One Tumble At A Time {Open}

[Keri Rocha]

Keri stood in the gymnastics hall in her uniform, with her warm up jacket over the top again, knowing that at some point, she'd be able to get it on without a problem. She popped the small pill into her mouth and with a swig of water, it was in her stomach. Her doctor had prescribed these pills to help fight it, and she knew that if she forgot to take it even once, she'd be back at square one again.

She walked out to the warm up mat and simply stretched her legs, trying to keep her upper body as immobilized as possible. She was free to walk and run for 3 minutes at a time every hour... wasn't that helpful? She couldn't ride her horses, or do anything else at practice, so she mostly tried to do as many sit-ups and bicycles as she could to keep her core from losing any of the strength she'd worked so hard to build up.

These days, she tried to avoid any contact with her coach, speaking to him only when he came up to her, and trying to fly under the radar as much as possible. She hoped he wasn't in his office yet, seeing as she seemed to be the only gymnast in the hall that Sunday evening. He wasn't the only one she was avoiding, but he was up there on her list. The number one spot was reserved for her dear roommate, Samantha. Although she loved the girl to death, her constant chatter and nagging was beginning to make Keri want to pull out her own hair. The gymanstics hall seemed to be the only place she could get away from her, or at least be with her and have silence.

The only other place was work. She hadn't been cleared to work yet, and since she couldn't carry the trays, she wasn't allowed inside. She wanted to go back to the diner so much, just to see everyone, but each time she got within 10 feet of the front door, one of her coworkers would turn her around. Maybe it was for her own good... they all knew she'd start taking orders the moment she stepped foot inside.

She started to roll her ankles out, feeling the familiar sense of relief which she got when she did such a thing, loving how to made her ankles feel fresh and ready to go. She closed her eyes, enjoying the only good thing she'd felt in the last few days. Why had she been so stupid? She knew she shouldn't have put herself and Cruise in an arena with such large jumps. Cruise was bred for that kind of jumping, and Keri? She was barely able to look at one of those jumps without wanting to go puke. She shook her head, ashamed with herself, but pushed the thoughts away. The important thing was, she was still successfully escaping her aunt, her coach, and her roommate. That's all that mattered.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara stood in her dorm room, stretching out muscles that had decided to cramp up after a day in the saddle - which she put down to the bitterness that had grabbed hold of the air that surrounded the Academy.

Once she finished stretching, she took off her riding clothes and stepped into a hot shower and then put on her leotard. The best thing she liked about Sunday's was that there was no official gymnastics training, so it was the one day she could go down to the studio and do whatever she liked without having to worry about doing what Coach wanted to to do. After pulling on her tracksuit and then a thick winter coat, she raced down to the gym and into the gymnastics studio.

Entering the studio, she stopped short when she saw that there was already someone stretching on the mats, but she quickly shook it off as since they were an elite club, it was to be expected that at least one other gymnast would be in here working out on their technical day-off.

Shedding the coat, her shoes and tracksuit, she folded the clothes neatly and placed them on the bleachers next to her gym bag, and walked over to used the other end of the mat that Keri was working on. Letting her feet slide across the surface of the mat, she easily went into the splits as she watched the other gymnast. "Did you manage to sort out your dance routine?" She inquired in a friendly tone - something she had been working on since she decided to try and stop letting her past control her life.

Placing one hand gracefully on top of the other, she stretched forward and curled the fingers of her lower hand around the toes that were pointed away from her. Holding the stretch for the count of ten, she sat up slowly and then stretched backward to circle her hands around the heel of her other foot.

[Keri Rocha]

As she was beginning to lay back and pull her knees up to start her set of bicycles, she heard the door open and saw the tiny gymnast walk in and place her things on the bleachers. The last time that she had spoken to Cara had been in the dance studio, and the thought made her smile. She'd learned a lot from Cara that day, and she owed her more than a small thanks.

