Training (Sepia)

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Amateurs
practice until they get it right.
Professionals
practice until they can't get it wrong.
-

Cara was awake before dawn, which was normal or her. She silently slipped out of her bed, grabbed the team leotard that had been sent to her after she had sent back the form accepting the place on the demonstration team. Slipping into the bathroom, she stepped into the uniform pulling it up so that it hugged her tiny frame. Wearing a leotard was the only time that she allowed her legs to remain bare, if one looked close enough, you could just make out the patch at the very top of her right thigh from where the dog's teeth had ripped her clothes, along with some of her skin. It was not more than uneven skin now though as the girl had tended it with emu oil and the surrounding area with arnica so that it was leave her skin almost scar-free. Leaving the small room, she slipped her feet into her sneakers, pulled her hair back into a pony tail, which she then wound around into a bun, grabbed her gym bag and slipped out of the room. She had been asked to train wearing the demonstration leotard so that by the time the demonstration started the ‘tard would be shaped to her form and would move with her.

Leaving the Red Ribbon House, she slipped across the campus – hopefully unseen – and into the gym that never seemed to get locked. She guessed that the reason for this was for the staff members who wanted to use the establishment before they started work. She walked into the building that was only lit by the emergency lights. Walking through the building, she allowed her feet to guide her, stopping only when she arrived at the gymnastics studio.

Opening the door, she reached around the frame until she found the light switch. Squinting her eyes, she waited for them to adjust to the bright fluorescent tube lighting before entering the room. She kicked off her sneakers at the door and left them tidily against the wall with her gym bag and crossed the floor to the large mat that was used for floor exercises. She knew that it would be a while before Lee walked in. Okay, she had no idea what time her spotter would actually arrive, but she guessed that she would have a while to wait. So she was going to spend this time just stretching out and warming up so that she was ready for everything.

She slid down into the splits and held the position for a minute with her back straight before she lifted her arms up to that her finger-tips were reaching for the ceiling. She then bent at the hips and reached out toward the wall in front of her. She then reached both hands to her left toes and then her right before she sat up again and leaned backward so that she was lying on her back. Lifting her hips off the floor she began to work the muscles in her legs, starting with scissor kicks. If she hadn’t picked anything else useful from her many coaches over the years, it was to stretch out each muscle group carefully before getting to any real work. Standing up, she lifted her arms her finger-tip once more reaching for the ceiling. She then folded herself at the hips and placed the palms of her hands flat on the mat between her feet.

Outfit

[sepia]

Extricating himself from his bed with some difficulty as he attempted to not disturb the tortoiseshell cat curled up atop the covers, Lee placed his feet on the floor to the accompaniment of a peeved sounding meow and a paw batting at his hand. Cats, he thought, amused as he made his way across the room to the window, opening the curtains to peer out into the half-light. Looked to be a nice day - clear, though with a few clouds on the horizon, now lit gently pink by the sun that was just about lurking below the horizon that perhaps spoke of rain later on. But he didn't have time to admire the view, and shortly he was tugging on socks at the same time as placating an eager dog.

"You'd think I existed purely for the benefit of you two," he muttered as Owain shoved a cold nose into his arm and Megan daintily leapt down from the bed, padding across the floor into the little kitchen unit where she promptly demanded breakfast with a plaintive meow.. "Oy, let me get dressed before you pester me for your creature comforts, hmm?" His clothing for today was customarily practical - dark brown trousers comfortable to ride in, a black shirt and boots - and so it didn't take him long before he was dealing with the vagaries of his two pets.

Despite the best efforts of his animals, Lee was exiting his apartment not long after rising, though the sun was now beginning to truly show above the horizon, calling Owain to heel with a whistle. The Irish Setter bounded out down the corridors ahead of him, and Lee detoured briefly outside to give the dog a chance to find a bush, before heading back through the passageways of the school to the gym. He debated stopping off at his apartment to drop Owain off, but decided to keep the dog with him: partly because he suspected Cara was already in the gym, and partly because he was feeling a little guilty about not spending all that much time with the friendly dog, and keeping him around for this would mean it would be easier to give him a good walk afterwards, before he headed down to the stables to begin the day proper. And Owain was plenty well-trained enough to quietly curl up in a corner of the gym and not interfere.

