Success at Silver Spires (9 page)

I tried my best. I really did, but it obviously didn't work, because after only a few seconds everyone's oars were out of time with each other and Holly looked totally hacked off. She turned round to Mikki, who was behind her and said something that I couldn't hear, then Mikki said, “Yeah, okay.”

“Mikki's going to be cox now,” Holly told me. And I felt cross that she'd made that decision herself, as though she was one of the coaches. But I didn't have the confidence to question her, so I just nodded.

“Okay.”

“It's not fair!” said Emily, putting her arm around me. “Holly's spoiling the course for you, isn't she, Sash?”

I nodded miserably.

The six of us were all crammed onto my bed in our dorm, because I'd called a truth talk. That's a meeting we have when someone in the group isn't happy about something and needs the support of her friends. This time it was my turn, and already I was feeling better. Less alone. It was Antonia who'd thought of calling these meetings “truth talks”, in the first term here at Silver Spires, when her English wasn't so good. We all loved the name she'd come up with, so we'd kept using it, and now it had stuck.

“I saw you having fun in your boat, Iz, and I just wished I could have been with you instead of having to put up with Holly.”

“Well, actually, we've got a bit of a ‘Holly' in our boat too,” said Izzy, looking thoughtful for a moment. “Caitlin.”

“Really? Caitlin?” Izzy had surprised me, because I thought her team was getting on so well together.

“She's probably nowhere near as bad as Holly,” Izzy explained, “but she thinks she's better than the rest of us. First she criticized Laura's coxing, then she criticized the rest of us for not keeping in time. And
then
, when we were packing up, I heard her asking Ryan if she could go in your boat, Sash, next time.”

“What did Ryan say?”

“I didn't hear.”

“Sounds like the perfect solution would be for you and Caitlin to swap with each other,” said Bryony in her usual straightforward way.

“Sasha won't want to join our team,” said Izzy, shaking her head as though it was out of the question. “You're way better than us lot, Sash,” she went on. “We all row miles more slowly than your team, and we keep getting it wrong too.”

But I was feeling a new excitement mounting inside me. What a brilliant challenge it would be to try and help Izzy's team to build confidence and do well. And how different it would be to have Izzy's lovely smiley face in front of me instead of Holly's mean face.

“You know, I think you've got a really good idea there, Bryony,” I told her slowly. Then I turned to Izzy. “I'd love to swap with Caitlin. It'd be great to cox for your team. I actually enjoyed that role, apart from having to put up with Holly, of course. And Ben said I was doing well.”

“Penny said you were doing well, too!” said Izzy. “She made us all stop and watch your team when you were cox, and she said you were leading perfectly, because the scull was going along so smoothly. I felt really proud of you!”

I gave Izzy a hug for saying that. “Let's ask Caitlin tomorrow if she wants to swap.”

“But are you
sure
, Sash?”

I actually felt more sure of this than anything since I'd started the rowing course. “Totally!”

“That's settled then!” said Emily. “I declare this meeting closed!”

“It was Sasha who asked for the truth talk!” said Antonia, sticking to the rules. “So Sasha has to say when it's finished.”

I smiled at her. “Okay,
I
now declare this meeting closed!”

And everyone laughed.

As soon as we were on the minibus on our way to Pollington Water the next day, I started to worry.

“What if Caitlin agrees to swap with me but Ryan says we're not allowed?” I whispered to Izzy in what she calls my quivery voice.

“We'll beg!” said Izzy. She was smiling confidently, as though she knew that begging wouldn't really be necessary. But I wasn't so sure.

I was dreading Ryan saying no, because I'd got it in my head I was going to be with Izzy. And it would be such a disappointment if I had to go back with Holly after all.

“Do you want to talk to Caitlin or shall I?” said Izzy.

I said I'd do it myself, so she'd see I was really keen on the swap, and as she was right in front of me I decided to get it over with straight away. If she said yes, it would feel like I'd won half the battle – well, maybe about a third of the battle.

“Hey, cool!” was what she actually said. But she looked totally happy. “Are you sure? Your team's much better than mine, you know.” She was raising her eyebrows to check I really meant it, but she didn't give me time to answer. “Oh, is it so you and Izzy can be together?”

It seemed simplest just to say yes, so I did.

“That's a good omen,” whispered Izzy, when Caitlin had turned back to the front. “Now just Ryan to get round.”

Once we'd got off the minibus, I kept putting off speaking to Ryan, because I was so dreading what he would say. Caitlin must have been assuming he would easily agree, though, because I'd already heard her gleefully telling Charlotte and Holly that she was swapping places with me. I'd watched Holly's face carefully at that moment, expecting her to break into a big smile of relief that she'd finally got rid of me, but she just shrugged as though she didn't really care either way, and I was puzzled for a moment. I
had
got Holly right, hadn't I?

“You'd better say something to Ryan, Sash,” said Izzy, beginning to look anxious, as we walked down to the landing stage. So I took the chance to run over to Caitlin while she was on her own, and ask her if she wanted to come with me to check it was okay with Ryan if we swapped.

“Yeah, sure!” she said. And off we went together.

