Citius, Altius, Fortius

[Antione Hoefflin]

Ant loved early mornings, reminded him of his days as a gymnast in training, and the early morning training sessions were a great motivation to get the kids to warm up quickly, for no more reason than to keep themselves warm.

Today's plan was to work with each of his gymnasts, especially now that he had two new gymnasts to add into the rotations. Nicole was a good gymnast, as long as he ignored her barbs and kept her occupied enough to not harass the likes of Karina; who was coming along well in her own right. He just wished he had another person on hand who could give the girl the one on one training she needed to bring her up to speed - not that he was ever imagine of trying to turn her into an elite overnight, because that was impossible for any human being.

He glanced down at his clipboard and nodded as he looked at the names of the siblings who were hoping to join the team, not that he was going to turn them away, and remembered seeing the both of them at competitions he had taken the team to in the past, and knew they were at least good, and would help Blue Ridge remain on top.

Bridgette Iris Beaumont
Eira Gould
Karina Fuchs
Nicole Victors
Wesley Gould

[Eira Gould]

Eira cursed herself for not practicing at all during the move, or even staying on her gymnastics sleep schedule. Her alarm sounded like air horns being blown on either side of her head. It took every ounce of strength she had to even roll over far enough to hit the button. The scowl on her face didn’t disappear when she dressed herself in an old leotard or when she scarfed down a quick smoothie.

Her lungs started to sting in the cool air, but she didn’t feel that dreaded and familiar squeezing. She took a deep breathe with the little inhaler she brought with her everywhere. Her medication would be enough to get her through a full practice easily, but was just a precaution to take a quick breath of it. The last thing she could handle was embarrassing herself with an asthma attack.

She couldn’t help but smile as she strode into the gym, knowing she had just barely beaten her brother. Her grin and swagger carried her over to the benches, where she sat her bag down. Eira contemplated just taking her sweats off and warming up, but then decided to greet her new coach first. She did her best to covey cool confidence as she walked up to him. It wasn’t the first time she had spotted him, although she was far more focused on his gymnast. Eira believed in her talent wholeheartedly, but there was no way she was up to par with his protégé. ”Hi, Coach Hoefflin,”she smiled calmly.

[Wesley Gould]

Wes has woken up well before his alarm ever went off and was simply laying in bed, staring at the ceiling through the dark. It felt good to wake up and have time to gather himself rather than wake up in a panic and rush. Besides,early morning silence and no socialization was just how he preferred to start the day anyway.

Once he did finally manage to roll out of bed, it didn't take long to gather what he needed and down a shake.

He jogged from his house to the gymnasium, trying to get out of the crisp air as fast as he could. Wes had slipped through the doors quickly and took a quick look around. He wanted to sigh, but knew better and dropped his things by where he saw Eira's bags and caught up to her over by the coach. A fresh sense of terror washed over him, making him wonder if he was going to get his head ripped off on the first day.

[Karina Fuchs]

Kari woke up to her alarm blaring, and rolled over to shut it off. She got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. Once that was done, she walked over to where she'd laid out her practice uniform, getting dressed and then pulling on sweats and a sweatshirt over it. She pulled her hair back and grabbed a banana, unpeeling it as she walked out of her door and finishing it before she'd reached the front door to the Blue Ribbon House. She could see that she wasn't the only one heading in that direction, but didn't allow that to hurry her - She was slightly early, or as she preferred to put it, right on schedule.

She entered the studio and dropped off her bag, kicking off her shoes and pulling off her warm extra layer. That done, she headed for the mat to begin stretching while she waited for Coach to sort out the two new students - she didn't recognize them, so they had to be new.

[Nicole Victors]

Nikki stretched as her alarm went off, she had been awake for about half an hour already, but didn't see the point in rising until the alarm sounded, and she didn't feel the slightest bit guilty with the blaring radio music that now filled her room, no doubt able to be heard through the walls, if not the floor.

She took her time getting dressed, ignoring the tacky club uniform she had been given her first day of practice. If the coach said anything, she'd explain that she was sure that it was only for competitions, bat her eyelashes, that kind of thing, and then get on with what she was supposed to be doing. She smiled at her reflection in the mirror, a perfectly made-up face and pink and blue glitter streaked her hair to match her just as sparkling leotard. After she had pulled her hair back into a high pony-tail, she blew a kiss to her reflection, grabbed her gym bag and headed to the studio.

Arriving at the studio, she dumped her bag, kicked off her shoes and tracksuit and then walked over to the mat to begin stretching, taking this time to check out her new competition, which of course didn't include Karina. The girl was barely passable as a gymnast and by the time she could even be classed as competition, Nikki would be aging out.

[Joanne Blackthorne]

Jo's hands were very definitely not shaking as she made her way across the campus towards where she'd been reliably informed that she would find the gymnastics studio. It wasn't as if she had any reason to be nervous; she was damn good, and she knew it. After all, she probably had as much strength as anyone else in the running, and, though she wasn't quite so keen to admit it, she had an innate dancer's elegance of movement which had served her well in the past.

No reason to be nervous. Except, that was, for her nerves.

Not having been around for very long at all, the brunette hadn't been issued with anything 'official', so to speak, and so she simply wore her own leotard- plain black, although she hadn't been able to escape a light scattering of glitter across the chest- under her warmer clothes as she made her way in through the doors of the gymnastics studio.

She exuded quiet confidence. She hoped.

[Antione Hoefflin]

Ant had kept himself scarce when the gymnasts arrived, noting when the three newbies to the team walked in, and frowning at what Nicole had chosen to wear.

When he had given them long enough to warm up, he walked out of his office, clipboard in hand, and stood in the middle of the studio. "Good morning boys and girl, I hope you are all feeling ready to train." He gave a half smile as he looked at each of them. "Victors, you can work on your vault skills. I'd like you to start there too male Gould. His eyes moved to the two new girls; Blackthorne and female Gould, I'd like to observe you both on the beam." It would give him a chance to assess the skills of both girls at the same time, while also watching the rest of the goings on in the gym. "Fuchs, today I'd like you to work on your floor skills; the skills you need to work on for a rountine are: cartwheel, back roll, three-quarter handstand, forward roll, candlestick, and a split jump." The last thing he needed was her to star worrying that he'd be expecting a double Arabian out of her.

He walked over to stand at the end of the beams and waited for the girls to get what they wanted to do organised.