SEVEN
Serena walked down the street carefully hoping not to attract any attention. It was quiet, peaceful, but that didn't calm her nerves any. Suddenly a sound came from behind. She whirled around in surprise.. Standing there was Darrien.
"Darrien!" She shouted.
"Yes Serena. I'm back," he said and walked towards her. The two hugged.
This is great...it must be really him. Serena thought. He's not turning into a fish or something.
"I missed you Serena," Darrien said.
"I missed you too," Serena said.
"Then you won't mind that I brought my brought my friend back with me?"
"No, of course not."
"Okay," Darrien said and left the embrace. "Here he is."
Out of the shadows marched a guy about Darrien's age with a blonde hairdo.
"Ah...so she's the girl you were telling me about?" the guy asked.
"Yeah," Darrien said.
"Hmm....not as plump as I expected."
"What?" Serena shouted.
"Oh...sorry..didn't mean to offend you. I mean...you have lost weight while Darrien's been gone right? I mean the way he described you I thought you were at least thirty pounds fatter," the guy said.
"WHAT!" Serena shouted and kicked Darrien in the head. Darrien fell to the ground.
"As for you..." she said turning to the new guy.
"Hah....do you really think you can hurt me?" the guy said with a sly grin.
"Of course I do you jerk!"
"Well...then....you're in for a surprise. Say hello to a few friends of mine."
The guy stepped aside revealing a pair of tall cakes sitting on the sidewalk.
"What the?" Serena said. This situation baffled her.
"You know you want to eat them. They're chocolate," the guy said in as a persuasive voice as he could muster.
"Do you honestly think that I'm going to be distracted by food?" Serena said indignantly.
"Well..no....but that's why I brought the cement mixer."
"What?"
She heard a strange whistling sound and looked up to see a cement mixer truck
dropping towards her. She screamed.
Then Serena woke up.
"AHHHHHHH!" She shouted before realizing her situation.
"That dream was actually scary...I don't think I'm improving..." She muttered and glanced at her clock. The alarm was going off.
"Wow..it's actually set for the right time and I'm up. I can't be late for school today," she said sporting a brief smile until she realized something else.
"It's Sunday isn't it?" She muttered and contemplated hitting herself over
the head with a mallet. "Oh well..." she said and climbed out of bed.
The city of Tokyo was once again glowing in sunlight. Plants were filled with color, birds flew across the sky and the clouds floated through the blue sky. Everything was peaceful. Serena despite her troubles decided it was best to go for a walk. Not much was happening as it was still early, but that suited her fine. She didn't really want to talk to anyone. A truck passed by marked HAM to GO. 24 hours a day-Ham delivery.
"Whoever needs ham delivered 24 hours a day is no one I want to know," Serena said.
"Hey Serena," came a strange squeaky voice. She started and turned to see Melvin standing there. After bonking him on the head once for good measure she scowled at him.
"Melvin. When are you going to learn to stop sneaking up on people!" She shouted.
"Sorry..." he said in between chews of something he was eating. She noticed under his right arm was a package marked HAM to GO.
"You had a Ham delivered to your house?" Serena muttered.
"Yeah...I was up late studying and I needed one. Not many places would deliver at three AM, but this place came through."
She bonked him on the head again causing a piece of ham to go flying out of his mouth and smash into a nearby tree. It embedded itself in the trunk.
"Hey!" Melvin said. Serena turned and hurried away.
That felt good. She thought.
In another part of the city was the barn shaped City Gymnastics Academy. Inside was all the various equipment a Gymnastics school needed. Vaults, uneven bars, gym mats.
Mina swung around the uneven bar with a great amount of speed. She circled around a second time gathering even more momentum, then at a high point in the third revolution she let go and flipped forward. As she planted her feet into the mat she couldn't help but smile in triumph.
"Good one Mina," he coach said standing beside the uneven bars. "You've been at this for a few hours now. I think you're ready. Just be at the arena at four."
"Right coach. I'll be there," Mina said. The coach walked off. Mina headed to her gym bag and began to clean up her various equipment.
