by Jane Lawes
About Friendships and Backflips
Tara has been entered into her first ever gym competition and she’s desperate to win. But she’s so busy learning the tricky routine that she doesn’t have time for her best friends. When they all fall out, Tara realises that her friends are more special than any medal. Can she find a way to make up with them and follow her gym star dreams?
For Mum and Dad
Dear Reader,
Like Tara in Gym Stars I dreamed of becoming a world-class gymnast and joined my local gym club. Tara’s story reminds me of my early days of training and the thrill of entering my first big competition.
I hope you enjoy reading about Tara as much as I have and if you want to become a gym star too – go for it! With focus, talent and dedication your dreams really can come true…
Love,
Dear Reader,
When I was growing up, I used to live, breathe and dream gymnastics – like Tara, I loved working and working on new moves with my coach as I wanted them to look absolutely perfect!
Gymnastics is a fantastic sport, and with hard work and determination, can be extremely rewarding. It can also be very dangerous however, and without the correct supervision and equipment, can easily lead to injury. Because of this, it’s so important to make sure that you practise everything in a gym, where you have the right equipment and supervision.
Since these books have been published, I’ve loved hearing all your stories about new moves you’ve tried and competitions you’ve won, and can’t wait to hear more! I just wanted to pass on what my coach used to tell me – always make sure that you practise everything in the safe environment of the gym!
Keep trying, keep working and most importantly, be safe!
Lots of love,
www.janelawes.co.uk
Contents
About Friendships and Backflips
Dedication
Foreword by Beth Tweddle
Letter from Jane Lawes
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Glossary of Gym Moves
Q&A Session with Jane Lawes
About the Author
Gym Stars series
Ballet Stars series
Usborne Quicklinks
Copyright
Chapter One
Tara Bailey stood at the gate outside Hollypark Secondary School, where she was about to start in Year Seven. She was waiting for her best friends in the world to arrive. She’d been in the same class as Emily and Kate all the way through junior school, but now that was going to change. There were three Year Seven forms at the secondary school, and for the first time since Tara, Emily and Kate were four years old, they were going to be split up.
Students were flooding through the school gates and Tara was worried that she’d get swept along, too. Surrounded by large boys and tall girls, she felt so…little. At the top of their junior school, she and her friends had felt like grown-ups compared to the babies sitting in the front row at assembly. Now they had to start all over again. The fact that she was almost lost in her new uniform didn’t help. The navy blue V-neck jumper was slightly too big, but the main problem, Tara thought, was the grey skirt, which came down below her knees. Usually she didn’t mind being small for her age – it was actually a very good thing in gymnastics, which was all she cared about most of the time – but right now she was wishing that her legs were a little bit longer, or the skirt a little bit shorter. She had gymnastics after school so, as well as her rucksack, she had to carry another bag containing her leotard, a bottle of water and a snack. She felt weighed down already – and she didn’t even have any school books to carry yet!
She moved away from the gate a bit so that she wasn’t caught in the crowd. Emily should have been on the same bus as Tara, but she’d sent a text to say she’d missed it and was waiting for the next one. Kate’s bus came from a different direction. As she waited for them, Tara felt that she’d give anything to be going back to their cosy Year Six classroom this morning. She’d secretly been a little bit jealous when she saw her younger sister, Anna, dressed in the junior school uniform before she left. Lucky Anna still had years ahead of her in the small, friendly playground and the colourful classrooms. Meanwhile Tara would have to find her way to different classrooms for every lesson, and she was sure she’d get lost.
“Tara!” She heard someone squeal her name behind her and turned around.
“Lindsay!” she replied, seeing her friend from Silverdale Gymnastics Club. She had started doing Acrobatic Gymnastics there during the summer and Lindsay was her partner and her best friend at the gym.
For the first time since she’d got out of bed that morning, Tara stopped worrying for a moment. Lindsay ran to give her a hug and Tara felt better instantly. Even though she was in secondary school now, it wasn’t as if she didn’t know anyone, she reminded herself. A lot of people from her junior school class had moved to the same school as her. And then there were Lindsay and Megan, another Silverdale gymnast, in Year Nine. Even though Tara knew she wouldn’t see them much because they weren’t in her year, it was nice to know they were there.
“I feel like I haven’t seen you for ages!” cried Lindsay, who had been away with her family for the last week of the holidays. “What did I miss at the gym?”
“Nothing much,” Tara replied. “We just got back to work on normal things like somersaults and balances.” At the end of the summer, Silverdale had performed a big gym display at the town fête. They’d spent weeks working on it, so they hadn’t had much time to work on skills like somersaults and backflips. “I practised balances with Sophie, because Megan was on holiday too. We were both abandoned by our partners.” Tara grinned cheekily at Lindsay, forgetting for a moment that she was in a strange new school.
