Battle of the Flexes

[Elizabeth Toman]

Elizabeth yawned and stretched as her alarm sounded, not even caring that it wasn't even five in the morning and there was a chance that the not-so-quiet alarm might be disturbing the person in the next dorm room. Rolling out of bed, she showered, fixed her mousey blonde hair into a high ponytail. Pulling open one of the cane drawers, she looked through her glitter supply and pulled out the can of purple hair glitter - which would was out as soon as she had her next shower - and sprayed it over her head, enough so that the glitter caught in the lights, but not too much so that it was overdone. Then, keeping with the purple theme, she pulled out her glitter lid and eye pencils as well as purple eyedust pot.

Leaving the bathroom, she quickly got dressed into a purple and black leotard and pulled the silver and blue tracksuit over the top. She glanced in the mirror as she pushed her feet into a pair of black mary jane ballet flats, then grabbing her gym bag, she left the dorm, not bothering about keeping quiet as she made her way out of the House, let the House mom deal with her later.

Entering the gym, it didn't take her long to find the gymnastics studio and she walked right in as though she owned the place. Not even bothering to make herself known to the coach, where ever he was, she put her bag down on a bench, kicked her shoes off, slipped out of her tracksuit, and headed straight over to the floor exercise mat where she started her warm up.

Outfit

[Antione Hoefflin]

Coach Antione Hoefflin was sitting in his office, viewing and reviewing his girls' performance at their last competition. They hadn't managed to snatch team gold, but they had walked away with bronze, not their best moment, but still it got his girls on the team podium and that should be all that mattered. As for the individual events, the girls had done much, much better. Samantha had taken silver in vault, swept gold on balance beam. Serenity took silver on the floor, and then gold for the uneven bars. Lilith had claimed silver on the beam. Makayla had grasped bronze on floor. Not a lot of anything mattered, except to hopefully keep his team elite - though with their recent scores he was warned that he would lose his elite team status if he didn't find at least one elite gymnast. He heard the door open but as it was almost time for training, he wasn't too concerned about someone entering his studio.

Finally leaving his office to give his girls a pep-talk once they had all arrived, his eyes landed on the girls who were already there warming up, lingering on a girl he didn't know. Grabbing his clipboard, he strolled over to the girl who was in the splits. "I like the new girls to come and see me when they arrive." He said, his voice a low growl. "I don't care who you think you used to be. You are now in my gym and you will treat me with the respect I am owed." With the way that she had just strolled into the studio, he felt that she needed knocking down a peg or too before anything got started. "Follow me."

He straightened up and looked around at the other girls. "We'll talk about your last performances after. As a reward, you can choose your own apparatus today." He turned on his heel and walked into his office, hoping that the new girl was following him as he didn't turn to look.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity awoke to the sound of something hitting the floor and worked out that it was her cell phone and the alarm was sounding... well buzzing, as she had set it to vibrate so that when it went off at five o'clock she wouldn't risk waking the rest of her floor. She glanced over her bed as she heard the phone go sliding across the floor and realised how it had ended up on the floor as Luna attacked the vibrating phone once again and sent it skittering across the floor. Rolling her eyes at the feline she rolled out of bed and walked into the bathroom, pleased that she currently had the room to herself.

As soon as her blonde hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and then folded it over itself again with a red scrunchie. Using a handful of silver hair clips, to hold in all the stray bits, she coated her hair with aqua-net and then walked back out to her room. She dressed into her team uniform and scooped the cell phone up off the floor as Luna pounced on it again and sent it sliding in the girl's direction. "Sorry, bub." She said as she also scooped the kitten up and placed her on the bed. "I need the phone." She pushed her feet into her shoes, grabbed her gym bag and left the room, knowing that her track suit was in her locker at the studio so she could wear it on the way back to her dorm after gymnastics.

It didn't take her long to walk to the gymnasium and then into the studio where she kicked off her shoes, left her bag on a bench and went straight into her warm-up. She noticed that there was another girl there, whom she recognised from a few of her classes, but didn't greet her.

She looked up as Coach Hoefflin stalked out of his office - there was really no other word to describe the man's stance - and went up to the new girl. Reni averted her eyes as it was obviously a conversation not meant for anyone but them. When the coach addressed all of them, she grinned and jumped to her feet. Looking around the studio, she couldn't decide where to go first and finally jogged over to the end of the vault runway - after all she didn't want the wrath of the coach on her for loitering.

