The New Queen

Anna made many decisions the night of her birthday, she hadn’t officially retired yet and didn’t plan to until after the world championships, but she knew she wanted to end it with Tom before then.
She had one main reason. She really wasn’t feeling it anymore. It was too long distance and too serious. Tom seriously loved her and she seriously couldn’t. They were in different time zones so talking was hard and he was still actively training and doing important things with college so they couldn’t fly to see each other.
Evidently Anna decided to break up via-Skype call. It was the hardest thing she’s ever had to do but she did it. She felt so terrible after but she just had to do it. This is what she wanted.
After doing that she focused on worlds. She wanted to be by herself, after she retired she was going to make another bi decision.
She wanted to go to college.
Yeah she was a little bit older than first year college students but she wanted the education. She specifically wanted it in America. She could get the best education in America and she had many schools to pick from. Without anyone knowing she picked maybe five good schools she liked. She talked to Mikhail about it as well and they agreed on a few colleges they both wanted to attend.
She was making major life changes because she felt like she needed to. Maybe her mom wasn’t going to die now but she had cancer and Anna seriously needed to grow up and make somethinng of herself. Something her mom would be proud of. She felt like it was time to say goodbye to gymnastics.
…
As worlds approached she was feeling like backing out, though. She wanted to say goodbye and move on but at the same time she felt like it was the only thing she was good at. She could support her family with gymnastics and she had fun with it.
She needed to talk to someone, so right before worlds she choose Emin. Emin had been there for her for YEARS now. He had been a father figure when her father was traveling around the world. So obviously he was the clear choice for advice.
After Anna told him her whole predicament including her breakup with Tom and her mom’s cancer he stood silent for a second.
“Why did you keep this all bottled up?” he asked. She shrugged. “You can’t do this alone”
“I thought I could” Emin took her arm, pulled up her sleeve and showed Anna her cuts from a few years back.
“You can’t” he said. “Humans naturally need other humans”
“I don’t know” she said. “It’s so much I don’t know how to talk about it” she said. Her eyes started to flood with tears, she couldn’t even stop the tears. She was gasping for her breath. Emin pulled her close. "I don't want my mom to die"
“You don’t have to do this alone” Emin said. “I will always be here for you”
After a good cry, Anna felt a lot better and talked more about it. "Well what do you want to do?" he asked.
"I want to retire" she said. "I don't want to let anyone die" Emin giggled.
"You're a double gold medalist at the olympics...you wont' let anyone down ever. You can retire" he said. "You can move on, go to college, grow up" he said. "Gymnasics doesn't have to define you"
she took a breath of relief. "I don't want it to define me"
"Then retire and move on. I know you can do great things"
"Could you see me in college?"
"Yeah, you're so smart" he said. "What are you interested in?" she shrugged.
"I'll figure it out"

Later, Anna had the same conversation with Viktoria. Together they cried and Anna made some harsh decisions. She was ready to move on with her life. She was closing the gymnastics chapter.
…
Worlds came fast and Anna felt like she was ready. Mikhail talked to her everyday and kept telling her mom was doing fine and she was doing good for getting a lot of Chemo. Anna felt pretty confident. If she did a good job, Evgeny said she could have more time off to be at home.
Evgeny said this because Adnan called him and contradicted what Mikhail told Anna. Adnan said Alina was actually getting worst and getting very sick very fast. Adnan thought Alina only had a few months to live. Evgeny would give Anna all the time in the world.
Anna didn’t tell Evgeny about her plans to retire. Evgeny kind of hat a hunch that if her mom died, Anna would definitely retire.
At worlds it was just an individual event. The team was made up of three vets, Viktoria, Anna and Maria and one newbie. Anna qualified for beam and floor like planned. Vika qualified for just bars and Maria qualified for beam and floor. The newbie just got into bars. It was a good world championships for the Russians.
During the all around Maria and the newbie kicked ass. Maria was the defending European Champion and carried her reign to the World championships. The other young Russian captured the bronze medal.
During event finals the young new russian captured another bronze on bars while Viktoria took the silver ahead of her. A young new Chinese great took the gold.
For beam, Anna and Maria took the first two medals leaving a Romanian in the dust with a bronze. Anna won by a point over Maria.
They moved to the last final, floor, where Anna also took the title by a point over the young new Americans. Maria finished in fourth place.