"Looks like we've got a new champ," Mike said walking up next to her.
"Hmm...I wish that we're true. I hear Iria Romanova is even better this year," Mina said putting a pair of sneakers on.
"Well if Romanova's so sure she's going to win, how come she was in the audience for the past three hours scouting you."
"I didn't even see her. Are you sure?" Mina said in disbelief as she put on skirt and a T-shirt over her leotard.
"Yeah. I'm sure. I guess I'm not the only one crazy enough to get up at 6 AM just to watch you practice," Mike answered.
"Romanova's not crazy. She's just committed," Mina said.
"Oh...well...I'm the only crazy one then. I get a lot of that," Mike said. "I mean heck, we haven't even gone out on a date yet and here I am. I must be insane."
"I'll believe it," Mina said with a grin. "Still," she said frowning again. "I've competed against Romanova in ten different competitions and she's beaten me every time. It seems nothing I ever do is good enough to beat her."
"Look at it this way. This stuff you do is hard. You should feel good just that you can do it. It doesn't matter how many medals you win," Mike said. "Well at least not to me anyway."
"That's kind of you, but I want to win," Mina said.
"Then you have to try. Still...I was so happy the day I just did a back handspring, in fact I never learned anything else," Mike said. "I thought I'd quit while I was ahead."
"Back handspring. I think I learned that when I was six," Mina said.
"Whoopdie doo," Mike said with fake apathy.
"You're jealous. I can tell," Mina said teasingly.
"I am not. Besides, I may only be able to a back handspring, but I can do it just as well as anyone out there today," Mike said.
"Really?" Mina said skeptically.
"I get air too," Mike said.
"You get what?"
"Elevation. Distance too, let me show you."
"All right."
Mike lined himself up with the mats behind him and jumped backward flipped onto his hands and then a second later propelled himself further backwards landing on his feet again perfectly.
"That is impressive," Mina said. "You did go very high and your form was perfect. Of course when I do it I add a flip to it in the end," she said proudly.
"You sound like Raye," Mike said.
"Take that back!" Mina said and smacked him across the face. She then realized how rash she had been.
"Whoops, sorry," she added.
"Uh...yeah," Mike said rubbing his cheek. "I guess those Raye jokes don't go over well. Still...at least I'm getting slapped by women now."
. "I don't even want to know. Come on let's get some breakfast," Mina said.
"Okay," Mike said. "You know.....for a girl you hit hard."
"For a girl huh?" Mina said and smacked him again.
"Hmm...somehow this isn't fun anymore," Mike moaned.
"Maybe you'll learn something from this experience," Mina said.
"Hah. Just try and make me," Mike said managing a grin. Mina hit him again.
"Dang it! I didn't mean that literally," Mike muttered.
"Just come on," Mina said and walked out the door.
"And I thought my sister was nuts," Mike said. "What is it with girls
anyway?"
Hours later at the temple on top of Cherry Hill, Raye and Lita were sitting
on a bench watching the various birds perch on the tall stone overhang near the
shrine.
"It shouldn't be this simple!" Lita said abruptly slapping her right hand into her left palm.
"What are you talking about?" Raye asked with every ounce of annoyed sarcasm she could find.
"Think about it Raye. Within one week's time we all want to find boyfriends and there they are," Lita said.
"We just got lucky," Raye said dismissively.
"Luck and love usually don't work out, at least not for three people at once."
"So you and Mina won't have boyfriends anymore. What's the problem?" Raye asked.
Lita frowned.
"Raye....you're missing the point," she said through clenched teeth. "They seem like nice guys, but maybe we're all rushing things a little."
Raye didn't respond for a second.
"Maybe," she admitted. "Still....what are we afraid of? Things not working out? There's plenty of guys out there."
"Raye....you know what we're both afraid of. We both know these are the guys we want to marry."
"What!" Raye shouted instantly blushing. "Lita have you lost your mind? Marry? Now?"