Outfit

[Elizabeth Toman]

Elizabeth was doing a right split, her upper body folded at the hips, her fingers curled around the sole of her right foot when a shadow fell over her. Not hurrying, she sat up, reaching her hands toward the ceiling and she looked over her shoulder at the person who owned the shadow, raising her eyebrows toward the man. "Hey, I'm Libby. You must be..." Her voice was as sweet as sugar as she smiled up at him. However, she wasn't ready for the barrelling that she got.

Leaning back, she swung her left leg around so that she was sitting on the ground with both of her legs out in front of them. Pulling her knees up to her chest she rose to her feet. She wanted to be standing when she defended herself rather than seeming to be kneeling at his feet. "I have no idea who you think you are." She said heatedly. "However, I am Elizabeth Toman..." Her eyebrows shot up as he turned to the other gymnasts and then commanded her to follow him. "I am here to train! I thought you were supposed to be an elite establishment." She stalked along behind the man, but came to a halt as he walked into his office, for the first time since she arrived in the studio, she looked uncertain.

[Antione Hoefflin]

Even though Anthony ignored as much of the girl's ranting as he could, her name had struck a cord and he remembered a document that he had opened in his emails about the girl. Her record wasn't too bad, but he could see that she was still raw, and with a tongue like that, he'd need to watch her during competitions... even training sessions would probably get interesting from now on.

"Just step inside the door." He said, his voice still a soft growl. "If you are to be one of my girls, you will need a uniform." He opened the slate blue gear locker that was in his office and pulled out a team uniform in the girl's size as well as a team back pack. "You can remain in what you are wearing now, however I want you in uniform from now on. You are excused." He waited until she had walked away from the office before he also walked out. Part of him couldn't help but wonder where all the girl's bravado had gone to as soon as he had walked into the office.

Shaking that off though, he positioned himself beside the vault to help guide Serenity if she needed it as she prepared to make another pass. "Come on, Oliver!" He roared. "It's the vault, not a poisonous snake!"

[Serenity Oliver]

Tourischeva (Tsukahara tucked)

After chalking up her hands and rubbing some onto the soles of her feet, she stood at the end of the vault runway. She bounced on the balls of her feet as she looked toward the stationary object that she was about to race toward. Sure, it was a little daunting, but she was pretty strong at vault, and she wouldn't get any better if she didn't keep working at it. With a move in mind, she started the run, pumping her arms as she went. However, as she got closer, she lost her nerve, and then runway, so she just ended up doing a baby vault; bouncing off the springboard, pushed off the table to do a handspring and then her feet landed on the mat on the other side. She glance toward the office and was so please that Coach Hoefflin was still in there talking to the mouthy girl.

Heading back to the end of the runway, she shook her head, telling herself to get into the game, and silently asking for help from Hermes, as he was the patron of all the gymnastic games of the Greeks. After putting more chalk onto the soles of her feet, she stood at the end of the runway once more and started her run. This time as she approached the end she did a round off, her feet pushed off the springboard and she finished off the move called an Amanar as she pushed off the table and managed to do two and a half twists in the layout position before her feet found the mat again, she only wobbled a little, but was disappointed that she had to take a tiny step to stop herself from falling over.

She wanted to do another vault before she moved on to another apparatus, but before going back to the end of the runway, she jogged over to her bag and grabbed the water bottle that was in the pocket on the side and took a drink before heading back to the vault where she reapplied the chalk and bounced on the end of the runway. She paused though when she saw Coach Hoefflin take up the spotter position beside the table. Shaking her head to clear it, she started her run. She bounce off the springboard and did a half twist as her body was turning through the air so that when she pushed off the table, she was facing the runway she had just raced down. She then tucked herself up, did a salto and landed on the mat. This time she had to take a rather large step and her foot went outside the white tape on the mat. She swallowed hard and  ducked her head, not daring to look at their Coach and hunched up her shoulders at his tirade.

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby took the smallest step closer to the coach's office and then graciously accepted the team uniform from the man, curling her nose slightly at the team back pack, she preferred her duffel bag, and was sure that she could fit more into her current bag than she could in this thing. With a shrug of her shoulders when told she could remain in what she was wearing. "Thanks." She wouldn't have changed anyway, her glitter and makeup was colour co-ordinated with the leotard that she was currently wearing and it wouldn't go well with the red team uniform.

She stalked over to the bench where she deposited her bag earlier and placed her new things beside her current bag and then turned to survey the room. She glared at the coach as her eyes slid over him, where he stood by the vault, his complete attention on the girl at the end of the runway. Now here to prove a point, she strode over to the floor exercise area and knew it was time to make a stand and show the man that he needed her here.

