On Thin Ice ☰ Dreamnotfound

☰ꜱɪxᴛᴇᴇɴ - ʜᴏᴍᴇ☰

The routine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN2H7tbu8E4
Start playing this song at 0:20 during the routine, trust me. It's how the music is set up in the fic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCabI3MdV9g
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The last hour or so before the performances were very hectic, to say the least. Staff ran around trying to sort everything out like bees in a hive—though could you really blame them? It was no easy task, trying to get thirty-two people together, lined up in numerical order, and then hurried backstage to get all dolled up.

The hair and makeup process was hardly notable; base foundation, a few silver streaks here and there to match their outfits, and a lot of hair spray. The only thing that George didn't completely hate was the thin lines of black eyeliner which enhanced his face tenfold. He liked to think that it suited him. One of the makeup artists who worked with George and Xander even gave them a few stick-on crystals to put underneath their eyes to "bedazzle the look up a bit", and of course they took them without hesitation.

Xander absolutely adored them, and to be honest? George did, too. Maybe he should cut the makeup crew a bit more slack.

Of the sixteen groups, they were performing fourteenth, which would be right towards the end. It was a good placement, giving them plenty of time to prepare and watch the other acts skate. Backstage, they were sorted into their performance order by various young adults with matching shirts—clearly the crew who ran things "behind the curtains", as one could say. Throughout the sorting, George picked out all of the different faces of their competitors, some familiar, others brand new. Though there was one group that stuck out to both George and Xander, and they were guided to stand next to them as they just so happened to be number fifteen.

Immediately, the old friends from many years of skating (just like Lulu and Aria), noticed them, and conversation was drawn in seconds.

"George, Xander!" Anna, a kind girl that George had fond memories of skating with, greeted. She had dark brown hair cut to her collarbone and eyes that grasped the same color. She was just a little bit shorter than George and had a pair of glasses sitting over her nose.

"Anna, L!" Xander responded with the same tone.

Her partner L, as they were nicknamed, grinned. "I thought I saw you guys earlier but I wasn't too sure; it's good to see you!" Like Anna, George remembered many past skating competitions spent with them. They got along swimmingly with Xander, both of their personalities being able to bounce off of each other nicely. They had blue hair cut at a similar length as Anna's, and a darker skin complexion. Their brown eyes also seemed to match Anna's as well, a hardly noticeable similarity but a similarity all the same.

"Well, here we are!" George said just as one of the ladies from earlier started directing them to their seats. Not only would they be performing back-to-back, but they would also be sitting beside each other for efficiency, and George was glad that it was them and not a random person that they were put next to. Xander clearly had the same thought.

"I'm glad we're stuck next to you guys and not some rando," he teased as the four walked down a hall together, presumably to get to their seats. The hall had many doors, most shut, but some open, revealing things like dressing rooms and styling booths like the ones he had sat in minutes before. But at the end of the hall was the largest room, and it just so happened to be the one that connected to the rink. The one that they would go through to get to the ice.

"Glad at least one of us is happy," L joked back and everybody chuckled along as they made their way up a small flight of stairs.

The seating was one of the main advantages of being a performer.