Unsurprised to see lights issuing from the gymnasium, Lee quietly opened the door, equally unsurprised to see that Cara had started warming up already. She wasn't the type to let the grass grow beneath her feet, that was for certain. As Owain trotted in after him with bright eyes, Lee commanded the dog with a firm, "Sit and stay," with a pointed hand for emphasis, to remain at the wall. Obediently enough, though perhaps with a slight hint of reproach in his warm eyes, Owain flopped himself down about a metre away from Cara's bag, rested his head on his paws, and settled in for the duration.

"Morning," Lee said, that done, as he crossed the room towards the mat where Cara was stretching. "Why am I not surprised to find you here first?" He smiled as he spoke, his tone one of friendly teasing rather than reproach, and halted a few metres back from the mat, watching as Cara worked.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

She gave Lee a bright smile as he arrived with his canine. “Morning!” She replied. The smile was one of her trademark gymnastic-smiles - the ones that filled the glossy pages of sports magazines of years gone by - so it didn’t quite reach her eyes even though it still managed to light her face up. “Because I don’t sleep.” She offered in response to why he wasn’t surprised that she was there first.

She circled her shoulders and looked around the studio before walking over to the uneven bars - already working through the routine she was going to work on before she had even started. “Let’s Fly.” She ran forward and grasped the low bar. From there did a long underswing, upstart to catch the highbar, she extended back under the low bar and gaining momentum swung back to the higher bar. She could feel the movement of the fiberglass bar under her hands as her fingers circled around it. However, she had too much momentum and wasn’t able to close her hands in time as they slipped off the smooth plastic and she landed on her knees on the mat. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” She cursed herself as she punched the mat before pushing herself up and walking back to her starting place, that was not how she had pictured it! Circling her shoulders again, wincing a little as the old injury reminded her that it was still there, before she ran forward and repeated the routine. As she swung to the highbar, this time she remembered to close her hands around the bar this time, her face contorting as she felt the skin burn against the bar. With a backward somersault beginning in straddle piked position, she did a tumble turn to catch the low bar. From there she did a long underswing into to a move called skin the cat (keeping her arms and legs straight, she lifted her toes up and back overhead, through a piked inverted hang. Then, continued to lower her toes slowly toward the floor behind her and using the flexibility in her shoulders returned to the starting position) and rose into back support on low bar. Kipping, she flew back up to the higher bar where she dismounted with a double pike somersault and landed on the ground, throwing both arms into the air. “Stick that landing!” She cheered as she did a small victory dance on the mat.

She looked toward Lee and gave an impish grin before ducking her head. She had almost forgotten that he was there, and was glad she hadn’t made another mistake like allowing her hands to slide off the highbar in the middle of a move. “I hope I can work out stupid mistakes like that before the big day.” She muttered, not at all impressed with herself. She could feel her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as she ducked her head, almost expecting one of her past coaches to appear out of nowhere and start ripping into her about how useless she was and that she was lucky that they were even putting up with her stupidity. “Sorry.” She mumbled.

Lifting her right hand, she crossed it over her body to massage her left shoulder. The pain wasn't enough to stop her, but it was one of those annoying throbbing pains that was always there and held a threat of something worse later on. Shrugged the pain off, she looked around working out her next move.

[sepia]

Apparently Cara was warmed up already, so Lee followed in her tracks over to the uneven bars, assuming a position slightly to the side where he wouldn't be in the way, but from where he could prevent her from cracking her head open on the floor. Being dragged along to the gym by his brother when Iestyn had first gotten into gymnastics had led to Lee getting involved quite early on, figuring that if he going to be there anyway, he might as well be doing something useful, and the school team coach had been delighted to have someone else there to help contain the excitement on tumbling eight-year-olds. Iestyn had been remarkably unembarrassed by being the only boy amidst a group of girls, and Lee had learnt how to spot, providing support and additional safety to the group - mostly his brother - as they'd grown older.

He hadn't done it for a few months, now, not since he'd left home, but up until he'd packed his bags he'd continued to spot for his brother, and so was hardly out of practice. He just needed to get himself back into the right mindset... and it came surprisingly easily, Lee falling back into the routine of closely watching 'his' gymnast, in this case Cara, as she spun herself around the bars. With the not minuscule amount of gymnastics knowledge that he had, he'd known from before that Cara was talented in this area, just from watching her on the beam.

