Page 156 of The Forever Vault

“Why was your score so low? You were wonderful!”

I glanced up at the stands to see if anyone she was sitting near could tell her why.

“I didn’t do what I was supposed to on the landing. Ask Noah. He can explain it better than I can.”

“Getting rid of me already?”

“You know that’s not it. I’ve got to support all the athletes competing today. I can’t be on the phone the whole time.”

“Alright, alright. I get it. Good luck on the vault, sweetie. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

It was like my performance was a jinx for everyone but Orion, who did remarkably well and scored higher than me. But, the others...

Etienne lost his grip half-way through his routine and had to restart.

Alessandro didn’t hold a few of the strength skills long enough and was too shaky on his handstands.

Hiruto took three stumbling steps on his landing, taking him out of bounds and putting him on his stomach, causing the crowd to gasp.

After some applause when he stood back up, the arena was eerily silent.

“I think you’ve got another medal, Cam,” Luke whispered next to me.

“I can’t believe it.”

In another minute, Luke’s words became a reality. Hiruto’s score was posted and Orion and I were still at the top of the leaderboard with only Ihsan to compete. I couldn’t hide the happiness, but it wasn’t the right moment to jump up and down. The cameras had never left me, and I noticed a few more now were pointed my way.

After Orion had finished, he and Woodward made their way over to us, so we could watch the rest of the event together. I could tell Woodward was pleased. It’s not that he never looked unhappy, but his face was usually neutral.

Not right now.

Even the usually stoic Orion was smiling.

Ihsan wasn’t necessarily a specialist, but he certainly wasn’t an all-arounder. Watching him make his way onto the podium, his neck, back, and arms were noticeably larger than anyone on Team USA.

Whatever curse had been cast on the other athletes was disintegrated by Ihsan. It would go on to be called the most beautiful rings routine of all time. There was zero movement when he was holding a position. When he went up into a handstand, the rings were motionless. In between each skill, the movements were fluid. I was happy to have been there to see it, and was left wondering why I hadn’t heard of him before today.

An hour later, and it was a completely different atmosphere. Tension, stress, pressure.

Every gymnast on the vault was apparently doing their best work today, including Ezra. And since I placed first in qualifying, I was the last to go.

“I’m going to have to get a personal best at the rate this is going.”

“Stop looking at the scores, Cam.”

“I don’t need to look! They announce them after every routine!”

“You know how many ‘King of the Vault’ signs I can see right now?” Luke asked, but didn’t wait for me to answer. “At least seven. Etienne doesn’t have a sign. Maksims doesn’t have a sign. Nobody else does, and you know why? Because you’re the best at this. No one has come up with anything new on the vault since the Kane because there’s nothing more difficult they’ll declare safe. Until you did with the Kane II.”

That was true. A few had tried, but had injured themselves. The FIG wasn’t going to let gymnasts become permanently injured trying to outdo each other. There was a limit.

“You’re that confident in me?” I glanced over at him.

“It’s your event, Cam.” Luke grabbed both my hands, forcing me to turn to look at him. “I wish you could see what I see when you launch off the springboard. You’re magnificent.”

“But the photos-”