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yourself short, and you’re letting
     the sudden change get to you too much. And you’re giving in way too easy.”
    Valerie only sighed. “If you saw these guys, you’d know. They’re out of my league.”
    “You think they started that way?” Traci asked. “You think they were all-stars when they were in diapers? I bet when they
     started in this class, they went through what you’re going through now. And they shook it off and got back to work and got
     better.”
    She sat down next to her friend and spoke more gently. “That’s what you’ll do, too. You’ll get up off the ground and suck
     it up and get to work. You’re a fighter, and you’re an athlete. You’ve got talent and drive. And I do
not
believe that you’re going to just walk away from the thing you’ve been working toward all your life. I bet that in a few
     weeks, you’ll remember today and say, ‘What was I thinking?’ You’ll
laugh.
You’ve hit a little bump in the road, that’s all. You didn’t hit a wall.”
    Finally, Valerie sat up. She looked at Traci with a small smile. “Listen to you!” she said. “I’ll tell youone thing: Being in that class has sure changed your attitude. You’re a lot tougher than you used to be.”
    Traci was pleased. “You think so? Well, good, then. And I think the same thing will happen to you. You have what it takes.
     Wait and see, you’ll get past this. When this coach said that you could go to the top, he knew what he was talking about.
     Just hang in there.”
    Valerie laughed. “All right, all right, I’ll hang in there, just to keep you quiet. Thanks.”
    “That’s what friends are for,” Traci replied, satisfied.

11
    T raci decided that working with a more advanced group of divers had its good and bad points. On the plus side, she was with
     girls her own age, including Carly. Once the other girls saw that Carly had forgiven Traci, they were friendly. She often
     went out with some of them for a snack after workouts. Also, Traci found she liked working with divers who challenged her
     to improve. When she was challenged in this way, she
did
improve.
    On the minus side, it could be discouraging to see how much better some of these divers were. A few could do dives that were
     far beyond anything Traci could manage, at least at this time. A three-and-a-half somersault inward dive in the pike position
     with a twist, for example, was a dive Traci could only dream about performing.
    Even though Traci no longer thought that having Margo watching her all the time was a bad thing, exactly, it did make her
     uncomfortable. She mentioned it to Carly one day after a workout, when they were with a group of girls. Most of them laughed.
    “Sure you’re uncomfortable,” Carly said. “That doesn’t make you different. We
all
are. But, when you think about it, it’s a good way to feel. It keeps us on our toes so we don’t get too casual and mess up
     dives because our brains are elsewhere. That’s one reason why Margo is such a good coach: She will never let you get too relaxed.”
    “Is relaxation so terrible?” Traci asked.
    Another diver named Rachel said, “Relaxation is okay, but being
too
relaxed isn’t, if you want to do your best.”
    “What are other reasons Margo is so good?” Traci wanted to know.
    “For one thing,” said Carly, “she doesn’t miss a thing. She spots the tiniest flaw in a dive. You probably understand by now
     that even little mistakes mess up dives. It’s not like some other sports, where you can adjust in the middle and things may
     come out right. In diving, when you make a mistake, you’re outof luck. If it happens in competition, well, you’re done. Margo never lets a mistake go by. She has a great eye.”
    “Anything else?” asked Traci.
    “She really cares about us,” said Rachel “We know she’ll be there for us, whatever happens.”
    Traci wanted to hear more about this, but the others wouldn’t go into details. Carly spoke for them all