“Hey!” laughed Lindsay. “You would have abandoned me too, if your parents had decided to go on holiday to Spain.”
“Did you have a good time?” Tara asked.
“It was great – really sunny all week,” said Lindsay. “I’m going to ache when I get back in the gym tonight, though!” Tara laughed. Then she saw Emily hurrying towards her, and spotted Kate getting off the bus further down the road. Lindsay looked at her watch. “Better go,” she said. “Who’s your form tutor?”
“Mrs. James.”
Lindsay’s face lit up. “She was my Year Seven tutor too!” she exclaimed. “Don’t worry, she’s really nice. It’s so great that we’re at the same school now. If you have any problems, come and find me. Have a good day!”
“You too.” Tara waved, but her smile faded with worry as Lindsay walked away. I’ve still got Kate and Emily, she reminded herself silently. And as soon as she thought it, they were beside her. They hugged each other quickly and then walked through the gate together.
All of Year Seven had to go to the main hall first to meet their form tutors. They’d had an induction day at the end of last term, so they knew where they were going.
“I wish we were all in the same form,” Emily said quietly, just as they reached the door to the hall.
“Me too,” said Kate and Tara in unison.
“Let’s meet here at break time,” said Kate.
“It should be easy to find.”
“Okay.” Tara nodded. Her voice sounded as tiny as she felt. She took a deep breath, and they went inside.
The big room was full of Year Sevens already. Tara and her friends were told where to go by a teacher with three lists. They all smiled nervously at each other, said goodbye, and headed for separate corners of the room. As Tara found her form tutor and had her name ticked off on her list, she couldn’t help looking back over her shoulder. Emily was hovering on the edge of her form group and Kate had already been swallowed up by a crowd of blue and grey.
Chapter Two
When everyone in Mrs. James’s form had arrived, she took them through a maze of corridors to her classroom. There was some chatter, but Tara, like most of the others, was looking around her, trying desperately to remember the way. She was going to have to learn this route quickly. How long would it take before she stopped getting lost all the time? She couldn’t imagine ever knowing her way around this school – it was enormous.
The classroom was painted blue and white, with geography posters stuck to the walls. The tables were set out in rows, with gaps between them and two chairs behind each one. They’d be sitting in pairs, Tara realized. What if there was an odd number? She hoped she didn’t get left sitting by herself. Among her new classmates was a group of boys and a few girls from Tara’s junior school, but she didn’t know any of them very well. At least she was relieved to see that she wasn’t the only girl in the class who was small and looked too neatly dressed.
The morning passed quickly; a blur of information and names. The first thing they had to do was chat to someone they didn’t know, and then introduce that person to the rest of the class. Mrs. James put them through several rounds of this and then, finally, she gave them their timetables and a map so they could find their classrooms. When they compared their timetables at break, Tara, Emily and Kate discovered that they didn’t have many lessons together.
“Does anyone have music after break?” asked Kate. “Or maths for lesson four?” They were walking around the field together, with their timetables in their hands.
Emily frowned, looking at her own timetable. “I have maths then,” she said. “But I’ve got science next, not music.”
Tara puzzled over the chart for a moment. “I’ve got maths lesson four, too!” she said triumphantly.
“Good!” Kate cried dramatically. “It’s so weird not being in the same class as you two.”
“It’s horrible,” agreed Tara. “But I’ve got science next, as well,” she added, with a relieved smile at Emily.
“Even better,” said Emily.
They continued looking at their timetables, and discovered that the only other class all three of them had together was PE. Break was soon over – another bell rang out across the school – and they reluctantly went back inside.
“I’d better go and find the music room,” said Kate, giving them a small wave as she turned away. Tara watched her walking off down the corridor. She was tall enough that her skirt didn’t make her look like an unfashionable Year Seven kid, and her dark hair curled around her shoulders. Tara pushed some of her own blonde hair out of her eyes. It had started the morning in a neat ponytail. Her hair, at least, refused to be too tidy.
“Science, then,” Emily said cheerfully. “Shall we?”
Tara giggled, glad she didn’t have to go and find the science lab all by herself. “We shall!”
“I never thought I’d look forward to maths lessons,” sighed Emily that afternoon, when she and Tara met Kate outside the maths classroom. They’d spent lunchtime together but had then gone to their separate forms for registration.
“At least we have something all together,” said Kate. “Maths can be our time to chat.”
But their teacher had other ideas. When they went into the classroom, Mr. Spencer made the whole class stand at the front. Then he told them where to sit. Tara scowled when she realized he was going with alphabetical order. Her surname was Bailey, so she got stuck in the front row, while Emily and Kate (Walter and Wakefield) were given seats together at the back of the room. It was so unfair!
