Broken Ice {w.b.}

Chapter 23

"Will and Hilary still asleep?" my mom asked when I walked downstairs, dressed for the cold and my ice skates in my hands.

"Yeah, I'm going to go wake them up when I come back inside." I laid my skates down on the kitchen table, then grabbed a light purple wool beanie that was hanging on a hook by the back door. After I put it on, I slipped my gloves on then grabbed my skates.

My mom smiled at me when I opened the back door. "I'm so happy you're back home, honey. By the way, I noticed the weather is warmer today, so some of the pond might not be fully frozen. Be careful." Her smile dropped a little, and she eyed me with suspicion. "I got a call from your father last night. He told me two teenage boys barged into his house demanding they see you. Would you like to tell me what happened?"

I smiled sheepishly and shook my head. "Not really." She chuckled.

"Okay. I have to get to work down at the hospital, even though it's probably going to be a slow day anyways." She kissed my forehead, then grabbed her purse. "See you at five!" Then, she walked out of the kitchen. I smiled, then headed towards my frozen pond.

The giant, leafless oak tree was still standing tall, towering over the wooden bench sat beside the pond. I sat down on it, and pulled my shoes off. Quickly, I replaced them with my ice skates so the slight exposure to the cold air wouldn't freeze them to much.

After they were tightly tied, I stood up and walked towards the pond. I wobbled a bit as I skated around the small, circular pond because I haven't been on it for so many months. I tried to do a jump, but I ended up landing on my butt. When I did a spin, my feet slipped out from under me and how did I land? I landed on my butt.

This went on for about twenty minutes, more or less, but I eventually got used to it, I successfully skate without falling.

There was a part in the middle that cracked every time I landed on it from a jump. The third time, it the cracks moved from the middle and expanded outwards towards the rest of the pond. I frowned. Maybe I shouldn't skate there.

Instead, I did crossovers around the outside of it, keeping clear of the cracked places. I jumped off my feet and did a double axel, gracefully landing back on the ice with my legs in an upside down L shape. What I didn't know, though, was that I was closer to the broken part than I realized.

After a while I forgot about the broken ice and just skated around. The soft sound of birds singing in the trees above me was the only sound I heard, other than the blades scraping against the ice.

"I think I better go wake them up now," I told myself. "Just one more...." I did a few crossovers around the pond again, then stopped on one side of the pond and eyed the broken ice carefully. I smirked.

I can easily jump that. Right?

Building up my speed, I quickly skated across the clear frozen ice with as much speed as I could muster in the short amount of time. When I was about one foot away, I leaped forwards, jumping over the broken part easily.

Or, so I thought.

My body came down hard. And when I say hard, I mean broke the ice hard. My right foot broke through the thin layer of ice and plunged into the icy cold water. The first thing I could think was Oh my God, this is freezing!

The icy water slowly began to seep through my jeans to my legs and ice skates to my socks and feet. I could feel both my leg and foot getting numb as the water slowly drenched it. When I tried to yank my foot out, my eyes widened when I realized I couldn't get it out.

I could feel my foot losing all feeling it it. I tried to kick my heel against the back of it, but the feeling was hardly noticeable. My leg wasn't much better. I tried to pull it free again, only this time my calf hit the ice. My heart stopped when I didn't even feel the sharpness of the ice against my leg.