Success at Silver Spires

by Ann Bryant

  I decided that the best way to work with my new team was to be very patient, because it was obvious they were much more jittery than my other team. They couldn’t really scull in time with each other at all. Penny was close by in a little inflatable dinghy, though, and she started calling out instructions. But I wished she wouldn’t, because I wanted to cox on my own. It was quite a relief when Ryan asked her to come and help him.

  “Just keep it steady!” she called over her shoulder as she zoomed off. “George and Ben are both around if you need them.”

  “Oh, we’re useless!” said Laura straight away. She pointed to Holly’s team, who were already a long way from the landing stage, heading out to the island with Tilly coxing and Holly at stroke.

  A little pang of disappointment that I wasn’t part of that team, slicing through the water like that, went through me. But I quickly shook it away and concentrated on the challenge of my own team.

  “You’re not useless. You’re good. We’ll soon be out there just like them.”

  Robyn, the girl who was sitting at stroke, suddenly shivered, and I realized they all looked cold, so I knew I must set to work quickly. I gave myself a firm talking to. Just take charge properly, Sasha. Act like Ryan or one of the other coaches.

  “Okay, sit at backstops and turn the oars so that the spoon is square,” I began. “And get ready to push your hands down…now!” Amazingly they did it exactly together and I felt my first little thrill of pride. “Straighten your arms, that’s right…now lift your hands…and pull right to your stomach…and push down…” They were still completely in time. I had to keep my voice loud and firm. That was the secret. “Lift and…pull…and push…and lift and pull…”

  I kept repeating the instructions at the top of my voice to make sure that Sabrina could hear me right from the bow position and also to encourage everyone. Gradually I realized they were actually sculling along quite smoothly.

  “Hey! We’re doing okay!” called Laura, with laughter in her voice.

  “You’re such a good cox, Sasha!” yelled Sabrina from the back.

  “Don’t talk or you’ll…”

  And, of course, the moment I broke off giving them my instructions, they lost the rhythm.

  “Sorry, that was my fault,” I said, feeling cross with myself for falling into such an obvious trap.

  I started them off from scratch again and this time nobody talked. Everyone concentrated on rowing, and though we were nowhere near as good as Holly’s team, I felt as though we were definitely improving. And I realized something else, too. I was really enjoying myself.

  “Good teamwork!” said Ryan, passing us at one point. “Do you want to swap positions?”

  “No chance!” said Sabrina. “No one else could cox like Sasha!”

  Ryan nodded, then fixed me with that same careful look that he’d used before. “What about you, Sasha? Did you want to scull for a while?”

  I only hesitated for a second, because there was still a part of me that wished I was actually sculling, but the much bigger part was filled with determination to get my team as good as Holly’s. Well, maybe that was a bit too ambitious, but I thought we could still make loads more improvement.

  “No, I’m fine,” I told him firmly.

  “Great! Keep up the good work then!”

  And that’s what we did. I worked the team quite hard, but they didn’t seem to mind at all. We just kept practising going in a straight line and keeping in time with each other, and by the time the session was over, I felt really pleased with the improvement our team had made.

  “Right,” said Ryan, gathering us together when the session was over, “you’ve all done brilliantly to make the amount of progress you’ve made at this stage of the course. Hopefully, by the end of next Saturday’s session, we’ll have the last five girls working together in a quad too. Then on the Sunday we can have a three-boat race.”

  “But the other two teams are way better than us!” wailed Poppy instantly. She was one of the ones who hadn’t been formed into a quad team yet. “There’s no way we can win if we have a race!”

  “Yes,” agreed Poppy’s friend, Ali. “We don’t stand a chance!”

  “Hold on! Hold on!” said Ryan. I glanced over at Holly and saw that she was standing with her head on one side, looking at Ryan, waiting to hear what he said. “We can stagger the three boats so that you don’t all set off at the same time, then it’ll be perfectly fair.”

  “Oh right, so you mean Poppy’s scull will set off first, then Sasha’s, then ours?” said Holly, smiling at Ryan.

