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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.