It's not called gym-nice-tics

[Antione Hoefflin]

Ant walked into the gymnastics studio, shrugging off his winter coat and flicking the lights on. He knew it was early in the morning, he knew it was cold outside, but he didn't see either of those as a reason to call training off. He was training possible future Olympians, though he doubted any of them actually had the drive to get themselves that far, even little miss Libby with all of her sponsorship and training. Beneath it all, she was still just a girl trying to get through life. She did still have a couple of years to polish herself up.

The coach stretched his arms above his head and looked at his shoulder as it made a very audible pop, but didn't pay it anymore attention as he headed into the office and grabbed his clipboard. He was planning to push them today, and he knew that none of them were going to like it.

Walking back out, he took note of the gymnasts that had arrived and were stretching out, getting ready to get started. He knew that they would expect him to scatter them around the gym, but he had a completely different plan for that day.

"Once you've finished mucking around!" He finally barked. "I want you all to go line up at the vault! Boys to the left, girls to the right!" He ignore the groans that came from a few of them and clapped his hands sharply when he felt they weren't moving fast enough. "Do not make me get a whistle!" He warned, as he knew that the shrill of a whistle would be close to deafening in the studio.

He appraised each of the gymnasts as they marched over to the two vault runways and lined up as they were asked, he took note of the ones who had dropped more weight and those who had gained muscle. "We'll work this as a Chase me Charlie type thing. As soon as they gymnast before you as touched the mat on the other side of the vault, the next will start. However, the trick you do is up to you." He stood by the boys' vault and his assistant stood by the girls' table.

Cara-Jean Kitchi
Elizabeth Toman
Fionn Paquet
Gavriila Shahar
Serenity Oliver
Stefan Eder

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself as she walked over to the sink and brushed her teeth before she started working on her hair. Unlike some of the other gymnasts she had worked with in the past, and present come to think of it, she had never been interested in all the glitter and sparkles that girls put into their hair, so she just brushed her hair back and quickly worked it into a French braid, which was then wound into a bun and fastened into place with a hairnet, pins and lots of hairspray.

Coughing, she waved a hand in front of her face to clear the air from the cloud of spray, and began to make sure that her skin was dry before she walked over and slipped into the clothes she had brought in from the bedroom, she pulled the tracksuit on over the leotard, and walking out into the bedroom, she slipped her feet into her sports shoes, grabbed the gym bag from the bed and left the room. As she slipped down the hall, she could hear movement in another room, and figured that it would be Libby also getting ready for training.

Leaving the House, she jogged over to the gymnasium and headed to the studio. Stopping by the benches that line the wall, she toed her shoes off and slipped out of the tracksuit, before walking over to the mat and began to stretch out. Arms reaching toward the ceiling before her legs spread in different directions and she went into the splits easily.

She looked up from a stretch as Coach Hoefflin began speaking and lying down, she swung her hips around and easily stood up before she marched over to the vault runway.

Finding herself at the front of the line, she quickly chalked up her hands and feet and then stood at the end of the runway. Bouncing up and down and giving herself a shake, she worked out what she was going to do and started her run. With a salute she powered down the runway, she hit her mark and went into a round-off onto the springboard, did a half-turn while moving from springboard to the vault table. Pushing off the table, she did a forward layout with one and a half twists before her feet found the mat, her knees bending to take the shock of the impact and she straightened up as she threw her hands into the air. Dropping her hands, she jogged back to the end of the line.

[Serenity Oliver]

"Stop hitting me." Serenity groaned quietly so as not to disturb her room mate, as she tried to ward off the cat's paw, as Luna smacked her every time the alarm sounded. "I'm turning it off already." She silenced her quiet alarm and slipped out of the bed. Tip-toeing to the bathroom, she got herself dressed for gymnastics and quickly pulled her blonde hair back into a high pony tail, which quickly became a messy bun.

Grabbing her gymbag and shoes from beside her bed, she slipped out of the room and headed down the stairs, where she slipped the shoes on. She was tempted to wait for Kai, but she didn't know if he had already left so she left the House and headed over to the gym and down to the studio.

As she stretched out, she listened to the coach, and couldn't hold back a groan when he mentioned that they were working on vault. However, she rose to her feet and marched over with the others.

Try as she might, she found herself second in line, and she watched as Cara charged down the runway, trying to pick up any visual tips from the other girl as she could, but before she knew it, it was her turned to go. After quickly chalking up, she gave a salute and then charged down the runway. Copying Cara's lead, she also did a Yurchenko vault (round-off onto springboard), however, her vault wasn't as flashy as the younger girl's, and after pushing off the vault table, she did a simple front tucked salto, and straightened out in time to touch down with her feet, taking a rather large bounce to correct her balance and then still stepped out. Dropping her head, she headed back to the line. She didn't think vault would ever get any easier for her.

