Success at Silver Spires

by Ann Bryant

  I did as I was told and managed to pull the boat over without getting hit by either of the blades.

  “Good work!” said Ryan. “Okay, I’ll hold the boat steady while you get yourself back in.”

  It only took me a few seconds and Ryan seemed pleased with me, but then in a more serious voice he said, “So, what exactly happened out there, girls? What do you think it was that made you capsize?”

  I felt myself tensing right up, and didn’t know what to say. Holly was looking down, saying nothing at all, and the silence was going on too long. Ryan, meanwhile, looked from one to the other of us, waiting.

  “Er…I think it was that we both suddenly felt tired,” I managed to stutter, “and kind of…lost our rhythm…”

  Holly lifted up her head and turned to look at me. I wasn’t sure what the look was saying, but it only lasted for a second, then her eyes went down again as Ryan began a bit of a teachery lecture, which seemed to be aimed at me. I couldn’t work out why at first, but then I realized that, of course, Ryan thought I’d been the one to set the fast speed, because I was the one at bow.

  “Well you were certainly sculling at a heck of a speed. I reckon you were just pushing yourselves too hard.” He leaned forward a little and looked straight into my eyes. “Try not to be too ambitious next time, please?”

  I felt myself going red, even though I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, and that made me cross with myself. Why didn’t I just tell Ryan what had really happened? But I knew the answer to that question. I was scared of how Holly would react.

  “Right.” Ryan nodded, as if to signal that the inquisition was over. Then he got on his phone and started talking to one of the coaches at the landing stage to ask her to get towels organized and a warm drink, and also to ask Miss Fosbrook to fetch Holly’s and my dry clothes from her car. He then asked for another coach to come out and check I got in safely.

  “Celia’s on her way. You’ll be fine now, Sasha,” he said, turning to me as he put his mobile back in his pocket.

  I nodded.

  “Okay, see you back there!”

  Then he was gone. But as he switched on the motor and his launch zoomed off I saw that Holly had sat up and was looking at me. Our eyes met just for a second and there seemed to be a question in them, but I didn’t know what it was.

  I got a nice surprise when I found myself back on dry land, because the coaches and various other students I’d never met before were acting as though I was a hero, congratulating me on looking after Holly and then managing to get the boat back in. Two students who were quite a bit older than me said they’d walked round the lake and seen us from another angle and thought how professional we looked. Miss Fosbrook laughed and said she’d give me a big hug once I was dry, but she didn’t want to get sopping wet herself. Then she told me she thought Holly and I were amazing rowers, and one little capsize didn’t matter. I thought how kind she was being.

  Celia gave me a hot drink and told me to take it up to the clubhouse, where Holly was getting changed and where Miss Fosbrook had left my dry clothes. I made my way up there, feeling my footsteps dragging as I drew nearer, because I so didn’t want to find myself alone with Holly again.

  “Hi,” she said as I went in, which gave me a shock, because I’d been expecting her usual silence. But then I got an even bigger shock, because she was giving me a sort of wobbly smile.

  I grabbed my clothes and took them into the loo to get changed in private, as it was easier than being with Holly. But when I came out I found she was still standing there in exactly the same position she’d been in before, and was staring at me with round eyes in her pale face.

  “I…did something I shouldn’t have done…” she said hesitantly.

  I waited, wondering what on earth she was going to say.

  “I…I didn’t take the boat Ben told me to take.”

  My head was spinning, because at that moment I thought I understood what must have happened, and yet…I couldn’t believe it.

  “I didn’t think it mattered. The one I took looked just the same…only I liked the name better.”

  I could tell from her eyes there was more to come, so I waited, my heart beating with the gradual realization that my guess had been right.

  “Ryan was really cross with me just now. He said the boat I took was waiting to have the heel restraint changed. That’s why…my foot got stuck.”

  I nodded but stayed silent, feeling suddenly sorry for her as she looked so upset.