  “Yes…” said Ryan, nodding slowly as though he was still thinking about it. “Something like that.”

  Holly turned slowly to smile at Mikki as Ryan clapped his hands. “Okay, that’s all I wanted to say. Have a good week, girls, and see you next Saturday afternoon. We won’t have the race till Sunday, but remember to keep up your general fitness. That’s the secret with any sport.”

  Yes, I thought happily, I will keep up my fitness, and I’ll make sure I encourage my team to go to the gym too. But more than that, I planned to talk to Dad as soon as possible about carrying on sculling in the summer holidays. I loved my new sport and I wasn’t going to let it out of my life. Not ever.

  Chapter Eight

  I was in the dining hall eating pudding with my friends the next day when Sabrina and Robyn came up to me with faces like thunder. They both started gabbling at once.

  “We’ve had our inductions at the gym but it’s impossible to get on the rowing machine. Holly’s always hogging it.”

  “Robyn tried before breakfast,” said Sabrina, “and I tried just now.”

  I knew how they felt but I had absolutely no idea what to suggest.

  “If Holly’s on it now, then there’ll still be time for you to have a go before afternoon lessons,” said Nicole. “She’s not going to keep rowing for all that time is she?”

  “Is there a teacher in there?” I asked.

  “Miss Fosbrook.”

  Izzy turned to me with her shoulders slumped. “Remember I said I’d go after school? Well, now I’m thinking it’s not worth bothering.”

  “Sounds like you need to see Mrs. Truman,” said Bryony in her usual matter-of-fact way. Then she gulped the last bit of water in her tumbler. “She’ll sort out a rota to make it fair. Why don’t you go and find her right now?”

  That’s what I so admire about Bryony. She doesn’t waste words and she doesn’t waste time.

  “Hey, good plan!” said Sabrina.

  And Izzy and I exchanged a hopeful smile.

  “Right, Holly, can you just stop a moment please.”

  Holly turned round mid-stroke, and looked shocked to hear Mrs. Truman’s voice. Then immediately her expression turned cold and cross as she saw me, with Sabrina, Robyn, Laura and Izzy, coming into the gym behind Mrs. Truman. She stopped rowing but kept her back to us. Miss Fosbrook was on the treadmill wearing earphones. She scarcely gave us a glance.

  I wondered if Mrs. Truman might think Holly was a bit rude, but she didn’t seem to notice. She was scribbling on her clipboard in a big hurry. I think she just wanted to sort things out as quickly as possible. It was amazing that she’d agreed with us straight away about the rower, when we’d explained how we all wanted to train but no one was getting the chance. And she’d told us to come with her to the gym right then and there.

  “It’s great that you’re all so keen to get fit,” she said now. “And I’m only sorry we don’t have more than one rowing machine. Now, Holly, I think you’ve been the lucky one till now, so I’m going to try to make it a bit fairer.”

  Holly glanced up. She flashed me that same cold look again, and immediately I felt my heart thudding at the thought that she might tell Mrs. Truman how I’d broken the rules the week before.

  Mrs. Truman was frowning at her clipboard. “We need to get a rota sorted for this rower, as it’s proving so popular, otherwise some girls won’t get a look in. I think I’ll
have a word with a few of the teachers who like to use the gym, and I’m sure they won’t mind sorting out a rota for themselves, so that there’ll always be an adult here. Now, at the moment, there are six of you wanting to use the machine—”

  “Why does Sasha need to have a go?” interrupted Holly, looking sulky. “She’s not even a rower. She’s the cox.”

  My heart started beating faster. Why was Holly being so mean?

  Mrs. Truman sounded a bit irritated when she answered Holly. “That’s entirely up to Sasha.” But then Mrs. Truman turned to me, and raised her eyebrows in a question.

  “I…still want to keep fit…” I said in a murmur.

  “And what about the rest of my team?” Holly went on, in a very clipped voice. “They all want a go.”

  I wished I had the courage to point out that none of Holly’s team had shown the slightest interest so far, and that it looked like Holly was just making things as awkward as possible for my team. But of course I didn’t dare say anything like that.

