Success at Silver Spires (13 page)

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 gently 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!”

There was a burst of applause from the crowd while Holly and I stared at each other, dumbfounded, then broke into smiles at exactly the same moment. “I knew there was a reason why I liked that boat so much!” whispered Holly, her eyes twinkling. A splutter of laughter rose up inside me.

“Carla actually trained here at the Pollington Water Club as a girl, and one of the boats is named after her, so please give her an especially warm welcome.”

When the cheering and clapping had died down, Carla began to speak.

“It's wonderful to be back here after so many years,” she began, “and to find the club almost unchanged. I watched the race just now and was transported right back to my childhood. Such wonderful, strong and happy memories, of being eleven years old, like many of you here today, when I first realized that I had a gift for sculling. I will never forget the magic of that moment. So now it is with great pleasure that I present this fine-boat trophy –” she held up a shiny gold model double scull – “to Sasha Turner and Holly Johns of Silver Spires School, the winners of today's race!”

As loud applause broke out, Holly led the way forward to collect the golden trophy.

“Excellent work, Holly,” Carla said. “You are a very worthy winner indeed!”

Then Holly moved to one side, and when I shook Carla's hand she looked right into my eyes and spoke very quietly so no one else would have been able to hear her. Not even Holly.

“I see a great future for you, Sasha, and I will be listening out for your name in the Olympic village.”

I felt close to tears of happiness as Holly and I walked away, holding the beautiful model of a golden scull between us. I felt as though we were in our own little world, because all around us the clapping and cheering was louder than ever, and Ryan was whooping through the loudspeaker.

“You deserve this more than I do,” Holly said quietly, handing it to me.

“No, it's equal. It's to share,” I told her.

“Please take it,” she said.

“Well only for a minute. So I can show Mum and Dad and my friends.”

I smiled my head off as I walked over to them, then, “It's beautiful!” said Antonia. “And see, it says
Carla Conrad
on the side here!”

“What did she say to you?” Izzy asked me quietly.

“She said she'd be listening out for my name…” I couldn't say the next bit. It sounded too show-offy. “…Because she thinks I have a great future. Isn't that lovely?”

“Well you do have a great future!” said Izzy. “Sasha the super sculler!”

And I looked round my smiling friends – Emily the eco warrior, Bryony the brave one, Nicole the brainy one, Antonia the international one and Izzy the dancer. It was so brilliant that I'd found my place amongst them.

Sasha the super sculler.

I liked that.

Teamwork is the key to success, not just when it comes to sculling, but in many other activities such as drama, orchestra, choir and sports. Here are my top three team-building exercises, guaranteed to get you giggling, help you make new friends and turn you into team players!

Guess Who?

Pick a “guesser” from your group and ask them to leave the room. Now pick your leader, who starts doing an action on the spot for the whole group to copy. The leader can change the action to a different one whenever they like. When the guesser enters they must try and spot the leader by working out who's setting off each new action. If you're in the group, try not to look at the leader…it's more fun, and trickier too!

Bump in the Night

Set up a safe obstacle course using pillows, chairs, boxes, beanbags or whatever you have to hand. Now blindfold a member of your group and spin them around gently. Now direct your blindfolded player through the course as a team, without touching them. Only one person may direct at any time, but everyone must give directions at some point in the game. If your player bumps into anything, or you talk over each other in the team, then it's back to the start!

Pat on the Back

Tape a piece of paper to everyone's back and then give everyone a washable marker pen. Move around the group so that each person writes one nice thing on one other person's back. Then get your team leader to collect all the papers and read out the compliments. Can you guess which one was for you? Trust me; it's an unbeatable morale booster.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and have some fun!