Seeing her fling herself around the set of bars, though, was something else entirely, and Lee found himself both nostalgic - because, gosh, sometimes he forgot just how much he missed his brother, and gymnastics brought that back into focus - and highly impressed, because Cara was a delight to watch, even as she did make mistakes. Perhaps it was only the lay-man in him being impressed, but he didn't think so. Jerking forwards as Cara did slip, he retreated to his previous position as she didn't land badly, picking herself up and - with a true gymnast's dedication - started again instantly. He grinned as she landed successfully the second time, and broke out into a cheer - it was always nice to see Cara more exuberant than usual, and rather humbling when she let herself go to that extent around him. It was nice to know that he as trusted.

"Better to make the mistakes now then in a month," he commented, mildly, as his sharp ears picked up on Cara's mutterings, and not asking what she thought she was going to get for making such a mistake in the first two minutes of practice. He suspected that he didn't, really, want to know - and he could guess, anyway. "Something wrong with your shoulder?" he added, eyes drawn to the joint in question by Cara's massaging of it - from the way she was moving, it looked more like an old injury than something caused thirty seconds ago, but it never hurt to be too careful.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara nodded at Lee's words. "Too true." She replied. Her hand left her shoulder at his next words. "Just a niggle." She assured him. "I did something to is in the last competition I attended. It will be fine." And it would, she would ignore the pain and it would vanish. If it got any worse, she'd go see the school nurse and ask for a cortisone injection. She flashed him a grin and jogged over to the beam.

Standing at the end of the runway, she raised an arm and gave a bright smile as she would to salute the judges in a competition. She then ran toward the end of the beam, and performed a free jump mount (one that doesn’t use the springboard) and went into a straddle split handstand and did a full turn. She moved into a forward somersault and landed smoothly on the beam before instantly moving into a backward salto with a full twist. This was followed by a piked back salto, then a split jump and a sheep jump. Next she did a switch split ring leap ( she jumps up and lifts her legs into a split, then bends the back one up towards her head while arching her head and upper body back towards her leg), which was follow quickly by a back tuck salto. “No!” She cried as her foot missed the beam and she slipped off. Furious with herself she smacked her hands against the beam - instantly wishing she hadn't as the skin on her palms was ripped up from the beams, not that she was going to let Lee know just yet - before placing her foot on the beam and hopping back up to continue the routine. Shaking herself, she moved on. The next move was an aerial walk over, followed by a Rulfova (where she dives backward and does a full twist before briefly supporting herself with her hands and then lowering down to straddle the beam). Bouncing up again, she did a front tuck salto, quickly followed by two back handsprings and a two and a half twist back salto dismount before she landed on the mat.

The main idea of the beam, was for the gymnast not to look as though she were working on a plank of wood no wider than her foot, but to appear as though she were working on the floor. She chose back movements over forward ones, as they always picked up the higher marks as it was a way for the gymnast to prove she knew her apparatus as they could not see the beam until seconds before their hands touched down, not even time to correct a movement of you were half an inch out.

[sepia]

Nodding, Lee accepted Cara's explanation, but resolved to keep a close eye on it. Even an old injury could flare up unexpectedly at the wrong moment, and it would only take a cramp shooting through the joint for Cara to go toppling off whatever piece of equipment she was using - and even when doing floor exercises, a badly angled floor could spell disaster - and he wasn't about to let that happen on his watch.

The beam appeared to be Cara's next objective, and Lee set himself up next to it, casting a look at Owain - now fast asleep, by the relaxed look he had about him - before returning his full attention back to Cara as she preformed a free jump mount, gaining the top of the beam easily (though the ease with which she leaped had to be deceptive) despite the lack of a springboard. Pacing Cara as she danced herself along the beam, noting her use of backwards rather than forwards movements, a choice that significantly increased the difficulty of what she was doing, Lee didn't react when she slipped, recognising probably before she did that the angle at which she was coming down would do her no harm - she was going to land on her feet, hurting not much more than her pride.

Raising a silent eyebrow at he brief display of anger - in the midst of congratulating himself for regaining his spotter's eye again, able to make those decisions of when he should be worried, and when he should merely remain an observer - Lee kept quiet until she'd finished the routine, knowing enough that unsolicited comments from him would not be helpful in the slightest. As she touched back down on to solid earth again with no further mishaps, Lee gave her an approving nod and a smile, knowing that she wouldn't want anything more, not with the mistake she'd made.