"Raye, calm down. I didn't say I would marry him. What I meant was that each of us hopes that this is the right guy. So far things have worked out, and we want them to work. But we both know how we'll feel if things go south. I'm afraid that I might get a little desperate if I feel the relationship isn't working...and with you..that's a given."
"Hey!" Raye shouted.
"Oh..sorry," Lita muttered feigning apology. If Rick breaks up with her he'll be lucky if he has any hair left when she's done with him. She thought.
"Lita. We have got to find a better way to spend a day then sitting here and obsessing about our boyfriends," Raye stated.
Lita looked at the ground for a second and then back up at Raye.
"You're right. This is a waste of time," Lita said. "Let's go find them," she said.
"Good idea," Raye said. "Where do you think they'll be?"
"I don't know. I bet they're up to something though," Lita said.
Several blocks away in Steve's garage.
"Pliers," Steve said.
"Pliers," Rick said handing the tool to him.
"Screwdriver."
"Screwdriver."
"Battery."
"Battery."
"Aladdin's magic lamp."
"Aladdin's...what?" Rick said stopping.
"Oh...come on it's right here," Steve said picking an immaculately decorated oil lamp off of a shelf. He placed it on the table next to him. Rick's eyes widened.
"Oh...you didn't think I had one of these did you?" Steve asked.
"No...most people don't," Rick said.
"Now I'll call the genie."
"You'll what?" Rick muttered skeptically.
"Watch," Steve said. He rubbed the lamp. A few seconds later red smoke began to pour out of it.
"This is disturbing," Rick said. He had reached a point of utter confusion.
"Three, two, one," Steve muttered under his breath and ducked. The lamp exploded showering Rick with red clay.
"Ahh..geeze...the genie spontaneously combusted," Steve emerged from the floor saying. Rick grinned.
"Yeah...that's funny," he said and kicked Steve in the groin. Steve fell to the ground and moaned.
"Are we interrupting anything?" Raye asked. Rick whirled around to see her and Lita standing there.
"Oh...hi," Rick said in one of his few moments of embarrassment.
"Hmm...Steve's writhing in pain on the ground and you're covered in red gunk. Is there something we should know?" Lita asked.
"Ehh....." Rick muttered.
"How's it going?" Steve wheezed.
Several blocks away from that mess was a large apartment complex. Inside one of the rooms Amy sat at her computer typing. While Amy did have a house where her parents lived, her father also rented her this room a block away so that she could study in peace if she needed to. She had made it a second home since she spent much of her time working. Furthermore it gave her privacy, which she found she liked very much. There was a knock on the door. She answered it and found Serena sitting there.
"Hello Serena. What's bring you here?" Amy asked.
"Amy....I've been having problems," Serena moaned.
"Darrien?" Amy asked.
"Yes," Serena said.
"Well come in and tell me about it," Amy said consolingly. Serena came in and sat on the bed that had been set up in the room. Amy sat next to her.
"What is it now?" She asked.
"Well...I had nightmares...they were strange, but I...that's not the problem though," Serena said. "I went for a walk today and I went to the park and I just sat there on a bench. All these people walked by. There were all these couples, smiling, laughing.....kissing. They were having so much fun together and there I was, alone again. I started crying, and I just couldn't stop. Then I came to see you."
Amy didn't know what to say. All her intelligence couldn't help her figure out how to help her friend.
"I'm sure he'll be back Serena, and then you can get together again," Amy said.
"Everyone keeps saying that!" Serena yelled and stood up from the bed with clenched fists. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH! Sure, little Amy has her boyfriend Greg. Do you worry about it? No, because your perfect!"
"Serena. Calm down," Amy said.
"Calm down. Why don't I do that. Maybe I could take a nap," Serena muttered sarcastically.
"My boyfriend is gone again! How many times do I have to sit her and take this! I don't have to! I don't care! I don't need him!"
"Serena..." Amy said.
"Shut up!" Serena replied and collapsed the floor crying. Amy paused. She had no clue how to handle this. Suddenly she had a brainstorm.
"Serena. He still loves you," She said.
"What?" Serena said between sobs.
