1 After The Grand Prix Final

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"And skating onto the ice are the top three in this year's skating Grand Prix Final! In third, Sollux Captor. In second, Eridan Ampora, and in first as always and beating his own world record for the fifth consecutive time, Dave Strider!" The announcer spoke enthusiastically as the crowds cheered. The three skaters stepped up onto their podiums to receive their medals.

The ones in second and third seemed to glare at each other, while the daddy of them all, David Strider, blew kisses to the crowds as he received a bouquet of flowers and was given his gold medal.

In the bathroom, while everyone was cheering for their beloved wonder, a skater sat on the toilet and called his dad.
"Dad? Hey, the competition  is over..." He spoke quietly, pushing up his glasses, "Oh, you saw that huh? I'm sorry... I don't know what happened... Yeah, tell Jade I said hi... Uh, yeah, I'll be home soon... I know, I'll do better next time. Bye." He hung up and his me burst into tears as he hung up.
"I-I can't believe I did that.." He held his head, shaking.

He thought back to only a few hours ago on the ice. He was skating to the free skate and he missed several jumps. Not only were they bad, he completely landed wrong and fell to the floor multiple times. The worst was his last jump, where he fell and hit the skating rink wall. The crowds gasped and got quiet, and John couldn't help, but feel hopeless. He placed last in the competition.

John was taken out of his state when someone banged on his stall door.
John nearly shrieked and he opened the stall, only to be face to face with the punk from Alternia, from the Junior division.
Karkat Vantas. He trains with John's idol and he's hard to get along with. He was glaring right into John's soul and sneered at him. Next year, he'll be competing in the Senior division.

"You're an embarrassment to the skating community." Karkat spat out poison and pointed at John, "I can't believe you even had the balls to go out there and do that circus show. Do everyone a favor and stay off the ice. I don't need you next year trying to take away my chance at winning in the senior division."

"W-What?" John was confused. Why was this guy even talking to him?! He didn't do anything to provoke him!

"You heard me, asswipe." Karkat scoffed, "Stay off the ice, you don't belong there after your performance." Karkat turned and walked out of the bathroom.
John was left standing there. He sighed and grabbed some paper towels, wiping away the tears from his face before going back to his coach who was waiting for him.

"John! There you are!" John's coach, Vriska Serket, ran to him. "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!"
"Sorry... I called my dad and went to the restroom." John looked down, "Can we go already?" 
"Well first off, are you going to continue training in New York while you continue college? Buzz has been going around that you're going to retire."

"I haven't exactly said anything relating to that, so I have no clue where that came from-"

"Hey!"

John turned and he saw his idol. Dave Strider. He was walking to catch up to his friend, the Alternian Punk that John met in the bathroom.

"Don't run off like that!"
"Whatever Dave, I wanna leave already." Karkat rolled his eyes.
"Well, we're going to get stopped by photographers so you have to be a bit patient. Plus I wanna talk about your performance-

"Ugh, I won. It doesn't matter what you thought about my step sequences!" Karkat growled.

John stared at them speak to their coach, Kankri (who was Karkat's weird sibling. John didn't know much about how troll culture works), while Vriska tried to get John's attention.
Dave felt the feeling of being stared at, so he turned and met John's eyes behind the sunglasses he always wore except when performing. He smiled at John and waved, "You want a picture?"

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