Hong Kong! by Giada De Laurentiis

Author:Giada De Laurentiis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-12-04T05:00:00+00:00

The students looked like a bunch of bouncy balls. Everywhere Alfie looked, girls and boys sprang across mats, flipped over bars, and twisted through the air.

“There she is,” Emilia said, pointing to the other side of the room.

Ying was off to the side, separated from the others and working privately with a coach and another girl. They were doing some sort of routine that looked almost like ballet. She and the girl dipped into a low, graceful slide before moving back up then twisting their bodies this way and that.

Alfie and Emilia watched for a few minutes as Ying and the girl worked on their moves with the coach. They’d never seen anything like it—a combination of dance and gymnastics and maybe even martial arts that was both graceful and powerful. The other girl lifted Ying almost to her shoulders, then gently set her down as they bent in a wavelike movement.

“I thought she was doing regular gymnastics,” Emilia said. “This is amazing.”

Alfie totally agreed. Their coach dismissed them, but Ying obviously wanted to run through the section again. She kept shaking her head as if she felt it could be done better. Alfie realized that he’d thought she was irresponsible because she never showed up on time; he’d thought she was lazy because she never wanted to help her parents. It turned out she’d been working hard all along—harder even than he’d worked at soccer, or anything else, really.

“Think we should go over to her and tell her she needs to go home?” Emilia asked.

“I’m afraid to interrupt her,” Alfie said.

“Yeah. Me too.”

Ying and her partner finally did stop. The coach gave them high fives.

“We’d better get her,” Alfie said. “Otherwise she’ll be here all night.”

They walked across the gym toward Ying. When she saw them, a surprised look spread across her face.

“Ying, you’re amazing!” Emilia said. “We had no idea.”

“Thanks,” she said. She stopped for a drink of water. “Wait—if the two of you are here, it must mean there’s trouble at the restaurant.”

“There is,” Emilia said. “You’d better head home.”

“Oh no. What happened?” Ying asked.

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