"I said he still loves you. I know it," Amy replied.
"How do you know it?"
"Because you know it."
"I do not!" Serena shouted.
"Of course you do. You're not afraid of him dating someone else. You just miss him. That's all. Of course he loves you. He's just far away."
"Uh.....is that it?" Serena asked and stopped. "He still loves me."
An image flashed into her mind. That of Maverick telling her the exact same thing.
"HE STILL LOVES ME!" Serena shouted with a smile and ran to the balcony attached to the apartment. She looked out over the city.
"HE STILL LOVES ME!" She shouted gleefully.
This is weird, but I'm not about to complain. Amy thought.
Serena turned around.
"Thanks Amy, you helped a lot," Serena said and hugged her friend.
"Uh....sure...." Amy said. The only problem is....I could be wrong. She thought. Who am I kidding though? Darrien still loves her. Doesn't he? Oh...this is why I don't get involved in these relationships!
"I feel great," Serena said. "What is it you working on?"
"My introductory calculus work," Amy said. "It's an extra credit assignment."
"Calculus? Is that like Latin?"
"No, Serena, it's math."
"Math huh? Well..I'm pretty good at math myself. I aced my last test you know," Serena said.
"I know. It's good that you're showing the ability to work Serena, but what about your other classes?"Amy replied.
"Oh...um....you know what they say...one step at a time," Serena replied with a nervous laugh.
"I'm not surprised," Amy muttered.
"Oh come on, Rome wasn't built in a day. At least not if the Brown, Harrison, Lilith, Parker, Brown, Wyatt, and Brown version of my text book is right," Serena said.
"You know the name of ever author of your history textbook, but you're still getting a D in the class?" Amy asked in bewilderment.
"Um.....yeah.....I guess that's strange isn't it?" Serena said with the characteristic smile of apathy .Amy had grown so accustomed to.
I'm must be dealing with some form of extraterrestrial intelligence here. I just know it. Amy thought letting her rarely used fantasy side take over. Still..at least she's acting normal again.
"Oh you know what I did today?" Serena asked.
"What?" Amy asked.
"I hit Melvin over the head with a ham. I wasn't feeling very good at the time, but now, in retro-rocket..."
"That's retrospect Serena," Amy muttered.
"Ahem, right...in retrospect, I really enjoyed it."
"I see," Amy said. "Say Serena. How is it you just suddenly broke out of your depression anyway?"
"Oh. After you said Darrien loved me, I was reminded of what Maverick told me a week ago," Serena said.
"What did he say...aside from his usual parody of you're own speech."
"He said that Darrien still loved me. Just like you did," Serena said.
"He what?" Amy said in surprise.
"Yeah..well..and when I thought about it. How could both you and him be wrong?"
"Interesting logic," Amy replied. "But how would he know anything about that? Let alone who you are real life?" the genius's's mind had gone off the subject of Serena's depression and now was fixated on Maverick.
"Amy..he must know who we are," Serena said flagrantly.
"You think so?" Amy asked beginning to cogitate.
"Yeah...but I'm not worried. He's on our side. But why are we talking about that. You wanted to know why I felt better?"
"I know I did. Sorry. I got sidetracked. There are lot of mysteries I've been thinking about and well...it distracts me.
"Mysteries? What kind of mysteries?" Serena asked.
D.V. Patterson knew he was being followed. He also knew that the block up ahead was the perfect place to ambush his pursuer. He walked casually and moved along the sidewalk turning at the block and heading down a side street. He took a few steps forward before climbing up onto the cement border of the sidewalk that sat on the side of hill. He climbed a few more steps and waited. Several seconds later the target rounded the corner and walked down the sidewalk. Patterson jumped into the air and landed right behind his former stalker.
"Boo!" he shouted. The target jumped in complete fear. Patterson grabbed the person's arm.
"Melvin! This is the fourth time I've caught you doing this, this week! When are you going to learn to stop following me?"
"Uh...sorry...never happen again," Melvin said with genuine fear for his life. "Go easy on me..I've been hit with a ham already today."
