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Just then there was a knock on the door and Ellie turned to see a face peeping into the room.
‘Can we come in?’
The door creaked open to reveal a tiny girl with a round face, big velvety dark eyes and sticky-out ears. The little buns she wore on each side of her head made her look a bit like a baby monkey. She was standing next to a taller girl with golden hair, a flawless complexion and green cat-like eyes.
‘Bella! Scarlett!’ squeaked Nancy, jumping off the bed. ‘Meet Ellie, my new roomie and our new squad buddy. Ellie, meet the Floor Fairy, Bella Chee and Queen of the Beam, Scarlett Atkins.’
Bella smiled broadly and said in a soft voice, ‘Welcome to Head-Over-Heels House.’
But Scarlett narrowed her eyes and said, ‘Is it true Emma gave you a scholarship even though you haven’t even passed Compulsory Grade Two yet?’
‘Scarlett, don’t put her on the spot,’ said Bella. She spoke with a gentle authority, despite being so small she even made Ellie look like a giant.
‘It’s OK,’ said Ellie. ‘Scarlett’s right. I didn’t start Compulsory Grades till I was quite old. My coach didn’t think I was ready.’
‘I passed Grade Two when I was eleven.’ Ambition flared in Scarlett’s eyes as she spoke. ‘I won the bronze medal. Because you do know that Grades are also a competition, right?’
‘Um – yes,’ said Ellie.
‘Of course she does!’ said Nancy.
‘Well, I’ll be doing Grade One this year. Which is higher than Grade Two – in case you didn’t realise.’
‘She’s from Cornwall!’ said Nancy. ‘Not a whole different planet.’
‘Well, how should I know how they do things in the middle of nowhere?’ said Scarlett.
‘You might want to remember that Bella won the gold when we did Grade Two,’ said Nancy, who looked as if she was keen to prick Scarlett’s bubble. ‘And all the other girls in Development squad are up for Grade One this year too.’
‘Except you, of course,’ said Scarlett with a smile. ‘Let’s hope you get third time lucky with your Grade Two, Nancy, or we’ll all be going to the British without you!’
‘Stop arguing, you guys!’ said Bella firmly. ‘Remember what Emma’s always saying. We’re teammates, not rivals. We perform better if we support each other.’
Scarlett glared and Nancy gave a ‘hmmph!’ sound. But just then a clamour in the hallway and a call of ‘Food!’ signalled that dinner was ready, and all arguments were set aside as they raced downstairs to eat.
‘Is that true?’ Nancy whispered, linking arms with Ellie as the girls made their way down the stairs. ‘About you having a scholarship.’
‘Um – yeah.’ Ellie flushed, suddenly embarrassed. ‘My parents couldn’t afford for me to train here otherwise.’
Nancy shrugged. ‘Yeah, well, we can only afford it cos of Mum – you know, being Head-Over-Heels house-mother, or whatever you call it. But, seriously, the Academy hardly ever give out scholarships. Emma must think you’re really good.’
‘I dunno . . .’ Ellie started to say.
‘I wonder how Scarlett found out?’ Nancy was musing as she pulled open the door to the kitchen.
Sitting round the giant dining table, Ellie met most of the other residents of the house. She thought she’d be too nervous to eat, but after the long journey and all the excitement she was starving so she tucked in to the biggest dish of shepherd’s pie she’d ever seen in her life.
Nancy and Bella introduced her to the others. Isobel Mallin and Mia Rudolph from Junior Elite squad made a funny pair. Isabel was tall, quiet and serious-looking, whilst Mia was small and a total chatterbox – but they were clearly the best of friends.
Then there was Bree Summers from Pre-Elite who told lots of funny stories about her squad coach, Oleg Petrescu. There was no sign of Sian Edwards or Sophia Mitford, and Nancy told Ellie they had been off at a Team GB training weekend and would be back tomorrow.
Ellie tried to imagine that one day she might be picked for Team GB, but right now it was enough to be here, an Academy girl – or very nearly anyway.
‘I thought Oleg was going to explode today,’ Bree was saying, ‘when Lily kept sneezing and couldn’t stop.’
The other girls all giggled and Nancy turned to Ellie to explain. ‘Oleg Petrescu is Romanian, and basically a living legend! One of the seven ancient wonders of the gymnastics world.’
‘He looks like a tiny little weightlifter and he’s got this giant moustache – all curly like a circus ringmaster or something,’ added Mia with a giggle.
‘And he’s got a thing about germs and people being ill,’ Bella explained. ‘Remember when Pearl had mumps and he acted like she had the plague?’
‘Yeah, and I basically spent the whole year I was in Pre-Elite terrified of even getting a headache,’ Isobel said with a frown.
‘Anyway, when Lily sneezed for the tenth time, Oleg started screaming like a bomb had gone off and kicked her out of the gym,’ Bree went on.
‘No – he sent her out?’
‘Right away,’ said Bree. ‘Then he started spraying the vault with anti-bacterial spray. And you should have seen the masks he got out of his bag. Like nurses wear. He wanted all of us in Pre-Elite to wear them so we didn’t catch anything.’
‘What did Emma say?’ asked Nancy.
‘Oh, Emma knows Oleg’s funny ways, but she also knows he’s the best vault coach in the world,’ said Bree with a shrug. ‘Oleg was going on about the English weather and going to California where it was sunny all day, so Emma said she’d arrange for everyone in the gym to have multi-vitamins and loads of oranges to make sure we get don’t get colds.’
‘What did he say to that?’ said Mia.
‘He went off into a flurry of Romanian and flung his arms around a bit – you know how he does,’ said Bree, doing an impression of Oleg, which made everyone laugh again. ‘But he let Lily come back into training – and he was so sweet and apologetic. He made her a lemon-and-honey drink and everything.’
‘He really is a total sweetie, isn’t he?’ said Bella.
‘He’s
