by Jane Lawes
“Come and sit down,” Miss Carter said, getting up and pulling a chair from the front row up to her own desk.
Tara sat on the edge of it, pushing her hands underneath her legs so that she was sitting on them and couldn’t fiddle nervously with her school skirt.
“Now,” said Miss Carter in a kind voice, “can you tell me why you didn’t do the questions I gave you?”
Tara thought about saying she’d tried and found the homework too difficult, but she’d already lied to Mum about it. She didn’t want to lie to Mrs. James and Miss Carter too. “I…they were…I didn’t have time.”
“Why not?” asked Miss Carter.
“I was practising gymnastics,” Tara said eventually.
Mrs. James sighed. “I thought that might be it. You’re in a National competition soon, aren’t you?”
Tara nodded.
“That’s great,” said Mrs. James. “We have a few other gymnasts at Hollypark.”
“Lindsay and Megan,” said Tara.
“Yes, I’ve taught both of them,” said Mrs. James. “And others, too. But, Tara, you mustn’t let gymnastics get in the way of your schoolwork. They’ve all had to learn that, and you need to as well. I’ve had reports from some of your teachers that they’re worried about how you’re doing in their classes, and so am I. Sports and clubs outside school are no excuse to skip your homework, no matter how important your competition is. And copying someone else’s work is something I just can’t accept.”
Tara looked down at her feet, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. Her cheeks were burning and she knew she’d gone bright red. “I’m sorry,” she said, without looking up.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to let your parents know what’s happening – I’ll be speaking to them this afternoon.” Tara jerked her head up, a look of panic on her face. “I’m not calling them so that they can tell you off, or because I’m angry with you. I’m worried that you’re going to fall behind, and I think it would help you if your parents know you’re struggling. They should be able to help you to fit homework in as well as gymnastics.”
“Please don’t tell them I should stop doing gym!” begged Tara.
“I’m not going to tell them that,” said Mrs. James. “Though it may be something that you should talk about with them.”
“What?” Tara whispered.
“It’s very difficult to balance sports training with schoolwork,” said her teacher. “If you’re not able to manage it, I’m afraid that schoolwork has to come first.”
The bell rang for the end of break. Tara got up and somehow found her way to her next class. At lunchtime, Kate and Emily tried to find out what had happened but Tara was so upset that her explanation didn’t make much sense.
The rest of the day passed in a daze. If someone had asked her at the end of the day what lessons she’d had after lunch, she wouldn’t have been able to tell them. She got the bus home automatically, her feet doing all the moving for her. She felt worse and worse the closer she got to home.
When she got to her front door, she stopped. Her key was in her hand, but she wanted to wait a little longer. She felt distraught and ashamed – she’d lied to Mum about her homework, and by now her parents would know. They’d probably heard all about her copying Emily’s work, too, and she knew they’d be disappointed in her. Her greatest fear was that they’d be so disappointed that they’d pull her out of the Nationals. Because if that happened, her whole world would fall apart.
Chapter Eleven
“Tara, come in here!” Mum called from the living room, as soon as Tara closed the front door behind her.
“Hi, Mum,” she said, slowly walking into the room.
Mum was sitting in an armchair. “I had a phone call from your form teacher just now,” she said. “Mrs. James.” Tara nodded silently. “Oh, Tara…” said Mum. “I did worry that all this gymnastics was going to be too much for you.”
“It’s not too much!” Tara cried.
“Well, something’s obviously too much,” said Mum. “You can’t just stop doing your homework.”
“I’m sorry,” Tara said, going over to Mum. She kneeled on the floor by Mum’s chair. “I’m so, so sorry and I’ll never skip homework again. Please don’t make me stop going to Silverdale!”
Mum sighed. “I don’t want to. I know how much you love it, and I’ve seen how good you are at gymnastics. We’re so proud of you for that. But we’ve always been proud of you for doing well at school, too.”
“But school’s different,” said Tara. “Everyone goes to school. Not everyone has a chance to be a National champion. But I’ve got that chance now. I probably won’t win, and maybe I’ll never be a World Champion or a real gymnastics star but, please, you’ve got to let me try!”
“School is important too, Tara. I’ll talk about it with Dad when he gets home. How about you go and get started on your homework? We all know how hard you work at gym, but you need to show everyone you can work hard at school, too.” She paused. “I’m sorry, Tara, but if you can’t keep up, I think you’ll have to leave Silverdale.”
Tara silently went upstairs and got out her science book. She’d hardly paid any attention in the lesson that afternoon, so the homework was a mystery to her. She stared at it for a while. Then the bang of the front door closing made her jump. Dad was home.
“Evening all!” she heard him call. Without even seeing him, she knew he was hanging up his coat and putting his shoes neatly on the shoe rack before going into the kitchen to see Mum and Anna. She decided to stay upstairs. Dad sounded happy. But in a few minutes, Mum was going to tell him about Mrs. James’s phone call and the homework, and then he was going to be disappointed and upset. Tara didn’t want to see that. Instead, she sat on her bed with her feet curled up underneath her and called Emily. She pressed the phone to her ear while it rang, as if that would somehow make Emily be right there with her.
