Elite
Summary: The Russian team goes to a camp for elite gymnasts with the American team. How will this experience change their feelings for each other though?
Disclaimer: contains swearing (none of this is true)
Chapter 24 Part One: Let The Training Begin
Tatiana pushed through her last lap with surprising ease. She slowed down her jog preparing to come to a stop in front of the uneven bars where Gabby was already nearing the end of her routine. She watched as the girl dismounted off the high bar with only a slight step backwards on the landing. Tatiana noticed the petite girl had decided to do her Olympic routine for this new competition. Too bad she won’t even come close to medaling again, Tatiana thought to herself.
“Nabieva!” Gabby snapped her fingers in front of the dazed Russian’s face. Tatiana shook her head gently looking at the smaller girl waiting for her to continue. “It’s your turn,” Gabby drawled as she walked over to her water bottle. She took a generous sip, letting the cool liquid slide down her throat as Tatiana got ready to start her routine.
Tatiana approached the lower bar, rolling the kinks out of her neck and shoulders as she muttered words of encouragement to herself. While she was preparing herself she hadn’t noticed Valentina approaching her.
Valentina leaned into the girl’s ear and spoke softly, “It’s time to show these Americans who the best country is, do the Nabieva.”
Tatiana paled and tensed, “Have you lost your mind- actually I already know the answer,” Tatiana said cutting off Valentina when the older woman had opened her mouth to respond. “I am not doing it,” Tatiana said looking at Valentina’s hard face that left no room for argument. Damn it Tatiana huffed out a hard breath as she looked back at the low bar. She hadn’t done her signature move in years and was unsure if she’d be able to do it. Despite her doubts she mounted on to the low bar going through the motions of a routine that she had never unveiled at competition. She transitioned to the high bar with ease and swung effortlessly as she prepared for her release. In a flash Tatiana was on the ground trying to catch the breath she had just lost when she had tried to catch the release.
“Again,” Valentina said coldly to the Russian girl that was picking herself up. Tatiana turned her head slowly with a glare gracing her face as she looked at the impassive mask on the older woman’s face. Oh hell no! Go shove it you old grumpy toad!
“Yes ma’am,” Tatiana bit out between clenched teeth. She felt her anger bubbling beneath her skin as she jumped to get hold of the high bar. She cleared the bar three times before letting her body soar through the air and recatch the bar. She heard many of her teammates cheering for her and could feel the Americans’ eyes on her as she came to the dismount of her routine. She let the momentum carry her through the air and kept her body straight as she completed the double layout dismount. She raised her hands in salute to the non existing judges as she smirked at Valentina’s nod of approvement.
never had a doubt in my mind, Tatiana said smugly in her mind.
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“Ok Queen Musty, let’s try this again,” Mihai said pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and pointer finger. He had been trying to ‘fix’ Aliya’s twisting form for the past hour and he had yet to accomplish anything.
“It’s Alka and this is a waste of time,” Aliya hissed in frustration. “My twisting form has never been great and it’s been worse since I injured my knee,” Aliya said still fuming.
“I know dear but practice makes perfect,” Mihai said putting a fake smile on.
“Well can I practice the rest of my routine instead of just my triple twist?” Aliya complained.
“Oh come on Mihai give the poor girl a break,” Alicia said wrapping her arm around Aliya’s shoulders. Aliya scrunched her eyebrows into a frown as she looked at the girl’s arm around her.
“We must practice in order for her to be ready for this competition,” Mihai explained, he could feel an argument brewing as it so often did when him and Alicia discussed during training.
“Well she can’t win with just a triple, can she?” Alicia retorted with a raise of one of her dark eyebrows.
“She won’t win anything if we don’t fix that horrendous form!” Mihai exclaimed. Aliya’s eyes traveled between the two as Alicia’s eyes narrowed. She watched with great curiosity as the two went back and forth over and over again. She had been watching so intently she hadn’t notice a hand encircle her wrist until she was being tugged away from the arguing coach and gymnast.
“You looked like you needed someone to rescue you,” Aly said when Aliya’s surprised amber eyes landed on her smiling face.
Aliya smiled widely as she walked over to the floor with Aly at tow. She was careful not to intertwine their hands since Nailya was on the beams closest to the floor.
“You aren’t going to make me do triples are you?” Aliya joked as she stood in the corner of the floor waiting to do a pass.
“No,” Aly said grinning widely.
“Good,” Aliya said before taking a deep breath before starting her pass. Aly waited silently for the girl to go through all her passes one by one.
“She’s good,” A voice said from beside Aly. Aly looked over to see Marta watching Aliya run through her passes again, the older woman’s face was stripped of any emotions and she seemed deep in thought.