  Only then it turned out that Sabrina must have been thinking exactly the same thing as me. “So how come the rest of your team hasn’t been anywhere near the gym?” she asked.

  Holly leaped off the rowing machine looking really angry, but Mrs. Truman put a hand up to stop her replying. “I’m not wasting my time listening to you lot arguing,” she said crossly. “Work out how many people want to use the rower and tell me their names by the end of afternoon lessons, then I’ll put a rota up on the sports noticeboard, and hopefully the problem will be sorted.”

  On Wednesday I talked to Mum on the phone. Sometimes I e-mail her and Dad because then I can be sure that Mum will be paying attention to my news, instead of half listening to me and half dealing with the twins. I’d already sent her an e-mail explaining a bit about the weekend, but now I felt like having a proper conversation. I wanted to tell her all that had been happening since the weekend too. So I texted first to ask her to phone me when it was convenient, and she phoned back almost immediately, which was a nice surprise.

  I walked round the grounds as I talked to her, as it was such a nice day.

  “Have you just finished lessons, Sash?” she asked me first.

  “Yes and Izzy’s gone to the gym. You know I told you about that girl Holly who kind of took over the rowing machine last week, so I hardly got a go?”

  “Uh-huh,” said Mum, though it didn’t sound like she remembered.

  I tried not to let that put me off. “Well, this week it started happening all over again, only now there’s my whole sculling team, not just me, wanting to go on it. And Holly said her sculling team wanted to use it as well—”

  Mum suddenly laughed. “Slow down, Sasha! I can’t keep up. So there are loads of people all wanting to use just the one rowing machine. Is that it?”

  “Yes, and Mrs. Truman has organized a rota now, so it’s much fairer…”

  “Oh good.”

  “But Holly’s not very happy about me being on the rota because she doesn’t think coxes ought to have a turn, as they don’t have to do any actual rowing. But I stuck up for myself for once.”

  I waited for Mum to praise me and say that was good, but instead she asked me another question and I could hear the confusion in her voice.

  “So why did you want to be on the rota?”

  “Because…I still love rowing,” I told Mum in answer to her question. “And, basically, I want to get fit and strong.”

  “Oh, right,” said Mum, sounding a bit surprised. “Well there’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Yes, but Holly’s really cross. I mean she’s never been exactly friendly with me, but it’s worse than that. She doesn’t talk to me at all, doesn’t even look at me. It’s horrible when someone treats you like that.”

  “Yes, I know it is, Sash,” said Mum, full of sympathy now, which made me suddenly feel close to tears, because she seemed to have properly understood why I was upset. “But you just have to remember that it’s not your problem, it’s Holly’s. And only she can sort it out. Just act as normally as you can towards her. There’s nothing more you can do than that, I’m afraid, love.”

  Mum made it all sound so easy, and I wished, for the hundredth time, that I was more thick-skinned, but I wasn’t. It was as simple as that. I sighed and went back to talking about the weekend. I really wanted Mum to realize that Ryan thought I was doing really well, so then she’d be proud of me.

  “It was great when I managed to get the new team all sculling in time with each other, Mum!” I told her, trying to get my own excitement to magically travel down the phone line.

  “Well done! You clever thing!” she said brightly.

  I should have been pleased, because her actual words were a compliment, but somehow, the way Mum had said them, they just didn’t sound right. I couldn’t work out why at first, but a moment later I heard one of the twins crying and realized that Mum must have heard it long before I did, and she’d stopped paying attention to what I was saying, and started concentrating on them instead. As usual.

  As I rang off I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. I wanted Mum to be properly proud of me. Not just proud in words.

  Most of my nervousness fizzled away once Saturday afternoon arrived. We were all standing on the side of the lake, putting on our buoyancy aids, ready to get in our boats, and I just felt a lovely excitement that I was about to be working with my team.

  In the distance, I could see two older boys in a racing double. I couldn’t stop watching the way their blades seemed to cut through the water so perfectly as they zoomed along smoothly and really quickly.

