Coach Tremblay taught me another routine and you guessed it. It was to another Frank Sinatra song.
This song had a lot more jumps. Coach claimed that more jumps the higher you are ranked. With me on Bandli's tail, a lot of people thought I had a chance of making it to nationals. Especially if I make it to sectionals, obviously.
"Bridget, stop landing on your left foot, I need you to land on your right." Coach yelled. "It will ruin the whole routine."
"Right, Sorry."
I tried a double spin in the air again and tried to land on my right, but I hesitated and landed on my left then fell.
My coach sighed loudly. "That's okay, everyone falls. Let's start the routine over again, how does that sound?"
I quietly winced in pain as I got up from the cold ice. I skated back to position 1. My breathing was shaking.
"Bridget, are you alright?" Tremblay asked.
"Yes, i'm fine. Just tired, I guess." I assure. "Let's try this again."
"No, Bridget," She stopped. "You know what, I think you did great."
"But we barley-."
"Bridget, there is clearly something going on with you. Just get some rest, okay?"
I nodded and Tremblay walked away from the boards.
I got up early the next morning to get some extra practice in. My ankle that morning was hurting worse and looked worse. Again, I tried not to pay attention to the pain.
I practice jumping on it but everytime resulted in my crying in agony. As much as I didn't want to admit it, It was broken.
I didn't want to hurt myself anymore so I went into the locker room and began to take off my skates. My ankle was entirely blue and blistery.
As my nose slowly began to run due to all the tears I wanted to cry, someone started to approach me.
"Oh shit, your ankle doesn't look very good."
I look up and glare at the girl. "No shit." I retorted. Her face softens.
"No, but actually. That really doesn't look good." Kristin said. "How'd that happen?"
"Don't act stupid. I know you jacked my skates."
Kristin's mouth widen.
"You know, your actual shit." I say while standing up. "You think it's fucking hilarious screwing around with people's skates. Your so fucking hilarious."
"Bridget, It looks broken-."
"No, shut the hell up. Why can't you just accept the fact that i'm a good skater." I snap. "Your pretty good too I must admit, but your actually a shitty person."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." She snickered
"Yeah I'm sure you are sorry-."
"Bridget, I just wanna go to the olympics and I can't do that with you in the way!"
"It would've been nice for you to tell that to the committee after you got me suspended for two years!" I retort.
Her mouth fell open but she stayed quiet.
"I'm not gonna act like I don't know so neither should you." I say. "You don't have to worry about me knowing, though. I'm not gonna tell anyone. My suspension is already up and I'm back in the game."
Anger rises in my head.
"There is no point in telling anyone, now. Mainly, it's because no one listens to the "looser"." I say. "They all listen to little miss perfect. Little miss i'm right and your wrong. Telling them the truth won't change anything because you already got their heads wrapped around your tiny finger."
"How do you know about-."
"It doesn't matter, Bandli. No matter what, i'm not backing down from regionals. I'm going off to sectionals then to nationals wether you like it or not." I claim. "You may have the judges, and the coaches, and the committee, and the fans on your side, but I will always know your true colors. So, you can just rot in hell for all I care. I am NOT backing down."
I grab my bag and quickly limp towards the door.
"You look so ridiculous." Kristin laughs.
"Shut the fuck up!"
I was very angry and Kristin. She's literally going out of her way just to make my life miserable so she can succeed.
I began to try and walk normally even though my ankle hurt like a bitch. Apparently, my pain was still noticeable by some people. And by some people, I mean Adam.
"Bridget?" A deep voice from the other side of the dark hallway whispered.
I stood in my tracks and slowly spun around. "Hey Adam. What are you doing this morning?" I smiled.
"I always practice before school. You know that." He replied while walking towards me.
I wiped the tears from my frustration in my eyes and of course when I inhaled it had to do the gross snort thing like it would do when your crying. That blew everything.
"Hey, were you crying?" He asked.
I gave him an awkward look. "I don't cry." I smirked.
"Whatever you say." Adam said. "I saw you limping when you came out of the locker room. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I just twisted my ankle. No biggie." I assure. "Well i'm gonna get going. See you around." I then tried to get away from as far as i could away from him.
Words get around pretty fast. If Tremblay found out about my injury, she wouldn't let me skate. That's means no regionals, no sectionals, no nationals. I was so close to being on the top again that I was too afraid of loosing all my progress.
Every morning and every afternoon I practiced my routine. The pain never stopped but I started to get used to it. It was already Friday morning and after school was regionals.
I've been limping quite a lot this past week. Yet, no one said anything to me. Well actually, everyone once in a while Adam would ask me if i needed him to get anything for me. For example, on Wednesday, he took my trash for me. Let's be real, being injured had its perks. However, as Adam would do stuff like this, I could see the jealousy in Rick's face. It was pretty funny, I can't lie. Adam knew that I was hiding something from everyone, but as distant as we are he couldn't do much to figure out what it was that I was hiding.
I went to the bathroom during 3rd period. I wetted a paper towel with cold water, took of my shoes and socks, and applied the cold wet towel to it. The pain in my ankle was unbearable. It was as if a thousand rocks were crushing on my tiny ankle.
The door to the bathroom swung open and I quickly tried to get out of my position to hide my ankle. I ended up banging my ankle up against the side of the trash can.
"Bridget?" Tiffany said. "Why are your shoes off?"
"No reason!" I lied.
Tiffany approached me and pulled my ankle out from behind me.
"I'm gonna vomit." Tiffany admitted. "Why does your ankle look like that?!" She yelled.
"Shhhh! Keep it down!"
"I'm sorry!" She whispered. "It's blistering and bruising. There's like a bump right there, too, that is really gross." She tried touching the bump on my ankle. I slapped her hand away.
"Don't touch it, dumbass!"
"What happened to it? Are you skating at regionals?"
"Kristin happened." I said putting on my shoe. "She ruined my skates and I fell and got hurt. It's just a small twist."
"It's just a small fracture." Tiffany crossed her arms.
"It's not broken."
"Bridget, it looks like it's broken. You need to go to the doctors."
"No, they will then take me out of regionals. Then I will have to wait 6-8 weeks for it to heal and miss sectionals, then I will have no chance at making it to Nationals!"
"The longer you wait the more it will hurt!" Tiffany said.
Hmm, I wonder wear I heard the from. *sarcasm*
"Who knows, it might get even worse and you'll be out for the rest of your life!"
"I doubt that will happen." I retorted.
"Okay, maybe the rest of your life part was a little far, but you get my point. Your injury could get worse if not already!"
I sighed. "Look, Tiffany, you just don't understand. I am so close to passing Kristin. I'm so close to the top again. This is where I'm meant to be!"
"Your meant to be NOT injured. I understand that you want to win this. I want you to, too. But you can't win if your hurt."
"I'm totally fine, Tiffany. Just trust me." I assure them I barged out of the bathroom.