons.

  Chapter Seven

  The next day, Tara queued up for lunch with her friends as usual. They found a space at the end of one of the long tables and sat down; Kate and Emily chatted while Tara rushed through her meal. When she’d finished eating, she stood and picked up her tray.

  “See you later,” she said.

  “Where are you going?” Kate asked.

  “I’m going to practise gym with Lindsay,” Tara reminded her.

  “But aren’t you coming outside with us?”

  “Sorry,” Tara said. “Linds got the gym for us, and we really need to pract
ise.”

  “Oh, okay,” said Kate. “Have a good time!”

  In the gym, Tara and Lindsay quickly laid down a few of the thin mats on the hard floor. They did a bit of a warm-up and then started to work on balances. They went through the beginning of their routine, which was all they knew so far, counting the beats out loud or in their heads because they didn’t have the music. Tara practised standing on Lindsay’s shoulders with one leg stretched out behind her in an arabesque. It was easier than the Y-balance and it helped her get used to balancing up there on one leg.

  Every lunchtime was the same; Tara ate lunch with her two best friends as fast as she could, then dashed off to change into her PE kit and meet Lindsay in the gym. By the end of the second week, when Tara gulped down her food and got up from the table, Kate didn’t even react.

  On Sunday evening they watched a DVD at Tara’s house and everything seemed normal but on Monday, when Tara got to their usual lunchtime meeting place, Kate and Emily weren’t there. She waited, thinking that they’d probably got held up in their art lesson, which they had together. Five minutes ticked by. Tara kept looking despairingly at her watch. She was losing precious training time! There was still no sign of her friends, so she slipped into the lunch queue by herself. After getting some food, she walked nervously towards the tables. Suddenly, eating lunch by herself seemed pretty scary. Was everyone going to think she had no friends? Where was the best place to attract the least attention sitting alone? Then she spotted Lindsay and Megan having lunch with some of the other Year Nines. Relieved, she headed for their table, where she could see an empty seat next to Lindsay.

  “This is Tara, my Acro partner,” Lindsay said, introducing her to the other girls at the table.

  “Hi,” she said shyly. Megan reeled off the names of the other girls, and Tara smiled at them all.

  “You should come to the gym and practise with us!” Tara suggested to Megan.

  “Thanks,” said Megan. “Lindsay asked me the other week. But there’s not much point without Sophie.”

  “True.” Tara nodded, thinking that she was lucky her partner was at the same school. Sophie went to a different school, with Jasmine and Sam and some of the boys.

  Tara felt shy, so she kept quiet and ate quickly to catch up with Lindsay. She listened to the others’ conversation; they seemed funny and kind, and by the time she’d finished eating, she didn’t feel quite so intimidated. As she and Lindsay went out of the hall, she saw Kate and Emily sitting at a table at the other end of the room. She hadn’t even noticed them come in and she felt a bit guilty that she’d been having lunch with Lindsay and Megan when she could have been chatting to her best friends.

  Soon Tara and Lindsay had the opening section of their routine absolutely perfect and the Y-balance was getting much better. Sometimes they spent a while working on things like walkovers, handsprings and long, steady handstands as well. Tara knew that if she and Lindsay were ever going to be able to do the most difficult balances, she’d have to be able to hold a handstand as steady as a house. Tara was desperate to work on backflips, too. Lindsay could do them, but Tara could only manage with support from Clare and she felt bad that they couldn’t put one in their routine. She was sure that if she was just brave enough to try on her own, she’d be able to do it. But in the school gym, without her coach, she was afraid of hurting herself. An injury would put her out of training for a while and, even worse, out of the competition. It wasn’t worth it. But one day soon…

  They continued to work on their routine with Clare at Silverdale too, of course, and the coach seemed pleased with their progress. It wasn’t long before they’d learned the whole thing. Clare had chosen a piece of upbeat, jazzy music, which made Tara feel light and happy every time she heard it. Their coach had choreographed a routine to match – it was full of bouncy jumps and turns, and the gymnasts had to be very light on their feet. Their split leaps and handsprings went perfectly with the music, and the balances were in just the right places to work as well. The balances were slowly improving, but every time they saw Jasmine and Sam doing a perfect one, they knew they needed to work harder. Even though they weren’t competing against them, they wanted their simpler balances to look just as perfect as the older pair’s more difficult ones.

  After three weeks of practising at lunchtime as well as at Silverdale, Tara felt like front angel came as easily to them as a cartwheel and the difficult Y-balance on Lindsay’s shoulder was almost perfect.