[Elizabeth Toman]

"Of all the stupid times of the morning to get up!" Libby grumbled as she rolled out of bed and stalked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. After a shower, she felt slightly more awake, and began to get herself ready for gymnastics. She took care to get her hair just right, and then added some glitter spray to it. She then applied just the right amount of make-up, once again glittery, and slipped into her clothes.

As she stalked into the studio, she wasn't at all surprised to see that she wasn't the first, though she was sure that she couldn't have been too far behind the other two girls, and she quickly went about stretching out her muscles, at least the walk from the dorms started warming her up.

She beamed from ear to ear as they marched over to the vault, though her smile dropped when she didn't make it there first and she stood there as she watched the other two. She was tempted to yell "shark" as Serenity pressed off the vault table, but held back the urge. Then it was her turn.

Chalking up, she stood at the end of the runway, gave a salute and then started her run. Like the others, she also did a Yurchenko, but hers was different again. With a half-turn preflight, she did a back round-off onto the springboard and as she pushed off the vault table, she did a front piked salto with one and a half twists, straightening out in time to touch her feet onto the mat, gave a smug smile as she stuck her landing and then marched her way back to the others, giving the one girl left a challenging look.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn headed back to the House from the barn and grabbed the gym bag that he had left just inside the door and then walked over to the gym. He was pleased that he was allowed to slip into the barn before normal hours, which gave him a chance to skip out Spur's stall, though he didn't feed the gelding his breakfast as he didn't want to start a mutiny among the horses.

Walking into the studio, he slipped out of his shoes and tracksuit and started stretching out, smiling a greeting to the others. He listened attentively as their coach spoke about what they were going to do and gave a small whimper when vault was mentioned. Though he had been working on his vault skills, he didn't think he was getting any better.

Marching over to the vault with the others, he lined up behind the girls before giving a wolfish grin and stepped over to the other vault, where he chalked up his hands and feet and gave Kai a weak grin. "Just don't make me look like a complete beginner when you have your turn, please?" He knew that the other boy was much better on the vault then he was.

Raising a hand in salute, he made his way down the runway, deciding half way down to do a simple move called a Roche. Powering down, he jumped onto the springboard, pushed off the vault table and went into a tucked salto and did two rotations, as he came out of the second, he did a half turn and straightened out to land on the mat, facing the vault. Things were going great, he had cleared the vault, he didn't snap anything as he landed, however he did need to take a step to rebalance himself. Dropping his head and shoulders, he headed back to the start. Since there were only two of them, he didn't even get a chance to watch his friend's vault.

[Stefan Eder]

Kai rolled out of bed as his alarm clock sounded, blearily reaching for the snooze button just to shut off the noise. Once he'd hit it, he spent a moment finding the button to turn off the alarm properly, then turned on the lights. How he would do this once he'd been assigned a roommate, he wasn't sure just yet! It wasn't a problem at the moment, though. He put on his gymnastics uniform and then the tracksuit over it, wincing each time he was expected to raise his arms. Once dressed, he grabbed a small bar, small enough that it wouldn't bother him, but keep his stomach from mutiny.

Once inside the gym, Stefan took off everything except his proper uniform, leaving the other things on one of the benches before he went to stretch out next to Finn. He gave the only other male gymnast a smile, then turned to his own work. He blocked out the twinges of pain as much as possible, afraid that Coach Hoefflin would kick him out of practice, and stretched as much as possible. By the time the coach had barked out their next set of orders, he felt somewhat better about the practice, and he thought about what he could do off of the vault. "I doubt I'll be able to do that," he grinned at Finn at the boy's plea, "But only if you don't make me look too bad at the others, if we do that."

As soon as Finn had touched down, Kai saluted, then took off running, jumping off of the springboard and doing a half turn before he reached the vault. His shoulder and ribs shrieked in pain and his push was off, although he did his half turn and layout. He landed to the side of the vault and stepped out, frowning as he realized how close to the edge of the mat he'd come. Shaking his head, he returned to the start, lining up behind Finn as he considered how he could perhaps not repeat that performance.

