Sporty Elite

Chapter 1 : All About Me

"Hanna! Honey, you're skating practice is in an hour and you're not even up yet! Come on!" "Fine, fine. I'm up. I'm up. God!!" I yell. "You better be!" My dad yells. I walk into the living room and see the picture of mom turned over, smashed. My dad must've had a breakdown and knocked it down, again. My mom died 8 months ago from lung cancer. My father cries all the time. I do not. 4 months before she died, I caught her cheating. I still haven't told him. I guess I'm still scared even after a year. I stand in my closet searching for what to wear for over five minutes. I pick up my shakes and throw the laces over my arm. I get my outfit for practice and put it on. Then I pick out my outfit for school. I pick a beautiful red dress with red hearts, just for today, which happens to be Valentine's day. I run into the bathroom and do some subtle makeup and brush my hair into a pony tail. Blonde pieces of hair stick out and I wet them down. "Bye dad! You'll be okay." I say with a saddening look. He nods and I leave out the backdoor to my car. I drive silently to the rink. I arrive and go to the sidelines to tie my laces. I skate onto the rink where our coach, who happens to be 16, my age. His name is Josh. He yells,"Rode call!" We all line up in no particular order and he begins to call out the names, "Anna Aaron, Caroline Bostoff, Miranda George, John Harold, Andy Lemon, and lastly Johanna McAlister." My original name is Johanna, but my father calls me Hanna. "Okay guys! Eight laps around the rink! Go!" Josh says. I take off. I want to beat them all. Whoever does the best in our class gets a chance in the Olympics. I need to win this. Lap 5. Suddenly I'm at lap 7 and Anna is almost at the finish line. I got flying and beat her with a second to spare. "Congratulations, Johanna! Here's your ribbon!" He says. Everyone claps. I turn to continue the class, but Josh grasps my by the shoulders. "Do you have a date for Valentine's day?" He asks. I shake my head. Josh is intimidating to the class. But to me he's a simple boy with a joy of coaching. "I'd love to take you out? If you'd like to take me up on my offer?" He replies. "Of course!" I continue to nod. "I was kind of hoping you'd say yes, because I kind of made reservations at this very fancy resta-, why are you shaking you head?" I was shaking my head. "I don't want you to go through so much trouble, Josh.." I say. "But if I want to? What exactly are you going to do?" He says. I smile and take a step closer to him. "See you tonight." I whisper. He giggles and I laugh loudly.