"Hah. I'll bet you have," Patterson muttered and let Melvin go. "This is your final warning. Leave me alone or you'll pay. Searching for an answer when you do not know the question can be very dangerous."
With that Patterson walked off. Melvin just watched him go.
Following a few hours spent with their boyfriends, Lita and Raye found themselves sitting at a restaurant sipping on some drinks with some time to kill before they were going to see Mina's meet that evening.
"So...who do you think is more insane? Rick or Steve?" Lita asked.
"Us...for going out with them," Raye replied sourly.
"Think of it this way...it's not often we get to meet people like them," Lita said. Heck, Steve could be Maverick. She thought. Lita had reached the point where she didn't care if Steve was Maverick or not. She'd take what she got.
"I know..that's what made me feel safe at night," Raye said.
"Well at least we have sense of humor about it."
"You ladies look annoyed by something," a voice said and the two found themselves looking up at an amiable looking waiter.
"Hi, I'm Godfried, my friends call me God," he said.
"They what?" Lita asked in surprise.
"I'm sure you're very proud," Raye muttered
"I don't get it. What's with you girls and these bouts of depression? Don't you have like boyfriends or something?" Godfried asked.
"YES!" The two girls shouted.
"Woah...sorry....my mistake," Godfried said and hurried off.
"What an idiot," Raye said.
"Yeah...still....yelling at him made me feel pretty good," Lita said with a smile.
"True," Raye said.
Later that day.
"Why are we here?" Rick asked nervously. He and Steve were standing at the doorway to a strangely configured house that was covered with surveillance cameras as well as several flags. On the door were two words. PATTERSON RESIDENCE.
"I need to ask D.V. something," Steve said and rang the doorbell. To their surprise a brusque voice immediately responded.
"Who is it?"
"Um....I'm a friend of D.V," Steve said.
"Liar. D.V. Doesn't have friends," the voice said.
"Okay...I'm a classmate of his," Steve said. quickly.
"All right...as long as we have things straight. You are not granted security clearance to enter the house. D.V. will come out there, but remember, several highly accurate weapons are trained on you at all times," came the voice. Seconds later the two heard the sound of several locks opening. The door parted revealing D.V. Patterson who was as usual scowling..
"Yes?"
"Hey..um...D.V. Well...umm...you know that homework we're supposed to do tonight. I sorta forgot what it is," Steve said surprised by his nervousness.
"Here," Patterson said producing a paper with the assignment written on it.
"How'd you have that ready so fast?" Rick asked. Patterson turned and stared at Rick. "I am always ready. Anything else?" he said turning back to Steve.
"No..um...thanks," Steve said.
"Your welcome. Oh...you can repay me by hitting Melvin on the head at some point in time. He could use it," Patterson said stoically and walked back into the house closing the door behind him.
"Don't you just love people like that?" Rick asked with a playful grin on his face.
"He got me the assignment. I'm not knocking it," Steve said.
"Leave the premises immediately," Came the brusque voice again.
"What?" Rick said.
"You have been warned. Leave or in ten seconds you will be fired upon," the voice replied.
"Time to go!" Rick said and he and Steve hurried down the road.
Her meet was to begin in one hour. Mina went through her stretches before she started her warmups. She saw ,out of the corner of her eye, Iria Romanova, who had already begun to warm up.
She's so fluid. Mina thought. Her coach who was standing nearby and seemingly sensing Mina's feelings walked over to her.
"Don't you worry about Romanova, you can do it," the coach said.
"I hope so," Mina said. As she sat in a split position she looked around at the nearly empty arena. In an hour it would be filled. She knew that.
With her stretching finished she began her warmups. First was the floor exercise. She lined up behind some of the other gymnasts. They each tumbled along the floor doing their various passes. Mina was surprised when Iria Romanova appeared behind her.
"So. You're my competition," She said in her accented voice.
"Uh..yeah," Mina said.
"Hmm...I guess you might be a challenge, a little one," she said pompously.
It was Mina's turn to tumble. She ran across the floor and sloppily did her pass. Her coach was quick to appear beside her.