“Yeah she is,” Aly agreed quietly.
“But you’re better,” Valentina said after a few moments of silence.
“Maybe in 2012 but now,” Aly said chewing on her bottom lip.
“No you are still better,” Marta reassured her causing Aly to blush in response. “Do you feel confident enough to do your first pass?” Marta asked the dark haired girl.
“I think so,” Aly said softly after pondering her decision for a few quick moments.
“Mustafina! Bring it in,” Marta ordered the Russian girl. Aliya stalked over to the American woman with a questioning expression playing across her face. “Your turn Raisman,” Marta said when Aliya had finally joined them.
Aly went to the corner of the floor and stood in her opening pose, she played the music in her mind as she began her routine. The old pass came to her as naturally as flying came to birds. She went through the pass with ease and squeezed her legs together during her punch front. She looked over to Marta with a big grin as the older woman hurried over to her.
“Good job Aly!” Marta said cupping Aly’s face and patting her cheeks with her hands. Aly looked over to Aliya expecting to see her girlfriend smiling at her but instead she saw Aliya’s back. The girl apparently had turned around to watch her sister. Aly’s face fell momentarily but she soon recovered and tried to shrug the slight pang of sadness off.
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Viktoria sighed in disbelief as she came off the beam yet again. She had missed her standing arabian seven times now and was getting frustrated beyond belief. She couldn’t focus on sticking the skill because a certain silent, brown eyed American plagued every thought that coursed through her mind. She sighed raggedly as she mounted the beam once more, her feet automatically gripped the rather small piece of wood as she prepared for the move, again.
*
Jordyn winced as the sound of Viktoria’s feet slipping off the beam filled her ears. She glanced over to see her girlfriend sighing in desperation as she dragged herself back onto the beam.
*
Viktoria raised her arms in preparation before stealing glance of Jordyn. She did not expect to see her girlfriend looking back at her, let alone with a small, sympathetic smile playing across her lips. Viktoria was unaware of the smile now tugging at her own lips and the new warm feeling that filled her chest as she threw herself through the air, executing the skill with ease. She smiled widely at herself before turning back to see Jordyn clapping silently.
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Nastia leaned against her crutch as Kyla went through her beam routine again. Her fiance had left her with Kyla and Ksenia so she could go talk to Mihai. Ksenia had left to go over to the floor to wait her turn and Kyla had begun her beam routine immediately after she left.
Nastia glanced over her shoulder to see Ksenia almost step out of bounds. She shook her head as the frustration grew within the other girl. She sighed and hobbled over to the other Russian born, waiting silently for the other girl to come back towards the corner she stood by. Against her better judgement, she felt like helping the other girl.
Ksenia saw her as she started her pass, she stopped in the middle of her pass and crossed her arms across her chest. She lifted a blonde eyebrow in question to the other girl. Nastia rolled her eyes and shifted her weight to her uninjured side.
“Would you like my advice?” Nastia said across the floor.
Ksenia narrowed her eyes slightly as she took the other girl’s words in. “Depends, how do I know your ‘advice’ won’t make me do bad?” Ksenia said, taking a few steps closer to the other blonde.
Nastia smirked and shook her head for the second time in the past five minutes. “You have no confidence,” Nastia said moving forward as well.
“Excuse me?” Ksenia said slightly offended.
“When you get ready for that pass, you look like you are going to fail before you even start. It’s as if you don’t think you can do it,” Nastia explained coolly.
“Not true,” Ksenia scoffed, causing Nastia to roll her eyes and turn on heel. “But if it was,” Ksenia blurted out to Nastia’s retreating back. Nastia smirked and stopped in her tracks. “How do I fix it?” Ksenia finished.
“Easy, instead of thinking about London constantly and that one mistake, put it behind you. It’s a new day and a new chance to get it right,” Nastia explained. “You’re only as good as you think you are. If you start by saying ‘I can do this’ instead of ‘I can’t do this’ you’ll do better. Maybe not perfect but it’ll be better,” Nastia said coming to stand back in her spot by the edge of the floor.
“Ok, I’ll try,” Ksenia said after a short silence. She went back to the corner of the floor and took a deep breath. Her eyes fluttered shut for a mere second and let her mind clear except for one thought. I can do this. Ksenia wasn’t even aware of the fact she had finished the pass until she heard Nastia speak.
“Look down,” Nastia commanded softly. Ksenia lowered her eyes and looked at her feet, she had landed in bounds. She looked back up, beaming at the other blonde. “Good-” Nastia’s words were cut off by Ksenia enveloping her into a hug.
