Broken Ice

the same team

Sadie's POV

Dallas walked me to the restaurant and I walked in and went over to the table.

"Hopefully I'm not too late." I said sitting next to Carly.

"Nope. Just on time." Robert said.

"Hello everybody. Can I get y'all something to drink?"

We all ordered and these two girls came up to us. "Are you guys the skaters we saw on TV?"

"Yeah, we are." Max said.

"You guys are so cool!" We all laughed and thanked them as they went back to their table.

"Oh my God! Are you Sadie Curtis?" A teenager, probably around my age asked.

"Yes." I said with a grin.

"Are you dating Dallas Winston?"

"Huh?" I said. That wasn't what I was expecting.

"I've seen you two around town together."

"Oh! Umm... well we aren't dating or anything. He's friends with my brothers so..." I said awkwardly.

"Oh. Good, cause I've had a big crush on him for a while anyway." She said with a hair flip.

I looked back at everyone. "Well that was interesting."

We all took a laugh about it and moved on with our meal with minimal interruptions.

It was a nice outing between friends and less and competitors. Although we weren't competitors anymore.

Max and I are on the same team.

-

The next couple weeks flew by and Max and I had our perfect synchronized routine down to the bone.

We were ready for this.

I dolled myself up for the competition and Max and I went into the arena for one more practice before the doors opened.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to see the winners of the 1965 National Ice Skating Competition, Max Marion and Sadie Curtis, show off their skills as a duet!"

People clapped and we both entered. There were more judges next to the three that judged us.

The music started and we whisked everyone away by the swift motions done on ice.

It was a longer routine. Almost five minutes.

We finished with a lift and back down to the floor. People clapped and clapped and we bowed and looked towards the judges.

"Wow. You two look even better in person than on TV." One of the new judges said.

"Mr. Marion, let's start with you." A woman said. "Your skills are out of this world. You can do these hardcore moves and make them look so effortless like you weren't even trying."

"Agreed. The way you landed those jumps and lifted Ms. Curtis up, made it look like a piece of cake."

"Ms. Curtis, you have the looks and you have the confidence. Those are things that you will carry later on in life, but you also have determination which is something you will carry with you the rest of, not just your center, but your entire life to come. You don't find that a lot in younger folks like you, anymore."

I grinned.

"Sadie, you have wowed us all again. You've been doing this for a lot less time than I've seen other people do and you have very impressive skills. Whoever was teaching you was doing a phenomenal job."

The judges all looked back towards Max.

"Max, I wanna offer you a full time scholarship to any college in California. You name it, it's yours." The woman said.

"Wow! That's awesome! Thank you." California is his home state.

"Sadie, you've got another year left on high school, correct?"

"Yes. I should have graduated last year, because I used to be very young for my grade, but I missed a semester my freshman year when I moved to New York."

"I see. Alright."

They moved on. They started asking Max about colleges and what he planned to do.

We're graduating at the same time... I was just held back. I tried not to let jealousy take the best of me, but it did.

"Sadie, I'm willing to offer you this. I'll give you a full blown scholarship to anywhere in New York on ice skating."

"That's awesome! Thank you." I said with a smile.

"Sadie, I am a college board official in the state of Oklahoma. If you want to move down here, we have some of the best ice skating programs in the country. You got yourself a scholarship if you want it."

I smiled. "Thank you very much." I said.

We both bowed one more time as people clapped for us. We skated off through the back and we took our skates off.

"We both got scholarships! That's awesome!" Max said.

"Yeah." I said with a fake laugh.

"You don't sound too excited." He said sitting next to me to take his skates off.

"I dunno. Just a lot of decisions. I planned on moving back to New York. Continue my life as normal. But staying here would also be awesome." I said.

"I'm sure you'll make the right decision. We're on the same team, remember? I'm rooting for you." He said.

I laughed. "You're right. You did awesome tonight. Very impressive. But now I've got other decisions to make regarding my family." I said.

"Your family? What do you mean?"

"Just my brothers and parents. I dunno if you actually know what happened, but I ran away to New York 'cause I messed up here. My parents and i didn't get along, but I love my brothers and I wanna see them again."

"Wow. They must have been real worried 'bout ya."

"I dunno. Maybe? It's all super complicated."

"Well, good luck, Sadie! I'll be in Tulsa for two more weeks. Let me know how it goes." I smiled.

"I will. Thanks, Max. Good job tonight."

We both walked out together and went back on TV for likely the last time for this competition. Boy, am I gonna miss this. The longest competition I was in before was a week. This took months.

I leave in a week and a half. Then it's back to New York. I gotta get packing. I've got lots of stuff and now much more.

Then tomorrow I'll go find Soda, Pony and Darry.