As she pumped her legs in the air, around and around in circles, she heard Cara come over and ask her a question about her dance. "I did, actually... but then I realized that I didn't like choreography." She laughed lightly, slightly surprised by how approachable the small girl sounded today... as if she were really happy to talk to someone. Keri had always thought of her as a closed soul: someone removed from society. She was wrong, however, as this attempt at friendliness proved; Cara-Jean did have a soul.

Keri finished her first set of bicycles and immediately went into sit ups, trying hard to keep away the pain that would occur in her ribs when she went too far up. Crunches. The sit ups quickly turned into crunches. Keri winced slightly as she felt the bruised ribs throb in pain, but pushed on anyway, finishing her set of 15.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Straightening up again, Cara stretched her arms up, fingers stretching toward the high vaulted ceiling. She then bent her back leg at the knee, toes touching her back. She curled her fingers around her toes and lifted her leg so that her foot was above her shoulder.

She moved her body around so that both legs were in front of her. Leaning forward to touch her toes, she listened to the other gymnast's answer. Straightening up the girl looked at Keri and lifted her eyebrows in question. "Does this mean that you are going to do your own choreography?" She asked lightly. She knew that choreography was the one place where a number of gymnasts had a problem, but she couldn't see Keri having issues with that. She had watched the girl enough during training and saw how graceful she was.

Stretching both arms above her head again, she arched her back and went into a bridge. Pushing off with her right hand, she did a roll and winced when her left shoulder protested to the movement. She only managed to save herself from landing flat on her face by dropping her knees. "How are the ribs?" She asked, trying to make it look as though she had intended to do that.

[Keri Rocha]

She went back to bicycles as she finished her sit ups, knowing that if she wanted to get anything done, she had to do it without stopping, otherwise she'd get sidetracked and end up not doing anything else the entire time.

As she heard Cara's question in response to what she said about her dance, she smiled slightly. "I guess you could say that... I've started to make some dances up of my own, but there aren't really any named moves, it's more just what I want to do when I want to do it." She said to Cara with a giggle, slightly proud of herself for taking such a huge step... for her at least.

As she finished this set of bicycles, at 18, she did her crunches again, also bumping those up to 18. Her ribs throbbed in protest, but she did her best to ignore them. No matter what she did, they were going to hurt, so she might as well do it now. She looked up just as Cara dropped to her knees and she knew that something had gone wrong with that last stretch she tried to do, but she didn't mention it, knowing it wasn't fun to have your mistakes pointed out to you. Cara quickly asked Keri about her ribs and a grimace came upon her face. "They're just wonderful..." She said to her with complete sarcasm, before laughing slightly. "They're doing better than I thought actually... Just not pain free yet." She shrugged to her. She couldn't help herself from asking her next question, but she did manage to ask it quietly. "How's your shoulder?" She asked her with a raised eyebrow.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara nodded, impressed that the girl was beginning to use her own initiative with her floor routines rather than doing what someone else had told her to do. "Most of the time the best routines are those where you aren't trying to master one move or another." She commented.

Lying on her back, she drew her abdominal muscles and breathed in. Then breathing out, she brought her head up with chin down and, using her abdominal muscles, curled her upper spine up off the floor to the base of the shoulder blades. Keeping the shoulders sliding down and engaged in the back.

She held the position and breathed in. Releasing the breath, she deepened the pull of the abs and extended her arms and legs. Her legs reached toward where the wall and ceiling met. Her arms extended straight and low, just a few inches off floor, with the fingertips reaching for the far wall.

Holding the position, she took five short breaths in and five short breaths out (like sniffing in and puffing out). While doing so, she moved her arms in a controlled up and down manner - a small but dynamic pumping of the arms.

Even though she knew she shouldn't be talking while she did what as called The Hundred, she replied to Keri's question. "My shoulder has it's moments, but when I'm in here it's not something I think about." She had never been one to let pain stand in her way. "I am guessing that you want to remain in shape while you finish healing, thus you being in here." It was a statement, not a question. "You should look at doing pilates. It's great for working on the core, but at the same time a low intensity work-out." She had learned all about the benefits of pilates while wasn't allowed to do gymnastics as her wrists healed.