“Hey,” said Emily, answering the phone after a few rings. “What happened with your parents?”
“They’re talking now,” Tara said miserably. She could hear a familiar voice in the background.
“It’s Tara,” said Emily, her voice sounding quiet as if she’d turned her head away from her phone.
“Is Kate there?” Tara asked.
“She’s helping me babysit my brothers,” said Emily. “I would have asked you, too, but I know you don’t have time with homework and…everything.”
“So what did your mum say?” asked Kate, loudly enough for Tara to hear her while Emily put her phone onto the speakerphone setting.
“That she doesn’t want to make me stop doing gym but homework’s important,” said Tara.
“I can’t understand how you could just not do homework,” said Emily.
“I can,” said Kate. “That French homework was boring!”
“But you still did it,” argued Emily. “Tara, you could get in real trouble if you keep putting gymnastics first.”
“I’m already in trouble,” said Tara. “But there’s no way they’re taking Silverdale away from me! If I have to keep up with school so that I’m allowed to carry on with gym, then that’s what I’ll do. It’s like another part of training.”
“Not everything’s part of training!” exclaimed Emily. “Remember when you spent so much time doing gym that you hardly got to see us? Then you realized that you need to do things with friends as well. This is just like that – other parts of life are important, too.”
“Like school,” added Kate. “Even though it sometimes seems like the worst place ever.”
“You’re right,” sighed Tara. She lay back on the bed and closed her eyes. Juggling so many things was tiring. “I’d better go,” she said. “Time to face the parents.”
“Good luck,” said Kate.
“It’ll be okay,” said
Emily.
But Tara wasn’t so sure.
Everything had gone quiet downstairs. Tara left her room and crept down the stairs until she was sitting on the third one from the bottom. She could hear Mum and Dad talking.
“This is serious!” said Mum. “She copied Emily’s homework!”
“Oh, but just once,” said Dad. “Don’t tell me you never skipped a piece of homework when you were at school, or copied a couple of questions from someone else. She’s eleven! It’s not like she’s cheated on an important exam.”
“That’s not the point,” insisted Mum. “I don’t want her to fall behind in school because she’s putting all of her time and energy into gymnastics.”
“Neither do I,” said Dad. “But she loves gym. She’s happy when she’s training, anyone can see that. I’m not going to be the one to take that away from her.”
Tara held her breath. She hated that her parents were arguing because of her. But, Please let Dad win, she thought, squeezing her hands tightly together. Please, please, please…
“I don’t want to do that either!” Mum shouted. On the stairs, Tara flinched. “But we have to do something. We can’t let things go on as they are. She needs to understand that schoolwork is important.”
“I do understand that,” Tara said, walking into the room. She couldn’t stand listening to any more or letting her mum get any more upset. “I’m going to work really hard at school from now on, and I promise not to practise gym at home until all my homework’s finished. Please give me one more chance,” she said sincerely.
Mum and Dad looked at each other. “You have to really mean it,” said Dad.
“I do,” Tara replied earnestly. She could see the faint shimmer of a chance. Silverdale might not be taken away from her just yet. “I’m going to get started on my homework right now. I’ll do all of it tonight so it’ll be out of the way before gym at the weekend.”
“If you’re serious about this,” said Mum, “then we’ll give you a chance to prove yourself.”
“Thank you!” Tara cried, hugging Mum and then Dad and then both of them at the same time. “I won’t let you down, I promise!”
“Mrs. James is going to call me next week with an update,” warned Mum. “So if anything slips, I’m going to know about it.”
Tara nodded seriously. The next week was going to put her to the test in a way no gym competition could.
Chapter Twelve
A week later, Mrs. James kept Tara back after her geography lesson. Tara’s heart sank. She’d worked harder than ever before at school, and had only spent one hour practising on the blocks when she should have been doing homework. It was so hard to resist when they were sitting there in her room, just begging her to work on straddle levers. Even though she and Lindsay were getting pretty good at the full balance, working on the blocks was still good for keeping up strength and perfecting the straddle position.
“How are you doing?” asked Mrs. James. “I’ve had good reports from all your teachers.”
Tara smiled, relieved. “I’m fine,” she said. “Sometimes it’s hard to force myself to do homework when all I can think about is training for the competition, but I know I have to do it.”
“Working for a National competition must be really exciting!” said Mrs. James. Tara was surprised that she sounded so interested.
So Tara explained everything – all about the Regionals and the Nationals, how exciting it was and how if she didn’t manage the straddle lever balance on the day, they didn’t even have a shot at gold. She tried to describe what it was like when she really focused, how the time flew by without her even noticing.
“I know what that’s like,” said Mrs. James. “I used to be a good runner when I was a teenager. Sometimes when I got home from school, all I wanted to do was go out for a run, but there was always so much homework to do as well.”
“Really?” Tara looked at her teacher in a new way. It was weird to think of Mrs. James as a teenager. “What did you do?”
