Victoria Walter cringed as the door announced her exit into the dorm room hallway. It was almost as tricky as last season's balance beam routine to navigate the books, clothes, and bowl of mystery gunk on the way out of her room.

Wait…wasn't that mac n' cheese? (Source)

As she padded down the hallway and towards the front door, she braced herself for the cold January morning she was about to slide into. Gone were those days back in North Carolina when she would forsake the weather for fashion. If she squinted hard enough here at North McNorth University, everyone sort of looked like penguins waddling for their lives across campus.

Victoria had been thrilled to survive the recruitment process last year and be offered admission by both North McNorth and Beachfront University. McNorth offered her a full scholarship, so here she was, trying to keep her face warm by chewing on her protanium breakfast bar as she scampered off to her 8:00AM class.

Victoria left class feeling a bit overwhelmed. It had been her choice to sign up for the early organic chemistry class to avoid interrupting practice, but she didn't know it would be this hard. She would definitely be in the science lab again tonight. All her teammates thought it was strange that Victoria wanted to be a microbiologist, but ever since she saw Contagion, she knew this was her calling. She also harbored secret suspicions that there was more than just chalk living in the practice bowls in the gym…

Victoria finally hit the locker room at the student athletics facility on the other side of campus. She had almost worked up a good sweat to get there by 9:30AM. Most of the other girls were already changed and heading out into the gym. "PLYOMETRICS!" someone yelled out as she shoved her freshly salted Uggs into the locker. She groaned internally and started taping her ankles. Victoria knew it would be a conditioning day.

When she finally joined her teammates on the floor, the conversation turned to last Saturday's meet against Appalachia Academy and Coastal Oklahoma University. Victoria went through the motions of their dynamic stretching routine as she listened to the girls comment on how big the Appalachian team was. Being part of a team was something that Victoria had grown to love this year. For once, the other gymnasts were friends instead of competitors, and they all looked out for each other.

After a good twenty minutes of warming up, Coach Jim yelled out, "Time for plyometrics, ladies!"

An hour and twenty minutes later, Victoria was glad she skipped the rubbery dining hall eggs that some of her compatriots ate for breakfast that morning. As they all bounced off the floor to the showers, she couldn't help but wonder if the conditioning ever got easier. Victoria checked the clock on her way out of the gym; just enough time for a shower and some lunch.

Victoria was surprised to see her roommate, Maria, back from class early. They decided to head to lunch in the dining hall where Maria made a beeline for the pizza. Victoria headed past the baked chicken and unidentifiable green vegetables to the pasta bar. Given the awful workout from the morning and her light breakfast, she was going to need some serious carbs to get her through class and her afternoon workout.

Maria plopped her tray down across from Victoria. It was full of greasy slices of pizza and a large soda. She almost gave in, but remembered what happened last time she and Maria had eaten the same lunch. Basically, she went to practice feeling as bloated as a parade balloon.

This is why you don't eat pizza at lunch. (Source)

After lunch, Victoria picked up a slew of books before heading back out into the tundra. She suffered through an epically dry English 102 class and frantically tried to keep up taking notes in History 101 before trudging back over to the athletic center at 3:30PM. At least it was better than the NCAA rules and scoring guide manual she committed to memory in high school when she was learning the exact skills needed to get into this joint (source).

As she was stretching on the floor, both Coach Jim and Coach Bars came into the practice area.

"Hey! Vicky Vaulter! How we doing today?" yelled out Coach Bars.

Victoria grinned. "Ready to stick it to you today, Coach."

Victoria was an all-around gymnast in high school and awesome in most disciplines. She had been the state runner-up two years in a row, and an accomplished level-nine gymnast. When Coach Jim had recruited her, though, she was brought on as beam and vault specialist. It had been kind of weird for Victoria, who had never been limited to just two events before. But when the team mentality soaked in, so did the fun of fine-tuning two of her more talented disciplines. In fact, she had most recently been working with Coach Bars on sticking the landing to her 1.5 twisting Yurchenko vault.

Victoria lined up with the four other girls and mentally focused herself on each turn and rotation she would need once she started that round off. Coming out of the extra half layout at the end is what had really been frosting her cookies lately.

She made the first pass down the vault and had a huge step on her landing. Landings like that were big deductions. Coach Jim gave her some pointers to adjust her rotation after she hit the vault. She lined up and made another pass with similar results. It was going to be a long session.

By 5:30PM, practice was over for the day. After a quick dinner in the dining hall, she headed for the organic chemistry lab. When she entered, there was only one other student working. Victoria recognized Hank Highbar from class, and went over to see if he wanted to work together on the lab that had puzzled her that morning. They quickly got to work, and found that two heads are better than one.

Victoria thanked Hank for helping her with her brain freeze, and he joked about it being too cold outside for anything organic to grow. She joked about the organic chemistry project growing in a bowl in her dorm room. Hank said they should grab a coffee the next weekend and inspect the aforementioned bowl.

And while Victoria's heart pounded, she told him that she couldn't because she would be in Swagtucky for the weekend competing in gymnastics. She took a raincheck, and promised to see him in class on Wednesday before finally heading home and tumbling into her bed–sore, happy, tired, and a gymnast.