A Test of Strength

[Deleted]

Eira lumbered around from building to building in the early morning haze. She moved slowly until her body had woken up along side her mind. Getting up at four o'clock in the morning had severely disagreed with her normal routine, but it took at least an hour for her to wake up and adjust. The outside air was still crisp and cool, waking her senses with a sudden burst. Homer was still in a deep slumber when Eira had gone to check on him, and see how he was settling in.

Once back into her room, she changed from her pajamas to an old leotard that had molded to her body shape. She pulled on a pair of old pajamas to go with it and trudged out to the gymnasium. Roaming the night she arrived at Blue Ridge allowed her to become comfortable with the different studios inside. It was quite easy for her to get to the gymnastics studio, but she hadn't gone inside before.

She slipped through the doors and looked around, pleased with the relative set up and walked in further. With her bag sitting on her shoulder and her inhaler in her hand, she walked over to the mats and took a deep breath of the medicine.

[Antione Hoefflin]

That old saying about not being able to teach old dogs new tricks was good for describing Ant. Even when his career had been ended all those years ago in Sydney, he still awoke in the wee hours of the morning and exercised.

Once he'd had his protein shake, he headed down to the gym to get ready for the day. Walking into the office he grabbed his clipboard and turned the computer on and checked his emails. He knew that he had a couple of new gymnasts, and he was looking forward to getting to know them over the summer while ninety percent of the rest of the team was away for the summer.

It wasn't until the gymnasts were there that he walked out of the office, clipboard in hand and surveyed what the girls were doing. "Kitchi, you can work on the fluidity of your floor!" He barked, not even bothering with a greeting.

His blue eyes then turned to his two new girls sitting on the mat and he gave a smile that didn't touch his eyes. "If you will both come with me." He led the way to his office. Walking in he turned to look at the two girls, easily sizing them up and the opened the cupboard that looked like lockers and took out two gymnastics uniforms: two leotards, tracksuit and black back pack. "What you are wearing will be fine for now. This afternoon, you will arrive in your uniform." He didn't leave his comment open for argument.

"When you've put them on the benches, I will see you both at the beam." He strode past them and stood between the two beams, waiting for the girls. "Show me what you can do."

Tag:
Cara-Jean Kitchi
Gavriila Shahar

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara shook her head and turned toward the alarm clock by her bed as the alarm went off. She had spent the night working on her summer reading assignments, and now it was time for a shower to wake herself up and head to the gym. She needed to arrive in the studio looking like the professional athlete that she had been conditioned into, and that meant not showing any flaws.

After going down and tending to Kit, she headed back to her dorm and showered. Standing in front of the bathroom mirror in her leotard, she checked to make sure that any bruises were covered, though the one around her neck needed the help of a little make-up to hide it, and she made sure to blend the make-up so that it didn't look like she had applied it. With her hair in a French braid and then wound it into a tight bun that was held into place with a zillion hair pins and hair spray.

Pulling the tracksuit on, she pushed her feet into her running shoes and then made her way down to the gymnasium and through to the studio. She was a little surprised to see that she wasn't the first to arrive, but shrugged it off as she took the tracksuit off, folded it and placed it next to her bag on a bench, She toed off her shoes and tucked them under the bench.

Walking over to the mat, she began her well rehearsed warm-up routine, keeping her head down and keeping to herself. Training was not the time to socialise... well, that, and the fact that she always had trouble socialising with other anyway.

She glanced up through her lashes as the coach appeared and spoke. "Yes, Coach." She said in her whisper-soft voice. Getting to her feet, she walked back over to her bag and pulled out her I-pod and walked over to the floor area and plugged the device into the stereo. Clenching her fists she opened her hands and shook them, an interesting reaction to the spots dancing in her vision, but it worked for her. Pushing play on the device, she jogged to her starting spot, centre right, of the mat and sat down, left leg curled under her body, the ball of right foot on the ground with her knee bent at a right angle, torso resting on her thigh, left arm wrapped around her leg and the fingers of her right hand gently on the floor. She counted silently as she waited for the music to start, and as soon as the music for Fall Out Boy's My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up) began to play, she started her routine.

[Gavriila Shahar]

Gavriila woke up at four in the morning. No alarm clock was needed, her body was used to waking up that early. Getting out of bed, she saw that it was still dark outside. She had a light blue leotard on and jeans along with a tank top over the leo. Pulling on boots, she headed down to the barn to feed and take care of Mngnh.

"Hello, my beautiful!" She said in Hebrew to the mare who perked her head up at the sound of Gavriila's voice, she feed the mare and checked the water. It was a habit of hers, though not necessarily a bad habit to have. Checking the watch she saw that it was 4:30. She quickly cleaned the stall, moving the mare to the cross ties to clean it. Putting the mare back in her stall, she locked the door, and headed to the gymnasium.

Normally, she would be doing training with her mother right now. Gymnastics started at 5. That left half an hour to train before she had gymnastics. She threw a few punches and kicks at a sand bag, before stretching some more until she was limber enough to try a few roundhouse kicks. Checking her watch, she quickly threw her black, curly hair up into a tight braided bun. Securing it with a two ponytail holders,and quite a few bobbypins, she left to go to where the gymnastics was held.

Arriving at 4:50 she sat on a blue mat and stretched the different muscles. Gymnastics and Mossad training was somewhat similar but they used different muscles, so she had to stretch out the muscles that she hadn't used a few minutes before.

Once she was finished stretching, she adjusted any strands of hair that may have fallen out of the bun. The corners of her lips turned upwards a bit, but that was as close to a smile as her coach got. She nodded in acknowledgment, and followed another girl.

She was given another leotard, a backpack-presumably to put clothes in?-, and a track suit. "Ofcourse Sir." She stated, respectively with a nod of her head. She was standing at ease, her hands were held behind her back, though her feet weren't quite a shoulder length apart.

She quickly shed her boots, tank top, and jeans, and put them in the back pack neatly along with the other leo and track suit. She out the new leotard and track suit in another compartment of the back pack, so she wouldn't get confused as to where it was.

She walked towards the beam, after putting her back pack on a bench. Keeping a beat in her head, she lifted herself up onto the wooden beam and began. Starting off, one of her legs was in front of her body and the other was behind. They were both in mid air, and her toes were pointed. Her legs were straight, and then she landed on the solid piece of wood. Her feet left the beam once more doing a leap, and she was half way across it by now. She did a flip and landed at the edge of the beam. Doing back flips, she was half way across the beam. Her hands were sweating, and one of them slipped an inch as she landed one of her flips. She managed to catch it-and herself- before she made a fool of her routine. She did a 360 degree turn on one foot, while the other leg was held out to the side. She barely managed the 360 degree turn, but did it. Breathing once more, she kept the beat and rhythm in her head. Doing a twist, she landed at the end of the beam. Dismounting she did a back walkover to end her routine.

---

OOC: Sorry if I messed up any of gymnastic terms!