Books I Hope To Write

Not My Dream

Chapter 1: New Girl

The slicing of the ice filled my ears like the perfect melody of my favorite song. I inhaled deeply as I prepared to launch myself.

I push off my right foot and jump into the air, spinning a total of 3 times before sloppily landing and completing my triple lutz.

I exhaled, feeling disappointment but doing my best not to show it.

"Again!" Shouted my coach from the stands

I did a triple lutz a total of 6 times before landing a perfect one. My head wasn't on straight today as I felt nervousness take over my body. I barely got any sleep last night and knew that today was going to drag on and make my nerves even worse.

I quickly made it to the exit of the rink and put on my blade guards so I didn't damage the blades. I remove my skates quickly before my coach came to grill me on my performance.

"What the hell was that out there?" She asked me. The sound of disappointment was laced within her words along with anger. She has been coaching me since the age of three and all of her hard work was nowhere to be seen this morning.

I pulled my hair out of the bun it was in and let my dark black hair fall down my back. "I'm sorry mom, I did my best this morning. I'm nervous about the scholarship that's all."

My mom thought she was the best one to teach me since she had been skating since she was a little girl. Sometimes my mom was more of a coach than a maternal loving parent. No matter where we were together she was always in coach mode.

"You cannot screw up this scholarship Victoria, you need it more than anyone else out there." She explained to me as if she didn't remind me everyday.

I nodded my head at her words taking a sip of my water. I looked around at how quiet and peaceful the place would be if my mother wasn't here.

Nobody is ever here this early since it doesn't open until 9 am. My dad bought this ice rink when he was in his twenties and was interested in investing in something that could earn him a lot of money.

This place was always buzzing from 6pm to 11pm with teenagers looking for fun on a first date. Especially every Saturday when it was disco night.

Unlike all those fun buzzing teenagers, I was in the rink from 5 am to 7 am practicing until I perfected every move and routine of mine. From 8am to 4pm I was in school and helped prepare for dinner. I recently had to take up another practice session from 6pm to 8 in order to prove to my mom how hard working I am.

"Go take a shower and get ready." She said passing me a towel. I took it silently and headed to the showers. I took off my practice uniform and made it into one of the shower stalls.

After a quick shower I threw on my new school uniform that consisted of a navy blue skirt with a pink blouse and knee high socks. I put my hair into a high ponytail and exited the room.

I've been homeschooled my whole life since I dedicated every second to ice skating, training hard and hoping to one day be in the olympics. I decided for my senior year of high school that I wanted to go to public school, my mom did not like the idea. I pulled extra practices just for her to understand how serious I am about skating still. It was after all my dream.

Well, that was my mom's dream. I on the other hand always wanted to live a normal life and have friends. My only friend consisted of my cat Butters who kept me company when I wasn't competing or practicing. I'm grateful for the pressure my mom put on me, but it's the same pressure she put on all my sisters. It's the pressure that drove them all away.