I slowly skated over to Victoria who was glowering at me from her spot on the boards.
“No popping,” she said. Her shiny glossed lips moved into a firm disapproving frown. “Off.” She motioned her head toward the lobby, and I felt my stomach drop.
I grabbed my sweater from the boards and quickly skated back toward the entrance of the rink.
I snapped my skate guards onto my blades, pushed open the rink doors, and stalked across the lobby to sit my butt onto one of the blue, rubber-covered, metal picnic tables. I leaned my head on one hand and played with the holes in the table with my other.
I’d have to sit here for fifteen minutes. That was the punishment for popping a jump here at the Ice League. Us Ice Leaguers were becoming known for popping jumps in competitions and the coaches were trying to squash that out of us.Well, maybe they shouldn’t expect so much of us as soon as we step onto the fricken ice,I thought snidely.
Whatever, I just hoped she wouldn’t make me repeat the whole-run through when I got back out. I’d rather practice sections, or just specific jumps or spins than a whole run-through. For some reason, I always felt super overwhelmed whenever I had to show Victoria the whole thing. No matter how many times I yelled at myself that it didn’t matter if I flopped it up during a practice program, my brain wouldn’t let me chill about it. I needed to be perfect, and that felt… daunting.
I pushed my gloved hands through my hair and then laid my head down on the table. I needed to breathe and just forget about everything before I stressed myself out even more. When competitions were nearing, I couldn’t take much stress. I was already at my threshold. All thoughts of my non-existent social life or homework or upcoming tests or anything I needed to do for Duke all took a backseat… skating filled my stress cup to the top.
I felt a hand touch mine and I quickly looked up.
“Y’alright?”
The gravelly voice belonged to Griff. He looked down at me with his concerned light blue eyes. His gaze was almost unnerving, like I was waiting for him to blink or look away because it felt like he was seeing too much ofme…
“Uh, hi. Yeah.” I blew out a breath and looked around for Nick. Where Griff was, Nick was sure to follow, right? And while Griff was a solid guy and very cute in his own way… He was too much like the parts of me that I disliked. We were both introverts. I wished to be more outside my head. I wished to be more exuberate and adventurous. I craved to be more like Nick…
I liked Nick… Ireallyliked him. The prospect of talking to him made my heart flutter with excitement. Nick made me feel special. And I just felt that if someone like Nick could like me, likereallylike me, then maybe Iwasworthy of attention…unlike how the boys at school always made me feel.
“Why are ya here?” Griff motioned to the table.
“I just got kicked off for popping a jump in my program,” I told him distractedly while searching over hisshoulder.
His eyebrows pinched together. “Well, that seems counterproductive.”
That response forced me to look back at him. I hadn’t thought about it that way before, but he actually had a point. Instead of running through my program again, I was just sitting here lamely on my butt not getting any better.
Nick smoothly slid onto the picnic table bench across from me then. All of his movements were smooth; it was like he was always skating, even on solid ground.
He gave an easy smile. “Hullo, beautiful.”
I felt my face blush at that. No one had ever called me beautiful before. The only compliments I ever got were for my skating… and if I were honest with myself, I only ever feltbeautifulwhenI was skating– because then your movements were judged– and you could fix those. Off the ice, I felt like a garden troll, and I wasn’t even sure where to start to fix that.
But here he was, saying that to me, probably not even realizing how big of a deal it was… I wonder if he actually truly thought that or if it was just how he talked… like maybe he said that to little old ladies as well? I made a mental note to pay attention to his other interactions…
“So what’s goin on here?” Nick asked. “Not that I’m not grateful to talk to ya,” he winked, “but why aren’t you out there being a graceful swan?”
“A swan?” I asked, amused.More like ugly duckling,I couldn’t help but think. “I got kicked off.” I peered up at the pepsi clock above the doors of the rink. “I’ve got about twelve minutes of punishmentleft.”
Nick’s eyes seemed to light up. “You say punishment, I say free time. It’s all about perspective.” He stood up and pulled a CCM hockey beanie over his shaggy hair. “C’mon.”
I looked at Griff for confirmation that we were actually going somewhere. Griff just shook his head at Nick like he was exhausting him, but then sighed, seemingly resigning himself to the fact that he would definitely follow after him, and he ushered me to stand up first.
A slow smile spread on Nick’s face as he looked back to see that we fell in step after him.
He swished as he walked in his hockey warm-up outfit past all the locker rooms andtoward the metal stairs that led to SwiftStart Sports– which was the gym that spanned the top floor of the rink. I only ever worked out there in the summers. I think most of the hockey teamsworked out there at least once a week. SwiftStart Sports had half a football field’s turf up there, as well as workout stations and windows that looked down into both rinks.
We ended up bypassing these stairs as well and kept walking back toward the zamboni entrances.
I looked at Griff wondering if he had any clue where we were going… but he obviously knew because a second later he was pulling a hockey lanyard with a bunch of keys on it out of his jacket pocket. He singled out a key and handed it over to Nick.
“If we get in trouble, you’re sayingyoustole this key,” Griff quietly told Nick. “Because youdid.”
“Griffy, my boy, you worry too much,” he said, patting Griff on the shoulder. He turned to me then and whispered out of the side of his mouth, “I don’t trust myself not to lose the so-called ‘stolen’ key.”
