July was the month of the national championships and the month of Zhenya’s birthday. The girl had intended to make herself a golden birthday present but already in the practices preceding the championships she could tell that she wasn’t at her best. Zhenya had worked hard in order to be prepared for the two major events in this artistic flying season but the breakup with Conrad had somehow made her lose focus.
The national championships had been a rough awakening. Instead of fighting for the gold medal she found herself lucky to grab the bronze and thus the qualification for the junior world championships. With her second place in the technical exercise and the fourth place in the free program she only just got enough points to edge out her younger sister Zinaida who was clearly very disappointed and barely spoke a word to Zhenya after initially congratulating her on her qualification.
Frustrated with herself and the entire situation Zhenya returned to Rybinsk to train for the upcoming world championships where she knew she would not win a medal with a performance as weak as she had given in Saransk. However, as she stepped into the beam room to work on those sequences she had messed up in her free program, Zhenya came to an abrupt halt before remembering that this year even beginners were allowed to take classes at the artistic flying school. Suddenly she remembered her father’s words -
‘Be welcoming and helpful. It’s a good sign that more people are interested in our sport. Remember that you represent our family and the sport at every time.’“Hello,†Zhenya greeted the girl who was experimenting on one of the low beams (one of Zhenya’s favourites). “I haven’t seen you here before. When did you arrive? I’m Zhenya, by the way.†She had spoken in Russian but seeing the girl's expression she repeated everything she had said in heavily accented English and added "where are you from?"
@Pixie Clarke-Trickett
