Triple Axel

Train, Mia, Train

I threaded my skates easily, and slipped onto the ice. It was so early that only one light stood above my head, illuminating the rink but blanketing the seats in black. Tucking a loose strand of my ponytail behind my ear, I closed my eyes and gently turned to the music pounding through my headphones. Gliding through the ice by myself, I felt as free as a bird.

That is, until I skated backwards, eyes still closed, when a hand pushed me down onto the ice with a shove. Startled, I yelped and whipped out my earbuds, turning to glare at the perpetrator.

A head of shaggy black curls could be sketched out by the poorly lit rink. I groaned, immediately knowing who it was.

"What the hell, Nathan! You could of really hurt me." I'm not mad when I say it. Just annoyed.

He leant his hand down for me and I picked it up glaring at him, frustrated that I required his help.

"Stop being such a brat. Why are you here so early?"

I took off from him after the first comment and began circling laps around the rink. Unfortunately for me, he followed me instinctively.

"Wanted to get in more reps. Not all of us can be quad king, Nathan."

He chuckled, ruffling my already falling ponytail. "Oh Mia, you couldn't even be camel spin queen."

He was clearly picking on me this morning, and if he thought he was gonna ruin my session, he had another thing coming for him. I took of, picking the ice with my toe and sped up. He followed easily without even changing his speed.

Annoyed, I weaved out of our circle around the rink, picking up speed, gliding backwards to work my way into a double axel. Seeing an opening in the ice, I planted my feet, and out of the corner saw  Nathan stop to watch me, hands crossed over his chest, lips twitched into an annoying smirk. Propelling myself into the air I circled twice, and collapsed onto my right leg, tumbling down into the ice, hands first.

I groaned, more embarrassed than injured.

Nathan let out a loud laugh before slapping his hands on his knees, running a hand through his hair and following me to the other side of the ice, all the whilst not doing much to contain his grin.

"Shut up, Nathaniel."

He tried to pull me up but I shook him off, blushing red out of anger.

"You know, I could help you if you want."

I glared at him. "No thank you, coach."

Nathan laughed. "Stop being so stubborn, Miha."

I growled at the nickname. Formally spelled Mija, pronounced Miha was the word that all of the skaters on Team Canada commonly referred to me as. Meaning baby sister in Vietnamese, it was originally called on me by my first coach, Jenna, a 60 year old Vietnamese beast. As she continued calling me it, the rest of my teammates grew fond of it as it was almost like an adaptation of my name, Mia. I personally hated it.

"I don't need your help."

At the same time, our other 3 teammates, Patrick, Tessa and Scott entered the rink, backpacks tucked underneath all of their arms. They eyed us talking by the boards and I saw Scott arch an eyebrow in our direction.

"Have you been here by yourselves all this time? I'm surprised one of you hasn't killed the other."

I skated off the boards at his words. "I'm about 30 seconds from doing so."

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Guys, tell her she should let me clean up her double axel."

I huffed and sped back to the boards beside the four of them. "No tell him, that he can go fuck off and stop interrupting my practice session."

"Maybe you wouldn't need as many practice sessions if you just listened to my advice and stopped being such a brat."

"Enough you two!", Patrick hollered.

Patrick definitely had to deal with the two of us the most compared to Tessa and Scott. Those two were often separate, practicing together for ice dance shows with their coach. Patrick, Nathan and I were the only other single skaters on the team. And knowing how much Nathan and I fought, Patrick usually ended up in the middle or on one of our sides. Today, clearly he was playing mediator.

"Nathan, believe it or not you are not the be all end all heavenly God of figure skating that you think you are. You can take off your crown, you've still got a long way to go, so that chip on your shoulder needs to go."

I smirked evidently at Nathan and he narrowed his eyes at me.

"And you, Miha."

I glared at Patrick, whipping my head to him causing my ponytail to collide with the side of my face.

"You can learn to not be so stubborn all the time. You're a great skater but if you pretend like you never need help you'll never be anything more than you are now. And whether your like it or not, Nathan is a much better skater with more experience on jumps than you. Take his advice and you can only go up."

I gritted my teeth as I saw Nathan's sly smirk resurface. Looking at Tessa and Scott, I could tell they echoed Patrick in everything he said.

"Lead the way, master," I muttered.

Nathan ruffled my hair and skidded to the middle of the ice. "Follow me, young tidawa."