Ice Queen

Chapter 8 ~ "Spin with me"

Nate

I wake up at the crack of dawn and start to get my stuff together for school. She needs me, for the first time in years I can do something for her and I'm not going to waste the opportunity. 

I really wish her practice didn't start at five a.m but she's worth it. She actually tracked me down and gave me her phone number. That was amazing, would it be nice if I could have received it without it looking like a drug deal? Yes, but that just wasn't the reality we were in.

I quietly walk down the stairs with my skates and school bag in hand. Just as I pass the kitchen I see mom putting two slices of bread in the toaster. She turns and jumps a bit seeing me and then catches her breath.

"You scared me." She says and then furrows her eyebrows. "What are you doing up?"

"Oh I-um-"

"And why do you have your skates, I know full well you don't practice in the morning." She says.

"It's hard to explain." I admit.

"Try me, it's four-forty-five in the morning Nathan. Where are you going?" She says and I sigh.

"Can you promise you'll keep it to yourself?" I ask and she nods. "I'm meeting Sasha-"

"Sasha?!" She asks excitedly. "Oh I miss her, do you still talk with her?"

"No, not really. But I'm trying to change that." I say and she smiles.

"You know you two used to be amazing together. She really liked you if memory serves, too bad you lost touch when you quit." She says and I nod. 

"I know, I wasn't thinking straight." I sigh. "But she wants my help, she's trying to work on her skating and I miss having her around."

"Her....her father, is he still-"

"He's pushing her now more than ever. I watched him yell at her last week, he said she was messing something up in her turns and was going to make her bus to school after practice. She got second last week and he was really awful to her about it." I tell her feeling sad for her. "I don't understand how she takes it, eventually I feel like I'd just break under all that pressure."

"Look I love Sasha and I know you want to help her but don't put yourself in the middle." She warns and I nod. "It isn't fair to distract her and put her in an uncomfortable position. And you know how Andrei used to feel about all the time you two spent together."

"Don't worry mom." I tell her. "I won't, I just know how stressed out and lonely she is. I want to help her, I quit for a good reason, she doesn't get to do anything anymore." She smiles and gives me a hug.

"Well you'd better hurry, she'll be waiting on you." She says and I nod leaving out the front door.

I drive quickly and see Sasha walking over from the bus stop. I can't believe she's supposed to arrive at these practices alone. She gives me a tense smile and walks over to the doors opening them and saying good morning to the rink attendant. 

I follow her down to the boards and she starts getting ready. She starts to stretch and sit lacing up my skates.

"I don't know if those skates will do for jumps." She teases and I smile as she moves into the splits and leans forward.

"Well I wasn't planning on it, I'm here for moral support. I'm a little rusty." I tell her and she smiles.

"I'll bet you've still got it in you." She says and I laugh.

"So what's the plan today?" I ask and she sighs starting to lace up her skates.

"I want to work on my layback position, my hyper extension in my Beillmann and Kerrigan, I need to work on spinning left and finally, I want to try my triple axel. I hate doing it with dad, he just yells at me." She says and I nod helping her to her feet and we both step onto the ice.