  “I love coxing, but I love sculling too,” I said with a sigh to Izzy, who was standing next to me on the landing stage. “I wish I could do both!”

  “No reason why you shouldn’t!” came Ryan’s voice from behind me.

  I hadn’t realized he was so near.

  “Right, this is the plan for the start of today’s session,” he went on, raising his voice to talk to the whole group. “If you want to break up the quads and go back to single sculls for a while, that’s fine, or if all five in a quad are happy to stick with that, then that’s fine too. Let’s have single scullers over there and quads over here.”

  I suddenly felt like a bit of a traitor to my team, but good old Izzy quickly explained to them that I wanted to scull on my own for a bit, and they all agreed that was perfectly fair.

  “But you will come back to us afterwards, won’t you?” said Laura, looking worried.

  “Course I will!” I assured her.

  Sculling on my own felt wonderful. I noticed that Holly’s quad had decided to stay together but I made sure I was sculling as far away from them as possible. Celia came alongside me for quite a while and gave me a lovely compliment, which made me so happy.

  “You know, if I’d only just come across you now, I’d think you’d been sculling for months! Really good work, Sasha!”

  I smiled at her and tried not to look show-offy.

  Then her voice went quieter. “When you go back to the quad, if you’d like to change to sculling, rather than coxing, that’s not a problem, you know.”

  “No, it’s fine. I do like coxing,” I said, looking forward to it again now I’d had some time on my own.

  So about half an hour later we all had a change around and everyone went in a quad scull, even the five who’d never done it before. Penny and Ryan were coaching that third team and Celia was with my team. I could see George with Holly’s team and guessed he was working with them.

  “Okay, Sasha,” said Celia, “when you’re ready, tell your team to number off from bow.”

  I gave the command to my team and they answered straight away, as though I was calling the register.

  “Bow!” said Laura. “Two!” came Izzy’s voice, then “Three!” said Robyn, and lastly from Sabrina, “Stroke!”

  “Well done!” said Celia. “Now let me hear you get them started, Sasha.”

  Everyone in
my team was perfectly silent when we set off. It was great that they were all taking it so seriously. The rota for the rowing machine had worked really well, and my team now looked fit and strong. Plus they were all raring to go. I kept my voice loud and tried to be as encouraging as possible, and after a while I could feel that we were getting faster.

  “Big improvement! Bravo!” called out George, who was the nearest coach to us at that moment.

  None of us looked round or replied, we just kept working… “Long and strong!” I called. “Relax and drive! Well done, team!” And I suddenly felt so proud of them.

  Izzy said afterwards that it had felt as though we’d all been working together for weeks. I remembered Celia’s compliment from earlier on, and felt brilliant.

  On Saturday evening, Izzy and I couldn’t talk about anything except sculling, and the others kept on saying things like, “It’s not fair! Why can’t we come and watch the race tomorrow? We could cheer you on!”

  In the end we went down to Mrs. Pridham’s flat and asked her if it would be possible for Emily, Bryony, Nicole and Antonia to come along to Pollington Water with us the next day.

  At first she said she didn’t think so, because she couldn’t really allow four extra people to go without opening it up to everyone, and anyway they’d have to take the other minibus and she wasn’t sure if it was free. In the end, though, when we begged, she gave us a sort of exasperated smile and said, “All right, you win! Let’s just check how many extra people there are going to be.”

  So then Izzy and I wrote her a list of all the people on the course and she phoned the other housemistresses to tell them the plan.

  The next day, about fifteen extra people joined us. We all piled into the two minibuses very noisily. Miss Fosbrook, from Hazeldean, was one of the drivers and Miss Bromley, from Oakley, the other.

  It wasn’t till Izzy and I were sitting down with our friends that I realized I hadn’t let Holly bother me at all lately. I was trying to think back to the last time she’d given me a mean look or deliberately turned her back on me, and I thought it was probably when we’d confronted her in the gym with Mrs. Truman. Had I actually seen her much since then?