  “You two have really improved!” Clare said, when she saw them practising at the gym.

  “We’ve been working on the routine at lunchtime at school,” explained Lindsay.

  “Keep it up,” said Clare, “and soon every second of it will be beautiful and faultless.”

  Tara and Lindsay grinned at each other – impressing Clare made the hard work worth it.

  As the weeks flew by, the competition was getting closer and Tara realized she was seeing less and less of Emily and Kate. She had lunch with Lindsay and Megan and their friends a couple of days a week because Kate and Emily always seemed to be running late, and she hadn’t seen them for a Sunday evening film for ages and ages. There was always homework to do after gym at the weekends, and by the time six o’clock came she was usually half-asleep already. She missed them, but she and Lindsay were getting better and better with every practice, and Clare seemed to think they were doing well, so she kept telling herself that it was worth it and she’d make it up to her friends once the competition was over.

  “Tara,” said Kate, grabbing her arm on their way out of the maths classroom one Tuesday morning, “we’re going to the Sixth Form fashion show at lunchtime, d’you want to come?”

  “When did you decide that?” asked Tara.

  “We saw the poster last week,” said Emily. “It’s for charity.”

  “You’re never around at lunchtimes, and we hardly ever get to talk in lessons. We haven’t even seen you at break time this week!” said Kate. “I was going to ask you about it this morning but you weren’t at the gate.”

  “I overslept,” said Tara. “I only just got here in time for registration.” She had tried and tried to find her friends at break time today and yesterday, but they hadn’t been at their usual meeting place outside because it had been raining. They weren’t allowed to have mobile phones in school so she hadn’t even been able to text them to ask where they were.

  “So are you coming to the fashion show?” asked Emily.

  “I don’t think I can,” said Tara. “I mean…Lindsay and I really need to keep practising for the competition.”

  Emily looked disappointed, Tara noticed, but Kate rolled her eyes.

  “Never mind,” said Kate, and she strode off down the corridor towards her next lesson.

  Emily looked at Tara, as if to say You know what Kate’s like, and gave her a half-smile, but as they walked to the science block in silence, Tara wished there was something she could do to make things better with her friends.

  Chapter Eight

  “Your turn, Tara!” Megan gave her a little shove in the back.

  “Oh!” Tara broke off from her conversation with Jasmine and Sophie and stepped forward. They were in the middle of one of their usual after-school Wednesday training sessions. The gymnasts who weren’t competing at Regionals were there too, so they were spending the first half of the session working on tumbling and individual skills.

  Tara stared down the tumbling track to the foam pit at the end. A mat for landings had been placed on top of the foam blocks. Tara pointed one foot forward, took a deep breath, and ran. At the end of the track she jumped onto both feet, and pushed up and over into a front somersault. She landed on her bum and sighed. She could do somersaults on the trampoline really well now and she’d hoped that doing them on the track wouldn’t be too much harder.

  “You’re not getting enough he
ight,” Clare said, as Tara had known she would. “You need to jump up first, and then tuck round.” Tara nodded and jogged back to join the end of the line again. Not wanting to waste any time, she practised jumping as high as she could on the track. She realized how much she’d been relying on the bounce of the trampoline to get her up into the air. When she looked up again, Jasmine was performing a perfect tumble run – round-off, flick, straight back somersault. Tara closed her eyes and imagined herself doing that.

  “Wakey-wakey!” she heard someone say behind her. She opened her eyes with a start and blushed. It was Sam. Tara smiled uncertainly at her and bounced a few steps along the track to catch up to her place in the queue. It was nearly her turn again. This time, as she ran, she thought height, height, height all the way along the track, and when she got to the end, she flew up higher than she ever thought she could. Her body spun round in a tucked position and her feet shot out just in time for her to land on them. She wobbled forward a little, but tightened all her muscles and held onto her standing position.

  “Brilliant!” cried Clare. Tara glowed with delight. She could hardly believe she’d managed the landing. She bounded back to the line with a huge smile on her face.

  “Did you see that?” she squealed, high-fiving Jasmine and Megan at the same time. They nodded enthusiastically.

  “Awesome,” said Megan.

  “I can’t wait to go again,” Tara gushed.

  “It’s addictive,” agreed Lindsay. “When I first managed it, I felt like I never wanted to do anything else.”

  “I want to do everything else!” exclaimed Tara, and she laughed excitedly.

  The others laughed, too. “Do another one like that first,” Jasmine said, smiling, and then stepped forward for her turn.

  “It was probably a fluke,” Tara said to Lindsay and Megan.

  “No way,” said Megan.