"If you don't mind some advice from a non-gymnast," he began, tone unusually tentative for him, but this was Lee stepping away from his comfort zone of horses into a discipline he knew only by watching others, "You looked down, slightly, during that salto - that's what sent your balance off... though you probably noticed that yourself and my observations are entirely unwanted. Sorry," he shrugged, firmly telling himself that Cara was far more experienced than he, and had probably forgotten more about gymnastics than he'd ever picked up, "Apparently spotting for someone for five years leads you to wanting to interfere."

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara shook her head at Lee. "Don't be sorry." She told him. "You're right. I knew I was off line and I should have pulled out of the move before completely ruining it. And looking down just made it worse." She pressed her lips together in thought as she bounced on the balls of her feet. "I like your input. You don't condescend or belittle me, and I thank you for that."

She walked over to the end of the vault run way. She shook her head slightly, to clear the fogginess that seemed to creep over her vision. "Breathe, just breathe." She whispered to herself as she rose her arm in salute to the invisible judges.

Moving her arms extra fast to give her extra speed, she raced down the runway and did a round-off entry onto the springboard, then a back handspring like movement onto the vault table and after blocking off the vault table, rotated a two and a half back somersault. This movement is called a Yurchenko, named for Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, who created it (though this vault is now performed by both men and woman). Her feet touched the mat on the other side of the vault, without her even needing to skip to adjust her balance, but, rather than being able to throw her arms up and stick her third landing for the day her knees buckled and she landed on her backside. She lay back on the mat, no longer having the energy to be angry with herself.

She closed her eyes as she waited for the adrenaline to kick in so that she could have another go at the vault, but it didn’t come. Rather than adrenaline, all she got was a deep thud right behind her temples. Sitting up, she pulled her legs up so that she could rest her chin on them. The whole thing reminding her of the day that she had lost her best friend, except that day it had been at the end of the beam.

Shaking her head, she rose to her feet and drew in a deep breath. “I’m fine.” She told Lee before he had the chance to say anything, as she headed back to the start of the vault runway. She sprayed water onto her hands before dunking them into the chalk bin and then rubbed chalk onto the soles of both of her feet. After clapping her hands together to remove any excess chalk, she lifted her arm in a salute and sprinted down the runway again. She repeated the Yurchenko again, this time she added an extra rotation into her dismount and landed on the mat, facing the vault, bouncing backward once to help rebalance her and pumped her fists into the air as she remained on her feet.

She closed her eyes and shook her head as the pounding increased. “I need a drink.” She walked over to her bag and squatted down to pull out the water bottle that was stored carefully inside the bag and took a long drink of the room-temperature water.

[sepia]

Well, at least someone didn't mind his interference! Pleased by that, and equally pleased by the fact that he'd apparently been hitting the right tone, something he occasionally worried about, knowing that he sometimes had the tendency to come off as a smug know-it-all, simply because he was confident in himself, his abilities, and his judgment. Cara, though, wasn't one for false modesty either - when she was negative about herself she unfortunately truly believed it - so it appeared that she didn't object to well-meaning, constructive observations, as long as they were leveled at her as a person, rather than a preforming doll.

"I'll keep it up, then," he said, with an acknowledging nod, as he mentally made a note that he'd have to get back into the supportive side of gymnastics. He'd been reasonably well-versed in techniques when helping his brother, but he wasn't too proud to admit that he'd need to continue with his reading up if he was going to continue to support Cara. It was clear that she was far better than Iestyn had been, and if he wanted to be as much use as possible, he'd have to get up to speed with her level.

As he considered all this, he'd stationed himself by the vault, appreciating the nostalgia of the position, and watching as Cara wound herself up for the movement, keeping a close eye on her as she preformed a Yurchenko vault, managing the movement with both flair, grace and style before simply folding down onto the mat as she landed. Lee hadn't been expecting that, he would admit, and he scolded himself for that even as he leant over the top of the vault to eye Cara with concern from above.

