Kiss My Ice
1.
An instant sharp pain shot through every muscle inside of me as my body crashed onto the solid ice beneath me. I laid perfectly still; my muscles cried out in agony. It was time that I accepted defeat.
Six times I had attempted the jump. And six times I had eaten ice.
The jump played through my mind on repeat. What was it that I was doing wrong, why couldn't I manage to land even the messiest of a landing? For the past six months I had worked my butt off in a harness, preparing my body to do this jump on the ice. I felt ready. So why couldn't I do it? For the first time in a long time, I was stumped in my training.
"You look awful," Lucy, my best friend since grade school, called out. Even from across the ice it was impossible to miss the disappoint that rang in her voice. "How long have you been out here?"
With every inch of my body screaming in protest, I forced myself into a sit. I could see Lucy standing at the entrance to the ice. Her thin lips pierced into a straight line. Blue eyes hardened in disapproval. Her arms crossed tightly over her chest, hiding the lettering on her white hoodie.
I lifted myself off the ice. I quickly giving my legs and butt a quick pat down to remove the excess ice.
"Seriously Zo, how long have you been out here?" She repeated when I failed to respond.
A soft sigh left my mouth as I started in a slow skate. "Only like an hour...maybe two."
Lucy sucked in a large breath; a tell-tale sign that her mom mode was about to kick in, and I was about to be scolded.
We'd been best friends since the first day we met back in the third grade. She was the mother hen of our friendship. Always the more mature one, and always ready to put me in my place if she thought I needed it. She'd call me on my crap and didn't care if I got offended or not.
I knew her better than anyone else, and she knew me. Which is why I knew that she hated it when I was in the process of learning new jumps. She insisted that I was going to overdo it and end up severely hurting myself.
"Only two?" Lucy's eyes dropped, giving me a once over before her piercing eyes landed back on mine. "You look like you've just been mauled by a bear. Wasn't your private practice with Wilson this morning enough? I mean come on. You have to be exhausted."
"I guess that I'm a little tired," I admitted, skirted to a stop in front of her. To say that I was only a little tired was the understatement of the century. And judging by the darkness in her now narrowed eyes, Lucy was well aware of my lie.
She sighed, ran a hand through her strawberry blonde curls. "I don't understand why you are putting such a big emphasis on having to learn this jump. You could just stick to your clean double and still win."
I violently shook my head in disagreement. I knew that learning this jump was a hefty task - the triple axel was known as the most difficult jump for a reason - but if I could pull it off, I would not only be a shoe in for the win, but it would give me a huge boost in the skating world.
"I want this jump for regionals."
Lucy let another sigh slip, ran her hand through some strawberry curls. "Regionals are months away."
I grinned. "Then I have plenty of time to succeed."
I walked off the ice and placed myself on one of the benches, reached under to where I had stuffed my duffel bag. I pulled the water bottle I'd stashed in the outer pocket out. The cold water soothed my dry mouth. I'd never been so thankful for a temperature-controlled water bottle before.
"Please just be careful," Lucy mumbled, turning herself to face me. "I would hate to see you get hurt because you've pushed yourself too hard. It would suck to cause an injury that ends your season before it even starts."
I didn't respond to Lucy. I just kept the water bottle pressed tightly to my lips, focused on the water that soothed my throat.
It wasn't that I wanted to ignore my best friend, I just didn't know what to say. I knew that she wanted me to tell her that I would stop pushing myself so much. But that would be a lie. There was no way that I could in good conscience stop pushing myself to be able to land the triple when I was landing the double with ease. An athlete wouldn't get better without pushing themselves.
Even though Lucy ran track and cross country, she was not the kind of athlete to push herself past what she thought she was capable of. For her, running was more of a hobby than a lifestyle. But that's where we differed. To me, figure skating wasn't just a sport that I enjoyed doing. It was my life. And I didn't know anything else.
"Ah Zoe, I am glad that you are still here," a cheery male voice echoed from the top of the bleachers. "I have been meaning to talk to you."
I lowered the water bottle from my mouth and turned. At the top of the stairs, currently making his way down them, was Mark Hansen: the rink owner. His muddy brown hair was a mess of permanent curls that was in desperate need of a trim, flopping all over as he trotted down the steps.
My eyebrows arched upward. That's weird, I thought. Mark seemed to be happier than usual, which was odd because Mark was always in an overly cheerful mood. So much so that I was convinced that his facial muscles didn't know how to do anything but smile. I didn't think it was possible for him to be more cheerful.
"Yeah," I said. "I thought it would be good to get in some extra ice time."
"I have some news that I think you'll be very excited for." Mark's smile only grew as he stopped directly in front of me. "The rest of the rink will get to find out tomorrow, but since you are here now. You get to be the first to know."
My eyebrows jumped up. I shot a quick glance over at Lucy to which she just shrugged. She was unaffected by Mark's excitement for this news he had.
"Oh yeah?" I asked, trying my best to sound as go-with-the-flow as possible. Even if the idea of some exciting news made my heart pound in my chest. I set down my water, reached for the duffel bag and unzipped it to pull out my hard guards. "What news is that?"
I reached down to untie the laces of my skates, listening as Mark began to explain his exciting news.
"I have been chatting with a generous new sponsor for the rink."
My hands froze on the laces, and I looked up at Mark. Wide eyed.
Mark's lips attempted to twitch down as he tried his best to deny my request. It was of no use. His wide smile only grew. "Yes. Effective of Monday, the Whitmore arena has a new sponsor."
"That's such great news!" I exclaimed. A rush of adrenaline shot through my tired muscles.
I couldn't even remember the last time the rink had gotten a new sponsor. In our small town of Whitmore, Minnesota it was hard to generate new sponsors. The general public was incredibly supportive of the rink but that alone wasn't enough to generate enough interest to pull in big sponsors.
