Postby KP Presents » Wed Feb 19, 2014 3:12 am
“There you are,” Roberta said as the two girls came back in, “What kept you?”
“Sorry, Roberta,” Heidi said, “I got asked to help with something. I should have let you know.”
The older woman looked at the two girls, one eyebrow raised as she said “Really? Anyway, you’re just in time – Natalie is about to rehearse her floor exercise.”
They stood and watched as Natalie made her way to a corner of the large mat, taking a deep breath and striking a pose before she launched herself into a sequence of somersaults, turns and manoeuvres, Heidi and Cindy realising once again just how good she was at this discipline. It only lasted a few minutes, but by the end Nats was standing there, her arms outstretched as she panted and heard the round of applause from the others.
“Brilliant,” Elena said as she applauded Natalie off the mat. “All right, Fi, on you go.”
“Look at them,” Cindy said as she nudged Heidi, and they glanced over at Jo and Katy. “I wonder if they realise just who it is they are messing with?”
“I doubt it very much,” Heidi said with an evil grin. “So what have you got planned?”
Cindy turned and whispered into Heidi’s ear, the other girl nodding as she heard the details.
Twenty minutes later, they saw the redhead, Jo, slip off and leave the arena. “We’ll be back in a minute,” Heidi said as she and Cindy followed them, Roberta watching them as they headed in the same direction.
“Did you bring it,” Cindy said as they walked to the toilets, Heidi nodding as she patted the pocket of her track suit jacket. They entered the toilet, checking under the other stalls to make sure they were empty and then waiting as they heard the flush.
As Jo opened the stall door, she saw Heidi and Cindy standing there, arms folded and a grin on their faces. “Hey – Jo, isn’t it?”
“Oh,” Jo said as she looked at Heidi. “I guess you’re a little sore at what we did to you earlier, eh?”
“No, no, not at all,” Heidi said as she looked at her. “You may not believe it, but that was not an unusual occurrence for me, was it Cindy?”
“Not in the slightest,” Cindy said, “I’m always finding my friend tied up in some way. Funny thing, though, we have a standard way of dealing with these situations.”
“Oh,” Jo said with a little smile, “and what is that?”
“Returning the favour,” Heidi said as she produced a roll of white athletic tape, and they gently pushed Jo back into the stall…
“Done with whatever it was you had to do,” Roberta said as Heidi and Cindy came back, and they watched Elena helping Jannifer onto the larger of the two bars, and watched as she launched into her routine.
“Yup,” Cindy said as Heidi slipped the roll of tape back into the bag, “all done.”
“Good,” Roberta said as she watched Jannifer jumping from bar to bar, and then dismounting, doing a somersault as she did so and landing on her feet, arms raised high. “Brilliant,” Roberta said as she clapped, and looking over to the Our Lady group they could see Kathy and their coach nodding in appreciation.
After a few minutes, they saw Kathy slip out of the arena, returning a short while later with Jo. They looked over at Heidi and Cindy, who smiled sweetly and waved before they watched the other gymnasts rehearsing.
“All right,” Elena said eventually, “that will do for now. Warm down, stretch out, and then we will break for lunch.”
“I’m not sure I could eat anything,” Alice said as she stretched out, “I feel so tense.”
“Better you have something light – I have some chicken salad boxes ordered for delivery with water, but rehydrate now,” Elena said as she handed out bottles of water. “Where are you going, Roberta?”
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” was the reply as Roberta followed Andrea out of the arena, leaving both teams behind.
“I wonder what she wants to talk to Andrea about,” Elena said as she shrugged her shoulders, before leading the group out to the dining area.
As they entered the arena, Roberta said “Heidi, Cindy, can you come in here for a minute?” The two girls looked at each other and then headed to the side office, watching as Roberta closed the door.
“Is there something wrong, Roberta,” Cindy said as the older woman looked at both of them. She said nothing, waiting until there was a knock at the door and she opened it.
“In here girls,” she said as Jo and Kathy came in, looking at Heidi and Cindy as Roberta closed the door.
“Right,” she said quietly, “I’m going to say this once and once only. I guessed what happened to Heidi earlier, and I suspect one of you two underwent the same experience, am I right?”