"What happened?" She asked.
"I was nervous," Mina said.
"Don't let Romanova intimidate you. This is a match of skill. Don't let her use her mind games to defeat you," the coach said. "Now get back in line and do that pass until you pull it off."
"Yes coach," Mina said and hurried back to the mat.
"Back again," Romanova said falling in behind her. "This makes it easy. I may not even have to do my new move after all," she said. Mina ran across the floor and was able to pull off a slightly better run, but it wasn't going to win her anything.
"Go onto another apparatus," her coach said. "Then come back."
"Right," Mina said. She saw Romanova was on the uneven bars so Mina went to the balance beam. Without her competitors eye on her she did her routine very well. She felt more confident. She headed to the floor again. She went and pulled off her pass flawlessly.
"That's great Mina," the coach said. "Now head over to the vault."
"But Romanova's there," Mina said.
"Deal with it," the coach said.
Mina began the walk towards the vault. She approached the line where Romanova was standing nervously. Sweat began to form on her forehead.
I'm not ready for this. Mina thought and pondered what to do. Maybe I shouldn't practice it. Then I can't mess up. But if I don't practice I could mess up in the meet?
Her problem was solved by the wall exploding.
The cloud of dust that rose soon cleared revealing the large metallic body of the negaverse cyborg. "Sailor Venus!" it yelled. "Prepare to meet your destruction," it said and advanced towards her. The rest of the people in the room began to scurry out. Mina stood her ground. I have to keep it distracted until they can all get away. She thought nervously as the robot raised its arm to attack her.
"Negaverse Hate Chain Encircle!" It shouted. A replica of her own attack, only consisting of black energy flew at her. She leaped into the air hit the floor exercise mat and flipped into the air landing several feet away. The cyborg turned towards her.
"Very impressive, just how long can you keep that up?" it muttered and leapt
at her. She rolled out of the way of it, but it bounced off the floor and landed
in front of her before she could stand. It swung its arm down at her. She
screamed as she heard the metal impact.
She didn't feel anything. Then she figured it out. Someone had put themselves in front of her. She looked up to see it was Maverick. Time seemed to stop at that instant. The cyborg just stared. Maverick just winced in pain. She just looked. The cyborg took the first initiative and leapt away. Maverick went down to one knee his sword drawn facing the cyborg. Mina could tell he was pain.
"Transform...now," he whispered and stood up slowly.
"HAH! Hurts doesn't it?" The cyborg said menacingly.
"Yes," Maverick said and launched a blast at the cyborg. The robot dodged it easily. Maverick leapt into the air and charged him anyway. The cyborg rolled away. The two were soon engaged in combat.
Mina took the chance to pull out her power stick.
"Venus star power!" She yelled and transformed into Sailor Venus. Maverick and the cyborg were fighting it out in the middle of the gym. The cyborg launched an attack at Maverick. The hero dodged it by executing a perfect back handspring. The cyborg flipped into the air and crashed into Maverick and the two went crashing into the vaulting horse. Maverick fell to the ground.
"That looked just like," Venus said to herself. "Never mind that. Gotta help," she said. "Venus love chain encircle!" She shouted and the attack flew straight at the cyborg and hit him in the back. It shouted and turned to face her. She readied herself. It charged. She jumped into the air using her sailor scout power. The cyborg matched her and swung at her in mid air. She narrowly avoided the attack and flipped forward landing on the ground several feet away. The cyborg landed opposite her. The two spun around to square off again.
It's been given gymnastic skill as well as my powers. But, it can't know what my enhanced powers will do. Heck, I don't even know what they'll do. She brought forth the power within her and prepared. She felt it surge and knew what she was capable of. The cyborg waited.
"Venus Love Chain Encircle!" She shouted and sent the attack flying at it. The cyborg jumped out of the way and flipped off the ground right at her. She hadn't expected that, but she rolled and came up quickly pushing herself off the floor and beginning to flip along it as fast as she could, using her power to it's fullest she flipped upwards and while upside down attacked. The Love Chain flew out and hit the cyborg which had been waiting for her landing to strike. It rolled backwards and hit the bleachers.
