The New Queen

Anna eventually got settled into the college life. At first she felt bad leaving her family behind but then she got used to it.
Every morning she would have breakfast with Mikhail and call her family. She would have a few classes then grab lunch with either Sarah or Sam. Later she would have maybe another class and then chill and hang out with Sarah or Sam until bed. She liked the freedom a lot.
When she was home in Russia she had responsibilities to train everyday. She could do whatever she wanted. Of course she needed to maintain grades but that wasn’t that bad.
…
One Saturday night, Sam invited Sarah and Anna to a football game. Their team was really good. Anna still didn’t understand American Football. Everywhere else it was called something else.
“Russia is weird” Sarah said. “I mean seriously who calls soccer football?” Sarah asked.
“The right part of the world” Anna said. They walked into the game and took a seat on the tall bleachers. “It’s a game with a foot and a ball” Anna said. “Soccer does not fit that description” Sarah giggled.
“Hey girls” Sam met them on the bleachers.
“Do you think football is an accurate title for what American football is?”
“What?” he asked.
“No it shouldn’t be football it should be Hand Egg” Anna said. “Hand and a egg shaped ball” Sarah and Anna giggled.
“…Okay” they sat together on the bleachers. “Do you miss Russia?” he asked her. Anna sighed.
“Russia is an awesome place” she said. “It’ll be awesome when I get home”
“What about Thanksgiving Break?” Sarah asked “Are you going home?” Anna nodded. “Do Russian’s celebrate Thanksgiving?”
“Sarah, it’s an American holiday” Sam said. “So no, Russian’s don’t celebrate it”
“What do you celebrate then?”
“Protector of the Motherland Day” Anna said.
“What’s that?” Sam and Sarah both asked.
“It’s like Veterans day” she said. “Oh and there’s Victory Day, Unity Day, Russia Day Cosmonaut’s Day and Labor Day and International Women’s Day” when Anna said International Women’s Day she felt a bit sad. It’s basically mother’s day. Anna didn’t have a mother to celebrate it with. Even though one had already passed, she still felt sad thinking about it.
“Cosmonauts day?” Sam asked. “You Russian’s need to stop gloating about sending somethig to space first” he said. Anna chuckled.
“Russian’s are the best”
…
After the game the three of them headed to an after party. Sam introduced them to a fuck load of new people and got them into the scene. Now they felt like real college kids. Anna never did much partying in Russia. It was all gymnastics all the time.
Sam and Anna danced together. Anna grinded her body up against Sam and could feel him pulling her closer and clutching her hips. Digging his nails into her skin. He kissed her cheek and her neck and her shoulders. She pulled on his belt loops as he bit her skin.
“Just take me already” Anna siad.
“Serious?” she looked him in the eyes and smirked deviously. In Sam’s eye’s, everything about her was brilliant.
The two headed upstairs. They were in a strangers house but they didn’t care. They got rid of their clothes just to be exposed between each other.
Sam wanted a serious relationship. He wanted the one. Anna just wanted to have a good time in college, like any girl would. She was NOT looking for anything serious.
…
The night Anna and Sam had sex was mostly a blur. Anna had a bit of alcohol in her system when it all happened. She remembered Sam dropping her and Sarah off at Anna’s apartment early the next morning.
Anna only got a few hours of sleep before someone called it. “Uggggghhhhh” she was lying on her bed wearing the same clothes from that night. “STAAAHHP” she said. She was hoping her phone would just stop ringing.
She had special ringtones for everyone. A russian song played for people from Russia calling her and then an English song played when people who spoke only English called her. A TaTu song played. They were a famous lesbian girl group in the Early 2000’s. Viktoria and Anna always joked about that band and this particular song became the anthem to their friendship.
She rolled over Sarah and grabbed her phone. “Hello?” she heard sniffles from Viktoria. “Hello??”
“Anna are you awake?”
“No I’m sky diving” she joked. “What’s wrong?”
“I tore my ACL” now Anna was awake.
“Aww baby”
Viktoria started to cry. “I cant…I don’t…” she continued crying.
“Calm down, Vika” Anna said. “Breathe”
“I can’t” Viktoria said. “Just when I was named to the world team and now I can’t go—Anna the team won’t win a medal without me”
“Give them more faith”
“No Anna, there’s not enough Russian’s to fill our weak spots” she said. “We are declining as a team. We won’t medal at worlds. I’m the only one who can post high vault and bars scores. No one can replace me. I was holding the team in medal contention” Anna thought about what she was saying. Viktoria tore her ACL at 23 years old. Her chance of coming back from this were very slim.
One thought popped into her mind. Something Anna never thought she would ever think about again. She thought, what if she came back to gymnastics to help the team out until the Olympics? She has heard about the abundance of juniors coming up. Evgeny was coaching them now but none of them will be seniors until after the Olympics in Paris in 2020.
“No” Anna told herself. “Vika can I call you back later?”
“Sure” she hung up her cell phone and laid back in bed.
“Don’t make the decision” Anna said. “Don’t do it, don’t do it” she closed her eyes tight and imagined all the negatives of trying to come back to gymnastics. She could get injured, make a fool of herself, be too fat. And then she imagined all the positives. A team medal at the next worlds since it was too late to train for these worlds, maybe more medals to add to her career total, more glory, more experience, more adreneline.
Unfortunately the positives outwayed the negatives. She was damn good at making quick decisions that she usually never regretted.
“I’m coming out of retirement” she said. She hoped her mom would be proud of her.