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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.