a new story that im working on please tell me whether or not you lke it. its a story based some what on some things and my friends from gymnastics, however most of this story is false so dont take everything as true

Chapter One

Slipping her fingers into the handgrips, she focused on what she had to do. Carefully securing each handgrip, she went through her routine in her mind. She turned and sprayed some water on her grips them dusted them with chalk. She turned and faced the bars.

Standing on her left foot, right foot in front and pointed, her arms hung loosely at her side. Her dark brown eyes were full of concentration, by the bars stood her coach, Kelly Hill, ready to spot her gymnast. Anita jumped onto the low bar and pulled her self up. She stood on it facing the high bar. Carefully Anita jumped and grabbed the high bar and pulled herself up in front support.

Swinging her legs forward she cast off the bar and moved into a tight handstand. Carefully she picked up her hands and did a full pirouette then sung into her release. Hands groping she stretched her hands out but missed the bar and fell on her stomach.

"Darn!" She shouted her cheeks growing red in anger.

"Get up there and try it agian." Kelly instructed.

For another grueling hour, Anita worked on getting her new bar routine perfect. She was 17 years old and an elite gymnast. Her ambition was to win the Olympics that were four months away. She was upgrading her routines wanting to hit the Olympics with a bang.

"Ok practice is over. Good job today." Her coach told her.

Anita tore off her handgrips relieved. Two gymnasts walked over and sat on the mat in front of the bars.

"Hey guys." Anita greeted her friends Anne-Maire and Alex.

"Practice was so fun today." Anne-Marie said. "But I'm so tired." She sighed.

Anita agreed and dusted chalk onto her bar hands and jumped up onto the high bar. Her back was to her friends. She pumped her legs and began swingging, suddenly when her body went up she let go twisted and re grabbed the bars. She swung a couple of times then slowly came down.

The girls laughed.

"You are too much Anita. Over an hour of practice on bars and still you play around." Alex laughed.

"Bars are my favorite event." She said sitting by them.

"So we have 3 hours off. Wanna check out the guys gym?" Anne-Marie asked.

The girls jumped up pulling shorts over their leotards and walked a block to the mens gym.

Casually the girls walked in and took seats watching the mens team work out. Anita looked around and spotted a good looking gymnast. He had blond hair and blue eyes. He was flipping around the high bar.

"Nick Carter is so cute. He's my favorite male gymnast in this gym." Anita sighed happily.

"What do you mean in this gym?" Anne-Marie asked.

"Well just what I said. In this gym. In other gyms I like, Blaine Wilson, Paul and Morgan Hamm, Jason Gatson, Sasha Artemev, Sean Townsend, Aleksei Nemov and so on." Anita replied casually naming some of her favorite male gymnasts.

Alex and Anne-Marie just laughed at her. Anita turned back watching Nick. He was now on the floor under the bars. He and his coach Stacey Maloney were talking. Soon the mens practice wrapped up. Anita skipped over to Nick.

"Hi." She said brightly.

Nick smiled at her.

"Hey whats up?"

"May I try the high bar?" She asked him.

"Sure." He answered.

Alex and Anne-Marie stepped back watching. Nick got Anita by the waist and lifted her up to reach the high bar. Anita grabbed on and began to swing back and forth.

"Wee this is fun!" She giggled happily.

Anita then did a big swing that sent her up and over the bar, her new swing Anita stopped ontop of the bar in a handstand and did a pirouette and took too more swings before she dismounted the high bar with a double layed out flip and stuck her landing.

They all clapped for her.

"Wow Nick, shes better than you." A teasing voice said.

Anita turned and coming towards the group were Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell, two other gymnasts.

"Yeah she is." Nick agreed shrugging his shoulders.

Anita smiled at him.

"Us girls are just better at gymnastics I guess." She said simply.

"You are not!" Brian protested.

"Prove it then." Anne-Maire said.

"P prove it?" Brian asked.

"Yeah! We challange you to a flip off!" Alex said getting excited.

"A flip off?" Kevin repeated yet asked.

"Yup, best group that can tumble wins." Anita said.

"You got yourself a deal." Nick said shaking her hand.

The group walked to the floor. Brian stepped up to go first.

"You got it Bri!" Kevin and Nick cheered.

Stepping to the corner, Brians eyes narrowed. He ran did a round-off and a double lay out. Kevin and Nick cheered at his stuck landing. Anne-Marie yawned and walked onto the floor.

"Come on AM shows these dumb boys what you got!" Anita yelled.

Anne-Marie took her place, she ran a little did a front flip into a front lay-out, round-off backhandspring, double back.