“I tried to be organized, but I wasn’t very good at it. I gave up running in the end. To be a true champion, you have to be very disciplined.”
“I’m going to be a champion,” Tara said. “I want to be, anyway. I’ll learn to be the most organized person in the world.”
“Then I’m sure you’ll go far.” Mrs. James smiled and looked out of the window.
“I’m sorry about the homework and…the copying,” said Tara. “I really am.”
Mrs. James looked back at Tara, her expression serious again. “I meant what I said about schoolwork being important. This week you’ve done well with your homework. Keep it up, and I’ll tell your parents that you’re doing better.”
Tara nodded, determined. At least she could stay at Silverdale for now. She would train hard while she was there, making the most of every second. And she would do all her homework better than ever. They were all going to see that she could manage school and gymnastics.
There was still five minutes left of break, so Tara went outside to find her friends. She spotted them on the field, and ran up behind Emily, giving her a big hug.
“Gymnastics is saved?” guessed Emily.
“You were right to tell me how important schoolwork is,” said Tara.
“I was just worried.”
“You don’t have to be any more. I’m going to be as organized as all the great champion gymnasts.”
“You’ll need to be,” said Emily. “Because you’re going to be a great champion.”
Tara worked hard in lessons and didn’t waste time staring out of the window or daydreaming about being at Silverdale. On Wednesdays and Fridays after she, Lindsay and Megan had walked to Silverdale from school, they usually had forty-five minutes to wait until their training session started. Before her talk with Mrs. James, Tara and Lindsay used to spend the time sitting and chatting, or going through their routine. But now Tara quickly changed into her leotard and got her homework out instead. It was amazing how much she could get done now that she was determined to make the wait useful. Over the next few weeks she got into a routine, and found that she didn’t mind doing schoolwork instead of chatting if it meant she could keep on top of everything.
“Need some help?” Lindsay asked one afternoon before training started. The competition was less than a month away, but Tara had forgotten all about it for a moment – she was completely focused on her French homework. She stopped chewing the end of her pen and looked up.
“I’ve forgotten everything we did in the lesson this morning,” she sighed, handing Lindsay the worksheet she had to complete. She had only started learning French that year, and she wasn’t very good at it.
“Okay,” said Lindsay, reading the sheet of paper quickly. “You need to put the words from this box in the right spaces in the postcard.”
“I know, but I can’t remember what any of them mean! Why do I need to learn French anyway?” she grumbled.
“What about when you go to international competitions? It could be useful then.”
“Good point,” said Tara, and grabbed the worksheet back. “Well, I remember chaud means hot because Miss Carter said it like she was so boiling hot that she was about to faint.”
Lindsay giggled, and then she read some of the other words out and did miming actions to help her partner guess what they meant. By the time Jasmine and Sophie arrived, Tara had finished the worksheet.
“What subject is it today?” asked Jasmine, dumping her bag on the bench and pulling out a beautiful pale pink leotard with flashes of silver on the sleeves. Tara eyed it enviously for a second. Jasmine had such an amazing collection of leotards. Tara still only had three.
“French.” She grimaced. “But it’s done now. Lindsay helped me.”
Once she’d admitted to them what had happened with her homework, Tara reali
zed that the other gymnasts at Silverdale all understood how difficult it was to keep up with school while training for a National competition. And now that homework was on her mind, she’d noticed that while the others chatted before training, they often worked on school things too, and she knew that Jasmine and Sophie – best friends at school as well as at the gym – did homework together every Saturday afternoon. They were all eager to help if Tara needed it. Jasmine turned out to be really good at maths, and even Sam had chipped in with some advice on history homework.
“Let’s forget about homework now,” said Megan, suddenly looking up from the pad of paper she was writing on. “It’s time for some real work!”
Tara grinned and stuffed the French worksheet and her pencil case in her bag. She grabbed her bottle of water and danced along to the gym with the others.
After the warm-up, they started to work on some tumbling skills. Tara still got a thrill every time she did a round-off flick. It felt great when she and Lindsay did them in time with each other, and she hoped that it looked just as impressive as it felt. She couldn’t wait until her parents and Anna saw her and Lindsay performing them in their routine at the Nationals!
Part of her couldn’t help worrying though. She was still determined to keep up with her homework, but that meant she couldn’t do so much extra practice at home. And the last three weeks until Nationals were the one time when she thought she should be training more than ever. After all, loads of extra practice had helped Lindsay and her to win at Regionals, and the Nationals would be even tougher. Without all the extra practice, she could feel the gold medal she was desperate for slipping further and further from her reach.
Chapter Thirteen
Clare pushed them harder and harder as the competition got closer. By the last week, everyone was getting nervous. No one mentioned their chances at Nationals; none of them wanted to be the one who jinxed it for them all. The competition was on a Saturday and Clare organized an extra-long afternoon training session the day before, which meant the gymnasts had to miss an afternoon of school. When she gave Mrs. James the note from Mum asking for the time off, Tara had been terrified her form teacher would say no. But Mrs. James had surprised her – not only had she said yes, but she’d asked loads of questions about where the competition was and what it would be like.