My heart pounded as my feet padded against the tumble track. Little did I know what was yet to come. Soaring through the air, I knew I wasn’t going to land properly. Suddenly, I came cascading down like a fish flopping back into the water after being caught. That day I had no idea that my gymnastics class would turn into a trip to the hospital. 
I got dropped off at The Clinic Gymnastics, and I put my stuff in my cubby. As soon as I walked into the door, it smelled like a sweaty locker room after a boys’ basketball game mixed with the plastic smell of mats. 
“Hi,” my friend Jalyn said.
“Hey Jay, let’s go stretch,” I narrated back.
All together we then began to stretch on the floor. Every one of us conversed about what we were going to be excited to do today. In agreement, we were all excited about maybe throwing our tucks on the floor and not the tumble track. This day was going to be a typical day at gymnastics. The pounding of feet against the floor and the bounce of the trampoline was all I heard. Excitement filled my bones and I was ready to start the day. After stretching, I scurried to the trampoline and warmed up my jumps and my skills.
“Attention ladies independant work day today!” my coach sputtered  out to all of the girls.
“Yes Jalyn did you hear independent work day today?”
“Oh my goodness yay!” she recited  back.
Together Jalyn and I climbed onto the tumble track and started doing synchronized tumbling. Both of us soared through the air and landed with a perfect stick. In synchronization,  our bodies bent and tucked completing each flip. The bounce of the trampoline was all that we heard filled with the echo of our voices.
“5,6,7,8 set, set pull!” we rejoiced in perfect sync.
The trampoline has always been my favorite part of gymnastics training. Being able to soar through the air and float up like a bird and cascade down doing tricks as if I were a feather floating through the air gives me great excitement.
After going on the tramp Jalyn and I decided to do some conditioning with the other girls. Together, we conversed about what type of conditioning we would do. At once, we  came to the conclusion that we were going to do abs. “Great I’m going to be so sore tomorrow,” I thought to myself. Conditioning for about 20 minutes left us feeling like we had just run through the desert.
Following conditioning, I was very tired and sore. Shortly after that, I decided to work on my own skills that I needed to practice, which were back tucks and front handsprings
The skill that I needed the most work with was back tucks on the floor, instead of the tumble track. I began to jump and tuck, completing the flip.  “Oh no this is not good, come on Brooke you can do this,” I thought. Finally, after many attempts I did a good tuck on the floor.
After that, I decided to go to the tumble track and do more back tucks and possibly some layouts. Instead of tucking, your body exents flat as a board as you complete each flip. Due to the fact that it was free time, I assumed that doing layouts would be okay. I mean I had done them before on the trampoline and the skill before it was a pike, which I had mastered perfectly. Besides they were really fun and coach wouldn’t care if I did them because it was independant work day.
Climbing  up on to the tumble track and my heart began to race as fast as a horse darting to the finish line to try and win the Triple Crown. I began to run down the track and the only thing I saw was the mat. Everything else just soared out of my vision. The bounce of my feet along the track gave me the feeling of courage that I could perform the layout in a sufficient manor. My hand hit the track and my body curved perfectly soaring into the air.
Following that, my feet hit the ground and I jumped into the layout position to complete my flip. Immediately, my heart began beating faster than and cheetah, and I thought to myself, “Oh my goodness Brooke you over rotated what were you thinking!”
Suddenly, I came crashing down as if I were an old building falling down into rubble. All at once, I felt a searing pain in my right ankle almost as if it were on fire. I bolted up and fell right back down because of the pain. Slowly… tiny droplets of water sprinkled down my eyes like a small spring mist. “Oh no.” I wondered aloud to myself, “Coach is going to be super mad at me because I did a skill I wasn’t ready for.”  Hobbling like an old person, I went  over to a chair and sat down making sure my coach wouldn’t see me. Abruptly, I realized that I should tell my coach incase something was seriously wrong.
“Coach S,” I said.
“What Brooke?” he replied back.
“I was tumbling and I think I hurt my ankle.”
“Oh are you okay Brooke?” they chirped back.
