Equal Ice // Harry Styles AU

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Gabrielle’s POV

“So how is practice going?” Bella asked me.

“Pretty good,” I answered.

“Where’s your dad?” she asked as her eyes scanned around the border of the rink.

“Oh he left, which reminds me, could you and your mom give me a ride home?” I asked,

“My practice time is almost up so you wouldn’t have to wait for too long. I only have lik-” 

“Gabi!” she exclaimed, stopping me from my rambling.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Don’t sweat it, it’s fine, we can drive you home,” she told me.

“Okay, thanks,” I said.

“No problem, you just keep on practicing and let me go tell my mom you need a ride, she’s at the snack bar,” Bella told me.

I nodded and then skated back to the center of the rink as she walked towards the door. I decided just to skate around for a while and practice a variety of things instead of just my routine. I practiced a few things from my routine over and over again to make sure I have it perfected.

As I was in the middle of seeing how fast I could skate, I heard the doors opening, and once again I see Bella walking in. I stopped skating by pressing the tip of my skate into the ice, and I almost fell over from the impact that resulted from my fast skating. The doors close behind Bella, and she walked over to where she was a few minutes ago at the border of the rink, and I skated over to her.

“My mom said she’ll take you home, we just need meet her near the snack bar later when you’re done practicing,” Bella explained to me, and I nodded.

“Now go show me you’re your routine, I want to see it,” she told me and shooed me away from her until I started skating back to the center of the rink.

I took a deep breath before starting to skate. I had to play the music mentally in my head because my dad forgot the tape of the music that I skated to. Once I finished with perfect form and landed everything, I did the required ending and then skated back over to Bella.

“That was awesome,” she said and raised her hand up for a high five, which I gladly accepted.

“Thanks,” I said,

“Mind telling my dad that?” I joked, although the words had some truth to them.

“Oh come on, I’m sure he thinks your routine is great. He just points out more flaws than other people because he wants you to be the best skater you can be,”

“Or just the best skater,” I mumbled as I reached for the water bottle that was set on top of the border of the rink. Bella just rolled her eyes at me, not being up to argue with me.

We seemed to argue about my dad a lot, and the way he criticizes by skating. Bella says he’s just trying to make me a better skater, but I say that he’s just trying to get me to be a perfect skater so I can be one of the most well known figure skaters.

Bella and I continued to talk for a while longer before I realized that I should probably start taking my ice skates off and get my bag packed up since my skating time was almost up. I was about to open the small door that led to step off the ice, when I heard the entrance door loudly swing open.

“Hey little Goldie,” one of the guys walking in shouted,

“Your time on the rink is up, so get off,” he shouted as him and the rest of the boys walked over to the other door that led onto the ice.

“What do you think I’m doing?” I shouted back as I stepped out of the rink and went to the bleachers to sit and begin to take my skates off.

Once I was off the rink, the boys opened the small door and then they all skated onto the ice. Bella and I both sighed in annoyance when we saw then skating to the side of the rink where we were. Bella and I never really got along with the hockey players. We got along with some of the other hockey teams, but it’s mostly this one that gets on our nerves.

So of course they would be the people who have this rink after me. They always get here right on time which is usually when I’m just getting of the rink so they seem to just have to pester me. I’m just thankful that I have Bella here with me this time, because she is so much better at coming up with comebacks to their comments than I am.

“How was your little skating practice?” Zack, the captain of this hockey team said,

“Bet you didn’t even break a sweat,”

“For your information, figure skating is a very rigorous sport, while having a less chance of ending up in a hospital,” Bella said matter of factly to them.

“A less chance? You have no chance of ending up in a hospital. The worst thing that will happen to you is that you’ll fall and break a nail. Although for you that’s probably worse than breaking a bone,” his last comment earned a roar of laughter from most of the boys standing with him.

Even though his comment was far from true, they still found it funny.

“Hockey is a violent, ugly, sweaty, and horrible to watch, which describes you perfectly though so I guess that’s why you play it,” I gave Bella a high five and then she gave the hockey team a perfectly smug smile.

As they both continued to argue, I couldn’t help but notice a different face in the group of boys. I’d never seen him here before with this hockey team, or any other team that I’ve seen here. He was also the only one who hadn't been laughing at all of Zack's jokes. His hair was an unruly mess on top of his head like he had never bothered to run a brush though it this morning. It surprisingly worked on him though. He was taller than most of the other boys that were standing with him, and his legs were lanky and very long which is surprising for a hockey player to have such thin legs.

I had been trying to subtly observe him, but I quickly looked away from him when he caught me looking at him. I took a few more quick glances over to him before I finally took my attention to something else.