Central Middle School wasn’t your average middle school. Especially not when Addison Bielecki went there. She saw the weirdest things and was completely disturbed by people at her school, for they were the most odd people to be found on Earth, so she thought. The school itself smelled like it was built around the time of the dinosaurs- it was old, run down, and just flat out ugly.

Addie was in her first week of 5th grade when she met Mckenna, her best friend. McKenna was a skinny, tall girl with blond hair and beautiful, blue eyes. McKenna looked much like Addie, although they were not related. Addie had blond curly hair, and she as well had deep blue eyes. Not only did they look similar, but they also had many traits and skills in common. They were both level 10 gymnasts, competing for none other than the best gym in the state, Splits Gymnastics Academy. The building in which they practiced may not have been the most beautiful thing you’ve seen, with its stained carpet and sweaty smell, but the gymnasts that went there were truly amazing.

Neither of them were all that fond of school, and both of them would rather have been at the gym than at school, any day. They trained five days per week, four and a half hours per day. No one would understand what they went through, when it came to hard work and dedication.

Addie and McKenna were walking to 3rd hour together one day, discussing important matters.

“It’s almost here! I actually can’t believe this is happening. I’m not ready.” McKenna said with fright.

“You are ready. We’re both ready.” said Addie calmly.

“But this is nationals, this is the biggest moment of our gymnastics careers!” McKenna noted.

“Exactly, so we should be excited, not nervous.” said Addie.

“It’s kind of hard when like the entire country of gymnasts and their families are watching.” noted McKenna.
Together they walked to social studies, which was one of the classes they liked least. As they entered the classroom, one of the popular kids, Jared, approached them.

“I heard you’re going to miss a day of school next week for a gymnastics meet or whatever.” he spoke with his big mouth.

“What, are you going to go to New York just to do some cartwheels?”

“Simple-minded people like you wouldn’t understand the complexity of a sport like gymnastics. We’re actually going to New York to do back handspring layout step-outs and Yurchenko fulls. Just things like that.” Addie remarked with a proud smile.

“You’re going to do what?” Jared asked.

“Exactly.” McKenna replied.

The two of them continued to walk to their seats.

“When will people understand what we do and learn to appreciate it?” asked McKenna.

“Probably never. We’re going to have to learn to deal with it.” answered Addie.

Third hour passed, and so did the rest of the hours, quite quickly. Before they knew it, it was time to leave for the meet.
Addie was in the kitchen on the phone with McKenna, discussing what to bring for the meet.

“Don’t forget your grips Addie!” McKenna reminded her.

“Don’t worry, I have everything.” Addie ensured. Although she said she had everything, Addie had only assumed that.

She walked up to her room curiously, and saw her bag out on her bed, with its contents lying half in and half out of the backpack. She was wondering how it got there, because last time she checked, it was sitting on the floor of her closet. She shrugged her shoulders, guessing that it was probably her mom that had taken it out. She shoved everything back into the backpack, hoping everything was there. She stared at her bag for a moment, noticing the silver glittery letters shining in the light coming through her window. She thought it would be best to look to see if everything was there, just in case.

She unzipped the backpack and scanned over everything. She did a quick check and saw her leotard, water bottle, and hair supplies. She zipped her bag back up, now more comfortable that she had everything.   

Shortly afterward, they took off for New York. The drive from Michigan, where they lived, was an estimated 9 hours and 6 minutes, so they had to leave school a bit early to get there at a reasonable hour. Throughout the car ride there was a series of stopping for food, for bathroom breaks, and at one point just to be in fresh air.

When they finally arrived at 9:31 p.m., they checked in to the Embassy Suites hotel. They got a room on the 8th floor. When they walked in, they set down their bags and got themselves situated. Both of their moms told them to hang up their leotards on a hanger so they were ready to go in the morning. Their meet was at 12:30 the next day. Addie searched through her bag until she found her leotard. She carried it over to the hanger to hang it up. As she was walking, she noticed a weird texture on her leotard that wasn’t the usual silky, smooth feeling. It almost felt as if someone had put liquid cement on it and let it dry. She looked down to see her leotard shredded to pieces on the bottom half of it.

With a feeling of panic, Addie smelled the ripped up part where it felt like concrete. “Dried up dog slobber.” She wondered how in the world she didn’t notice it when she packed up to leave, but then it hit her.

“Lacy took this out of my bag and chewed it all up! That’s why everything was out of my bag and scattered on my bed!” she realized. Lacy was her dog, who was a black lab that was only three months old. She was just a puppy, so she chewed on everything.
With fear in her eyes, Addie turned to her mom. “Mom, Lacy chewed up my leotard! What am I gonna do?

“SHE DID WHAT?” her mom roared.

“She got my leotard and chewed it up.” Addie said quietly.

“How?” her mom asked.

“I don’t know. . . . It was in my closet.”

“Your brother was looking for the camera in your closet earlier. He must have left the door open and the dog must’ve ran in. I don’t know what you’re going to do about this.” her mom paced the room, thinking of ideas.

“You could go ask coach for another one. Maybe she has one.” Mrs. VanZant, McKenna’s mom suggested.

“Coach said she doesn’t have any more. Someone at the gym asked already because they wanted the extras.” Addie sighed.

  But then, an idea came to her. “Maybe I could make an identical one. I payed close attention in life management class when the teacher taught us to sew, and I was actually pretty good at it. I can just take the fabric from the top half that’s still good to use, and maybe we can go to the store to color match it with some more fabric. I just need the fabric, a needle, some thread, and some shears.”