[Antione Hoefflin]

Although the coach was standing by the vault table the boy's would be using, he was still watching everything, and wouldn't be slow in holding back the criticism. His eyebrow rose as his smallest girl did her run first, as he wouldn't have expected her to go first and he watched her closely. "Kitchi! You locked your knees during the layout! Try it again!" And the comments continued, Ant didn't even seem to pause for breath: "Oliver! Watch your centre! Paquet! How about learning to walk before you run! A simple vault would have surficed! Toman! Too much bend in your knees when you straightened out for the landing!" He frowned as he watched his second boy, steeping forward as it looked as though the gymnast was going to step off the mat. "Are you awake yet, Eder?"

Once they went through another rotation, with Ant keeping a close eye in Kai this time, he clapped his hands to draw their attention to him, before Cara took the vault again. "Kitchi and Oliver, you can both go and work on the beam! Toman you can go to the bars!"

He looked down at Finn and Kai. "The two of you can do some work on the highbar. Eder, I want a word with you first!" He arched his eyebrows and nodded as the three he had sent away from the vault moved and he waited for the other boy to approach him and he led him away from the group. "Just do me one little thing. Reach down and touch your toes and then rise up, slow-ly." It was the perfect test to ask a gymnast to do when they were trying to hide back or stomach pain.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara cringed, seemed to draw into herself as the coach yelled at her, and all she did was bow her head as she walked back to the end of the line to stand behind Libby, who was already powering down the runway.

As soon as the other girl's feet touched the mat, Cara powered down the runway, hit her mark, di the round-off onto the springboard, half-turn while moving from springboard to the vault table. Pushing off the table, she did a forward layout with one and a half twists before her feet found the mat, her knees bending to take the shock of the impact and she straightened up as she threw her hands into the air. She bit down on her lip as she dropped her hands, hoping against hope that she hadn't locked her knees this time as she jogged back to the end of the line. She went though the vault in her head, trying to work out what each part of her body was doing at every moment, though it was hard with the vault. However, as she had been a competitive gymnast for the past decade, she really had no excuse for being sloppy.

She was about to take another run when the sound of clapped hands halted her in her tracks. She closed her eyes in relief when she was sent to the beam, and headed over to the apparatus, already working on the routine in her head.

She looked at the springboard at the end of the beam and then completely ignored it as she went to stand to the side of the beam. Placing her hands on the four inches of workspace, just narrower than shoulder-width, and mounted with a press to handstand, then moved her legs into the splits and did a full turn, then lowered herself to a clear pike support (after the full turn, she straightened her legs, then piked them between her arms and moved her body through so that she had moved her hips above the beam and supported herself with her arms before swinging her legs back through her arms so that she was standing on the beam and moved into a squat), she then did a triple turn in tuckstand, then went onto a tucked Arabian back handspring (to turn herself around), followed instantly by a back handspring. She then did two back handsprings, a layout full (stretched salto with a full turn) then a Korbut.

Next came a front Aerial, Grigoras, Back Pike and Straddle Full. A double turn in split. Switch ring, layout step-out, tucked full, back tuck and a sheep jump. sissone and a split jump. She hated the arty-farty side of the beam routines, but they were required. She then paused a moment as she shook her head to clear it, then bounded forward to finish the routine with a round off and a Gainer stretched back salto with a triple twist, off the side of the beam, bending her knees just enough, and then straightened up with her arms in the air. Ignoring the fact that her left shoulder was now a furnace, the competition smile vanished from her face and she lowered her arms, her eyes moving to the ground at the same time as she went through the routine in her head, trying to work out what she could have done better.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity bowed her head as her attempted vault was all but ripped apart by the coach, and he hardly said anything. She knew that trying to do something that was out of her league was going to crash and burn on top of her, but she felt like she had a lot to prove when she was competing against Cara and Libby. Yes, it was only training, but it may as well be a competition every time she walked in here.

As soon as Cara had completed her second vault, Reni sprinted down the runway again, this time she was going to do something she knew she could stick. Hitting the springboard with her feet, she did a vault called a Korbut (full twist on to the vault table, she pushed off the table with a handspring and a full twist off). She grinned ear from ear as she threw her arms up and out as she bent her knees on landing, doing a small victory dance as she skipped off the mat and headed back to the start, ecstatic that she had stuck her landing.