Finding himself cut off before he could even offer a comment on Cara's dismount - because that had been fatigue, rather than a mistake - Lee held his silence until she'd repeated the exercise, glad when she both managed it successfully, and took the chance to grab herself a drink of water. "Not looking too bad," he opinioned, as he leaned against the vault and watched her progress across the room to her water, "More practice needed, of course, but when does that ever stop." Straight up honesty with Cara was the best policy, and false encouragement would do neither of them any good.

As Cara squatted down to her back, Owain roused himself, wagging his tail with a little thump-thump against the floor, though he didn't move from his flopped position, remembering Lee's firm command. He raised his head, though, coiling himself up a little as he extended towards Cara, usual friendly dog-instincts pushing him to make friends.

"Mind if I call spotter's prerogative and ask you to take five minutes?" Lee said, watching Owain - and Cara - fondly, though his tone rather suggested that he wasn't going to brook much argument. "I'm not asking you to stop entirely for the day," even if he wasn't at all happy with the headache he suspected was pounding through Cara's head, given the way she was holding herself, "But five minutes would make me feel more content." Somewhat: he'd take his victories where he could get them, and he understood the gymnasts thing of pushing themselves far... which was one of the reasons why they had spotters, people who weren't trainers that might actually consider the health of the gymnast more than any other party involved.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara reached over, offered the canine her hand before she ruffled the top of his head affectionately. She turned at Lee's words. "Spotter's prerogative, huh?" She said with a small musical laugh. Rather than arguing about it though, she sat on the ground and tucked her legs under her. Swallowing another mouthful of her water she poured a tiny amount on her hand and rubbed them together to get rid of the grim that had built up from the perspiration, chalk and mat dirt and then used more water to make her hands clean again.

Cleanliness was next to godliness, it was one of her many OCDs. Something that had really been drilled into her since toddlerdom and even more so as she got older and began to understand what was happening to her. She religiously showered at least twice a day, even more on the days she did training like this and horse riding on top of that. She always had to be clean, even if that meant she had to scrub her skin raw after her meetings with Mr Andrews - the mere thought of him made her want to wash herself.

Stretching her leg out again, she began to stretch out once more. The pounding in her head has lessened a little, just enough for it not to know her balance off too much. "Okay Mr Spotter, which apparatus?" She asked. She knew she had time for one more thing before she did need to shower, change and head off to her classes.

[sepia]

Lee grinned in response to her question, glad that she'd accepted his suggestion-that-wasn't-really-a-suggestion without argument - and in seemingly good humour. He'd decided to view it as a personal little victory if he got her to laugh; a genuine laugh, one not forced. "Of course. Us spotters like to think we have some power." Continuing, mostly subconsciously, to keep an eye on her, he noted her little cleaning ritual, and realised that she apparently didn't subscribe to the usage of grips... probably deemed far too 'soft' by her previously harsh trainers, he figured, and now attempting to use them would probably only throw her off. He'd never quite understood the reasons between using and not using grips - other than the ones of extra protection - so he wasn't going to bring the matter up.

Having made the same time calculation that Cara had, Lee jerked his head towards a piece of apparatus she'd already utilised. "Trying the beam again might be a good idea - see if you can nail that particular routine, without the slip during the back tuck salto?" Not entirely sure if Cara should be pushing herself too hard this first time back into more intense training, his suggestion was made mostly because it was something Cara obviously could do - but needed to do better if she was going to have a chance of shining at the demo. Lee was a personal believer in the fact that shoving yourself onwards without first making sure you had solidified your previous position was never a good idea, and suspected that Cara would probably be of a similar mind... unless she was so hung up on pushing herself on to more difficult moves.

Pleased at the attention, Owain lathered Cara's hand with his tongue, drawing back quickly and sneezing - looking most perturbed - as the taste of chalk hit his tastebuds. "The now bemused looking dog's Owain," Lee commented, smiling slightly as his dog tried to figure out why this nice person's hand tasted so funny, "Don't think you'll have run into him before."

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara giggled as the dog sneezed after licking at her hand. "Sorry, Sir Owain." She said with sincerity. "I forgot that not everyone like the taste of gym chalk." She rose to her feet, nodding at the suggestion of hitting the beam routine. "Good idea." She said as she stretched out her shoulder blades.

