Blades

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Battered as they are, my skates are my pride and joy. I've seen people who tug theirs off and just chuck them into their bags or never wear blade guards up to the ice's edge and it's beyond my understanding. When you're out there, on the ice, there are three people involved in your routine: you, the ice itself, and your skates. Why you would abuse one of your partners, I don't know.

      So, I am sat on the benches going through my meticulous routine, which involves tying my boots loosely once so that the leather has time to warm to my feet and then going back and tying them again, properly. It might take time, but it lessens the chances of twisting an ankle so I consider it time well spent. As I stand up and stretch, I find myself yawning despite myself. Last night's practise was uneventful but still exhausting, as most Friday's seem to be. A few laps of the ice and you won't be tired. By the time I get to Charlie's tonight, however, I probably will be.

      I'm about to take my blade guards off at the barrier when something stops me. Most of the dancers arrive at seven on a Saturday, so an hour earlier there are very few of us here. There's me, two of our coaches and the only pair we have at the moment, and sometimes my one real friend here, Seth; I know each of them by sight, even at a distance, and I can pick all five of them out from where I stand.

      Six. This morning, there are six people on the ice. Over by my coach, Sherrie, is a tall, dark-haired boy who I've never seen before. Who the hell is –?

      Oh, yes. Now I remember the gossip of last night that I couldn't help overhearing, of how we have a new boy transferring down from Murrayfield Ice Rink in Edinburgh. So, this must be the infamous Alexander McConnell.

      The huge excitement amongst the other girls, of course, was caused by two things: one, that he's reportedly very talented, and two, the prospect of him being partnered with one of them. The second of these doesn't interest me much; let's just say that I haven't had entirely pleasant experiences related to pairing. But I can't deny that I'm intensely curious to discover more about the first. Plenty of people can skate, and plenty of those remarkably well, but seeing someone who is truly talented on ice is rare. I wonder sometimes about Katy and Max, the pair who are currently training, but other than them I'm not sure that any of us at the rink could claim to be naturally talented.

      I shake myself and get on the ice.

      Sherrie greets me with a typically grumpy-sounding, "Morning!" from across the rink, which I return, but I decide not to go over to her as I usually would because I can feel Alexander McConnell's eyes on me and I'm awful at introductions. This is a potentially risky strategy since Sherrie's temper is as fiery as her auburn hair but if there's any chance I could be friends with this boy then I'd rather let my skating speak first and my tongue second. In all honesty, it's unlikely that I will be friends with him: I have such a low status at the rink that I'm not sure I'm even on that totem pole, and he's going to be absorbed by people I haven't met the eyes of in years as soon as they arrive this morning. So just get on and skate.

      I do a couple of laps of the pad as a warm up, making sure to cover crossovers, edges and going backwards as well as forwards. It's the same sequence I do every time I come, so Seth knows when I've finished and skates over to give me a hug. He's the closest thing I have to a big brother and almost twenty now. I may not talk to other people at the rink all that much, but somewhere along the way we all made an unspoken agreement to not point out to Seth that, at twenty, he should have moved on to university by now.

      "I know you want to practise," he says, "but I thought I'd tell you that a couple of us are going to the cinema this afternoon, if you want to join." I open my mouth to reply, but he's already pre-empted me. "And, yes, when I say 'us', Samuel is coming. But you won't have to talk to him, I swear."