She was pleased when she was sent to the beam, she still wasn't as good as the other two girls, but it was one apparatus where she knew she could hold her own ground. Arriving at the beam, she pulled a springboard up as she worked out her routine, trying to ignore Cara as the other girl started her own flashy routine. Taking a deep breath, she put on her game face as she jogged backwards away from the spring board, gave a huge smile and a salute. She bounced on the spot and sprang forward, ready to get started: She bounced onto the springboard and did a simple cartwheel mount, then went into a split leap with half turn, followed by a backward roll to handstand with a quarter turn, onto a straddle jump from side stand with a quarter turn. Next she did a walkover backward with stoop-through of one leg. Standing she went into an arabesque and then a fouette hop with half turn to land in scale. Next was a pretty simple move called a Tic-Toc (a walkover forward and then backward so she finished in the spot she had started from). Then she sashayed from one end of the beam to the other with a split leap in the middle and finished with an
Aerial walkover forward with full twist for her dismount. Her grin split her face as she stuck the landing.

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby openly glowered at the coach as he critiqued her vault. How dare he! This was her best event, her vault were so close to being perfect that she should getting a perfect ten! "Yes, Coach!" She called back instead of what was on the tip of her tongue.

She ground her teeth as she waited for the girl in front of her to go, rolling her eyes at the baby vault, but it wasn't time for any snarky comments as she powered her way down the mat toward the springboard. Half-turn preflight, a back round-off onto the springboard and as she pushed off the vault table, she did a front piked salto with one and a half twists, straightening out in time to touch her feet onto the mat, gave a smug smile as she stuck her landing for the second time and then marched her way back to the others. It was a freaking pike, how could her legs have been bent going into the landing the first time around?

She snorted a laugh as Cara's next run was halted and beamed from ear to ear as she was directed to the uneven bars and the other girls to the beam. At least her apparatus offered a challenge, unlike the silly little beam. She was sure that the boys could even throw out a decent beam routine and they'd never been on that apparatus before.

Arriving at the bars, she chalked up her hands, moved the springboard to where she needed it, offered a cursory salute and then started: With a round off onto the springboard, she did an arabian salto over low bar to hang on high bar, cast to handstand  followed by a move called a Stalder (free straddle circle backwards through handstand) with 1.5 pirouette and then a straddled jaeger half (swing backward to salto forward with half turn) + Straddled Jaeger (swing backward to salto forward).

Cast handstand to back giant to double turn, back giant with full turn then a blind change, followed by a forward giant in L-grip with one and a half turns on one arm, followed by a Markelov (Swing backward to straddle with half turn in flight) and the a Gienger (handstand followed by a swing backward and release after a three quaters of a revolution around the bar).

Cast Handstand, to Toe-On Marinich, to Uprise, Clear hip, to Chusovitina pirouette (backward giant with hip full turn), then a Hindorf (clear hip circle with counter straddle), a piked Tkachev (swing up like a back giant and releases the bar in an piked position. She flies over it with her back to it, then sits up and catches the bar again).

Cast, to  tweddle (sole circle with counter straddle with a half turn), then a Ezhova (swing backwards to a half turning flight to low bar). Followed by a Khorkina (shaposhnikova with a half turn in flight), followed by a backward giant, a Def (swing forward and salto backward stretched with a one and a half turn), followed by a Strong (swing forward with a one and a half turn over low bar)

Cast Handstand, then a  Stalder shoot to high bar and a cast. Shushunova (clear hip circle with flight backwards to high bar), two giants and ending with a Ray dismount (double twisting, double straight salto). She had too much forward momentum though when she landed and had to take a step to remain her balance as she threw her arms up. She dropped her arms, stomping her way to the chalk box again, glaring at the assistant coach, challenging her to critique the routine.

[Fionn Paquet]

"Sorry, Coach." Finn muttered as he was called out for trying a vault he wasn't ready for and by the time he got back, he had no chance to think of what to do next as he was powering down the mat again. Bouncing off the spring board he pushed off the table with a handspring and a full twist off and nodded as he managed to stick the landing with no more than a slight bounce, which didn't rip as many points away as the step-out had.

Heading back to the beginning he grinned when they were assigned other areas, though he frowned as Kai was called away as Finn turned to jog over to the high bar.

Standing under the bar, he thought through what he wanted to do. The parallel bars was where he did really well, but he had no problem holding his own with the high bar. With the help of the assistant coach, he was boosted up and grabbed hold of the bar, and his routine started: Chin up pullover mount, cast to handstand, undergrip giant, pirrouette, back giant, tok full turn to mixed grip, yamawaki (underswing to release over bar, full turn to regrip the bar), free hip, giant to full-out stretched dismount. He smiled as he almost stuck the landing, working through where he had gone wrong as he walked back over to the chalk-box.