Walking over to the beam area. Standing at the end of the runway, she raised an arm and gave a bright smile as she would to salute the judges in a competition. She then ran toward the end of the beam, and performed a free jump mount and went into a straddle split handstand and did a full turn. She moved into a forward somersault and landed smoothly on the beam before instantly moving into a backward salto with a full twist. This was followed by a piked back salto, then a split jump and a sheep jump. Next she did a switch split ring leap, which was follow quickly by a back tuck salto. Next was an aerial walk over, followed by a Rulfova. Bouncing up again, she did a front tuck salto, quickly followed by two back handsprings and a two and a half twist back salto dismount before she landed on the mat. She did a small victory dance on the mat, pleased with herself for completing the routine without any slip-ups.

Looking at Lee, she stopped dancing and ducked her head as she felt her cheeks beginning to burn in embarrassment. "Sorry." She mumbled.

The pounding in her head was back and she lifted a hand to her temple before dropping it again. "Thank you for coming here at this time of the morning to spot me." She walked over and picked up her drink bottle again to have another drink, being careful of how she held the bottle so that the shaking of her hand wasn't so obvious. She possibly shouldn't have done the last routine on the beam, but at least she could end the session on the fact that she had nailed that one routine. She did have a few other beam routines she wanted to work on though before the demo so that she didn't go in there as a one-hit-wonder.

[sepia]

Lee shook his head, a pleased smile on his face as he watched Cara's little triumphant celebration. "I think you well deserve a little victory dance," he said, "That was very good - smooth, flowing, no hint of hesitation, and technically very correct, too. Probably a good high point to stop on!" His tone rang with certainty - he wasn't speaking false encouragement, or giving her words of praise she didn't deserve, but equally he didn't think that praise should be with-held. When faced with a choice between the carrot and the stick, he'd almost always go for sparing usage of the carrot - positive emotions were a much stronger incentive than fear... though he wasn't sure if Cara would agree, given that she'd probably never been given anything but the stick - literally and figuratively - before. Well, no reason why that couldn't change: he might not be a coach or teacher, but he liked to think that perhaps his words meant something to the younger girl.

"I enjoyed it, no need to thank me." He abandoned the position he'd taken up by the beam, crossing the floor of the gymnasium over towards the collection of bag, dog and door where Cara now was, eyes narrowing fractionally as he drew nearer. Cara might be doing a fine job of pretending that she wasn't trembling from afar, but from close by, no matter how she angled her bottle it was obvious.

As he came up next to her he reached out, slowly enough and gently enough that Cara needn't feel like he was violently grabbing her, and so that she could easily twist back if she so wanted, and softly grabbed her wrist, touch very gentle as he felt the shudders that ripped through the limb beneath his touch. "Definitely time to stop," he said, quietly, not bothering to say that the last routine might have been a mistake, not wanting to impose his will so much that Cara ran. "You'll be okay for the rest of the day? Eating something would probably be an idea..." He checked his watch. "You've got plenty of time before your class to do so." He kept his eyes on her, steady and level.

He knew she wasn't going to want to eat, and was debating whether he should offer himself up as company for breakfast, so that he could at least be sure that she'd eat something. But then he didn't want to interfere in her life too much, and he wasn't at all sure that his interference in this matter would be welcomed in the slightest. Maybe he'd be best to leave that little difference of opinion to another day.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

She jumped as he touched her wrist, and knew that pulling it away would just prove the fact that something was wrong.

As much as she wanted to nail the routine on the bars, Cara nodded and dropped her gaze from his. She still needed to return to her dorm, shower and change before heading down to Evening Primrose barn to give her little Hanoverian filly a session before doing her barn chores and then showering and changing again before the academic classes started. She also wanted to have a good look at Titania’s legs as she was sure she felt heat when she put the mare away the evening before, and even though she had treated the heat with a good massage and a hosing, she still wanted to make sure the mare was going to be alright for the lesson that afternoon. Pretty much if there was still heat there this morning, she would ask Miss Carr if she could ride another horse for that day’s lesson rather than putting the Vanner mare’s health at risk. And somewhere in between all of that, she had to find time to fit in some food – as much as the thought caused her to curl her nose, she knew that her absence in the cafeteria was drawing too much attention. She would grab a cup of slip skin grapes, which would be roughly 94 grams and only added up to 62 calories, (55 if she removed the skin). It would only be a passing visit into the café, but at least the people that worked in there could vouch for seeing her and selling her food.