  “Th-thank you for not telling Ryan it was my fault that we capsized,” she then said, in the same small voice she’d used in the boat.

  And suddenly I understood what the question in her eyes had been. She’d wanted to know why I hadn’t told Ryan the real reason we’d capsized.

  I didn’t know what to say. “Er…that’s…okay.”

  Holly’s voice still sounded weak. “He knows…now, because…I’ve told him what happened…really.”

  I still wasn’t sure what to say, and when I thought about it, I didn’t actually know what had happened myself. “So…what did happen, Holly?” I asked her quietly.

  She drew her breath in slowly, then began to speak hesitantly. “I thought…you might be wishing…we could go faster. I thought you…might be bored rowing with me. When Ryan put you at bow I worried that he didn’t think I was as good as you…and…” Suddenly she started gabbling at full speed and the words tumbled out of her mouth as her eyes grew bigger and bigger, which made her face seem paler and paler. “I felt stupid because I’ve done lots of sculling before and you hadn’t done any, and yet you were just as good as me… And I had to prove myself. So I just kept talking to myself, telling myself to try harder…but you were easily keeping up, so then I tried to make myself go even faster, and still you were easily keeping up—”

  I had to interrupt her because she’d got that so wrong. “No, I wasn’t. My arms were dropping off!”

  “So were mine!” she said.

  And then she stopped and looked at me, and I saw her eyes change, and that made mine change too, because I wondered if she was picturing us, like I was, in our double scull out there on the lake, both struggling away, because we each thought the other wanted to go faster. And the picture was so funny that I suddenly burst out laughing and a second later so did Holly.

  It was one of those giggling fits that almost hurts your stomach, because you’re laughing so hard, and I knew Holly felt the same, because she clutched her stomach with one hand and reached out to lean on me with the other. And there we stood, doubled over, laughing our heads off, until Holly’s arm went round my shoulder and she suddenly hugged me and whispered, “Sorry, Sasha.”

  “That’s okay,” I said, feeling my throat hurting, because there was something really touching about those two words of hers. I knew it must have taken a lot for her to say them.

  She drew back but kept her eyes on mine. “No, I mean sorry for…everything. I was just so…jealous. You see, I’ve always been pretty average at sports and I was so happy when I heard that we could do this sculling course, because I could show people that at least I was good at something, but then I felt as though you were better than me and kind of taking over.”

  “I didn’t mean to…”

  “I know you didn’t. It was totally my fault.”

  “But thank you for not telling on me about using the rowing machine that time when there were no teachers around,” I said, feeling my face getting hot.

  “Well, actually…to tell the truth, I’d already had a go on it myself!”

  I gasped and was about to jokingly tell her off when I saw that her eyes had filled with tears. So then it was me hugging her. And that’s how we were when Celia came in.

  “Aha!” said Celia, her eyes dancing. “Sign of a true teamship. Big hugs after an accident!” Then she laughed at herself. “Not sure if there’s such a word as a ‘teamship’, but I quite like it anyway!”

  Holly and I both laughed happily, then Ryan a
ppeared.

  “Do you want the bad news or the good news?” he asked.

  Neither Holly nor I spoke.

  “Okay, well the bad news,” he said, plunging on, “is that the course is well and truly finished, even for you two.”

  I nodded, feeling a weight of sadness come over me.

  “But the good news is that there’s an inter-school double sculls race next Wednesday at five o’clock. It’s a very highly regarded race and we’ve got someone famous presenting the trophy to the winning team. Three schools have entered, and as you two have proved yourselves to be exceptional, I’ve already got permission from Silver Spires for you to be in it too! No one’s expecting you to win, obviously, but it’ll be great experience. So now there are four schools!”

  I felt a gasp of pure happiness welling up inside me as I turned to Holly and saw that her tears seemed to be sparkling now.

  “That’s so cool!” she said, reaching for my hand.

  Ryan looked at me.

