Thin Ice

Chapter One

Cassie:

"If I make this jump, I can eat McDonald's," I take a glance at the judges, and my stomach rumbles. My mom has been forcing me to stick to this insane diet so I can be 'lighter', and she promised that after this competition, she'd let me eat normally again. That is, if I do well. If I don't, then I guess that's more training for me.

I hear the song start to wind up, and I take a breath. I'm skating backward, right across the edge of the rink. My deep blue dress whips around my thighs, and I tighten my fingers together. I landed this jump once last week, I can do it again for the sake of a burger. The song is a few seconds from reaching the climax. I swing my foot around, creating momentum. I will land this double axel.

I swing my legs around, and I fly through the air, the music blasting through the speakers. I can see the spotlight focusing on me, on this jump. Around once, twice, land! My skate hits the ice, and I almost cheer! I pull my leg up into an arabesque, and that's where everything goes wrong. The blade slides out from under me from the momentum, and all of a sudden the ice is a lot closer to my face than normal.

"Ah!" I barely let out a scream before my chin hits the cold floor. I hear my teeth clack together, and my eyes start to water. The music keeps going though, and I know I have to get up. I quickly stand, and it takes a second for me to remember where I am in the routine. I skate a little farther, but I'm all out of whack. My vision is dancing, and although I've never been very graceful, I can feel myself clunk all over the place.

A piece of hair falls out of my slicked-back bun, and I focus on that one dark strand, "Say goodbye to that burger," I think before lifting my leg up into a heel-stretch. I spin slowly, and do one more quick turn before landing on my knee in my final position. I hold my arms up in a ballet posture, but I know it looks awkward.

I look over at the judges who are all writing things down, probably about how much I sucked. Then, my gaze travels across the audience, down to the sidelines where my mom is staring directly at me. Her eyes seem to be on fire, and I glare at her before flicking my head away. I stand up, definitely not in a graceful way, and do the thing I do best, speed away.

As soon as I reach the door to get out though, I'm met by my mother. She grabs my arm and yanks me out of the rink.

"Hey! Let go! What're you doing?"

"I'm taking you to the other rink to practice."

"What? But we just finished the competition! I'm exhausted, and we haven't even seen the results!"

"We don't need the results, we already know you lost," My mom's back is to me, but her hand is still tightly clamped on my arm. Her long, dark hair swishes behind her, and I remember who I take after. I look exactly like my mom, dark hair, bright blue eyes, curvy body though we both try to hide it (mine without choice), sunken cheeks.

"I'm hungry!"

My mom sighs before turning around and loosening her grip, "I have a granola bar in the car."

"But you promised-,"

"If you landed the jump," She starts walking again, dragging me through crowds of people towards the locker room so I can change.

"You said if I do well."

"Well, sweetheart, you didn't. I pay all this money just for you to give nothing back to me."

"I can pay for myself Mom, and we both know that."

"What? With your job of cleaning the ice rink? That doesn't get you very far, you wouldn't be able to keep skating with that."