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the world. ‘Lucy, you are doing detective work!’ she squeaked, grinning at her pal who smiled back happily.

      ‘Lizzie was beating Vivian in every competition,’ said Lucy. ‘So when it came to World Champs, Vivian decided she needed to do something drastic to beat her.’

      ‘What did she do?’ asked Katya, who had levered herself up into an elephant lift and was talking to the screen from her upside-down position.

      ‘That’s when she decided to attempt the Produnova vault,’ said Nancy.

      ‘Whoa!’ said Tam. He appeared in the doorway and flung himself down on the bed. He was now a regular feature in the girls’ dorms, which he had announced were far more comfortable – and less smelly – than the boys’. Some of the Junior squad boys had started calling him a ladies’ man, but Ellie figured his visits had more to do with their cake! ‘Sorry I’m late – what did I miss?’

      ‘Just shut up and listen!’ said Nancy, although Ellie saw her grin, and knew she was pleased to see him really.

      ‘Love you too, big sis!’ said Tam, blowing her a mock kiss.

      ‘Yuk,’ said Nancy, pretending to wipe it off her chin. ‘Now where was I?’

      ‘The Produnova.’

      ‘Oh, yes,’ said Nancy. She boomed out in a dramatic voice over. ‘Everyone knows that the Produnova is the most difficult vault there is!’

      ‘And fiendishly dangerous!’ Lucy chipped in, not quite getting her voice right and giggling. ‘But Vivian knew it would give her such a high difficulty value that Lizzie would struggle to beat it – if she could nail it.’

      ‘I think I remember reading something about this,’ said Tam, who was now munching on a stash of muffins he’d found in Ellie’s suitcase. The fact that they’d eaten a giant meal less than half an hour earlier didn’t seem to make any difference to him; as usual, he was already starving. ‘It was a massive controversy in the end – right?’

      ‘What happened?’ asked Ellie. She knew her aunt had won gold at World Champs.

      ‘Well, Vivian did the Produnova,’ said Lucy. ‘But she stumbled in her landing, so she lost execution points.’

      ‘Which meant that she and Lizzie ended up with exactly the same all-around score,’ said Nancy.

      ‘Exactly the same?’ said Ellie.

      ‘That is very unusual,’ said Katya, who was now the right way up again.

      ‘Completely!’ said Nancy. ‘It hardly ever happens, and it was a massive deal – it meant a tie for gold medal at World Champs.’

      ‘So they shared gold medal?’ asked Katya.

      ‘Nope!’ said Nancy. ‘Lizzie got it.’

      ‘Of course,’ said Tam. ‘Lizzie won, because execution score trumps difficulty value score, right?’

      ‘Right,’ said Nancy. ‘Even though their total was the same, the judges awarded the gold to Lizzie.’

      ‘So the difficulty of Vivian’s Produnova vault didn’t help?’ said Ellie, trying to figure out exactly what this meant. ‘She still came second.’

      ‘And that’s why she won’t let you try difficult vaults!’ said Lucy.

      ‘She’s punishing you for what Lizzie did to her all those years ago,’ added Nancy.

      Ellie felt dismayed. She recalled Vivian’s refusal to let Ellie even try another vault, her constant nit-picking of Ellie’s technique.

      ‘You two are like Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, aren’t you?’ said Tam, who had just polished off his third muffin. ‘Super gym-sleuths in search of the truth!’

      ‘We had to work out what Vivian is doing. We can’t let her ruin Ellie’s chances cos of some ancient grudge against Lizzie!’ said Nancy.

      ‘So, what can I do?’ said Ellie.

      ‘I’ve got an idea,’ said Tam.

CHAPTER

       Seven

      ‘OK, this is top secret, right?’ said Tam, as he and Ellie made their way across the darkened lawns the following evening. ‘Cos we’re not the only ones who’ll get in trouble if we’re found out.’

      ‘I understand,’ Ellie whispered, glancing around nervously. She’d noticed the rehabilitation centre when she’d arrived at the National Sports Training Centre. It was a modern building on the other side of the campus which housed state-of-the-art physiotherapy facilities for injured soldiers.

      ‘I spoke to one of the squaddies and he promised to leave a window open,’ Tam went on. ‘But he’ll be in big trouble with his unit commander if we get caught.’

      ‘How come he’s even helping us?’ asked Ellie.

      ‘His sister’s a mad-keen gymnast,’ Tam explained, checking that the coast was clear before sidling round the back of the rehabilitation centre building. ‘And he used to be pretty good himself before . . . you know.’

      Ellie nodded. Over the past few days she’d seen quite a few injured soldiers on the campus, on crutches or in wheelchairs. She found the idea of life after a war injury hard to even imagine. It made her ankle – which seemed to be getting worse rather than better – seem trivial in comparison. Not that she’d mentioned the getting-worse bit to Sam when she’d gone for her daily check up earlier, of course.

      ‘Here we are,’ said Tam, pushing himself through a bush to a low window that was half open. ‘He said he’d leave the window on the catch so we can climb in. Give me a leg up.’

      Ellie glanced around nervously. Tam’s secret training session idea was brilliant, but it was also totally against the rules. If anyone saw them using equipment unsupervised – let alone breaking into a facility after lights-out – it would mean instant dismissal from camp, and probably from National squad, for both of them. Tam was making light of it, but Ellie knew he was risking a lot for her sake.

      She remembered how she’d once thought she’d lost Tam’s friendship forever, when Robbie had been teasing him about being her boyfriend. She’d missed him like mad then, but she realised now that she never could have lost him. He was a true friend.

      But this was no time to start getting soppy. Tam hoiked Ellie up after him and she peered inside the open window. ‘Wow – there’s a fully equipped gym in here.’ She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it wasn’t this.

      ‘Get a move on!’ whispered Tam.

      Ellie managed to clamber in, then she grabbed Tam’s arm and dragged him over the sill, toppling him over so that he landed with a crash on top of her.

      ‘Ow . . . geroff ! Do you mind?’ he cried.

      They both dissolved into giggles.

      ‘You have no idea how much grief I’d get if the other boys could see me now!’ laughed Tam. Ellie shoved him off and they both jumped to their feet. Ellie could feel herself flushing, and for a moment she couldn’t look him in the eye. It was pretty dark in the unlit gym. Only the light of the street lamps flooded in through the high windows, but in it she could make out ropes and parallel bars, a vault and a tumble track, plus lots of other unfamiliar equipment which Ellie supposed must be for the soldiers’ physio sessions.

      ‘I reckon we’ve got an hour before lights-out,’ said Tam. ‘So get vaulting, Trengilly. The gym is all yours.’

      Ellie suddenly

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