  “Yes, it’s fantastic,” I agreed, gripping Holly’s hand tight, “because we’re such a good teamship!”

  Chapter Ten

  The four double sculls were lined up side by side. Holly and I were in lane three. We were both watching the landing stage to see if my dad had arrived, because the race wasn’t due to start for another few minutes. Holly had already spotted her parents.

  “You said he’d be wearing a suit, didn’t you?” she said, scouring the lakeside, where loads of people were standing around, including all my friends.

  Emily kept jumping up and down doing two-handed waves but there was no way I could wave back like that or I might tip the scull over. Antonia was on one side of her and Izzy on the other and they seemed to be taking turns to try and hold her arms down. I guess Izzy realized it would be awful if I waved back by mistake and then fell in.

  Bryony was taking lots of photos and Nicole was talking to someone standing nearby. But there was still no sign of my dad.

  I’d been so happy when I’d phoned home and told Mum all about what had happened with Holly and the double scull. As usual, though, after a minute or two she’d sounded as though she wasn’t concentrating and had put Dad on the phone.

  “Well, that’s brilliant, Sash!” he’d said, sounding really proud of me. “We’ll definitely have to sort you out some sculling in the holidays.” Then he said he’d been talking to a friend of his who knew of a really good sculling club about forty-five minutes away from where we live. “We’ll get you booked in there, and you can scull to your heart’s content!”

  After that I’d told him about the race that we’d be competing in.

  “It’s eight hundred metres, dad. That’s twice as long as our other race!”

  Dad seemed really impressed and pleased for me, but didn’t offer to come along. I actually thought it was silly of me to expect it. I hadn’t even thought of it until Holly told me she’d invited her parents and they were coming. But mine live much further away and they had the twins to think about too, so I knew really that there was no way they could come. In the end, though, I asked Dad. Just in case.

  “Wednesday at five?” he said. And I could hear paper rustling and guessed he was looking through his diary. I got myself ready to be disappointed, but then the best thing happened because he said, “You know what, I’ve got a meeting only about an hour away from Silver Spires on that day, so I reckon I could make it by five if I got a move on. Tell you what,” he added, “I’ll bring my DVD camera, then Mum can see it when I get back!”

  “Oh, Dad! That would be great!” I said.

  And now the race was about to start, but I still couldn’t see him.

  “Never mind,” said Holly, trying to cheer me up. “Remember Ryan said there’s someone famous presenting the trophy? I wonder if they’re here.”

  I certainly did remember, and I’d been wondering all day who it might be. “I can’t see anyone famous out there, can you?” I asked Holly.

  “There’s a man there talking to my parents,” said Holly. Then she laughed. “I don’t mean a famous man! Just that it might be your dad!”

  I looked across to where I knew Holly’s parents were standing, but it wasn’t Dad talking to them and my heart lurched with disappointment. What if Dad didn’t make it in time? What if he’d got held up in traffic?

  “And now there’s a man and a woman talking to Izzy…” said Holly.

  My eyes shifted back to where Izzy was standing with the others and my heart missed a beat because there was Dad and Mum!

  “They’ve both come!” I said to Holly. “I can’t believe it. My mum’s come too! She must have left the twins with Grandma and Grandpa!”

  “Hey, that’s brilliant, Sash!” said Holly warmly. “We’ve both got our parents here. Let’s make them proud!”

  Just as she said that, an official-sounding voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing that the race was about to start, and I felt myself tensing up. He named all the schools competing and my heart beat faster when I heard him mention Silver Spires School for Girls.

  “Here goes!” said Holly quietly.

  “Here goes!” I echoed.

  “Attention!” came the voice over the loudspeaker. This was it. “…Go!”

  Somewhere in the distance there seemed to be a lot of shouting and cheering, but all I could really hear was the sound of our blades swishing against the water, and our breathing, exactly in time with each other. I gave my instructions to Holly in a much quieter voice than before, because we were such a team now, totally working together and tuned into each other. As we rounded the first slight bend in the course there was only one boat ahead of us. I’d seen these girls getting into their scull and thought at the time how much bigger they looked than Holly and me, and now they were proving that they were stronger too.