Without bothering with sticking a disk into the stereo, she just got started: Round Off and Back-hand-Spring, Layout with two and a half twists finished with a Step-Out,  Round Off,  Whip,  Tucked Double-Double (a double somersault),  Punch Front, Layout with two twists finished with a Step-Out, Round Off, Whip Full, Full-Twisting Double Layout, Tucked Barani, Triple Turn in Tuckstand, Quad Turn, Switch Ring, Split leap with one a half twists, Layout Front with a full twist finished with a Step-Out, Round Off, Back HandSpring, Arabian Double Tuck, Layout, Switch Full, Round Off, Layout with three and a half twists finished with a Step-Out, Round Off, Whip with one and a half twists, Double Front Tuck, and finished her display with a Tucked Rudi, then stood there with her right hand on her chest and the left in the air.

She scowled when the only sound in the room was that off the other apparatus being worked on by the other gymnasts or the coach as he yelled at whatever girl he was watching.

[Antione Hoefflin]

As the coach stood beside the vault, waiting for the gymnast to begin her run, he looked everywhere, watching everyone, and noting that the new girl seemed a little ticked off that he wasn't falling over himself to watch her. He opened his mouth to give the girl at the end of the runway a hurry up, but pressed his lips together as she started her run.

He watched carefully as she got closer and closer and watched her every move from the moment her feet touched the spring board. He lifted his hands to help with the push off should she need it, but as the girl tucked herself up, she didn't need his assistance, and he knew that and he gave her would knock her balance. As she landed though, it seemed that she didn't need his help to unbalance her. "What the hell was that Oliver!" He roared. "You just scored yourself a zero and crushed any hopes of your team getting anywhere!" He glared at her. "It was a simple Tsukahara, you've done millions before! I realise that vault isn't your strongest, but as it stands, today, it doesn't even make it on to your worst list either. Where are you going? Get back to the end of that runway and show my a proper vault!"

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity ducked her head, her shoulders creeping higher and higher as the coach yelled at her. When she was sure he had finished, she decided that it was a good time to make a quick escape, but the man's words froze her mid-step and her head lowered even more. "Yes, Coach." She replied as she trudged her was back to the start of the runway. When she was helping her parents fill out the class schedule for the Academy, she had jumped at the chance of taking gymnastics as a sport. Now, however, she was beginning to regret her decision.

After chalking up her hands and the soles of her feet, she stood at the end of the runway and bounced on the balls of her feet, working out what she was going to do. "Hermes help me." She whispered as she began her run. As she neared the end; she did a round off, doing a half turn in the middle of the round off, her feet pushed off the springboard and she finished off the Yurchenko with a move called a Cheng, as she pushed off the table she did a front straight salto (or layout) with two and a half twists before her feet found the mat again. She bent her knees as she landed, throwing her arms into the air, and didn't take a step this time. She opened her eyes, which she had squeezed closed as she landed, and glanced toward Coach Hoefflin, but the man's attention seemed to be elsewhere.

[Elizabeth Toman]

With scowl still etched on her face, Libby stomped - gracefully - over to the floor where the balance beams were and quickly worked out a simple, but elegant, routine in her head. Moving the spring board into place at the end of the beam she then walked over to the chalk bin and put chalk on her hands and feet before returning to the spring board and jogging back half a dozen steps, where she was ready to start. The scowl had now been replaced with a brilliant smile, the smile of a girl who knew she was a champion.

Looking at the springboard, she bounced on the spot a couple of times before she bounced forward and mounted the beam with an Erceg; a round-off onto the spring board and then an Arabian salto, to land on the beam cleanly with both feet, both arms out and then flowing so that one was above her head, palm upwards and the other by her side, palm facing down. She then did a forward walkover and the routine really began. She did an Arabian - to turn herself around - followed by a Sissone (a split jump to land on one foot), followed by some dance moved to return her to the end of the beam where she had started from, with just the right amount of hand movements. She then did two back handsprings and a full twisting layout to get to the other end of the beam. She then did a split jump, followed by a wolf jump (one leg bent, the other stretched out at the horizontal), she then danced half way down the beam and did a switch ring leap and danced the rest of the way - only a few steps - to the end of the beam once more. Raising her arms into the air she did an Onodi (a backward walkover with a half twist), then two aerial walkovers and finished the run with a sheep jump. Doing a half pirouette, she did some dancing on the spot before doing a full turn, some more dancing, then bouncing forward to do a switch leap with half a turn, danced her way back to the end of the beam she had just some from. She then grinned and bounded forward to finish the routine with a round off and a double back pike, to land on the mat facing the beam. Bending her knees just enough, she threw her arms into the air and stuck her landing like the professional she was.