When the soulmates met and the world collided... | NATHAN CHEN | ALINA ZAGITOVA

~I~ (Edited)

When the soulmates met, and the world collided...

~Chapter I~

NATHAN

21st April 2018
Salt Lake City, Utah
USA

A relatively short young man of Asian descent with dark brown curls, which reminded of a plant that grew out of control, and a tall middle-aged Hispanic man were sitting across each other in a room.

A room, that was, strangely enough, filled with sports equipment.

"What do you mean you are going to Yale?" asked the middle aged man.

Pure and utter anger and fury could be seen right on his face.

He was, most likely, angry at the younger man, or rather, a boy.

The restless sound of silence has filled the room (which was, interestingly, already full with the aforementioned sports equipment).

"Raf, I know you don't want me to go to Yale, but it is my dream. You can't just force me to stay here. I may be a figure skater now, but I want to be a doctor," the boy finally answered, and as he finished the last sentence, 'Raf' rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Nathan, you are on the peak of your career, can't college wait for a few years?" asked Raf, and under his breath, he pleaded and prayed for Nathan to agree.

But Raf knew Nathan.

He won't stop until he got what he wants.

"No," Nathan answered in a very decisive tone (as if he was the coach here, although it was the other way round), "I cannot wait. Yale won't wait."

For approximately two minutes (to be precise, two minutes and 23 seconds), both of the men stayed silent, unable to solve the rising conflict.

"Okay then, let's make a deal. You will study in Yale for a semester and see how your skating goes," Raf dramatically paused, "If you will not get a first place on your first Grand Prix, I promise to you that I will make you come back, and will kill you."

Nathan stood up, and without any further thoughts (even the tiniest ones), he said:

"That's the deal."

***

ALINA

21st April 2018
Moscow, Russia

"Hello. My name is Alina. I am fivteen years old."

Those were the words that Alina neatly and carefully wrote in her notebook in a room, which peculiarly looked very much like a classroom.

"Alina, didn't we study this already?You spell 'fifteen' with an 'f', not a 'v'," Tatyana Ivanovna — Alina's English teacher in Sambo-70, exclaimed, "Don't you talk to those foreigners on competitions? You should know this simple vocabulary, Alina."

"I am sorry, Tatyana Ivanovna", Alina muttered shyly (she was always extremely shy with adults, or people she didn't know very well. Well, except for one person, but she didn't know that yet), "I usually don't talk to anyone on competitions"

"You don't? Then you should work harder in English class, don't you think?" said Tatyana Ivanovna, getting a bit more than a tiny bit angry.

Alina would have muttered something along the lines of the same old "sorry", if the bell would not have rang at that exact moment in time.

The bell meant that she had to go to Eteri Georgievna, her figure skating coach.

"Alina, why are you still standing here?!" Tatyana Ivanovna screamed, "Eteri Georgievna does not like to wait and you know it."

"Yes, Tatyana Ivanovna. I'm sorry," Alina answered.

And with those words Alina left the English classroom, and headed swiftly to the changing rooms.

She has to get dressed for her training as fast as possible.

Eteri Georgievna indeed does not like to wait.

***

When she thought about it, Alina realized that the road to the changing rooms is quite long — she has to go through exactly twelve posters with her picture and a label "Our Olympic Champion" before she could even start to notice the labels with directions of the changing rooms.

She couldn't not think about the fact that just 2 months ago, the whole corridor was covered with posters of Zhenya Medvedeva, which were wishing her to get well.

"Zhenya was always the favorite", Alina thought in her head.

And indeed that was true, Zhenya was always treated as if she was Eteri's daughter.

Zhenya and Alina were never best friends, or anything even close to that. They were both extremely successful figure skaters, but that is where all of their similarities always ended.

Alina, the Olympic champion, is a reserved, shy young girl, slowly and gradually transforming into a young woman.

Evgenia, the European, Grand-Prix, and World Champion was probably the most popular young woman in Russia.

She was very socially active and a nice public speaker — a perfect idol for the younger figure skaters.

"Perfect," Alina thought, "she is perfect."

And while Alina was thinking about the pure 'perfectness' of Zhenya Medvedeva, she finally reached the wooden door labeled "SENIOR GIRLS CHANGING ROOMS".

She took the handle of the door, and pushed, waiting to finally see her teammates.

But there was no one inside.

No one waiting to see her, no one to help her put on her uncomfortable outfit.

And most importantly, no one to talk to.

Sometimes she just wished for someone to come and notice her.

Not the Olympic, European, Grand Prix champion and the "Red Ballerina", no.

The girl hiding behind all those titles,

behind that red dress.

But there was no one who would volunteer.

~End of Chapter I~

Author's note:

Hey everyone! 💗

Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of my story!

It is actually the first fanfic I wrote on English, so please don't judge me too much! :)

Hope you liked it,

Yours Truly,

~FigureSkatingLover~

💞