“Yeah I think so, but I should call my mom and go to the hospital,” I explained.
“Okay go ahead, I hope everything is fine,” coach said.
“Thanks,” I reluctantly said back.
Realizing that everything was going to be fine because my coach didn’t even ask me what skill I was doing,  I hobbled over to my phone and called my mom.
Following  my phone call with my mom, she was there in minutes, and took me to the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital my face was as white as a ghost. Together we  walked in and I saw all of the people who were hurt just like me. Fear washed over me like a sheet because a lot of the people were hurt even more more than me. The stench of plastic gloves engulfed the air. Tasting the horrible medicine in my mouth that I knew the doctor would give me made me cringe. My face was as white as snow wondering how hurt my ankle actually was. Awaiting the nurses call for me to enter the weight room, it felt like waiting for grass to grow. Finally, my name was called. Hobbling over to the weight room, my measurements were taken. A nice nurse led me to my room and told me to wait for the doctor. Thank goodness for my mom being in the room with me. I don’t know if I could have waited for alone.
A nurse walked in and she told me that I should have X-Rays to see what the problem was. I was wheeled into the X-Ray room and the X-Ray technician told my mom to wait outside. A wave of worry came over me and tiny droplets of water rolled down my cheeks. The X-Ray technician told me not to worry and that everything was going to be fine. I was propped up onto a table and felt like a tiny bug being examined under a microscope. My ankle wasn’t in the right spot, so the X-Ray technician had to move it in order to get a clear picture. All at once, a burst of pain soared through my ankle. It felt as if my ankle was being punctured with a knife. The X-Ray technician took lots of X-Rays and told me that the results would be delivered to my room as soon as the pictures were back. A nice nurse came and wheeled me back to my room where my mom was waiting for me to get back. In the meantime, a nurse came and wrapped my ankle and gave me a bag of ice to reduce the swelling. The nurse asked me if I wanted any medicine to aid the pain and I told her that some would be very helpful because my ankle hurt so bad. She gave me the medicine, and it tasted like cardboard. Making a face like I just drank lemon juice, I swallowed the pills. Moments later, the doctor came in and said the results of the X-Rays.
“Well Brooke,” the doctor said.
“Yes Dr,” I said.
“It seems like you have sprained your ankle and have torn a few ligaments,” the doctor recited back.
“Oh dang it!” I exclaimed.
“Well what does that mean and how long will it take to heal?” I inquired.
“2-3 weeks it should be fully healed,” the doctor replied.
“Oh no. Is there anything that she can do in order to have it heal faster?” my mom asked.
“I would buy an ankle brace and ice it and heat it regularly,” the doctor replied. The doctor said that I was good to go and that I should be fine in 2-3 weeks if I took the necessary precautions, which I thought was a big bummer considering that it was the last weeks of summer.  My mom and I left the room, and a nice nurse wheeled me to my car yet again having to wheel me somewhere because it hurt so bad to walk and I walked slow as a turtle.
When I arrived home, I explained to my brother and dad what had happened because they both weren’t home when I first had left for the hospital. I sat on the couch and propped my ankle up and began to ice it to try and reduce some of the swelling. From the time I first hurt my ankle to the time of arriving home home, my ankle had swelled up faster than a balloon. “Now, I would have to spend the rest of my Summer with a hurt ankle,” I thought.
In conclusion, I learned that I should be more careful with doing skills that I am not fully ready for. It made clear to the consequences of tumbling without proper technique and coaching on a particular trick. I felt bad for ever being reluctant in telling my coach that I was injured because if my ankle would have been hurt even more and my coach wouldn’t have know, I would have gotten into even more trouble for not telling them. Now I know that I should always tell the truth regardless of what the consequences may be. Also, this taught me to be more careful in all aspects of my life. Ever since that day, I have been more careful at gymnastics. Now, every time I go on the tumble track I get scared and chicken out on even the easiest skills. To this day, the vein on my right ankle swells even with the slightest rotation and the pain lingers back reminding me of the summer when I hurt my ankle.