Lynne

Chapter 23

The air was cold with frost, and I couldn't believe that we had stargazed in the dead of night without freezing to death only minutes before. It bit at my lungs as I breathed in, and formed a cloud in front of me as I breathed out. Len's nose was red after only a minute of walking towards the booth with rental skates. I smiled shyly at him, realizing my nose was probably just as bad.

After renting our skates, we sat on one of the wooden picnic tables nearby. My jacket was doing a good enough job at keeping me warm, but my ears felt like they were going to fall off. I envied Gumi's dorky-looking earmuffs.

"Need help?" Len asked, bouncing on the snow with his skates on. He was easily three-inches taller than usual.

"I, um, I think I've got it-" I pulled my second skate on with a grunt, and began tying it. "How can you just walk in those with no problem?"

"It's easy. Just walk toe-first, instead of heel."

I took a deep breath, wiggling my toes in the white skates. "Okay." I gently pushed myself off of the bench, standing slowly but steadily.

"You got it?" He asked, watching my every movement. He held his arms out, ready to catch me at any second.

"...I think I've got it." I took an experimental step, wavered for half a second, then righted myself back into place. "Just walk slow."

"Alright." He turned with an excited expression covering his face, leading the way to the ice.

The blades of my skates clinked against the sidewalk as we walked over it. Len effortlessly stepped onto the ice, gliding away. Dammit. I stared cautiously down at the ice, gingerly stepped one foot onto it, and, when I didn't immediately fall, I lowered the other skate next to it. I slid against my own will for a moment, but caught myself just in time. I couldn't move without fear of losing my balance, so I just stood there, trying to get comfortable in the shoes.

"Need help?" While I had been struggling, Len had cleared an entire lap around this half of the lake. I glared at him.

"Why are you so good at this?'

"We used to come here a lot, and there isn't much else to do in the Winter."

With a deep breath, I attempted another step. Instantly thrown off balance, I would have fallen straight on my butt if Len hadn't been there to grip my forearms in support.

I laughed. "Yeah. I need help."

"All you had to do was ask." He looked down at our feet. "Skate out with your right foot at an angle, and then push off of it and do the same with your left foot."

"Okay," I looked down, too. We were still gripping each others arms. I pushed out my right foot, hearing the soft scraping sound of the blade against the ice. As I tried to use it to push my next foot, I slipped once again.

He caught me.

"Dangit," I said, using my strongest curse words. Despite the difficulty of the task, I couldn't think of anywhere else I would rather be. "I almost had it!" I told him with a smile.

"You just need to put your foot out to the side more. If you put it straight out, you'll just kick it behind you when you try to push off of it."

"Okay," I looked back down at my feet, concentrating. I started with my left foot this time. Bringing it out to the side, I tried to push off of it, gliding with my right foot in response.

"There you go!" He laughed.

"Oh, shut up! You're doing exactly what I'm doing, but backwards!" I laughed with him.