I slid the hard guards onto my skates before pulling each one off and placed them neatly into my bag. Pulling the zipper shut, I swung the strap over my shoulder and slid on my pair of Nike slides.
Mark cleared his throat as I stood to leave. "There is one thing that I that I need to mention."
His smile faltered, causing an instant wrench to my gut. That was not a good sign. Mark, the most cheerful person I knew, stopped smiling. This couldn't have been a good sign.
"Effective next week with the start of the new sponsorship, the hockey team will be getting your morning practice slot."
Several long seconds past of silence, my eyes locked onto his hazel ones. I finally threw my head back and laughed. "Oh my gosh, for a second there you almost had me. I thought you were serious."
More silence.
I swallowed hard. Blinked slowly. Surely he was just messing with me, right? He couldn't have been serious. There was no way that he gave away my morning practice slot to the hockey team. My practice slot. My parents paid good money for that private ice time with Wilson.
I needed that 5:00 AM ice slot time or else I wouldn't be allowed to continue with my training. My parents, although supportive, made me go to public school. Sure it may have been summer now, but school would start back up again.
"Please tell me that this is just some kind of twisted joke," I pleaded. My voice cracked. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Lucy flinch.
The features on Mark's face softened before he shook his head. "I'm really sorry Zoe-"
The feeling in my gut twisted. I wanted to puke. Suddenly I was no longer hearing what Mark was saying. I could feel a ringing in my ears like I was about ready to pass out. How could this be happening?
Lucy rushed to my side, grabbed my arm to steady me. In that moment I was forever grateful that she was there when Mark broke the news to me. "You okay?" she whispered. Her voice sounded hushed. She was worried about me.
"This is just perfect," I mumbled.
"I'm sorry to have to steal Zoe away, but I really need to get home and she is my ride," Lucy told Mark, coming to my rescue to whisk me away before I had a nervous breakdown. If I had to stay there even two seconds longer, I probably would have.
It wasn't until we had pulled into her driveway after a twenty-minute-long car ride before Lucy finally spoke. Lucy knew that I needed time to process everything that Mark had unloaded on me. "I'm sorry that you lost your morning practice."
During the car ride I time to think. Time to try and wrap my head around why the hockey team was stealing my ice time. I came up with nothing. Not one thing.
I couldn't even stand the thought. I mean really, of everyone that could take my time slot it just had to be the hockey team. I couldn't stand the hockey team. Each and every one of the players were stuck up, egotistical jerks that thought hockey was so much better than figure skating.
Since I was seven years old my life had revolved around figure skating. My first lesson and I was hooked. It was something that I had been working hard at practically my whole life. The amount of time I put in. The thousands upon thousands of dollars my parents had put into developing my career. And for what, so that the hockey team could just come take away my morning practice time and my life's dreams with it? My mom was never going to let me blow off school to secure a practice time with my world-renowned coach.
I was irate, and rightfully so.
"I'll be fine."
She narrowed her eyes at me, eyeing me skeptically. She didn't push it.
That was total lie, and both Lucy and I knew it. The hockey team wasn't even good. Last year they had won a whopping total of two games all season. They didn't deserve my ice time.
I gripped my fingers tighter around the steering wheel. Stupid hockey heads.
"I should get inside." Lucy let out a soft sigh. Her eyes turned in the direction of her house. She turned back to me with a comforting smile. "But hey, you know where to find me if you need me."
I nodded. A smile threatened to tug the corners of my lips from their pout. "Thanks Luce."
"You know that I love you." In a moment she was reached over the center console. Her arms wrapped around me in a tight hug. My arms automatically returned the gesture. "I know that this seems so unfair but I highly doubt Mark would screw you over. I'm sure that you will get your private ice time with Wilson, just at a different time." She pulled away, a grin on her lips. "And don't forget. You are going to kill it at regionals."
It was easy for her to say, she might have even actually thought it, but I was highly doubtful that everything would work itself out. For her, practice could be done anytime, anywhere. Just pick a trailhead or exit the front door and start running. She didn't have to worry about scheduling ice time around school starting in two months.
Still, I was appreciative of her optimism. One of us had to be able to see the bright side to all of this.
"Where would I be without you?"
Lucy shrugged, fighting back a grin. "Probably a bitter, friendless ice queen."
I laughed and shoved her on the shoulder. "First of all, that's rude. And second of all," I paused, trying my best to think of a good defense. I couldn't. "That's probably a very true statement," I finished.
Outside of the rink, Lucy was the only real friend that I had. Everyone that I knew from school was more or less just school friends that I would talk to during classes. And at the rink, well let's just say that I had more frenemies than anything. Everyone was always nice to my face, and we could have normal conversations. But being that I was the top skater at the rink, there was a lot of talking behind my back.
"I speak only the truth."
I rolled my eyes, stuck out my tongue like a little kid. "Get out of my car."
She giggled and pulled the door's latch, hopped out of the car. As she turned to shut the door she gave me one last concerned smile and said, "Seriously. I'll be around if you need to call and rant."
I just smirked and waved her off. That was something I knew I would be taking her up on.
For a minute I stayed in her driveway and watched to make sure that she actually made it all the way inside before I drove off. It was a habit that I had picked up from my older brother, Scott. He always had done it for me when he dropped me off at places so now I just return the favor.
As I started to drive home, I couldn't help but laugh. It was almost scary how well my best friend knew me. She knew that I was going to need to rant in order to ever make through the changes at the rink. Lucy was about to become my own unpaid personal shrink. That's if I could get my parents to agree to a new practice time.
With the news of the new rink sponsor and the hockey team stealing my morning slot, there would be a lot for me to rant about. I just hoped that Lucy wouldn't end up killing me before I could finish my rant.
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