“If that’s our only option, then it will have to do.” her mom sighed, clearly thinking all hope was lost.

“I know it sounds risky, but I think I can do it.” Addie explained.
They ran to the nearest arts and crafts store, which was luckily close by. They were able to get a fabric color that was almost identical to the original leotard, which was a bright shade of sky blue.         

When they got back to the hotel, Addie got right to work. She weaved the needle back and forth through the fabric. Hours passed, and she grew tired. Things became a blur, and the next things she knew, it was 7:30 a.m. She sat up and looked down at her project. She had fallen asleep without even realizing it. She only had a few stitches left to complete it, so she finished it up.

“Done.” she said with exhaustion.

She brought it over to her mom to show her, and believe it or not, it actually looked almost exactly like it did before Lacy ate part of it.

“Wow. I’m impressed.” her mom remarked.

   “Thanks. That was a lot harder than life management class makes it seem.” Addie said with surprise.

Later in the day, they started to get ready for the meet. Their moms put their hair into buns and coated them with sticky hair spray. Addie put on her new leotard, which was a little small, but it was all she had.

They drove to the location of the meet, when they walked in, their coach took them to where they would begin to warm up. Their parents took a seat in the audience.

Soon the stretching began. Addie and McKenna stretched and warmed up for a while, and when warm up was over, they went to their first event, bars. They had eight minutes to warm up their routines, and when the time came, they had to compete. McKenna was up first.

“Good luck!” Addie exclaimed.

“Thanks Addie!” replied McKenna.

McKenna got up on the bars, and with each skill flowing smoothly and easily, she completed the routine without falling.

“Nice job McKenna!” Addie yelled.

McKenna walked over to Addie with a smile. “I survived the bar routine!”

“I know! Great job!”

“Thanks!”

McKenna ended up getting a 9.05 for her score.

After a few other people, it was finally Addie’s turn.

She waited near the bar, looking at the judges. They saluted her, and she saluted back. Off she went. She glided into her first kip, did a squat on, and leaped to the high bar. Kip cast handstand, blind full, tkatchev, swing half, bail back to low bar. These things seemed to fly by as she did them.

Finally, it was time for her dismount- a double tuck full twisting flyaway. She swung the giants with good form and quick taps, and then she closed her eyes and released her hands. Chalk flew from the bar as she let go. Tuck, Twist, Open, Stick, she thought. Tuck. Twist. Open. Stick. She opened her eyes. There she was, standing right where she landed without a single step, no deduction. She turned and saluted once again to the judge, and walked over to give coach a hug.

“You did great girl.” her coach complimented.

“Thanks coach.” she replied. She could feel coach’s silky hair brush against her shoulder as she hugged her.

She turned to see the board where her score was, which was now showing a new score:
Addison Bielecki
Level 10
9.75

“I got a 9.75! Yes!” Addie exclaimed.

They rotated to the next event, beam. Once again, the judges saluted Addie. She swiftly but smoothly spun through her full turn. She pulled a 180 degree split in her switch leap, and her back tuck was on point. Now it was time for the series. With a pounding heart, Addie threw her body backwards, catching the beam in the back handspring, and right when she landed, she went backwards again, only this time she did a back layout stepout, not touching the beam. She landed, and with a sense of panic, began to wobble. I did not come all the way to New York and train so hard for this moment just to mess this up, she thought. With all of her strength, she pulled herself back up from a bent over position and stood up. Relieved, she continued the routine. She dismounted with an aerial layout-full.

She walked over to McKenna and her coach. “That wasn’t my best routine, but at least I didn’t fall.” she admitted.

“We will work on the series back at home,” coach sighed, “but good job. And look, you got a 9.4 from the tough judge! That lady never gives good scores.”

“Alright! I’ll take it.” Addie agreed.

They went to floor next. This was Addie’s best event. She loved the dance in her routine. When it was her turn, she danced her heart out. She stuck all but one tumbling pass, which was her round-off back handspring layout double-full. The dance in her routine was sweet and sassy.  She showed it off very well. She ended up getting a 9.8 on floor, and the deduction was from the one landing she didn’t stick and a slight over-rotation on her double-full turn.

Next was vault. Addie sometimes had trouble with her landings on vault, so she was really hoping for the best. She ran for the first one, punching the springboard with all of her power, reaching for the back handspring, and went for the layout-full. She landed, and a sharp pain went through her ankles. She had landed short and fell straight on her hands and knees. She managed to stand up quickly and salute. She turned to her coach.

“You alright?” coach asked.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Just gotta make sure the next one lands.” she replied.

She walked back to her starting spot on the runway, and began to run for the second vault. Again, she punched the board as hard as she could, and went for the back handspring, then the layout-full. She found herself standing up, and taking one small step backwards. She turned and saluted. That vault earned her a 9.375 for a score. She did great overall, but now it was time for awards.

Addie and McKenna waited anxiously for the results of which region won. Their home state, Michigan, was in region 5.

The announcer began to read the third place region. “In third place, we have region 8!” The gymnasts from region 8 walked up to the podium and took a group picture with their banner they had just won.

“In second place, region 3!” Another group picture with a banner.

“And finally, congratulations to our first place national team, region 5!”

Addie’s heart did a leap. “We won! We won!” They all went up to the podium to take a picture with their first place banner. Addie couldn’t have been happier.

After the meet, Addie and McKenna went out to a late lunch/early dinner.

“We did good Addie, we did good.” McKenna told her.

“We did. Congratulations, McKenna, and get ready to have high expectations for next year!”