"I'll be back!" It shouted and disappeared in a flash of light. Venus noticed Maverick was walking away towards the door.
"Maverick!" She called. He stopped and turned.
"Thank you," She said. Maverick merely nodded and continued to walk away.
"Hey...um...maybe some day you can tell us who you are," she babbled.
He stopped again and turned.
"I doubt it," he said and walked off.
Despite the ruckus earlier once the police had determined there was no more threat, the supervisors of the competition decided to hold it anyway. It also helped that Iria Romanova had threatened to boycott any future events if it wasn't held. Mina had a chance to tell her friends all about it as they had filed in.
"I hope Mina does well," Serena said.
"Hopefully she's not too tired," Amy said.
"She's tough. She can handle it," Raye said.
"Hey girls," Rick said as he, Steve and Mike filled in the row behind them.
"Well look who's here," Lita said.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Raye said.
"Aren't you happy to see me?" Rick asked.
"Sure I am, but every time you do something unexpected, I get incredibly nervous," Raye said.
"It's starting," Amy said.
The girls watched as the competition began. Mina began with the balance beam. She did it nearly perfectly.
It is my best event. She thought. Her score put her into the lead and her friends cheered madly. Romanova did her balance beam almost flawlessly, but it wasn't as difficult. She ended up in second. To both of their surprises, a third girl was neck and neck with them. Their rotation moved on. Mina did her best to avoid Romanova and that kept her focused. On the uneven bars they did a practically identical routine. Mina kept first, but Romanova had gained a little. The third girl remained a few points behind.
The vault came next. Mina performed hers a little sloppily. To her dismay, Romanova nailed hers and jumped into first place. The third girl did a good vault and remained in third. Then came the floor exercise. For everything. Mina had tried to avoid Romanova, but she couldn't. The girl appeared beside her.
"Well this is it. Let's see if you have any staying power. I'll give you this though. You've forced me to unveil my secret weapon that will end this little battle once and for all," Romanova said. That made Mina nervous. She got up to do her routine and began to sweat.
I'm going to mess up. I just know it. She thought. Then she saw her friends, including Mike, Rick, and Steve cheering.
They know I can do it. She thought. Her music began and she charged across the mat and did her pass perfectly. She went through the entire exercise. The score came up. It was as good as she could get for the routine. Romanova growled as Mina took the temporary lead. Romanova began. Mina felt her coach slide in beside her.
"Romanova's going to try her double on the final pass," the coach said.
"I know," Mina said and watched anxiously. The final pass began. Romanova ran across the floor and began to tumble. As her final move she flipped up in the air and attempt to execute a double flip. She went around once then twice, but landed awkwardly, she fell landing on the out of bounds portion. The crowd was silent in surprise. Romanova picked herself up and made the customary finishing pose before walking off the mat and breaking down into tears.
"It's just not fun for her is it?" Mina asked.
"No, it's not," her coach said. "That's the shame of it. Well looks like you've.." the coach looked at the scoreboard. "Well this last girl has to go. Mathematically she's got a chance. I've never seen her routine before so I don't know," the coach said. The girl began her routine. She ran across the floor and did the same exact move Romanova had tried, hitting it perfectly. She danced across the floor with a smile and did more and more moves. Another tumbling pass came around and it was perfectly done.
She's good. Mina thought.
The girl lined up for her final pass. She ran across the floor bounced off the mat and did a triple flip in the air. She came down and hit the landing. The crowd couldn't help but clap madly. Then the score came up. It was almost a ten. The girl had just won the meet.
"I'm sorry Mina," her coach said.
"Don't be. This was fun," Mina said. "Besides, she's the best."
"Was that supposed to happen?" Lita was asking in the seats.
"I don't think so. It was a surprise," Mike said.
As she received her second place Mina looked up into the crowd and her cheering friends. Then she noticed Mike waving.
Mike. Could he be Maverick? No...he couldn't be. What a silly idea.