Stick To The Stuff You Know || Thayne Jasperson x Reader

14

About a week later, I stand on Chinese ice and warm up together with the five other competitors of the second group.

Anna Pogorilaya, Elena Radionova, Zijun Li, Rika Hongo and Mao Asada.

Anna and I aren't on friendly terms, after she ran into me during an official practice at an event last season. In official practices, every skater gets their song played over the sound system and the other skaters are not allowed to get into the currently 'performing' skater's way. Whelp, Anna thought otherwise and we nearly collided.

How naive teenage girls can be.

Anyways, Mao is the only fellow skater who I have a good connection to. The fact that she and I had shared the Olympic podium with Yuna in 2010 and that we've competed at the 2014 olympics together as well is just a side bonus.

I'll be second to the last to skate and I just pray that either my quad will work or that Mao receives a mildly bad score. I don't wish for her to completely fail, but I really want to win gold so I can get to the final.

Later after the warm up I'm out in the hall and listen to the music and cheering out in the rink as Anna skates. Only Rika, Mao and I are left.

We don't speak, everyone doing their own stuff. I stretch my arms a little, watching as my coach and choreographer talk about something. I trust Megan that she won't tell Sarah anything about my knee, but the paranoia is still there. I can't tell what they're talking about, but as long as Sarah doesn't flip, I know I'll be fine.

Anna is done skating, Rika already out by the rink to get onto the ice. Guess it's my turn in a bit.

Shortly after Rika's performance started, I head out to the side of the rink and watch her perform. Seeing her skate live is amazing. Watching people skate live in general is always amazing. I love her program, her skating and the sequences. I think she also deserves to win this competition. Too bad I want to do that.

I pull off my jacket as Rika takes her bows and leaves the ice. I step onto the ice in return, pulling the skate guards off and handing them to Megan.

"You feeling good?", Sarah asks and I nod "Better than ever."

"Do you feel good enough to pull off the quad?", she then asks and I nod once again "It worked well in the warm up and practice today, so I'll just have to go more with the flow and jump the best quad they've ever seen."

Sarah grins at me and rolls her eyes "Don't get too full of yourself." I grin back "Just saying what's on my mind."

Rika receives her score. 129.97 points, leaving her currently in first place for the free and in total. Shit.

"Don't worry, Y/N, your quad will change the game. You can easily beat those points and maybe even get a new seasons best while you're at it," Sarah said and patted my arm.

I nod back at her and take a deep breath, taking the last few seconds I have to relax, until my name is called.

Sarah squeezes my hands and Megan nods at me, before I skate out onto the ice and smile at the audience. I shake my arms out a little, roll my neck and come to a stop in the middle of the rink.

I arch my back a little, shoulders back and leave my arms hanging by my side slightly, my right foot in front of my left with the toe pick dug into the ice.

The music starts. With the clicking sound of the music I raise my head.

I skate with ease and a fluency I've rarely had performing to this music. So far, my jumps have been flawless. I've got all the jumping passes down and as the final tacts of the music approach, so does the quad.

I take a deep breath. Half rotation. I nearly slam my blade into the ice and push myself into the air.

One revolution.

I think I'm holding my breath.

Two revolutions.

My arms are pressed tightly against my body.

Three revolutions.

I feel myself descending.

Four revolutions.

I hit the ice. I stretch back my leg, my arms to the sides and can only hear the crowd cheer as loud as I've ever heard them.

Seconds later I am spinning and spinning and spinning and then I stop. My right toe pick dug into the ice and my arms poised as if I were about to dance with a partner.

The crowd cheers so loud that my ears start to hurt. My arms drop and as I bow for the crowd, I feel tears rolling down my face.

As I head off the ice, I pass Mao, who pats my arm with a big smile.

The moment I'm off the ice, I basically fall into Sarah's and Megan's arms crying. I've never been so happy in my entire life.

The three of us head to the kiss and cry, Megan already handing me a tissue. But all of us are crying, so maybe she could use it herself.

I've practiced so hard and long for this. And now it finally happened. And hopefully I'll get rewarded for it.

The crowd is still cheering as we sit down, drying our tears as long as we can. We have no words to share for now.

It feels like ages pass until I finally hear "The scores please."

I hold my breath and squeeze the hands of my coach and choreographer. Please be good.

"The scores for Y/N Rippon. 151.37 points."

I don't hear the rest.

I only jump out of my seat and start screaming in joy. I scream my heart out along with the crowd and more tears flow.

I did it.