Love on Ice

Chapter 5: Birthday Party Show

Ellora recieved a surprisingly mysterious text around 1pm the day after prom dress shopping with Jess.

PLEASE come to the rink. ASAP. -Grayson

A million things were running through Ellora's head: Was Grayson hurt? If so, would he be okay? What happened? Why ASAP?

She figured she'd rather be safe than sorry.

Sure. Be there in 10. -Ellora

* * *

Ellora strode into the building with purpose. And what did she see when she peeked through the window of the rink?

She saw Grayson skating around a public skate periodically checking in on a group of tweens that clung to the far wall.

Once Ellora had laced up her skates, she stroked over to where Grayson was stopped and in the midst of a heated discussion with one of the tweens - a girl with long brown hair.

She performed a graceful show stop directly to Grayson's left.

Once at a complete halt, she cleared her throat and stated, "You texted."

He gently shoved the young girl off in the direction of the other children - her friends, most likely, and simply stated, "I did."

"May I ask why I have been summoned on such short notice?"

"It's my little sister's - Emma's 13th birthday party, and I'm totally bored out of my mind. They need help, but I use hockey skates, so I have no useful tips. Other than when we first arrived... I told them to rent hockey skates because they're easier."

"They are not easier!" Ellora countered.

"Beg to differ," Grayson smirked, "I mean, how are you not tripping over your own 2 feet every five seconds?"

"Oh you mean the toepick?" She was enjoying the use of her mocking tone, and even tacked a smirk onto the end of her question, "Years and years of practice."

Grayson brought out this whole new side of Ellora; it was entirely different from her normal bookworm self, and she loved it.

And with that she executed a flawless twizzle.

"Emma loves to watch skating, so I was hoping that you would come out and show her some stuff. Would you do that?"

Ellora honestly loved the idea of this little 13-year-old girl and her friends looking up to her, so she made her decision, "Sure, what can it hurt?"

Grayson called his little sister and her posse over to them and announced, "This is my friend, Ellora, and she'll be demonstrating some different skating moves for you guys."

Ellora wasn't sure what she had just gotten herself into, but there was no way she could back down once she saw the group's shining faces.

"I guess I could either take requests or just go out and start skating."

* * *

"That was amazing!" Emma looked as though she was beside herself with excitement. "You're so good; you must be able to do doubles and other even more advanced stuff."

"Yes, I can do some doubles, and I can do more advanced spins and elements and whatnot."

"Then why don't you?!"

It was extremely difficult for Ellora to turn Emma down, but she was very apprehensive about doing such advanced moves on a public skate - there were just too many innocent bystanders, many children especially.

"Unfortunately this really isn't the time. But you know what, Emma? Why don't you have Grayson bring you back here someday this week while I'm practicing? That way you can see what it's all about!"

As she gently doled the news to Emma, Ellora could see the young girl's sprarkling face gradually lose its shine; however, at Ellora's gesture of kindness, Emma's face perked right back up.

Emma took a few quick steps, snatched Grayson's arm - this left a few red marks on his muscular forearms, and dragged him over to where Ellora was fixed.

"Gray, Ellora invited us to watch her do even more amazing moves during one of her practices this week! Can we go?"

Grayson raised his eyebrows in Ellora's direction, which she returned with a small smile.

He turned his attention back to his little sister and inquired with a knowing tone, "Did Ellora invite us? Or did we invite ourselves?"

Ellora piped in here, "I did, in fact, invite the two of you. I'm here every day after school from 2 to 4pm."

"I think we can swing by around 3:30 on Tuesday. Right, Gray?" Emma gazed up at her older brother with the largest pair of pleading brown eyes that Ellora had ever seen.

"Sure, that sounds awesome! See you then, Ellora."

"I hate to rush off like this, but I have a bunch of of homework to finish for tomorrow, so I guess I'll see you guys in a couple days."

After wishing Emma a quick "happy birthday", Ellora returned to her room to tackle her trig problems.

And problems they were; especially when there was no dam to block the river of thoughts of Grayson that were flowing wildly through her mind.