“Thank you,” Ksenia said softly.
Nastia smiled gently, “You’re welcome.”
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Maria narrowed her eyes as her girlfriend executed her amanar perfectly, again. She had yet to land one nearly as good and her frustration was beginning to get the best of her.
“You could try a different vault,” Valentina suggested from beside her.
“Like what?! I haven’t trained anything else,” Maria exclaimed.
“Not true, you can try a handspring-rudi,” Valentina said.
“I haven’t done one in ages and competition is coming up,” Maria bit out.
“Then you better get started,” Valentina stated bluntly before turning away.
“That’s a downgrade though!” Maria all but shouted.
“In the code of points an amanar is a 6.3 and a rudi is a 6.2, you can make up in execution,” Valentina said, leaving the girl.
Maria clenched her jaw as she went over to the runway leading up to the pit with a small mat in the middle of it. She waited for her coach to get in position before she began the new vault. She ran down the runway, pushing her body forward to execute a handspring instead of a round off (what she was more accustomed to). She completed a layout salto with one-and-a-half twists, landing facing backwards. Her feet were unsteady causing her to take several steps backwards resulting with her landing on her backside. A soft grunt escaped her lips as her body met the mat.
That was pretty good considering I haven’t done a rudi in a long time. Maria glanced over at Mckayla to see her watching with an emotionless mask painted onto her beautiful face. Maria smirked and stuck her tongue out at her girlfriend playfully. Mckayla rolled her eyes and shook her head as an amused grin graced her lips.
“Paseka! Again!” Maria heard Valentina command from across the gym. I can’t stand her sometimes.
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Summary: The Russian team goes to a camp for elite gymnasts with the American team. How will this experience change their feelings for each other though?
Disclaimer: contains swearing (none of this is true)
Chapter 24 Part Two: The Trick
“Alicia Marie Sacramone why on earth are you dragging me to Aly’s room?” Nastia said as she desperately tried to keep up with her fiancé's pace. Training had only ended an hour ago and she had decided to take a hot shower. To her dismay, Alicia had interrupted her bathing time to not join her but to force her to get dressed so they could go to the Boston girl’s room.
“Because we all need one less blow out before this training gets too serious,” Alicia explained, loosening her grip on Nastia’s hoodie as they came closer to the dark haired girl’s room.
Finally, the two came to a stop in front of Aly’s door. Alicia knocked three times before turning back to Nastia. Her breath hitched as the site of her fiancé hit her full force. Big green eyes shining like newly polished emeralds, straight blonde hair in a messy bun, Alicia’s dark grey hoodie showing off her thin waist, black skinny jeans hugging her hips and her amazing legs, and to top it all off was black vans that made the casual outfit look complete.
“Leesh, you ok?” Nastia asked as her girlfriend continued to stare open mouthed.
“Erm..yeah..It’s just you look really beautiful,” Alicia said fumbling over her own words.
“Aw thanks babe, you’re not so bad yourself,” Nastia said giving the other girl a sexy wink.
Before Alicia could retort, the door opened to reveal an almost empty room. Only Aliya, Nailya and Anastasia sat in the room talking quietly amongst themselves.
“Hey guys! Can I speak to you quickly?” Aly said already stepping outside and shutting the door behind before the pair could answer. Alicia and Nastia stared wide eyed, waiting for Aly to continue. “Aliya has been ignoring me- well not ignoring but acting differently since Nailya came here and I am worried she will want to end things so her parents won’t find out about us and I’m stressing really bad because I don’t want to be without her and-” Aly’s rambling was cut off by Aliya opening the door.
Aliya looked curiously between the three Americans. Alicia and Nastia had wide eyes and Aly’s hands had frozen mid air from speaking? and her lips were pressed in a thin line. “Is everything...ok?” Aliya asked examining the trio.
“Yeah great! We’ll be in shortly,” Aly explained quickly.
Aliya raised her eyebrow in question, “Explain later, Raisman,” Aliya said ducking her head back inside.
“Ok I will,” Aly said as quickly as the first time.
Aliya took one last look at the group to see Alicia glaring at her briefly before Nastia subtly elbowed her in the side.
“I’m just going to go back in now…” Aliya said closing the door.
“I don’t like her,” Alicia stated bluntly.
“Babe-”
“No Nast, she has no right to treat Aly that way!” Alicia exclaimed, clearly mad that anyone would have the nerve to make her mini me upset.
“She’s just scared, give her time she’ll come around,” Nastia said opening the door and going inside to avoid the argument coming up.