She looked at the four girls, who stayed silent but slowly nodded.
“Thank you for being honest,” Roberta said. “This sort of thing happens all the time, spying no other teams and a bit of friendly rivalry, but this is the wrong day to take the steps all of you took earlier. The job of all four of you today is to support your coaches and help your friends, not to spend time making sure at least one of the other pair is missing for a little while, all right?”
Roberta did not speak in an angry tone, but she got her message across as all four of them nodded. “Good – now, I do not for one minute believe this business is settled, but for the rest of the gala today the four of you stay with your respective teams. I’ve spoken to Andrea, and I will speak to Elena as well. In return, your four will change when we get back to the hotel, and you will – all four of you – report to the Jefferson room at the hotel at 6 pm tonight. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
“Yes, Roberta,” Heidi and Cindy said as the other two nodded.
“Good,” Roberta said with a smile. “You two – go and join your team.” As Jo and Kathy went out, Roberta looked at the other two.
“You should have told me, you know?”
“We know – but they took Heidi by surprise, and then…”
Roberta stopped, raising a hand as she said “Save it for later – we need to go and eat, and then we have a gala to compete in.” She opened the door and showed the two girls out, shaking her head and smiling.
“We are the champions, my friend…”
“Joint champions,” Alice said as she nudged Natalie, who had a gold medal hanging round her neck. “You won the floor, and Fi the vault, but Our Lady took the other two events, so we had the same points total in the end.”
“The point is,” Elena said as she looked back, “you all did a fantastic job today, girls, and you have every reason to celebrate. So I’ll book a table at a Chinese restaurant for tonight, all right?”
“Make it for eight, will you,” Roberta said, “we need to allow time for that meeting first.”
“Yup – I hadn’t forgotten,” Elena said as she looked at Cindy and Heidi. The bus pulled up outside the hotel, and as they walked in Jannifer said “what meeting?”
“Elena and I need to meet with a couple of the other coaches to agree the program for tomorrow,” Roberta said “Go on – meet in the lobby at seven.”
The girls made their way up to their rooms. As they unlocked the door, Alice said “Want to meet up beforehand?”
“We can’t,” Cindy said, “we need to make some phone calls first. See you in the lobby.”
Heidi and Cindy looked out of their suite door, and then made their way to the lifts. Heidi was wearing a long sleeved jumper with her favourite jeans and knee length black leather boots, while Cindy had on a grey pinafore dress over a white blouse, knee length socks and black shoes.
Going to the lobby, they made their way to the Jefferson room and knocked. “Come in,” they heard Elena say, and as they came in they saw her talking to Andrea and Roberta.
“Ah good, there you are,” she said to them as they closed the door. “Andrea, this is Heidi and Cindy. I think they have something to say to you, don’t you both?”
The two girls looked at each other, and said “Sorry we did what we did.”
“Apology accepted – and you two?”
Heidi turned to see Jo and Kathy standing by the wall. The redhead was wearing a black waistcoat over a collarless white blouse, black trousers and knee length suede boots, while Kathy had on a grey short sleeved dress over a white long sleeved top, and a pair of grey shoes.
“We’re sorry as well,” Kathy said as she looked at them.
“Good – but we need to tell you all something.” Andrea smiled at them as she said “Elena and I used to get up to the same tricks as you four all the time, and we used to drive Roberta wild with it until she found a way to get us to stop, and you four are going to get the same lesson now.”
“What’s that,” Jo said as she looked at her coach.
“Co-operation to escape,” Roberta said as she opened a plastic box, and they saw her take out lengths of rope. “Form a line, and out your hands behind your back while we get you all ready.”
Fifteen minutes later, Heidi and Jo were sitting back to back, Cindy and Kathy next to them. The two pairs of girls had their upper bodies secured together with ropes, and their arms pinned behind their backs. Their legs were secured at the ankles and knees, and their mouths gagged with knotted bandanas, the knots between their teeth and the bands tied round their heads.
“Simple, really,” Roberta said as the three older women stood back, “You need to work together to get free, and if you don’t in the next half hour, we go and fetch your teammates and bring them in here. Got it?”