  I knew I should have been focusing one hundred per cent on rowing at that moment, but I couldn’t help the thought of Mum watching me, cutting into my concentration. I so wanted her to be proud of me.

  “We can do it,” I said through clenched teeth to Holly.

  “Yes, we can,” she replied.

  And I didn’t have to say anything else, we both just pulled and pushed together, our breathing getting louder as our bodies reached forward and pulled back, reached forward and pulled back. We’d done a massive semicircle round the island and I could see the yew tree with its bright yellow marker way up ahead of us. We had to keep in line with that marker and scull between two yellow buoys, which denoted the finishing line. Whichever boat passed that line first, would win the race.

  It was so tempting to keep going fast with short strokes but I knew we’d tire ourselves out. I spoke as firmly as I could, my breath coming in bursts. “Okay, long and strong…relax and drive.”

  Holly did exactly what I’d said and a few moments later, when I turned to check our direction, I knew it was our last chance to put on a final spurt if we possibly had the energy for it, because the scull ahead of us was really close to the finishing line.

  I turned one last time to check we were in line with the marker, and realized at the same time that the spectators on the lakeside had all moved round to the yew tree so they could see the sculls coming in to the finish. They were already starting to shout out but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.

  “Okay, drive!” I yelled.

  And we did just that, straining every sinew in our bodies to make our scull cut its way through the water, catching up with the other boat until we found ourselves level with them.

  “Drive now! Legs now!” I screeched. And with one final push we passed them. And the crowd on the lakeside yelled even more loudly.

  “The winners!” came Ryan’s voice over the loudhailer. “By half a length! Sasha Turner and Holly Johns for Silver Spires!”

  And my heart sang with triumph.

  “In second place, Becky Goodwin and Tara Steele for Whitington College.”

  “We did it!” whispered Holly, as we paddled gen
tly round to the landing stage, sweating and red, puffing and panting, but so, so happy. Celia and Ben helped us out of the sculls, and it was a good job they did, because our legs and arms were trembling too much to manage on our own.

  “I feel like a rag doll!” said Holly, as she gave me a hug. Then we both flopped down, totally exhausted and unable to speak, yet unable to stop grinning at each other triumphantly. I thought back to the last time Holly had reminded me of a rag doll. Things were so different now. So very different. We’d both proved ourselves. And we’d done it together. I couldn’t have been happier.

  Well, that’s what I thought at that moment. But then I saw Mum rushing through the crowd, her arms outstretched.

  “Oh, Sash!” she said. And as she came right up to me I saw that there were tears in her eyes. “You were so brilliant! I can’t believe it! I’m so proud of you!” Then she wrapped her arms round me and I felt, just then, as though I was snuggled right into the centre of her world.

  “Totally fantastic!” said Dad, appearing a second later. “I don’t know how ever you managed that last stretch.”

  Mum let me go of me so Dad could give me a hug, and I saw that Holly was getting hugs and cuddles from her parents too. Then Izzy and the others appeared. They were hanging back a bit, so I went and grabbed Izzy’s hand and the others followed. After that, it was just completely mad with everyone congratulating us. And I didn’t have to do anything except enjoy it.

  Once the other two boats were in and Ryan had gathered everyone round, he stood at the front of the crowd with a small lady, who I guessed was probably in her thirties.

  “That must be the famous person,” Izzy whispered to me.

  I nodded, wondering who she was.

  “Oh my goodness!” Mum said under her breath. “How brilliant!”

  So Mum recognized her. Who could she be? I couldn’t ask because Ryan had picked up the loudspeaker to make his announcement.

  “It is with the greatest of pleasure that I introduce you all to former Olympic gold medallist, Carla Conrad!”