The class got through some more getting-to-know-you games, struggled with a few maths questions and wrote down their first piece of homework in their clean, new homework diaries. It was a worksheet of questions to complete by the lesson on Friday. Tara folded the paper inside her new maths exercise book and put it in her bag, thinking that could wait until Thursday evening. Then it was finally time for the last lesson of the day: PE.
When Tara, Kate and Emily walked into the big gym, Tara suddenly started to feel very hopeful about PE lessons. The gym was huge, and she could see loads of gymnastics equipment stacked up at one end. There were big crash mats and a vault, and even a beam pushed against the far wall. She crossed her fingers and hoped they’d get to use it soon.
Miss Isaac, their teacher, kept the lesson fun, and Tara was glad. After the long day, she didn’t think she could have managed doing any proper sport. They played Bulldog, Stuck in the Mud and other games until they were worn out. As they trooped off to get changed at the end of the lesson, Emily yawned.
“I’m so tired,” she said.
“Me too,” agreed Kate. “I’m going to go home and watch TV all evening.”
“That sounds exactly like my plan,” said Emily, grinning.
“What about you, Tara?” asked Kate.
“My day’s not finished yet,” said Tara. “I’m going to Silverdale now.”
“You’re mad,” said Kate and Emily at the same time. Tara laughed. Then she yawned, which made her laugh again. She thought they might be right.
She met Lindsay and Megan at the school gate, and they walked the fifteen minutes to the gym together. Lindsay and Megan did most of the talking – Tara was too tired. She was beginning to think that doing gymnastics as well as school was going to be harder than she’d ever imagined.
Chapter Three
Tara absorbed the familiar sights and sounds of the gym as soon as she got there: the thump-thump-thump of someone running down the tumbling track, the sound of a coach calling instructions to a gymnast on the bars, the slightly stale smell and the bright, brilliant blue of the floor. Silverdale Gym Club felt as much like home as her own bedroom. Even though she was exhausted after her first day in Year Seven, coming here felt like a break from timetables and classrooms and getting lost.
The Acrobatic Gymnastics squad she was in worked in pairs and trios and some of the boys worked in a group of four. They all performed balances, and the really good gymnasts did throws as well, where the taller, stronger gymnast, who was the “base” threw their partner, the “top”, into the air to turn somersaults before catching them again. Tara and Lindsay couldn’t do anything as amazing as that – not yet – but it was all Tara dreamed of.
“Watch out! You nearly kicked me in the head!”
“Sorry, sorry!” gasped Tara. She scrambled up from the mat to see if her partner was hurt. “Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Lindsay replied. “That was a close one.”
“Close to balancing or close to knocking you out?” Tara laughed.
“Both!” Lindsay grinned.
Tara was glad to have Lindsay back from her holiday. After the warm-up, their coach, Clare, had got them working on a new balance. It was called “standing front angel” and Lindsay had to hold Tara high above her head. Lindsay was taller than Tara, and even though she didn’t look very strong, she was able to hold Tara up in balances she’d never imagined being able to do before starting at Silverdale. They’d been partners for two months now, and there was nothing Tara loved more than their training sessions.
“This time we’ll do it,” said Tara. She was always disappointed when she couldn’t get things right straight away. “Ready?”
She and Lindsay stood faci
ng each other. Tara put her hands on Lindsay’s shoulders, and Lindsay gripped Tara’s hips. Then Tara bent her knees, pushed off the floor and jumped while Lindsay pushed her arms straight up. As she went up into the air, Tara moved her arms out to the side, making her body into a T shape. She ended up balancing flat on Lindsay’s hands, so it looked as if she was flying. She began to count seconds in her head. One…two…th— Too late, she was coming down! She put her hands forward so she didn’t land on her head.
“Nearly!” she said, upside down on the crash mat.
“We’ll do it on Friday,” said Lindsay. It was time to go home. Tara sat up and glanced around the floor area her group were using. The others were finishing up, too. Jasmine and Sam, the best gymnasts in the group, were still practising a balance, but Megan and her partner Sophie looked like they’d given up a while ago. Megan was lying on a crash mat chatting to Jack, one of the boys in the group, and Sophie was watching Jasmine and Sam. On the other floor area, behind the beams and bars, Tara could see an Artistic Gymnastics group working on their routines, and right at the back of the gym someone was flying over the vault.
Her coach, Clare, was talking to two boys and giving them advice on a difficult balance. Then she looked at the clock and raised her voice to talk to everyone. “Before you go, I’ve got some news.” The gymnasts were silent for once, waiting to hear. “I’m going to enter some of you in the Regional Club competition in November.” Excitement buzzed around the group.
“What does that mean?” Tara asked Lindsay.
Sam was sitting behind them and she overheard. “You don’t know what a competition is?” she said, laughing loudly.
Tara went red and felt stupid. Sam always seemed to be putting her down. Of course she knew what a competition was! She just wasn’t sure about the “Regional” bit, and she’d wanted to find out, but now she wished she hadn’t asked.