Dismount (Off Balance Book 5) by Lucia Franco

Author:Lucia Franco [Franco, Lucia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-07-11T18:30:00+00:00

Thirty-Three

The four of us stood in a circle with our hands in the middle again.

Each coach told us what to do and where we needed to make small tweaks to our routines. Some coaches even suggested pointers to the others. We knew the risks involved with a last-minute change even though we were still prepared if it came to this. Stepping out of bounds, twisting an ankle, over rotating. Anything was possible if your body is out of sync for even a millisecond. We came together and discussed what we had to do in order to take gold.

"Ready, girlies," the smallest one said with the brightest eyes. She sounded like she still hadn't reached puberty even though she was fifteen. "On the count of three."

"One… Two… Three."

"Phenomenal Four!"

We split up and I stood to the side, cheering on my teammate. I was third to go in this rotation.

The music started and I watched as she began, holding my breath when she executed her first tumbling pass like it was second nature to her. I could breathe.

There was something about seeing someone else do a trick first that brought a sense of relief to me. Now I knew I could do it too. Seeing her skip and leap across the floor to the other corner and then complete another extremely difficult tumbling pass, one that even I couldn't do, made me feel even better the second time. I was eager to get out there and perform.

"Is it true?" one of my teammates asked. "Do you really need a kidney?"

I blinked, confused for a moment until I remembered that the world knew about my secret now.

I nodded hesitantly. "It's true. After the Games are over, I'm on a flight back home to start dialysis immediately."

Her eyes softened, but not with pity like I expected. There was a sparkle of admiration that caught me by surprise. My head tilted to the side.

"Wow," she whispered. "You're, like, really tough."

My cheeks warmed and I laughed, feeling slightly embarrassed. "I wouldn't say I'm tough, just hardheaded."

"Do you hurt? Like are you in pain now? You don't look like you are."

"Not really right this minute, but once I sit down and unwind is when I’ll start to feel the side effects. Everything tenses up and the pain sets in. It makes me feel like I'm an eighty-seven-year-old and strips me of me. Doing gymnastics numbs that feeling. It makes me feel like nothing is wrong with me."

She stared at me for a long minute like she was trying to figure me out. "When I heard the news, I didn't believe it. I honestly thought it was a hoax to drive attention. There was no way, not after I saw how hard you trained at camp with everyone. And then seeing you here? I still didn't believe it even though I'd read about it numerous times. Sorry if I'm being rude, but I had to ask. You just seem so…normal."

I am normal, I wanted to say.

I wasn't sure whether to smile or not, and that was because I wasn't sure how to feel.

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