Anita and Alex cheered.

"Thats kiddie stuff." Kevin said stepping onto the floor mat. "Watch and learn."

Nick snickered giving Anita a look. She rolled her eyes. Kevin exploded off the mat by doing a round-off, into a double twisting double layout.

Nick and Brian erupted into cheers happy. It seemed as if though they were winning. Alex gracefully stepped out onto the floor. She gave them a haughty smile. The guys quieted down. Alex ran forward and did a round-off, double twisting double lay out but then switched directions by punching her feet into the ground and did a front flip.

"Whoo!" Anita jumped up and down clapping loudly. She gave Alex a hug.

"You kids haven't seen anything yet." Nick said as he took his place on the mat.

He showed off a round-off, three backhand springs and a switch leg lay out.

"Beat that." Nick said to Anita.

"Come on Anita, you can do it, show him!" Her friends cheered her on.

Anita took a deep breath focusing. She ran did a round-off, backhand spring, two whip backs into a tripple twist with a punch front, however she did not stop then. She imediatly changed directions did a round-off three backhand springs into a double back then punched another front.

Her friends screamed loudly.

"Whos the winner now?" Anita asked smirking at Nick.

"You are queen of tumbling!" He proclaimed. He and the others bowed before the girls.

"We are too lowly forgive us." Brian said solemly.

"Losers by us lunch!" Anita announced.

The guys laughed and agreed. Together the 6 friends gathered their things and walked out.

Chapter Two

Sitting around tables at the Garden Bar, the friends laughed and got to know each other better.

"That was a great lunch." Brian said sitting back and patting his stomach.

The guys laughed.

"You always like food anyway Bri." Nick teased.

Brian shrugged innocently.

They all got up and headed back to the womans gym. They sat on the floor and began stretching.

"How much time do you have off before you have to go back and pratice?" Nick asked Anita.

"We have about an hour and a half left." She said smiling at him.

Anita kicked up into a handstand and walked back and forth on her hands. She stepped down out of it and sat by Nick.

"Do you ever wish you weren't in gymnastics?" Nick asked her.

Anita became thoughtful.

"Not really, I mean all I know is gymnastics. I guess if I knew how life was without gymnastics then got into it I might feel trapped and want the real world, but my whole life has been filled with gymnastics so I don't really know what I'm missing so there is no reason that I wouldn't want to be in gymnastics. I love the sport." She answered.

Nick nodded.

"You are the favorite for the up coming Olympics, how do you feel about that?" He asked.

Anita hugged her knees and rocked back and forth.

"Its kinda exciting. I mean I never dreamed that I would have fans or be so big in the gymnastics world, but I am and I love it. I love competing. I hope to do well at the Olympics." She said slowly.

She moved and sat in the splits then suddenly winced.

"Whats wrong?" Nick asked looking at her.

"My leg and been sore lately." She said rubbing her calf. "It's probably nothing."

"Maybe you should get it checked out." Nick said, his blue eyes clouded with worry.

She shrugged and continued to stretch. Kelly, her coach walked in. Anita jumped up and ran to her.

"Can we please run through my floor routine for a while?" She asked.

"Well sure, if you want to work out during your break." Her coach smiled at her.

"No I don't mind." Anita grinned.

Kelly went to get her music.

"Ok guys get off my floor, I need to run through my floor excercise." Anita said shooing her friends off her mat.

The group all scooted back to watch. Nick smiled.

Anita stepped out onto the corner of the mat and set in her beginning pose. Her classical music began and she began her elegant routine. She had always admired Shannon Miller on the floor with her ease and grace. Anita tried to show grace like Shannon had.

She went through the routine. There was still some pain in her leg but she chose to ignore it.

She got ready for her final tumbling pass. A triple twist with a punch front. She did it perfectly until the punch front. When she landed she felt a sharp pain explode in her leg. She sat down clutching her leg.

"What happened?!" Kelly asked running over to her.

"I, I don't know its my leg." Anita said gritting her teeth against the pain.

Her friends jumped up and ran over to her.

"I think we need to get her to a doctor." Kelly said looking at them worried.

Nick gently picked her up and carried her out to a car. Kelly drove them. Nick sat with her in the back of the van. Her leg was drawn across his lap. He put an ice pack on.

They arrived at the hospitle.

*One Hour Later*

Anita sat in the hospitle bed. After they had taken exrays of her leg, the doctor said that he wanted to keep her for some tests. She sighed she was missing practice and hated the thought of being in the dumb hospitle.

The door opened and her doctor walked in.

"How do you feel Anita?"

"I feel like getting out of here and going to the gym for practice." She answered sadly.

