The Thomas Flair - E.J. Russell Page 0,6

wash his hands and grab his glucometer. Yikes. Xiao was right to have called him on his tunnel vision. His levels were way off. He grabbed some apple juice from his bag to boost his blood sugar for the moment. He needed his post-workout protein snack too—he needed that regardless of stupidly losing track of his carb timing. Home’s only twenty minutes away. Should I wait until then and have a regular meal? No. Xiao had said he wanted to talk, and he kept a stock of Sol’s preferred supplements in the coaches’ office.

So Sol grabbed a fresh set of sweats out of his bag and ducked into the gym’s shower room. After sluicing the sweat and chalk off himself, letting the hot water pound on his lower back where it ached, he started to feel more centered, but his muscles twitched with fatigue. Oh, yeah. He needed that recovery protein. He dried off, dressed, and returned to the gym.

Xiao wasn’t waiting for him by the pommel horse, nor anywhere else on the gym floor. It was late enough that all the other gymnasts, both the high-level athletes and recreational classes, had cleared the apparatus. A clump of teens—boys and girls from the mid-level competitive teams—were clustered around a boy holding an iPad.

Sol recognized the kid, one of the boys he was mentoring. Jason is going to get his ass kicked if Xiao finds him with electronics in the gym. For everyone’s safety and privacy, Central Gymnastics had a strict rule that no electronic devices were allowed in the locker rooms, and only coaches were allowed them on the gym floor. Sol glanced around. Still no sign of Xiao or any of the other adult coaches. As a peer coach, though, he knew his responsibilities.

He strode toward the kids. As he drew nearer, he could hear voices coming from the device. Man, the speakers on those things are really good. Sol couldn’t make out the words yet, but at least one voice pinged his familiarity buttons. If they’ve been taking video of the coaches or of other kids in the gym…

“Jason! I hope that’s not what I think it is.”

Jason bit his lip, then jabbed the Home button to kill the video. “It’s nothing bad, Sol, honest.”

“Looks like an iPad to me.”

“Well…” Jason glanced down at the device in his hand. Let’s see how he spins this one. “It’s just a new model Etch-a-Sketch, Sol, honest.” “Um, yeah.”

“You know the rules. You could be suspended for bringing that into training.”

“But I didn’t! Everybody was already done. I wasn’t filming anybody. Not even any selfies. We just wanted to watch Quinn’s Ringside.”

Sol checked the clock. 9:30, time for the live stream of the popular Olympics-themed webcast. “You can watch it when the episode is uploaded to Quinn’s channel.”

“But then we’d have to wait!”

Sol lowered his chin and glared at Jason from under his eyebrows. “But then you wouldn’t be violating gym rules and getting your butt suspended from the team a week before a meet.”

Jason glowered at Sol, but flipped the cover over his iPad and shoved it into the bag by his feet. “It’s not fair. We were only watching. That’s not hurting anybody.”

“Unfortunately, when it comes to gym rules, you have to keep to the letter, not the spirit.” Sol suppressed a wince at his self-righteous tone. He’d been straining the bounds of the rules himself tonight by not adhering to his own training plan. But a plan wasn’t a rule. Precisely. Still, he couldn’t give the kids too much grief.

He waited until all the younger gymnasts had collected their bags from either the locker room or the cubbies next to the door by the restrooms, then turned out the gym’s overhead lights, leaving just the safety lights on. He walked down the short hallway, ready to head upstairs to the coaches’ office to find Xiao. He’d only planted one foot on the stairs, though, when he heard Jason say something that froze his muscles.

“… Tony Thomas. I can’t believe—”

“What did you say?” Sol lunged around the corner, startling the group of kids in the middle of the lobby.

Jason gulped. “I wasn’t complaining, Sol, honest. But Quinn’s interviewing Tony Thomas tonight, and I really wanted to see it live.” He sighed. “By the time we get home, the live stream’ll be over.”

“Duh, Jason.” Kayla, one of the level eight girls, rolled her eyes. “Just watch it on your phone once your dad picks you up.”

Jason wrinkled his nose and