Break The Ice // y.h.

III.

Two weeks later

My head rattles every time the bus hits a rough spot in the road shuffling all of the blossoming introductions I've been producing. Never would I have imagined that Brian Orser would contemplate coaching someone like me, but here I am.

Over the last two weeks, the majority of my time went into apartment hunting. I craved somewhere close to the club to ensure that I would always have something to do. So when I found a studio apartment a block from the club, I had no other choice than to sign the lease while I had the chance.

I remove my headphones and place them in my coat pocket as the bus pulled up to the stop. Weaving through the exiting passengers I find myself standing across the street from the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club. The chill of the air bites deep into my fingers guaranteeing a numbing sensation to spread throughout my body. As soon as the crosswalk turns green I walk across the road towards the club.

Once I'm met with the warm air of the hall the tingling sensation of blood rushing back into my hands tempts me to shake them back to normal. I can faintly hear laughter and voices echoing from a place down the hall.

"Can I help you miss?"

In my state of awe I seemed to overlook the older woman working the reception area.

"um, I'm Ryley Wilson. I'm supposed to be meeting with coach Brian Orser this morning. Do you know where I can find him?"

"Oh yes! Mr. Orser informed me of your arrival when he came in this morning." she says as she taps on the keyboard in front of her, "If you walk down the hallway you should be able to hear him before you see him."

I take a few steps back from the desk readjusting my bags strap on my shoulder.

"Thanks.."

I get no response from her as she seems to be immersed in some kind of game on her phone. Twisting around I start walking down the hall intently listening to the voices to discover which room they come from.

"Oh come on that was so sloppy"

"I don't know about you, but I saw absolute perfection"

"Of course you did! You're the one who jumped it!"

"You two stop bickering before the ice shatters from your lies"

Laughter booms from the end of the hallway. The closer I get the clearer the voices become.

"Boys lets actually focus on what we're here for for a moment"

"Yeah Yu, focus!"

I step into a bright, chilly room occupied by three men. One I recognized almost immediately: Brian Orser. The other two skated around the ice seemingly chasing each other. One of them split from the other near the center and whips across the ice into a quad lutz. My mouth then drops open. I didn't know I was training with a Flutterbye Flying Fairy. I've got a lot of work to do to catch up with them it seems.

I jog along the outside of the rink to where Brian stands.

"Coach Orser-"

"Ryley! Sorry, I didn't notice you walk in. I was too busy messing with Dumb and Dumber." he jokes.

The sound of blades coming to a halt on ice sound through the room as one of the flutterbye's stop a foot in front of Brian and I.

"Nice to meet you miss Wilson, I'm Javier Fernandez" he digs his toe pick into the ice and gives a slight dramatic bow as introduces himself. He starts laughing when he looks up to my shocked expression. "Orser, what took you so long to get this one!"

"I'm just as glad as you are Javi that she's here. Although probably for different reasons!" cracks up Brian.

While the two of them take jabs at each other, I focus my attention on the soul being portrayed in the center of the ice. That's how I used to skate. That's how I want to skate again. I'd do anything to get to that point again. That's the type of skating that wins Olympics.

"Yuzuru, get your fine ass over here!" yells Javier.

In that moment, my concentration was broken. The biellmann spin he was perfecting came to a a slow finish.

Brian looks over at me and says, "Hey, why don't you get on the ice and show us what you've got up your sleeve?"

"I don't know if it'll be up to par of what you're used to, but I'll give it a shot."

I sit my bag down on the floor and take a seat on a nearby bench. While lacing my boots I think of what I could possibly do that would impress these three. Although I may have been able to once land jumps with ease, I slowly lost confidence in my ability.

I step onto the ice and skate towards the center. I nod my head towards Brian and Javier. Yuzuru joined them when he saw me step onto the ice. I inhale deeply and push myself forward. Gaining speed I take a lap around the ice and prepare myself to land a triple lutz triple toe.

Throwing my body into the air I land the triple lutz. Now back into the air for the triple toe.

Landed, but wobbly. I go into a spread eagle to straighten myself back out.

I look over towards the guys and they all have smiles on their faces. The jump could've been better. I know it could've. I skate faster towards the other side of the rink and attempt a triple salchow.

Crash.

I slide across the ice a little before catching my footing again.

"It's okay! We can work on it! Your form is good, you're just having trouble with your landing." shouts Brian.

I make my way over to them, wiping the ice from my pants and palms.

"It's been a while since I've skated for competition. I have a lot the work on." I state.

"Well then lets get to work!" Brian cheers.

~Three hours later~

As soon as I step off of the ice I reach for the towel stashed in my bag. I feel as though I've produced enough sweat to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool. All I want to do is walk back to my apartment and take a long, hot shower. Beads of water stream down my chin as I gulp down as much water as I can take.

"Hard work?" expresses Yuzuru.

Nodding my head I quickly rub my arm across my chin cleaning off the water droplets.

"It's been a while since I've let myself get into a practice like this."

"I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to introduce myself to you earlier. I'm Yuzuru Hanyu."

"Ryley Wilson." I beam back.

"It's nice to meet you, Ryley."

"The pleasure is all mine."

As the two of us sit side by side untying our boots, a pair of tennis shoes appear in front of us.

"Okay Mr. Casanova, instead of hogging the pretty chica all to yourself, why don't the three of us go out for lunch?" Javi mocks pulling Yuzuru up onto his feet. "Are you up for it Ryley?"

"Yeah, no doubt!" I voice throwing my bag over my shoulder.

These two boys are gonna be the best thing that has ever happened to me. I can already tell.