"I'm afraid that you won't be able to do that for quite awhile." The doctor answered.

"What why?!" Anita asked out raged.

"We looked at your blood work Anita, and the exray showed that you have a hole in your leg bone. You have cancer."

Cancer, cancer, cancer.

The word echoed in her mind. She stared in shock at the doctor.

Chapter Three

Anita lay in her bed in the dark. The doctor had left after telling her what they were gonna do. Anita didn't care what he said. All she knew was that it was over. She was not going to the Olympics.

This was not fair. She had dreamed her entire life of going to the Olympics, and suddenly the cruel world had come, she had cancer and would not be in the Olympics. something she had dreamed of since she was little.

How could this have happened to her. Something so cruel and sad. She could not understand why she had to get cancer, nor why she had to get it right before she had time to fulfil her dream.

She was 17 years old, a good age to be going to the Olympics too.

Sighing she thought back to when she was younger. Anita had begun going to the gym when she was three years old. She had always been jumping around and driving her parents crazy. So they had talked about it and enrolled her in a local gymnastics club.

From day one, Anita had loved gymnastics. She loved the running around and rolling on mats. Because of her love for the sport, she was able to learn new things quickly.

Within a month of starting classes, Anita was asked to move up to level two. She was the youngest in the class but surprisingly one of the best.

At the tender age of 5, Anita was in level 4. She was throwing cartwheels, round-offs, and starting to learn harder tumbling such as backhand springs. Each day she spent at the gym, the stronger her love for the sport grew.

Easily at age of 7, Anita made the gym's team. At competition she would compete level 6 work outs.

She was easily throwing back lay outs, back tucks, round-offs into several backhand springs, fronthand springs, and front tucks. (a/n: this is entirely possible since one of the girls at my gym is doing the exact same skills I just listed and she is 7).

Anita thought back to the days when she was at her old gym training as a child.

*flash back*

Anita loved warming up before class. Michael, the coch of team, would turn on some fun music and they would do some dance elements then do high kicks and warm up for practice. After that he would split the team up into groups of two sending one to vault and one to floor.

Anita stood at one corner of the blue mat. Michael stood watching her. She curled her toes thinking of what she had to hit. She ran fast and hit the spring board, she did a front flip in the pike posion and landed on the double mats.

"Good job Anita." Michael said. "This time I want you to put your body in a layout posion. Keep yourself straight."

Anita knodded and got back in line.

Then as before, she ran fast hit the spring board and did a front lay out. Her feet came out from under her and she sat on her bottoms.

"Not bad for your first try." Michael told her.

Anita offered him a slight smile then went to another part on the floor where she stood on a block. There she jumped into the air and did a back tuck off before moving onto the next rotation on floor.

After she would finish on floor, Anita would head off to vault and eventually beam and bars.

On vault she would sprint up and down the run way for drills, then she would actually hit the spring board and just jump onto the mats, sometimes with a half turn and practice sticking the landings. After she would go down the tumble treck doing tumbling.

Other days she would actually go over the vault in a fronthand spring or cartwheel onto the table and twisting off of it. This would be done countless times, alway trying to improve on the next one.

On beam she would do 100 jumps with a jump rope, she would condition jumps on the beam practice dance moves, mounts or dismounts. On the lower beams she would go through basic tumbling.

Bars showed arm condition excersises repeated stradle glids to kips. She would practice casting to a handstand.

Hours after practice would be doing leg lifts, splits, push ups done on floor or handstand posion, crunches, sit ups, stretching everything to make her limber and strong.

After practice she would always be tired but had fun through-out it.

For 6 days a week Anita could spend several hours at the gym. From Mondays through Thursdays work outs were from 4:30-8:30, on Fridays and Saturdays some practices could begin at 10 or 12 through 2 or 4 and then from the regular hours.

People sometimes questioned her parents if they pushed her too hard, they said that she was missing out in her child hood. Anita however bruhed this off. She went to the gym because she wanted to, because it was something she loved.

*end of flashback*

Now lying in the hospitle Anita had to face the facts that this wasn't just some injury she could say whatever to and still work out.

Only knowing gymnastics as her life, she wasn't willing to give up and quite. Even though this was a different situation.

This was something that would change her life forever but she wasn't going to give up. Nothing was going to kill her spirit. She decided for now, she would fight her way to the top, however this time the award was not a gold medal, but perhaps her life.

Chapter Four

It was pretty late at night as Nick sat in the gym. No one else was there so it was deadly quiet. He sat there thinking of life and how it seemed so unfair sometimes.