***
Fifteen minutes later
Gabby, Kyla, Jordyn, Viktoria, Maria, Aliya and Nailya had formed one circle while Anastasia, Tatiana, Semy, Ksenia, Nastia, and Alicia had formed another. Aly and Mckayla stood at the front of the room, preparing to tell everyone their idea.
Aly cleared her throat, “As everyone knows we are about to undergo weeks of intense training for the new competition. Mckayla and I have known for a few days before it was announced which gave us time to prepare a little ‘trick’,” Aly paused to let Mckayla take over.
“Party Raisman and I have decided to take everyone on a senior elite prank. Some of us will be teepeeing Valentina and Marta’s separate cabins, others will be sticky noting their cars and the rest of us will be setting up the master prank in the front yards,” Mckayla said with a evil glint in her eyes.
“Now,” Aly started, “The teepeeing group will be Alicia, Nastia, Semy, Ksenia and Tatiana. Next the car group will be Kyla, Gabby, Anastasia, Aliya, and Nailya,” Aly looked up to see Aliya staring at her with narrow eyes. She shrugged her shoulders barely before continuing, “Jordyn, Viktoria, Maria, Mac and I will be doing the ultimate prank,” Aly finished letting Mckayla take over again.
“We have a limited amount of time to finish this prank. The two devils will be in bed sound asleep by midnight, which is half an hour away. We will have until dawn before Valentina wakes up to go on her morning stroll. If we figured it out correctly, Valentina will see the toilet paper and call Marta who will see their cars out of her window. Then they will step out, setting off the master prank. Now with that said, everyone needs to wear dark clothes, like Nastia,” Mckayla said pointing to the blonde. “Wear a dark hoodie or something with a hood that way no one can tell it is us if we were to get caught. Now any questions?” Mckayla asked the group.
“Where do we meet up?” Aliya asked still glaring at Aly.
“Meet back here in twenty-five minutes,” Mckayla answered. She looked around the room seeing no one else had any questions. “Alright lets go.”
***
Aliya and Nailya were the last to leave Aly’s room to get ready. Nailya had already began walking down the hallway when Aliya turned to go back in the room.
“What are you doing?” Nailya asked curiously.
“Oh I’m...uh...Just saying bye to Micah. It’ll be my first night not being in the room with her,” Aliya lied.
“Oh ok...I’m going to go ahead and get dressed then,” Nailya said as she hurried to her room.
Aliya turned back to the still opened door; Aly was on the other side of the room laying Micah in her crib. She leaned her shoulder against the door frame waiting for Aly to turn around.
“Are you going to say bye to her or stand there?” Aly asked after several moments of silence.
Aliya sighed and went over to the crib; she kissed the little girl’s head and turned to Aly. She studied the other dark haired girl’s face. Her chocolate eyes were soft but her face was emotionless. “Why did you put me in the other group?” Aliya asked looking into Aly’s eyes.
“You’re always wanting to be with her so I put you with her...plus you don’t want her to find out about us,” Aly explained, her voice growing quieter with each word.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything together!” Aliya exclaimed as silently as she could be.
“Well you sure act like it! You won’t even talk to me when she’s around!” Aly retorted. She could feel the tears stinging in the back of her eyes as they began to well up.
“Aly-”
“No Aliya, just go get dressed,” Aly choked out, turning away from the Russian.
Aliya looked at Aly’s back in disbelief before shaking her head. “See you in twenty minutes,” Aliya said walking over to the door shutting it loudly behind her. Aly looked down to see their baby still sound asleep. She stared at the angelic baby as she let her tears fall freely.
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“Ok is everyone ready?” Mckayla asked the dark dressed group.
“I still can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Kyla said.
“When this is over, you’ll be glad I did,” Mckayla chuckled.
Everyone walked to the side entrance and single filed out of the small door. Tatiana grabbed a small rock that was laying astray near the door and propped it open, that way they wouldn’t be locked out.
“Teepee group and car group, you guys start first that way we can stand guard,” Mckayla said ushering the teepee group to the left (toward Valentina’s house) and the car group to the right (toward Marta’s house).
***
“Ky, throw me the blue stickys,” Gabby said from on top of Marta’s car. Kyla kept her eyes glued to the third tire she was covering in yellow sticky notes as she threw the blue pad up to Gabby. Gabby caught it with ease and began covering the sunroof with the blue paper.
Below her, Anastasia was covering the right side of the car with green stickys while Aliya and Nailya were covering all the windows with orange sticky notes when something landed on Nailya’s head. She patted her head to feel a pad of blue stickys. She looked up to find Gabby looking at her with an amused grin.
“Sorry,” Gabby giggled her hand out. Nailya rolled her eyes playfully and handed the girl her stickys.