It only took Ryan a few seconds of what Emily would call deep-frowning-thinking before he nodded. “If you're sure that's what you want.”

Caitlin and I both thanked him, then ran off happily. Well, at least Caitlin was happy, because she started shouting across to Charlotte that she was coming to join her in the top team, as she called it. And I was happy too, but not so I felt like shouting about it. I was pleased that I'd be with Izzy and wouldn't have to suffer Holly any more, but there was still a small part of me wondering if I should have done what Mum used to talk about, and grown a thicker skin.

I decided that the best way to work with my new team was to be very patient, because it was obvious they were much more jittery than my other team. They couldn't really scull in time with each other at all. Penny was close by in a little inflatable dinghy, though, and she started calling out instructions. But I wished she wouldn't, because I wanted to cox on my own. It was quite a relief when Ryan asked her to come and help him.

“Just keep it steady!” she called over her shoulder as she zoomed off. “George and Ben are both around if you need them.”

“Oh, we're useless!” said Laura straight away. She pointed to Holly's team, who were already a long way from the landing stage, heading out to the island with Tilly coxing and Holly at stroke.

A little pang of disappointment that I wasn't part of that team, slicing through the water like that, went through me. But I quickly shook it away and concentrated on the challenge of my own team.

“You're not useless. You're good. We'll soon be out there just like them.”

Robyn, the girl who was sitting at stroke, suddenly shivered, and I realized they all looked cold, so I knew I must set to work quickly. I gave myself a firm talking to.
Just take charge properly, Sasha. Act like Ryan or one of the other coaches.

“Okay, sit at backstops and turn the oars so that the spoon is square,” I began. “And get ready to push your hands down…now!” Amazingly they did it exactly together and I felt my first little thrill of pride. “Straighten your arms, that's right…now lift your hands…and pull right to your stomach…and push down…” They were still completely in time. I had to keep my voice loud and firm. That was the secret. “Lift and…pull…and push…and lift and pull…”

I kept repeating the instructions at the top of my voice to make sure that Sabrina could hear me right from the bow position and also to encourage everyone. Gradually I realized they were actually sculling along quite smoothly.

“Hey! We're doing okay!” called Laura, with laughter in her voice.

“You're such a good cox, Sasha!” yelled Sabrina from the back.

“Don't talk or you'll…”

And, of course, the moment I broke off giving them my instructions, they lost the rhythm.

“Sorry, that was my fault,” I said, feeling cross with myself for falling into such an obvious trap.

I started them off from scratch again and this time nobody talked. Everyone concentrated on rowing, and though we were nowhere near as good as Holly's team, I felt as though we were definitely improving. And I realized something else, too. I was really enjoying myself.

“Good teamwork!” said Ryan, passing us at one point. “Do you want to swap positions?”

“No chance!” said Sabrina. “No one else could cox like Sasha!”

Ryan nodded, then fixed me with that same careful look that he'd used before. “What about you, Sasha? Did you want to scull for a while?”

I only hesitated for a second, because there was still a part of me that wished I was actually sculling, but the much bigger part was filled with determination to get my team as good as Holly's. Well, maybe that was a bit too ambitious, but I thought we could still make loads more improvement.

“No, I'm fine,” I told him firmly.

“Great! Keep up the good work then!”

And that's what we did. I worked the team quite hard, but they didn't seem to mind at all. We just kept practising going in a straight line and keeping in time with each other, and by the time the session was over, I felt really pleased with the improvement our team had made.

“Right,” said Ryan, gathering us together when the session was over, “you've all done brilliantly to make the amount of progress you've made at this stage of the course. Hopefully, by the end of next Saturday's session, we'll have the last five girls working together in a quad too. Then on the Sunday we can have a three-boat race.”

“But the other two teams are way better than us!” wailed Poppy instantly. She was one of the ones who hadn't been formed into a quad team yet. “There's no way we can win if we have a race!”

“Yes,” agreed Poppy's friend, Ali. “We don't stand a chance!”

“Hold on! Hold on!” said Ryan. I glanced over at Holly and saw that she was standing with her head on one side, looking at Ryan, waiting to hear what he said. “We can stagger the three boats so that you don't all set off at the same time, then it'll be perfectly fair.”

“Oh right, so you mean Poppy's scull will set off first, then Sasha's, then ours?” said Holly, smiling at Ryan.

“Yes…” said Ryan, nodding slowly as though he was still thinking about it. “Something like that.”

Holly turned slowly to smile at Mikki as Ryan clapped his hands. “Okay, that's all I wanted to say. Have a good week, girls, and see you next Saturday afternoon. We won't have the race till Sunday, but remember to keep up your general fitness. That's the secret with any sport.”

Yes, I thought happily, I
will
keep up my fitness, and I'll make sure I encourage my team to go to the gym too. But more than that, I planned to talk to Dad as soon as possible about carrying on sculling in the summer holidays. I loved my new sport and I wasn't going to let it out of my life. Not ever.

I was in the dining hall eating pudding with my friends the next day when Sabrina and Robyn came up to me with faces like thunder. They both started gabbling at once.