Shaking her head out of her thoughts she looked at Lee again. “Again, I thank you for being here. When I asked to attend the demonstration, I got the feeling that Mr Rees was going to say I couldn’t train if I didn’t tell him I had a spotter.” She flashed a quick smile that didn’t do any more than lift her lips as her body was worn out and it was only the beginning of the day. “Can we meet back here after the dining hour tonight?” She knew that she might be pushing it by suggesting another training session. Back in the day, she used to train five hours a day and she wanted to try and get back into that schedule before leaving for New York City.

As much as she knew that she needed to head out and get on with the day’s activities, as her eyes did a sweep of the room they landed on the scales that stood off to the side beside the door into the changing room. “Again, thank you.” She said to Lee as she headed over to the scales, not waiting to see if he had left or not. She clenched her fists before stepping up onto the scales and adjusting the weight bar until it was even. She tipped her head to the side as she read the white number that could be read through the marker, 68, and blew out a breath. It was good, but not great. She closed her eyes and could see her coach towering over her – he stood at six and a half feet so he did indeed tower over her – and shaking his head. “Here, you need to be faster, stronger, and higher. The only way to do that is less. It’s Fat! That’s all there is to it!” Her eyes flew open and she stepped off the scales, banishing the image from her mind. She hadn’t been training under Coach Dupree for a couple of years now, yet his words were so ingrained in her head that she could still hear them as though he were standing there, looking over her shoulder.

[sepia]

It didn't escape him that Cara hadn't answered his question - or his statement, for that matter - with anything but a dropping of the eyes and a reluctant nod, but Lee let it go. One small step at a time, he reminded himself, releasing her wrist as soon as she moved away. One small step at a time, and he wasn't going to damage this relationship by being too forcible with Cara. Slowly and gently does it, and if he sometimes found himself comparing Cara to a skittish, abused horse, or a terrified, hunted deer - well, who could blame him?

"I'm glad to be able to help," he replied, with a slight shrug, though his eyes remained keenly on Cara as she offered him a smile that was barely worthy of the name. "And of course; another practice session sounds like a plan." It might give him a chance to get some food into her, too, he thought - after dinner it might be, but he could contrive to bring something edible along with him, and hopefully further contrive to get Cara to actually eat it when she'd finished practicing.

"You'll be able to get horses and homework in around it, I assume." Silly thing to say, really; of course Cara would have her schedule planned almost down to each individual second. Not leaving the room as Cara dived across the room to the scales, Lee respected her enough that she let her complete this little ritual on her own, even if he had to think that Cara did not need to be any skinnier in the slightest. But then this was always the problem with gymnasts, wasn't it? Forever pushed to be small and thin, and with everything else Cara had piled atop of her... not a particularly good combination.

He retreated across the room to where Owain was waiting, bending as he released the dog from his lying-down posture - which he'd held remarkably well - with a jerk of his head and a click of his fingers. He ended up with an armful of hair as he knelt and braced himself, the dog ever happy to greet his owner. Lee didn't make a move to leave, surreptitiously eying Cara out of the corner of his eye as he ruffled Owain's fur.

[Ω-Admin-Cara-Ω]

Cara placed a delicate hand against the wall to steady herself for a moment before pushing herself away and walking back over to her bag, taking note that Lee was still there. "I will get some breakfast before I go and tend to the horses." She told him with a bright smile, as she knelt down by her bag. Out of the bag she pulled a red and gold tracksuit and stepped into the pants and pulled the jacket on before zipping it up to her chin. The jacket was a couple of sizes too big for her and gave her the appearance of having more weight than she did because it hung around her hips. She then pulled the sneakers onto her feet.

Putting the drink bottle into the bag, she made a mental note to fill it up during the lunch break so that it would have a chance to settle before the evening training session. She knew that she could fill it at dinner, but there would be a chance that it would still be too cold for the session that night and she knew better than putting icy cold water into a warm body.

Zipping the bag up she gave Lee another smile. "Again, thank you. I will see you after dinner." With his mentioning her need to eat breakfast, he was sounding more like a coach and less like a spotter - except she would rather him be her coach than any of the ones she'd had in the past, he actually told her when she had done well rather than focusing on what she had done wrong. She just hoped that he wasn't going to ask her to start a food diary. "Have a good day." She added as she picked up the bag and smiled again as she left the studio and headed back to the Red Ribbon House and into her dorm room for a shower.