Girls Only! (17 page)

“Super!” Livvy said, mimicking Heather.

Jenna liked the idea but stopped to look out one of the dormer windows near her desk. A light snow had begun to fall again, just since Livvy and Heather had arrived. The tops of the neighbors’ houses were already dusted white.

She didn’t tell Livvy or Heather that her thoughts were on the All-Around Team.
Her
team was going to Colorado Springs without their captain!

Putting on a smile, Jenna did her best to count off the dance steps. She followed Heather’s lead. With every move, she focused on
GO!
—a cool club for a super threesome.

Only the Best

Chapter Nineteen

Early Saturday morning, Jenna stared up at the Olympic rings flag above her computer desk. “Go, team,” she said, stretching in her bed. “Hit everything at the meet. Do it for me.”

Heading down the hall, she turned on the shower and let the water run. She peered into the mirror over the sink. A sleepy-eyed, All-Around Team captain in a pink-flannel nightgown stared back at her. A girl with high goals and lofty dreams.

She drank a glass of water. Looking in the mirror again, she saw a Korean pastor’s daughter. An only child about to become a sister.

The ride to Denver seemed never-ending. Dad rehearsed a hundred different middle names for the baby. Mom read aloud from a baby-care book.

Jenna had to smile at her parents’ approach to all of this. “You act like you’ve never done this before,” she said.

Mom looked back over the front seat at her. “In case you’ve forgotten, it’s been eleven years since we’ve had a baby in the house.”

“It’ll come back quickly,” Dad said, offering Mom a reassuring smile. “You’re a natural with little ones, dear.”

The comment seemed to help. Mom shrugged her shoulders and returned to her reading.

Jenna stared out the car window, watching the mountains blur past.
This is my first day as a sister
, she thought, deciding to be the best one Jonathan could possibly have. More than that, she wanted to make her parents glad they’d given birth to her.

“I think I’m ready to write in the baby book,” she spoke up. “Did you bring it along?”

Her mom pointed to a canvas bag next to Jenna on the backseat. “It’s in that bag right there.”

Opening the bag, Jenna looked inside. Her pink leotard, palm protectors, wrist guards, and beam slippers were in the bag, too. “I wondered where these were,” she said, reaching for the baby book instead.

Mom stopped reading. “There’s a page close to the
front,” she said. “You’ll see the heading—
The Day You Came to Live With Us
.”

Jenna scanned the baby book. She hadn’t realized that it was a book for adopted children. Totally different from the one her mother had kept for her.

She read the words her parents had written, wondering how her brother would feel reading them, too, when he was much older. Finding a pen in her purse, she clicked it on and began to write.

She read through the entire book, understanding how each page related to an adopted child. By the time she was finished, they were coming into the busy outskirts of the big city of Denver.

Mom double-checked the map and gave Dad directions to the adoption agency. Jenna felt the first butterflies in her stomach. She thought about Cassie—how proud she was to be adopted. And Heather’s wallet picture of her little brother and sister. So many happy “adoptive” families . . .

At least five different times, Jenna checked to make sure tiny Jonathan was snug and secure in his infant car seat next to her. She wished she could hold him all the way back to Alpine Lake, but he was much safer where he was.

“Jonathan Bryan is the cutest baby on earth,” Jenna said, using the middle name her parents had finally chosen.

She settled back in the seat, staring at him. Jonathan was as olive-skinned as she was but with darker hair. His fingers and hands were perfectly formed, and when he sighed, she knew she wanted to protect him forever.

“How fast do babies grow?” she asked, leaning forward.

“Oh, he’ll be walking in six or seven months from now,” her mom said.

“How old was I when I took my first steps?” she asked.

Dad chuckled. “You were an early one, Jenna. We always knew we had a gymnast in the family.”

“Tell me again.” She’d heard the story many times but wanted to hear it again. Just for fun.

“Well, you liked to somersault and balance your feet on anything that resembled a straight line,” Mom said.

“And always with your arms out and your head tilted up,” Dad said. “You were moving constantly.”

Jenna watched her sleeping four-month-old brother.
Will Jonathan be a gymnast, too?
she wondered.

Her mother was rattling the map in the front seat. But Jenna noticed that the sound didn’t startle her brother at all. “Looks like he’s a sound sleeper.”

Mom turned around. “The caseworker said he sleeps straight through five hours at night.”

“And then he wants to be fed, right?” she said.

Her dad glanced over at her mom. “We’ll take turns getting up with him,” he offered, reaching his arm around Mom.

“I’ll help, too,” Jenna said.

“But gymnasts need a full night of sleep,” Mom said, handing the map back to her. “Here, see if you can find the turnoff for Interstate 25.”

“What for?” she asked, opening the map.

“We need to help Dad find the way to Colorado Springs,” said her mother.

