Jill giggled a little bit, then waited anxiously as the little girl by the judges’ table took the papers the judges handed her and moved to put up Jill’s score.
“A 6.025?! Oh my gosh!” Jill buried her head in her hands. “That’s my worst score of the year!”
“That’s bullshit,” Lorylyn said angrily. “You only fell once! And the rest of your routine was awesome.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t get my tumbling pass, and I lost difficulty ‘cause I only did one back handspring, and I didn’t even land it.”
“Oh, look!”
Jill looked up hopefully. Maybe her score had been wrong; maybe it was really a 7.025. Even that would be lower than what she’d expected. But Lorylyn was pointing up to the bleachers. Jill followed her finger.
Todd and Hilton were standing up and holding a big sign that said GO JILLY BEAN!!! Jill’s mouth dropped open and she laughed a little, wiping at her eyes.
“That’s so cute!” Lorylyn said. “Brady didn’t make me a sign.”
“Yeah, but I still feel so stupid. Todd probably thinks I suck now.”
“Jill, he does not! How many of our meets did he come to when you nailed your beam routine? He knows how good you are. And it’s not like he’s never had a bad basketball game, or missed a dumb shot at practice. Remember that one time when we were walking into the gym and he shot the lay-up that came right back down at his face?”
Jill giggled. That had been hilarious. “I guess you’re right. I still wish I did better though. That score is such bullshit.” She glared at the judges.
“Well, just do what Coach Tanner said. Just think about floor and really focus on that. I’m sure you’ll do better. At least you only have one event left to worry about. I still have floor and vault.”
Jill did a lot better on floor. Logan Southeast had a spring floor, so it was way better than BC’s foam one, and as Jill was going into her last tumbling pass, she impulsively decided to throw a layout instead of her regular back tuck. She nailed it; she could tell her legs were straight and she was high off the ground, and her landing was rock solid. She beamed as she did her last dance combination, then saluted and ran off the floor energetically. All her teammates were waiting to hug her and congratulate her. She looked up at the crowd to see her parents standing and cheering loudly. Hilton and Todd were holding up their sign again, and Winnie was jumping up and down on the bleachers. Jill laughed happily and hugged her teammates again.
***
BC was the last team to vault in the very last rotation, and Jill was glad to be done and able to relax. She had to do one warm-up vault, because she was the alternate, but it was so nice to just throw it pretty carelessly, knowing it didn’t matter if it was good, because she wasn’t actually competing. As Lorylyn and Lindy and the two other girls who were vaulting stood at the back of the runway waiting to do their warm-ups and rubbed a little chalk on their hands, Jill threw on her sweatshirt, pulled down her leotard sleeves, and stretched out on the floor to watch. Hilton and Todd had left right af