Thin Ice

Prologue

"Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence."

-Peter A. Levine

Harper Anne has been through a lot when she was eight years old. Her mom, Chole Anne, a two-time gold-winning Olympian died in a car crash. Harper and her younger sister,Lyllie, were 8 and 3 years old at the time. Lyllie doesn't remember anything from the car crash, but Harper can remember every little detail when it came to how many leaves in the car, 214. Harper has two best friends Ava and Nathan.

Nathan was a new student in 2-semester of the kindergarten year and when the school took the elementary students on their annual ski trip to Pine Park and Slopes; Nathan and Harper came friends. They bonded over the years and became inseparable. Nathan lost his mom to cancer; two weeks after Harper spoke again after losing her mom, Nathan was there for Harper, and Harper was there for Nathan through grief. Where was Ava during the time of loss?  Ava has been friends with Harper since three years old on an ice skating competition team.

While being in ice skating competitions for many years Harper made an enemy, Mary Lee, coincidentally Mary's mother, Annie Lee was Harper's mom's enemy. Annie Lee committed first-degree murder but because it was planned so well she got away with it because it was a car accident and the state didn't believe 8-year-old Harper's story.

Harper handled the death of her mother harshly; she didn't hurt anyone else but was hurting herself slowly like injecting poison into herself slowly. She's super hard on herself and would get frustrated because she couldn't be like her mom. Ava kept letting Harper do this to her because she didn't really care about Harper all she wanted was fame. But on the other hand, Nathan is always keeping Harper in line so she wouldn't harm herself or go into a depressing state.

Harper's dad dealt with grief in a different way; he adopted two more little girls, Heidi from Germany and Lucinna from Brazil.