Cancer was a cruel cruel reality that the world was not fair. He sighed letting out his breath that was being held by him and he tried to keep his emotions in check.

Sitting here thinking of what had happened to Anita made him feel like suffocating. How could this have happened to her? She was so young and special to the gymnastics world. She was supposed to be preparing for her gold medal at the Olympics, not for the endless testing and medication that she was going to have to go through.

Nick stood up sighing and walked around the dimly lit gym. Sounds of years of practice haunted him. He could hear the squeak of the bars, the pounding on the floor, the pants for breath.

In his eye he could see himself working hard for his dream, he along with all of his gym mates. Then suddenly the picture changed.

He stared at the floor mat. An image of Anita was there. He silently watched her move gracefully to the music of her floor routine, he watched as she went through the difficult tumbling that would wow the crowds. Then he watched as her last tumbling pass came up and she fell to the floor in pain.

Nick shook his head wanting the memory of what happened to her leave.

Tears pricked his eyes threatening to spill. When he realized this he became confused. Why was he focusing so much attention on her? He blinked thinking of her sweet face. His heart beat faster when he realized that he had special feelings for her.

This made him feel scared and confused. Because he had spent his entire life at the gym, he never dated.

*Flash back*

13 year old Nick stood in the food court watching the pretty red head. He felt a blush creep upon his face.

Slowly he walked up to her.

"Hi, I'm Nick." He said shyly.

She turned her large green eyes and stared at him.

"Melinda." She answered coolly.

"Um, could I uh buy you a drink?" Nick asked blushing deeply.

"Have one already." She said and turned back to her friend giggling.

Nick wished he could sink through the floor right then and there. He was miserable. Slowly he walked away.

*end of flash back*

Nick sighed thinking of how little experience he had in the girl department. Kevin wasn't that bad and neither were Brian, but he felt like a loser.

Then again, he thought, Anita wasn't like Melinda. Surely she wouldn't cruelly reject him or laugh in his face.

The only problem was how was he going to make her see that he liked her and wasn't doing this out of pity for her.

He decided that the only thing that he could do was go and show her that he supported her.

Squaring his shoulders, he got up and glanced one last time around the gym. Then he walked out to go see her.

Chapter 5

Anita sat in her hospitle bed tired from her day. It had been her first day of medications. Chemo was not an easy thing and she hated how sick it made her.

There was a knock at the door and she sighed her shoulders dropping. She wasn't sure if she was ready to have anyone see her like this. She figured that she might as well get it over with because like it or not, she knew her friends were going to see her in this state, whether she liked it or not.

"Come in." She finally called out.

Her eyes widdened when she saw who walked in. It was Nick.

"Oh, hi" She said shyly.

Nick smiled. His cheeks were slightly red.

"Hey."

"Wanna sit?" She asked him.

"Sure thanks." Nick said small smile then sat by her legs on the bed.

She bit her lip. She had meant the chair slightly away from the bed but she didn't say anything.

"How are you doing?" Nick asked gently looking at her.

"Been better." She answered with a sigh.

"You're looking good." Nick said trying to make her feel better.

"Please don't lie to me Nick, I can see how bad and gross I really look."

"You look just fine to me."

She stared at him.

"There must be something wrong with you." She said wishing he would go away.

"Yeah maybe." His blue eyes were gentle and caring.

They both sat in silence for a few minutes.

"So why did you come?" Anita asked finally breaking the silence.

"Because, you are my friend and I wanted to see how you were doing."

"Thank you." Offered him a small smile.

Nick reached out and took her hand.

"I'm here for you, for whatever you need me know that I will be here to help you."

Tears filled her eyes.

"Don't cry." He said soflty, his thumb brushing away her tears.

"I feel stupid." Anita said trying to laugh.

"Well, you aren't so don't worry about it." He told her kindly.

She began to laugh which made him laugh.

"Ok we are both stupid." She provided.

Nick laughed harder making her laugh harder with him. She was laughing so hard she snorted. Her eyes widdened with horror, then they nearly fell over laughing.

"You are too much." Nick choked out.

She wipped the tears from her eyes.

"Bite me!"

He leaned over and gently bit her hand. She smaked his head.

"Nerd!"

"Damn woman! You are abusive!" Nick cried holding his head in protest.

She giggled.

Then she sat back against the pillows.

"I feel a little better. Thank you for making me forget."

He smiled down at her.

"It was my pleasure."

Chapter Six

Time went by and the Chemo sessions did not get any easier for her. Before she knew it, it was Olympic time. She sighed.

Anne-Marie, Alex, Brian, Kevin and Nick had come by to tell her good bye and to let her know that they would be thinking of her.

