Free Success at Silver Spires by Ann Bryant Page A

didn’t want Izzy to worry about me. I thought she had enough anxieties with the actual rowing. But then I had a nice surprise because she gave me a big grin.
    â€œLook! I can turn the scull round now!”
    I didn’t have time to watch so I just called out, “Hey! Well done, Iz!” and thought about how great it would be if I could be in a double scull with Izzy. Maybe I’d ask Ryan about that.
    As soon as we set off, with Holly coxing, I felt myself tensing up and knew I wasn’t sculling as well as before. She remembered all the commands and yelled them out as though we were deaf, but Ryan praised her and said, “That’s right. Take control, Holly. Show them who’s in charge!” Then he said he was going off to see how everyone else was getting on, and he’d be back shortly.
    The moment he’d gone, Holly suddenly seemed to work us even harder. Her commands were getting faster and louder and she didn’t let up at all. “ Now! Legs now ! Drive now ! Legs now !” We were heading towards the island and I found myself struggling to keep up with the speed and wondered if it was my fault for overdoing it on the rowing machine during the week. I wished I knew if the others also felt as though their arms and legs would drop off, but I was determined to keep going, because it would be so humiliating if Holly thought I wasn’t strong enough to be stroke, and said something to embarrass me in front of the others.
    After a minute or two though, I realized that our oars were getting in a tangle, which meant that one of the others, or maybe more than one, hadn’t been able to keep up with the speed, which wasn’t surprising.
    â€œOh, guys! You’ve lost it!” said Holly, sitting up straight and pursing her lips, then shrugging dramatically as though we were hopeless.
    It wasn’t our fault, it was hers, and I wished I had the nerve to say so, but I didn’t. We just weren’t experienced or fit enough to scull as fast as she was trying to make us do it.
    â€œWhat are you trying to do, kill us?” said Charlotte. “Wait till it’s my turn to cox, then I’ll show you what it’s like.”
    When I turned round to look at Mikki and Tilly they seemed too exhausted to speak, but they were both nodding and rolling their eyes.
    â€œThe trouble was, Sasha lost the speed,” said Holly, not looking at me. “It’s up to stroke to lead the others, so that’s why you got in a mess.”
    And then I saw that Ryan was right beside us and at the same time I felt my face flooding with colour. “How’s it going?” he asked. “Looked like you were doing brilliantly when I was watching you just then.”
    â€œHolly was making us go too fast,” puffed Charlotte.
    â€œWe couldn’t keep up,” said Tilly. “Can someone else be cox now?”
    â€œReady for another change around?” said Ryan. “Okay, come back in, then try Sasha as cox and you go at stroke, Holly.”
    My heart sank. This was going to be worse than ever. Ryan stayed alongside as we rowed back to the landing stage and it made me cross that Holly was on her best behaviour, coxing in a loud, encouraging voice and sticking to a much steadier speed so we could all manage to keep in time with each other.
    As we changed places I looked round for Izzy and saw that she was in a quad scull with Penny coxing. It wasn’t going very well because the boat was weaving about all over the place and the oars seemed to be in loads of different positions. I could hear Penny calling out instructions but the girls didn’t look anxious or anything. In fact Izzy seemed to have broken into giggles with the girl behind her, and I thought how much more fun she was having than me.
    â€œOkay, Sasha, do your stuff!” said Ryan. “Don’t be afraid to be bossy!”
    I tried to smile at him but I think it must have come out