Songs For Us [English Version]

Twenty-eight. Offseason?

"You're officially nineteen now"

"Hurray!" Dalia feigned happiness. "Enough, Gil. I know I'm getting old, leave..." a sneeze, muffled against a Kleenex, interrupted her and groaning followed it. "Leave me alone".

"Oh, your first cold as an almost two decades old Grandma"

Done with his shit, she punched his arm.

Sunny Madrid's streets were not the place Dalia Rodriguez usually was at ten in the morning on a Tuesday, but there she was. Her schedule – if she could call it that- during Finals was utterly disastrous. Plus, the Club's Exhibition Show was close, and that only made her schedule a lot worse.

However, that morning a Request had arrived at the SAD Majadahonda Club.

"I don't think it's appropriate"

The Director and a few coaches were discussing something on paper, in front of two confused kids.

"Why not?" Irene retorted. "The more, the better"

"Fantasy on Ice is confirmed already, right?" The Head of the Club asked, and Dalia barely kept her composure. What!? "Are you suggesting we accept this when our Festival is around the corner?"

"She can do both things. Plus, Fantasy is still too far, it'll be fine."

They were talking about her, of course, but the amount of information Dalia received on a short span of time kept her on her seat. On the other hand, what was Irene trying to do?

"Irene's right," Carolina Sanz said.

"What's going on...?"

The Russian coach fleetingly glanced at her pupil.

"Ask her, then" Irene shrugged, almost challenging the other woman. "She knows her own limits better than anyone else."

Those women had known each other for years, and the familiarity they argued with was pretty entertaining. It was really similar to the sibling-like relationship Irene also had with Dalia's choreographer, Misha Luzhin.

Gilian and Dalia watched the regal woman roll her eyes at Irene, and they had to hit each other to avoid laughing.

"Please, Irene! You know this girl; we all know what she's going to say to that"

"Well then, discussion over. It's also Olympic Season – she needs to stay as active as possible. I need her to be able to deal with her nervousness and the weight of being an Elite skater, or the Olympics will be over before she blinks."

Those words felt heavy, their taste was like acid burning her throat. The Olympics...

"Alright" Irene hummed half an hour later, Dalia still busy warming up her muscles. "You'll go as a special guest to the World Team Trophy Exhibition Gala two weeks from now. After that, you have to come back to Spain for our Club's Festival. Then, you're supposed to perform the whole Fantasy on Ice Tour this year"

"Wh-what?" Dalia stammered, instead of asking any real question.

"That Worlds Silver Medal comes with lots of perks, actually. We need these shows, they make great practice – your title makes it possible."

Dalia finally understood. After one season chasing and challenging all those Top Skaters, problems came to gnaw at her. The Elite was confident, years of practice polishing skills for the world to see. Their advantage was Dalia's greatest enemy. Nervousness and anxiety could rip to pieces all of her dreams, no warning.

I need to get used to the crowd.

"But..."

Irene read her thoughts.