When she finished the hundred, she kept her spine curved as she brought the knees in toward her chest. She then grasped her knees and rolled her upper spine and head down to the floor, where she drew in a deep breath before releasing it.

She rolled onto her side, facing Keri and began doing leg lifts. "What have they given you for the pain? That is if you don't mind my asking?"

[Keri Rocha]

Keri smiled at Cara's words, knowing that the small, elite gymnast was correct. Most of the natural routines were the best of them all. She nodded and continued with her workout, but wished there was something else she could be doing. She watched as Cara did her own workout, which seemed much more entertaining then laying on her back and moving her legs and what not.

As her question was answered, Keri nodded, knowing that would be the most explanation she received from the girl. Cara was a dedicated competitor, and that only proved it. She turned her head as she heard Cara speak again, in a questioning tone, and sighed with a smile. "It's the only way I'll stay sane. Plus, I don't think coach would appreciate it much if I were to come back healed but fat..." She said with a small laugh. When Cara suggested Pilates, Keri raised an eyebrow. She'd heard about the workout, but never thought of it as a very rewarding one, since she was used to more high-intensity things. Low-intensity workouts seemed to be in her best interest now, however, so she nodded in agreement. "I'll look into it, thanks." She said to her with a smile as she went back to her reps.

The ribs were throbbing by now, and she decided that would be it for the day unless she wanted to black out, so she laid her legs flat on the ground and pulled herself up one last time, to the dismay of her burning abs, and sat up, taking a few sharp breaths. She heard Cara speak again and shook her head, letting her know she didn't mind the girl asking. "At the moment, I have Naproxen, but they might switch me to something stronger if need be."[/COLOR] She said to her with a sigh.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara laughed at the comment about keeping sane. "Isn't that the truth." She replied lightly, to show that the laughter had been about a memory, rather then what the other girl was saying. "A few years back, I had to take six months off competing... well any intense gymnastics. My coach had me almost overworking the lower part of my body because I couldn't use my arms."

Once she finished fifty leg lifts, rather than just simply rolling over, she spun her body around so that she could still face Keri a she repeated the lifts with the other side. She frowned slightly when the other girl told her about the painkiller she was taking. "You do realise that Naproxen can cause perforations in your stomach." She lifted her eyebrows. "Especially if there is no food in there to counter-balance the strength of it with the stomach acid." The fact that the other girl had lost a dramatic amount of weight in a very short time hadn't bypassed the girl's attention, and she knew the dangers of taking some non-inflammatory medications without food. "Coach isn't here if you're worried about that."

She sat up once she had finished her leg-lifts and pulled her knees up to her chest. She wanted to go do pull-ups on the highbar, but that could wait until she was alone as she didn't want to seem that she was rubbing in what the other girl couldn't do.

[Keri Rocha]

She nodded, pointing her toes out in front of her to stretch her shins, and then back towards her to stretch the calves, enjoying the immediate feel of the stretch. That was something she loved about stretching, once you felt it, you knew when you were getting results. She raised her eyebrows at Cara's small look back at her life. "Seems a bit scary, huh?" She said with a small smile, knowing the girl was a very competitive gymnasts, but the thought of overworking her muscles seemed completely terrifying. That would have meant even more time off.

Keri didn't look up at Cara when she spoke to her about the medicine. "I'm doing my best to keep anything like that from happening..." She said to her with a nod as she moved to stand up, using her left arm to push herself onto her feet, seeing as she wasn't going to be able to do anymore floor work that day. "But I'll keep that in mind." She said to her with a small smile. As she was walking back towards the locker room, she heard Cara mention that their Coach wasn't there. She paused slightly and nodded, "Yeah, I didn't see him... why do you think I'm worried about him?" She asked quietly, wondering what exactly gave the girl the cause to mention it to her... then again, maybe Cara could see something that Keri couldn't, and if so, she'd love to know how.