[Stefan Eder]

Kai nodded as the coach reprimanded him, quite rightly, “Yes sir.” Being awake was certainly not his problem. Maybe it'd be better if he wasn't. He jogged back to the start, ignoring the fact that the impact of his feet made themselves felt, and lined up once more. Too distracted to do anything different, Kai ran forward and repeated the vault that he had just done, this time preparing himself for the protest from his shoulders and managing to counteract it to the point where he only needed the slightest step out to rebalance at the end. Still not great, especially for one of his better apparati, but what could he do about it today?

He was about to head off to the high bar as they were reassigned, already resigning himself to the pain in his shoulder and considering if he maybe should have gone to see Serenity, but it was too late. Coach had noticed. He turned away from his path and walked towards the man, following him to an out-of-the-way spot. The exercise he was given, he almost wanted to refuse, knowing that it would tell the coach exactly what he wouldn't have wanted to tell the man. However, it was too late to hide it now, and he bent down, grimacing as he stretched his shoulder and compressed his ribs in the exercise, and rising more quickly than one might consider 'slow', trying to relieve the pain in his shoulder.

[Antione Hoefflin]

For once, Ant's attention wasn't on the entire gym - he had an assistant coach to blast the gymnasts instead. His complete attention was just on the one gymnast in front of him as he watched Kai carefully, his eyebrows as the boy rose out of the stretch - one that was often used to check for back pain - though the fact that Kai didn't exactly follow the instruction to rise slowly, it was a stretch good enough to let him know that something was amiss, even if the boy wasn't going to be completely honest about it. "Change of plans." He said, his voice still low enough not to be booming across the studio. "You are to go work on floor exercises. Feel free to wear the harness so that you aren't putting as much stress on your body. However, you turn up not in shape for training, I will have you running laps." The harness was normally used to help the gymnasts perfect moves, but it also took a lot of the stress off the shoulders as the bungee connecting the harness to the runners also helped spring the gymnast up again.

He finally returned his attention to the entire studio. "You can all repeat the routines you just finished. This time preform them as though you are being judged by every single move you make!"

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara's shoulders slumped at the sound of Coach Hoefflin's voice, though she quickly regained her composure before the coach could see her and turn everyone's attention on to her.

She walked over to the box and chalked her hands and feet once more and headed back to the side of the beam, her game face once again in place, the pain in her shoulder was there, but it was no more than a buzz in the back of her mind. She placed her hands above the beam, visualising the routine before she touched the beam, trying to work out if she could swap some of her handsprings for aerials or one-handed cartwheels, but quickly shook her head as she didn't want to bring attention to her shoulder; she couldn't afford being pulled aside.

Shaking her head to clear it, she placed her hands on the beam, and mounted with a press to handstand, then moved her legs into the splits and did a full turn, then lowered herself to a clear pike support, triple turn in tuckstand, tucked double Arabian back handspring (to turn herself around), followed instantly by a back handspring. She then did two back handsprings, a layout full and a Korbut.

then the front Aerial, Grigoras, Back Pike and Straddle Full. A double turn in split. Switch ring, layout step-out, tucked full, back tuck and a sheep jump. sissone and a split jump. Finally she bounded forward into the Gainer dismount. Her feet found the mat at the end of the triple twist, knees bending just enough to rebalance her body from the momentum, and then straightened up with her arms in the air.

She blew out her breath as she lowered her arms, biting down on her lip, knowing that she'd almost lost the entire routine when she changed the Arabian into a double, but had managed to catch herself with the handspring that followed it, though it would have cost her points from any judge who had been watching.

[Serenity Oliver]

Reni couldn't help but pout when they were told to repeat their routines, she was hoping to move on to another part of the studio; although she was comfortable on the beam, she was much more comfortable on the floor.

Walking back to the starting spot, she bounced on the spot and sprang forward, ready to get started; bouncing on the springboard and quickly changed the mount to a jump to handstand, to handspring. She didn't square her hips enough though before the end of the handspring and placed her foot on the edge of the beam and overbalanced, ending with her slipping off. Biting down on her lip, she stepped back onto the beam and quickly continued the routine by quickly moving into a split leap with half turn, a backward roll to handstand with a quarter turn, onto a straddle jump from side stand with a quarter turn, a walkover backward with stoop-through of one leg.

Standing tall; she went into an arabesque and then a fouette hop with half turn to land in scale, then a Tic-Toc. She skipped from one end of the beam to the other with a split leap in the middle and finished with an Aerial walkover forward with full twist for her dismount. Her grin wasn't as confident this time around and she hunched her shoulders to her ears as she waited to get balled out for changing the beginning of the routine.