***
“Alright we got the fountain, I think that’s the centerpiece of the yard so we’ll start with that first,” Alicia said to Semy.
“Don’t worry guys, I’m a pro at this,” Tatiana said throwing a roll of toilet paper up towards a tree branch. The roll missed it’s target due to Tatiana throwing the whole roll.
“I thought you said you were a pro?” Ksenia sneered.
Tatiana stumbled forward as she tripped over her own feet. Ksenia and Semy laughed at their friend’s antics.
“Do better Nastia,” Alicia said without looking at her fiancé. “Nastia?” Alicia called out after her fiancé had failed to answer her.
“This is in my way,” Nastia said to herself from the row of bushes several feet away. She was leaning against her crutches as she carefully moved a branch out of her way.
“Nast what are you doing?” Alicia asked, turning to look at her completely.
“I’m trying to do a nice pattern-”
“It’s not about being nice,” Alicia said to the tall blonde.
“I know but I want to make it look like chevron,” Nastia said laying another piece of toilet paper down.
“We aren’t making chevron babe!” Alicia exclaimed as she started rolling paper around the fountain.
“Well fine I’m making zigzags then,” Nastia said tearing off more toilet paper.
“This starting off bad,” Alicia said to Semy. Rolling Marta and Valentina’s cabin is probably a little over ambitious for this team.
“Guys, I’m stuck in the shrubs,” Nastia called out quietly to the others.
“Oh crap,” Alicia said looking at her lovely soon to be bride. It’s no surprise my wifey is having problems.
“I think I’ve been pierced,” Nastia said looking down at her hip.
I figured Semy would have some issues too. “Alright how am I doing?” Semy asked as she ran around the fountain with a short tail of toilet paper whipping through the air behind her.
Ksenia can’t get worse- Alicia’s thoughts were cut off by Ksenia throwing a roll of paper up just to have it come crashing down on her head.
But Tatiana...She’s supposed to be a pro at this! Alicia thought as the same roll of toilet paper Tatiana started out with went unsuccessfully flying through the air, again. “Sorry that was an accident,” Tatiana said picking up the roll that landed by Alicia’s feet. Didn’t they do this back in Russia?!
“Oh my god!” Alicia turned to see a startled Semy.
“Sorry that one got away from me,” Ksenia said, picking up the roll that had just fallen on Semy.
“This is like dodging bombs,” Alicia whispered loudly.
“It looks pretty when you throw it though,” Nastia said watching another roll of paper fly through the air without touching anything.
I think I’m dealing with a few noobs here and it’s embarrassing. Alicia thought just as Tatiana successfully threw a roll over a tree limb. “Yeah good job!” Alicia praised as Tatiana gave her a thumbs up. On the opposite side of the tree, Ksenia threw a roll covering two branches. “Yes good throw!” Alicia said to the blonde.
Suddenly a light came on from inside the house. “Crap! Valentina’s up!” Alicia whisper shouted to everyone. Everyone ran for cover by the nearby cars and sat quietly as they waited for the older woman’s reaction.
Valentina looked out with sleep filled eyes; her vision was blurry and she couldn’t see anything moving in the dark. Once she decided everything was ok, she headed back to bed.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief but stayed a few moments to ensure she wasn’t going to come back.
“Wait..where’s Nastia?” Anastasia asked Alicia.
Alicia looked around frantically before her eyes landed on her fiancé still by the bushes. She had to cover her mouth from laughing when she saw Nastia had crouched down (leaving her injured leg to stick out straight from her almost sitting position) and pulled her hood over her head.
“Babe what are you doing?” Alicia asked holding in her giggles.
“I’m acting like a stump,” Nastia whispered back.
Everyone had to stifle their laughter as the Olympian remained on the ground, acting like a stump.
***
Aly, Viktoria and Jordyn stood side by side as Maria and Mckayla put the finishing touches around the yard.
“Bucket of water balloons above the doors?” Aly asked Jordyn.
“Check,” Jordyn confirmed.
“Bubble wrap under the welcome mat?”
“Check.”
“Wire to set off the sprinklers?”
“Check.”
“Hair dryers beneath the bushes filled with baby powder?”
“And finally, rope to trip them into the slip n’ slide filled with whip cream at the bottom?” Aly smiled evilly.
“Check,” Maria and Mckayla said in unison.
“Great now let’s make like a banana and split!” Aly said running back to side entrance. She held open the door as everyone ran in one by one. Tatiana was the last to enter, kicking the rock out of the way as she went. She stood by the door as Aly slid in.
“See you in the morning V-rod,” Tatiana said, smirking as she closed the door.
tbc…….