She was greatful that her friends were so good to her. Still, she was depressed about not going out onto the floor with team USA and going for a medal.

Anita turned on the tv to watch day one of the woman's competiton. Longingly, she watched her friends compete and wished she could be there with them.

By the time the competion was over for the night, the USA was in second place. Anita turned the tv off and lay back against the hoptile bed thinking. After so many years of working as hard as she could and this happened. She felt bitter.

By the time she was 13 she hardely attented a public school Her schedual had her attend gym from 7 am until 10:30. Then, when not traveling for a meet, she went to school from 11-2 and rested during the afternoon doing home work, eating a light meal, and taking a nap. Then she would go to therapy which would sometimes hurt but it was very refreshing and good for her.

At 5 it was back to the gymn until 9:30. Everyday that was how her schedual was in hopes of making an Olympic team.

She closed her eyes picturing the last few years. The thrill of competing and winning. Suddenly she knew what she had to do.

She had to fight her cancer and get better. She didn't care that the Olympics were only once every four years. She didn't care if she would be 21 by the next games. She was going to do it. She was going to compete in the next Olympics and win gold.

She began to plan when her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Anita."

"Hey Nick how are you?"

"I'm fine sweetie how are you doing?"

"Ok, I guess." She sighed. "So how is it Nick, you having a great time?"

"Yeah, I really wish that you could be here though." He answered truthfully.

"I wish I could be there too. Hey isn't it 2 am where you are?"

"Yeah so?"

"Why are you calling so late?"

"Cuz it's a good time for you and I wanted to see how you are."

"As good as can be expected I guess."

"Don't worry sweetie, you are gonna be ok."

"I'm gonna fight this and I do not plan on losing either."

"Thats the spirit." Nick told her happy to hear her fighting words.

"Well it's late Nick. I'll let you go. Good luck tomorrow."

"Thanks Anita, I'll be thinking about you."

They hung up and Anita sat back thinking. Yes Nick was someone who could help her achieve her dreams.

She decied that when her friends came back, that she would tell them her plans. With a smile on lips for the first time in a long time, she fell asleep.

Chapter Seven

Anita was excited. Then men's team had taken the silver medal and so had the womans team. She was so proud of her friends that she cried when the winners were announced on their days.

To many people, it might have seemed cheesy but Anita didn't care. She was proud to be an American and she was proud of her country for doing well.

For a brief moment, Anita had shut her eyes and she was able to picture herself there with the others on the medal stand.

For one brief moment, Anita was an Olympian.

Now it was the day of the womans all around competition. She sat in her bed feeling weak from the chemo treatments that she had earlier.

All morning after her chemo, she had thrown up and felt like dying. She almost felt like just giving up but she knew if she wanted to get her goals that she would have to fight.

Her coach always said that once you set goals for yourself you work towards them and let nothing come in your way. One your goals were set you worked for them until you reached them.

Anita sighed. This was going to be a lot harder than she thought. She watched Ann-Marie get ready. She would be starting on the uneven bars. It was Anita's favorite place to start.

The competition went on and Anita was stunned to see Ann-Marie was very close to the top. Her heart began to pound. Ann-Marie had a very good chance to get a medal. Anita held her breath, all Ann-Marie needed was a 9.65 on vault to win the gold medal.

Anita leaned closer to the tv holding her breath. Ann-Marie took off towards the vaulting table flying as fast as she could. Anita bit her lip scared. Ann-Marie hit the springboard with a lot of power. She flipped once twisted twice and landed hard causing a big jump.

Anita sighed. While it was a good vault, it could have been so much better. The score flashed. It was an 9.575. Anita sighed. Ann-Marie still had one more vault. If she wanted gold, she was really going to have to hit it.

Ann-Marie ran once again and flew over the horse. Once again she had a hop. Anita bit her lip waiting. The score was a 9.587. Ann-Marie didn't win the gold. But she got silver.

There had only been one American that had won the all around gold in the Olympics. Anita sighed. That had been 20 years ago. America needed another girl to win.

Like many times before, the Russians walked away with yet another gold. Anita flopped back with a sigh. She saw her competitor Tatiana. She was the one who had won the gold.

"It's not fair. I should be there. I could have won!"

A nurse walked in.

"How did your friends do?"

"Ann-Marie got silver and Alex got 5th place."

"Sorry you weren't there to try and win."

"Yeah me too."

The nurse gave her a sympathetic smile. Anita sighed. She hated when people did that to her. It wasn't going to change anything that had happened.

Now more than ever, Anita knew that she had to make a come back. She didn't have a choice.