Her mom’s words didn’t quite register in her brain, but she started looking for the highway. Suddenly, she realized what Mom had said. “Why are we going to Colorado Springs?” she asked, her heart thumping hard.

Mom was smiling the most curious smile. “You have a gymnastics meet to attend this afternoon,” she said.

“I
what?
” Jenna could hardly believe her ears.

Dad was nodding his head and looking at her in his rearview mirror. “Coach Kim said if we could get you to the Olympic Training Center by two o’clock, you could compete with the team.”

“Oh, you’re kidding! This is so cool!” And she leaned over and whispered to the baby, “You’re going to your first gymnastics competition, Jonathan Bryan Song.”

Then she leaned back against the seat and began psyching herself up for competition. She thought through each of her routines. When she came to the floor routines in her mind, she visualized a perfect aerial cartwheel. She’d do her very best to hit everything. For the team . . . and for baby Jonathan.

Only the Best

Chapter Twenty

“Jenna, you’re here!” Cassie said, clapping and smiling.

All the girls circled her, calling out encouragement to each other and to Jenna.

“Where were you?” Cassie asked. “Why didn’t you ride along with the team?”

“It’s a long story . . . but a very cool one,” she said.

Cassie frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you later.” She almost said
I’ll show you
but didn’t want to draw the focus off the competition. After the meet, there’d be plenty of time for introductions to her baby brother.

Coach Kim and Tasya helped the girls pep up with words like “We can do it!” and “We’re going to hit everything . . . everything!”

The atmosphere was electric. Cassie was right, the place was totally amazing and buzzing with the crowd and the competitors.

Jenna had plenty of time for some short warm-ups with the rest of the team. She felt so good, like the confidence might burst right out of her.

“I feel so ready for this,” she said to Cassie. “How are you doing?”

A smile broke over Cassie’s face. “I thought I wanted to do other things,” she said softly. “Things that I was maybe kind of good at without having to work so hard . . . you know, the way we do in gymnastics. But I’ve made a decision.”

“You’re staying in?” asked Jenna, reaching to hug Cassie. “You’re not quitting, are you?”

“Things that come easy aren’t worth doing, are they?” Cassie replied, her eyes glistening.

“Yes!” shouted Jenna.

The girls danced around, hugging and laughing. “I’m going to nail every single routine today,” Cassie said. “I promised myself.”

“Me too,” Jenna said. She glanced up in the stands and saw her dad waving a banner. On the bench sat her mom, holding Jonathan. Tears threatened to spill over, but Jenna waved at the three of them instead. “I love you,” she whispered.

The girls were chanting behind her. “Hit it . . . hit
it. . . .” Over and over they said the words, until there was so much energy around them, Jenna was dying to get started. They all were.

Finally the All-Around Team from Alpine Aerials Gymnastics marched into the arena. Jenna was first in the line of eight girls because they were arranged in stairsteps—shortest to tallest. Each girl was so pumped up and ready.

They warmed up some more and then started the competition on the uneven parallel bars. Jenna was up third, right after Cassie and Lara. She prayed silently before the judges gave her the green light to begin. All three girls nailed one routine after another. So did the rest of the team.

The vault was next, followed by the balance beam. Jenna remembered everything Coach Kim and Tasya had told her. She flew through her routines, hitting every single one!

They went to the floor mats, trailing another team from Grand Junction, Colorado. But that gave Jenna and the others all the more courage to do their best.

“Only the best . . .”

She could hear her mother’s words in her ears as she saluted the judges. Jenna focused on her tumbling run, took a deep breath, and hit every element with complete confidence. Even the aerial cartwheel—crisp and clean!

The crowd was cheering as she raised her hands high over her head.
Yes! I did it. I did it
. . . .

When her score—9.820—flashed on the scoreboard, she thought she heard her parents cheering. She strained her ears to sort out the sounds, and she was sure now. Because their shouts of glee were in Korean.

And then she heard a baby’s cry. Jonathan? Was her baby brother “cheering” for her, too? In his own unique way, she knew he was.

It was one of the best days of her life.

That night, after she helped her mom tuck Jonathan into his crib, she sat down to her computer. She keyed in the email address for Dominique Moceanu and began her message.

She read her message quickly before sending it, then called for Sasha. “Come here, little girl. I haven’t seen you all day,” she said, coaxing the drowsy feline onto the bed. “You’re not the only baby around here anymore. You’re gonna share my attention with a real baby. How do you like that?”

Sasha opened her eyes, then blinked slowly and was soon snoozing again.

“Sweet dreams,” Jenna whispered and turned out the light.

She thanked God for working things out for her and her family and for the team. Her mother came in and tucked her in for the night.

“Thanks for everything, Mom,” she said. “You’re the best.”

“Well, I don’t know about that, but it’s nice of you to
say it.” And she sat on the edge of the bed and kissed Jenna’s forehead.